relate to their being in the corrupt lump for that is but one in the singular number but that spoken of here is in the plural more than one viz. trespasses and sins A good Critick I assure you but to this I answer First that though the Scripture when it speaks of original sin may speak of it in the singular number yet oftentimes it is described by words of the plural number So Psal 51.5 the original carries it Behold I was shapen in iniquities and in sins did my mother conceive me and Joh. 9.34 thou wast altogether born in sins and Col. 2.13 you being dead in your sins And so here Secondly you must know that every particular person is the subject of that sin and in every member and part of that particular person is that sin inherent there is an infective that hath spread over both body and soul and even all the faculties of them both having contracted that defilement by an hereditary propagation and why may not the Holy Ghost for the exaggerating of the greatness of our natural corruption make use of words in the plural number in setting forth of this sin as usually it doth without the censure of a Thomas Tazwel Thirdly I do willingly acknowledge that ver 1. Actual sins committed by men when full grown are here spoken of and meant but not exclusively to original sin that is understood as well as actual and both of these will necessarily require a word of the plural number Actual sins as the streams running in all their veins and their whole conversation in the time of their pilgrimage here but original sin as the fomes and fountain whence those actuall sins had their first conception birth and nursery being deep rooted and fast rivited in the head and heart Fourthly you might easily perceive what I chiefly insisted on in the quoting of that Scripture having set it down in words at length and not in figures by nature children of wrath So that this your first reason will stand you in little stead as to acquit you from this third absurdity Neither will your second perform any greater exploits than his fellow that went before him for where you beat the ayr with your walking and conversation ver 2 3. I must tell you I insist not on it neither am I such an innocent as to make that applicable to infants No Sir it is the close of the 3. ver which I mainly intend and which the Holy Ghost applies singly to the hereditary and original depravation of our sinful nature lineally descending from our primogenitor Adam Gen. 5.3 who howsoever he was created in the image of God yet he begat children in his own likeness after his own image i. e. deprived of the image of God and sinful like himself and by nature children of wrath To which words you would fain say somewhat and so you do but to little purpose and that which you do say is this But now the question is how they were by nature children of wrath say some because nature led them to the doing of these things and to the living in such a filthy conversation But I have better thoughts of nature and yet I desire to think no better of it than the Scripture speaketh of it and my judgement of it is this that nature is so far from leading men into sin that the teaching of it are against sins which I prove by these reasons being grounded upon Scripture Answ Here Sir you propose a question and make your own skul the anvil whereon to forge and fashion an answer which I utterly disclaim as none of ours because of its shortness and insufficiency And whereas you say you have better thoughts of Nature Sir you need not tell me so I know you have seeing by you and those of your party the bond-woman is advanced equal to the free-woman the servant set up in honour to the disgrace and contumely of the mistress Nature I mean being placed by you in the chair of state instead of Grace Joh. 7.51 But doth our law judge any man before it hear him and know what he doth I will therefore bring your reasons to the touchstone whereby you endeavour to confirm this assertion viz. that nature is so far from leading men into sin that the teachings of it are against sin and your first reason is this Because the Gentiles do by nature the things contained in the law of God Rom. 2.14 Answ But I hope you will then limit this law of God to the law of the second table and therein likewise to the external acts of civil righteousness and that not as acted from any internal principle of a desire of glorifying of God therein and then what is all this doing worth Besides I believe you have not the front to affirme that the Gentiles did by nature worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity or that they did abstain from falling down before or worshipping the creature more then the Creator Rom. 1.25 or that they observed a seventh day Sabbath Nature I am sure never directed them to such principles Search all the records of the chiefest of the heathens even those that have aspired to the highest pitch of all humane and natural knowledge yet in those their loftiest speculations concerning the nature of divine things they were miserably blind Aristotle a man of the deepest reach that Antiquity ever bred among so many books that he wrote and are in part yet extant hath not left us any one discourse by which it might appear that he bestowed any paines in searching after the knowledge of God except here and there in some poor pitiful disputes and if it may be said thus of the most eminent of the heathens what then may be concluded of the whole croud and rout of them but as what the Apostle ver 12. having a consideration of them as in their pure naturals before their conversion by the Gospel that they were at that time without Christ Eph. 2.12 being aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel and strangers from the covenant of promise having no hope and without God in the world that they sate in darkness and in the shadow of death Mat. 4.15 and indeed how could it be otherwise Acts 14.16 Ps 147.19.20 when God favoured them not nor had any purpose to bestow grace upon them for in times past he suffered all the Gentiles to walk in their own waies the word and ordinances of his worship they had not for he sheweth his word unto Iacob his statutes and his judgements unto Israel he hath not dealt so with every nation Ro. 10.14 neither have they known his judgements A preacher they have not and how should they believe in him of whom they have not heard 1 Cor. 2. and how shall they hear without a preacher Natural ability to know the mystery of the kingdome of God Mat. 13.11 they have not for the natural man
perceives not the things of the Spirit nor is there any such power given them of God for unto you is given to know the secrets of the kingdome of heaven but unto them it is not given Joh. 15.5 and without Christ they can do nothing What then was become of this mans reason thus to bragg of men in their pure naturals which are so befogged that they are never able to extricate themselves I have done with the first reason and left it naked and bare I shall next proceed to your second reason which as it is by you worded is scarce common sense but such as it is take it thus 2. Because those that were given over of God to a reprobate mind being filled with all unrighteousness Rom. 1.28 are said ver 31. to to be without natural affections now if natural affections had been such an unrighteous thing as that it should lead them into sin and they being filled with all unrighteousness could not have been without it To which I answer First you mistake in your reading t is affection in the singular number and not affections Secondly the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rendred by the Translators natural affection is yet by them in the margent rendred unsociable and if Scapulaes Lexicon be consulted with such are there denoted and so the word properly signifies in quo non inest affectus amoris illius mutui inter parentes liberos who are destitute of that reciprocal love that ought to be between husband and wise parents and children And now be judge your self what a sad reason you have brought upon the Stage for the advancing of nature that as you say it is so far from leading men to sin that the teachings of it are against sin because for such is the strength of your reason or else it is nothing such given over by God to a reprobate mind are without that reciprocal or mutual love that ought to be between husband and wife parents and children I pray Sir in the next look before you leap And now for the third and last reason which is of the same size the former were and this it is Because the Apostle himself directeth the Saints to the teaching of nature it self 1 Cor. 11.14 and certainly if Paul had been of that mind that nature had been such an evil principle as that it being followed would lead men into a wicked and filthy conversation he would never have mentioned it as a teacher unto them therefore the teaching of nature doth not lead men into sin but the contrary Answ The Apostle in this part of the Chapter is giving directions what suits best with decency and order in their Church-assemblies and in particular concerning prayer whether covered or uncovered and thereby occasionally of short hair and long hair and ver 14. Doth not nature it self teach you that if a man have long hair it is a shame unto him the doubt now is what is meant by nature here and first not any principle connatural to man in the state of innocency for thereof there is neither precept nor rule nor example either for long hair or short hair But secondly by nature is to be understood that which by a common consent was taken up and brought it into a custom or fashion and that especially among the Greeks for if we look upon other nations and take the pains to search Antiquity concerning their fashions you shall find that it was a long time before the Romans used any clipping of the hair neither was it practised in France or Germany till of later years nor would Lycurgus suffer it among the Lacedemonians and if it were unnatural why did Absalom were long hair 2 Sam. 18.9 or why was the law of the Nazarites permitted It is very apparent therefore that the Apostles meaning is that custome being as it were another nature it was not the manner custome and fashion of these parts at least among the Corinthians to weare long hair because it was an Argument of too much effeminacy And now Sir do but revise the strength of your reason as I have clothed it and see what weight it may bear which any man of common reason and thus it lies the teachings of nature lead not to sin because the Apostle directs the Saints what is fit for them to do about long hair from what the custome was then in use among the Grecians I pray Sir take more reason with you when you next offer any reason to a reasonable man Your next endeavour is to make a gloss upon this text but it is such a one as doth corrupt the text and thus it is But as the law written in tables of stone did discover or make known sin to the Jews so the law of nature did discover or make known sin to the Gentiles and so the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and all unrighteousness of men as well the Gentiles as the Jews as appeareth Rom. 1.18 and as the law written doth work wrath to the Iews Rom. 4.15 when they sin against it so the law of nature doth work wrath to the Gentiles when they do that which is contrary thereunto and so the Ephesiaens which Paul directeth these words unto being Gentiles were not lead unto sin by nature but nature did in its measure and degree witness against sin and did by its teaching declare them to be the children of wrath when they lived in such an evil conversation which was contrary to the teaching of it Answ In answer to this paraphrase of yours it is not enough for me to unsay what you have said but rather to say that you cannot gainsay in giving of the genuine sense of the words we are all by nature the children of wrath i. e. we that are converted whether Jews or Gentiles all were alike children of wrath wherein there are two things to be opened first what it is to be a child of wrath secondly what it is to be so by nature First what it is to be a child of wrath First some by this do understand one that is guilty of and obnoxious to eternal death and condemnation because of sin but this though it be somewhat yet it is not the whole for Adam after his sin committed was made obnoxious to the wrath of God and guilty of eternal death and yet he could not be said to be a son or child of wrath for by this manner of speaking such an one is denoted as is born such and by his nature is such For the clearing whereof take notice of some such parallel places It is well known to those who are Divines indeed that these are Hebraismes to say one is a son or child of perdition as Ioh. 17.12 2 Thes 2.3 or that one is a child of disobedience Eph. 2.2 and 5.6 and Col. 3.6 and hence this manner of speaking doth a I se because whosoever is begotten or born of a man is a man that which is
Gentiles did not follow after righteousness yet they have attained to the law of righteousness because they believed in Christ and on the contrary that the Jews though they followed after righteousness yet they have not attained unto righteousness because they believe not in Christ but seek justification by their own works and together with this he sets forth the cause why they believed not in Christ because they were offended with or at him at which offence of theirs lest believers should be offended he declares that that of old was declared by the Prophet Isa 8.14 and 28.16 You hold on at the same rate as you have begun thus and in chap. 3. where he wholly excludeth the deeds of the law in the business of justification saying v. 20. Therefore by the deeds of the law shall no flesh living be justified in his sight for by the Law is the knowledge of sin but sheweth that faith is for another end and use in the following verses and then in making enquirie in the 27. ver Where is boasting then it is saith Paul excluded By what law of works Nay but by the law of faith In which words of the Apostle it is clear that faith and the deeds of the law are different and the law of works and the law of faith have different ends and as he concludes in ver 20. that by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in the sight of God So in ver 28. he makes that a sure ground by which he certainly concludeth that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law And so also in chap. 4.5 But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is accounted to him for righteousness And so preferring faith or shewing that as faith was counted to Abraham for righteousness so faith is counted to all that believe for righteousness and the promise that he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law but through the righteousness of faith ver 13. For if they which are of the law be heirs faith is made void and the promise made of none effect ver 14. Because the law worketh wrath for where no law is there is no transgression ver 15. and then concludes again in ver 16. That in regard That to be justified in the sight of God or to be the heir of the world was not through the law nor of the law nor by the deeds of the law therefore saith he it is of faith that it might be by grace to the end that the promise might be sure to all the seed See also chap. 5.1 2. Answ What need was there of all this parcel of impertinent words quite besides the business inhand we are upon the point of election and all this is about justification Let me for hereafter give you this for a Motto Hoc age remember what you are about I do readily acknowledge that there are different ends of the law and of faith the most exact and strictest observers of the law could never obtain perfection thence Heb. 7.19 Heb. 10.1 The law made nothing perfect The sacrifices that they offered from year to year could not make the comers thereunto perfect There was an impotency and beggarliness in the observances of the Law to justifie their persons and make them accepted of God and truly Sir so is faith so far as it is ours Cor. our graces are all imperfect we know but in part our faith is mixt with some doubtings hence Lord I believe help mine unbelief O Lord increase our faith for we are of little faith Nay were any the best of men nay or of all the men in the world their graces put all in a lump together the excellency of all those graces of all those persons could not amount unto such a value as to justifie any one person and render him acceptable to God Eph. But when Christ is received by faith his merit mediation and intercession presents them to God the Father holy and without blemish they are complete in Christ Col. 1.28 and 2.10 and 4.12 Even by those ornaments he hath put on them Ezek. 16.14 T is Christ who is our Passover our peace our propitiation our righteousness our justifier that reconciles God and man together Faith of it self is but a creature and hath no such omnipotency and though it be an uniting and an excellent Grace yet it is a gift wrought in us by the immediate finger of God and not of our own strength yea it is a part of the purchase of Jesus Christ merited by his death and passion and he gives it to those sheep that little flock which were given to him of the father and those sheep he knows by name Joh. 10.3.27 and 13.18 You draw near to a conclusion and say so that we may see that although election to life and salvation and to be justified in the sight of God be not of the law nor through the law nor by the deeds of the law nor yet for faith and yet it is by faith and through faith and in believing and no where said to be without it by which it doth appeare that the putting off faith and works and the use of means altogether and to say that God had no more respect to faith and the use of the means of salvation then he had to the works of the law in electing and justifying persons in his sight to eternal life is a mistake at least if it amount not to an error Answ Sir abate me but two words in all this and that before viz. election and electing and I le freely give you without begging all the rest But truly Sir this is no fair play especially in divine things this trajection and slipping from one species of a mercy to another so unworthily to foist in to give it no harsher a term the word election as though those places before quoted by you had spoken to it when there is not one word mentioned that looks that way but onely speaks of Justification all which as to that I give you gratis deal more faithfully hereafter with your over-credulous learners and readers And now you conclude what you have to say against this Argument thus For if God respect not faith and use of means in the electing of men and women to life and salvation then shew by plain Scripture-proof if you can what it is that he respects for we have learned already that he respecteth not persons Acts 10.34 Rom. 2.11 1 Pet. 17. 1. Col. 3.25 Answ Why Sir I have often inculcated that in election the Lord ultimately consults his own glory and that there is no external condition or qualification in the object that he hath any such respect unto as that because thereof he doth elect yea nothing besides the manifestation of his infinitely rich mercy and to his glory in extending it to such undeserving
your principles for if Gods foresight of faith and the embracing of the means be the ground-work of election as it is by you and that in children dying in infancy nothing either of faith or works can be foreseen because never reducible into any act of faith upon what ground with you can such be elected is a riddle to me Your next work is to make an apology for your tediousness in these words I am constrained to be larger in answering these arguments because I cannot but a little follow him that I may find him out in his crooked waies that so he may be discovered and therefore I cannot but take notice of this expression before they had the use of faith by which one would think that the man is of that opinion that faith comes by generation because his words do seem to intimate as if infants had faith but not the use of faith but Paul certainly was of another mind when he said faith cometh by hearing Rom 10.17 Answ Sir to let pass your crooked words you seem to make it a wonder for one to affirm that infants may have faith but not the act or use of faith and from such an opinion to conclude that faith then might come by generation which indeed were an absurdity in grain But Sir are you onely a stranger in Jerusalem and know not these things or have you not learnt to distinguish between the habit of faith and the act of faith I know a regenerate person when he sleeps hath the habit of faith though at that time he want the act and use of faith A convert likewise under a spiritual desertion may have the principle and seed of faith and yet want an active and an operating faith And so an elect Infant though in respect of the imperfection of its natural faculties he is indisposed actually to believe yet in regard he is a subject capable of the inward workings of the Spirit of God to sanctifie his corrupt nature he may passively receive the grace of sanctification and therewith the habit root seed or principle of faith and from thence to be denominated a believer Infants are reputed in the number of reasonable creatures yea even before they have the act or use of reason onely because they have it in semine in the seed or root of reason and why not alike to have faith in the habit or root and so reputed for believers though they cannot actually exert it Phil. 19 Sir I must tell you first that faith is infused not acquired t is given to believe which passively infants are in a capacity of as well as those that are adult 2. That their souls may as well be now sanctified by infused grace as if Adam had not fallen they should have been holy from the womb by original justice propagated unto them and inherent in them 3. That the humanity of Christ was in this manner holy even from the conception which was therein by special priviledge like unto that course which should have been ordinary in our conceptions and births if we had not sinned in Adam 4. That it cannot fairly be denyed to be so in Iohn Baptist but that so great a Prophet was sanctified by the holy Ghost even from the womb which may be confirmed by that his extraordinary motion upon the salutation of Mary the mother of our blessed Saviour and of Ieremy it is not improbable by that which God saith of him Ier. 1.5 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee and I ordained thee a Prophet unto the nations But wonder I know to be the fecundous spawn and brood of ignorance and therefore I cannot wonder at the wonder Yet to extricate your self out of this absurdity you undertake thus But whereas he seemeth to make it a very doubtful thing if not altogether impossible that children dying in infancy should be elected to life and salvation from what we hold I must tell him there is a great ground to hope if not a certainty whereby we may believe that no child dying in infancy before they come to have a being to act shall ever be cast into the lake of fire which is the second death because they not having the use of those faculties as hearing together with the use of reason to understand what is spoken and being not capable of any embracing of the means and which never had a being to act therefore they cannot reject the means of salvation and their not having of faith will never be charged upon them as sin for where no law is there can be no transgression Rom. 4.15 and there can be no law to infants as such because they cannot know it when they are Infants and sin is not imputed where there is no law Rom. 5.13 and also we find that Christ himself said Luke 18.16 That of such is the Kingdom of God and hath no where said that such are reprobated to everlasting destruction if he hath shew us where he hath spoken it in Scripture or appointed it to be spoken by any of his Ministers It is true we find that we shall appear before the judgement seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to what he hath done whether it be good or bad 2 Cor. 5.10 but we do not find that any shall receive any thing at the day of judgement as a punishment for what hath been done in the body of another although we 1 Cor. 11.22 all dye and go to the dust in the first Adam in that all have sinned or in whom all have sinned Rom. 5. ver 12. compared with the Margin and God himself hath declared against such iniquitie of proceeding in Ezek. 18.20 The soul that sinneth it shall die the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father c. Now that this was a dying that was more then to dye and to go to the dust it is evident for all must undergo that whether they be righteous or unrighteous and we find ver 26. that when a righteous man turneth away from his righteousness and committeth iniquity and dieth in them he shall dye which doth imply that it was a death that is to be the portion of those that dye and go to the dust in wickedness and impenitency after that death when the judgement cometh which is called in Scripture the second death and it doth appear that that death will not be the portion of any for any thing that is acted in or by another but for the wickedness and impenitency of every particular soul that liveth and dieth therein In answer to this rabble I say that as there is salvation for all sorts and degrees of persons of age in covenant but not to be extended to all of those sorts and degrees to reach every individual person so in a parallel way we may think of infants I know no Text giving us
by a comparison of our righteousness and life received by Jesus Christ with sin and death contracted from Adam that as by the disobedience of Adam we were made sinners viz. sinners by imputation his sin being laid upon our account as much as if we our selves had eaten of the forbidden fruit So by the obedience of Christ we are made righteous i. e. righteous by imputation God being so pleased to accept of Christ his righteousness as though we in our own persons had fulfilled all righteousness either in doing or in suffering See for further satisfaction 1. Cor. 1.30 and 15.22 and 2 Cor. 5.15 The second thing considerable in original sin is a privation of the Image of God the glory of God or original righteousness of this see Rom. 3.23 Eccles 7.29 Ephes 4.24 which uprightness had been hereditary had man kept his first station but he failing in the breach of the holy law of God he lost that righteousness both to himself and all his posterity So that there unavoidably succeeding a defect of conformity to the law of God which sinless nature did enjoy necessarily must it draw with it the sin of that nature which it voluntarily had contracted viz. Original unrighteousness Whence I reason thus Every transgression of the law of God takes along with it the true and proper name and nature of sin and to have eternal death as the reward thereof 1 Ioh. 3.4 Rom. 3.23 But every defect of conformity with the law of God is such a transgression Therefore c. The Minor is proved from those places 1 Cor. 2.14 and 2 Cor. 3.5 Rom. 3.10 and Rom. 7.18 cum multis aliis The third thing considerable is a proneness aptitude and bentness to sin not by imputation but by inclination As the young Lion and the young Serpent have not the bloudy and stinging nature of the old Lion and the old Serpent by imputation but by natural and intrinsecal inherencie so it is with men from the womb they are sinners from the birth bringing into the world a body of sin and death Whence I argue thus Every evill concupiscence or proneness in man to sin or rebellion to the law of God or enmity to God carries with it the name and nature of sin But original sin Synecdochically taken for the habit of original unrighteousness is that evil Concupiscence or proneness to sin c. Therefore For the Major I presume none dare question it and for the Minor that is confirmed abundantly and that in a special manner in the greatest part of Rom. 7. where the nature of original sin is most lively represented and the Apostle not onely for himself but for all others bemoanes their sad estate in respect of the natural inherency of that depravation of our nature And whereas you Sir were pleased to supply me with places to prove what I intended as to original sin I must tell you it was not for want of stock that I had then in store but onely because I would not then in so short an epitome be tedious and troublesome to such dissatisfied persons for whose alone satisfaction I composed that breviary but never intending it should have been exposed to publick view it was onely your pleasure to bring it into the sun light naked and bare as it was And therefore that you may see that the subject is not any wayes lame or defective for want of sufficient authority to support it take these texts of Scripture ex abundanti for the confirmation of it Gen. 6.5 and 8.21 Iob 14.5 Psal 57.7 Isa 64.10 Ier. 17.9 Matth. 15.12 Ioh. 3.6 Rom. 5.12 c. and 6.16 c. and 8.6 7. c. Eph. 2.3 and 4.22 Col. 3.9 11. Tit. 3.3 Heb. 12.1 Iam. 1.14 15 c. For what you conclude this paragraph with that if sinners should repent confess and forsake their sins they should find mercy And if the elect should continue in sin and not repent c. they should be equally lyable to the decree of Reprobation I say Sir though to affirm this doth utterly interfere with your first position where you affirm that the elect cannot become reprobates neither can reprobates become elect And yet there is some truth in it according to the Gospel manner of expressions but this hath been fully spoken to already Your next encounter is to answer a place by me quoted where you write thus But yet lest it should be thought that there is some weight in that Scripture which he quoteth out of Ephes 2.1 2 3. Children of wrath even as others to prove that reprobation to the second death is for that sin in Adam or that infants dying in infancy should be cast into the lake of fire for the same I doubt not but by the help of my God I shall make it appear that there is no such thing in it for first consider that these words in ver 1. you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins cannot relate to their being in the corrupt mass or lump of Adams transgression for that is but one being in the singular number but that which is there spoken of is in the plural number or more than one to wit trespases and sins Secondly it doth appear that it doth not relate to that sin they had as they were new born infants because it relateth to their conversation or course of life as they had a being in this world ver 2.3 wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world amongst whom we all had our conversation in times past c. By which it doth appear that he doth not speak to the Ephesians of what they were as they first came into the world as Infants for they could not upon that account be said to walk according to the course of this world neither can new born Infants as such be said to have their conversation in times past in the lust of the flesh of the mind and therefore they were not children of wrath upon that account but the Apostle there speaketh of that course of life or conversation in which they lived in time past as they were grown persons in the lusts of the flesh and the mind fulfilling the desires thereof and being by nature the children of wrath even as others Answ What man are you so confident of this first fruits of your brain as to think that you have answered all things of weight in what I have formerly written to your positions Truly Sir if I have any judgement at all there is not one parcel of all that I have delivered that you have given the least colour of satisfaction to But let us examine the reasons you give in why those words were the children of wrath even as others cannot prove reprobation to the second death or expose infants to a desert of the lake of fire Your first reason is because those words ver 1. you hath he quickned who were dead in trespasses and sins cannot
him that calleth yet there is nothing at all about excluding faith or use of means for the Apostles drift in that very text is to exclude the works of the law that the Jews would dwell upon for justification that so he might set up faith in the room and place thereof which I shall have occasion to speak of hereafter In the mean while consider that Paul is so far from confusion in putting faith works and use of means altogether and shutting them all out of doors together as having no place at all in that great and weighty work of our election to eternal life as this Babylonian doth that on the contrary he in beating down the works of the law and casting it out from having any place at all in that thing viz. the election or justification of persons in the sight of God to eternal life doth in the 9th of the Romans together with many other sayings by him recorded in that Epistle and other of the Epistles written to the Churches of the Saints endeavour to set up faith and the use of means that is leading thereunto in the same things Answ The result of all this nothing amounts onely to this that the Apostle in that chapter his intended scope is to exclude works and to entertain faith in the stead thereof But truly Sir I am very jealous or confident rather that if you were well canvast about it that whiles you undertake to be a teacher of others 1 Tim. 1.7 yet you understand not what you say or whereof you affirm For this I so positively affirm Matth. 5.17 that as all works are not excluded from a justified person they being for necessary uses Tit. 3.14 Christ not coming to destroy the law but to fulfill it Rom. 8.3 and to cast down the merit of our works and to declare that they could have no justification by them as being weak through the flesh So neither is faith ushered in by Paul here in the room as you phrasifie it of works as by the excellency thereof it could justifie us before God much less be any waies instrumental to our election as this Athenian babler seems to innovate For whereas you contradistinguish the Law of faith spoken of under that term 1 Thess 1.3 and 2 Thess 1.11 to the law of works You must know that the Gospel is called a law of faith because the promise of Grace in Christ is propounded with Commandement that men believe it But now we deny that faith justifies us as it is a work which we performe in obedience to this law It justifies us onely as the condition required of us and as an instrument of embracing Christs righteousness no Sir it is not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere or the act of believing that hath any such efficacy for so it is a work of our own and so as much turned out of doors as any other of our good works Our believing being impure and but in part Lord I believe help mine unbelief and so altogether unable to justifie for that must be done by a perfect righteousness But whatsoever is here or any where else in Scripture spoken to the advance and honour of faith is to be understood of faith objectively i. e. Christ believed on by faith that doth supply to our perfect justification Isa 64.6 Phil. 3.8 when all the merits of our Righteousness are but as filthy raggs yea dung and loss compared with Christ So that it is not properly faith that is a believers evangelical Righteousness whereby he is justified but Christ set up as the brazen serpent and laid hold on by faith the souls organ and hand to receive him that is our Righteousness Ier. 23.6 the Lord our Righteousness and 1 Cor. 1.30 Christ is made to us wisdome Righteousness But that I may more clearly rescue this eminent portion of Scripture out of such soule fingers who lay violence upon it and by their tricks of legerdemain make a Babylonish confusion of election with justification as this jugler doth here and all along as you shall find forcing upon election that which is peculiar to Justification not distinguishing the decree of election from justification which is onely the means for the execution of the decree the ordinary slur that this society of people would put upon us I shall by the assistance of Gods Spirit give you the genuine scope and sense of the Apostle in this Chapter In the former Chapter the Apostle had been treating of Justification in these three next Chapters he treats of Predestination but this is occasioned by way of Anticipation For against the Doctrine of Justification it might be objected If the Doctrine of Justification by faith alone were true then it would be received by the Jewish nation But the Jews disclaim that Doctrine at least the greatest part of them ergo it cannot be true The first Proposition the Apostle denies and answers to the reason of it teaching that not all the Jews are to be accounted the people of God who are partakers of the outward promises but onely those who do believe the promises of grace and that whereas they are but few that do believe and that most of the Jews do not believe this doth wholly rest on the secret will and Predestination of God who hath elected some unto salvation for the manifestation of his mercy and hath not elected or reprobated others according to his unfathomable justice Upon which Reprobation did depend the rejection of the greatest part of the Jews of that time and the calling of the Gentiles in their stead This is the general scope of this Chapter Now because a doctrine of this nature must needs be a stumbling-block of offence unto the Jews therefore in the five first verses he insinuates into their good opinion intimating his tenderest bosome-love unto them and extols them for many prerogatives wherein they did outstrip other nations and yet withall he expresseth his sorrow when he considers that they were rejected of God and appointed to destruction In the six and seventh verses he meets with an objection which in substance was thus If the Iews be rejected then the Covenant that God made with Abraham and his seed is of no effect But this is not so ergo not the other The Apostle here denies the sequel of the Major Proposition and renders a reason of such his denial by a distinction of a double sort of the children of Abraham viz. 1. Children of the flesh 2. Children of the Promise and thence informs them that the Covenant doth properly belong to the children of the Promise i. e. to the elect Jews Therefore howsoever the children of the flesh for the most part of them be rejected yet the Covenant of God remains sure and firm towards the children of the Promise i. e. towards the elect Jews This distinction he confirms by a special example of the two sons of Abraham viz. Ismael and Isaac whereof the first was onely
insist upon is to be understood not for the execution of the decree but for the decree it self of non electing which we call negative reprobation though I will yeeld you thus far that according to some places in Scripture and acceptation of Divines the word reprobation may be understood either of temporal reprobation in time which is a denyal of effectual vocation but in stead thereof a hardning of the heart and a withdrawing of Grace and favour formerly bestowed upon a man 2 Chron. 15.2 in poenam peccati in regard of his ingratitude and other sins and in this sense Deus non deserit nisi desertus when we forsake him then he will forsake us Or otherwise it is to be understood of eternal reprobation before all time which is Gods eternal and peremptory decree of not preparing for some that grace which would preserve them from forsaking God and consequently permitting them to lose eternal life which we deny to be founded upon any foreseen sins or unbelief of men but refer it wholly to the absolute good pleasure of his will for the alone cause of it Now good Sir if you will vouchsafe to call your self to remembrance by looking into your own position the matter in debate between you and me is not about this temporal reprobation that transient act which is or may be done in time after the grace of the Gospel rejected But t is onely about that reprobation which is eternal immutable and immanent in God before all time even before the foundations of the world were laid And therefore I cannot blame you to write what follows for I dare affirm that notwithstanding any decree that God had made before time there should be none reprobated in time if they did not continue in sin and unbelief and the rejecting of the means of salvation till the day of Grace were at an end which God is pleased to give unto them accompanying of them with means in the same day of grace in order to their everlasting good Answ Suppose I yeild you all this yet you may put your gains in your eyes and be no blinder then you are which God knows is blind enough and therefore as you before so I now do appeal to reasonable men to judge whether this your daring affirmation doth not extremely enterfere reconcile it how you can with your own positions In this your third position you maintain that some are reprobated to everlasting destruction from the foundation of the world and in your fifth position that those so reprobated Christs mercies and merits shall never save them and yet here you do affirme that notwithstanding any decree of reprobation before time yet none should be reprobated in time did they not reject the means of salvation until the day of Grace were at an end Make up a fair concord between these jarring strings and then I will say you are good at the shutting up of a broken bone unless you will come over to my side and affirm as I do which is this that notwithstanding any such decree of reprobation before all time yet there shall be none reprobated in time nay none damned after that time shall be no more if they did truly and unfeignedly repent them of their sins and undoubtedly believe in and accept of Jesus Christ for their redemption and reconciliation and so cleave unto God with a purpose of heart Act. 11.23 2 Cor. 6.2 now whiles it is the accepted time and whiles the day of salvation is shining on them Nay I shall add further had Esau or Pharaoh or Cain or Iudas Ro. 1.28 or cull out any other or take all of those forelone hope of caitifes and cast-awaies that are given over to a reprobate sense had they or any of them in their several generations truly repented of their sins and from the heart believed in the Lord Jesus Christ for pardon and acceptation not one of them so repenting should have been damned And indeed to affirme otherwise were but to throw stones against the Gospel of Christ the terms whereof are delivered indefinitely Believe in the Lord Iesus Christ and thou shalt be saved Act. 16.31 If you confess with your mouth the Lord Iesus and shall believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved Rom. 10.9 Repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out Act. 3.19 And indeed there was so much of the Gospel revealed even under the law Ezek. 18.21 If the wicked man will turn from all his sins that he hath committed and keep all my statutes and do that which is lawful and right he shall surely live he shall not dy But then worthy Sir if you go along with me thus far I must lead you a little farther We have an infalible axiome in the Schools wherein you are a stranger that Suppositio conditionalis nihil ponit in esse Conditional propositions infuse no hability or put no capacity in the subject to accept of or to perform the condition Further we have commonly in use a vain saying if the skie fall we shall catch Larks now it doth not hence follow that either the skie shall fall or that a man may catch Larks where shall a man set his footing or hold his larking-net if the skie falls My allusion is this that whiles I do consent that such who are Reprobated before all time if they did believe and repent should not be Reprobated in time nor damned after time yet I do not say that therefore it is in their power either to believe or to repent notwithstanding they may be accompanied with never so much outward means in the day of grace in order to their everlasting good Nay I say it is impossible that ever they should either believe or repent if once the decree of non election was past Do you chew the cudde upon those words Ioh. 10.26 You believe not because you are not of my sheep and Ioh. 12.39 Therefore they could not believe because that Esaias said He hath blinded their eyes and hardned their heart that they should not see with their eyes nor understand with their heart and be converted and I should heal them Sir for your own sake let me perswade you to understand a little better that non-election or negative Reprobation is not onely a denial of salvation it self unto those that are non-elected but pretermitted and left weltring in their own corruption but likewise that it is a decree of withholding of all grace which would be de facto effectual unto the avoidance of sin and such an ordering of circumstances and occasions as God certainly knoweth will make them freely run into their sins and obstinately continue in them And therefore here is that stumbling-block which becomes an offence yea in truth it is the main knot in this business you very fondly imagine that whiles God accompanies persons non-elected or Reprobated with outward means in the day of Grace as you
phrasifie it in order to their everlasting good that then it is in the power of that mans freewill to accept or refuse of that means so tendered whereas this is a heavenly writ from the truth of Gods revealed will in the Scriptures God in his eternal purpose hath denyed decreed not to give to such the use of that freedom to good which was lost in Adam 2 Cor. 3.5 Phil. 2.13 so that now we are not sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves but our sufficiency is of God who worketh in us both to will and to do according to his good pleasure Joh. 6.44 Phil. 1.29 1 Pet. 1.21 Tit. 1.3 and no man can come unto Christ except God the Father draw him So that when a man believes it is given him to believe and faith is the gift of God Eph. 2.8 and peculiar to the elect And so likewise it is God that gives repentance unto Israel Act. 5.31 and so he grants it to the Gentiles Act. 11.18 2 Tim. 2.25 Now tell me in sober sadness how it is in right reason imaginable that God will give these things which in his eternal purpose he hath decreed not to give but to leave them in their own lost and ruined condition for the manifestation of his glory when he shall render justice upon them according to their demerits They are held as captives to the devil fast coopt up in his prison 2. Tim. 2.26 Isa 45.13 so that unless the Lord by his almighty power shall let go those captives and open the prison door and proclaim liberty unto them they have not so much as a will to help themselves Isa 61.1 1 Cor. 2.14 for the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned And in vain it is to talk of a day of grace Deut. 3.6 Act. 16.14 Ezek. 36.26 Ezek. 11.19 Psal 110.3 and means of salvation for except the Lord circumcise the heart and open it and pour in his spirit and cause them to walk in his statutes and take away their stony hearts and give them hearts of flesh and of an unwilling people make them to become a willing people in the day of his power all the outward means in the world though never so powerful and effectual elsewhere when God is pleased to adde a blessing to it yet without this particular operation of the Spirit of God inwardly enlightning inclining perswading new molding and new creating and sanctifying the inner man all the outward actings do become like water spilt on the ground 2 Sam. 14.14 2 Cor. 3.6 It is but a dead letter it cannot work that which it hath not in it and of it self It is onely the finger and almighty power of God that must effect it And now you seem to make a retreat or be at a stand for thus you write But I shall forbear to proceed any further in this place by way of proof because it will fall in to be spoken to more at large in answer to his following arguments in which I shall have occasion to shew the plain sense of those Scriptures in Rom. 9. and others that have the same sound with them which are mustered up for the proof of every Argument Answ In good sooth Sir if you like a chieftain maintain your cause no better then already you have begun and if you acquit not your self with more dexterity in the routing or discharging of my mustered forces now in the rere otherwise then you have done in the van surely the Infantry of the Anabaptists will coâ— you little thanks I am confident they will never inforce that honour upon you as to make you the Defender of their faith You conclude this paragraph thus In which I shall by the help of the most high God make it appear that Gods act of Reprobation in time in hardening the hearts of men giving unto them the Spirit of slumber eies that they should not see and ears that they should not hear breaking them off from their olive tree hiding the things which did belong unto their peace from their eyes that they could not attain unto the law of righteousness giving them up to their own hearts lust and to all uncleanness and vile affections and to a reprobate mind and the like cometh not upon men meerly solely singly and alone by the will of God as the onely and alone cause without assigning any other thing as a cause thereof but that these things come upon men as the just and righteous judgement of God upon them for their continuing in sin and unbelief and rejecting of the means as aforesaid Answ Noble Sir take it not amiss that here again I pull you by the sleeve and tell you that you are like a stragling sheep making a frivolous digression from the matter in contest keep your wits about you and mind this that our dispute is about reprobation before all time and your deviation here is by a discourse of Reprobation in time wherein we little differ Onely I must informe you of a mistake in you in this likewise in conceiving that there can be no decree of God of leaving men to the liberty of their own wills in committing of sin that can be antecedent to the guilt of actual sin I pray kind Sir be pleased out of your vast knowledge to inform me what foregoing or foreseen sin was there in our first Parents Adam and Eve for which God out of his vindictive Justice did give them over to the liberty of their own wills and so suffered them to eat of the forbidden fruit thereby breaking the most holy and righteous law of God Or those non-elect Angels who are now reserved in everlasting chains under darkness Jud. 6. what antecedent sin can there be imaginable to that their first sin for which they were forced to leave their own habitation and were delivered unto chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgement 2 Pet. 2.4 And what I say of these the like may be spoken of all the non-elected there is not any one sin that the heard of Reprobates ever did or shall commit but that Gods decree of suffering them to fall into those very same sins is antedated infinitely before any such sin is acted Though I shall withall confess that in the very Reprobates God often in a judiciary way punisheth sin with sin turning malum culpae into malum poenae and so Vons avez to my first Argument Your next motion of course is to my second Argument which is thus That which is the efflux and consequence of Reprobation cannot be the cause of it but sin and unbelief and the rejecting of the means are the efflux and consequence of Reprobation Therefore The Major is as clear as the Sun The Minor is proved by these Texts Matth. 11.25 26. Ioh. 6.36 37. Ioh. 8.36 37.
counsel hath decreed appointed to permit in the manner to come to pass But you have another bout with this text and say But secondly I do therefore affirme that the disobedience o◠unbelievers is in not doing of that which they should do by the appointment of God and as some of the former translations 〈◊〉 read being disobedient to that whereon they were set and if this man do but look on his Greek Testament and say no otherwise o◠this text then in his own conscience he judgeth to be the clea◠sense of it as he is freely willing to answer the same before the great and righteous Iudge the Lord Iesus at his appearing when he shall sit upon the throne of his glory Then I am perswaded that he will say no otherwise of it Answ Sir in answer to this your conclusive cathedral gloss viz. that the disobedience of unbelievers is in not doing of that which they should do by the appointment of God I must tell you it is very luxuriant and corrupts the text and perverts the whole scope of the Holy Ghost and sense of the words both of which according to the mind of the Spirit and given in before I need not to repeat it The word which the Translators here render disobedient is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly signifies an unperswaded person an incredulous unbelieving and refractory person that wil give no assent unto that which he hears And now I pray learn me one lesson In what Grammatical construction can these words whereunto they were appointed have any manner of relation but onely unto their antecedent disobedient or unbelieving and not to any implicit command or injunction of God as it is by you feigned And then it must necessarily carry this Interpretation being disobedient unperswaded or incredulous unto which their disobedience misperswasion or incredulity they were before hand even from all eternity predetermined predestinated or appointed of God But that which followes of yours puts me into a wonder as it was to the Jews concerning Christ Ioh. 7.15 How knoweth this man Letters or Learning as it is in the Margin having never learned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I suppose you are not a pretender to any Enthusiastical raptures as if you could speak any exotick languages as by an immediate divine inspiration which you never learned as one in London once did in my hearing pretending a miraculous gift in his speaking of Hebrew and Greek he being no scholar but let that pass and him too that set you on this buz which onely makes a noise but comes to nothing For those former translations you mention which render the words being disobedient to that whereon they were set I have not met with any such and therefore leave them to their own sense But upon your proposal and heavy charge thereon I have surveyed the original the words are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it properly signifies as I said before a person unperswaded not believing and for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereon you lay the stress of your interpretation if we shall follow the usual sense of the holy Ghost in divers other such like places it cannot in any other fair construction be rendred then Appointed ordained viz. by the decree of God and so is the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 usually taken as Ioh. 15.16 I have chosen you and ordained you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 1 Thes 5.9 God hath not appointed us to wrath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now why you should tread in a path by your self and wave the best received Interpretation I know no cogent reason for it but that you have a vain affectati-of singularity Nor indeed much would it conduce to your purpose had you your desire in this sense of the word but such men as you are when they can no wayes evade the power of the Spirit speaking in any Scripture then they fall to their wrenches and turnings and doubles as the Hate doth when she is hard hunted and in danger to be taken and can find no other way to escape and therefore I will leave you to your vain subterfuges and attend to what you further say Object But the objection that usually is made against this is grounded upon Rom. 9.19 20. Thou wilt say unto me why doth he yet find fault for who hath resisted his will Nay but O man who art thou that repliest against God c. Now that which some do infer from it is That God doth Reprobate men to eternal destruction without assigning or ascribing any other thing to be the cause of it but the will of God as this man doth in his argument Answ To which I answer that there is no need at all for men to dispute with God so as to demand of him a ground or cause of mans Reprobation for he hath shewed them the things of himself by the things that are made even his eternal power and God-head so that they are without excuse Rom. 1.20 and hath shewed sufficiently in the Scripture that the rejecting the means of salvation continuing in sin and unbelief is the cause of it as hath been already proved and yet I shall by the help and assistance of God endeavour to make it more plain for consider that the people that Paul speaks to in these words Thou wilt say unto me why doth he yet find fault for who hath resisted his will c. were the Iews which notwithstanding all that God did publish and declare unto them by Jesus Christ and by his Apostles first tendring unto them the choice and precious mercies of himself in his Son Christ that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations beginning at Ierusalem and so it was declared unto them Acts 4.10 11 12. that there was no other name under heaven given among men whereby they must be saved but onely by the name of Iesus of Nazareth whom they had crucified whom God hath raised from the dead Which is the stone that was set at nought by the builders the Iews yea this truth was plainly declared by Paul also in Acts 13. from ver 16. to ver 46. and he applying his speech to the men of Israel and children of the seed of Abraham in the conclusion thereof ver 38 39. saith these words Be it known unto you therefore men and brethren that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins and by him all that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses Beware therefore saith he ver 40 41. Lest that come upon you whsch is spoken of in the Prophets Behold ye despisers and wonder and perish for I work a work in your dayes which ye shall or see Hab. 1.5 will in no wise believe though a man declare it unto you and by this it may solely be concluded that Paul was not of
that mind that those people or any other people whatsoever were appointed or designed of God by his purpose and decree from before the foundation of the world that unavoidably they must and can do no other but despise Jesus Christ and the means of salvation by him for if he had been of that mind then certainly he would not have bad them beware or take heed of that which they could not help But notwithstanding this ver 45. they speak against those things which were spoken by Paul contradicting and blaspheming and although through Jesus Christ was preached unto them the forgiveness of sins and by him all that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses yet as they had said before that they were Moses disciples Ioh. 9.28 29. and they knew that God spoke by Moses but as for this fellow we know not whence he is so yet they were resolved to dwell upon the law of Moses together with being children of the stock and seed of Abraham according to the flesh for justification in the sight of God and to the very same people Paul speaketh Rom. 2.17 18 c. saying Behold thou art called a Iew and restest in the law and makest thy boast of God and knowest his will and approvest the things that are more excellent being instructed out of the law and art confident that thou thy self art a guide of the blind a light of them which are in darkness and to those people he speaketh also Rom. 9. at the beginning and so forward saying in ver 7 8. Neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children but in Isaac shall thy seed be called that is saith he they which are the children of the flesh these are not the children of God but the children of the Promise are counted for the seed And this he proveth in shewing that Ismael the son of the bond-woman Gal. 4.22 23. verses and Esau also that was born of Rebecca which together with Iacob was conceived in the womb of her to wit Rebecca by one even by their father Isaac all descending from Abraham according to the flesh and yet Ishmael and Esau must be cast out of Abrahams house or family And that which he saith ver 13. Iacob have I loved but Esau have I hated was written by the Prophet Malachy many years after they were born brought forth and became two nations as it was said to Rebecca Gen. 25.23 and the ground or reason shewed by Obadiah ver 10. and this is to shew that God hath not bound himself by any purpose decree or promise to elect justifie or eternally to save them by their keeping the law of Moses and in being the seed of Abraham according to the flesh and therefore there could be no unrighteousness with God in casting them out or breaking them off from their own Olive-tree notwithstanding all that they could plead for themselves in these things But it was that vain confidence that Paul knew they had in these things before mentioned in Chap. 2. Behold thou art called a Iew and restest in the law and art confident c. and therefore Paul might well say thou Iew that restest in the law and art confident wilt say unto me Why doth he yet find fault for who hath resisted his will for being so confident in these things they would be apt to say Why should God find fault with us Is it not the will of God that the seed of Abraham being circumcised and keeping the law of Moses should be his people and hath not God himself commanded these things and annexed promises thereunto who hath resisted his will in all this But Paul having before fully proved that God had not bound himself either by purpose decree or promise to elect justifie or eternally to save them upon that account might well say thou must not reply against God for he having made no such promises unto thee upon those terms he is at liberty to break thee off as an unfruitful branch and to make of thee a vessel of dishonour For notwithstanding all the means that God had used towards them in order to their conversion they having all heard Rom. 10.18 and God having stretched forth his hands unto them all the day long and yet notwithstanding all that God had done for them in tendring unto them such precious promises in Jesus Christ yet they were a disobedient and gain-saying people and thus walking stubbornly against God all the day of Grace they are now in the hands of God as the clay was in the hand of the porter to make of them vessels of dishonour for the Potter did not take a piece of clay into his hand on purpose to make such a vessel at the first as it was made by him afterwards but Ier. 18.4 the vessel which he made of clay was marred in the hand of the Potter and so he made it again another vessel as it seemed good unto the Potter to make it and so in like manner those people the Jews that Paul speaketh of in the Epistle to the Romans being stubborn in the hands of God and disobedient unto his righteousness even when his hand was stretched forth unto them all the day long it was now just with God to make of them vessells of wrath fitted or made up for destruction and thus it is plain to any rational man that will but look on these things with a single eye and with an upright mind judge of the same that the good will and pleasure of God is not solely and singly the cause of Reprobation without having any other ground or reason assigned thereunto in Scripture but that the rejecting the means of salvation to wit the free tenders of Christ in the Gospel continuing in sin and unbelief and denying the power of godliness is assigned by the holy Spirit in the Scripture as a cause thereof And as God thus dealt with the Jews because they sought not righteousness by faith in Christ so doth God in like manner deal with all the world for the like cause He that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the onely begotten Son of God and this is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men loved darkness rather then light because their deeds are evil and 2 Thes 2.10 11 12. Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved and for this cause God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe a lye that they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness Answ I have here presumed much upon the Readers patience and therefore must crave his pardon in obtruding upon him so much of nothingness vanity and incongruity as to the Apostles scope as is contained in this answer of my adversary being not ad idem but a rambling discourse not any whit
things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned No Sir it is the peculiar work of the Spirit to regenerate and convert Lydia's heart was opened Acts 16. Mat. 13.3 Rom. 1.16 before she so diligently attended to Pauls words The word of God that brought forth fruit did not make the ground good but it was so before by the special working of that Spirit The word which is the power of God to salvation doth not make believers but God first makes them so by sanctifying of their natures and giving them to believe Phil. 1.29 The word of God in Regeneration hath no greater force or power then the word of the Prophets and Apostles had in raising of the dead which had no other operation then to be tanquam signum as a sign of the thing done or as a moral instrument for there is no lesser power requirable in the recovery of a poor soul from a spiritual death to a spiritual life then there is from a natural death to a natural life And therefore as it is Gods peculiar to raise from death to life natural so it is his alone prerogative to raise from a spiritual death to a spiritual life The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live Ioh. 5.25 Yea the same power is exerted in the work of Regeneration or the new creation as was at first in the work of the old creation 1 Cor. 4.6 no less then an hand of omnipotency in them both and therefore not communicable to any creature From all of which I shall hence infer that if it be Gods peculiar work to regenerate and not the word in the hearing of it and that Regeneration is principally necessary to give us ingress into heaven Joh. 3.3 Mat. 5.8 God may then as well regenerate infants by his secret power unsearchable to us though they neither hear nor understand as he doth those that are of riper years by so weak an instrument as the word and Gospel is which hath no such inherent power in and of it self Secondly this your assertion labours of another sickness viz. a false supposition that nothing but actual sins expose men to the danger of being cast into the lake of fire whereas the truth is That original sin or that hereditary pravity we brought with us into the world deriving it from our parents Psal 51.5 who conceived us in sin hath so much of filthiness and uncleanness in it that God may justly cast a new-born infant into the lake of fire for it unless it be washed clean by the blood of Jesus who is the alone way the truth the life Joh. 14.6 and through whose alone merits we have an access into the Holy of Holies into which place are admitted onely these whose names are written in the Lambs book of life Rev. 21.27 Luke 10.20 Rev. 20.15 whose names are written in heaven registred there in the eternal immutable decree of Gods election unto life all the rest whose names are not there recorded infants as well as others are cast into the lake of fire which is the second death But enough of this at present I shall be sure to meet you again more about this when you lay out your strength against original sinne Another thing which you give out in the nature of a reason why infants cannot be damned is viz. for that their not having of faith will never be charged upon them as sin Sir suppose I grant so much and so likewise what you produce out of Rom. 4.15 as a confirmation or rather as a reason of your reason for where no law is there is no transgression both may be very true as set disjunctively but as you have woven them both into one sentence they may not be true nor applicable to your purpose for herein you vary your terms that which you write takes notice of sin the text speaks of transgression wherein I conceive sin and transgression are not terms convertible for though every transgression of the law be a sin yet every sin is not a transgression of the law as in the case now before us for original sin though it be a sin properly and really yet it is not a transgression of the law as personally acted in and by the infants but as imputatively and as a defect of original righteousness So what you further say by way of illustration that there can be no law to infants as such and sin is not imputed where there is no law I grant you as to infants now in existence which law might require the exerting or putting out of any act or duty which their minority is uncapable to receive or to perform But I must withall tell you that as Adam as a publick person as a root and stock received Grace righteousness and holiness for him and his even for those in his loins so he received a law to him and his even the Covenant of works do this and live which law was incumbent not onely on Adam himself but likewise on all those that were in his loins So that infants now are born under a law and their want of original righteousness and that for the defect thereof their being conceived and born in sin and uncleanness shall be a deserving cause of their just condemnation What you bring forth in evidence to what you here aim at viz. Rom. 5.13 sin is not imputed where there is no law is so far from answering your desire that it cuts the throat of your assertion For the clearing whereof its expedient to search into the mind of the Spirit by the scope of the place The Apostle in this Chapter is prosecuting that grand point of Justification by faith in Christ and ver 11. laies down this that we have received attonement by him whence he makes this corollary ver 12. that as by the first Adam sin and death entred into the world so by Iesus Christ righteousness and life are restored to us But ver 13. he meets with an objection that sin is not imputed where there is no law where he argues after this manner If all have sinned in the loins of Adam then those likewise have sinned who lived before the law was given by Moses but before the law was given there could be no sin because where there is no law there is no transgression as Chap. 4.15 and therefore all have not sinned in Adam Now here the Apostle denies the assumption or minor proposition affirming the contrary that sin was before the law given by Moses constantly affirming that howsoever it was not imputed i. e. reckoned or accounted or reputed to be sin yet indeed and in truth sin was then in the world and this being of sin in the world before the law ver 14. he proves by the effect viz. death was then in the world and that all had sinned because that
do enjoy then their not knowing of Christ and believing in him as we do will never be charged upon them as sin For we do not find that the Lord Jesus doth require the use of a talent of them which never received any of him to use Answ Sir what faith infants have by which they are saved hath formerly been discussed It is such as is suitable to their infantile state differing not in nature and essence from those which are adult but onely in degrees of the discovery of it It hath been likewise acknowledged that the Gentiles who never heard of Christ unbelief will not be their sin for which they shall be condemned for they shall be judged not by the law of faith but by the law of works 2 Cor. 5.10 according to what evil they have done in the body and therefore I do affirm that the onely breach of the covenant of Grace is too narrow to be the adequate cause of damnation for many pagans who never heard of Christ and are under no covenant but that of works are condemned not for not believing in him of whom they never heard Rom. 10.14 nor for the breach of the covenant of Grace but for the breach of the covenant of works and without doubt uncleanness covetousnes sorcery lying Idolatry c. and many the like sins are the causes of their damnation They received a talent in Adam their primogenitor and he forfeited it both to himself and all his posterity whereof unless redemption be made by Jesus Christ they are utterly lost persons They have likewise received a general talent bestowed on them by Jesus Christ Ioh. 1.9 Rom. 1.20 who enlighteneth all that come into the world even enough to make them inexcusable And kind Sir if you revise your own position it is limited to the free tenders of Christ in the Gospel and therfore as you put the case your supposition utterly clasheth with what you have in your position But it is an easie matter for such intoxicated unsteady brains as yours to cross leggs now and then You absurdly conclude what you have to say in discharge of your self from the second absurdity thus But the Gentiles if they cannot notwithstanding all that they can do hear of Christ in the Doctrine of the Gospel in express words that they have a means from God by which they in their consciences may be accused or excused in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ Rom. 2.14 15 16. See also chap. 1 from ver 18. to the end also Psal 19. at the beginning by which means there is such a discovery of God from the creation of the world that the invisible things of him are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made so that they are without excuse but not onely in the far countries but even here in England where the Gospel is preached there are many that are strangers from the life of God I do freely grant the greater is their sin and as it is just with God to give those Gentiles over to a reprobate mind that did not like to retain the knowledge of God which they had or might have had by the things that are made so in like manner will the just and righteous judgement of God appear toward them which have Jesus Christ preached unto them in the Doctrine of the Gospel and they receive him not in suffering the mystery of iniquity to cloud and darken their understanding by the coming of the man of sin 2 Thes 2.9.10 11 12. Whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signes and lying wonders and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved and for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lye that they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness by which mystery of iniquity their understandings are so darkned and their minds blinded by which they look that all must be in a mystery removing mountains in a mystery the body of Christ in a mystery the Ascention of Christ into heaven and his second coming in a mystery the resurection out of the Grave or dust of the earth in a mystery to be out of the grave of sin and all these and many more such dark and cloudy conceits there are and will be more and more in men because they receive not the love of the truth even the teaching of Jesus Christ in these things that are written Ioh. 20.31 that they might believe that Jesus is the Christ and that believing they might have life through his name Answ Truly Sir your revolution of mysteries is a mystery to me And if in this whole paragraph your meaning be onely this that in the defect of the revelation of Jesus Christ Rom. 1. Psal 19.1 Rom. 2.14 yet that the Gentiles have so much made known unto them by the invisible things of God and the objective works of the creation and the reliques of the law of nature so far as to render them inexcusable I shall joyne with you in it and give my vote against them But if you have any secret reserve for indeed you are a pitiful soul that any of those herd of Goats the Gentiles I mean should have any possibility of salvation or hopes to be excused in the day of Judgement from receiving of the just reward of all their iniquities Joh. 15.5 Joh. 14.6 I do then abominate any such conceit Without Christ we can do nothing he is the way the truth and the life and none cometh to the Father but by him neither is there salvation in any other nor none other name under heaven given among men whereby they can be saved If it should be otherwise then farewel the prerogative of the Jew above the Gentile of the Christian Church above the Pagans If God may have his Church his converts his right worshippers his beloved and saved ones even amidst the blindness and darkness of Gentilism without the knowledge of Christ and all divine revelation of Gods wil in his word then let 's bid adieu to al Scripture to all religion to all profession but alas what are such opinions as those but like sick mens dreams or rather mad mens ravings But I pray Sir tell me in good earnest what your meaning is by those words you thus write viz. The Gentiles if they cannot notwithstanding all that they can do hear of Christ c. which as the words import imply an abominable slander against the majesty of God as though the Gentiles had a desire and thereupon did endeavour to know and learn the mind of Christ but being impeded by a more supreme power were not able to compass their desires Sir learn to be more modest and reverent in treating of such divine things Alas so far are the heathens for
a can or a will I mean power or desire that there is neither of them in professed Christians Phil. 2.13 but what is of Gods own working who giveth both to will and to do according to his good pleasure And as for the heathen instead of doing or any desires thereunto as to good there is nothing but backwardness indisposition aversness yea an enmity against any thing that is really good at least in a saving way But alas what persons or cause is there in the world that are so base and degenerate that cannot suborne some luxuriant tongues to plead their case though never so abominable I have now done with this and so proceed to hear what you can speak for your selfe in the defence of the position from the third absurdity which is this The third absurdity If the foresight of sin should be the cause of reprobation then the elect should be equally lyable to the decree of reprobation as the reprobates themselves they all being alike in the corrupt mass and lump of Adams transgression Answ See how he minceth his argument that he may bring forth absurdities from his own expressions and then father them upon us In the front of his argument he putteth in unbelief and the rejecting of the means but leaveth out the word continuing and now he hath thrust out all except it be this one single term Sin that he may bring reprobation to eternal destruction to the narrow scantling of Adams transgression but that shall never be granted by me until I see a better proof for it than he hath yet brought and I can allow him more Scriptures then he hath set down to his argument Iob 14.4 and 15.14 Psal 51.5 all which together with the Scriptures he bringeth do I confess prove that the whole lump of mankind is polluted with Sin and I deny not but that this pollution or corruption is in a measure from Adams transgression but that any ones being reprobated to everlasting destruction in the lake of fire which is the second death is for Adams transgression I deny for although all the fruits and effects of that sin in the first Adam do accompany us untill we come to the dust from whence we were taken which is Gen. 3.16 17 18 19. Womens sorrow being multiplyed and their conception and bringing forth children in sorrow together with the curse that is upon the ground for mans sake so as that man must eat of it in sorrow all the dayes of his life eating bread in the sweat of his face being accompanied with pain and sickness which are the companions of death till he return to the ground for out of it was he taken for saith God dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return and this was the sentence of that condemnation that God hath pronounced against the first Adam or 1 Cor. 15.27 earthy man and we being then in him when the sin was committed and the sentence pronounced we have our part with him in these things as our portion in this life for the original sin or first transgression But the holy Spirit in Scripture doth no where declare as I could ever yet find nor as any one could ever yet shew me that mans reprobation to the second death is for being in Adams sin nor for sin in their own persons no nor yet for unbelief simply so considered but for continuing in sin and unbelief For if they do repent confess and forsake their sins they shall find mercy and be saved as hath been already proved and if the elect should continue in sin and unbelief and not repent and believe or imbrace the means of Salvation they should be equally lyable to the decree of Reprobation as the reprobates themselves and there would be no difference but they in repenting believing and embracing the means of salvation fall under the unchangeable decree of Gods election so as they cannot miss of salvation as hath been already shewed Answ Truly Sir before this I did not rightly apprehend where the shooe did wring but now I find that it is Original sin that pinches you so sore that you cannot well endure the name of it which had I foreseen I would not have minced any thing in the Argument no not so much as the continuing in sin for howsoever it is that we affirm that Original sin is an hereditary disease which every soul brings with it into the world yet it leaves not a man suddenly no not when he is regenerate but continues to the end of a mans dayes It is the very last enemy of ours that death destroyes so that in respect of this Ante obitum nemo supremaque funera debet dici beatus Now what you have to say against our doctrine of Original sin I find not much in this your discourse for this you grant First that the whole lump of mankind is polluted with sin and which pollution as you say flows from Adams transgression And secondly that all the fruits and effects of that sin do accompany us till death there is onely then your bare denial that eternal death is not the reward or wages of this sinful pollution the contrary whereof is incumbent on me to prove to make my charge good against you with that third absurdity Now to prove that the first sin of Adam was ours not because he is our father by nature though that be a ground of the imputation also but because he is such a father by Covenant and law the law and Covenant of works being laid in pawn in his hand we are to understand that there be three parts in Original sinne 1. First a partaking of the first sin of Adam we all sinned in him Rom. 5.12 14 15. 2. Secondly the want of the Image of God Rom. 3.23 called the glory of God or original righteousness 3. Thirdly Concupiscence or a bentness or proneness of nature unto sin Rom. 7.7 14 17 23 24. As to the first Adams sin is ours really and truly not so much because it is ours as because it is imputed to be ours by God who so contrived the law of works as that it should be made with Adam not as a single father or person but with Adam as a publique person representing all mankind and having our common nature as a father both by nature and law which came from the meer free-will of God He was as the root and stock of all mankind Rom. 5.19 By one mans disobedience many were made sinners i. e. morally and legally but not physically and personally the fruit and effect of which is death and damnation for Rom. 6.23 The wages of sin is death not onely temporal or natural death but as the Apostles Antithesis necessarily carries it spiritual and eternal death in opposition to eternal life acquired by Jesus Christ the second Adam Yea and the whole series and purport of the Apostles discourse Rom. 5.12 to ver 19. carries this clear that every mouth may be stopped
because he loved him less than he did Iacob Gen. 29.31 Thus Leah was said to be hated by Iacob comparatively with the love shewed to Rachel because she was less beloved then Rachel so he that serves two masters will hate the one and love the other i. e. will love him less then the other And thus God loves the reprobates less than he doth the elect but it cannot hence be concluded that the Lord doth absolutely hate any creature of his own making â—en 1.31 for they were all good yea very good and Wisd 11.24 thou lovest all things that are and abhorrest nothing that thou hast made T is true God hates sin because he made it not and this hatred hath an influx upon the sinner as he is a sinner because God made him not so But God hates not a non-elected person or a reprobate as he is a reprobate neither doth he condemne him or decree to condemne him for his negative reprobation which is Gods act Isa 55.8 but for his sin which is mans act Secondly I say that this hatred in God his wayes not being like our waies is not to be considered as to hold proportion with the passions and affections of men in their hatred For this confusion or indistinct consideration or comparison of divine things with humane is that great witchcraft that puts such a stumbling-bloâ—k in the way to the knowledge of things that we cannot discover the truth thereof with so discerning an eye as otherwise we might And therefore though I do attribute hatred to God yet that hatred in God anteceding reprobation or which is assigned as a cause of reprobation is nothing else but Gods absolute will of denying that special benefit of effectual grace and infallible direction unto eternal life and permitting some men by their own defective freewill deservedly to fall under the misery of eternal death And therefore in some sort I may say that the hatred of God is as much visible and doth as sensibly discover it self in the denyal of effectual grace as in the inflicting of the torments of hell For God the Father wounded bruised tormented the soul of his dear Son for our sins without any diminution of his love unto him But he never denied him effectual grace whereby he had an immunity from sin And therefore say some It is more desirable to have the benefit of effectual grace whereby we are preserved safe in the love of God than to obtain an immunity from the torments of hell Christ was not exempted from this last though he was never excluded from the former Thirdly I would here distinguish of the hatred of God as it signifies in him first his affection or secondly his effection if I may use such a word or otherwise the effects of his affection though I do confess that these affections as of love hatred anger c. are not properly in God but are attributable to him ex anthropopathia by similitude and resemblance First for the hatred of God as it is an affection so it doth precede Reprobation it being the will and purpose of God to deny grace to such whom he will not elect which is that whith we call reprobation Secondly the hatred of God as it signifies an effect to wit the execution of that hatred anger wrath inflicted on sinners and so it follows reprobation To summe up all in a few words that God bare less love to his creature Esau then to Iacob is manifest That that lesser degree of love which he bare to Esau may comparatively to that manifested to Iacob be called hatred That God may deny some grace to one that he bestowes upon another without injustice that equall grace is not given to Esau as to Iacob That those who from the love of God are not elected by a necessary consequence must be reprobated or not elected Ephes 1.4 5 6 7. 2.4 5. or loved with a lesser love The love of God was the cause of our election and therefore the lesser love or hatred the cause of our reprobation And now Sir if you peruse this what I have here said you may easily answer your own frivolous question And yet I must withal tell you that though I do affirm that God reprobated Esau or did not elect him onely because he would not it was not the good pleasure of his will so to do or it was his wil absolute not to do it that he denied that favour to him that he shewed to Iacob and so may be said to hate him without any external cause lookt upon as in Esau why he should be reprobated rather than Iacob neither of them having done either good or evil yet there was an internal cause of the hatred or reprobation namely the good pleasure of Gods most holy will for the manifestation of his own glory in his power and justice And therefore God cannot without blasphemy be compared to the envious Jews who howsoever they hated the man Christ Jesus without a cause yet God had a cause motive or incentive from within himself even the manifestation of his own glory in shewing his power and justice on those so reprobated which glory of his is more precious and to be prefered before the saving and preserving from the torments of hell the persons of all both men and Angels and yet withal I say that the vindictive punishment of God or positive reprobation which is Gods appointing to torments and hatred of God as it is an effect of the former is never inflicted without a just and meritorious cause viz. the sin of man And thus much to what you answer to the first objection to the second you write thus To the second I have already shewed that Paul directed his words to the Jew who rested in the law and made his boast of God and was confident that he was in the way of God and thence it was that he said thou wilt say unto me who hath resisted his will But Paul had more than the single term sin to assigne as a cause of their being reprobated blinded or broken off from their own olive-tree to wit a continuance in sin and unbelief and rejecting the means of salvation when the hands of the Lord were stretched forth unto them all the day long and yet they were a disobedient and gainsaying people Answ To this I have already answered pag. 115. that the words were directed to the Gentiles to which I refer the Reader And whereas afterwards you say that Paul had more then that single term to assigne as a cause of their being reprobated blinded broken off c. to wit a continuance in sin and unbelief and rejecting the means of salvation Sir this is but gratis dictum you onely say but cannot prove it shew me any such expression in this whole chapter wherein this text alledged lies yea or any where else in all the Scripture It is true those words of yours of the Lords hands stretched
of the spirit of Adoption for love is strong as death And then I pray tell me what will all your publications tendences and conducements avail where God hath decreed to deny effectual grace and faith to believe what is so published But there is enough of this we shall have more to say to what follows whiâ—h is this And as God hath thus bound himself by his purpose decree and promise to the doing of the things aforesaid that so they must come to pass in their season and it being also his pleasure to let the sons of men enjoy a sufficiency of means while the day of grace lasteth to be used by them in order to their everlasting good so he giveth them liberty in the right use thereof in that day of grace to choose or refuse and it cannot be otherwise for a choice must needs be at liberty and if there were not a liberty given of God in these things then those expressions in Scripture were in vain as in Deut. 30.19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you that I have set before you life and death blessing and cursing therefore choose life Object But to this it will be objected that that which they might choose or refuse was the temporal or earthly Canaan Answ That there was such a thing intended in it I deny not but that was not all for in those typical things that did belong to them as they were the Children of Abraham according to the flesh there was held forth that which did lead them up to faith in Christ in order to their being children of Abraham also by faith that so they might be heires also of the heavenly inheritance and this the words immediately going before do prove being compared with what Paul had said Rom. 10. For as it is said Deut. 30. vers 14. the word is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart that thou mayest do it the very same word is said by Paul Rom. 10. vers 8. to be the word of faith which they preached and we find the like of Moses Heb. 11.24 25. He refused to be called the son of Phraohs daughter Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season also Luk. 10.42 Mary hath chosen that good part Answ Sir if by sons of men your meaning be to take them collectively and universally viz. all men of all sorts that they all enjoy a sufficiency of means in order to their everlasting good then I utterly deny it and I have formerly proved it contrary that whereas he shewed his word unto Iacob his statutes and judgements unto Israel yet he had not dealt so with other nations Psal 145.19 Matth. 13.11 Acts 16. for unto some it was given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven but to others it was not given the Spirit would not suffer the Apostle to preach the Gospel to the Bithynians and certainly you will never prove any such sufficiency of Grace tendered to every person all the world over unless you do suborn those silent Orators the Sun Moon and Stars to plead your cause by a discovery of what feats they have done and how many they have converted amongst the Indians Americans Antipodes and other unknown places of the world by their dumb preaching of the everlasting Gospel in order to the everlasting good of these forlorn creatures The next point I shall take notice of in this Section is the liberty of the will concerning which you spake before but somewhat lispingly like an Ephraimite Judg. 12.6 but now like a flesht Gileadite you speak with a full mouth and in plain English that it is in a mans liberty to choose or refuse things to their everlasting good And this indeed is that unknown Goddess to whom you sacrifice all the strength of your other Positions for if this liberty of will should miscarry all the superstructure of your other Positions must needs disshevell and moulder to powder I have not much to say unto it because you have said so little that choice must needs be at liberty And though I need not hunt after fresh work yet thus much I shall say that there was in Adams will besides the liberty thereof an habitual holy inclination to all that was good though with a possibility of embracing evil But that since the fall besides some kind of liberty an habitual vicious quality in man making him averse and froward in choosing the good Job 15.16 Pro. 2.14 prone and inclinable to embrace the evil so that man now doth naturally drink iniquity like water and make a pastime of doing evil and therefore as Adams will was truly good not onely in the actions but in the inward qualities thereof so our will is truely and properly corrupt not onely as to its evil actions but also the inward vicious disposition thereof And until such time as God is pleased to heal the disease and replant in our wills their primitive integrity they are utterly dead in sin captives and bondslaves of corruption So that however they have some liberty in naturall civill or externall spiritual things yet in regard of true grace and holiness they have no liberty at all to chuse that but are wholly enthralled unto sin according to that of the Apostle Rom. 6.20 When ye were the servants of sin ye were free from righteousness and Rom. 8.7 The carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be And therefore the man doth in plain terms give the lye to the Spirit of God speaking in the Scriptures that dares to affirm that a man in the estate of unregeneracy who without doubt is if any be a servant of sin and carnally minded is notwithstanding free unto righteousness and may be even of his own natural power subject to the law of God commanding him faith and obedience and that he hath a liberty and power to choose grace when it is offered strong arguments might be brought to overturn this power upside down but I am weary of what is already upon my hands For the objection that you offer let those vindicate it whosoever made it for my part I do not insist upon it but shall answer to that place by you quoted Deut. 39.19 after another manner And I do indeed conceive that this allegation is not any thing ad rem not at all to the business in hand For first Moses here speaks unto the Israelites not as then in a state of sinful unregeneracy but rather as in a state of grace for they were then the Church and people of God and he speaks unto them as they were a Church wherein because of their holy calling by the law of charity he accounts of them all as in a state of grace but if any were in a state of unregeneracy as doubtless there were he counsels them to choose life yet
absent when Gods time was to call thee and then thou art undone thou must never looke for the like time again and such like doctrine as this which soundeth like the truth but contrary to their own principles and disputed against by this man in his arguments Answ Sir for you that pretend to have more understanding than all your teachers and that you undertake to be a teacher your self yet I must tell you that for ought you have here discovered you understand little what you say nor whereof you affirme Psal 119 99. 1 Tim. 1.7 Heb. 5.12 but had need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God And for that musty tale of yours in answer to it I say that I have not been a hearer of all men neither can justify all those whom I have heard in all things that they have delivered but leave them to rest upon their own bottoms Rom. 14.4 and to stand or fall to their own masters and so to answer for their own errors But by way of retaliation say that for those of your party I have been oft a hearer of them partly I confess out of curiosity and out of an itching eare partly to be satisfied as to their abilities whereof I had heard great cracks but never came off from any of them with any satisfaction as to what the report was given but I was alwaies cheated and gulled with abundance of froth crude and unconcocted stuffe indeed most suitable to such apron-men as they were from whom it came for similes habent labra lactucas like lips like lettices do men gather grapes of thorns Matth. 7.16 or figs of thistles But you run along in your shooting at rovers thus But whatsoever they say or hold the Scripture will sufficiently prove Hos 13.9 2 Pet. 2.1 mans destruction to be of himself and that Gods act of reprobating of persons blinding of their eyes hardening of their hearts and breaking them off from the olive-tree Christ Jesus is for refusing to hearken to his counsel in time while the day of grace lasteth for although he through grace and mercy doth give men liberty to choose life yet it must not be in their time nor in their own way but in Gods time and in Gods way and therefore it is that people 's not embracing the free tenders of Christ in their day of grace come to be under the decree of reprobation and the execution thereof falleth upon them for they are vessels of wrath that God Rom. 9.20 endureth with much long-suffering and they Rom. 2.4 5. despising the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering which led them to repentance and to treasure up unto themselves wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgement of God And thus in abusing this much long-suffering of God and rejecting the means of salvation continuing in sin and unbelief untill their day of grace is at an end they come to be fitted for destruction even fit objects for his wrath to work upon as the earth which drinketh in the rain which cometh oft upon it and yet beareth thornes and briars is rejected and is nigh unto cursing whose end is to be burned Answ Sir what here you do insist upon is meerly about temporal reprobation blinding eyes hardening hearts cutting off c. which may be for any sin as well as one he may punish sin with sin and turn malum culpae into malum poenae Rom. 1.23 24. he may punish spiritual fornication with corporal adultery Yea God hath such an Autocratorical majesty and sovereignty over his creatures that he may punish without any eminent actual foregoing sin as in the man that was borne blind neither hath this man sinned nor his Parents c. Ioh. 9.3 But where you say that God gives men liberty to choose life but not in their own time but in Gods time I pray Sir make me acquainted with that mystery according as it is held by you how comes it to pass that the will of man is at liberty to choose at some times and not at others and what then becomes of that liberty of choice when as you say is mans time that he cannot choose Is that liberty then lost or doth God over-powerfully restrain it or is the nature of it destroyed surely whatsoever you should hold forth in this it must needs prove destructive to your other principles Next your phrase and manner of speech is altogether unsuitable to a Scripture-phrase when you say that people not embracing the free tenders of Christ in the Gospel in their day of grace come to be under the decree of reprobation and the execution thereof falleth upon them c. Sir herein I would know from you first what difference or distinction you make between the decree it self and the execution of the decree or whether you do not confound them one with another Secondly whether the free tenders of Christ in the Gospel may not be made to a person this day and then rejected and so as you say thereby reprobated and yet withal that upon the like free tenders made to morrow viz. Christ and his excellencies published to such may they not then be accepted and thereby again elected and whether this ebbing and flowing this chopping and changing of decrees do not interfere with your fifth position That which follows of yours is this And this is according to the account that God hath given us in Scripture of the things as will appear by resolving of these following questions with the express words of the same Quest 1. Why were the things of the peoples peace hid from their eyes Answ Because they knew not the time of their visitation Luk. 19.44 Quest 2. Why did God break them off from their own olive tree Answ Because of unbelief Rom. 11.20 Quest 3. Why did they not attain to the law of righteousness Answ Because they sought it not by faith Rom. 9.32 Quest 4. Wherefore did God give up the Gentiles to uncleanness and to vile affections Answ Because that when they knew God they glorified him not as God neither were thankful Quest 5. Wherefore did God give them over to a reprobate mind Rom. 1.28 Answ Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge This is that which God hath been pleased to make us acquainted with as a true account of his dealing with or disposing of his creature not in order to any limitation or confinement of his soveraignty over his creatures to any subordinate power in us but according to what he hath been pleased to confine himself unto by his purpose and decree and that which he hath done and doth do in these things is in order to the execution and accomplishment of the same purpose and decree that so His Rom. 1.17 18. righteousness might be revealed in the Gospel to his faithful people to their great joy and comfort in believing
and the revelation of the righteous judgement of God from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness Answ Sir all of this both of questions and answers and the paraphrase afterwards upon it concerns onely the rejection of persons in time or if you please to call it so temporal reprobation but no waies relates unto non-election or negative reprobation which was before all time about which alone is our present contest for as to temporal reprobation I have often told you I do not contend about it but do acknowledge that where God doth actually reject or reprobate in time it is many times though not alwaies for some actual sin committed and why should I now any further trouble my self about it And now you are drawing to an end you say And therefore that which we hold doth not in the least confine Gods infinite soveraignty over his creatures to any subordinate power in us nor to the doing of any thing in the least more than what it hath been his pleasure to confine himself to the doing of by purpose decree and declaration of the same in the Scriptures of truth which cannot be disannulled and therefore this man may father this absurdity together with the rest of them that he hath endeavoured to cast upon us and the truth that we profess upon those to whom they do belong Sir it is too too manifest that notwithstanding what you have here written to guard the authority and credit of your positions yet that this absurdity with all the rest of its fellows are the accursed brood of what you here in your positions affirmed and that they will still lye crying at your doors because you have exposed them to view and own them as your own brats and therefore till you can better acquit your self of them then hitherto you have done which will never be you must be inforced to father them whether you will or no. Your close of all follows thus Some other positions there were written and some of them he saith may pass with a grain of salt and some which he doth not well understand the meaning of wanting as he saith an Oedipus to unriddle the meaning of using scorneful and deriding expressions saying the novice leadeth him in a mist and the like and yet he frameth some arguments against them shooting as he saith at adventure and yet they fall from him as if they were shot against the truth but at present not being very well at leisure and also under the envious dealing of Satan I shall let them rest and commend what I have here done to consideration if he have but the patience to read it with an impartial eye and with a single and upright mind without a spirit of prejudice against it in respect of the homeliness of the expressions because they are not full of 1 Cor. 2.1 2 3. Excellency of speech and the inticing words of mans wisdome and Theological expressions I shall conclude all at present with these ensuing Queries which waite for an answer c. Answ It s true Sir I writ as you say to and used such expressions as I thought might best suit with one of your quality as not infallibly knowing in whose forge those positions were hammered Some of them I conceive might be passable with a charitable construction others were so ambiguous that I could onely guess at the meaning whereunto framing my arguments according to mine own received sense and I believe it was yours I am confident you will be never able to frame a better answer than you have already against what here you have undertaken which is as much as if you had said nothing What the obstructions were that did impede your further prosecution I list not to enquire into and you have done me a courtesie to spare me further trouble and surely none but your very good friend would have traced you up and down so far as I have done and howsoever you may truly think you have exercised my patience to read and weigh and answer your pamphlet yet I will deal so ingenuously with you as to make this protestation that what I have done in answer to yours was with an impartial eye and with a single and upright heart if I know mine own heart Isa 8.20 1 Joh. 4.1 1 Cor. 3.12 c. neither will I suffer any prejudicate opinion to lodge in me till such time as I have brought it to the law and to the testimony and thereby tried the spirits and what I find of gold silver precious stones to receive it gladly and to glorifie God for it and to rejoyce in it but what I find of wood hay stubble to commit it to the fire that it may be burned And though I am an admirer and honourer of eloquence as the workmanship of Iehovah who creates the fruit of the lips Isa 57.19 Prov. 22.11 and for the grace whereof the King will be a mans friend yet I dote not so much on the thin though fair skin and shell of learning as Rhetorique is but that I would choose to give entertainment to truth and grace though in a course and homely dress rather than to error and vanity howsoever candied over and sugred with never to many gaudy inticing words of mans wisdome For your defect of Theological expressions I cannot wonder at it for it hath not been your trade as you call it you have not been conversant among Divines neither heard many of their words nor seen much of their writings Deut. 32.2 whose doctrine drops as the rain their speech distils as the dew as the small rain upon the tender herb and as the showres upon the grass and if you then be a stranger to their Idiome and can make no use of their style in your deliveries who can be amazed at it And howsoever I might say as well as you that I have been under the envious dealings of Satan which might have put some remora to my proceedings in this answer yet I list not so to Apologize 2 Cor. 12.9 but shall commend what I have here done to the grace of God which is sufficient for me And the consideration hereof to those that are judicious to whom God hath given aptness and abilities to discerne between truth and error light and darkness good and evil And the success of all unto the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ Tit. 1.2 2 Tim. 2.13 Rev. 3.14 Isa 55.10.11 who hath ingaged himself by his promise wherein he cannot lye nor deny himself because he is that faithful and true witness That as the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven and returneth not thither but watereth the earth and maketh it bring forth and bud that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater so shall the word be that goeth forth out of his mouth it shall not return unto him void but it shall accomplish that which