them into any schisme or heresie I choose therefore to follow the Apostles Catalogue and if I can find that in my self I hope I am safe the fruit of the spirit saith he is love joy peace long-Suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance against such there is no law Gal. 5. 22 23. That is as I conceive the love of Christ in sinceritie as 't is Ephes 6. 24. which sinceritie discovers and approves itself in a constant and uniform observation of all his Commandements Iohn 14. 15. Mr. Efficax How did the spirit of God bring forth these fruits in you if you finde them Did you ever feel it offer a holy violence to your will and affections so that you were not able to resist the power of it You have read how Paul was surprized in the height of his rebellion his spirit subdued and forced to yield and he cast down to the earth in great astonishment Tilenus Though I have intimated mine opinion in this particular already yet I shall adde that the conversion of St. Paul was not according to the common way and rule but extraordinary in regard whereof he may very well stile himself an abortive 1 Cor. 15. 8. for the ordinary course is not for the Kingdome of Heaven to offer violence to us and take us by force but for us to do so by it St. Mat. 11. 12. Mr. Efficax You speak as if the grace of conversion were resistible and so you would make man stronger than God but the Apostle tells you that God exerts and putteth forth a power for the conversion of a sinner equal to that which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead Ephes 1. 20. And indeed there is a necessitie of such a power for the accomplishment of this work because the sinner is as a dead person dead in trespasses and sins Ephes 2. 1. Tilenus T is a rule we have learned in the schools that Theologia Symbolica non est argumentativa Metaphors never make solid and cogent arguments Sinners are like dead men but no like is the same If they were absolutely dead then it were impossible for them to make any opposition or resistance at all to any the least dispensation of grace Resistance implies reaction but the dead have no power at all to act and yet t is acknowledged that the sinner hath a power to resist and doth actually resist but that which is maintained generally by that side is that the power of grace is so prevalent and invincible that at last it will subdue and take away the resistibilitie of mans will And therefore man is not dead in every sense We finde him sometimes resembled to one halfe dead Luke 10. 30. Sometimes to one asleep Ephes 5. 14. so that you cannot certainly infer the conclusion desired from such figurative expressions Besides Ephes 1. 20. speaketh of Gods power towards those that were already believers not of his power that works belief in them Mr. Impertinent 'T is said of those that disputed with Stephen Acts 6. 10. That they were not able to resist the wisdome and the spirit by which he spake Tilenus He speaks of that conviction which the force of his arguments dictated to him by the Holy spirit made upon their understandings so that they were not able to answer him in disputation but he speaks not of any irresistible impression that the internal Divine grace made upon their wills for there was no such effect wrought in them as appears in the following verses but rather the contrary as you may conclude from St. Stephens word Acts 7. 51. Ye do alwayes resist the Holy Ghost Mr. Efficax By resisting the Holy Ghost there Stephens meaning is that they opposed the outward Ministerie which was authorized and sent out by the holy Ghost Tilenus The words are plain in themselves and so they are literally clear against you but that this Evasion may not serve your turn we finde the word and spirit both together Zach. 7. 12. Yet 't is said they hardened their hearts like an Adamant and resisted both Esa 63. 10. But 2 men may do resist that power of Divine grace which doth effectually and eventually convert others yea a greater power than that which doth it Luke 11 32. The men of Nineveh shall rise up in judgement with this generation and shall condemn it for they repented at the preaching of Ionah and be hold a greater than Ionah is here And as much is implied in those other words of Christ Mat. 11. 21. Wo unto thee Chorazin wo unto thee Bethsaida for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon they would have repented long ago in sackcloath and ashes Those Heathen cities would have been wrought upon by these gracious dispensations but you to whom they are so freely and earnestly administred do resist them And why should our Saviour work so many miracles to their senses to induce them to believe and be converted Ad quid perditio haec Why so much pains lost For if that had been the way that one Superlative miracle the irresistible operation of internal grace had superseded the necessitie of all others and made them utterly superfluous Mr. Impertinent what say you to that text in Luke 14. 23. Compel them to come in doth not that imply an irresistible power upon them Tilenus This place in St. Luke speaks of a charge given to a Minister whose office it is to call invite and importune to say nothing that it is part of a parable and I remember even now when you were urged with that in Acts 7. 51. ye alwayes resist the Holy Ghost then you could alledge that that was spoken concerning the outward ministery of the word which you confest might be resisted but now you produce a text your selves which though it doth most evidently belong to the outward ministery yet because it hath the word compel in it and will serve your interest it must needs signifie irresistible So that in the Acts the Holy Ghost must according to your interpretation signifie the outward Ministery and that must be the only thing resisted but in St. Luke the outward Ministery shall signifie the inward working of the Holy Ghost and that shall be irresistible Mr. Efficax The Apostle saith It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure Phil. 2. 13. Tilenus The Apostle doth not say that God doth this immediately and irresistibly for if he did that would evacuate the force of his exhortation which is both a mean and swasion to the duty of working out our salvation c. for the inforcing whereof that is rendred as the reason which is the cord of a man He speaks not of the means see 1 Pet. 1. 22. 1 Cor. 15. 10. or manner of Gods working and that he works the abilitie I grant but not the very act it self of our duty which if he did it would be his
more especially to the case of the Jews yet haply so as to conclude all others in their example If so then that he speaks not of their absolute and peremptory reprobation is very probable not only from his way of arguing but also from his passionate sorrow hearty prayer and earnest exhortations to them 1. Let us reflect upon the Apostle's sorrow and his option upon it Chap. 9. verse 2 3. I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart For I could wish that my self were accursed from Christ for my brethren my kinsmen according to the flesh What is the ground of this heaviness and his vote upon it If it were that God by an absolute decree of reprobation and out of his sole beneplaciture had excluded them from the grace and power of believing unto righteousness and salvation as some interpret it then where was the pietie of the great Apostle exprest in this sorrow Where was his prudence in this option For if such were the decree God and the Apostle knew it and was about to demonstrate it to be such he must grant it to be most wise and most just and much conducing to the illustration of Gods glorie and then 't were impietie in any man much more in him who was therefore called a vessel of Election because he was designed and called so eminently to be instrumental to the glory of the divine dispensations to repine and grieve at it And if he knew such a divine decree to be immutably fixt to all eternitie it was against prudence to interpose such a wish for the avoidance of it If the common opinion be true that in respect of the manifestation of the divine glory it is better and more Eligible to be miserable than not to be at all and it be out of an erroneous and inordinate judgement that the very damned in hell-torments judge otherwise as some great School-men maintain then certainly we must set an ill Character upon the Apostles sorrow and option if we make that the cause and ground of it alledged in this supposition And it will not excuse to say this vote past the Apostle in the hurry of his passions or that it was but a sudden sally of his affections in their eager pursuit after the salvation of his nation for all the circumstances of the discourse and that solemn preface wherewith it is ushered in do manifestly argue that 't was uttered considerately and with great deliberation I say the truth in Christ I lie not my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost Chap. 9. 1. and 't is a sufficient indication of his calm and composed minde that he did commit this option to writing and transmit it in an Epistle to the Churches 2. To this let us adde his prayer Chap. 10. 1. Brethren my hearts desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved What Israel he means is expressed in the 3. verse they who being ignorant of God's righteousness went about to establish their own righteousness and did not submit themselves to the righteousness of God How can this prayer or option of the Apostle consist with his knowledge or belief of their absolute and peremptory reprobation For his prayer according to that opinion must be after this manner Lord I know by Divine revelation and am now declaring it in an Epistle to the Romans and so to all the world that it is thine absolute will and good pleasure utterly and irrevocably to abandon this people under an immutable decree of repentance yet I do most heartily desire and beseech thee to grant that they may be saved Such a prayer had been directly against his faith and therefore sin Rom. 14. 23. and against the very Rule of prayer and obedience in that kinde Thy will be done and so sin too Sure the Apostle after his conversion was not wont thus to break his faith and cross the counsel of his maker 3. To this we may adde all other his endeavours and stratagems to gain them to the faith of Christ and consequently to salvation of which we read Rom. 11. 14. and else where All which had been as ridiculous as the incounters of the Knight Errant in Don Quixot if the Apostle had believed these men to be absolutely excluded from all possibility of salvation by such a decree as some fancy to be treated of in that ninth Chapter 4. I conceive my doubt more reasonable when I consider the Apostles way of arguing Rom. 11. 1. For to intimate at least according to my apprehension that the ground of his sorrow was not their absolute irrespective and irrevocable reprobation but the danger of their rejection from the Covenant and divine grace wherein they had hitherto stood as God's peculiar adopted people 1. He makes their own wilful unbelief the cause and ground of this their rejection and miserie Rom. 11. 20. Because of unbelief they were broken off which cannot be said of the decree of Reprobation for the maintainers of that decree do not make unbelief the cause of reprobation but rather reprobation the cause of unbelief 2. He saith there is a possibilitie and hope of their restitution This is intimated Rom. 11. 11 29. and exprest verse 23. If they abide not still in unbelief they shall be grafted in for God is able to graft them in again And this cannot be said with respect to the decree of Reprobation for the decree of God is God himself as Maccovius and others do affirm and so did Gomarus * Vide Gomar Tom. 3. Disp 9. Thes 28. c. till being impugned by Arminius he changed his opinion in this particular and God cannot denie himself 2 Tim. 2. 13. Besides the men of that opinion lay the foundation of all mercy and judgement to come in those their absolute decrees of Election and reprobation and make Christ but a part of the superstruction or the Executor of those decrees whereas this Apostle saith other foundation can no man lay then that is laid which is Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 3. 11. And we may observe that consonantly hereunto he shutteth up that his discourse Rom. 9. 30. What shall we say then Or what is the summe of all that hath been spoken Namely this That the Gentiles which followed not after righteousness have attained to righteousness even the righteousness which is of faith But Israel which followed after the Law of righteousness hath not attained to the Law of righteousness Wherefore not because they were excluded by an absolute and irresistible decree as the Apostle should have said if he had argued regularly according to that opinion but because they sought it not by faith as they were taught and inabled and obliged to do but as it were by the works of the law for they quitting the only foundation stumbled at the stumbling stone as it is written Behold I set up in Sion the deliverer of Jacob whom they shall take occasion to make a
providence it was that being dedicated to the service of Christ in mine Infancy the Piety of my Parents took an early care that I should not be alienated from him through the allurements of the world for want of a religious education and from a childe having been acquainted as Timothy was with the holy Scriptures which are able to make us wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus herein I have exercised my self through the assistance of his grace to have alwayes a conscience void of offence towards God and towards men Mr. Narrowgrace You speak as if regeneration came by nature and education Tilenus No Sir to say regeneration comes by nature were a Contradiction Mr. Takeo'-trust Do you not remember what the Apostle saith Rom. 3. 23. We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God And Ephes 2. 1 2. We are dead in trespasses and sins and are by nature children of wrath Can there be so great a change wrought in a man as is a change from death to life and he have no apprehension or feeling when such a change is wrought in him Tilenus When I reflect upon the exuberance of the Divine grace under the Gospel I perswade my selfe there is some difference betwixt Christians born of faithful and godly parents and from their childe-hood educated and instructed in the wayes of faith and pietie I say we must make a difference betwixt these and those Jews and Gentiles of whom the Apostle speaks before they were made Christians I know you will not allow Heathens to stand in Competition with the servants of Jesus devoted to him from their very infancy neither is the law and discipline of Moses an equal standard to measure the dispensations of the grace of Jesus Christ by and yet if you consider Zacharie and Elizabeth who were trained up under the Pedagogie of Moses and date their practice of Pietie from their youth * See 1 King 18. 12 as you ought to do for why should we make an exception where God makes none You will finde that being righteous before God and walking in all the Commandements and ordinances of the Lord blameless S. Luke 1. 6. they were not capable of answering your question When and where and how the work of grace was wrought in them Now if the ministration of Moses which was in comparison a ministration of death was thus glorious how shall not the ministration of Christ which is the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious 2 Cor. 3. Under the Gospel that Covenant is fully accomplished wherein God bound himself to Abraham by the sacred tie of an oath to grant us a power to serve him in holiness and righteousness all the dayes of our life S. Luke 1. 74. And the conveyances of this powerful grace being all put so freely into our hands this word and Sacraments it is required of us as a duty to have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear Heb. 12. 28. and doubtless 't is only our own inexcusable fault if we have not for indeed be it spoken with holy reverence the administration of our sacred baptisme were not better than a piece of solemn Pageantry if grace were not conferr'd upon us in receiving that Sacrament for therein are begg'd on our behalfe the blessings of Christ grace and pardon with the renewing and assistance of the holy spirit These the Church by prayer seeks for on our behalf by vertue of that Covenant wherein God hath promised and engaged himself to bestow them which promise be for his part will most assuredly keep and perform Then upon this we engage our vow to forsake the Devil and all his works and to keep Gods holy will and Commandements Can we think either that God in goodness or justice would require such an ingagement at our hands under peril of a greater condemnation or that the Church of God in prudence could oblige us to undertake it without good assurance of sufficient assistance and power from his gracious spirit to inable us to perform it according to the tenour of the Gospel Mr. Fribabe It seems you are for universal grace and you hold that all the children of the faithful dying in their infancie and before they have the use of reason are saved by vertue of that Covenant made Isa 49. 8. Heb. 13. 20. with us in the blood of Christ into which they are consigned at their baptisme as if all such were invested with some priviledge to exempt them from the absolute decree of reprobation Tilenus This Sir is the faith into which I have been baptized and catechized for I am taught to profess that in my baptisme I was made a member of Christ a childe of God and an inheritour of the Kingdome of Heaven Mr. Knowlittle But you know that without holiness no man shall see the Lord. Heb. 12. 14. Tilenus That I very well remember but withall I consider that besides that federal holiness which removes all obstacles in the children of the faithful and renders them recipients duly qualified for the Sacrament I am instructed in my Creed to believe in God the Holy Ghost who sanctifieth me that is if I do not resist his work and quench his motions and am further directed to beg by diligent prayer his special grace to inable me to discharge my duty to God and my neighbour which grace if I be not wanting to my duâ—y I have reason to assure my self of upon the strength of our Saviours promise S. Luke 11. 13. The short is Baptisme being stiled the laver of regeneration Tit. 3. 5 6. And the children of the faithful being in no capacitie of putting a bar against the efficacie of it the learned Davenant one of the Divines of the Synod of Dort concludes that therein they are truly justified regenerated and adopted and by this means a state of salvation is conferr'd upon them suitable to the condition of their infancy and arriving to the use of reason if they walk in the strength of the Divine grace under the command and conduct of the Holy Spirit and fight under Christ's banner as generous souldiers ingaged by solemn covenant and armed with assistance from above to that purpose should do we are assured that sin shall not got the dominion over them Rom. 6. 14. for he is greater that is ingaged in them for their assistance then he that is in the world against them 1 John 4. 4. Whereupon the same Apostle is confident to conclude c. 5. v. 18. We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself and that wicked one toucheth him not Mr. Knowlittle You speak as if a man might live without sin and so be saved without Christ Tilenus Sir I believe it is the duty of the children of God and therefore possible to be blameless and harmless without rebuke shining as lights in the midst of a crooked and
but commanded as to be done by us Deut. 10. 16. Ier. 4. 4. A new heart and spirit promised Ezek. 36 26. but commanded Ezez 18. 31. * see Eph. 4. 23 I will be your God promised Ierem. 32. 38. but commanded Exod. 20. 3. and if ye forsake him he will cast you off for ever 1 Chron. 28. 9. One heart and one way promised Ier. 32. 39. yet commanded Ephes 4. 3 4. 1 Cor. 1. 10. So Ier. 32. 40. 't is promised I will put my fear in their hearts Yet Prov. 1. 29. because they did not chuse the fear of the Lord and 1 Pet. 2. 17. So 't is promised I will write my lawes in their inward parts and they shall be all taught of God Jer. 31. 33. Isa 54. 13. Yet in other places it is commanded Be swift to hear take heed how you hear as new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word 1 Pet. 2. 1 2. See Prov. 7. 1 3. and Rom. 10 8. with the 17. vers So 't is promised Isa 1. 25. I will purge yet 2 Tim. 2. 21. He that purgeth himself So 't is promised Ier. 33. 8. I will cleanse them from all their iniquity yet Iam. 4. 8. Isa 1. 16 18. 't is commanded wash ye make ye clean And 't is evident that God many times fulfilleth his promise and performeth his part when mâ—n altogether neglecteth his part and duty Ezek. 24. 13. I have purged thee and thou wast not purged See Mat. 11. 21. Luke 7. 30. Dr. Dubius Enough of this you promised us a third reason why God doth not as you pretend work mans Conversion and his faith by a power of grace irresistible I pray let us hear that also Tilenus Sir you shall have it in a few words and it is this because he will not save as I speak of the Adult who have the use of their faculties but in a way of duty Gen. 4. 7. If thou do well shalt thou not be accepted Rom. 2. 6 7. To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortalitie to them and to them only will he render eternal life and therefore He is said to be the Author of Eternal salvation only to them that obey him Heb. 5. 9. Now observe that which is not wrought but by the omnipotent impulse and irresistible motion and operation of God that cannot be the duty of a poor frail Creature or thus what is a work of Almightiness in God cannot be a work of obedience in us if it were it would conclude us to be omnipotent besides the act could not be an act of duty Christ could do nothing that was duty for us till he had submitted himself to the condition of our nature Phil. 2. 7. because God supposed to be the doer of it is not under obedience but repentance and amendment of life c. are required as a duty of us and as part of our obedience Ier. 7. 3 5. Amend your wayes and make you a new heart and a new spirit Ezek. 18. 31. Mr. Knowlittle By this doctrin you seem to make a man his own Saviour Tilenus If I should not only seem to do so but do so in good earnest so it be in a way of subordination to Christ I see no harm in it St. Paul saith work out your salvation Yea St. Peter exhorting to repentance saith expresly save your selves Acts 2. 40. To our safety our own sedulity is required according to that trite saying He that made thee without thy self will never save thee without thy self Dr. Absolute Me thinks this doth hardly sound like that doctrin which the Apostle labours so earnestly to establish to shut the creature for ever out of all ground and occasion of boasting Rom. 3. 27. Tilenus For a man to boast himself in his riches is vanitie in his wickedness is impietie in his works performed in obedience to Moses law or out of the strength of nature as if they could justifie and save him is arrogancie But to glory in the Lord and rejoyce in his salvation is not only allowed a Rom. 2. 7. but also injoyned b 1 Cor. 1. 31. Phil. 4. 4. and practised 2 Cor. 1. 12. our rejoycing or glorying is this the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and godly sinceritie not by fleshlie wisdome but by the grace of God we have had our Conversation in the world See Rom. 15. 17. and Gal. 6. 4. Let every man prove his own works performed in the faith of Christ and through the power of his grace and then shall he have rejoycing glorying boasting in himself 'T is the same word in these two places with that in the Text objected Rom. 3. 27. Dr. Damman Are these your tenents Consonant to the Articles of the Synod of Dort What opinion have you of tâ—at and the doctrin held forth by the Divines in that Assembly Tilenus I have had as great a reverence for that Synod as any man living the principles therein delivered being instill'd into me from my youth but I thank God studying the best method for the cure of souls and the opportunitie of reading better books hath altered my judgement quite Dr. Damman Do you think you have changed so much for the better that you have reason to give God thanks for it Tilenus Yes truly and I perswade my self you would be of that minde too if you would patiently attend to my objections against their doctrin and weigh them without prejudice or partialitie But before I propound those objections it will be requisite that we take a brief view of that doctrin which I shall therefore concisely yet truly and clearly summe up in these five Articles following They hold 1. 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 mankinde and appointed them by the same decree to eternal damnation without any regard to their infidelitie or impenitencie 2. That Christ Iesus hath not suffered death for any other but for those elect oâ—ly having neither had any intent nor commandement of his father to make satisfaction for the sins of the whole world 3. That by Adams fall his posteritie lost their freewil being put to an unavoidable necessitie to do or not to do whatever they do or do not whether it be good or evil being thereunto predestinate by the Eternal and effectual secret decree of God 4. That God to save his Elect from the corruâ—t Mass doth beget faith in them by a power equal to that whereby he created the world and raised up the dead insomuch that such unto whom he gives that grace cannot reâ—ect it and the rest being reprobate cannot accept of it though it be offered unto both by the same preaching and ministery 5. That such as have once received that grace by faith can never fall from it finally