Formally our Duty but because alone it will not But it is time to feel the pulse of Master Baxters fourth sense which beateth thus 4. Improperly as onely describing the degree of excellency in the effects as related to the Cause As if they said there is so much excellency in this effect of Grace that no Cause below Omnipotency that is below God himself could procure it And he that denieth this let him prove if he can that any Creature without God can Sanctifie A very Profound Argument I will requite you with such another Let Master Baxter prove if he can that any creature can breathe or move one step without God Ergo therefore Omnipotency is required to cause every Creature to fetch every haust of breath and move every step But let us reduce M. Baxters Argument into form and see what will follow from it Whatsoever cannot be wrought without God is wrought by omnipotency or a power not inferiour to that by which God created the world or raiseth up the dead But Grace or Sanctification is not wrought without God Therefore Grace or Sanctification is wrought by Omnipotency or a power not inferiour to that whereby God created the world or raiseth up the dead I deny the Major That whatsoever cannot be wrought without God is wrought by Omnipotency c. For I 'le assume upon that proposition thus Man cannot breathe nor set one step nor perform any one naturall action without God Doth it follow therefore that besides Gods Generall concourse there is required a Speciall omnipotent influx not inferiour to that power whereby he created the world or raiseth up the dead to cause us to breathe and walk Then every breath we fetch and every step we set is irresistible and cannot be suspended or forborn The Fallacy in these Arguings is A Dicto Simpliciter God is Omnipotent doth it follow therefore that the power which he exerteth or putteth forth to cause Grace in us is Omnipotent If it be so then God Acteth in this work to the utmost of his power and can do no more and no Divine Our preaching and persuasion and your hearing and considering are the appointed means c. Call to the Non-Converted Preface Joh. 17.17 Eph. 5.26 that is well in his wits will say so as Master Baxter hath acknowledged 'T is true no creature without God can Sanctifie but God useth the creature as his instrument and means to work Sanctification Now are ye clean through the word and Sanctifie them through thy truth and Christ doth sanctifie and clense his Church by the washing of water through the word yet the word is neither Omnipotent nor irresistible And it is mans duty †2 Tim. 2.21 1 Pet. 1.16.22 1 Joh. 3.3 to sanctifie himself and as 't is possible for him to perform so 't is possible for him also to neglect it Master Baxters fifth sense is given us in these words And if onely the severall effects are compared as if the meaning were the work of Grace doth more clearly demonstrate Omnipotency in the cause then the creation of the world I have met with none that dares pretend to be a Judge in the comparison or competition Then I have been more happy in this than you for I have met with a man that doth more than pretend to it one that hath plaid the part of a Judge in the comparison or competition and I am sorry you are no better acquainted with him but you may read his decision in the next words which tell us In some respect the work of Grace demonstrateth Omnipotency more as being against more actuall resistance In other respects the creation demonstrateth it much more Now how can we reckon this Judge amongst the number of those Sober Divines who you say did never intend to make themselves †Hi sunt qui se ultro apud temerarios convenas sine divina dispositione praestciunt qui se Praepositos sine ullâ Ordinationis Lege constituunt qui nomine Episcopatum dante Episcopi sibi nomen assumunt sedentes in pestilentiae Cathedra c. S. Cyprian de unit Eccles pag. 23. Judges I wonder who else made you so of these things or trouble the Church with disputes about them This Assertion will argue want of Sobriety in some body let the Reader judge in whom In the mean while I shall proceed to Master Baxters 13. Section Where I find his Discourse ushered in again with a new Reproach cast upon Tilenus whom he upbraideth in this language You slanderously say c. Now at a venture I submit it to the Impartiall Reader to stamp the brand of Infamy in an indelible Character upon the Forehead of him who is the greater slanderer of the too Tilenus or Master Baxter But what is the slander That the Synod saith The Reprobates cannot accept it viz. saving Faith How dares Master Baxter call this a slander †He doth acknowledge it of them in Sect. 36. of this Preface which is so easily proved to be their Doctrine That which is neither given to them nor designed for them by Almighty God Reprobi credere non possunt Gomarus in Thesibus de Praedest disp 1604. thes◠32. Reprobos nec obedire vocenti Deo nec credere nec resipiscere nec justificari nec salvari posse inquit Musculus in locis Com. Loc. de Reprob that the Reprobates cannot receive or accept Faith and Repentance are neither given to them nor designed for them by Almighty God Therefore they cannot receive or accept it The Major is proved by the words of the Baptist Joh. 3.27 A man can receive nothing except it be given him from above The Minor is the Doctrine of the Synodists For if you examine their Suffrages most of their Definitions or Descriptions of Reprobation do include the Denial of Grace Sufficient and Necessary unto Faith and Repentance But we need not be at that trouble to finde proof for we have it amongst the very Decrees of the Synod Cap. 1. Artic. 15. They say God Decreed to leave the Non-elect in the common Misery and not to bestow saving Faith and the Grace of Conversion upon them And Reject 2. They reject it as an Errour that troubled the Belgick Churches That an Election unto justifying Faith may be without peremptory Election unto Salvation And Cap. 2. Reject 6. Whereas some rather than others are made partakers of forgivenesse of sins and life eternall They reject it as an Errour That this diversitie depends upon their own free-will applying it self to Grace indifferently offered and not upon the singular gift of Mercy effectually working in them rather than others that they may apply this Grace unto themselves By which Doctrine it is evident that this Faith is denyed unto the Reprobate and consequently that they cannot receive it which is all I intended to evince from it By all which and much more that might be alleaged to prove it it appeares that the
can never fall from it finally or totally notwithstanding the most enormous sinnes they can commit This also saith he is in his own abusive language and not in theirs whose words concerning falling away are Quod quoad ipsos c. that is In regard of themselves it not onely full easily might but doubtlesse would come to passe yet in respect of God it cannot so fall out since neither his Counsell can be changed nor his promise faile c. 1. I desire the Reader to take notice that this Pretending Vindicator of the Synods Doctrine professeth in his confession of Faith That he cannot subscribe to foure of their Canons upon this Head of Perseverance 2. The Synod acknowledgeth that the Faithfull sometimes by Gods just Permission are carried away into grievous and heinous sins which the lamentable falls of David Peter and others of the Saints described unto us in the Scripture evidently shew Art 4. Art 5. They say Now by such enormous sin they greatly offend God incurre the guilt of death grieve the Holy Spirit break off the exercise of faith most grievously wound the conscience now and then for a time lose the sense of Grace Yet Art 6. they say That God who is rich in mercy according to the unchangeable purpose of election doth not wholly take away his holy Spirit from them no not in their grievous slips nor suffer them to wander so far as to fall away from the grace of Adoption and state of justification And Art 8. By Gods free mercy they obtain thus much that they neither totally fall from Faith and Grace nor continue to the end in their falls and perish Is not this the same Doctrine that Tilenus charge them with to a very tittle Where then is the Fiction or abusive language Did it fall from Tilenus or Master Baxter He could not choose but see these clear assertions for those cited out of the eighth Article usher in his Quoad ipsos and there was something in it that he slipt over them and would not direct us to the place quoted by himself But 't is usuall with these men willfully to mistake or wave the true state of the Question * The Question is An vere Fidelis ad quem in fide conservandum Deus a parte sua facit quantum salvâ aequitate facere potest à vera fide excidere possit and we have reason to suspect that it is upon design when men use such Artifice to lead honest Passengers out of the right way And so it is here For what is the meaning of Quoad ipsos indubiè fieret What I That in regard of themselves they would undoubtedly fall away 'T is impossible †If his Apostasie cannot happen in respect of God much lesse in respect of man for if God will so invincibly preserve him in the faith man cannot hinder him For quoad ipsos take them in themselves and they are not up they are low enough if you consider them without God Qui jacet in terram non habet unde cadat But to make the impertinency of that distinction Quoad ipsos more evident I shall give you an illustration of it in this example Suppose a man being to play a prize for his life upon a Stage erected to that purpose his friend should come to one who pretends to understand exactly the strength and structure of the work and demand of him whether his Friend who is to venture his life upon that Stage might not possibly fall thorow it should he return this answer That in regard of the ponderosity or weight of his own body which hath a naturall tendency to the Center he might fall thorow but in regard of the strength and stability of the Stage made on purpose to support him it was impossible Would you not think this a very impertinent and ridiculous distinction in answer to a serious Question touching a man's especially if it were eternall safety Yet such is the distinction †Which turns sensum compositumin sensum divisum here used by the Synod and repeated as an excellent Save-All by M. Baxter Why I divide a man from communion with Almighty God and take him off the stage and supports of his Grace design'd to buttresse and prop him up and the man is not so much as upon his leggs he is at least as low as Adam laid him and then in that capacitie it is ridiculous to ask Whither he cannot fall The Question here is whether a man as he is set actually upon the stage in the state of Grace can fall away finally or totally A clear Categorical Answer might be given in one single syllable Affirmatively or Negatively Ay or No. Let us therefore have the truth uttered roundly and clearly and away with all equivocations and trifling distinctions that serve for nothing but to palliate a bad Cause and amuse the Reader casting a mist before his eies that he may take no notice of the absurdity that follows the opinion we have espoused But as Master Baxter goes on because Gods purpose is unchangeable c. therefore necessitate consequentiae at least you must confesse your selves that it follows that the Elect must necessarily persevere and so there is a Logicall or Morall impossibility of their Apostasie A consequent Necessity of Perseverance which is inferred from Gods Foreknowledge of it we shall not deny you We know of no inconvenience much lesse absurdity that will follow it because that Necessity doth no way infringe but suppose the vitall operation of the will freely determining it self by the assistance of Grace ab intrinseco and so makes Perseverance a duty considered as future in Gods Foreknowledge but such a Necessity as follows from an Absolute Decree and that determining Grace which flowes from it we deny because that Necessity in order of Nature and Causality is Antecedent to the operation of the will and doth according to your Doctrine irresistibly effect it and so turns Perseverance into an Absolute free Gift of God in stead of being a free duty of man And 't is this you contend for and not the other onely for in your Account of Perseverance you say Pag. 36. 37. 1. We must distinguish between an Impossibility in re and extra rem or à causis intrinsecis or à causis extrinsecis or else accidentall It is possible you say that true grace be lost if you speak of a possibility à causis intrinsecis de natura rei that is the Habit and subject together But it is impossible that it should be totally and finally lost if you also respect the extrinsick causes And this both per impossibilitatem Consequentiae because it is not possible that these propositions should be both at once true God willeth absolutely or foreknoweth that Peter will persevere and Peter will not persevere And yet this following is reconcileable with the first it is possible in natura rei for Peter to fall away
too great integrity to impose upon his Adversary or his Reader so is he known to be of too great learning and judgement to encounter with shadows and Chimaera's of his own imagination How this Doctrine of Predestination is held forth by the other sort of Supralapsarians and the Sublapsarians he that desires to be fully satisfied may procure his satisfaction at an easie expense both of time and money if he will consult that small Treatise translated and lately set forth by Master Tobias Conyers Page 91. 92. 94. 95. 96. under the Title of The Just Mans Defence But amongst other Reasons inducing these men to deliver the Doctrine of Predestination in a different manner and method from the former Arminius observes Ibid. page 97. this was not the meanest their willingnesse to prevent lest God with the same probabilitie should be concluded the Author of sinne from this their Doctrine as some of them have judged it concludable from the first But really saith He if with diligent inspection we well examine these Opinions of a later Edition compared with the Judgement of the same Authors in other points of Religion we shall finde the fall of Adam not possibly otherwaies considerable Page 98. according to the Tenents of these men then as a necessary executive means of the preceding Decree of Predestination Page 100. and a little after The third Opinion scapes this Rock better then the other had not the Patrons thereof delivered something for the Declaration of Predestination and Providence from whence the necessity of the Pall may be inferred which cannot have any other rise then Predestinatory Ordination Thus Jac. Arminius Our next inquiry that we may come to the certaine knowledge of the truth of this Matter of Fact for which you have with no little confidence to disgrace him questioned the integrity of our Tilenus shall be how the Articles charged upon the Calvinists were drawn up by the Remonstrants in the Conference at the Hague Pet. Bert. Coll. Hag. p. 7. 8. The first head of Doctrine which They charge the Contra-Remonstrants or Calvinists whom they style their Brethren to account ORTHODOX is thus expressed word for word I. THat God as some speak by an eternall and unchangeable Decree from among men Supra-lapsarians whom he considered as not-created much lesse as faln ordained certain to eternall life certain to eternall death without any regard had to their righteousnesse or sinne to their obedience or disobedience onely because so was his pleasure or so it seemed good to him to the praise of his Justice and Mercy or as others like better to declare his saving Grace Wisdome and free Authority or Jurisdiction Means being also fore-ordained by his eternall and unchangeable Decree fit for the execution of the same by the power or force whereof it is necessary that they be saved after a necessary and unavoidable manner who are ordained to salvation so that 't is not possible that they should perish but they who are destin'd to destruction who are the farre greater number must be damned necessarily and inevitably so that t is not possible for them to be saved II. Sub-lapsarians That God as others would rather willing from eternity with himself to make a Decree concerning the Election of some certain men but the rejection of others considered mankinde not onely as created but also as faln and corrupted in Adam and Eve our first Parents and thereby deserving the curse And that he decreed out of that fall and damnation to deliver and save some certain ones of his Grace to declare his mercy But to leave others both young and old yea truly even certain Infants of men in Covenant and those Infants baptized and dying in their Infancy by his just judgement in the curse to declare his Justice and that without all consideration of repentance and faith in the former or of impenitence or unbelief in the later For the execution of which Decree God useth also such means whereby the Elect are necessarily and unavoidably saved but reprobates necessarily and unavoidably perish III. And therefore that Jesus Christ the Saviour of the World died not for all men but for those onely who are Elected either after the former or this later manner he being the mean and ordained Mediator to save those onely and not a man besides IV. Consequently That the Spirit of God and of Christ doth worke in those who are Elected that way or this with such a force of Grace that they cannot resist it and so that it cannot be but that they must turn believe and thereupon necessarily be saved But that this irresistible Grace and force belongs onely to those so Elected but not to Reprobates to whom not onely that irresistible Grace is denyed but also Grace necessary and sufficient for Conversion for faith and for salvation is not afforded To which Conversion and faith indeed they are called invited and fairely solicited outwardly by the revealed will of God though notwithstanding the inward force necessary to faith and conversion is not bestowed on them according to the secret will of God V. But that so many as have once obtained a true and justifying faith by such a kinde of irresistible force can never totally nor finally lose it no not although they fall into the very-most-enormous sins but are so led and kept by that same irresistible force that 't is not possible for them or they cannot either totally or finally fail and perish Every branch of these five Articles you may see sufficiently proved in Appendice Pressioris Declarationis and by the severall Syllabi Testimoniorum inter Scripta Synodalia Remonstrantium After the Synod at Dort had declared their judgement upon those five Heads of Doctrine the Remonstrants abridged the same into these Compendious Articles I. Almighty God out of all mankinde considered in the same state or condition chose a few certaine men to eternall salvation without any respect of their faith repentance conversion or of any good quality but that he might bring those elect ones to the appointed salvation he decreed that his Son should suffer death for onely them yea even when they as well as others were faln into Originall sinne and eternall perdition by Adam's transgression that he might reconcile unto God them onely that he might in them onely work faith by a most powerfull working and force no lesse then that put forth in the Creation of the World or raising the dead that he might preserve in that saving faith unto their lives end those very men although faln into the foulest and filthiest wickednesses and sticking some while therein and at last might bring them into the possession of eternall life for no other cause but because so was his good pleasure But on the Contrary I. Almighty God would passe by the farre greatest part of mankind without any consideration of their own proper and avoidable fault that is to say of their own unbelief
suffered Treatise of Convers pag. 2. and for all the Grace that is offered them in the Gospel is What Even because they will not receive this Grace nor entertain Christ and the mercy of God as it is offered to them And what doth this signifie but this because they would not chuse it And upon this account they are condemned and very justly Yet when he is come from his pulpit and undertakes to dispute with Tilenus 't is not sufficient that Gods Mercy and Christs Merits and the Divine Grace be at his choice to receive it this may serve the Non-Elect But be not angry saith he if we thank God for more even for giving us both to Will and Do. If you may be allowed to be your own Carvers no doubt you will be very liberall in the choice of your own portions and if God ratifies it 't is well for you But we find that Gods design in his way of dispensing Grace is to promote and advance duty but your way doth evacuate and cancell it For if he workes the very Act which we call duty by an irresistible operation in nobis sine nobis as the Synod saith of Conversion in us but without us then duty is no more duty but necessity and Grace is no more Grace but force That God worketh to Will and to Do others acknowledge with no lesse thankfullness then your selves if you mean a power and ability in us to Will and to Do as you implyed your meaning to be a little before when you said He gives both to believe and to suffer that is a power to do it yet so as the will is left more free rather then determined under an irresistible necessitation and consequently man may abuse his liberty Heb. 12.15 2 Cor. 6.1 and be wanting to the Grace of God and make default in his cooperation and so his will may remain undetermined and the work to which he was inabled be left undone But if you think when God works to will and to do 't is not in Mans power to bury his talent and contradict Gods motion I must reject that Comment as a corruption of the Text and a subversion of the Apostles argument to inforce his exhortation With all humility sollicitude fear and diligence Eph. 6.13 lest God be offended and you miscarry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Perficite conficite interficite superate for the word hath all these significations all difficulties and opposition being subdued work out and make your salvation dead sure for it is God that grants and works ability not of necessity and indesinently but of his mere grace and good pleasure which he may be provoked to suspend and withdraw This sense gives a huge inforcement to the exhortation But according to your interpretation the Apostle should argue thus My beloved it is God that worketh in you to Will and to Do determining your wills to the very Act of duty insuperably and irresistibly so that it is not in your choice to do otherwise and this he doth because it is his Good pleasure therefore work out your salvation with feare and trembling Would such exhortations tend to the quickning of your Audience or rather make them carelesse Or can it consist with the Holy Spirit of Discipline and wisdome to use such a vehement exhortation and then back it with such a Reason as if granted would render that exhortation insignificant and to no purpose for what diligence is to be used out of a feare of miscarriage if the effect be irresistibly determined In the Appendix to your Aphorisme you say Pag. 52. Believing is properly a condition required of the Party if he will enjoy the thing promised And in your Treatise of Conversion pag. 296. you say Salvation is not given barely from the will of God but from the faith and obedience of men for it is an act of rewarding Justice as well as of Paternall love and mercy What is that rewarding Justice terminated upon Man's free duty or God's omnipotent irresistible work in him Resolve this and Tilenus will not be angry that you give God thanks for working in us to Will and to Do. Reflexions upon M. Baxters IX Section and the II. Article WHerein Master Baxter sets up to be baited and worried as his Phantasie pleases the Second Article in these words Saith this new Tilenus They hold that Christ Jesus hath not suffered death for any other but for those Elect onely having never had any intent nor commandement of his Father to make satisfaction for the sinnes of the whole world Here M. Baxter flies out into passion and foule language and the first Case of his indignation he gives us in these modest expressions A most shamelesse falshood made as they say of his fingers ends By the way I cannot sufficiently wonder why a man that hath wrote so many Directions for Peace of Conscience should throw such Birds of prey off his own fist to devour a strangers Reputation but the best on 't is they are so well acquainted with the place of their breeding he may safely venture to fly them without his varvells they will find the way home of themselves and therefore I shall not need to trouble my self to take them up for him But whether Master Baxters fingers ends be not more dexterous at such work then are Tilenus's let the Reader judge by what follows There is not a word of the Decrees of the Synod that hath any such importance saith Master Baxter But you have taught us to distinguish betwixt Name and Thing suppose the word should not be there I hope it will satisfie the Indifferent Reader and save Tilenus his Reputation if the sense be there and if at least this be not there I shall despair of ever understanding the Riddles of this Sphinx without the help of such an Oedipus as Master Baxter The Synod in their 2. Chapter Art 8. decrees and declares their Doctrine in these words For this was the most free counsil gracious will and intention of God the Father that the lively and saving efficacy of the most precious death of his Sonne should manifest it selfe in ALL the ELECT for the bestowing upon them ONELY Justifying faith and bringing THEM infallibly by it unto eternall life that is God willed that Christ by the blood of his Crosse whereby he was to establish a new Covenant should effectually redeem out of every people tribe nation and language All THEM and ONELY THEM who from eternity were elected to salvation and given to him of the Father that he should bestow saith on THEM which as also the other saving Gifts of the holy Spirit he purchased for THEM by his death that by his bloud he should cleanse THEM from all sins both Originall and Actuall as well committed after as before they believed and finally should present THEM before him in glory without all spot or blemish Here we see the saving efficacy of Christs Death for their Redemption restrained
of the Covenant Luk. 1.74 75. Eph. 5.25 Heb. 13.12 and 't is a main Part of our Mediators Office to take care for the performance of it in a way sutable to his wisdome justice and mercy according to that of the Apostle Act. 5.30 31. The God of our Fathers raised up Jesus whom ye flow and hanged on a tree him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour to Give Repentance to Israel and forgivenesse of sins * See Act. 3. last But because he gives this not to evacuate but assist our duty not to discharge us from it but to inable and so oblige us the more to be diligent in applying our selves to it Hence it comes to be our duty as well as his donation To have Grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and Godly fear Heb. 12.28 and upon this account the Apostle exhorteth so earnestly Phil. 2.12 13. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is God that worketh in you to will and to do of his good pleasure And this makes a fair way for our Answer to Master Baxters next demand in these words If God did purpose to cause this condition then it was Absolutely or Conditionally if absolutely it it will be done If conditionally what is the Condition and so in infinitum That you may not tyre out your patience or run your selfe quite out of breath in such a long course I shall endeavour to stop your passage by telling you that there is ordinarily some condition to be performed not by way of Causation Merit or Congruity but by way of Order to the introduction of faith or the work of Conversion This is confest by Master Norton who saith Vbi supra chap. 6. pag. 129. That Christ in his ordinary dispensation of the Gospel calleth not sinners as sinners but such sinners that is qualified sinners immediately to believe But because he may runne with the Hare and hold with the Hound like your self in this course therefore I shall send an Ahimaaz after you to give you a turn I mean Doctor Jackson 2 Sam. 18.27 no Novice M. Baxter in School or Practicall Divinity Book 1 3109. c. His words are these And because Man by the assistance of Gods speciall Providence without the concourse of sanctifying inherent Grace is inabled to do somewhat which being done his Conversation or Mortification shall undoubtedly be accomplished therefore are we said to mortifie the body and not so onely but to make our Election sure yea to work out our own salvation For so the Apostle speaks Phil. 2.12 But how are we said to work out our own salvation Non Formaliter sed Consecutivè Salvation is the Necessary Consequent of our working or doth necessarily follow upon our work Not by any Merit or Causality force or efficacy of our work or by any naturall Connexion but meerly by Gods grace by the Counsil of his holy and irresistible Will by the Determination of his eternall Decree by which it hath pleased him to appoint Pag. 3110 3111. See p. 3114. The one as a Necessary Consequent of the other to wit Spirituall Mortification or life it selfe as the Issue of our endeavours to Mortifie the flesh Thus that profound Doctor To whom I may adde the invincible Argument of that Learned P. 3143. f. and Judicious Editor of his Works His words are these Let us take a Polemo a most shamelesly debauched Ruffian upon this man we desire the work of the Lord by our Ministery may be prosperous We must either tell him that there is something required of him in this present state unconverted as he is and so set him a Task or that nothing at all is expected from him These two be Points Contradictory Diametrally there is no mean betwixt them I say that of this man something is required The first Minimum quod sic is Reflecting upon his own actions and the Law writ in his Conscience Next I would apply some of Gods words spoke by the Prophets to some sinfull people or Person Or I would reade to him Ezek. 18. as Isa 1.16 Wash you make you clean put away the evill of your doings cease to do evill learn to do well Or that of Saint James 4.8 Draw nigh to God Clense your hands ye sinners and purifie your hearts ye double minded And would Affirm that these words signifie something were not empty noises but Precepts and if Precepts have some Duty correspondent to be performed by him to whom I laid them which is quod quaerimus that I would have done My Adversary must say Nothing is to be done It 's to no purpose for me to Exhort or him to Try nothing can be done to purpose Now what will the poore Patient say Men are naturally inclined to believe them that most ease and please their natures best The least Consequent of this Doctrine that he will or can make and that if he were a good natured man too will be this Why then I will betake my self to a negative idlenesse wrap my body in my armes sit still and wait the Good houre when Grace shall breathe upon me A Second will say Go to then I will eat my meat with joy and take my portion of the things of this life till tasts of a better drop into my mouth from heaven A Third may perhaps do worse wend to a Tavern or worse place and make work for Grace with a gracelesse Desperate hope that the more he sins the more Grace when it comes may abound that quo sceleratior eo Gratia vicinior If my Adversary saies nay He must abstain from lewd Courses we are half agreed is not that part the same with Esay's Cease to do evill If he maintain his Conclusion I have no more to say but to enter an Appeal to God and this Protestation to man That I disclaim all such dispositions preparations endeavours as cooperating to the Production of Grace after the manner that temperate behaviour concurreth to produce the Habit of Temperance or that naturall qualities do to produce Forms merely Physicall And this will quit me from Pelagianisme or Popery But he shall never be able to free himself from the Errours of the Stoick or Manichees that holds it indifferent what workes a man does before he be regenerate Ibid. This is Master Baxters own Doctrine Sure I am saith he that some means is appointed to be used for the Acquisition of Speciall Grace Of Saving Faith pag. 27 and pag. 46. And that a very command to use such means as means is a strongly incouraging intimation that God will not deny men the end and blessing that use the means as well as they can For it is certain that he appointeth no means in vain But whereas you say immediately before this That you are satisfied that God hath not entred into Covenant or Promise with any unregenerate man to give him saving
or believe but perish in Infidelity is not through any defect of the Sacrifice of Christ offered on the Crosse or insufficiency of it but by their own fault By their own fault Saith the Synod so Alas how could that be It was a punishment indeed inflicted on them when as yet they had but a mere Possibility of Being in regard of the sufficiency of the Divine Power to effect it So the Creabilitarians or Gomarists have determined But to come as low as the lowest Calvinists Admit it were upon the Fall of Adam yet he could not by that Fall forfeit an interest in Christ which he never had before that Fall for then that being a means and power to rise again after falling he could not have lost it by falling whether for himself or his Posterity 2. Did Adam's Posterity become their Fathers Surety that he should perform the conditions of that First Covenant and so became liable to the Forfeiture of that Obligation which he did violate Or 3. did They voluntarily and of their own choice set up Christ to be their Prince and Saviour and were the Laws of Repentance and Faith the breach whereof becomes so exceeding sinfull to them of their Own Election or were these both Laws and Prince imposed upon them and they invited to embrace submit and subscribe to them as Speciall Acts of Grace and the onely Instruments to make them happy Or 4. Was it ever in their power to Prevent or is it yet in their power to rescind that eternall Decree of Reprobation whereby God immutably determined to leave them in the Lapse iisque media ad fidem Conversionem vel simplicitèr non dare vel non efficacitèr applicare idque ex mero Placito liberrima voluntate faciente de suo quod vult as the Zealanders have defined and it is inserted amongst the Acts of the Synod Par. 3. p. 45. And either simply to deny them Means necessary to Faith and Conversion or else not to apply it effectually to them and this out of his mere will and pleasure Disposing of his own according to his own minde By which Doctrine we learn that it is their Misery to be ruined for Adams sin but not their Fault to perish in Infidelity Neither proceeds it from any insufficiency or defect of the sacrifice of Christ but merely from the sole Pleasure and incontrollable will of God And yet for all this Master Baxter runs on and to make a fuller Vindication he tells us The British Divines and the Bremish especially and most clearly Martinius and Crocius wel did give in their suffrages for Universall Redemption which are Recorded in the Acts of the Synod and these Decrees are plainly agreeable How well Crocius and the rest have stated the Point we have seen already and indeed one may thrip crosse or pile whether he squares his judgement by their suffrages or the Decrees of the Synod What the sense of those Decrees is you find in their eight Article upon the second Chapter or Head of Doctrine cited above at the beginning of our Reflexions upon this ninth Section and he that would see more may examine their 5. and 6. Rejections What is this Universall Redemption you or they speak of Doth it consist in the Ablation of the Curse or Pain the Impetration of Grace and Righteousnesse and the collation of Life and Glory Mans Misery consists but of two parts sin and punishment Doth your Universall Redemption make sufficient provision to free the Non-elect from both or from either of these From the wrath to come the Damnation of hell or from iniquity and their vain conversation Indeed in your Assize Sermons you did very seasonably Preach up Christ to be a Lord Chief-Justice to Judge the Reprobate but I cannot finde that ever you Declare him to be their Lord Keeper or their Lord Treasurer to communicate his saving Grace for their Conversion or to secure them against the assaults and rage of their Ghostly enemy These last Offices you suppose him to bear in favour of the Elect onely So that your Vniversall Redemption hold a very faire Correspondence with your Sufficient Grace as to the Non-elect there is not one single person sanctified by this or saved by that Nay further seeing all the influence Reprobis Deus Mediatorem patefacit ut neglecta conditione poenitentia fidei inexcusabiles reddantur Wendel ubi supra explic Thes 8. that Christs death hath upon them according to your Doctrine is of a killing nature and tends clearly to no other end then to carry on the Decree of their Reprobation and they being the far greater part it had been a much more proper Title if you had said Those Divines did give in their Suffrages for Vniversall Perdition Martinus who deals so clearly as you suppose in this Question saith That the Redemption by Christ must be proclaimed De Artic. 2. Thes 8.11 not onely as a Common sufficient Benefit but as really and intentionally designed for me else no necessity can be deduced from it to ingage me to believe that it belongs to me which by the way doth somewhat take off the edge of the unregenerate from endeavouring after Regeneration if there be no promise concerning it as Master Baxter's New Light hath discovered But what is this common Benefit and what doth that Redemption amount unto which is to be thus universally preached why not saving Grace for that is peculiar †Ib. Th. 14. to Believers but remission of sins and eternall life Ib. Thes 21. if they Repent and Believe It will be worth our while to observe after what manner God is supposed by this Doctrine to addresse his Visitations and Calls of Mercy to these Non-elect who are dead in sins and sick of an impotency to Believe and turn themselves that he may woo them unto Repentance He must consonantly to these opinions bespeak their Repentance after this manner O ye children of Reprobation once in your first Parent Adam dearly beloved of me but now rejected and cast away by me out of an eternall and implacable hatred how long will ye abuse my Patience how long will ye spin out the war of your Rebellion against me Know ye not how acceptable a sacrifice Repentance and a broken heart are to me Go to therefore recollect your selves and believe me I intreat and pray request and supplicate beg and beseech turn your selves and seek after Righteousnesse I swear by my self that ye may have no temptation to be doubtfull of it Obedience is better to me then Sacrifice and I will be the Author of eternall Salvation to All them that obey me And if these things cannot move you behold the tears of your God your Creator a Father of Mercies to you and will ye be deaf also to his sighs and moans complaints and lamentations O that ye would be wise O that ye would consider Oh miserable wretches why will ye die and perish in
without consulting it that you were like to make no impression with such blunt weapons as you manage against him You must therefore be content till you can come better arm'd to leave the Field and the victory behinde you which your Confidence no doubt at your Marching forth promised you the Glory of in this attempt But this Ghost must follow you into the next Field where he is to try your strength and skill a little further which is That God to save his elect from the corrupt Masse doth beget faith in them by a power equall to that whereby he created the world and raised up the dead insomuch that such unto whom he gives that Grace cannot reject it and the rest being Reprobate cannot accept of it though it be offered unto both by the same Preaching and Ministery That the work of Regeneration or Conversion for mightinesse is not inferiour to the creation of the world or raising up of the dead * Cap. 3. 4. Arb. 12. suffrag Gamvens de 2 〈◊〉 4 cap. Th. 10 et 13. is the expresse Affirmation of the Synod in terminis What is it then that Master Baxter hath to object against the Article 1. Where did the Synod say that this was to save his Elect from the corrupt Masse excluding all others salvation Tilenus hath not the words excluding all others salvation but the Synod hath the Thing sure enough for they conclude that the Election of some implye †Electio quam de Jacobo intelligit absque reprobatione quam vi oppositionis intelligit de Esavo ne cogitari quidem potest Piscat Respon ad Syllog 1. Taufreri Contra absol Reprob Decret the Rejection of others and that is exclusion in Zanchy's sense as was shewed above and in any mans sense I think but M. Baxters Do they not say many of them and 't is the judgement of them all that the number of the Elect can neither be diminished nor increased and are not the rest excluded then by that Doctrine And although you say God invites them to salvation upon Faith and Repentance yet this Condition is impossible and made so by his own Antecedent Decree which first ordained their fall * Oportuit ergo Deum quoque hanc unicam viam sibi aperire id est Adami Lapsum ordinare sed ad eum quem dixi finem Beza in resp ad S. Castel de Praedest in refutat secundae Calum p. 361. as many Calvinists do teach and then the deniall of Sufficient and Necessary Grace unto Faith and Repentance as the whole Synod hath declared and thereby they exclude all others Salvation Master Baxter goes on And if you quarrell not with a supposed exclusion but an inclusion then he that denyeth a necessity of salvation from the corrupted Masse may tell God he will not be beholding for such a mercy and stand to the venture Here you are really guilty of a perverse insinuation to render Tilenus and his Doctrine odious to the world whereof you falsly charge him in other parts of your Preface Sect. 6. 16. Why else should you hold forth such a supposition if it were not to impose upon your Reader that Tilenus or the Remonstrants deny a necessity of salvation from the corrupt Masse Where do they say this or what temptation have you to suspect they think so if you had no such intent your Inclusion might have been excluded and so might the other branch of your distinction which follows in these words But if you mean it Exclusively they professe that Faith is the means of our Salvation not onely from the corrupted Masse but from Infidelity and the Curse of the Law and from damnation and all the sin that would procure it Before Master Baxter spake of an Exclusion of Persons but now he comes to resume this Exclusion as the second branch of his distinction he speaks of an Exclusion of Things which is not very Artificiall in the way of discourse But why do you professe Faith is the means of our salvation not onely from the corrupt Masse but c. Who said onely from the corrupt Masse And surely the corrupt Masse is the Terminus à quo and if you be a Sublapsarian you must conclude that as Mans Misery so Gods Mercy and Salvation must begin there otherwise if men be lest in the corrupt Masse till they arrive at finall damnation Faith will come too late then to save them 2. Here you separate Infidelity from the corrupt Masse and hereby you implyedly acknowledge that we are not made guilty of Infidelity by Adams sin and consequently that men being Reprobated upon the account of this sinne were Reprobated without any respect to their Infidelity as Tilenus chargeth the Synod to hold in his first Article But why do you separate the curse of the Law and Damnation from the corrupt Masse as if this alone were not sufficient to procure both as your words insinuate though I presume as much contrary to your own sense as it is most certainly †Cap. 1. Reject 8. to the doctrine of the Synod Master Baxter runs on in perverse Insinuations still saying 2. If you think that God doth not cause Faith in us you will not then pray for it nor be beholden for it I am so well assured that it is God that causeth Faith in us in the sense of Holy Scripture that I account my self obliged not onely to pray for the working and increase of it but most humbly and heartily to thank and blesse him also for the Possession and benefit But then saith Master Baxter If you yield that he causeth it but not by such a power as you mention you either think that God causeth it without power which is an opinion that needs no censure or that he hath many Powers and causeth one thing by one power and another thing by another which is as unbeseeming a Divine or Christian to assert Answ 'T is acknowledged that God causeth Faith and that by his Power which Power of his is one and the same Omnipotencie essentially but exerted and put forth to the production of severall effects not like the Powers of Naturall Agents which Act Ad Ultimum sui Posse to their utmost strength but in such a Proportion and Measure as seems meet to his All-wise Good pleasure to allow every Agent in order to its operation For it is a certain Rule Licet non possimus Deo tribuere virtutem agendi Lmitatam nil tamen vetat quod influxus extrinsecus ab eo ortus non contineat omnem perfectionem possibilem in ratione influxus Though God be omnipotent yet every influx of God is not omnipotent for what is Omnipotent is Infinite and what is Infinite can neither be increased nor diminished If therefore every influx of God unto Second Causes were Omnipotent or Infinite no one Influx of the Divine Power could be more strong or forcible than another But let us hear Master
certain Law the transgression whereof is Tyranny but he doth it jure dominii as an Absolute Lord whose Soveraignty is without Law or controll and therefore he may dispose of them at his pleasure That this is their sense notwithstanding what they publickly professe to detest may easily be collected from the 18. Art of the 1. Chap. Of Predestination where to stop the mouthes as they pretend of such as murmur at the grace of free Election and severity of just Reprobation as they call it they alleage that of the Apostle Rom. 9.20 O man who art thou that replyest against God And that of our Saviour Mat. 10.15 Is it not Lawfull for me to do what I will with my own Texts of Scripture which the Creabilitarian-Supralapsarians as well as the Existentialists make use of for proof of their Decrees and they are just as much to their purpose that is altogether impertinent to the use those severall Parties do make of them Amongst those Doctrines which the Synod doth purposely disown and publickly professe to detest there is another which I wonder Master Baxter hath omitted which is this That this Doctrine of the Calvinists maketh God the Author of sin But perhaps he hath smelt out the Fallacy exprest in the Fifth Article of the first Chapter where they say Incrodulitatis istius ut omnium aliorum peccatorum causa seu culpa neutiquam est in Deo sed in homine The cause or fault of unbelief as of all other sins is in no wise in God but in man Here are two words made use of as of the same importance Causa seu culpa Cause or fault by which while many of their Doctors do affirme that God doth incite and irritate urge and impell necesitate and constraine men to sin nay worketh sin in them yet shall they be excused from prevaricating the Doctrine of the Synod for though to speak properly God be the cause of sin by such manner of working to the production of it yet Culpa the fault of sin can in no wise be ascribed to him Zuinglius and Keckerman have given the Reason of it because there is no law made to bind Almighty God to the contrary but man onely For confirmation hereof they adde Sicut Taurus cum nunc has nanc illas vaceas promiscua vaga Venere init adulterii culpa non tenetur sed homo si cum aliorum uxoribus rem habeat eo quod huic non illi prohibens lex lata fit ita Deus peccato seu culpa non tenetur cum creaturam ad hos illos actus movet sed tantummodo creatura ipsa quia ei lex prohibens lata est non Deo I shall not so much as English it for shame I cannot leave Master Baxter till I have followed him to the very last stage of his Preface which he shuts up thus We should live in peace if the advise of the Synod ibid. were followed A Phrasibus denique iis omnibus abstineant quae praescriptos nobis genuini Sanctarum Scripturarum sensus limites excedunt protervis sophistis justam ansam praebere possint doctrinam Ecclesiarum Reformâ—tarum sugillandi aut calumniandi But the Synod should have done well to have left us an example herein by their own practice But we find that when the British Hassien and Bremish Divines moved to have the harsh and incommodious speeches of some of their Doctors declared against and rejected they were out-voted and cried down upon this account Ne Phrasium istarum rejectione Orthodoxa doctrina ab illis asserta defensa paritèr damnari videretur Session 13â— We may see by this it is a great deal easier to give good advise than to follow it And this appears further by that Admonition of Master Baxter in the next words And if withall we were humbly Conscious of our own frailty and fallibility and could maintain that unfeigned charity to our Brethren which beseemeth all the Disciples of Christ and which would cause us to say and do by others even in our Controversall writings and private Speeches of them as we would have them say and do by us But alas the Disciples of that Synod will neither be persuaded to be the first nor do the last they will follow none of these Prescriptions no not so much as Singular M. Baxter †Physician heal thy self witnesse his proceedings against A Table of Decrees of Salvation Damnnation Ye shall live therefore ye shall mortifie the deeds of the Body Ye shall die therefore ye shall live after the Flesh Delineated by Mr. W. Perkins In his Armilla Aurea Predestination Creation Election The Fall Reprobation Supralapsarian Creabilitarians Supral Existentialists Sublapsarians Suprulap Creabilitar Sup Existent Sublapsarians God's Love in Christ towards the Elect Effectuall Calling Justification Sanctification Glorification Eternall Life The Word Softning Faith Remission Imputation Mortification Vivification Repentance New Obedience CHRIST the Mediator His Holinesse Obedience Death Buriall Dominion of the grave Resurrection Ascension Session Intercession Illumination Repentance Faith Tast Zeale Deception of Sinne. Obduration Malice Vnbeliefe Apostacy Calling Vneffectual Agnition of that Call Relapse Gad's hatred towards the Reprobate No Calling Ignorance Blindnesse Reprobate Sense Greedinesse in sinning Pollution Damnation Death Eternall Death Judgment Declaration of Mercie Declaration of Justice GOD's GLORY Place this at Page 411 M. Perkins his Synopsis or Table In Armilla Aurea shewing according to his account the Series of Causes both of Salvation and Damnation or the Decrees of Election and Reprobation with the Means and Order of their Execution BEcause this Table contains an Ocular demonstration of the matter of Fact charged upon the Calvinists and their Synod by Tilenus I thought it convenient to insert it and to make some Reflexions and Observations upon it for the benefit of the Reader who upon a view of this Diagram may take notice with me 1. That there are three severall Sects contending as well against one another as against the Remonstrants They are usually divided into two Parties Supralapsarians and Sublapsarians But because Supralapsarians are of two sorts I shall distinguish them by severall Names The first sort who make the creature Gomar disp de Praedest 1604. thes 13. not in its Actuall existence but in its condition of Possibility the Obâ—ect of the Decree These I shall call Supralapsarian Creabilitarians The second sort who make the creature in its Actuall Existence but yet Innocent the Object of that Decree These I shall call Supralapsarian-Existentialists The third sort who make mankinde faln in Adam and by Divine imputation guilty of Originall sin the Object of the said Decree These are called Sublapsarians * Piscator indeavours to reconcile all three opinions Considerationes illa non sunt opposiâ—ae sed tantùm diversae ac proinde omnes locum habere possunt sicut revera habent Objectum praedestinationis esse hominem consideratum ut nondum
conditum ut conditum sed adhuc integrum ut lapsum peccatoque corruptum Idem Tract de Gratia Dei pag. 173. c. Cap. 1. Artic. 7. And although these severall Parties differ hugely in fixing the Object of the Decree yet there is no considerable difference amongst them touching the means and manner of carrying it on from the Fall of Adam to the Finall Execution of it Of which the Synods Canonicall Declaration is this That Election is the unchangeable purpose of God by which before the foundation of the world according to the most free pleasure of his will and of his mere Grace out of all mankind fallen through their own fault †So they call Adams sin from their first integrity into sin and destruction he hath chosen in Christ unto salvation a set number of certain men neither better nor more worthy then others but lying in the common misery with others which Christ also from all eternity he appointed the Mediatour and Head of all the Elect and foundation of salvation and so he Decreed to give them to him to be saved and by his Word and Spirit effectually to call and draw them to a Communion with Him that is to give them a true faith in him to justifie sanctifie and finally glorifie them being mightily kept in the communion of his Son to the demonstration of his mercy and praise of the riches of his glorious grace They say Ibid. Art 15. Moreover the holy Scripture herein chiefly manifests and commends unto us this eternall and free grace of our Election in that it further witnesseth that not all men are elected but some Not-elected or passed over in Gods eternall Election whom doubtlesse God in his most free most just unreproveable and unchangeable good-pleasure hath decreed to leave in the common misery whereinto by their own †That is Adam's fall default they precipitated themselves and not to bestow saving faith and the grace of conversion upon them but leaving them in their own wayes and under just judgement at last to condemn and everlastingly punish them not onely for their unbeliefe but also for their own a Is their own fault even now mentioned any of them sins to the manifestation of his Justice And this is the Decree of Reprobation which in no wise makes God the Author †Artic. 5. They say Cause or Fault of sin c. of sin a thing blasphemous once to conceive but a Fearfull unreproveable and Just Judge and Revenger Thus farre the Synod 2. Observe That according to this Order of Causes the Apostles Doctrine is inverted for he saith If ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body Rom. 8.13 ye shall live But on the contrary here the Doctrine runs thus Ye shall live therefore ye shall mortifie Or Ye shall die therefore ye shall live after the flesh For sin is acknowledged to be the fruit and effect Norton ubi supra pag. 52. or as others who speak more nicely and warily an infallible Consequent of the Decree 3. By this Table Almighty God is supposed to have loved a certain number of persons with an unchangeable love and so dearly as freely to have elected them to enjoy a communion with himself in joyes and glories everlasting and that before Christ is given to be a Mediator for them which doth much Eclipse if not quite evacuate the merit and satisfaction of Christ For to be chosen to such salvation is to be in Gods highest favour and then what room is there for the intervention of Christs Merits and the price of his bloud to satisfie Divine Justice appease Gods wrath to make an atonement and procure a Reconciliation This will help to establish at least to countenance the Socinian Doctrine who take advantage of that opinion to argue against the satisfaction of our Saviour after this manner They who are no longer under wrath but in Gods Grace and favour they have no need nay they cannot by the death of Christ be delivered from wrath and restored to Gods favour But those whom God loves unto eternall salvation are no longer under wrath but in Gods favour Therefore there is no need nay they cannot be delivered from wrath and restored to Gods favour by the Death of Christ 4. That Christ is appointed a Mediator onely for the benefit of these Elect to die for them and procure salvation for them whose salvation was as sure before as the Decree and love of God could make it 5. That Faith Sanctification and Obedience are not considered in this Decree as qualifications in the person to be elected but are provided to be brought in by it to dresse him up for Glory 6. That those Elect Persons in their appointed time shall be called so infrustrably and irresistibly that it is not in their power to make it void or hinder it 7. That no sin can put them out of that road Series or File of means drawn by the Divine Decree to lead them from Election to Glory No not their foulest or filthiest sins Hereupon Master Perkins reckons it amongst the Priviledges which waite upon their Adoption Armilla Aurea cap. 37. Hinc etiam multis Privilegiis donantur saith he They are indowed with many Priviledges 1. They are heirs of God 2. Coheires with Christ and Kings 3. All their afflictions their failings also and falls tantum sunt castigationes paternae ad bonum illorum they are nothing but fatherly chastisements designed for their Good And such is the Judgement of the Divines of Drent Par. 3. pag. 275. f. inserted amongst the Acts of the Synod Whereas say they the Remonstrants do maintain that the faithfull may fall from Grace there are a thousand Testimonies of Scripture against it And presently after We will adde but one Testimony more It is said Rom. 8.28 That all shall work together for good to them that love God If all the evills wherewith they are chastized then their very sins also Quae peccata quemadmodum in impiis interdum habent rationem poenae Sic etiam ipsissima peccata etiam in fidelibus habent rationem paternae castigationis Which sins as in the wicked they have sometimes the nature of punishment so the very self same sins also in the faithfull have the nature of Fatherly correction And may not God be the Author of them then seeing all evill of punishment is from him Amos 3.6 8. From hence it undeniably follows that the sins of these Elect must be of another rank and of a far different nature from the very same sins for kind and quality of the Reprobate For example the Adultery Sedition Murder Oppression of the Reprobates do shut them out of Gods favour and kingdome 1. Cor. 6.9 Gal. 5.19 But the same sins for nature and kinde in these Elect their Adultery Sedition Oppression Murder cannot shut them out either of Gods
were they that overthrew the house in David and in Peter And therefore 't is the duty of every man to keep a special watch here for his eternal weal or wo depends upon it Prov. 4.23 Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of death To this let us adde in our constant practise Saint Judes direction and then by Gods assistance which Ver. 20.21 in so doing we cannot fail of we shall never fall Beloved building up your selves on your most holy faith praying in the holy Ghost keep your selves in the love of God looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life Answer to the 20 Section TRuly Sir you say I am willing to learn better that Doctrine that is according to Godliness and to disclaim all that is against it But you must hereafter learn to do us that justice as not to take our expressions of the worst that the mercy of God will cover in a man obedient in the main to be our descriptions of Godly men Answ Since you ask no favour in this cause and you tell us we must learn to do you that justice justice you shall have and it is this that when your expressions of what God will cover whether they amount to a full description of your Godly man or no but it seems he may be such in those rags as well as when he is cloathed in that fine and clean linnen mentioned in the Revelation when they are apparently incouragements to continue men in their disobedience and ungodliness they ought to be reproved And if you be as willing as you pretend to learn that Doctrine better which is according to Godliness such reproofs will be acceptable and wellcome to you In hope whereof I shall indeavour to make it evident that those Doctrines viz. of election and perseverance c. In the vindication whereof you have taken so much Vnchristian liberty to asperse and revile Tilenus is not according to Godliness and I prove it thus That Doctrine whereby a gross sinner v. g. an Adulterer or perjur'd person is taught to be certain of his salvation not onely certitudine objecti but also certitudine subjâ—cti before the renewing his repentance that doctrine is not according to Godliness But by the Synods doctrine and yours touching election perseverance c. a gross sinner v. g. an adulterer or perjur'd person is taught to be certain of his Salvation not only Certitudine objecti but also Certitudine subjecti before the renewing his repentance Therefore that doctrine is not according to Godliness The Major is evident because such a doctrine doth infeeble at least and weaken all exhortations to mortification and repentance if it doth not evacuate the necessity of them The Minor shall be proved by these four steps 1. They hold not onely that every man may but also that it is his duty and he ought to be Certain of his election De hac aeterna immutabili sui ad salutem electione electi suo tempore variis licet gradibus dispari mensura certiores redduntur saith the Synod And in their seventh Rejection Acta Syn. de Divin praedest art 12. p. 243. fol. p 247. They reject those which teach Electionis immutabilis ad gloriam nullum in hac vita esse fructum nullum sensum nullam certitudinem nisi ex conditione mutabili contingente The Divines of Geneva * Judic Theol. exter p. 56. thes 5. ed in fol. say Haec electio nobis patefit in tempore ut spem aeternae gloriae certam concipiamus Those of North-Holland do affirm * Jud Theol. Provinc p. 39. m. Deum in hac vita suos Electos per Spiritum Sanctum de hoc tanto incomprehensibili suo Electionis beneficio certos facere Sibrandus Lubbertus saith * Ib. p. 17. Ib. 11 12. Aliquis de sui Electione in hac vita citra peculiarem revelationem certus esse potest yea sensum gustum Electionis sui percipere And to this suffrage subscribed Johannes Polyander Antonius Thysius Antonius Walaeus The Divines of Hassia * Jud. Theol. ext p. 32. m. do affirm though no man can know himself to be of the number of the Elect a Priori yet all and every believer may be certain of his election to eternal life a Posteriori that is by the revelation of the word and the testimony of the Spirit dwelling in them and by the fruits or effects of their Election which beleevers finde in themselves And those of Geneva * Ib. p. 49. f. say there is not one of the Elect that is arrived to the capacity of reason that doth not afore his death receive a most certain perswasion of that decree To deny the sense and certainty of Election in this life is to render Election it self unprofitable to the elect in this life yea to abolish it tum quoad gratiam tum etiam quoad gloriam say the Divines of the Palatinate * Ib. p. 18 f. And those of Wedderav say not onely Potest †Ib. p. 39. th 7. He may be certain of his Elect. But Oportet * Ib. p. 44. th 7. It behooves him to be so Nay Potest debet He may and he ought to be certain of it say the Divines of Embden †Ib. p 72. pr. and Vnusquisque too every man ought to be so And the Belgick Professors say as much * Jud. Theol. provinc p. 7. thes 5. And this certainty is without any If 's or And 's saith Gomarus †Ibid. p. 22. f. thes 12. Fideles in hac vita de Electione sui salvifica certi sunt non solum hac conditione si perseveraverint sed etiam absolutè Quia sese perseveratures esse per Dei Christi gratiam certi sunt The faithful are certain of their Election in this life not only upon this condition if they shall persevere but absolutely Because they are certain by the grace of God and Christ they shall persevere And this is the Doctrine of the whole Synod who therefore do reject those who teach There is in this life no fruit no sense no certainty of immutable Election unto glory but upon a mutable and contingent condition as was declared above As they hold that every man may ought to be certain of his Election So they hold of his persevarance also Of this preservation of the Elect unto Salvation and perseverance of true beleevers in the faith the faithful themselves may be and are ascertained †Acta Syn. de pers Sanct. thes 9. p. 267. And in their fifth Rejection they reject those that teach that no certainty of future perseverance can be had in this life without special Revelation I might bring in the suffrages of the Divines but seeing they all subscribed these Articles and Rejections it will be to no purpose to tyre the Reader with more quotations