sheep I haue which are not of this fold whom also I must bring c hee means the elect amongst the Heathens destinated to that one Sheep-fold under him that one Shepheard and by his voyce to be brought therto This is yet more plain v. 15 where he saith I giue my life for my sheep Christ dyed for the ungodly Rom. 5. 6. 8. By his sheep therfore in this place are meant the elect from eternity for whom he dyed the fruit of which election of God and death of Christ sheweth forth it selfe in their timeous faith and obedience Further note we for the thing in hand that Christ giues unto his sheep that hears his voyce and obey him eternall life as elsewhere also he saith He that beleeveth on the Son hath everlasting life If this life which they haue given them and haue in the beginnings of it even in this life be eternall and everlasting how can it be broken off afterwards Or if it can be interrupted and broken off how is it everlasting and eternall Lastly if none be able to pluck Christs sheep out of his and his Fathers hand then no sinfull person or temptation no malice of Satan can turn them from God for if they can then they can pluck them out of Gods hand Is not the destroying and corrupting of mens faith and obedience the plucking them out of the hand of God V. 12 the same word is used the wolfe catcheth and scattreth the sheep that is corrupteth them as Math. 7. 10 Act. 20. 29 where the same word is used also As they are elsewhere too prodigall of Christs benefits to all the goats in the world so are they here too niggardly of them to his own sheep Although in truth they grant though unawares as much as we plead for in saying that those sheep so long as they continue his sheep haue spirituall peace and safety c. Spirituall peace and safety is against all assaults of all spirituall enemies labouring to subvert the spirituall state of Gods people To the Scriptures here alledged by them for their purpose the answers formerly given touching conditional threatnings and Gods people in appearance must be applyed Of the former of the two Scriptures following which is Ioh. 13. 1 Whom he loveth he loveth to the end they speak as the thing is of Gods loue but as loath to be too much beholden to him for it and desirous Pharisaically to justifie themselvs they pull down what they formerly built in saying that the question is not of Gods and Christs loue unto his but of the continuance of our loue unto him wherein they both gainsay themselvs in this whole Treatise and the Scriptures throughout They put the question themselvs of Gods election and of the promise of election And is election and the promise of election a work of our loue to God or of Gods to us The Scriptures also ascribe the whole work of our salvation as election redemption by the bloud of Christ vocation revelation of heavenly things justification sanctification adoption faith repentance and the giving of the Spirit issue out of temptations and continuing blamelesse to the comming of the Lord unto the good pleasure and loue of God alone It is true that we must also loue God as they say But we must know withall that this our loue of God depends upon his loue of us first and the same shead abroad into our hearts by his Spirit which giues testimony therof to our spirits which as it were forceth loue again from us to God and the continuance of it the continuance of our loue according to that of the Apostle The loue of Christ constraineth us For as the beams of the Sun shed into the bosome of the earth first heat it and so cause it to reflect heat again towards heaven so by the loue of God shead into our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given us our hearts are most effectually drawn and perswaded to loue God againe and men for and according to him Which I further also manifest thus Our loue whether to God or man ariseth from faith unfeyned Faith stands in the assured perswasion of the heart by the Holy Ghost of Gods loue to us Wherupon I conclude that our salvation depending immediately upon our faith loue and obedience as conditions requisite by Gods ordination and they upon Gods loue and the same known to us and so the continuance of them upon the continuance of it the question is properly and principally of the loue of God to us and the unchangeablenesse therof For Rom. 11. 29 they dream waking that the meaning is that God will never repent of saving all persons at all times in all places that seek salvation by faith in Christ and continue therin If this were all what needed the Apostle v. 33 to break out into that admiration of the riches of the wisedom and knowledge of God and of the unsearchablenes of his judgments What strange thing is it that God should not repent of so gracious a purpose and promise as is that of saving such as beleev in his Sonne Secondly it is more then evident that he speake not here of saving all at all times but of the saving of some at sometimes namely of the Israelites in their time and of the Gentiles in theirs Thirdly the Apostle speaks not of saving them that beleev but of giving the election to obtain mercy to beleev Lastly the words are a reason of that which goes before the Israelites touching election are beloved for the Fathers sake v. 28. For or because the gifts and calling of God are without repentance as if he should haue said though for the present the body of the Israelites be enemies for the Gospell that is in not beleeving it till the fulnesse of the Gentiles be come in yet the election such as are that Israel according to election and Gods people which he foreknew v. 2 them he loues in his decree unchangeably for their father Abraham Isaak and Iakobs sake and without repentance and so will in their time make them actually partakers of his most gracious gift and calling They here add certain Scriptures and may doe many moe proving that God denies the effect to conditionall promises men breaking the conditions first But as the Scriptures cited by them speak not all of salvation in Christ so neither doe any other shew that God ever alters purpose or promise of saving any whom he once loved in Christ whether in decree or application of loue The last place which they labor to elude is 1 Ioh. 2. 19. They went out of us but they were not of us for if they had been of us they would no doubt haue continued with us but they went out that they might be manifest that they were not all of us And here in stead of answering directly to the place they make out-leaps as their manner is making us to affirm that
into question 2. He justifies the Lords doing by his absolute power over the creature as the potter hath power over his clay And by this answer of the Apostle it appeares how these men mistake his meaning in the question His answer is not at all of this or that manner of saving men as they imagine and maintain but of the saving of this person rather then that they being both alike in themselves and as the clay of the same lump If Pauls answer should be shaped according to their misformed question then the meaning must be that the potter might chuse which way he would make a vessell of honor whether by the workes of the Law or by faith and obedience to the Gospell and so not of the same lump but of two contrary lumps the one beleeving and obeying the other not turning from hiâ— wicked way and yet seeking salvation by his workeâ— The Apostle here plainly pleads the Lords power over the creature to make him a vessell of honor or dishonor they plead the Lords power over the means onely by which he will do this He the Lords power over the clay of the same lump but they over clay of clean contrary qualities Besides if Paul meant here to bring in the Iewes defending themselves that God had no cause to complain that they stuck to the Law that is looked to be justified by it seeing Gods will was that men should obey his Lawes and so live in them what needed he to haue sought so farre for an answer as the absolute power of God seeing he had an answer at hand which might have stopped all mouthes and which he ever presseth when question is of justification by the works of the Law which is that they could not fulfill the Law and therefore could not possibly be justified by it Lastly their exposition of these words Why hast thou made me thus that is that I cannot obtain salvation by the workes of the Law directly crosseth the Apostle who grants that God made men as is there objected and justifies him in so making or framing them both in his decree and work of holy providence by the power which he hath over men as the potter over his clay Hath not the potter power over the clay c. Besides men make themselves uncapable of salvation by the Law in that they keep it not But the Apostle here speaks of Gods making men vessels unto dishonor and not of mens making themselves and of the potter making the vessell and not of the vessels making it self thus or thus It is plain Paul grants the objection that no man can resist Gods will and yet justifies his complaining considering his power over his creature to decree and so to bring unto most contrary estates by just and convenient meanes persons in themselves alike and as the clay of one lump v. 21. 22. 23. ADVERSARIES IN the opening of these verses they follow their usuall but ill custome of carrying the Reader away to other places and things and enter upon a tedious discourse upon Ier. 18. from whence they affirme the Apostle hath these words and so speaks of the same making of a vessell of dishonor with the prophet in that place DEFENCE I Deny their peremptory assertion and require their proof If they say the same words are there first that is not simply true for part of them onely are there to be found and so are they in other places by name Esay 45. 9. where it is evident the Prophet speaks of another matter It is too weak a collection that because the like phrase or form of speech in part is to be found in two places that therefore the one is taken out of the other and that to the same purpose And to put the matter out of doubt it is evident that the Prophet and Apostle speak of clean divers things the Prophet speaks of marring the vessell and making it again that is of destroying persons or peoples if they repent not or doing good to them which repent The Apostle of making the vessell out of the masse or lump honourable or dishonourable The Prophet speaks of the making or marring of one and the same vessell the Apostle of divers vessels and the making of one to honour and another to dishonour Lastly the Apostle here speaks of the Lords purpose and work without respect to good or evill done by the persons and considering them as clay of the same lump the Prophets of Gods dealing with persons according to the good or evill which hee finds in them and so being divers yea clean contrary lumps And where they insinuate that we hold the making of the clay to be in creation which they affirm to be in vocation they speak untruely in both No man ever held that God in or by creation made any vessell to dishonour neither can they ascribe this as they doe to vocation Gods calling men is not to dishonour but to honour onely It is the divell and his instruments and not God who call men to dishonour which these men also proue against themselvs at large in the two pages following and therin pull down with the one hand what they haue built with the other as children use to doe with their cob-castles That which followeth v. 24. 25 c. is not to the thing in hand The disputation about election ends v. 23 and that of vocation followeth which latter is an effect of the former declaring indeed the persons but not confounding the things And thus if these men may be their own Iudges and may haue the praise which their own mouth giues them they haue very sufficiently explaned the ninth chapter to the Romans and to full satisfaction of him that doubts resolving him in every difficult place therof as they blow the trumpet or rather the bladder of their own praise But if the Scriptures in their true sense and scope may be judge and giue sentence they will be found neither to know them nor the power of God over his creature Which power yet v. 22 is declared not to be tyrannicall but most just never punishing but after the induring of the vessels of wrath having sinned as is his mercy also richly glorious in the salvation of the vessels of mercy v. 23. ADVERSARIES THE last place which they take upon them to answer is Act. 13 So many as were ordained to eternall life beleeved that is say they So many as beleev and obey the truth are ordained to eternall life DEFENCE A Strange perverting of the Scriptures setting the head in the feets place and the feet in the heads For although the thing which they affirm be in it selfe true yet is it not the Evangelists meaning Luke descends from the cause to the effect they crosly ascend from the effect to the cause The Evangelists meaning is that Pauls preaching in Antioch had a divers event with divers of whom so many as were pre-appointed or ordained
to life beleeved that is of unbeleevers which they were before became beleevers in Christ according to that Rom. 8. 30 whom he predestinated them also he called that is he gaue them to beleev and repent Their preordination or predestination to life therefore went before their effectuall calling and beleeving as the cause before the effect Their assertion in the application of their Similitude of a mercifull rich man offering mony to so many as come that they who proudly refuse the rich mans gift were ordained to haue it as well as any that received it is most erroneous being applyed to the matter in hand and strikes directly against the Text which saith that so many as were ordained to life did beleev that is did come and receiv eternall life by beleeving in Christ. If all or so many as were ordained received it then they that received it not were not ordained Neither doth v. 46 as they affirm for a conclusion that their end may answer their beginning testifie any such thing but onely that they who thought themselvs unworthy of eternall life had the word of God preached unto them but that they were therfore ordained to eternall life is not the testimony of the Text but their unskilfull glosse The Holy Ghost expresly opposeth unto them to whom Paul speaks v. 46 them that were ordained to life v. 48. CHAP. III. Of falling away ADVERSARIES THE third Head questioned is according to their order whether a man may full from life eternalls but is more plainly and fully thus laid down Whether a man truely and effectually called justified and sanctified may wholly fall away from the grace of Christ They hold the affirmatiue and that a man may thus fall away though they set down their opinion both in unproper and doubtfull terms where they say that the promise of Gods election is continuedupon continuance in the condition of faith and obedience to Christs Gospell DEFENCE FIrst the Scriptures speak not of the promise of Gods election as they here doe again and again Election or gods purpose of electing is before the world the promise not till men actually be Gods purpose must needs be before his promise for he but promiseth in time what he purposed from eternity If they had spoken of Gods purpose of or according to election it had been something but what the promise of election means I understand not nor I suppose themselvs All election is to somewhat and this of which they speak to salvation the Kingdom of God and eternall life In their meaning then God promiseth to chuse to eternall life and continueth to promise to chuse to eternall life upon condition of continuance of the condition of election faith and obedience Now a promise made upon a condition to goe before is not to be performed till the condition be performed and so by their doctrine God doth not elect any till they haue continued to the end in faith and obedience that is till they be dead And so actuall and particular election is not of men living but dead To which absurd assertion these mens Masters the Arminians are driven It is true that God neither purposeth nor promiseth to saue any but such as persevere in faith and repentance unto the end So is it also true that this perseverance in grace depends upon election which is both to the end and means Christ Iesus and perseverance in faith in him and obedience unto him ADVERSARIES THeir Arguments are of two sorts the former drawn from such Scriptures as teach as they say that the godly may fall away the latter from such as exhort and admonish godly men to keep them-from falling away The latter of these two they prosequute â—n the first place upon this ground that if there were not danger and great need of warning the Lord who saith not in vain unto his people Seek yee me Esay 45. 19 would not so oft move them to take heed beware and the like DEFENCE AS they are deceived by the translation which they follow Esay 45 the Lord not speaking of his not saying in vain to his people Seek yee me but of their not seeking him in vain seeing all his words tend to righteousnesse So the ground which they lay is true in its selfe namely that were there no danger any way then it were in vain to warn to take heed which to affirm of God derogates from his wisedom We are therfore in the first place by way of distinction to consider a faithfull man either in respect of himselfe as sustaining himselfe or in respect of the grace of Christ sustaining him Considering him in himselfe we willingly grant that a faithfull man may as easily fall away as did the Angels in heaven and Adam in paradice being left to themselvs grace not being as is reason an inseparable property but that which is separable from mans nature But now considering the same faithfull person as a living member of Christs body receiving nourishment from him the head and given to Christ by the Father that he might saue him as having the spirit of Christ dwelling in him and as kept by the power of God through faith to salvation in that regard we deny that it can come to passe possibly that such a one should wholly fall away from the grace received And this divers consideration of one and the same person is founded in the Scriptures and light of reason The Apostle teacheth that both he and all others are insufficient of themselvs to think any thing as of themselvs but sufficient as of God that the faithfull may be weak in themselvs and haue God perfecting his strength in mans weakenesse that not a mans selfe but the grace of God in him may labour aboundantly that is he by â—t and not by his own strength Thus to open the distinction yet fullâ—er might Christs flesh haue seen corruption considered in it selfe as being made of the same mould with ours but so could it not possibly in regard of Gods purpose promise and work of providence to the contrary So considering his bones in themselvs and their naturall strength it was as possible they should haue been broken by the souldiers as the bones of the two theevs crucified with him but yet this was impossible in respect of Gods precedent word and prediction Not a bone of him shall be broken and of his present work of most powerfull providence according to his word If now with this consideration that a beleever may of himselfe fall away we conjoyn this other that the exhortations and admonitions in the Scriptures are means sanctified of God to keep and preserv all his from such apostasie how should it seem strange unto any that God should infallibly obtain his own end the perseverance of his Saints by his own means which these exhortations are Is it a good argument that God may fail of his end because he useth effectuall means wherby to
temptations and to reserve the unrighteous to the day of judgment for punishment Likewise v. 21. The dog is turned to his own vomit again and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the myre They were alwayes then in truth but Dogs and Swine though sometimes vomiting dogs and washed on the out-side as swine are in the waters And yet more plainly of the same persons Iude sayth v. 4. that they were ungodly men and before of old ordained to that condemnation and such as crept in unawares They were at the best but hypocrites in truth and such as had crept in unawares though seeming for a time to others and it may be to themselves also sanctified and purged by their outward profession which profession formerly by them made the Apostle upbraids them with to their greater confusion To Heb. 10. 29. the same answer serveth The form of speech is but conditionall If we sin wilfully c. v. 26. which proves that if any so sin then there remaines no more sacrifice for him but proves not that any truly justified and sanctified doth so sin If it be asked to what end then serves the fearfull denunciation used I answer first to keep the truely faithfull from so sinning 2. to awaken even the secure if not not desperate 3. to paint out the fearfull state of incurable hypocrites and Apostates And as the particular persons unto whom the Apostle there hath reference could not by him certainly be discerned ever to haue been truely and inwardly sanctified for what man knoweth the things of a man saue the spirit of man which is in him so by their after course of Apostasie from Christ he seemeth not obscurâ—ly to gather and pronounce of them that at their best they were but hollow-hearted as v. 38. 39. making an opposition between the truly just that liues and perseveres notwithstanding all temptations by faith and those with-drawers to perdition So chapt 6. speaking of the same and like persons If they fall away v. 6. he insinuates against them v. 8. that they were never other then thorny earth opposed to good earth bringing forth hearbs meet for him that dresseth it As also v. 9. 10. he makes it a poynt of Gods righteousnes not to forget the work and labour of loue of the truely faithfull or beloved viz. so as to suffer them to fall away from the things which accompany saluation With which accords that else-where Faithfull is he that calleth you which will also doe it that is will preserv the truely faithfull blamelesse unto the comming of the Lord Iesus Christ as doth that also in the parable where onely the seed sown in the stony or thorny ground withered and was choked before the harvest but not any one corn sown in good ground To 1. Tim. 1. 19. where it is sayd that some as Hymenaeus and Alexander by name haue put away a good conscience and made shipwrack of faith I answer letting passe other things that Paul speaks no more of them then he knowes and so not knowing their heart and inward man which onely God doth he speaks of their faith and good conscience not as considered in their hearts which he knew not but in outward profession whereof he had taken knowledge The same answer serveth to 1. Tim. 5. 12. if by the first faith there be not meant these womens former promise of serving the Church in the widowes or Deaconesses office and then it is nothing to the matter in hand It is not sayd Exod. 32. 32. 33. in the text but in their glosse that some written in the book of life may be blotted out Moses onely desires-there that if God would not pardon his peoples sin and bring them into Canaan he would blot him out of his book But the Lord answers him in the same place that that cannot be but that he that sins against him him he will blot out Is it to be conceived that Moses for the sin of others whereof he was altogether innocent yea for his holy zeale and loue towards Gods people should be blotted out of the book of life If you say that yet some to wit sinning may be blotted out I grant it in Gods sense but not in theirs For first this is meant of temporary and not of eternall life of the blotting their name from vnder heaven of the destroying them and making of Moses a nation greater then they Of that of which God is sayd to repent upon Moses his prayer v. 14. which was onely in regard of their temporall state and life 2. It is not onely vanity but impiety also to affirm that these persons were ever truely justified and sanctified Not onely Moses and Aaron but God himselfe upon this very occasion testifies the contrary v. 9. 22. Deut. 9. 7. 13. To Psal. 69. 29. I answer that David means no more then that his adversaries should no longer be continued in the Church and fellowship of Gods people the latter part of the verse expounding the former Let them not be written with the righteous which the Prophet Ezechâ—el termes not being vvritten in the vvriting of the house of Israel And seeing David here speaks of certain particular persons his adversaries let these men shew the markes by which he knew certainly that they were once truely justified and sanctified or by which they know them so to have been They take that for granted in which the maine question lyeth and laying such foundations what can their building bee As the Black-more changeth not his skin so neither doe they their bold manner in putting their glosse for the Scripture as appeares in the next place cited by them Rev. 3. 5. Christ there teacheth that some namely they that over-come shall not haue their name blotted out of the book of life They bring him in saying that some vvritten in the book of life may be put out God blots not out their name that overcome and if any overcome not in the spirituall warfare it shewes his name was never written there All that dwell on the earth shall vvorship the beast vvhose names are not vvritten in the book of life of the lamb On the contrary the Saints indeed and elect get victory over the beast by faith and patience That by the Talents given to the servants Math. 25 is meant the graces of justification and sanctification and not the gifts of the Spirit given for the edification of the Church as 1. Cor. 12. 7. Eph. 4. 8. is their presumption Iustification sanctification make men the servants of Christ at first these talents were given to them that were servants already and that according to their severall ability for their speciall places Besides the taking away of the talent here spoken of is not in this life but at the day of judgment and therefore is unskilfully brought for their purpose Touching Pauls affirming that the Saints at Rome were justified by faith Rom. 5 and yet
in Adam haue sinned and by sin lost the Image of God in which they were made so as the Law is impossible unto them by reason of the flesh and so cannot possibly but sin by reason of the same flesh raigning in the unregenerate and dwelling in all which these light persons expresly confesse in the sequel of this book and that this so comes to passe by Gods holy decree and work of providence answerable not forceing evill upon any but ordering all persons in all actions as the supreme Governour of all and that the wicked being left of God some destitute of the outward means the Gospell all of them of the effectuall work of the Spirit from that weak flesh and naturall corruption daily increased in them sin both necessarily as unable to keep the Law and willingly as having in themselvs the beginning and cause thereof the blindnesse of their own minds and perversenesse of their will and affections and so are inexcuseable in Gods sight Here with the lowd boasts of their large and undenyable proofs they joyn sundry errours As first in making the good things of creation to come from Gods grace viz. for salvation of which our question is The good things of creation the Scriptures account our own and of our selvs ever opposing them to the good things of grace to salvation Secondly they err egregiously in saying that what Adam had in creation and lost by transgression for himself and his posterity that is restored through Christ to wit to all for so the question is By this all should be restored actually into Gods favour haue his image repaired in them and be wholly free from that weak flesh making the Law impossible unto them With like perversnesse doe they misapply to all Adams posterity without difference that which the Apostle speaks of himselfe and other godly Ministers and Christians onely Rom. 8. 3. 4 2 Cor. 3. 5 Phil. 4 13 as any that pleaseth to peruse the places may see Lastly they most absurdly affirm that the flesh through Christ is able to fulfill the Law wheras we fulfill the Law no further then as we kill crucifie and destroy the flesh and lusts thereof by the Spirit ADVERSARIES TO the question Whether a man can doe any thing in the work of his regeneration they answer after much froath of words that faith and repentance is regeneration and that it is most plain as what is not to their peircing eye that even in the work of regeneration man may submit to it or hinder it DEFENCE AN ignorant assertion shewing the ground of their errour in not putting difference between Gods work and mans They may as rightly say that the life and motion of the childe is its begetting To regenerate is nothing else but to beget anew Doth the child beget it selfe Or doth not the parent onely beget it So God begets by the Ministery of the Word and man is begotten by him according to that of the Apostle Every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him So Iam. 1. 18. Of his own will begat he us by the word of truth By these mens doctrine we should beget our selvs of our own will Begetting in creatures is both in nature and time before the being of the begotten Men then before they be must beget themselvs by their saying And as God regenerates and not man so doth man being regenerated beleev and obey and not God Wheras if faith and obedience be regeneration then God beleevs and repents seeing God regenerates Besides as the outward means of regeneration may be and are by too many hindred from working and made unprofitable So where God pleaseth to add to the outward means and motives of the Gospell the inward work of the Spirit of which Spirit we are born or begot anew of the Spirit I say though by the Word by the same Spirit which he puts within them he takes away first what might hinder thier regeneration even their stony heart and giving them a heart of flesh a heart to know God and putting his fear in their hearts and by putting his Spirit in them causing them to walk in his statutes he thereby regenerates them or giues them faith and repentance which they must haue before they can beleev or repent as the childe must haue life before it can liue or doe acts of life and must be generated or begotten before it haue life or being Regeneration therefore goes before faith and repentance This Head they shut with answering three Scriptures The first Math. 22 but mistaken for Luk. 14. 23 which as it is frivolously objected if by any so is it easily answered The second is Ioh. 6. 44. No man can come to me except the Father draw him This is not meant say they of violent compulsion True nor yet onely as they would haue it of outward teaching by heavenly doctrine For thus the Father drew many that came not to Christ whereas hee speaks here of such a drawing as is peculiar to them that come to him who shall never hunger v. 35 and whom he will in no wise cast out v. 37. He speaks not therefore of the outward teaching onely but withall and principally of the inward teaching of the spirit as Esa. 54. 13 Ier. 31. 33. 34 1 Ioh. 2. 27. The most of them whom the Father drew by heavenly doctrine that is to whom Christ preached murmured at him v. 41 this hee reproues vers 43 vers 44 takes away the offence which might arise at the consideration of the small effect which his words had with many considering what he testified of himselfe v. 39. 40 shewing that such was mans perversenesse in spirituall things as that except God to the outward word adjoyned the inward work of the Spirit thereby drawing him his obstinacy could not nor would not be tamed nor he turned to God Lastly to Phil. 2. 13. It is God that works in you both the will and deed after much impertinent discourse and many errours mingled among they answer that God doth this in men by reasons and perswasions that they would chuse life and avoyd death And first they conclude without and against reason that if the regenerate haue power to resist they haue power not to resist which is as if a man should say if a fool can doe foolishly then he can doe wisely or the like Secondly it is a slander upon the Calvinists that they are divided in this point or that any of them affirms that the elect though unregenerate cannot resist good Whilst they are unregenerate they can doe nothing else but resist in spirituall things But God in time as he hath decreed by the spirit of regeneration overcomes their corruption and works in them not to resist but willingly to follow him that calleth them Thirdly I would know what they mean by these phrases of Gods sending his word and spirit to
as in a generall root was so conceived and brought forth by his mother in sin Secondly it is one thing to be conceived and born in sin another thing to be made of sin The former David affirms of himself the latter they vainly impute to us and refute in us with many words That Infants are under condemnation that is naturally guilty thereof hath been formerly proved that actuall faith in Christ is required for their reconciliation to God doth not follow hereupon Actuall I say for the seed of faith they haue and of all graces for but by Gods holy Spirit in them which carries all graces with it they cannot be holy and so not bee glorified if they be not holy first but that hereupon they need actuall faith is their saying without proof Actuall sins indeed require actuall faith but for sin in disposit on called originall why may not faith in disposition suffice through the mercy of God for the applying of it About the Infants of Sodom and Gomorrah they discourse marvellously as first in ranking them in their deaths with unreasonable creatures in theirs secondly in making them not onely innocent but godly also The Scriptures teach that besides the temporary death those Cities suffer the vengeance of eternall fire Let them proue children not to haue been of those Cities If God exempted them or any of them from that vengeance it was not for any condition cōmon to them with bruit beasts as they insinuate but with respect to Christ besides whom the Scriptures acknowledg no other Saviour nor no other salvation but by him ADVERSARIES TO a question moved by themselves What need Infants haue of Christ if they be not under condemnation they answer that through his redemption they liue and moue and haue their being and injoy all other earthly blessings with resurrection from the dead and glorification 1 Cor. 15. 12. DEFENCE THus they make Christ and Infants amends But how proue they that by Christs redemption they liue moue c The Scripture Act. 17 to which they haue reference is meant of the naturall life of all by Gods work of creation and providence which is nothing but continuation of creation and nothing at all to Christ as Redeemer The redemption for which Christ came is from sin and so from the curse due for sin as the Scriptures every where testifie The first Adam was made a living soule the last Adam a quickning spirit We haue therfore our naturall life motion and being common to Heathens with Christians by the first Adam our spirituall and glorious life by the second Lastly the Apostle saying 1 Cor. 15. 22 In Christ shall all be made aliue speaks onely of all beleevers as is evident v. 14. 17. 18. 19 who haue Christ for the first fruits and are Christs v. 20. 23. Are any Christs but Christians Is not the lump and the first fruits one Men should haue risen again though Christ had never come or been promised but to condemnation Our resurrection onely in regard of the glory of it is from Christs glorious resurrection And if Infants haue glorification from Christ then they haue the pardon of sinne from Christ also 1 Cor. 15. 17. 23 and therewith his Spirit dwelling in them for sanctifying and quickning them Rom. 8. 9. 10. 11. These men divide Chrst making him a King to some for glorification to whom hee is not a Priest for redemption by his bloud Next to a question by themselvs moved How wee must haue the Son they answer by keeping his commandements forgetting faith by which alone we receiv Christ from which followeth loue purity of heart and obedience Which faith hath more properly the consideration of a condition as a hand to receiv a promise then of an act of obedience to a commandment It is true being rightly understood which they add that repentance is of all sin to wit particularly of all sins known and generally of sins unknown For Who can understand his errours Cleanse thou me from secret faults said he that observed and knew his wayes better then either these men or I. Doe they think nothing amisse slips from them in thought word or deed or ever hath done whereof they doe not or haue not repented particularly Is their knowledge so perfect as they need not pray for further enlightning as Eph. 1. 17. 18 Are they certain they are ignorant of and erre in nothing in the Scriptures written for their bearning This their book sufficiently reproues their Pharisaicall dream of perfection Where speaking of Idolatry they affirm that God cannot bee worshipped after a false manner they expresly contradict the Scripture saying The people did sacrifice still in the high places yet unto the Lord their God onely Here was worshipping the true God and him onely and yet after a false manner in a respect The same the Apostle teacheth the Athenians The God whom you ignorantly worship declare I unto you When Papists direct their prayers to God the maker of the world and father of Iesus Christ hoping the rather to be heard by means of the Virgin Maries intercession who doubts but they worship the true God but in a false manner Neither doth Deut. 18. 20 proue the sin one of speaking in the name of a false God and speaking falsehood in the name of a true God but divers though both deserving death Next they in their wilde order come to treat of Faith where they affirm that no man can haue faith to justification before he haue repented If they had sayd that no man hath the grace or habit of faith before the grace of repentance it had been true God by the spirit of regeneration infusing the habits of all graces at once But that the act and exercise of faith in beleeving is before our repenting appears both by Scripture and common sense We liue the life of Christ wherof our repenting is a part by the faith of the Sonne of God God purifieth the heart by faith and justifies the ungodly by his faith In all which it is plain that faith hath the preheminence and first work So 2 Cor. 7. 10 Godly sorrow workes repentance Repentance then presupposeth godly sorrow Godly sorrow or whatsoever is truely godly must needs please God which without faith no man can doe but even every thing is sin Faith working that which worketh repentance must goe before it Secondly godly sorrow is not onely for the fear of punishment for so the devils are sorrie but for the offence of God specially Now none can be sorrie for his offending God except he loue God nor loue him except he know first that he bee loved of him in Christ in which faith consisteth We beleev therefore before we repent in the truth of the thing and order of causes though we can hardly discern this order in our own sense CHAP. VI. Of Baptisme IN the next place they come to