every man is free in the committing of this or that particular sin though it be true in the General an evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit It is possible that an healthy man by disorder may fall into great sicknesses but a man of frail and infirme constitution is wholly enclined to sicknesses and diseases As great nay a farre greater difference was between that liberty that Adam had before his fall and what we now have He had a freedome to choose the good and to refuse the evil so have not we now But to take away the force of this answer he further argueth That we can choose the good and as naturally love good as evil and in some instances more A man cannot naturally hate God if he knowes any thing of him a man naturally loves his parents he naturally hateth some sorts of uncleannesse Repl. We do not deny but by the general concurrence and assistance of God man since the fall hath some ability to choose and love the good But what kind of good that which is ethical and moral but not that which is spiritual In the very best actions that a natural man doth when he gives alms when he observes promises when he doth performe any good he sins in the manner because his actions do not proceed from sincere love neither are they directed to a right end The end of the commandment is love out of a pure heart a good conscience and faith unfaigned 1 Tim. 1.5 Because a natural man wants these principles his best actions are stained with sinne As strange as this doctrine seemes to be there is none of us all but may finde a truth of it in our own experience For let us heare reade pray meditate give alms dispute for the truth reforme errours and abuses and do much good for the Church yet we can have no comfort if our conscience once tell us that we do not these things for God but for our selves This is the very case of every natural man besides the sinisterity of ends his actions do not proceed from right principles And whereas he argueth that a man cannot naturally hate God if he knowes any thing of him If he speak of the excellency of God and his holinesse In such a sense if men did know him they could not hate him For that they love him fear him obey him trust in him do all for him leave all for his sake this is grounded upon the right knowledge of that excellency and goodnesse that is in himself And therefore since the fall the blindnesse of minde is the cause of a great part of the mischief The will is perverse in her choice the affections are out of order because the judgment is not rightly informed In a lower sense we do acknowledge that men may know some things of God and their knowledge may be the ground of their hatred of God It may be with some wicked men as with the Devils they beleeve there is one God and tremble But as to the choice of spiritual good he further saith Neither was Adams case better than ours in this particular For that his nature could not carry him to heaven or indeed to please God in order to it seems to be confessed by them who have therefore affirmed him to have a supernatural righteousnesse Repl. If the collation be between state and state Adam had a power to understand that good which is spiritual tolove choose it more than we now have since the fall The wise man saith God made man upright but they have sought out many inventions Eccles 7. ult He must needs speak of a spiritual uprightnesse contrary to the deceits that are to be found amongst thousands of men and women And whereas he saith that Adams nature could not carry him to heaven If this be so God provided worse for him than for the rest of the creatures The rest of the creatures were made with such natures sutable to their ends If therefore God did not make Adam in a state someway fit for heaven why did he create him with an immortal soule This state plainly sheweth that had he stood or eaten of the tree of life he should have lived for ever But falling he did runne the hazard of the losse of that life that might have been had Lastly if Adam coald not have gone to heaven in that nature that God had made him the falling short of eternal life could not have been any fault of his own and the blame would have laid on the creation Were it rational for God to require Adam to go to heaven and yet no way to make him sutable or fit for such a condition This were to require the whole tale of bricks and to give no straw And for that Tenet of the Romish Doctors I wonder that he should stand upon it that Adam was endued with supernatural righteousnesse in that sense at least as they understand it for look what righteousnesse Adam had it was by creation The had stood he had propagated it to posterity The reliques of the image of God do plainly shew in what state he was made in the beginning In the creation of man it is said he made all things very good Hearbs Trees Birds Beasts Fishes all these may be good in their kinde though they were not made in a state fit to go to heaven But it is impossible that Adam could be made in a state very good but he must be some way fit for union with God in which all spiritual and eternal good doth consist Now he comes to the main objection and here he tells us that it is certain there is not only one but many common principles from which sin derives it self into the manners of all men This he undertakes to prove in opposition to our assertion who hold that the pravity and corruption of nature doth flow from the disobedience of the first man But let us heare him speak in his own words The first great cause saith he of an universal implety is that at first God had made no promises of heaven he had not propounded any glorious rewards to be as an argument to support the superiour faculty against the inferiour that is to make the will to choose the best to leave the worst and to be as a reward for suffring contradiction And going on he further addeth this to be the reason of the general corruption of the old world Because saith he there was no such thing in that period of the world therefore almost all flesh corrupted themselves excepting Abel Seth Enos and Enoch we finde not one good man from Adam to Noah and therefore the Apostle calls that world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the world of the ungodly It was not so much wonder that when Adam had no promises made to enable him to contest his natural concupiscence he should strive to make his conditions by the Devils Promises Reply It is true the Apostle calleth the old world
Lords gift the believing Ephesians must be supposed to have it from their own ability If this be so how shall we agree with the scope of the Apostle who saith in expresse termes You are saved by grace through faith not of your selves it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast Truly Sir if your faith be not Gods gift it will be of your self and you will have cause of boasting as though you did make your self to differ from other men and what is this else but to go point blanck against the scope of the Scripture And though I do plead this truth against you in affirming faith to be the gift of God yet I say also it is the act of man God gives the grace and man beleeves These two are not so parted asunder but that they may be joyned together For your third Scripture concerning the striving for the faith given to the Saints which S. Jude speaks of this is not meant of the grace or habit of faith in the heart but of the doctrine of faith onely That men should strive to preserve the Gospel in its purity and integrity against the heresies of the times But you go further to shew the absurdities that will follow upon the holding of that position that obedient actions are the gift of God you say If God should give the actions as sure as he giveth means to act then a mans conscience might and would as well accuse him for want of means to act as for want of action But I never heard say you that any mans conscience accused him for want of means to performe his actions but because be made not use of the means In this passage of yours as ther eare some things which I allow as true and sound so there are others which I do reject as false and unsound For as I have said before they who deny a man to be a free Agent I cannot see by the tenor of their doctrine how their conscience can accuse them for non-performance of action seeing they hold that both the act the means to act are onely from God and man is meerly passive So far you I are agreed but whereas you oppose the carrying on of the work of salvation by the power the grace of God in this you contradict the Scriptures and by name that place of the Apostle We are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 That the Saints do persevere it is mainly from the power of God who carries on the work But how not without their own endeavour Ye are kept by the power of God through faith Men must apply the promise of God and that will engage his power to carry them on to salvation And yet further God speaketh of his elect I will put my Spirit in them that they shall keep my Commandments and do them But most plainly in that place 2 Thes 2.13 We are bound to give God thanks for you brethren that he hath chosen you from the beginning to salvation thorough the sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth In the Words going before he doth speak of the great Apostacy that should be in all Anti-Christian times that because men did not receive the truth in the love of it that they might he saved therfore God should deliver them over to strong delusions to believe lies By way of opposition to these Apostates the Apostle comforts the beleeving Thessalonians with the infallibility and certainty of their salvation But how would he bring them to salvation thorough the sanctification of the Spirit and the belief of the truth These two means he doth name to shew that God will bring none to salvation as the end but he will first justify and sanctifie them in the use of the means Though he will carry on the work by his own power infallibly and certainly in the hearts of his people yet their act endeavour and obedience shall go along with the working of his grace Many such like places might be brought to shew that the infallible workings of God may stand with the endeavours of his own people Secondly whereas you affirme That you never heard any mans conscience accuse him for want of means but for want of using the means Oh Sir in what corner of the world were you brought up that the fame of this never came to your eares I think it is a truth well known in the Church of God that mens consciences do accuse them not onely because they made no use of the means but also because thorough their own default the means are not administred to them or that they are taken from them If it had been your lot to visit men in trouble of conscience in agonies and gripes upon their sick-beds there you should have heard such words as these again and again repeated Had I sought God had I prayed in faith of his promise had I walked humbly with him had I fruitfully used the grace administred to me as a good and profitable Steward I had never wanted the means to subdue the power and rage of such and such corruptions It is meerely from mine own defect that there is such a strangenesse betwixt the Lord and me These are the ordinary complaints of men who neglect the day of their salvation and you tell us you never heard any mans conscience accuse him for the want of the means when the talent was taken from the unprofitable servant he was deprived of the means but was not that deprivation through his own fault but you further add If conscience be so well informed that it must and wil bear witness then of whom shal it bear witnesse against God No marvail that there be so many corrupt sayings if God had given me abilities powers and actions then I would have done it Nay do not many say I must be contented to stay Gods time Hath God commanded you before his time Nay do not you discharge your self of duties in saying it is not his time page 72. Such a dextrous faculty you have in cavilling against the main truths of Christianity But when I read this and such like passages thorough your whole Treatise I cannot but compare the state of the Church in these times to the ship that carried Saint Paul to Rome the forepart of it stuck in the sand and the hinder part of it was broken with the waves Into such desperate extreams are we now fallen For if we speak of actions of obedience if the power be not placed chiefly in the will of man you and the whole nation of the Free-willers do tell us that we be discharged from duty seeing we are cast upon a necessity of waiting when the matter is not in our own hand On the other side there is sprung up a generation of fanatical men which are so opposite to the freedome of will that they think the Spirit must do all they will not give thanks
at meat nor pray in their families nor hear the Word nor perform any other spiritual duty untill they have a motion of the Spirit Indeed the Waiters in this sense do come to your pitch they think themselves to be discharged from duty till the coming of the Spirit But is there no middle between these desperate extreames Is there no discharge of duty in obedience to the Commands of God There is no man that lives in the Kingdome of grace but in some one thing or other he must be contented to stay the Lords time what then shall we say because he is necessitated to wait he is therefore discharged of all duty Not so he is still to act in a lower spheare and to wait for further communications as it shall please the Lord to impart them These are the words of the Apostle let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded and if in any thing you be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this unto you Neverthelesse whereunto we have already attained let us walk by the same rule Phil. 3.15 16. The meaning of the place is this every man should walk according to his present attainments and abilities ☜ and in walking doing and discharging his duty wait upon God for further discoveries A natural man is furthest off from God what then is he absolutely discharged from duty Is he not to come to Church to hear the Gospel and to wait upon the means peradventure God may give him repentance to convince him of the evil of his ways Though it is not in his own power to repent yet thereby he is not acquitted and discharged from all performance of duty And so in sundry cases men are to discharge their duty according to present abilities they are to walk in those paths that he hath appointed and to wait upon him for the supply of spirit It is the voice of the Church in her great tribulation I will look unto the Lord I will wait for the God of my salvation Mic 7.7 Now tell me I pray you seeing the Church was compelled to stay Gods time to wait as it were on a Watch Tower for so the word in the Original doth signifie will you lay that in this whole interval she is discharged from all duty This is not so she did discharge her duty in praying seeking and looking to God onely and in the performance of all these she waited upon him for comfort she had none else in all the world no father no brother no friend no wisedome of the flesh no other refuge but God onely When she had darknesse and no light she had a firme perswasion that at last he would plead her cause execute judgment for her that he would bring her forth to light and she should see his righteousnesse But you go on do not other men say of God that he so pitied the world seeing their hard cold frozen hearts therefore of his own goodnesse did he provide fewel enough to warm and melt them but when that is done with-holds the right hand of his power from putting the fewel into a flaming fire to succour them in their distresse and then comes to them and saith be warmed and comforted likening God to that hard hearted man spoken of Jam. 2.15 16. And more such like passages you have page 72. Who these other men are whom you here intend I cannot certainly tell if you mean the friends and followers of this Church from whom you have departed I must tell you you do charge us with that which we do not maintain It is not the result of our doctrine to resemble God to that hard hearted man Who bids them be warmed and gives them not wherewithall We say there are promises to give faith as well as to faith given to give love as well as to love given to put fear into the heart as well as to fear which is put into the heart There are sundry promises given to that end that men may go chearfully about the performance of action that doing their duties they may feel the power and presence of the Spirit to go along with them Therefore we do not say that God keeps the fewel in his own hand and that men are frozen for want of heat These are your calumnies but not our doctrine But to aggravate the matter you further adde The Physician openeth the mouth of one in a hundred and poureth it in by force as for all the rest they are not alotted any share or part therein and yet shall suffer deeply for not taking it it being proffered but not given them page 73. How hard a thing is it for you to leave your old custome of corrupting our sayings before you do confute them We hold that there is a peculiar number which God hath chosen from the beginning to salvation these in time he effectually calleth justifieth and sanctifieth but we never teach that he poureth his grace into them by force Again for others we hold there is a grace given to them nay temporary believers have very great degrees of grace which they fall from by their own desault It is an Impudent calumny then to affirme of us that we should say there is no share or part alotted to them that grace is proffered and not given For my part I do believe in the ordinary way God gives more abilities to men by the convictions of his Spirit then they do profitably use All the difficulty of the point will come to this issue touching the peculiarity of this grace which carries some infallibly and certainly to salvation when others are left for their resisting of the Spirit If then you list to go further and ask after the reason why God doth deal so unequally with men here the Scriptures doe confine you to the Lords good pleasure This I am sure they would not do if a substantial reason otherwise might be given from any thing in man himself Why else should our Saviour say Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes even so O Father because it pleaseth thee And yet further ☜ they who do with judgment maintain the doctrine of election do not think that this mystery is to be propounded to all men and at all times as some unadvised and inconsiderate men have done To let passe all that may be said if you will go to the Doctrine of the Church of England in the seventeeth Article you shall finde that the main sense and import of the Article is this that such persons onely should have the consideration of their election in Christ propounded to them who feel in themselves the Spirit mortifying the works of the flesh As for curious and carnal persons it is more proper for them to look to the threats of God that they may be humbled and for others also when they come to be humbled it is not for them presently and immediately to meddle with election but
with Gods promises in such wise only as they are generally set forth to them in holy Scriptures and that will of God they are to follow which he hath expressely declared and revealed in his own Word This is the substance of the Doctrine of our Church concerning election and how by several stages and degrees we are to come to the assurance thereof We will adde a few words more to the clearing of the point that we may see how the endeavour of man doth runne paralel with the grace of God and doth work under the grace To this end let us distinguish the two states of man his state before conversion and his state after For the state of man before conversion ☞ though of himself he cannot think a good thought yet by and thorough the convictions of the Spilt he may be helped to judge himself and to see the misery of his lost condition Many solid and judicious Writers do acknowledge antecedaneous works before conversion Secondly after conversion when a man is brought so farre as to apprehend the promise and hath a real work wrought upon his heart in feeling the love of Christ to the lost sonnes of men when he is come so farre the work is not at an end for these two reasons First there are higher degrees of grace which a Christian is to follow after for so saith the Apostle not as though I had already attained either were already perfect but I follow after to apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus Brethren I count not my self to have apprehended but this one thing I do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before I presse towards the mark for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus Phil. 3.13 14 Here these particulars are observable First what was the goal that the Apostle did drive at it was for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus Secondly with what affection did he follow after the mark of the price he did forget the things that were behind and did presse forward to the things that were before As poor people in a dear year do presse forward and reach over one anothers heads to receive a dole of meat or money Thirdly what was that which moved him to be so vehement in his pursuit it was not from any natural instinct but from the drawing of the Spirit of Christ which did whet on his desires I follow on to apprehend that for which I am apprehended of Christ Here is an excellent agreement betwixt the grace and the Spirit of Christ that did first apprehend Paul and his endeavour that did follow on to apprehend And thus we see from the beginning to the end that the grace doth all and the endeavour of man is never idle I have been the more full in this Doctrine because the Enthusiasts on the one side and the Arminians on the other side lie in camp against the Church On either side they have some colour of truth to usher in their damnable Positions by and thorough which the simple are ensnared And as many subtill Merchants when they have bad corn to fell put the best upon the top of the bag even so do these seducers begin with very taking considerations that by some preceding truths they may bring in their subsequent errors The Enthusiast will speak against a notional faith and against idle speculations of Christ without power and stand strongly upon it that there must be a real and an inward work wrought upon the heart or else all is nothing and so farre he goes fair But this is not enough with him he is not contented onely to condemne them that make an Idol of the means but also he will sleight all means whatsoever all reading of Scriptures all frequenting of Ordinances all striving in prayer all endeavour whatsoever with him are empty figures and bare externals Now you on the other side turn unto another extream and in your way you have also the best corn upon the top of the bag You stand strictly to maintain that a man is a free-worker in the matter of his salvation otherwise exhortations and admonitions would be of no moment and so farre you go very right But this will not satisfie you unlesse you may set up the natural ability of man maintain free-will and other such like Pelagian positions For these reasons I have taken the more pains rightly to define and to state the truth betwixt the grace of God and the endeavour of man to avoid the detestable errors on both extreames Now I will proceed to your next Chapter CHAP. X. Containing divers questions with their solutions HERE in the beginning you raise two questions concerning the ability which Adam had before the fall and then propound a third whether the fall was decreed by the secret will of God For the ability which Adam had before his fall I do willingly acknowledge that men may raise intricate and thorny questions about this though to small purpose But touching this point I do desire to lay down some necessarie observations because I will not stand upon every punctilio And then I will come to the solution of your chief question First for the true cause of the fall we do affirme that our first parents being seduced by the temptation of Sathan did voluntarily and freely eate the forbidden fruit Their own defective will was the immediate cause of their fall Secondly God was pleased according to his wise and just Councel to permit the fall that thereby a doore might be opened to the sending of Christ for the more full declaration of the glory of his grace in the salvation of man as fallen Thirdly for the power that Adam bad to stand or fall as on the one side we must necessarily say that he was made in a state very good and free from all sinne so also it must needs be affirmed that he was made in a mutable state farre different from the state of the blessed Saints and Angels confirmed in grace and farthest off from the immutability of the Creator himself Fourthly if the question be put how farre did the Lord go in the fall of Adam we must needs affirme that he created the first man in such a holy state that he might freely obey all his commands only he did not sustain him with that special and infallible grace to preserve him from falling These foure observations if they be rightly understood will help to expedite and clear many hard questions that may be propounded concerning the ability of Adam before his fall We come now to your chief question Had not God appointed that Adam should fall by his secret will before by his revealed will he commanded him to stand Here you endeavour in the beginning to shew that the revealed will of God before it was first communicated was his secret will and being once revealed it loseth the title of
they so continue they are in the way to damnation yet we cannot absolutely pronounce concerning the persons themselves it belongeth onely to God to judge of their final and eternal condition And for that place which you alledg that God sweareth that he desireth not the death of him that dyeth I pray you now tel us the particular man in our method and way of teaching hat is not a capable hearer of this doctrine Whatsoever God doth intend in his secret Decrees concerning the eternal state of men what is that to us We must make the tenders proposals and offers of grace according to the termes set down in the Gospel Indeed as men do submit to the promise and do take Christ for their Head so God doth bring about that which he hath determined in his secret will And therefore when you speak concerning this sort of people That they should not beleeve his revealed will at all if they hold his secret will to be the Superiour what good reason can you shew for that for though the secret will of God touching the salvation of his elect be the Superiour yet all the tenders of grace all faith in the promises are but the ordinary way to bring us to salvation Here is no contrariety of will against will but an excellent subordination Because the Lord had many people in the City of Corinth that did belong to him in the determination of his secret will therefore the Apostle had a command to preach the Gospel in that City and he did continue there the space of a year and six moneths Acts 18. ver 10 11. But if it be further objected how can you pray for the salvation of all seeing that the Lord doth determine to passe by a great number of men I answer though it be so we are to do the duty Paul did know that a greater part of the Jewes should be hardened and that a remnant onely should be saved yet for all this he did preach the Gospel and use all means that he might save some of them Rom. 11.7 8 9 10. Augustine one of the greatest assertors of the prerogative of free-grace in his book de correptione gratiâ hath these words We not knowing who belong to the number of the predestinate and who not ought so to be moved with the affection of charity that we should will all men to be saved And so far as it doth appertain to us who are not able to distinguish the predestinate from them who are not predestinate for this very thing because we ought to will all men to be saved we must medicinally use sharp reproof to all men to save them from perishing Dr. Twisse also hath these words moreover of those who are now alive though the greater part of them should be reprobated seeing this is not known to us there is nothing doth hinder but we may make supplications for all Vindic. grat lib. 2. Crimin 4. Sect. 9 Page 91. Many more testimonies I might bring of that kind of people as you call them who maintain the secret will of God to be the more prevailing yet in order to our understanding they shew that we are to look onely unto that which is revealed They do with one heart and with one mouth declare that you must begin at the lower end of the ladder before you can come to the top As for the secret and the revealed will of God though this seem to us to be contradictory there is no contradiction The river that in appearance seemeth to go another way if you follow it by divers mazes turnings it will bring you to the Sea at last But if you further urge how can the sending of Christ into the world to dy for the lost sonnes of men stand with the Decree of election where some onely are chosen to salvation Answ This point is solidly handled by Dr. Davenant in his answer to that book that bears the title Gods love to mankind and in another Treatise of the death of Christ The scope and tenor of the whole discourse is to shew that the non-elect may be partakers of many fruits of the death of Christ though they are not partakers of that grace which will certainly and infallibly bring them to salvation ☞ and so he doth concord the general attonement with the peculiar Decree of election But because this point is exceedingly controverted in these times and is as it were the very rock of offence I will particularly shew how farre I can go along with you First I do agree that by his death the Son hath removed the bar out of the way that hinders the salvation of man For God having once made a Law in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye the death according to the rigour of the Covenant of works and the strictnesse of divine justice there was no possibility for any mans salvation But the Lord Christ having once satisfied the justice of God and removed the barre there is now a possibility for all the lost sonnes of men to be saved they are brought into a savable condition notwithstanding all the strict demands of satisfaction according to the first Covenant And this I take to be the natural sense of that place which you and others stand so much upon Who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men the Man Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransome for all to be testified in due time 1 Tim. 2.4 5 6. The scope of which words is briefly this that seeing the Lord Jesus Christ did give himself as a ransome for all men there is a possibility of salvation forall upon termes of repentance and faith Secondly I do agree with you that by the death of Christ the Lord doth shew patience and long-suffering to the rebellious to invite them to repentance Rom. 2.4 And though since the fall of man the thoughts of his heart were evil from his child-hood yet respect being had to the Mediators blood typed in the sacrifice of Noah the promise to the whole world was that the Lord would no more curse the ground for mans sake but seed time and harvest winter and summer day and night should continue to the worlds end Thirdly I do also agree with you in this that the Lord Jesus by the shedding of his blood hath not onely procured a possibility for the lost sonnes of men but also at seasons he doth give them some portions of spirit enabling them to judge themselves And for temporary believers they go so far in the participation of the fruits of the death of the Son as to tast the good Word of God and the powers of the life to come Heb. 6.5 These are the general fruits of the death of Christ and in this sense we may say that he tasted death for every man In what sense then doth Christ dye for the elect
the course of natural generation as it is since the fall manhath lost the image of God in dominion and Lordship over the creature the earth is accursed the creature made subject to vanity You will say how then doth he enjoy this priviledge still I answer by Christ the second Adam and therefore it is observable that the Apostle doth apply the passages of the Psalmist more immediately to Christ thou madest him a little lower than the Angels thou crownest him with glory and honour and diddest set him over the work of thy hands thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet Heb. 2.7 8 9. The whole creation then immediately is put under Christ and in and thorough him all men now come to have dominion and Lordship over the creature And therefore though all are fallen in Adam and have lost this priviledge in their natural birth yet it is repaired and renewed by Christ A fourth place which they bring to evict mans uprightnesse by the creation is that of the wise man God hath made man upright but they have sought out many inventions Eccles 7.29 Here they insist especially upon two particulars First that this is spoken of all mankind Secondly that every mans fall is by his own personal and individual act These are their words he ascribes it not to their first fathers alone but to the individuals of their posterity likewise saying but they have sought cut many inventions page 68. Neither do we affirme that the blame is onely to be laid on Adam for others also born in original sinne and having the corruption of nature within them do personally and individually shew the fruits of their own corruption in seeking out many inventions The Israelites as we have formerly heard did corrupt themselves yet this was from their own natural corruption as the fountain Secondly when God made Adam in the beginning he made him and all mankind in him upright but they have sought out many inventions For what the first man did all his posterity did in him and by him Neither is it improper to ascribe the particle they to the relations actions and conditions of the first man As for example when the Lord said let us make man in our own image and let them have dominion over the fish of the Sea and the fowle of the aire Gen. 1.26 These words are more immediatly spoken to Adam and mediatly to all his posterity to the whole species of men Let them have dominion over the fish of the Sea So in the present case it may be said of Adam primarily that God made man upright but he and all mankind in him have sought out many inventions The deed of the first man is the deed of the species or whole kind As in a parallel case the act of the first woman and the promise made to her are ascribed to the whole sex she shall be saved by child-bearing if they continue in the faith 1 Tim. 2.15 Thirdly that no blame may be cast upon God we may say since the fall also though men are born in original sinne God doth from time to time send inward convictions into their hearts to inable them to distinguish betwixt good and evil If therefore they will not see what they may see but will fallaciously endeavour to finde out many inventions the fault is meerely their own All these passages are true and being put together they shew the scope of the text but they do not prove the purity of the natural birth For the sixth seventh and eighth places which the Examiners do bring out of the Prophets Isa 1.21.22 Jer. 2.21 Isa 5.1 2 3. Jer. 8.4 5. I do not see how these or such like do any way make to the purpose For we will easily grant that Hierusalem was a faithful City in the beginning and that the faithful City did become an Harlot We will grant also that the Jewish Church was the Lords Vineyard planted with the choicest Vine and thorough her own default she turned into the degenerate plant of a wild Vine and brought forth wild grapes These and many more texts may be alledged to prove the priviledges of that Church in her first institution but how doth this prove the purity of the natural birth seeing that Nation had all these priviledges meerely by promise and Covenant If they stand upon Analogy and say that it is rational for God to do with all men as with that people To this we answer though all are born in original sinne and in the corruption of nature yet they are not left in a helpless or hopelesse condition Thorough Christ men have a possibility of salvation though thorough their own default they neglect this great salvation as the people of Israel did and are justly lyable to the same reproof Ninthly they go to that famous place in Hosea thy destruction is of thy self O Israel but in me is thy help Hos 13.9 Here say they the Lord layes Israels destruction upon her self and not upon her first parents page 70. Neither doth this any whit promote their cause for if we do read the stories of the Judges and of the Kings all along for the space of nine hundred years we shall find that the Church and state of Israel were liable to a total final destruction for theird Iolatry other great sins In this respect therefore the Prophet saith thy destruction is of thy self O Israel And when they were at the brink of destruction many times and under the power of the enemy than the Lord did wonderfully come in to help them And this is the meaning of the Prophets words but in me is thy help Thorough their own sinne many times they were at the brink of ruine but the Lord of his great mercy did deliver them We may apply the case more generally though Adam did fall and all mankind by his personal disobedience the destruction is of themselves yet in and thorough Christ it may be said in me is thy help Secondly this speech is to be applied to Israel a people in covenant with God that they are the causes of their own destruction but their help is immediately from him So we by our personal disobedience do many times what lies in us procure our own destruction but our help is meerely from his grace This is the full meaning of the place and how doth this prove the purity of the natural birth Fathers and children and all are the meritorious cause of their own destruction if they be considered in immediate opposition to the goodnesse of God the cause of their deliverance We will go on and see whether they be more happy in the places which they cite out of the new Testament For the tenth place which they cite out of Mat. 18.3 Except ye be converted and become as little children ye shall not enter into the Kingdome of God Because we have examined this text already and the Censors say no more but that which