the sight of God Loc. com de Praedest q. 20. 8. The Contra-Remonstrants We do professe that God in his Election had no respect to faith foreseen perseverance or any other good quality Collat. Hag. pag. 126. 4. Damman Scribe to the Synode The Election was made without any consideration of faith foreseen In suo consens To whom I may adde Lubbertus a Synodist too who saith 'T is a humane invention that God decreed Salvation to us upon this condition if we would repent In Declar. Respons pag. 50. 3. Master Baxter excepts He unworthily feigneth them to say that God appointeth them to eternall damnation without any regard to their impenitency or infidelity The truth of this shall be tried by the Suffrages of 1. Calvin Predestination is Gods eternall decree whereby he appointed what he would have done concerning every man All are created in a like condition But eternall life is preordained for some eternall damnation for others And therefore as every man is created for either end so we say he is predestinated either to eternall life or eternall death Instit l. 3. c. 21. § 5. Therefore that frivilous shift of the Schoolemen concerning prescience is overthrown For Paul doth not say the ruine of the wicked is foreseen of the Lord but ordained by his counsell and will Idem ad Rom. 9.18 2. P. Martyr That any should be created of God that they might perish seems absurd at first sight But the Scripture speaks it In app loc com in loc de Praedest 3. Polanus Whom God predestinated to eternall destruction those he created to eternal destruction In Hoseam 13.9 4. Beza God destin'd to destruction not for corruption or the fruits of it but because so it seemed good to him de Praedest contra Castol pag. 416. in Notia min. N. T. ad Rom. 9.21 Seeing therefore that the shame of death eternall is signified by the name of dishonour they speak like Paul who say some are created of God to just destruction and they that are offended with this forme of speech do betray their ignorance 5. Perkins Every man is to God as a masse of clay in the hand of the Potter a◠Paul affirms and therefore God by his absolute soveraignty doth make vessels of wrath and not find them But he should not make them but finde them made of themselves if we should say that in his eternall counsil he passed them by onely as sinners and not as men De Praedest Gratia Dei pag. 16. 6. Ant. Thysius a Synodist Reprobation is decreed without any regard had to sin Ad Summ. Baronis ex Piscat Let not Master Baxter except against this and say that Reprobation is not the same with Damnation for it doth inevitably draw damnation after it as is acknowledged by Festus Hommius Scribe to the Synod in these words The fruits that follow Rejection are 1. The creation of the Reprobate 2. Desertion or withdrawing of Gods grace and means 3. Blinding and hardening 4. Perseverance in sin Thesaur Catech. fol. 216. Lastly all the Supra-lapsarians must give their votes for this opinion who make the object of Predestination Man considered either as created and not faln or as yet not created but possible to be created Thus Amesius 'T is neither necessary nor consonant to Scripture to assign any pre-required quality in man as the formall object of Predestination or any certain state of man so as to exclude the rest for it is sufficient to understand that man is the object of this Decree so that the difference which is found in men may follow from the Decree In Medull Theol. l. 1. c. 25. th 10. And Gomarus a Synodist Predestination is twofold One to Supernaturall ends which though at once in the accounts of eternity yet in order of nature goes before because the end for which a thing is is first in the intention of the wise The other unto Creation in Originall righteousnesse and other meanes Thes de Praedest disput 1604. Thes 12. Thes 13. The object of Predestination are Rationall Creatures not as really to be saved or damned created about to fall or about to stand about to be repaired but as in a remote and indefinite power are saveable damnable creable fallable repairable c. And upon these very grounds of Gomarus Maccovius disputes the point stifly for the Affirmative Theol. Disput 17. mihi pag. 59. From hence ariseth that bitter dissension betwixt the Supralapsarians and the Sublapsarians wherewith Grevinchovius so worthily upbraideth Smoutius in these words Gomarus Festus and other Supralapsarians and thy self also if I be not deceived do contend bitterly against Donteclock Acronius c. That nothing more foolish ot more sottish can be fastened upon God then that He should have created Man not having first appointed his end that is to say the salvation or damnation of every one or rather the shewing forth of his wrath and power in the perdition of the Reprobates On the other side Acronius and the rest of the Sublapsarians exclaime as much against the Supralapsarians That nothing can be conceived more unjust than that Man should be reprobated and created to destruction whilest considered as not yet corrupted by sin Absters Calum Smout p. 51. And this I hope is sufficient for the proof of the first Article as to the matter of Fact The II. Article runs thus That Christ Jesus hath not suffered death for any other but for those Elect onely having neither had any intent nor commandment of his Father to make satisfaction for the sins of the whole world What saith M. Baxter to this Article Why A most shamelesse falshood made as they say of his fingers ends We must Impannell an honest Jury to try this too and 1. That Christ is said to have suffered onely for the Elect. Call in the Witnesses under written 1. Geselius what say you to the matter in question They do greatly erre that teach Christ died for all and every man Specim c. 9. fol. 36. 2. M. Perkins 't is expected you should give in a full testimonie for the Plaintiffe what say you The Ransome was designed by the Decree of the Father and by the intercession and oblation of the Son for the Elect onely De Praedest p. 20. 3. Piscator a knowing man he will speak the truth and the whole truth and nothing but the truth That Christ died sufficiently for every one is a false Proposition For he died onely for the Elect paying a most sufficient price of redemption for them namely his own precious blood the blood of the Son of God the blood of God himself But for the Reprobate he dyed in no wise whether sufficiently or effectually Contr. Schaff Th. 209. 4. Beza what can you say to this point for the acquitting of Tilenus I say Whether you consider the counsil of God or the effect of the Passion or both Christ died no way for the wicked In Thes cum D.
were they that overthrew the house in David and in Peter And therefore 't is the duty of every man to keep a special watch here for his eternal weal or wo depends upon it Prov. 4.23 Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of death To this let us adde in our constant practise Saint Judes direction and then by Gods assistance which Ver. 20.21 in so doing we cannot fail of we shall never fall Beloved building up your selves on your most holy faith praying in the holy Ghost keep your selves in the love of God looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life Answer to the 20 Section TRuly Sir you say I am willing to learn better that Doctrine that is according to Godliness and to disclaim all that is against it But you must hereafter learn to do us that justice as not to take our expressions of the worst that the mercy of God will cover in a man obedient in the main to be our descriptions of Godly men Answ Since you ask no favour in this cause and you tell us we must learn to do you that justice justice you shall have and it is this that when your expressions of what God will cover whether they amount to a full description of your Godly man or no but it seems he may be such in those rags as well as when he is cloathed in that fine and clean linnen mentioned in the Revelation when they are apparently incouragements to continue men in their disobedience and ungodliness they ought to be reproved And if you be as willing as you pretend to learn that Doctrine better which is according to Godliness such reproofs will be acceptable and wellcome to you In hope whereof I shall indeavour to make it evident that those Doctrines viz. of election and perseverance c. In the vindication whereof you have taken so much Vnchristian liberty to asperse and revile Tilenus is not according to Godliness and I prove it thus That Doctrine whereby a gross sinner v. g. an Adulterer or perjur'd person is taught to be certain of his salvation not onely certitudine objecti but also certitudine subjâ—cti before the renewing his repentance that doctrine is not according to Godliness But by the Synods doctrine and yours touching election perseverance c. a gross sinner v. g. an adulterer or perjur'd person is taught to be certain of his Salvation not only Certitudine objecti but also Certitudine subjecti before the renewing his repentance Therefore that doctrine is not according to Godliness The Major is evident because such a doctrine doth infeeble at least and weaken all exhortations to mortification and repentance if it doth not evacuate the necessity of them The Minor shall be proved by these four steps 1. They hold not onely that every man may but also that it is his duty and he ought to be Certain of his election De hac aeterna immutabili sui ad salutem electione electi suo tempore variis licet gradibus dispari mensura certiores redduntur saith the Synod And in their seventh Rejection Acta Syn. de Divin praedest art 12. p. 243. fol. p 247. They reject those which teach Electionis immutabilis ad gloriam nullum in hac vita esse fructum nullum sensum nullam certitudinem nisi ex conditione mutabili contingente The Divines of Geneva * Judic Theol. exter p. 56. thes 5. ed in fol. say Haec electio nobis patefit in tempore ut spem aeternae gloriae certam concipiamus Those of North-Holland do affirm * Jud Theol. Provinc p. 39. m. Deum in hac vita suos Electos per Spiritum Sanctum de hoc tanto incomprehensibili suo Electionis beneficio certos facere Sibrandus Lubbertus saith * Ib. p. 17. Ib. 11 12. Aliquis de sui Electione in hac vita citra peculiarem revelationem certus esse potest yea sensum gustum Electionis sui percipere And to this suffrage subscribed Johannes Polyander Antonius Thysius Antonius Walaeus The Divines of Hassia * Jud. Theol. ext p. 32. m. do affirm though no man can know himself to be of the number of the Elect a Priori yet all and every believer may be certain of his election to eternal life a Posteriori that is by the revelation of the word and the testimony of the Spirit dwelling in them and by the fruits or effects of their Election which beleevers finde in themselves And those of Geneva * Ib. p. 49. f. say there is not one of the Elect that is arrived to the capacity of reason that doth not afore his death receive a most certain perswasion of that decree To deny the sense and certainty of Election in this life is to render Election it self unprofitable to the elect in this life yea to abolish it tum quoad gratiam tum etiam quoad gloriam say the Divines of the Palatinate * Ib. p. 18 f. And those of Wedderav say not onely Potest †Ib. p. 39. th 7. He may be certain of his Elect. But Oportet * Ib. p. 44. th 7. It behooves him to be so Nay Potest debet He may and he ought to be certain of it say the Divines of Embden †Ib. p 72. pr. and Vnusquisque too every man ought to be so And the Belgick Professors say as much * Jud. Theol. provinc p. 7. thes 5. And this certainty is without any If 's or And 's saith Gomarus †Ibid. p. 22. f. thes 12. Fideles in hac vita de Electione sui salvifica certi sunt non solum hac conditione si perseveraverint sed etiam absolutè Quia sese perseveratures esse per Dei Christi gratiam certi sunt The faithful are certain of their Election in this life not only upon this condition if they shall persevere but absolutely Because they are certain by the grace of God and Christ they shall persevere And this is the Doctrine of the whole Synod who therefore do reject those who teach There is in this life no fruit no sense no certainty of immutable Election unto glory but upon a mutable and contingent condition as was declared above As they hold that every man may ought to be certain of his Election So they hold of his persevarance also Of this preservation of the Elect unto Salvation and perseverance of true beleevers in the faith the faithful themselves may be and are ascertained †Acta Syn. de pers Sanct. thes 9. p. 267. And in their fifth Rejection they reject those that teach that no certainty of future perseverance can be had in this life without special Revelation I might bring in the suffrages of the Divines but seeing they all subscribed these Articles and Rejections it will be to no purpose to tyre the Reader with more quotations
too great integrity to impose upon his Adversary or his Reader so is he known to be of too great learning and judgement to encounter with shadows and Chimaera's of his own imagination How this Doctrine of Predestination is held forth by the other sort of Supralapsarians and the Sublapsarians he that desires to be fully satisfied may procure his satisfaction at an easie expense both of time and money if he will consult that small Treatise translated and lately set forth by Master Tobias Conyers Page 91. 92. 94. 95. 96. under the Title of The Just Mans Defence But amongst other Reasons inducing these men to deliver the Doctrine of Predestination in a different manner and method from the former Arminius observes Ibid. page 97. this was not the meanest their willingnesse to prevent lest God with the same probabilitie should be concluded the Author of sinne from this their Doctrine as some of them have judged it concludable from the first But really saith He if with diligent inspection we well examine these Opinions of a later Edition compared with the Judgement of the same Authors in other points of Religion we shall finde the fall of Adam not possibly otherwaies considerable Page 98. according to the Tenents of these men then as a necessary executive means of the preceding Decree of Predestination Page 100. and a little after The third Opinion scapes this Rock better then the other had not the Patrons thereof delivered something for the Declaration of Predestination and Providence from whence the necessity of the Pall may be inferred which cannot have any other rise then Predestinatory Ordination Thus Jac. Arminius Our next inquiry that we may come to the certaine knowledge of the truth of this Matter of Fact for which you have with no little confidence to disgrace him questioned the integrity of our Tilenus shall be how the Articles charged upon the Calvinists were drawn up by the Remonstrants in the Conference at the Hague Pet. Bert. Coll. Hag. p. 7. 8. The first head of Doctrine which They charge the Contra-Remonstrants or Calvinists whom they style their Brethren to account ORTHODOX is thus expressed word for word I. THat God as some speak by an eternall and unchangeable Decree from among men Supra-lapsarians whom he considered as not-created much lesse as faln ordained certain to eternall life certain to eternall death without any regard had to their righteousnesse or sinne to their obedience or disobedience onely because so was his pleasure or so it seemed good to him to the praise of his Justice and Mercy or as others like better to declare his saving Grace Wisdome and free Authority or Jurisdiction Means being also fore-ordained by his eternall and unchangeable Decree fit for the execution of the same by the power or force whereof it is necessary that they be saved after a necessary and unavoidable manner who are ordained to salvation so that 't is not possible that they should perish but they who are destin'd to destruction who are the farre greater number must be damned necessarily and inevitably so that t is not possible for them to be saved II. Sub-lapsarians That God as others would rather willing from eternity with himself to make a Decree concerning the Election of some certain men but the rejection of others considered mankinde not onely as created but also as faln and corrupted in Adam and Eve our first Parents and thereby deserving the curse And that he decreed out of that fall and damnation to deliver and save some certain ones of his Grace to declare his mercy But to leave others both young and old yea truly even certain Infants of men in Covenant and those Infants baptized and dying in their Infancy by his just judgement in the curse to declare his Justice and that without all consideration of repentance and faith in the former or of impenitence or unbelief in the later For the execution of which Decree God useth also such means whereby the Elect are necessarily and unavoidably saved but reprobates necessarily and unavoidably perish III. And therefore that Jesus Christ the Saviour of the World died not for all men but for those onely who are Elected either after the former or this later manner he being the mean and ordained Mediator to save those onely and not a man besides IV. Consequently That the Spirit of God and of Christ doth worke in those who are Elected that way or this with such a force of Grace that they cannot resist it and so that it cannot be but that they must turn believe and thereupon necessarily be saved But that this irresistible Grace and force belongs onely to those so Elected but not to Reprobates to whom not onely that irresistible Grace is denyed but also Grace necessary and sufficient for Conversion for faith and for salvation is not afforded To which Conversion and faith indeed they are called invited and fairely solicited outwardly by the revealed will of God though notwithstanding the inward force necessary to faith and conversion is not bestowed on them according to the secret will of God V. But that so many as have once obtained a true and justifying faith by such a kinde of irresistible force can never totally nor finally lose it no not although they fall into the very-most-enormous sins but are so led and kept by that same irresistible force that 't is not possible for them or they cannot either totally or finally fail and perish Every branch of these five Articles you may see sufficiently proved in Appendice Pressioris Declarationis and by the severall Syllabi Testimoniorum inter Scripta Synodalia Remonstrantium After the Synod at Dort had declared their judgement upon those five Heads of Doctrine the Remonstrants abridged the same into these Compendious Articles I. Almighty God out of all mankinde considered in the same state or condition chose a few certaine men to eternall salvation without any respect of their faith repentance conversion or of any good quality but that he might bring those elect ones to the appointed salvation he decreed that his Son should suffer death for onely them yea even when they as well as others were faln into Originall sinne and eternall perdition by Adam's transgression that he might reconcile unto God them onely that he might in them onely work faith by a most powerfull working and force no lesse then that put forth in the Creation of the World or raising the dead that he might preserve in that saving faith unto their lives end those very men although faln into the foulest and filthiest wickednesses and sticking some while therein and at last might bring them into the possession of eternall life for no other cause but because so was his good pleasure But on the Contrary I. Almighty God would passe by the farre greatest part of mankind without any consideration of their own proper and avoidable fault that is to say of their own unbelief
Baxter's bare word for such a Test he that would not be deceived must learn to distrust Indeed it appears that there was a great deale of wash and Fucus c Deus bone Vidimus atque experiundo didicimus quanta illi arte quanto studio sententiam suam incrustare tegere ac caelare semper conati fuerint bodieque adhuc conentur Vix credo humanam industriam comminisci plura posse quam commenti sunt isti mortales ut sententiae ipsorum à sententiae Supralapsariorum differre non videretur ibid. of daubing and paintry used at the drawing up the Canons touching the severall Articles to make them look of the same complexion but if we examine the Doctors as Daniel did his Elders apart we shall finde their opinions to stand at push o'pike one against another For instance If you would inquire Whether the Election be necessarily made out of the Corrupt Masse some of those Divines will tell you it is and some as positively affirm it is not That the Decree of Election is of certain men out of mankind fallen into sin and lost is collected out of Rom. 9.15 16. I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy and verse 23. The vessels of mercy prepared unto glory and verse 22. the Reprobates are called vessels of wrath But the wrath of God towards men doth presuppose their sin Rom. 1.18 The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against the ungodlinesse and unrighteousnesse of men Also Eph. 1. we are said to be elected in Christ that we might be holy Also we are said to be predestinated unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ which cannot be said but with respect to sin The Belgick Professors Act. Synod Dort Part. 3. Pag. 4. And the Divines of Zeeland ibid. pag. 43. That Election is made out of mankind fallen is proved out of Rom. 9.15 16. where the purpose of Election is called Having mercy and vers 23. the Elect are called vessels of Mercy Now mercy supposeth misery Rom. 11.32 God hath shut up all in unbelief that he might have mercy upon all and 2 Tim. 1.9 He hath called us according to his purpose and grace c. That mercy given to us in Christ doth presuppose sin and shew us the remedy of it But the Deputies of the Synod of South-Holland are of another judgement ibid. pag. 34. f. Whether in his election God considered man as faln or not faln they think it not necessary to determine so that it be concluded that God considered all men in a like state in his election that the Elect were no better then the Non-elect whether in themselves or in Gods gracious estimation And Gomarus is most positive in this opinion and therefore he profest in the open Synod that he could not approve of the judgement of the foure Belgick Professors concerning the object of Predestination because he thought God did consider man as not faln in his predestination of him Vt supra in Sess 107. part 1. Whereupon he set down his own judgement apart by it self wherein he makes mankind simply considered the object of the Decree part 3. pag. 21. II. If you inquire whether Christ be the foundation of Election you will finde them divided in their judgement here too The Drent Divines say that Christ is the foundation of Election not as he is God nor as he is man but as he is God-man our head and eternall Redeemer by whom we are saved because he by his merit hath procured the grace of God for us and by his spirit he effecteth faith in us Eph. 1.4 5 6. Art Syn. Dord part 3. pag. 80. f. Thes 8. And the Hassien Divines to the same purpose ibid. part 2. pag. 25. But Pet. Molin saith otherwise ibid. part 1. pag. 290. m. Christ as he is man and the mediator he is head of the elect but not the cause of election seeing he himself as he is man is elect He is the meritorious cause of our salvation and our Ransome But of two alike sinfull he is not the cause why the one is preferred before the other The Cause is to be sought in Gods beneplaciture and free love which in order goes before the intercession of the Son For the Father sent the Son and gave him to be the Redeemer This is his Answer to that Question whether Christ be the Foundation of Election which is negative III. If you inquire whether the elect be beloved out of Christ they are at odds here too for some of them say When we affirme that the love of the Father whereby he chose us goes in order before the intercession of the Son our meaning is not that the elect are beloved of God out of Christ For though the love of the Father went before the sending of his Son yet he never loved us but in consideration of his Son neither would he ever confer any benefit upon the elect but in and through his Son Pet. Molin ubi supra Yet the Synod rejects it as an errour in them who teach that Christ neither could nor ought to die for those whom God dearly loved and chose unto eternall life seeing such stood in no need of Christs death Cap. 2. Reject 7. pag. 253. part 1. Act. Syn. Dord IV. If you inquire whether Reprobation hath respect onely or not at all to the fall of Mankinde They run division likewise upon this Article for some of them say it hath and others as confidently averre that it hath not Sibrandus Lubbertus saith We do not teach that God by his absolute will and decree without any respect to sin hath ordained any to damnation But we say God would declare his iustice in the damnation of the Reprobate and therefore he would not appoint any to damnation but for sin Act. Syn. Dord part 3. pag. 14. And the Divines of Great Britaine say Reprobation or Non-election is Gods eternall decree whereby for his own most free good pleasure he determined not to have mercy upon some persons faln in Adam so farre forth as to deliver them effectually from the state of misery by Christ and bring them infallibly unto blessednesse De Reprob Thes 1 pag. 11 part 2. But Gomarus saith God had no respect at all to sin as going before it in the Decree of Reprobation For saith He Peremptory Reprobation is the Decree of God whereby for his own most free pleasure to the declaration of his avenging justice he determined to give neither grace nor glory to certain men out of universall mankind but to suffer them freely to fall into sin and to leave them in their sins and at last justly to condemn them for their sinnes ibid. part 3. pag. 24. Thes 2. And their Deputies of the Synod of South-Holland to the same sense making mankind in generall not considered as fallen and in the corrupt masse the object of the Decree of Election and Reprobation ibid. pag. 35. p. V. If you inquire concerning the
before Glory and to this purpose he tells his Reader flatly that without a grain of his own salt he cannot relish that saying of Saint Austin Bona opera non praecedunt justificandum sed sequuntur justificatum Good works doe not goe before justification but follow after it The Hassien Divines likewise do most expresly declare Act. Synod Dor. 2. par p. 92. pr. that holinesse and righteousnesse †And they do alleadge for it Hebr. 9.10 Hebr. 13 12. Eph. 5.25.26 27. were as true parts of Christs purchase by the sacrifice of himself and intercession of his bloud as were either Pardon reconciliation or eternall life Now if our delivery from sinne by sanctification be the very first Part of that Redemption which Christ hath wrought for the world is it not a very grosse and palpable absurdity to overlook or overleap these first fruits of our Redemption as I may call them and to affirm That Christ hath purchased the latter for some men for whom he hath in no wise procured the former i. e. Remission of sins and eternall salvation for those to whom he hath not so much as procured reconciliation or sanctifying Grace Yet this is generally the Doctrine of those Calvinists who seem most to advance the Merit and efficacy of Christs death by their proclaiming an Universall Redemption Christ say the Hassien Divines appears before his Father as the onely Mediator Ibid. p. 100. that by the Presentation of his merits and accomplisht satisfaction he may procure remission of sinnes and restitution of righteousnesse for us Then he undertakes with his Father for our obedience and gratitude the seal and earnest of which sponsion or undertaking which is his holy Spirit he conferres upon us by whom he stirs up in us a care and study both to avoid sin and to performe righteousnesse Lastly he makes intercession for us Quae tria intercessionis Christi momenta nullo modo ad hoedos sed tantum ad oves Christi pertinent These parts of Christs Mediation do belong to none but the Elect. But perhaps these are none of those Vniversalists of the Synod that Master Baxter will be tried by Well then to do him a kindnesse he shall have his own choice First he named Paraem and having examined him he acknowledgeth the sufficiency of the merit but the efficacy as to the procurement of power Ibid. par 1. p. 213. c. for the Non-elect to performe that Condition of Faith and Repentance upon which pardon of sin and eternall life are suspended he flatly denies it Ibid. par 2. pag. 79. Th. 3. in explic Here is but cold comfort from that stranger let us therefore come to those who sate warm in the Synod what say the British Divines It seemeth good to Almighty God they say even after his acceptation of Christs Sacrifice not to conferre remission of sins and eternall life actually upon any but by and through Faith in the Redeemer And here that eternall and secret decree of Election discovers it self when that Ransome which was paid for all and shall most certainly be beneficiall unto all the faithfull to life eternall yet notwithstanding it doth not profit all because it is not given to all to perform the condition of that gracious Covenant Christ therefore so died for all that by means of faith all and every one by vertue of this ransome may obtain remission of sins and life eternall He so died for the Elect that by the merits of his death especially destined for them according to Gods eternall Beneplaciture they might infallibly obtain both Faith and eternall life Here is very slender confirmation of Master Baxters Universall Redemption hitherto and now he hath but one reserve to trust to the Bremish Divines and alas they say so little to make his assertion good that I wonder as much why he should offer to intitle them to it as why he should so foully asperse Tilenus for declaring the Divines of the Synod c. to be of another judgement Ibid. p. 110. Thes 2. For Isel-Burg affirms roundly that the Decree of Reprobation hath shut out all the Non-elect from all the saving benefits of Christs death And Lud. Crocius tells us of no other universall Redemption Ibid. p. 117. Thes 3. but Reconciliation upon Condition if they will repent and believe Ibid. p. 106. Th. 21. with Pag. 107. Thes 2 3 4 5. but not a word of procuring Grace to inable all men to perform this Condition And Martinius whom it seems M. Baxter reposed most of his confidence in though he tels us of a like Conditionall Remission and Salvation if they will be regenerated repent and believe yet really and effectually Christ hath promerited purchased obtained and communicateth Faith Regeneration or effectuall Calling Justification and Glorification to none but the Elect according to Gods speciall Decree This is his judgement And now are not these Divines wonderfull Magnifiers of the merit of Christ in affirming that it hath procured this Common grace even for the worst that perish as Master Baxter Phraseth it that he shall be saved if he will believe This is just according to the Proverb If the skie fall we shall catch Larks You had as good and may do it as reasonably tell men of a certain inheritance designed for them in the world in the Moon provided they will make a Ladder to Climb up to take possession of it Happinesse propounded upon Condition but that Condition made impossible and that by a punishment inflicted by the Propounder and yet he to be the Father of Mercies who sent his own Son to seal a Covenant of Grace with his own bloud wherein he hath undertaken to give both Grace and Glory this as the end and that as the way How inconsistent But saith Master Baxter did God purpose to cause in men this condition or not Sure he did Otherwise it would follow 1. That God invites poore sinners to confederate with him in a covenant of Grace and yet is deficient in affording what is necessary to inable them to perform it And then 2. it would follow that God were the First Desertor in respect of this new Covenant which is against all sober Divinity 3. It will make the Covenant of Grace to be no lesse intolerable than that of workes for by this Doctrine it doth exact impossible commands and afford no strength at all to perform them It supposeth God to make new Lawes and lay new Impositions upon those bruised shoulders of Adams Posterity whiles he pretends to heal them It is a Rule in the Civill Law Quando quis aliquid concedit id etiam concedere videtur sine que res concessae esse non potest If God makes a grant of eternall life to any or a serious Promise sure he promiseth and granteth therewith whatever is necessary for the enjoyment of that life And in our case you heard provision is made for it by the very Article
certain Law the transgression whereof is Tyranny but he doth it jure dominii as an Absolute Lord whose Soveraignty is without Law or controll and therefore he may dispose of them at his pleasure That this is their sense notwithstanding what they publickly professe to detest may easily be collected from the 18. Art of the 1. Chap. Of Predestination where to stop the mouthes as they pretend of such as murmur at the grace of free Election and severity of just Reprobation as they call it they alleage that of the Apostle Rom. 9.20 O man who art thou that replyest against God And that of our Saviour Mat. 10.15 Is it not Lawfull for me to do what I will with my own Texts of Scripture which the Creabilitarian-Supralapsarians as well as the Existentialists make use of for proof of their Decrees and they are just as much to their purpose that is altogether impertinent to the use those severall Parties do make of them Amongst those Doctrines which the Synod doth purposely disown and publickly professe to detest there is another which I wonder Master Baxter hath omitted which is this That this Doctrine of the Calvinists maketh God the Author of sin But perhaps he hath smelt out the Fallacy exprest in the Fifth Article of the first Chapter where they say Incrodulitatis istius ut omnium aliorum peccatorum causa seu culpa neutiquam est in Deo sed in homine The cause or fault of unbelief as of all other sins is in no wise in God but in man Here are two words made use of as of the same importance Causa seu culpa Cause or fault by which while many of their Doctors do affirme that God doth incite and irritate urge and impell necesitate and constraine men to sin nay worketh sin in them yet shall they be excused from prevaricating the Doctrine of the Synod for though to speak properly God be the cause of sin by such manner of working to the production of it yet Culpa the fault of sin can in no wise be ascribed to him Zuinglius and Keckerman have given the Reason of it because there is no law made to bind Almighty God to the contrary but man onely For confirmation hereof they adde Sicut Taurus cum nunc has nanc illas vaceas promiscua vaga Venere init adulterii culpa non tenetur sed homo si cum aliorum uxoribus rem habeat eo quod huic non illi prohibens lex lata fit ita Deus peccato seu culpa non tenetur cum creaturam ad hos illos actus movet sed tantummodo creatura ipsa quia ei lex prohibens lata est non Deo I shall not so much as English it for shame I cannot leave Master Baxter till I have followed him to the very last stage of his Preface which he shuts up thus We should live in peace if the advise of the Synod ibid. were followed A Phrasibus denique iis omnibus abstineant quae praescriptos nobis genuini Sanctarum Scripturarum sensus limites excedunt protervis sophistis justam ansam praebere possint doctrinam Ecclesiarum Reformâ—tarum sugillandi aut calumniandi But the Synod should have done well to have left us an example herein by their own practice But we find that when the British Hassien and Bremish Divines moved to have the harsh and incommodious speeches of some of their Doctors declared against and rejected they were out-voted and cried down upon this account Ne Phrasium istarum rejectione Orthodoxa doctrina ab illis asserta defensa paritèr damnari videretur Session 13â— We may see by this it is a great deal easier to give good advise than to follow it And this appears further by that Admonition of Master Baxter in the next words And if withall we were humbly Conscious of our own frailty and fallibility and could maintain that unfeigned charity to our Brethren which beseemeth all the Disciples of Christ and which would cause us to say and do by others even in our Controversall writings and private Speeches of them as we would have them say and do by us But alas the Disciples of that Synod will neither be persuaded to be the first nor do the last they will follow none of these Prescriptions no not so much as Singular M. Baxter †Physician heal thy self witnesse his proceedings against A Table of Decrees of Salvation Damnnation Ye shall live therefore ye shall mortifie the deeds of the Body Ye shall die therefore ye shall live after the Flesh Delineated by Mr. W. Perkins In his Armilla Aurea Predestination Creation Election The Fall Reprobation Supralapsarian Creabilitarians Supral Existentialists Sublapsarians Suprulap Creabilitar Sup Existent Sublapsarians God's Love in Christ towards the Elect Effectuall Calling Justification Sanctification Glorification Eternall Life The Word Softning Faith Remission Imputation Mortification Vivification Repentance New Obedience CHRIST the Mediator His Holinesse Obedience Death Buriall Dominion of the grave Resurrection Ascension Session Intercession Illumination Repentance Faith Tast Zeale Deception of Sinne. Obduration Malice Vnbeliefe Apostacy Calling Vneffectual Agnition of that Call Relapse Gad's hatred towards the Reprobate No Calling Ignorance Blindnesse Reprobate Sense Greedinesse in sinning Pollution Damnation Death Eternall Death Judgment Declaration of Mercie Declaration of Justice GOD's GLORY Place this at Page 411 M. Perkins his Synopsis or Table In Armilla Aurea shewing according to his account the Series of Causes both of Salvation and Damnation or the Decrees of Election and Reprobation with the Means and Order of their Execution BEcause this Table contains an Ocular demonstration of the matter of Fact charged upon the Calvinists and their Synod by Tilenus I thought it convenient to insert it and to make some Reflexions and Observations upon it for the benefit of the Reader who upon a view of this Diagram may take notice with me 1. That there are three severall Sects contending as well against one another as against the Remonstrants They are usually divided into two Parties Supralapsarians and Sublapsarians But because Supralapsarians are of two sorts I shall distinguish them by severall Names The first sort who make the creature Gomar disp de Praedest 1604. thes 13. not in its Actuall existence but in its condition of Possibility the Obâ—ect of the Decree These I shall call Supralapsarian Creabilitarians The second sort who make the creature in its Actuall Existence but yet Innocent the Object of that Decree These I shall call Supralapsarian-Existentialists The third sort who make mankinde faln in Adam and by Divine imputation guilty of Originall sin the Object of the said Decree These are called Sublapsarians * Piscator indeavours to reconcile all three opinions Considerationes illa non sunt opposiâ—ae sed tantùm diversae ac proinde omnes locum habere possunt sicut revera habent Objectum praedestinationis esse hominem consideratum ut nondum
that will be presumptuous where he hath little interest It is argument enough that the sinne hath gotten a great force in a man when it is presumptuous Upon this account it is that our Criminall prayes so earnestly at another time Psal 19.14 Keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins lest they get the dominion over me Upon which words Amesius saith In Psal 19. Talia flagitia non constunt cum timore Dei Such crimes cannot consist with the fear of God Indeed he infers from thence that the servants of God are not inthral'd to such contumacies And it is true in sensu composito as they are and whilest they are Gods servants But if they betake themselves to the service of another Master his lusts then they will do Shall a man need to serve an Apprentiship to the trade of sin before he can merit the title of being a servant to it His servants ye are to whom ye obey saith the Apostle Suppose David had onely been surprized at first with the beauty of the woman though indeed those sins whose horrid enormity is so great that the very light of nature commands us alwaies to be in arms and stand upon our guard against them can never be excused or extenuated upon the account of a surprizall But put case I say he had been surprized at first yet upon whose command was it 1. That after sufficient time of recollection and advisement when he should have been at prayers he sent Messengers and sure some preface of courtship was used to flatter and seduce her and so took her and lay with her 2 Sam. 12. 2. That he afterwards sent for her husband from his duty in the Leaguer 3. That he advised him so earnestly to go home and wash his feet and sent a messe of meat after him 4. That he blamed him under a pretence of pity that he went not down to his house 5. That he bad him tarry till the morrow and then invited him to an entertainment where he made him drunken 6. That he laid so cunning a plot to murder him whom he had so lately debauched that he was scarce awakened or at least scarce recovered out of his distemper and then wrote a letter with so much formality to Joab to acquaint him how he should manage and carry on this projected stratagem and lastly that he sent it by Uriah's own loyall hand making him carry the Warrant for his own unworthy and treacherous execution At whose command I say did David do all this Was it not at the command of Lust and then did he not obey her as her servant What clearer evidence can there be in the world then this to prove that sinne hath got the Dominion over a man I 'le offer you but one argument more from the doctrine of Saint John 1 Joh. 3.9 10 12 14 15 17. verses Take it in this form No man that is not of God that hath not eternall life nor the love of God abiding in him but is of the Devil and abideth in death no such man is in the state of justification But David guilty of the matter of Vriah is such a man viz. not of God not having eternall life not the love of God abiding in him but is of the Devil and abideth in death Therefore c. The Major is undeniable being the expresse words of S. John The Minor is thus proved out of the same Apostle He that committeth sin and doth not righteousnesse that loveth not his brother that shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him that not onely hates but actually murders him like Cain for the satisfaction of his lust he is not of God hath not eternall life nor the love of God abiding in him but is of the Devill and abideth in death But David in the matter of Uriah committeth sin doth not righteousnesse loveth not his brother shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him and actually murders him Ergo. The Major is again the expresse words of S. John and the Minor is proved evidently by the History which containeth the matter of Fact 2 Sam. 11. I am the more confirmed in the certain truth of this doctrine by reflecting upon the scope and method of the Apostles discourse upon it Having represented the great priviledge of Adoption he proceeds to declare that this priviledge is to be preserved by a purity of soul and life suitable to that state and because 1 Joh. 3. v. 4. to 17. as he urgeth injustice and uncharitablenesse are altogether inconsistent with it therefore he earnestly dissuades from them as a most certain means conducing to the forfeiture of the benefit thereof Beloved Ibid. v. 2. now are we the sonnes of God saith he by inchoation adopted into that state of speciall grace and favour to give probation of our filiall ingenuity and obedience in purifying our selves that we may be advanced to a due and fitting capacity for the glorious presence and communion of the Holy God Thus we are now the sons of God but it doth not yet appear what we shall be for that glory is not yet revealed in us neither have we yet performed the condition which is required to qualifie and dispose us for it Aug. doth distinguish betwixt sons by Regeneration and sons by Praedestination as in your Ac. of Persev pag. 16. 1 Pet. 1.14 15. for we must withdraw our selves from all pollutions and be devoted by a speciall separation to his service As obedient children not fashioning our selves according to the former lusts in our ignorance but as he which hath called us is holy so must we be holy in all manner of conversation Wherefore come out from among them Heathenish pollutions and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you And will be a father unto you 2 Cor. 6.17 18. and ye shall be my sonnes and daughters saith the Lord Almighty This Priviledge of Adoption is not absolutely our own free-hold our tenure in it is conditionall no lesse than that of being his house and his Disciples which imports the same benefit under diversified expressions and this condition is the sincere and constant performance of our faithfull duty and service Heb. 3.6 14. Joh. 8.31 Rom. 2.7 which consists in a course of holinesse and righteousnesse before him all the dayes of our life Luk. 1.75 according to the covenant made with Abraham All the Divines that I have met with at least to my best remembrance do set Justification before Adoption in order of nature if not of time and yet you your self confesse Aphor. of Justif distinct 21. Those onely are his practicall conquering Disciples who actually persevere Disp of Sacram. pag. 94. that that justification of which the person hath true possession though it be ours actually after faith yet 't is but conditionally viz. upon condition of perseverance in faith and sincere obedience If that Justification which
and impenitence and would not elect them to salvation or have his Son die for them or give them power sufficient for their conversion even then when he invites intreats beseeches and beggs of them to answer his Calling them to salvation under the promise of the said salvation and the penalty of eternal damnation but will have them all born into the world to eternall and never-to-be-ended torments and pains of hell-fire and at length throw them headlong thereinto for no other cause but because it was his pleasure so to do II. That God would that Iesus Christ should suffer the most bitter and the most shamefull death not for all men but onely for the elect that for them alone by the shedding of his own precious blood he might purchase faith and all other saving gifts of the Holy Ghost that by his blood he might clense them from all their sins both Originall and Actuall committed as well after as before their faith might keep them to their last breath and at last bestow on them eternall life But on the Contrary That God would not that Christ should die for other Mortals that he should or might obtaine for them any saving gifts of the Holy Ghost but would that they should be left in Originall sin and should by consequent fall or rush headlong into other sins which necessarily flow therefrom that they should continue destitute or devoid not onely of power whereby they might turn and repent but also of all hope of grace and salvation till at length beeing inwrapped in an unavoidable necessity of sinning they should be thrust down with the damned Divels to eternall and infinite torments both of soul and body III and IV. That God doth communicate inspire and infuse into his Elect children not onely a power to believe but also the will to believe yea the very act of believing or faith by such a supernaturall most powerfull and at once most sweet wonderfull secret and unspeakable operation or working as in its power is no lesse or inferiour then that whereby the world was made or the dead are raised so that it remains not in mans power to will to believe or be converted but will they nill they they cannot but be converted and believe On the other side That God doth earnestly indeed call and invite to faith and repentance infinite Myriads or ten thousands of men with threatnings of eternall death and damnation yet so still as he wills not to communicate to them either faith or the power to believe and repent so that though they be called of God to faith yet they cannot but remain unbelievers And that yet notwithstanding all this he will punish and doth punish eternally with the most grievous and horrible torments of hell those very persons for that unbelief of theirs that was unavoidable V. God will preserve in the faith all those who are absolutely elected from eternity and are in time brought to faith by an Almighty and irresistible operation or working so that although they fall into foul and detestable wickednesses and villanies and continue in them some space of time against their Conscience yet the said wicked villanies do not hinder so much as a straw amounts to their Election or Salvation neither do they or can they by means of or because of these fall from the Grace of Adoption and from the state of Iustification or lose their faith but all their sins how great soever they be both which heretofore they have committed and those which hereafter they will or shall commit are surer than assuredly forgiven them yea and moreover they themselves at last though it be at their last gasp shall be recalled to repentance and brought over into possession of salvation That this is the perfect sense of the Synods Doctrine the Remonstrants have notably evinced in their ANTIDOTUM Continens Pressiorem Declarationem Propria Genuinae Sententiae Quae in Synodo Nationali Dordracenâ asserta est et stabilita For Daniel Tilenus it seemes he took the like course for whereas the Synod delivered their Iudgement about the First Head Divine Predestination in the 18 Articles and 9. Rejections He abridged the sense thereof into seven short lines and the Second Head about Christs Death comprised in nine Articles and seven Rejections into foure or five lines and the three and foure Heads concerning Mans corruption and conversion conteining seventeen Articles and nine Rejections into fourteen lines and the fifth Head of Perseverance dilated in the fifteen Articles with nine Rejections into lesse than foure lines And besides in Compiling his Articles Tilenus had respect to the Doctrine as it is asserted or held forth by the Synod of Alez which is not now in my power to give any account of But my Present task is to make it good that these Articles of Tilenus are consonant to the sense of the Calvinists Doctrine whether delivered in or out of the Synod The first whereof is drawn up and presented in these words That God by an Absolute Decree hath Elected to salvation a very little number of men without any regard to their faith or obedience whatsoever and secluded from saving Grace all the rest of Mankind and appointed them by the same Decree to eternall damnation without any regard to their Infidelity or impenitencie Here Master Baxter takes exceptions 1. Where talke they of a very little number For your satisfaction heare Martinius one of the most moderate of the Synod of Dort who saith that (a) In praefat excussioris placidae Citante Smoutio Eendrachts fol. 109. God according to his good pleasure hath reprobated the greatest part of men was it for sin Christ doth not teach so Mat. 11. nor the Apostle Rom. 9. Here we have the greatest part of Mankind under the Decree of Reprobation and that not for sin neither The lesse part therefore is Elected But we have another Synodist speaks more fully to the Article (b) Antonius Thysius ad Summam Baronis p. 10. 20 literis gg collatis God hath by his absolute and irresistible will reprobated the greatest part of Mankind by far and created them to destruction saith Ant. Thysius And what is the number of the elect then If it be not small enough yet Master Calvin expresseth it to a tittle The Election is of a very small Number of the Godly Electionem exigui piorum numeri Instit lib. 3. cap. 21. § 7. mihi pag. 592. 2. Master Baxter excepts It 's not true that they say he doth it without any regard to their faith or obedience whatever Witnesse to the contrary 1. Donteclock How can it be true that God did from all eternity consider us in Christ as faithfull On the contrary he chose from all eternity some certain persons without respect to faith or any other quality onely for his will and good pleasure Respons ad Anonym Quatern E. 2. Bucan What manner of persons are Elected Such as are unclean and wicked in
Fayo in Schol. Genev. disp de dig effect Sacrif J. C. 5. Maccovius can you say any thing to clear the Plaintiffe from the charge that Master Baxter brings against him For that distinction of Christs dying for All sufficiently but not effectually I say 't is most vain and foolish For if you say Christ died sufficiently because his death would have sufficed to redeem all if God had so pleased then by a like reason it might be said that Christ hath justified All and glorified All sufficiently but none effectually Mac. distinct c. 11. disp 18. p. 110. Colleg. Disp 12. 6. Vogelius what say you to the second Article of the Remonstrants Concerning the Universality of the merit of Christs Death They that subscribe to it are to be suspected of Pelagianisme Socinianisme and other filthy Heresies Contra Ministros Campens pag. 125. This evidence already given in might suffice for the whole Article But because there is another branch perhaps M. Baxter will expect some pregnant proof for that too viz. That Christ neither had any intent nor Commandment of his Father to make satisfaction for the sins of the whole world To evince this take here the depositions of 1. Triglandius a Synodist who saith The passion of Christ in it self is sufficient to redeem all men yea many more but according to the Counsil of the Father He died onely for the Elect and truly faithfull with that intent that through faith he might make all them and onely them partakers of the efficacy of his passion to their salvation Christian Moderation pag. 25. 2. Zanchy who saith Christ according to the purpose of the Father was born prayed suffered dyed rose again and sitteth at the right hand of the Father interceding onely for the Elect h. e. for those who were to believe according to the eternall Election Miscel pag. 345. in quarto 3. Beza I say again and professe before the whole Church of God that it is false blasphemous and wicked to say Christ suffered was crucified died and satisfied no lesse for the sinnes of the Damned then for the sins of Peter Paul and all the Saints whether in respect of Gods Counsil or in regard of the effect Resp ad Coll. Mempelg p. 221. 4. Rippertus To say Christ died for them that perish is false and accuseth God of injustice Contra Domin Sapma p. 764. 5. Vogelius If Christ tasted death for unbelievers He drank that bitter cup in vain or else unbelievers must taste eternall death twice contrary to Gods justice to the dignity of Christs death and to possibility ubi supra p. 133. 6. Maccovius If Christ died for all then he was a surety and ransome for all even for those that perish everlastingly And this will brand God with injustice for taking a twofold punishment for the same offences when the first satisfaction might have sufficed Ubi supra pag. 35. 7. D. Damman Scribe to the Synod speaks to the same purpose It is repugnant to Gods justice that he should constitute Christ to bear the sins of all men and make full satisfaction for them and yet ordain some men to bear their own sins in their own persons and so make satisfaction for them themselves then he should punish one sin twice that is to say both in his Son and in them that perish Consens p. 63. Piscator shall shut up this Scene The Reprobate are plainly excluded from the merit of Christs death and yet they are bound to believe in him In Resp ad Duplic Vorstii c. 7. pag. 66. The third Article of Tilenus That by Adams fall his Posterity lost their free-will being put to an unavoidable Necessity to do or not to do whatsoever they do or do not whether it be good or evill being thereunto Predestinate by the eternall and effectuall secret Decree of God What saith M. Baxter to this Article Unworthy falsification still I see it will be a hard matter for Tilenus to gain M. Baxter's favour when he cannot escape his censure but the best on 't is rather then his reputation shall stand branded with those markes of Infamy which M. Baxters blackest inke hath indeavoured to imprint upon it many of M. Baxter's Reverend and in his opinion Orthodox friends are ready to be his compurgators I was about to summon M. Calvin in the head of these but I find him stumbling at the threshold and taking exceptions at the very Preface of the Article which chargeth his Adherents and followers to hold That by Adams fall his Posterity lost their freewill For he will not acknowledge such a Freewill in Adam himself whereby he might have stood witnesse these words of his to Castellio Thou saist Adam fell by his free will I except against it That he might not fall he stood in need of that strength and constancy wherewith God armeth the Elect while he will keep them blamelesse Whom God hath elected he props up with an invincible power unto perseverance Why did he not afford this to Adam if he would have had him stood in his integrity Ad Calum Nebul Ad Artic. 2. And Maccovius However Adam fell Necessarily in regard of the immutability of the Divine Decree yet he fell not by compulsion but of his own accord Non coactè sed sponté Coll. Disp disp 16. pag. 54. If the Calvinist's put Adam himself under such an unavoidable Necessity to do or not to do as an immutable Decree had determined him 'T is strange any of them should give Tilenus the Lie for affirming it to be their opinion concerning all men else And yet Tilenus stands accused by M. Baxter of an Vnworthy falsification for affirming that they hold That the Posterity of Adam having lost their free will in his fall are put under an avoidable Necessity to do good or evill And therefore to clear Tilenus that He may still carry the Reputation of a True man I 'le offer the Certificates of his Compurgators and First they shall certifie to the unavoidable Necessity of doing good as 1. Sturmius whose Certificate on the behalf of Tilenus runs thus The Elect are not onely Predestinated to the end but also to the means that lead to that end and therefore as they are necessarily saved at last in regard of the immutability of Election So in regard of the stability thereof they do necessarily also embrace the means by which they are conducted to that end De Praedest Th. 10. 2. Zanchy Whosoever are predestinated to the end they are also predestinated to those means without which that end is not to be attained And therefore as the Elect do necessarily arrive at the end at last in regard of the stedfastnesse of Election so in regard of the same stedfastnesse it is necessary they should be led and walk by the means ordained to that end De Nat. Dei lib. De Praedest -Sanct quaest 5. lib. 5. c. 2. q. 4. So it comes to passe that our Will cannot
to the Elect ONEly and that according to the counsil will and intention of the Father and this Master Baxter had under his view when he exprest so much wrath against Tilenus and therefore he confutes himself with this Confession They do indeed assert Art 2. Sect. 8. That it was onely the Elect that God the Father intended by the death of Christ effectually to bring to faith justification and salvation which is the same Doctrine with that of Election before mentioned Who ought Master Baxter this shame to betray him to this incogitancy The same Doctrine with that of Election before mentioned Why was not that Election of some certain culled out Persons as the Synod declares So we see what Master Baxters Universall Redemption comes to His Redeemed All are no more then his Elected All 't is an All in respect of kindes not of Persons But Christ is theirs to be sute according to the most Free Counsil gracious will and intention of God the Father So saith the Synod and this Master Baxter will subscribe to when he is Disputing against Tilenus though when he gets into the Pulpit he declares this to be a Doctrine of an ill influence for he saith Christ and salvation are made light of because of this disjunctive Presumption either that he is sure enough theirs already Making light of Christ pag. 21. and God that is so mercifull and Christ that hath suffered so much for them is surely resolved to save them or else it may easily be obtained at any time if it be not yet so Is it not the expresse Doctrine of the Synod and Master Baxter that Christ is sure enough the Elects and that God and Christ are resolved to save them and that this will most infallibly be obtained at God's time if it be not so yet This disjunctive presumption which he preacheth down in his Church he disputes up in his Closet And though when he is conversing with his papers inter Adversaria and drawing Diagrams concerning the Divine Decrees his good wits jump with the Synod and tells us The Father intended by the death of Christ effectually to bring to Faith justification and salvation none but the Elect yet when he hath his Crown which is his crowd of Auditors about him he forgets himself and if not his love to truth his zeale to souls transports him into other language much more patheticall then this Doctrine will allow of For thus he addresseth his exhortation to them Ibid. pag. 29.30 Beloved hearers the office that God hath call'd us to is by declaring the glory of his Grace to help under Christ to the saving of mens souls I hope you think not that I come hither to day of any other Errand The Lord knowes I had not set a foot out of doores but in hope to succeed in this work for your soules I have considered and often considered what is the matter that so many thousand should perish Now the man is in a rapture and hath quite forgotten his Decree of Reprobation when God hath done so much for their salvation and I find this that is mentioned in my Text Mat. 22.5 But they made light of it is the cause It is one of the wonders of the world that when God hath so loved the world as to send his Son and Christ hath made a satisfaction by his death sufficient for them all and offereth the benefits thereof so freely to them even without money or price that yet the most of the world should perish yea the most of those that are thus called by his word Is it one of the wonders of the world that Gods eternall and immutable Decrees concerning them should be executed Why here is the reason saith Master Baxter when Christ hath done all this men make light of it God hath shewed that he is not unwilling but your Synod hath shewed otherwise and Christ hath shewed that he is not unwilling that men should be restored to Gods favour and be saved but men are actually unwilling themselves God takes no pleasure in the death of sinners but rather that they return and live Ezek. 33.11 How came he then to reject them upon Adam's sin and deny them Grace sufficient unto salvation as you teach But men take such pleasure in sinne that they will die before they will returne The Lord Jesus was content to be their Physitian and hath provided them a sufficient plaister of his own blood but such as his Father intended should not be effectuall by your doctrine but if men make light of it and will not apply it which your Party confess they are not inabled to do what wonder if they perish after all This Scripture giveth us the reason of their perdition It is a most lamentable thing to see how most men do spend their care their time their pains for known vanities while God and Glory are cast aside and a little after Oh how should we marvell at their madnesse and lament their self-delusion who preach such contradictions Oh poore distracted world â— what is it that you run after and what is it that you neglect If God had never told them what they were sent into the world to do or whither they were going or what was before them in another world or what Decrees had past to shut them up under sin and deny them the Grace of Faith and Repentance according to your Disputations then they had been excufable but he hath told them over and over till they were weary of it This is Master Baxters preaching vein by which his vulgar flock would be ready to flatter themselves that they had their Teachers warrant to be confident that God doth earnestly intend the salvation of them all But when this pang of soul-saving zeal is over that he gets into his Polemicall strain then he disputes them out of all their hopes again for thus he proceeds If this Tilenus think that God intended the justification and Salvation of all by Christ it 's absolutely or conditionally Here I wish Master Baxter had positively spake out what it is that God intends them whom he calls the Reprobate or Non-elect if not their Justification and salvation then I know nothing else it can be but their greater condemnation and then sure he is unwilling they should be restored to his favour which is opposite point blank against Master Baxters popular exhortations But if God intended their justification and salvation absolutely they shall be saved saith Master Baxter which no Christian that I know believeth Tilenus as little Christian as you make him is of This Faith too and therefore he saith God intended this but Conditionally But then Master Baxter tells us The rigidest Anti-Arminians even Doctor Twisse doth over and over grant it you and I thank him for nothing of Justification and salvation that Christ died to procure this Common Grace that men shall be justified and saved if they will believe The Reader perhaps may be amused
the Crosse and was a Sacrifice Propitiation and Ransome for all To what end I say all this according to your Doctrine Was it to purchase saving Grace Faith and Repentance for them you say No. Was it to make satisfaction and procure Pardon you cannot with any modesty affirm it if you speak consonantly to the Principles of the Synod For as you confesse Sect. 7. they determine concerning all the Non-elect that God left them in that misery into which they were precipitated by the fall of Adam and decreed to damn them for this and all other sinnes which would inevitably follow upon their dereliction in this condition as the Causes of their damnation So that this Decree hath from all eternity laid the sins of the Non-elect upon their own shoulders and they are immutably designed to sink under them why then should they be charged on Christ why should he bear the Penalty of them Is not Christ a principall link in that Golden chain of means composed by the Eternall Predestination to draw the Elect to glory From hence some of the Divines of the Synod do conclude That the death and all salutary benefits of Christ do belong onely to the Elect. Ad credentes quidem propter indivulsam illam salutis catenam Rom. 8. To them alone Jud. Eccles Wetter Confir Thes 3. par 2. pag. 98. in regard of that inviolable chain Rom. 8. And you tell your Reader in the Preface of your Call to the Non-converted For Gods Decrees you must know that they separate not the end and means but tie them together If it be so why do you untie them here and ascribe the Death of Christ which is a prime means of salvation in any measure to the Reprobates who are immutably appointed to another end unlesse you affirm withall which iâ— the Doctrine delivered by many of your Party †See M. Perkins Synopsis above and Testimonies cited for this that Christs death belongs no further to them than it may cooperate to their End that is be a means of their destruction But you say They adde also Sect. 5. That the promise of Salvation to all that will believe must be preached to all without difference with the command of Faith and Repentance This Command is either Legall or Evangelicall Legall a Quia solum Evangelium novit remedium contra maledictionem legis solum etiam prâ—dicat poenitentiâ—â— in nomine Christi Hemingius Syntag. Inst Christ Loc. 16. Thes 21. I know you will not say If Evangelical then there is a promise of strength annext to those commands to enable us to perform them for this makes the difference b Wendolin Theol. Chri. lib. 1. c. 19. Thes 6. in explic Discrim 4â— Evang Legis betwixt precepts purely Legall and Evangelicall the Gospel doth afford strength the Law none And Redemption from our vain Conversation being as was said the first part of our Salvation our Salvation must needs commence in an oblation of strength the tendry of a Gracious Subsidie towards Faith and Repentance which yet you deny the unregenerate to have any promise of and how then can the Promise of Salvation be preached unto them 2. If by salvation they and you understand onely eternall life which is the consummation of it then to preach this unto men who are punisht with an utter inability to repent and believe for the Fall or upon the Fall of Adam I say to proclaim such a promise of Salvation to persons of that quality under condition of Faith and Repentance is no lesse absurd than to run in amidst a multitude of blind men and promise them ten thousand pounds apiece if they would but view such colours and distinguish the green from the black and white And if you take remission of sins in to this promise of Salvation and tell us that is to be granted too even to the Non elect if they will Repent and Believe This is as if a Physitian should come into an Hospitall full of sick and diseased persons and professe seriously to them Alas poore wretches what a number of sad Objects are here But I have compassion in store for you and my bowels yern over you and yet he administers nothing effectually to work their cure but exhorts them vehemently after this manner Come be ye ruled by me do you but purge your humours and allay the inflammation of your bloud and spirits and reduce your bodies to a good temper and I will save your lives and preserve you from death and torments Were not this a comfortable proclamation But suppose a Command †As the Non-elect are tied to Repent and Believe by a command but excluded and denied ability by the Decree were added to this Promise and a Commination appendant to that Command that if those blind men do not distinguish those colours and those sick men do not of themselves recover their health they shall be tormented in flames of fire and kept alive in those flames to the uttermost what would you think of such a tendry of salvation to these poore Mortals But the Synodists were very willing to passe over this black and more horrid part of the story whereof the event is undeclinable and to take occasion to tickle the conceit of the Reader with the Imagery of glorious promises whose fruition to such Non-elect is utterly impossible Yet even about these promises of the Gospel I find a considerable difference amongst them They are not agreed whether saving Faith Conversion or Regeneration which come all to the same reckoning in this point be promises or no. Upon that passage in Saint Peter 2 Pet. 1.3 4 Whereby there are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by them we might be partakers of the Divine nature In Notis Minor ad loâ—â—â— Beza saith He doth not understand the Divine Essence but a Participation of Divine qualities whereby the image of God is restored in us And sure this is nothing else but Regeneration If this be the matter of those great and precious Promises and not the effect of them onely then here is a promise of Regeneration conditionally made to the Unregenerate for the Regenerate being already possest of them the Promises cannot properly be said to be made to them as such and truly seeing an Unbeliever hath a Conditionall promise of Salvation made to him Amesius Bellar Enervat Tom. 3. cap. 2. num 10. as an Unbeliever which becomes absolute upon his believing as Amesius saith I can see no reason why we may not as well say that an Unbeliever or unregenerate Person hath a conditionall Promise of Faith and Regeneration The British Divines if I be not much deceived De 5. Artic. Act. Synod Dor. p. 200. part 2. were of this Judgement For to prove that Faith and Perseverance are Absolute Promises they say thus There are some Promises of God which concern the End others which concern the Means unto that end
the will to Act But he must have such a one as doth controull and Determine the will to Act and Operate notwithstanding the Dominion over its own Acts which he seems to ascribe to it which we think not onely unnecessary but in the ordinary course of Gods providence very absurd inconvenient and of dangerous Consequence to be affirmed 1. That it is unnecessary is evident by Gods complaint Isa 5.4 Judge I pray you between me and my vinyard what could I have done more to my vinyard that I have not done to it Wherefore when I looked that it should bring forth grapes brought it forth wilde grapes That God administred all things necessary and sufficient not in Master Baxters sense of sufficiencie which is unsufficient to this effect appears by his expectation of grapes of good workes for the All-wise God doth not he cannot expect to gather grapes of thorns or figgs of thistles and to expect conversion and good works from them who have not grace necessary and sufficient to their production is as unreasonable as to expect a Bird should fly without wings or a man goe without leggs But here was no determining Grace administred for then they would have been infallibly converted and have brought forth good works Therefore such Determining Grace is not necessary 2. As it is unnecessary so it is inconvenient For 1. it overthrowes that Dominion which by Master Baxters own confession the will hath over its own Acts and destroyes its Connatural manner of working For it puts a necessity in order of Nature and Causality Antecedent to the Act of the will so that all Praerequisites put in order the will hath not a simultaneous power that may be reduced into Act to Act otherwise or a power to want that operation to which it is so determined which takes away the liberty of the will quoad exercitium in regard of the exercise of it 2. It destroyes the proper nature of duty for a Duty is a work perform'd conformably to a command for his Authority sake who doth command it that giving proof of our free obedience we may avoid the Penalty and gain a Right to the Reward upon which the Command is established This cannot be agreeable to the nature of that work to which God doth irresistbly determine the will for 1. though the work be conformable to his command yet it cannot be properly said to be done because of his Authority but because he doth insuperably determine it 2. The doer or rather the sufferer gives no proof of his free obedience because he cannot do otherwise 3. This can procure him no right to the reward because it is not thank-worthy as the Phrase is 1 Pet. 2.19.20 beeing no part of a free obedience And 4. upon what Title can it free a man from punishment For we see God doth over-rule such as become the Rod of his anger Isa 10.5 6 12. and directeth them to do his work according to his Secret which the Calvinists account his onely proper will and yet when that work is done he casteth the Rod into the Fire But M. Baxters Determining Grace hath the Doctrine of the Synod to justifie it in making Faith and Conversion Repentance or Regeneration for the termes are promiscuously used here no part of mans work or duty For the Synod saith That Regeneration c. is a work for the mightinesse thereof not inferiour to the Creation of the world or raising up the dead quam Deus sine nobis 〈…〉 4. de Convers Art 12. in nobis operatur which God without us worketh in us and they say that Faith whereby we are first converted Ibid. Art 14 Reject 6. and from which we are styled Faithfull is really inspired and infused into the will Ibid. Reject 8. and that God in regenerating a man doth employ the strength of his Omnipotency powerfully and infallibly to bow and bend his will to Faith and Conversion And in this work saith M. Baxter * Of Saving Faith pag. 20. the Spirit is as the Hand the Object and Word as the Seal the Act of impression on the Intellect is first in Order of nature and so upon the Will the impressed Act and Habit immediately are effected by it Is this Faith and Conversion thus wrought Gods or mans It may be called Mans in regard of the Possession of it after it be wrought but in regard of the efficiency the production is so meerly a piece of New Creation that it can in no sense be accounted a part of Mans Morall duty For this is not performed by man because Gods will commands it but wrought in him because Gods power imprints it And then 3. This will evacuate the force of the Ministery the use of Commands and exhortations expostulations and reproofs For how can you in Gods Name seriously command a man under pain of death and promise of life to do that as his duty which you teach him to believe that God will insuperably effect himself If he believes that God must and will do it by his irresistible determining Grace he cannot reasonably believe that he doth seriously require it as his duty because it implyes a contradiction that God should at once will an effect to be done by another and yet will to do it himself alone What do your Ministery then amount unto 'T is but the Revelation of what God will do in mens souls like the Angels Message to the Blessed Virgin Luk. 1.30 with 35. Fear not for thou hast found favour with God for the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee Therefore that Holy thing that Faith and Repentance that shall be borne of thee shall be called the work of God Thus you may signifie to your Beloved Disciples what God will doe for and in their souls But if you should attempt the use of exhortations c. to move them to undertake that work as their duty your exhortations would lose all their force and propriety for that work you say is actually and really of Gods Impression Now when Gods Omnipotent hand of Grace sets the Determining Presse on work which is not moved at all by your exhortations they being directed onely to souls that are merely Passive under it that work of Faith and Repentance is stampt upon them irresistibly And can it consist with Gods wisdome to attaque a Sinner thus If you will be wrought upon and converted and believe as the force of my insuperable Grace shall irresistibly determine you you shall be saved And can you find in your heart to exhort your Auditors and to fall down upon your knees to them as you say many times you would do to intreat and beseech them not to wrastle with Omnipotency but to suffer themselves to be moved and determined by it And can you threaten woe and eternall death to others if they be not thus determined telling them withall which is a part
of the faithfull that practicall Divines especially do resolve that God doth often permit such sins in them that their justification and adoption may be the more confirmed to them If notwithstanding the good service their soule sins is designed to do them any of the faithfull should be so tender hearted as to be affraid of them They assure them 6. That there is no such reason For they cannot die in their sins so the Deputies of the Synod of Groningen Vbi supra Non tamen manent in peccatis sed aut externè per castigationes Dei admonitiones aut internè per Spiritus Sanctus gratiam excitati moti resipiscunt resurgunt They do not remain in their sins but being stirred up and moved either outwardly by Gods admonitions and chastisements or inwardly by the grace of the Holy Spirit they do repent and arise And so the whole Synod in the 7. Artic. of Cap. 5. In these slips God preserveth in them that his immortall seed by which they were once borne again that it die not nor be lost by them afterward by his word and Spirit he effectually and certainly reneweth them again unto repentance But suppose a tender conscience should call for a solid proof of this Doctrine out of Holy Scripture and because there is none to be produced should be troubled with doubtings fears and jealousies about it Why then in the last place Master Baxter himself hath resolved Of Justif. Disp 3. pag. 398. at the end of his Discussion of Master Tombes his Animadversions That if you can prove it profitable for such a man to be suddenly cut off before Repentance and that such a thing will be I should incline saith he to think that he will be fully pardoned at the instant of Death and so saved because the Lord knoweth that he repented Habitually and virtually and would have done it Actually if he had had time for consideration But Quo warranto is all this spoken For my part I shall ever think it my duty to admonish my Reader to remember the terrour of the evil day and to take heed strictly that he falls not under the Arrest of it at unawares * Luk. 21.34 35. for it is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the everliving God And thus much shall suffice in return to Master Baxters objections against the Articles of Tilenus BUt we have another task behind For though we have cleared the Field before us and seem to have given a total defeat to all Master Baxters Pretentions in behalf of the Synod of Dort yet he hath a Reserve behind which he leads up to fall on the Reer of Master Pierce and if he can with the strength of that charge thorow His forces he may take the confidence to proceed and to renew his charge upon Tilenus also Before we disband therefore we will advance to find out that Reserve and fall upon it that it may not be able to annoy us when we are retired to repose in our Winter Quarters This Reserve I find in his 37. Section And with it he makes his Charge and Onset upon Master Pierce after this manner And for them whom he styles the choisest of Gods servants and the Synod of Dort I may well challenge that Justice from you as to impute no such opinions to them which they purposely disown and publickly professe to detest Master Baxters demand seems very Reasonable if there be not some ambiguitie or equivocation in those words purposely disown and publickly professe to detest For what saith the Apostle of some in his time Tit. 1. last They professe they know God but in works they deny him Men may professe publickly to detest what they heartily affect and purposely disown what they like and approve of well enough in it self but because they see it grows scandalous and unsavoury to a multitude of Judicious Godly men and not well to be defended without further scandall therefore for shame of the world they may publickly professe to detest and disown it for this purpose And whether it were not so with the Synod in what they disown and professe publickly to detest we shall the better judge by examining each particular here mentioned by M. Baxter The first whereof is That the most heinous sins do not hinder the salvation of the Elect however they live Doth the Synod cordially detest and judiciously disown this Doctrine You heard above what was the opinion of Master Perkins and others that mille-peccata a thousand sinnes nay the sins of the whole world nay all the Devils in hell were not able to make void Gods Election Is it not the Generall Doctrine of the whole Synod as well as the Suffrage of the Divines of the Palatinate †De Artic. primo prop. 5. Electio ad Salutem immutabilis est nec defectibus aut lapsibus electorum etiam gravioribus interrumpitur aut abrumpitur That Election unto Salvation is immutable and that it is neither broken nor interrupted by their failings or most grievous falls Do not the Divines of Drent say that the sins of the Elect cooperate to their benefit and the Divines of Great Britain affirm Vbi supra as you heard even now that their sins are so farre from interrupting or disturbing the justification and adoption of the Faithfull Vbi supra that they serve the more to confirm them And the whole Synod in their Sixth Rejection of the first Chapter do Reject it as a grosse Errour in them who teach That not all Election unto Salvation is unchangeable but that some which are Elected notwithstanding Gods decree may perish and for ever do perish This is their avowed Canonicall Doctrine yet as if some men of another mind had drawn up this Conclusion of those Decrees and Canons here for what purpose the Reader may gather by what hath been already hinted to him they publickly professe to detest this opinion †This Riddle may be and is to be read by the explication of the next here following that the most heinous sins do not hinder the salvation of the Elect however they live And they do no lesse detest the next opiniopinion That the Reprobate cannot be saved though they truly perform all the works of the Saints But did Marlorat detest this opinion In Joh. 15.2 when he saith Stat igitur firma sententia quemcunque Deus ante conditum orbem elegerit eum non posse perire quem verò rejecerit eum non posse salvari etiamsi omnia Sanctorum opera fecerit Usque adeo irretractabilis est sententia Whom God hath elected he cannot perish whom he hath rejected he cannot be saved though he should perform all the good works of the Saints The sentence past from all eternity is so irrevocable And amongst the Acts of the Synod we finde this of Doctor Molin Par. 1. pag. 290. f. Reprobos posse salvari dogma est Arminianum Christianis auribus
the Decree doth tie the End and Means together and what is the Means of Damnation but Infidelity and Impenitency c. as he tells us from the Synod in the seventh Section of his Preface There is a necessity therefore of these sins in the Reprobate †Loquimur de adultis vocatis else he should not perish as such an infidel and impepenitent Whence is this necessity not from the nature or will of the creature therefore from some Act of God and what is this Act of God but that Reprobation whereby he denies unto the Reprobate Grace sufficient and necessary unto Faith and Repentance and then his Law whereby he requires the performance of those duties which without that Grace are not performable But saith the Synod Reprobation is not the cause of Infidelity and impiety in the same manner as Election is the fountain and cause of Faith and piety But whatever fallacy there be in those words in the same manner certainly according to their Doctrine Infidelity and Impiety do flow by as inevitable a necessity from the one Decree as Faith and Piety doth from the other Vid. Antidotum p. 47 c. so that it is no lesse impossible †Quod aliqui in tempore fide à Deo donentur aliqui non donantur id ab aeterno ipsius decreto provenit Syn. Dor. cap. 1. Art 6. for those who are Reprobated to believe and repent than it is for those who are Elected to remain impenitent and unbelievers Contrariorum eadem ratio eadem scientia est say the Divines of the Palatinate * De Repro prepos 1. p. 19. par 2. Ex iis igitur quae de Electione supra dicta sunt de opposita Reprobatione ejusque descriptione quid statuendum videatur haud difficile est pronunciare Reprobation then is no lesse the fountain of Infidelity and Impiety than Election is the fountain of Faith and Piety If we list to cavill about the word Cause which is here made use of to impose upon the unwary Reader we could tell them that 't is an improper and inept expression to say Election is the Cause of Faith For Election in an immanent Act in the minde of God not an Egression out of him that produceth any effect in man though Faith doth infallibly follow that Act by the emanation of another power which God according to the Decree of Election will exercise to the irresistible production of Faith And thus it is acknowledged by Piscator that although the Decree of Reprobation be not effective in respect of infidelity in the Reprobate because it doth not properly effect or produce that infidelity yet it is efficax efficacious Antidot p. 48. because that Decree being made infidelity follows of necessity For example Suppose a man blind by nature or made blinde by the infliction of punishment upon him for some crime He that commands such a man upon pain of death to read a Proclamation though to speak properly he cannot be said to be the cause that that man reades not the Proclamation for his blindnesse is the next and proper cause hereof yet in sense of Law and to speak Morally he may be said to be the Cause that by not reading that blinde man becomes defective as it were in a duty injoyn'd him and so guilty of death not by way of efficiencie as producing the defect of reading in him but by commanding that Reading to whom it is impossible to read in whom therefore after that command the defect of Reading cannot but follow After the same manner according to their Doctrine God deals by the Reprobates first for the transgression of Adam they are punished with blindenesse of minde in things spirituall so that 't is no lesse impossible for them to believe when God commands it than for a blind man to read a proclamation And yet notwithstanding they are thus punished with spirituall blindnesse God commands them to believe under pain of eternall death Which when God doth he doth not indeed by way of efficiency produce infidelity and impenitency in them but by his command God is the Cause or brings it to passe that they become as it were unbelievers and impenitent because it is impossible on the one part that they should become unbelievers unlesse the command of Faith doth intervene and on the other part the command of Faith being given they cannot in regard of that innate pravitie and blindnesse but be and remain unbelievers And this is the means which for all their Profest detestation is tied to the End by the Decree of Reprobation in order to the execution of the said Decree by the Damnation of the Reprobates Another Doctrine which saith M. Baxter the Synod doth purposely disown and publickly professe to detest is That many harmlesse Infants of Believers are snatch't from the mothers breasts and tyrannically cast into Hell so that neither Baptisme nor the Churches prayers in Baptisme can profit them That many Infants of Believers are cast into Hell notwithstanding the Prayers of the Church and the Sacrament of Baptism administred according to Christs institution and command for their Salvation is the expresse Doctrine of Calvin Beza Zuinglius Martyr Zanchy Piscator Paraeus Perkins c. For the Infants of unbelievers it is the Doctrine of Gomarus and the Divines of Drent expresly that they are Reprobates Act. Synod Dor. par 3. pag. 24. pag. 83. Gomar de Reprob th 7. Judic Drent circa 1. Art thes 18. For the Infants of Believers dying in their Infancy whether the Decree of Reprobation layeth hold on them and makes them liable to damnation the Divines of South-Hollands judgement is Ibid. pag. 36 pr. Non esse curiosè inquirendum we ought not to be curious in inquiring after it and the British Divines say De primo Articulo ubi supra par 2. p. 10. thes 7. Ad rationem electionis divinae sive ponendam sive tollendam circumstantia atatis est quiddam impertinens nihil prorsus operatur The circumstance of age is a thing altogether impertinent and works nothing touching the Decree of Election or Reprobation Their meaning is plain enough and 't is consonant no doubt to the sense of the whole Synod We may therefore observe a twofold Fallacy in the Proposition which they publickly professe to detest 1. In the word Innoxios harmelesse Infants See the Antidonum cap. 4 5. pag. 52. c. For the truth is they acknowledge none such every Infant of a span long from its first Conception being guilty of Adams sin for which it is justly liable to condemnation and for that sin many are damned * Act. Synod Dor. as is delivered in Reject 8. Cap. 1. Another Fallacy is in the word Tyrannicè tyrannically cast into Hell For when God doth Reprobate such Infants and cast them into Hell he doth not do it they say after the manner of a Tyrant who is bound by some
conditum ut conditum sed adhuc integrum ut lapsum peccatoque corruptum Idem Tract de Gratia Dei pag. 173. c. Cap. 1. Artic. 7. And although these severall Parties differ hugely in fixing the Object of the Decree yet there is no considerable difference amongst them touching the means and manner of carrying it on from the Fall of Adam to the Finall Execution of it Of which the Synods Canonicall Declaration is this That Election is the unchangeable purpose of God by which before the foundation of the world according to the most free pleasure of his will and of his mere Grace out of all mankind fallen through their own fault †So they call Adams sin from their first integrity into sin and destruction he hath chosen in Christ unto salvation a set number of certain men neither better nor more worthy then others but lying in the common misery with others which Christ also from all eternity he appointed the Mediatour and Head of all the Elect and foundation of salvation and so he Decreed to give them to him to be saved and by his Word and Spirit effectually to call and draw them to a Communion with Him that is to give them a true faith in him to justifie sanctifie and finally glorifie them being mightily kept in the communion of his Son to the demonstration of his mercy and praise of the riches of his glorious grace They say Ibid. Art 15. Moreover the holy Scripture herein chiefly manifests and commends unto us this eternall and free grace of our Election in that it further witnesseth that not all men are elected but some Not-elected or passed over in Gods eternall Election whom doubtlesse God in his most free most just unreproveable and unchangeable good-pleasure hath decreed to leave in the common misery whereinto by their own †That is Adam's fall default they precipitated themselves and not to bestow saving faith and the grace of conversion upon them but leaving them in their own wayes and under just judgement at last to condemn and everlastingly punish them not onely for their unbeliefe but also for their own a Is their own fault even now mentioned any of them sins to the manifestation of his Justice And this is the Decree of Reprobation which in no wise makes God the Author †Artic. 5. They say Cause or Fault of sin c. of sin a thing blasphemous once to conceive but a Fearfull unreproveable and Just Judge and Revenger Thus farre the Synod 2. Observe That according to this Order of Causes the Apostles Doctrine is inverted for he saith If ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body Rom. 8.13 ye shall live But on the contrary here the Doctrine runs thus Ye shall live therefore ye shall mortifie Or Ye shall die therefore ye shall live after the flesh For sin is acknowledged to be the fruit and effect Norton ubi supra pag. 52. or as others who speak more nicely and warily an infallible Consequent of the Decree 3. By this Table Almighty God is supposed to have loved a certain number of persons with an unchangeable love and so dearly as freely to have elected them to enjoy a communion with himself in joyes and glories everlasting and that before Christ is given to be a Mediator for them which doth much Eclipse if not quite evacuate the merit and satisfaction of Christ For to be chosen to such salvation is to be in Gods highest favour and then what room is there for the intervention of Christs Merits and the price of his bloud to satisfie Divine Justice appease Gods wrath to make an atonement and procure a Reconciliation This will help to establish at least to countenance the Socinian Doctrine who take advantage of that opinion to argue against the satisfaction of our Saviour after this manner They who are no longer under wrath but in Gods Grace and favour they have no need nay they cannot by the death of Christ be delivered from wrath and restored to Gods favour But those whom God loves unto eternall salvation are no longer under wrath but in Gods favour Therefore there is no need nay they cannot be delivered from wrath and restored to Gods favour by the Death of Christ 4. That Christ is appointed a Mediator onely for the benefit of these Elect to die for them and procure salvation for them whose salvation was as sure before as the Decree and love of God could make it 5. That Faith Sanctification and Obedience are not considered in this Decree as qualifications in the person to be elected but are provided to be brought in by it to dresse him up for Glory 6. That those Elect Persons in their appointed time shall be called so infrustrably and irresistibly that it is not in their power to make it void or hinder it 7. That no sin can put them out of that road Series or File of means drawn by the Divine Decree to lead them from Election to Glory No not their foulest or filthiest sins Hereupon Master Perkins reckons it amongst the Priviledges which waite upon their Adoption Armilla Aurea cap. 37. Hinc etiam multis Privilegiis donantur saith he They are indowed with many Priviledges 1. They are heirs of God 2. Coheires with Christ and Kings 3. All their afflictions their failings also and falls tantum sunt castigationes paternae ad bonum illorum they are nothing but fatherly chastisements designed for their Good And such is the Judgement of the Divines of Drent Par. 3. pag. 275. f. inserted amongst the Acts of the Synod Whereas say they the Remonstrants do maintain that the faithfull may fall from Grace there are a thousand Testimonies of Scripture against it And presently after We will adde but one Testimony more It is said Rom. 8.28 That all shall work together for good to them that love God If all the evills wherewith they are chastized then their very sins also Quae peccata quemadmodum in impiis interdum habent rationem poenae Sic etiam ipsissima peccata etiam in fidelibus habent rationem paternae castigationis Which sins as in the wicked they have sometimes the nature of punishment so the very self same sins also in the faithfull have the nature of Fatherly correction And may not God be the Author of them then seeing all evill of punishment is from him Amos 3.6 8. From hence it undeniably follows that the sins of these Elect must be of another rank and of a far different nature from the very same sins for kind and quality of the Reprobate For example the Adultery Sedition Murder Oppression of the Reprobates do shut them out of Gods favour and kingdome 1. Cor. 6.9 Gal. 5.19 But the same sins for nature and kinde in these Elect their Adultery Sedition Oppression Murder cannot shut them out either of Gods
Grace here or his Glory hereafter On the other side Observe 1. That according to this Synopsis containing Master Perkins's and the Judgement of all the Creabilitarians That the farre greatest part of mankinde are Reprobates before they are Creatures and according to the most modest opinion amongst them they are Reprobates as to the demerit of Preterition onely upon the account of Adams sin which was no more in their power to prevent or avoid than to hinder Gods imputation of it or to forbid their Parents Banes of Matrimony and for Actuall sins they do commence upon the stock of this sin Originall 2. That Christ was not given according to Gods intention for their benefit They have no interest in him there is no line of communication drawn betwixt him and them For 3. at least upon the Fall of Adam Gods implacable and immutable hatred was extended towards them And hence 4. His calling of them is but uneffectuall so that 5. Though they own and answer that Call so farre as to be inlightned by it repent at it believe upon it relish the heavenly Gift and grow zealous of Gods Glory yet this doth not remove them one step out of that road or line drawn by the Decree of Reprobation to lead them to eternall death according to the Series and processe whereof which is immutably set and insuperably carried on the Deceitfulnesse of sin must and shall inevitably and necessarily prevaile to bring them into a Relapse which shall heighten their pollution and guilt by an accession of obduration and malice unbelief and Apostasie and so cooperate to the aggravation of their condemnation and torments And this is the very Doctrine of the Synod of Dort as it is delivered Act. S. Dor. par 2. p. 62. th 24 25. in the Judgement of the Divines of Embden For speaking of the means by which the Decree is executed in the Reprobates They say Prima summa eorum exitii Causa The first and chiefest cause of their destruction is the corruption of our first Parents Spontanea Adami voluntate of Adam's own accord first brought upon himself and afterwards by the just judgement of God propagated unto his whole Posterity in which if God had left all he had done injury to none because he is debtor unto none The second Cause is because either God vouchsafes not to call these Reprobates at all by his Gospel or if he calls some of them outwardly by the Gospel yet it is not accompanied with any internall Spirituall efficacie or if in some of them he begets a certain assent and some kinde of faith yet he leaves them all at last in their blindnesse and voluntary corruption and doth not vouchsafe them his saving grace And Szegedin To the Question In loc com de Repr tab 1. p. 122. f. Whether the Reprobate can do good works he makes this answer They may do good works sometimes but not persevere in them as the Predestinate in like manner do fall into most grievous sins Therefore saith he we may conclude that Good works are sometimes inservient unto Predestination and sometimes unto Reprobation By good works Predestination doth illustrate Gody glory and in respect of Reprobation they are many times reasons why sin is aggravated For they that fall from God when he hath adorned them with good works as they do more grievously sin so are they more severely-punished Lastly Observe that according to this Series or Table of Causes The onely Glory that God designs and aims at primarily and by it self as to be drawn out of the Rationall Creature for himself consists in the Salvation of some for the Declaration of his Justice and Mercy and the Damnation of others for the Declaration of his Power and Justice Whereas the Scripture informs us otherwise viz. That the Glory which he intended to have and therefore requires and expects from us doth consist in the oblation or performance of a free and dutifull obedience or results from it To this purpose we have our Saviours own warrant Joh. 15.8 Herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit and his example Joh. 17.4 I have glorified thee on the earth I have finished the worke that thou gavest me to doe and his Command Matth. 5.16 Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven and Gods own approbation Psal 50.23 Who so offereth praise glorifieth me and to him that ordereth his conversation aright c. So that Gods Glory is intended all the way Whether ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do do all to the Glory of God This is that duty we are all primarily designed for and called unto by the dispensations of his Grace 1 Pet. 2.9 Ephes 1.6 And if men will not comply by a voluntary obedience with this Gracious designe that the Goodnesse of God may triumph in our exaltation then for their contempt or neglect of his honour and service as he hath threatned so he rejects them and glorifies his Justice in the infliction of their deserved punishment Act. S Dor. par 2. pag. 104. th 5. Martinius therefore acknowledgeth that the condemnation of the wicked is an event of Gods Calling which is not intended of God by it selfe but by accident it is an attendant upon mans transgression Hic autem eventus per se non intenditur à Deo sed per accidens hominis Culpa sequitur As for that Glory of God which the Blessed Saints and Angels do eternally celebrate in heaven that is not designed by Almighty God for a part of Mans duty the Scene whereof lyes here on earth but for his Reward upon the performance of that duty which duty the wicked having neglected they are by way of punishment for ever debarred Rev. 7.14 15. Job 17.24 from having any communion in that blessed solemnity which is the Masters joy into which none are admitted but such as have been faithfull servants This by the way will afford a sufficient answer to that Maxime in Logick What is first in the intention is last in the execution Whence some Admired Doctors would inferre that punishment was intended before sinne and Glory before obedience But the Maxime will not hold in the Distribution of Rewards and Punishments which doe alwaies where Justice holds the Sword and ballance presuppose duty and fault respectively as the Vshers to go before them This is easily seen and many times complained of in Civil administrations †Call to the Vnconverted p. 84. A Rulers will us Lawgiver is first and principally that his laws be obeyed c. See the rest wherein as the Magistrate that intends reward before obedience is accounted imprudent so he that designs a personall punishment before there be a fault shall not escape the Reproach of being a Tyrant AN EXAMINATION OF Master BAXTERS XIX and XX. Sections Wherein the state of DAVID AND PETER is Debated The State of
it in without resistance and permits it to levy forces and stand in competition with the spirit and much more if he shall invite it in and assist it against his interest Whether the sin of Peter or David were of this nature we shall examine in the sequel In the mean while let us consider what is granted concerning the danger or sad estate that the regenerate men fall into by their perpetration of foul sins De Persev Sanctorum Spiritum contristant indignationem Dei paternam incurrunt reatum damnabilem contrahunt sic ut demeritoriè saltem licet non effectivè jus ad regnum coelorum penitùs admittunt fideles regeniti justificati saith Doctor Prideaux Some resemble their estate to the condition of a man excommunicated or outlaw'd who loseth his actuall claim to whatsoever is due to him upon never so good assurance D. Field Ap. to 2. B. of the Ch. pag. 313. 834. so that albeit the right and title to it is yet invested in them yet all prosecution of that right is suspended during the time he continues in that estate Others represent their estate by the condition of the Leper amongst the Jews who for the time was debarted the use of his own habitation yet he lost not his right to it for after he was healed he might reenter and keep possession But by the way if he died before his actuall cleansing he could not do so I suppose rather that their estate might be represented by the Law made against the presumptuous sinner Num. 15.30 The Soul that doth ought presumptuously or with a high hand whether he be born in the land or a stranger the same reproacheth the Lord and there was no sacrifice to make his atonement that soul shall be cut off from among his people His punishment was not sequestration or exclusion from his People but excision I do not here take upon me to determine what the finall and eternall estate of such a person was that must be according to the quality and degrees of his repentance before his execution but I observe that by the sentence of God declared in that law presumptuous sins do ipso facto make an alteration of estate as great an alteration as is from life to death in the person that commits them Now to give us to understand that Davids sin was of such a nature there is the very character of a Presumptuous sin set upon it which is that the Lord is reproached by it ib. and so 't is said of Davids sin 2 Sam. 12.14 By this deâ—â— thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme Before I proceed further I could wish you would seriously consider the importance of that caution given by the Apostle Heb. 12.15 16. Looking diligently lest any man fail or fall from the grace of God lest any root of bitternesse springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau who for one morsell of meat sold his birth-right for ye know how that afterward when he would have inherited the blessing he was rejected If you think such caveats and threatnings being applyed as preservations against defection do alwaies become a means of perseverance to the regenerate and at most imply but a possibility of their Apostasie in regard of themselves not the certain futurity of it unlesse it be in the Non-elect God having put in a bar against it for the rest I desire you to consider that a Type being given and an instance made in a person who certainly had once a just right to inherit whether this must not needs imply a reall danger of the event viz. of falling to those who for the present have a true right and title to the Evangelicall blessing and celestiall inheritance I say a reall danger of falling and in some case which is here set down to aggravate the danger and consequently to excite their care to avoid it to the highest pitch irrecoverably But to return to David I think it very easie to conclude him in an unjustified estate out of your own principles In your Account of Perseverance Pag. 40. you lay these for grounds n. 5. The Dominion of any one sin is inconsistent with saving grace and justification n. 7. You say He that hath not more hatred then love to any sin and that had not rather be rid of it even in the use of Gods means then keep it in regard of the Habituated state of his will is under the dominion of sin and in the state of damnation n. 8. He that is thus resolved and affected against a grosse sin or any known sinne that is under the power of hâ—s will is not like to live in or give up himself to it Nay he cannot commit it without renewed resolutions against it and a restlesse importunity of soul to to be delivered which will prevail If this be true as I am ready to subscribe to it David was in a much more sad condition then you are apt to believe him in For that he was guilty of a grosse known sin you cannot you will not deny but where were his renewed resolutions against it where was the use of Gods means or the restlesse importunity of his soul to be delivered from it Did he not give up himself to it and industriously make provision for it and live in it Nay did he not upon design and contrivance against all the ingagements of noblenesse ingenuity and humanitie proceed from one wickednesse to nother It cannot with any colour be denied There is but one Salvo in all your three propositions to help you you will say perhaps that in regard of the habituated state of his will he had rather have been rid of it then have kept it That does not appear but very much against it If it had been so why did he not consult his Prophet or fast and mourne as he did afterward for the sicknesse of his child His habituated estate it seems was a very secure state that the accustomed ministery of the Church would not serve the turn but God was faln to discharge an especiall piece of his Ordnance to awaken him out of it You adde in your 10. Proposition That sin doth as naturally breed troubles and feares as the setting of the Sun causeth darknesse or as a grosse substance in the Sunshine causeth a shadow And this from the nature of the thing and by the will of God If it be so what can we conclude from the want of such feares and troubles in him but that 't is probable God left him for the time under some degrees of obduration And indeed not so much the palpitation and trembling of the heart through fears and troubles as the hardning of it is the inseparable companion of presumptuous sinning The Devill carries himself with a kind of bashfulnesse till he finds incouragement And that man must be lustily steeld with impudence