A COMPENDIOVS ANSWER To a Book called A BRIEF SURVAY Of the Judgement of Mr. JOHN GOODVVIN and the Church of God walking with him touching their Reasons of dissenting from many of their Brethren in these Important Heads of Doctrine 1. Election and Reprobation 2. The Death of Christ 3. The grace of God in and about Conversion 4. The liberty or power of the will or of the creature man 5. The Perseverance of the Saints VVherein the Absurdities of all their dissenting Doctrines are clearly exhibited By a Loving Friend to the Truth it self ELLIS BRADSHAW 1 Joh. 5.13 19. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that yee may know that yee have eternall life and that yee may believe on the name of the Son of God And we know that we are of God and the whole world lyeth in wickednesse LONDON Printed by H. Hills and are to be sold by T. Brewster at the signe of the Three Bibles at the West end of Pauls M.DC.LII To his Excellency OLIVER CROMWELL Lord Generall of the Forces of the Parliament of ENGLAND May it please your Excellency NOtwithstanding I am conscious in the sight of God of my own unsuitablesse for undertaking such a task as this both for want of learning education answerable and the meannesse also of my Reputation Yet finding this book of M. John Goodwins and his whole Church so long allready extant in print as since the 30. of May and no Answer to it And finding it very dangerous in many points of doctrine wherein they dissent from many of their acknowledged brethren and causing a separation as is notedly known And having understanding through the grace of God of some peculiar notions that rightly apprehended give a full result to all the difference in hand in all these five particulars dissented in I thought it my duty in love to the soules of so many brethren that not only walk in the fear of God and profession of Religion in which they are reall Practitioners as their judgement leads them but have been reall Engagers from the beginning for the Parliament and Commonwealth of England as is publiquely known I am content to become as a fool in some mens eyes in undertaking so great an encounter in such deep Divinity that hath troubled the wisest and deepest judgements in all ages and never as yet brought to a clear result but is still left doubtfull in all their writings never obtaining an infallible assent but many strange dissentings have ever appeared in all ages about these particulars However I for my part being satisfied both from sacred Scripture and clear Rationality in those respects and hoping in God that he will make me able to clear it up and make it obvious to any rationall apprehension against any opposition that can be held forth by these dissenting brethren I have made thus bold not only to oppose them but have allso presumed to dedicate the same to your Noble Excellency in regard they have led me in such presumption That so your Excellency if time permit might judge of the truth as you find it to appear and not so much as seem to patronize or countenance any grosse errours or absurd tenents and expressions farre unsuitable for eminent Christians A brief survey whereof your Excellency may find after the Treatise the which if possible I earnestly desire your Excellency would read when time will permit from your important businesse if you cannot find time to read the other that so you might see how farre it is possible for a whole Church to erre and that in Fundamentalls Thus briefly lest I should seem tedious I commit you to the government of the Spirit of Truth who dwelleth in you and hath given you faith to go on still conquering and to conquer and that on the Lambs side togerher with them that are with him the called and chosen and faithfull And rest earnestly desiring that you may ride on prosperously in the waies of Truth and Meeknesse and Righteousnesse Who is your Souldier and Servant allso in what you please to command ELLIS BRADSHAW To M. John Goodwin and the Church of God walking with him c. Beloved Brethren I Had not undertaken this encounter with you if I had not been fortified with speciall and peculiar notions and arguments which you have not heard of from other men and those clearly deducible from sacred Scripture I am not certain that some of your Brethren from whom you dissent will approve some things that I have held forth neither yet doe I approve all that they hold against your doctrine as it will appear in divers Arguments and Reasons rendred I shall desire to hear from you either publickly or in private how you resent such notions and how you apprehend them that if any thing be dark or doubtfull therein I might clear it up what my meaning is and what the truth is allso as I doubt not but to do in a short space by the help of God I hope your principles are such not to despise any rich treasure because of the vessell that holdeth it forth but search the Scriptures whether these things be so And besides I doe conceive that it much troubleth you that you cannot conceive how to reconcile your Brethrens doctrines with the Attributes of God and therefore are forced to dissent and separate from them much against your wils All which if it be true it may possibly cause you so to deny your selves as to submit to the truth when you see it and give glory unto God who is the Truth it self and the only Fountain from whence it cometh through what ever pipes it is conveyed unto you I much doubt not but you will acknowledge that God hideth things from the wise and prudent that he revealeth unto babes and that on purpose that no flesh should glory in his presence but that he that glorieth might glory in the Lord. And lest men should say they have found out wisedome as the people were too many for Gedeon that the Lord should deliver Israel into their hands lest they should have said their own hands and not the Lord had saved them So some men are too wise to have knowledge given them of some secrets lest the people should idolize the men as having found them out by their own wisedome not give glory unto God but he will not give his glory to another And therefore wise men sometimes must be content to receive knowledge at the second hand and they are wise indeed if they can be content to receive it from fools yea from base things in repute of the world and mean contemptible and so they sometimes must or else be without But I need not inform you of these things save only to put you in remembrance I therefore break off and commit you to God who is able to lead us into all truth and to reveal unto us even his whole counsell
peremptory decree to save some and to damn others and you judge it a senseless part in God as in a Father to give his children compleat assurance and after threaten to disinherit them in case of disobedience As if you had quite forgotten that it had so pleased him as by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe and whom he predestinates to the end he also predestinates to the means And those who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation yet he rebuketh and chasteneth them and threatneth them also if they be not obedient yea and deserteth them also hideth his face as though he had forsaken them And all this likewise after he hath given them assurance of eternal life through Jesus Christ as I hope you know that after a full assurance in times of desertion men may stand in doubt it was so with David and many others many ebbings and flowings in respect of strength and weakness of faith there is found in all by ordinary experience But to proceed you in your judgement have already judged it a very senseless part in a Father to give a child a compleat assurance under hand and seal and particular the 3d. you account of an enemy unto godliness and that the result of it must needs make men remiss loose and indifferent in the service of God c. Whereas the wisdome of God hath already judged it a means to make us more zealous and cordiall and therefore it is that he giveth knowledge of salvation to his people by the remission of their sins that they might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness all the daies of their lives And fear hath torment in it you know and he that feareth is not yet perfect in love Arg. But we ought to endeavour to be perfect in love and are bid also Fear not little flock c. Conseq Therfore it followeth that in the wisdom of God through his love to his people he would have them to attain perfection both in faith and love See 1 John 5.10 11 12 13. yea even such degrees whereby they might have strong consolation and whereby their joy might be full and therefore he biddeth them ask and they shall receive it And the Apostle John writeth unto them purposely that they might know that they have eternal life and sheweth them by what signs they may certainly know it to wit by their faith and love which God had given them he that believeth on the sonne of God saith he hath the witness in himself Conseq Therefore it followeth he that thus believeth can never perish For who can pluck them out of the hands of God who is greater than all and who can terminate an eternall life And he that knoweth he believeth on the blessed name of the sonne of God and that loveth God and loveth his brethren for their likeness unto God may certainly know that he hath already this eternal life abiding in him and that he shall never perish And by how much stronger confidence any man attains and fuller assurance of faith through the grace of God By so much the more shall his love abound and so by consequence his zeal in religion and cordiallness in service will be the greater And whereas you say who will strain and toil himself in running for such a prize which he knowes he shall as certainly obtain by going an easie soft and ordinary pace I answer you speak in this as though all Gods elect were at the first assured and had no need to strive to enter in at the strait gate or to make their calling and election sure And as though it were all one what degrees and measures of faith and holiness we attain unto and whether we be rich or poor both in faith and good works As though degrees of grace and measures and multiplicity of good works and sufferings c. should not add unto us a far more excellent and eternal weight of immortal glory Whereas I know you know it and will acknowledge there shall be great inequality of reward both to the Elect and Reprobates though nothing contradictious to justice or equality in respect of desert But suitable to their works according to their works whether better or worse yea more or fewer as the Scripture is clear And therefore I cannot but wonder to see you propose this as an argument For as the Apostle saith They that run in a race run all but one receiveth the prize All Gods Elect may be said to run but not all alike for celeritie and attainments some of the first shall be last and some of the last shall be first in respect of attainments to degrees and measures of faith and love which are essentially in Christ Jesus Now for answer to your second particular Reason page 3. the which I over-skipped to answer the first and third both at once being one in substance I onely answer thus much briefly That they are very children in understanding that cannot refell this argument to wit that because the decree of God hath so adjudged some particular persons to eternall life through Jesus Christ as so you know we affirm that he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world was laid and not peculiarly without him and his sufferings c. Therefore yet you infer That such an election is extremely injurious to the death of Christ and utterly dissolveth the necessitie of it Which cannot be resented from such knowing men but as purposely intended to deceive the simple You knowing the principles of all understanding men to be quite contrary and too well fortifyed to be deceived with such inconsequent assertions For it is but thus much in effect to wit Because in the prescienceor foreknowledge and counsel of his will he hath chosen us in Christ to be saved eternally through his death and sufferings and for his sake Ergo Such ad Election is extremely injurious to the death of Christ and utterly dissolveth the necessity of it How extremely injurious unto Rationality this argument is I leave to all yea even Children of ten years of age to judge the reof 4. I come now to answer your fourth Argument where you boldly affirm That such a notion of Election layes the greatest part of the necessity of preaching of the word in the very dust c. To which I answer your Argument is a meer non sequitur for it is all but thus much to wit Arg. Because it hath pleased God to determine before the foundation of the world to save those that believe through the preaching of the word and through Christ c. Ergo the preaching of the word or to perswade men to attend thereupon is in vain and needless for the Elect shall as certainly be saved c. If they should not do it You have forgotten I suppose how Paul was inhibited to go unto such a place because they would not receive his doctrine but was
sent unto another and bid to speak boldly c. because he had much people in that City For you might know if such Scriptures could down with you That whom he foreknew them he also predestinated to be conform'd to the image of his Son and whom he predestinated them he also called and whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also glorified 5. In your fifth Argument you take upon you to argue directly and bring a false slander upon the Wisdome Holiness Mercy and Justice of God For your Argument were good if rightly grounded But your ground-work which without all question you take for granted is manifestly untrue For though all have sinned and are therefore deprived of the glory of God and are only saved through Jesus Christ yea Jews by nature being Children of wrath as well as others Yet it doth not follow that all by nature are in their child-hood and minority alike sinful alike wrathful or alike unclean but in the sight of God and sometimes of men likewise there is great difference though I must confess if any ask me who maketh thee to differ and what hast thou that thou hast not received I must acknowledge God himself hath done it But this I affirm and can make it manifest that there was a difference even betwixt Jacob and Esau in their Mothers Womb Else it had never been said I have loved Jacob and have hated Esau And so the holy Ghost telleth us the wicked are estranged from the Womb they go astray as soon as they be born speaking lies c. and as Moses hath testified the efficient cause is not in God but telleth us plainly They have corrupted themselves their spot is not the spot of his Children they are a crooked and perverse generation they are perversly generated some generations of Vipers some children of wickedness because spiritual wickedness was the productive cause of their generation some sonnes of Belial for Satan was the cause of their generation and therefore though they were Abrahams children after the flesh yet our Saviour telleth them They were of their father the Devil and would do his works And some also are called Children of the flesh in opposition to him that was born by promise to wit At such a time will I come unto thee and Sarah shall have a Son The Lord himself was the chief cause of his generation it was he that separated him from the loines of his Parents of free accord whereas the devill the world or sinfull flesh was the cause of the begetting of some others as hath been clearly shewed but of this more fully in another place But you may hereby see and be more cautious for ever after of blaming the wisdome and holiness of God because you see not how your selves forsooth can clear it up You might as well have said If he have mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardeneth he is doubtless unjust unmerciful unholy unwife which I for my part if I should have said it it had been blasphemous in me but I hope you did it ignorantly and therefore upon repentance may find mercy 6. To your sixth I answer That no man that ever I heard spake of any more decrees of Election but one yet there are so many particular actual elections as there are particular persons Elected from the loins of their parents as the chief cause of their generation and this is their election when they are thus separated to be vessels of mercy prepared unto glory But God is not the cause of the generation as chiefly predominant but only permissive of the propagation of any children but his own Elect 7. Your seventh I answer by way of Retortion or countercharge That we do conceive that all the passages and texts of Scriptures which you produce and argue for the establishment of your errours are meerly irrelative to such a purpose all them forced against their native and proper imports respectively to serve in this warfare being all very capable of a more orthodox fair and Christian interpretation than that which you make subservient to your opinions 8. To the eighth in like manner I retort we can find no competent indeed no tolerable satisfaction in any of those arguments which you our brethren are wont to levie and insist upon for the maintenance and Defence of your erronious doctrine to wit that there is no election or decree of election of particular persons as such but only of an intire species of men from eternity see your Arg. 9. But do judge in our souls and consciences that through the grace of God we shall be enabled to give a Rational fair and Christian account of their insufficiency and weakness 9. To the ninth I answer that it hath more confirmed us in the truth because we find both from your pens and mouths and that very frequently such very expressions as are palpable inconsistencies and that your doctrine cumbreth and thwarteth plain texts of Scripture and wholesome necessary truths in Christian Religion and that many orthodox and worthy doctrines cannot be pertinently nor effectually mannaged if we receive the influence and seek the aid of this your principle to wit that there is no election or decree of election of particular persons as such but only of an intire species of men from eternity For we affirm there is both whereas your position denyeth the truth of these Scriptures Ephes 1.4.11 1 Pet. 1.2 Rom. 9.6.7.8 to 19. Acts 13.48 To the first argument for your dissent in the second particular I answer that we believe these Scriptures to be really true and that God doth intend as he here expresseth we do believe that however wicked men are by nature and by generation if God give them repentance unto life so as that he doth save them this is nothing else but what he had decreed before the foundation of the world and that such very persons were chosen in Christ and predestinated to the adoption of Sons And that he never intended to reprobate those persons and therefore gave them repentance and did not suffer them to obdurate and remain impenitent nor doth any decree of his necessitate them or any other impulsively to continue in such impenitency but permissively it doth For he suffereth with long patience the vessels of warth fitted to destruction Rom. 9. and that purposely to shew his wrath against and hatred of sin and to make his power known And who are you that reply against God as if his justice and mercy should impell and necessitate the salvation of all or else you will contest and quarrel against him as you do herein especially in your second Reason accounting it as a bowelless and mercyless Reprobation of the far greater part of mankind which yet you cannot deny but the words of Christ himself import so much if we may believe him Wide is the Gate c. and many go in thereat But in your apprehensins
assert in their fift particular wherein they dissent from us That the only decree of Election that can be asserted from the Scriptures is for substance and effect Whosoever believeth shall be saved As the only decree of Reprobation this Whosoever believeth not shall be damned 8. It concludes it a thing necessary for clearing the Mercy and Justice of God to make every particular person righteous as Adam in innocency before it can stand with Infinite Justice and Mercy to condemn him for sin 9. It concludeth in effect That it could not stand with the Justice and Mercy of God to determine with himself before he created the Angels to suffer some of them to fall and after condemn them to everlasting torments for not keeping their first estate as the Angels did as is shewed in the book by necessary consequence See Reas 6. to the second particular 10. This their doctrine holdeth forth That both Men and Angels yea and even all the whole creation are nothing else but God himself Which is an aspersion blasphemously impious as you may see in the book Reas 6. to the second particular 11. This doctrine importeth That no man can be assured that he shall not perish eternally till the end of his life for they build all their assurance upon perseverance in the faith and that to the end As though men could not know that they have allready eternall life abiding in them which cannot possibly terminate or come to an end being kept not by their own power but by the power of God through faith unto salvation as is at large proved in the book 12. This doctrine teacheth expresly That it were more wisedome in God for making them more religious and more obedient to his will to hold them in suspence all their life long and give them no assureance Whereas the Wisedome and Mercy of God hath thought it better to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the remssion of their sinnes that they might serve him without fear in holinesse and righteousnesse all the daies of their life Luke 1.74 75 77 78 79. See allso Reas 1. to the first particular 13. This doctrine teacheth That all children are alike holy or unholy in the sight of God by generation and so till they come to years of discretion and that not only Jewes by nature are the children of wrath as well as Gentiles their father being an Amorite and their mother an Hittite and that all have sinned both Jewes and Gentiles and are therefore deprived of the glory of God as so the text is clear But all they say are in a like condition by generation whatever parents they are sprung from which quite contradicteth the Apostles assertion to wit Else were your children unclean but now are they holy 1 Cor. 7.14 See all their fourth Reason of their dissent from us in their third particular 14. It concludeth expresly either manifest inconsistencies or that the intent and purpose of God in his decree of Reprobation is utterly frustrate and disappointed For particular sixth they say The intent at least the primary or antecedent intent of God in his decree of Reprobation is the salvation not the condemnation of men 15. It quite perverteth the phrase of Christ and his Apostles in dispensation of the doctrines of the Gospell For they say particular the fourth That Faith and Repentance in particular persons are not the fruits and effects of Election But Election rather the fruit of these As if Election decreed before the foundation of the world could be the fruit of Faith and Repentance And further let any rationall man but read the order of the doctrine in these respects Rom. 8.29 30. Whom he predestinated them he called c. Not whom he called them he after predestinated for that were clear impropriety of language for it were not predestination at all if it were not a determination precedent unto calling as here the Spirit of God renders it And whether it be fitter to believe Paul or them let themselves judge FINIS