sinne so he never decreed to damne any man but for sinne But as touching the grace of regeneration the grace of faith and repentance in the granting and denying of this the Apostle plainly tells us he proceeds meerly according to the good pleasure of his will as when he saith The Lord hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardneth And here also God is as just in his decrees as in his executions For if it be just with him to give this grace to whom he will and deny it to whom he will it is as just with him to decree the giving of it to whom he will and the denying of it also to whom he will And why shall not the Lord take liberty to cure infidelity and hardnesse of heart in whom he will as he cured it in Manasses and Saul and leave it uncured in whom he will as he left it uncured in many a proud Pharisee and proud Philosopher notwithstanding all their Morality they boasted of Very seasonably he confesseth Gods will to be omnipotent and irrefistible when neverthelesse he makes him to will the salvation of all Reprobates though not one of them is saved But by that which followes by will omnipotent and irrefistible it seems he understandeth only will absolute which he distinguisheth from will conditionate which can be no other I suppose then this my will is that all and every one shall be saved in case he believe and repent Now seeing it is as true that 't is Gods will that they shall be damned in case they believe not and repent not let every sober man judge whether this deserve to be accounted a will of saving rather then a will of damning especially in case all men naturally are farre more prone to infidelity and impenitency then to faith and repentance As for a will conditionate in God like enough this Author carryeth it hand over head without distinction as he doth many other things besides whereas no such will is agreeable to the divine nature quoad actum volentis as touching the act of willing as both Bradwardine by clear reason and Piscator out of the word of God have demonstrated but only quoad res volitas as touching the things willed by him 4. I have shewed the poverty of his performances by the particular examination of every place alleadged by him and made it plain how he betraies his own nakednesse of interpretation of Scripture and of argumentation throughout and therewithall the vanity of this his boast that our doctrine of absolute reprobation doth contradict these plain Scriptures But he like a brave fellow well conceited of his atchievements and having thereby gotten some authority to himselfe is bold to give his word that it contradicts also the whole course of Scripture which I verily believe he is as well able to performe as he hath performed the former and very judiciously takes upon him to distinguish between the whole course of Scriptures and a few places pickt up here and there as if they were no part of the whole course of Scripture Belike by reason of their obscurity as he pretends no matter if they were expunged like as owles are offended with day-light Our Saviour tells us of some that loved darknesse rather then light because their deeds were evill None hate the light of Gods truth more then such as are possessed with errours as with familiar spirits especially when they have been found to play the Apostates from Gods truth Whether I have dashed my selfe upon the rocks of Austins censure by contradicting any Scripture that he hath brought or only his corrupt and vile interpretation and accommodation of them let the indifferent judge Yet what more plain then this Gods purpose of election is not of works especially compared with the manner how Saint Paul proves it What more plain then this God hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardneth It is apparent he utterly declines the criticall point of these controversies which is as touching Gods giving grace even the grace of faith and repentance and of what spirit that savoureth let every one judge As for interpreting any place we doe not abridge his liberty in interpreting it after what manner he thinks good but we are ready to weigh it and if we find it too light to esteem of it as it deserves neither doe we refuse to take into consideration what he or any of his complices are pleased to insist upon DISCOURSE The Second sort of Arguments Convincing drawn from Gods Attributes SECT I. As touching the Generall SEcondly it fights with some principall Attributes of God therefore it cannot be true For God useth not to make decrees contrary to his own glorious nature and incompatible with those excellent Attributes by which he hath discovered part of himselfe to men Two things are here to be premised 1. That Gods chief Attributes are those perfections in the manifestation of which by acts conformable to them God is most glorified which are Mercy Justice Truth c. For God is more honoured by the exercise of these amongst men then by the putting forth of his unlimited power and Soveraignty as a King is more renowned among his Subjects for his clemency equity candid and faire dealing then for his Dominion and Authority or any thing that is done only for the manifestation thereof And there is good reason for it For 1. Power is no vertue but mercy justice and truth are acts of power are not Morally good of themselves but are made good or evill by their concomitants if they be accompanied with justice mercy c. they are good if otherwise they are naught For justum oportet esse quod laudem meretur 2. Power and Soveraignty may as well be shewed in barbarous and unjust actions as in their contraries Saul shewed his authority and power to the full in slaying the Lords Priests and Nebuchadnezzar in casting the three Children into the fiery furnace and Daniell into the Lyons Denne but no mercy nor justice nor any thing else that was good 2. The second thing that is to be preconsidered is that justice mercy and truth in God are the same in nature with those vertues in men though infinitely different in degree as light in the aire is the same with light in the Sunne in nature not in degrees and that which is just mercifull and upright in men is so in God too And by these vertues in our selves and such acts as are conformable to them tanquam ex pede Herculem we may safely measure the same in God For otherwise these things would follow 1. The common and received distinction of Divine Attributes into communicable and incommunicable would fall to the ground for against it this night be said that the mercy justice truth and other vertues that are in us are not Gods perfections in a lower degree communicated to us but things of a different nature 2. Men cannot be truly said to
such another speech in another place and concludes it with these Words Quare ergo Dominus nisi propter hoc Gallina esse voluit in sanctâ Scripturâ dicens O Jerusalem Jerusalem quoties volui te congregare ut gallina c. Our Lord and Saviour did therefore compare himselfe to a Hen rather then any other creature because of her singular expressions of love to her young ones even when they are out of her sight By these things we see how highly the Scriptures speak of Gods mercy especially in the expressions of it to Mankind To which testimonies let me adde these few more Psal 8. 4. Lord what is man that thou art mindfull of him c. Prov. 8. 31. In the children of men did the wisdome of God delight himselfe when the foundations of the earth were appoynted He took not the nature of Angells but the seed of Abraham Heb. 2. 16. When the bountifulnesse and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared Tit. 3. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the originall word is where doe we read of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 More mercifull is God to man then to all other creatures With such a mercy cannot stand such a decree absolute Reprobation being once granted we may me thinks more properly call God a Father of cruelties then of mercies and hatred then of love and the Devills names Satan and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an adversary a destroyer may be fitter for him then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Saviour which I tremble to think Doth mercy please him when he of his own will only hath made such a decree as shewes farre more severity towards poore men then mercy Is he slow to anger when he hath taken such a small and speedy occasion to punish the greater part of men in Hell torments for ever and for one sinne once committed hath shut up the greater part of men under invincible unbelief and damnation Is his mercy abundant doth it extend it selfe farther then justice when it is tackt up so short limited to a few chosen ones when 100 for one at least take in all parts of the World are unavoidably cast away out of his only will and pleasure Or doth his love passe knowledge when we see daily greater love then this in men and other creatures What Father and Mother that have not only cast off Fatherhood and Motherhood but humanity too so the Authors Copy hath it would determine their children to certain death or to cruell torments worse then death for one only offence and that committed too not by them in their own persons but by some other and only imputed unto them How much lesse would they give themselves to beget Children and bring them forth that they might bring them to the rack fire gallowes and such like tortures and deaths But to deliver things a little more closely Foure things in my conceit being well and distinctly considered doe make it apparent that this decree is incompatible with Gods mercy 1. That Adams sinne was the sinne of mans nature only and no mans personall transgression but Adams it was neither committed nor consented to by any of his posterity in their own persons 2. That it was the sinne of our nature not by generation for then the sinnes of our Grand-fathers and Fathers would be our sinnes also because we come from them and they would be our sinnes so much the more by how much nearer we are to the stock from which we doe immediatly spring then to the first root and common Father of Mankind It is the sinne of our nature by imputation only it was Gods will that he should stand up for a publique person and that in him all men should stand or fall This is generally granted by Divines and particularly by that excellent servant of God M. Calvin Neque enim factum est saith he ut a salute exciderant ommes unius parentis culpâ And a little after he saith Hoc cum naturae nequeat ascribi ab admirabili Dei consilio profectum esse minimè obscurum est And a little after thus unde factum est ut tot gentes uuà cum earum liberis infantibus aeterna morte involveret lapsus Adae absque remedio nisi quia Deo it à visum est 3. That God did pardon it in Adam who did actually and voluntarily commit it in his own person 4. That Christ came into the World to take away peccatum mundi the sinne of the World Ioh. 1. 29. That God either did or might have satisfied his wronged justice in the blood of the Covenant for all man kind and without any impeachment to justice might have opened a way of Salvation to all and every man These things being well considered will make no man I think to conclude in his thoughts that if there be any such decree God is not mercifull to man at all much lesse is he more mercifull supposing this decree to men then he is to other creatures but more sharpe and severe then he is to other creatures to the Devills themselves 1. To other creatures because the most of men are determined by his omnipotent decree to such a being as is a thousand times worse then no being at all whereas other creatures even the basest of them though they perhaps have but a contemptible being yet they have such a beeing as is much better then no being at all it is farre better not to be at all then to be eternally miserable without any possibility of the contrary for so saith our Saviour speaking of Judas It had been good for that man if he never had been borne Men would not have accepted of life and being when first they entred upon possession of it if they had known upon what hard conditions it was to be tendred and that it was to be charged with such an interest as can no waies be recompensed by the benefits of life or did men firmely believe this decree they would at adventure with Job curse their birth-day be willingly released from the right of creatures and desire that their immortall soules might vanish into nothing What Minutius saith of Pagans might be truly affirmed of men in generall Malunt extingui penitus quam ad supplicia reparari Nay Parents out of pitty to their Children would wish that they might be borne Snakes and Toads rather then men and creatures whose being shall at last be resolved into nothing rather then immortall Spirits 2. Then to the very Devills also who are set forth in Scripture to be the greatest spectacles of Gods wrath and irefull severity In one thing this decree makes most men and Devills equall Utrisque desperata salus they are both sure to be damned but in three things men are in a farre worse condition by it 1. In their appoyntment to Hell not for their own proper personall sinnes for which the Devills suffer but for the sinnes of
Gods mercy DISCOURSE SECT III. This I divide into Five Subsections SUBSECT I. IT Fights with the justice of God c. The Lord saith David is righteous in all his waies Psal 145. The judgements of the Lord saith Solomon are weight and measure Prov. 16. 11. That is exact and without all exception So just is God that he offers the justice of his decrees and waies to the triall of humane understanding Isai 5. 3. Judge I pray you between me and my vineyard and Ezech. 18. 25. He is content to prove himselfe just by plain arguments through the whole chapter Are not my waies equall and your waies unequall And he permitted Abraham when he was in his greatest humility acknowledging himselfe to be but Dust and Ashes to reason with him about the equity of his doings Wilt thou slay the righteous with the wicked Shall not the judge of all the earth doe right Gen. 18. 23 25. And Moses also Num. 16. 22. is suffered to argue Gods justice in the same manner Shall one man sinne and wilt thou â—e â—â—oth with all the Congregation In a word so evidently just is God in all his proceedings that many both good and bad who have felt his justice have cleared God and deepely charged themselves witnesse Ezra Nehemiah and Daniell in their ninth Chapters and Adonibezek Judges 1. â— and the Emperour Mauricius who having seen his children butchered and waiting every minute for the bloudy stroake of death brake out into these words Justus es Domine justum est judicium tuum Righteous art thou O Lord and just is thy judgement With this inviolable justice of God absolute reprobation of such especially as are commanded to believe and called to Salvation cannot be reconciled My reasons are these 1. Because it makes God to punish the righteous with the wicked as it is taught the Supralapsarian way directly as it is defended the Sublapsarian way by good consequence The Sublapsarians present man to God in his decrees of reprobation considered without sinne and will have God to determine the infliction of unspeakable misery upon millions of men without consideration of any evill in them originall or actuall as I have touched before and so they make him plainly to be a destroyer of the righteous The Sublapsarians for against their way have I tied my selfe to bend my reasons present man to God considered indeed in originall sinne which is a sinne so farre as it concernes Adams posterity made ours only by Gods order and appointment and so in effect they say 1. That God did lay upon every man a necessity of being borne in originall sinne 2. That he hath determined for that sinne to cast away the farre greater part of Mankind for ever and so they make God to doe by two acts the one accompanying the other which the other say he did by one and they will not stick if they be put to it to say as D. Twisse doth Quod Deus potest intercedente libera sua â—â—stitutione illud etiam absolute poterit vel sine ali â—â—â— constitutione intercedentâ— That is God may decree men to hell for that is the thing he speaks of for Adams sinne which is derived to them by the only constitution of God he may as well doe it absolutely without any such constitution It is all one in substance to decree the misery of an innocent man and to purpose that he shall be involved in a sinne that so he may be brought to misery neither of these Decrees are just Non iustitia iusta dicetur saith Fulgentius si puniendum reum non invenisse sed fecisse dicatur major vero eâ—it iniustitia si lapso Deus retribuat poenam quem stantem praedestinasse dicitur ad ruinam TWISSE Consideration VVIth us Christians there is no doubt or question made of the truth of this that God is righteous in all his waies yea though he command Abraham to sacrifice his sonne and though he caused not only Achan to be stoned for his trespassing about the excommunicate thing but his children also with him and though he visit the sinne of Fathers upon the Children to the third and fourth generation of them that hate him And though in the drowning of the World he caused Infants to perish with their parents some in their Mothers wombe some hanging on their Mothers breasts And so in the destruction of Sodome and Gomorrah with fire from heaven And not so only but the righteous God hath given us power over inferiour creatures to weare them out in serving our turnes with them yea and to knock them in the heads to cut their throats and strangle them as we think good and we are no whit the more unrighteous in executing this power which God hath given us upon them yea in giving his own and holy Sonne to be reviled blaspheamed betrayed condemned crucified so to make his soule an offering for our sinnes In all these waies the Lord is righteous and holy in all his works Solomon saith Prov. 16. 11. That a just weight and ballance are the Lords all the weights of the bagge are his worke And the same Solomon in the same chapter saith v. 4. The Lord hath made all things for himselfe yea even the wâ—â—ed against the day of evill This revives in me the remembrance of a pretty story An odde fellow came to his Neighbour to borrow a bushell of Malt saying the mercifull is righteous and lendeth the other answered him in the same element saying The ungodly borroweth and payeth not againe Where is that saith the borrower Where is yours saith the other Why saith he the place I mentioned is in the 37 Psahne So is mine too saith the other But proceed we along with him Whereas he saith Gods judgements are without exception that is untrue for we find the Apostle Saint Paul to take notice of exceptions made against the waies of God in some particular casts as when God hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardneth upon the proposall of this Doctrine the Apostle takes notice of such an exception as this Thou wilt say then why doth he yet complaine for who hath resisted his will and the justification hereof the Apostle derives from no other consideration then this that God is our Creator and we are his creatures And that as the Potter hath power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessell to honour and another to dishonour so hath God O man saith Paul who art thou that disputest with God shall the thing formed say to him that formed it why hast thou made me thus Hath not the Potter power over the clay And as the Psalmist saith That Gods judgements are like a great deepe So the Apostle professeth That his judgements are unsearcheable and his waies past finding out And in the common opinion this is delivered as touching the depth of Gods counsell in reprobation and predestination and by the
out of measure through the abundance of revelations Therefore saith he I take pleasure in infirmities in reproaches in necessities in persecutions in anguishes for Christs sake for when I am weak then am I strong And had not Joseph as good cause to conceive that it was the will of God that he by the unchast motions of his wanton Mistris should be provoked unto unclean courses as David had to perswade himselfe that it was Gods will by the rayling of Shimei he should be provoked unto revenge that so by the power of his grace strengthning them against such provocations they might come forth of their severall temptations as gold out of fire more bright more resplendent then before Ioseph was a faire person and well favoured Genes 39. 6. Now this was a sore provocation to a lustfull eye Beauty is said to be of a dangerous nature as that which makes a man either Praedonem alienae castitatis or Praedam suae But Joseph had a gracious and a chast heart his beauty gave him no encouragement to prey upon others chastity but being a congruous baite to the lustfull appetite of his Mistris it was in danger to expose his own chastity to be preyed upon And as Austin said of Gods providence concerning Shimei ejus voluntatem proprio vitio suo malam in hoc peccatum judicio suo justo occulto inclinavit Who seeth not that the like may be said of Gods dealing with Ioseph's Mistris and that without all aspersion of unholinesse unto God For if he gives Men or Women over unto their lusts what will be the issue but uncleannesse Rom. 1. 24 26. When God gave them up to vile affections what followed but this even their Women did change their naturall use into that which was against nature vers 27. and likewise also the Men left their naturall use of the Women and burned in their lust one toward another and Man with Man wrought filthinesse and received in themselves such recompence of their errour as was meet Here we have a strange course of Gods providence in punishing sin with sin For these Gentiles in defiling themselves one with another in a most unnaturall and abominable manner are said to receive such recompence for their errour as was meet In few words what is meant by provocation unto any sin Is it to doe that whereupon man may take just cause or occasion to doe that which he doth without blame like as the Corinthians provoked Paul as a foole to loast himselfe as himselfe expresseth it for he adds ye have compelled me But this cannot be affirmed of Tiberius his ministers in provoking Drusus and Nero. For no provocation could be sufficient to make them unblameable in convitiating their Prince much lesse can it be said that God provokes any man in this manner neither doe I think that any of our adversaries as malevolent as they are dares impute any such crimination unto us as if wee attributed any such discourse unto providence divine What then is it to provoke unto sin Is it to doe somewhat upon the consideration whereof mens passions being moved they cannot but sin But this in like sort is equally as untrue as the former even of those provocations which were made upon Drusus and Nero by the practises of Tiberius Or is it the doing of somewhat whereupon occasion is taken to sinne to blaspheme this hath no colour of truth in it For even man without all transgression may doe many things whereupon occasion is taken of doing evill and therefore we distinguish of Scandalum datum Acceptum Nay though man knowes offence will be taken upon the doing of some things yet if the doing thereof be commanded by God he must doe them what occasion soever is thereby taken to offend Indeed if they are things indifferent I must abstaine from the doing of them in case I know offence will be taken thereat and that thereby I shall lay a stumbling block in the way of my Brother For Paul professeth that if meat would offend his Brother he would never eat meat rather then offend his Brother But no such obligation lies upon God For he knoweth full well how some will abuse his mercies others grow worse and worse by his judgements breaking forth into blasphemy thereupon yet no wise man will say that God is the more unholy in the shewing of mercy and in the execution of judgement He professeth in plain termes that to them who feare him he will be a sanctuary but as a stumbling block and as a rock to fall upon to both the houses of Israel and as a snare and as a net to both the Inhabitants of Ierusalem Isai 8. 14. As for the last clause of this odious Parallel concerning the end of Tiberius his course in this namely that so he might cover his cruelty in their death under pretext of justice Undoubtedly I should think the putting of them to death was just in case they did convitiate their Prince whatsoever their provocations were For hereby they deserved death yea everlasting death and damnation His sin was in causing them to be provoked hereunto and so also it might be in the manner of their execution For it is written of him that fame necavit he famished them I know Tiberius was cruell enough but by the story it seems that policy wicked policy moved him unto this first to intend their deaths because he saw the affections of the people towards them belike for Germanicus his sake a worthy man according to those times For when he found that in the beginning of the yeare vowes were made on their behalfe to wit for their preservation he dealt with the Senate that such rewards ought not to be tendred but towards such who were of experience and of ripenesse of age and that hereupon the inward character of his affection towards them being discovered he laid them open to every mans criminations variaque fraude inductos ut concitarentur ad convitia concitati perderentur accusavit per literas amarissimè congestis etiam probris judicatos hostes fame necavit And anon after the same Author discovers the reason of all this to wit that seeing Germanicus was but his adopted Sonne and one Drusus by name was his naturall sonne and his own sonne Drusus being dead leaving a sonne Tiberius behind him he desired to make him as his naturall sonne his successor in the Empire Aelium Sejanum ad summam potentiam non tà m benevolentia provexer at quà m ut esset cujus ministerio ac fraudibus liberos Germanici circumveniret Nepotemque suum ex Druso filium naturalem ad successionem Imperii confirmaret Sure we are God hath no need of any such politique courses neither hath he need of any pretext of justice to take a mans life from him It is confessed now of all hands that God can annihilate the holiest Angel by power absolute And if it be in the power of God to keep any man
be made after Gods image Gen. 1. 27. Nor when they are regenerated to be renewed after the same image Col. 3. 10. And to be made partakers of the Divine nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. That Picture cannot be the picture of such a man which doth not in its parts and lineaments clearly resemble him nor can we be truly the image of God in respect of our graces if in these graces there be not a resemblance of Gods Attributes 3. We may not safely imitate God as we are commanded Be you perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect Math. 5. 48. and be ye holy as I am holy Nor when we shew forth mercy justice and truth in our actions can we be properly said to imitate God if these be one thing in God and in men another These two things being thus premised viz. that Gods mercy justice and truth are three of his chief Attributes in the exercise of which he takes himselfe to be much glorified and that we are to measure these Attributes by the same vertues in ourselves I come to the proofe of my second reason against absolute reprobation which is that it opposeth some of Gods principall Attributes particularly his justice mercy and truth TWISSE Consideration I Cannot but wonder at the performances of the true Author of this Discourse in comparing that which goes before with that which comes after His poverty of argumentation out of Scripture and the exuberancy of his discourse following Before he was in some straits but now he seems to have gotten Sea roome enough yet this is my comfort I seem to perceive out of what chimney all this smoak proceeds and to be as well acquainted with the spirit that breatheth here as if I were at his elbow while he penned it Agnosco veteris vestigia flammae such like are Doctor Jacksons discourses and him I have known of old and his Ephestion also I professe willingly of Scholar acquaintance they were my greatest and dearest But seeing it hath pleased God to put such a difference between us I would have both them and the World know I doe as little regard them as feare them Arminius himselfe is never more plausible then in such like extravagant discourses as a positive Theologue But these inspirations were never derived from him they are flowers of another garden These have been shapen in a more Philosophicall brain whereof some having gotten the reputation give Oracles therehence first to forme interpretations of Scriptures in congruity to these Theorems as the true Author blusheth not to professe which when he hath perswaded the World of I see no cause to the contrary but he may adventure a degree farther and perswade the burning of the Bible so farre as it concerneth the Doctrine of Predestination and Reprobation Grace and Free-will and content themselves with these magisteriall precepts as most sufficient and soveraigne for the endoctrinations of the Christian World in these poynts But he might have spared his pains in proving this consequence that if our Doctrine of Reprobation be contradictory to Gods principall attributes it cannot be true I say he might have spared the proofe hereof for all that he brings in proofe of this is but darknesse in comparison of the domesticall light and selfe-evidence which this consequence carryeth with it His premises here and discourse thereof is like unto the Turkes parly before the encounter when he challenged any one of Scanderbegs army to a single combate For as that parley was meerely complementall and to no purpose save only as he might conceit to abate the fervor of his opposite who longed to be dealing with him so this introduction I find to be of no Scholasticall use in the world but meerely Politick to work some impression upon the readers affections where by it may come to passe that when he reads of Gods mercy and justice as here it is set forth he may be the more enclined to judge thereof according to the genius of human mercy and justice Yet I am content to give my selfe to be wrought upon by these pretty contemplations as farre as I shall be convicted of any truth and sobriety in them though I willingly professe I am very suspicious for I love to betray my infirmities that there is little or no truth and sobriety at all in them 1. Now because he hopes to hatch much advantage unto his cause out of these attributes and to that purpose he sitts very long upon them though his market may be never the better for all that He tells us these are Gods chief attributes and as it appeareth by that which followeth his practice is to disparage his power which I call the Lords Soveraignty in comparison to these Now it seems they are chiefe indeed in his opinion for the furthering of his cause but as for any absolute chiefty they have in God I am not as yet acquainted therewith what I may be by this Authors performances I know not yet in the next page save one he professeth expressely That all Gods excellencies are infinitely good and one is not greater then another wherein I doe much approve his judgement as savouring of more depth then this which yet I think not that he who pretends to be the Author of this discourse in respect of his minority should be likely to broach as for other respects of principality I shall be ready to take notice of them in due place But when he saith God is most glorified in the manifestation of mercy justice and truth it is a very odde phrase For it is one thing to be glorious another thing to be glorified dare he deny that God is as glorious in his power and soveraignty as in his mercy justice and truth As for the glorifying of him that depends upon the will of the creature It may be some are more thankfull unto God for blessing them with health and riches and honour and preferment then for bestowing his Gospell upon them but will it follow herehence that his goodnesse in giving riches c. is more glorious then his goodnesse is seen in giving us his Word and Gospell We read that when God laid the foundations of the earth the Starres of the morning praised God together and all the children of God rejoyced Job 38. 7. did these Angells glorify God for his mercy justice and truth in the creating of them We read sometimes of Gods power sometimes of his wisdome manifested in the Creation as Jer. 10. 11. and 51. 11. and Psal 136. 5. Jer. 10. 12. c. But no where have I read that I can remember he made the World by his mercy justice or truth and Revel 4. 11. I find the glory of power given unto God in the creation by the 24 Elders but neither there nor any where else that I know is the glory of his mercy justice and truth given unto God therein Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour and power for thou hast created all
of a thousand so much doth his justice come short of his mercy in the exercise of it And upon this poore interpretation he grounds the only substantiall part of his reply to our answer to this his argument For to say that Gods mercy is rich abundant long suffering beyond apprehension is nothing to the purpose For all this hinders not but that the application of it may be and is made only to certain vessells who are called vessells of mercy in distinction from vessells of wrath Rom. 9. 22. 23. Therefore he addes That it surmounts his justice in its objects and expressions wherein what he means by its expressions I know not For I find no comparison made by him between Gods mercy and his justice in its expressions but only in respect of the objects and there the expression of justice seems more quick then the expression of mercy And as for the extention of mercy to more then justice is extended to he dispatcheth in three lines as I said of these three leaves of his discourse But let us see what force he finds in that comparison to serve his turne First he saieth the comparison is between three and foure on the one side and a thousand on the other as if the odds were a thousand to three or foure but how doth he prove that The Text compares three or foure generations to thousands not to a thousand generations but to thousands and he boldly conceives it to be understood of thousands of generations though it be much more then the World consists of from the beginning of the World to the end of it For suppose the World shall last seaven or eight thousand years how many years will he allow to a generation Suppose he allow but twenty to explode the custome of the Germans of whom Tacitus writes that Sera virginum venus which to this day is continued yet a thousand of such generations must make the World to consist of twenty thousand years But if it consist but of seaven or eight thousand years you must allow but seaven or eight years to a generation to make up one thousand generations Then againe the World was now two thousand years old when this was delivered so that it had not above six thousand years to continue and accordingly but six years was from thenceforth to be allowed to a generation And all this liberality of allowance is no more then will make the child a coat to compleat one thousand generations whereas the Text speaks of thousands in the plural number and the least of plurality is two thousand so that to help this we must allow but three years to a generation by which account they had need be married at two and have a child at three and who then should rock the cradle But leave we these fooleries and content our selves with the plain Text and not piece it out with our brainsick additions We know that for Abrahams sake who feared him and for the covenants sake he made with him he had mercy on thousands of his posterity to bring them out of Egypt six hundred thousand men from twenty years old to threescore and take them unto him to be his peculiar people which continued for the space of about 1600 years and now for 1600 years they have been cast off from being his people And of the goodnesse of God towards Abraham in choosing his seed after him even many thousands of them the Jewes had sensible experience that very day he spake unto them from Mount Sinai he did not mean to trouble their braines with any Algebra in counting up a thousand generations But suppose this were granted him yet these that feare him being only within the pale of his Church what a small handfull were these in comparison to all the world of heathens besides that hated him Marke what difference S. Paul puts between the Jewes and the Gentiles when he saith we Jewes by nature not sinners of the Gentiles Gal. 2. And the Psalmist before him Psal 147. He sheweth his word unto Jacob his statutes and ordinances to Israel he hath not dealt so with every nation neither have they known his judgements According whereunto the Apostle having demanded saying What is then the preferment of the Jew or what is the profit of circumcision Answereth thus Much every way and chiefly because unto them were committed the Oracles of God Rom. 3. 1 2. And the same Apostle doth not acknowledge the Gentiles to have obtained mercy at the hands of God untill the time of their calling by the Ministry of the Gospell Rom. 11. 30. in these words Ye in times past have not believed God yet have now obtained mercy through their unbeliefe This might suffice for answer to this argument taking it in the full strength thereof But I am content to runne over the whole discourse and to take every part of it into consideration 1. He saith God is mercy in the abstract and Love By this it is apparent that the Attributes Divine are the very Essence Divine otherwise they could not be predicated thereof in the abstract and consequently they can no more be of the same nature with vertues Morall in us then the Divine Essence can be of the same nature with an accident 2. He is a Saviour of men true and it is as true that he saveth both man and beast and as for men though he be a Saviour of them all yet in speciall sort of them that believe 3. When he saith of the love of Christ that it is without height and depth and length and breadth he doth overlash for the Apostles prayer is in the place quoted by him on the behalfe of the Ephesians that Christ may dwell in their hearts by Faith that being rooted and grounded in love they may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth height For though the height of it be such as is incomprehensible by us in this World yet the Apostle supposeth an height depth length and breadth thereof rather then denies it 4. He saith Gods Mercy is advanced above his Justice not in respect of its essence for all Gods excellencies are infinitely good and one is not greater then another but in things that concerne the expressions of it Here we have words but can any wise man draw it to any sober sense What I pray is it to advance mercy above justice in things that concerne the expressions of it He saith it is more naturall and deare to God then his justice what reason is there for this if the one be equally as excellent as the other To make this good with some colour at least he alleadgeth Mich. 7. 18. Mercy pleaseth him or he delights in it The like we read Jer. 9 24. namely that God delights in mercy and in the same place the Lord professeth joyntly that he delights in judgement But Isaiah 28. 21. Judgement is called his strange worke Now three severall times
and every good work that he hath appoynted for them in such sort that the beast shall not prevaile over them untill they have finished their testimony and in which respect Saint Stephen even when the stones flew about his eares as thick as haile seems to have gone to his death as composedly as a man goes to his bed having ended his Sermon first his prayer for them in the next place and lastly the commending of his own spirit into the hands of God this mercy this rich mercy this unspeakable mercy this Author most virulently and most unconscionably in cunning and crafty carriage labours to obscure and deface and to dispute us out of the faith of it if it lay in his power which lies not in the power of the Devills themselves as much as himselfe and his informers scorne to apprehend any hope of it And all this as unsipidly and unscholastically as profanely by generall and indefinite termes saying by this Doctrine of ours God is not mercifull to men at all wherein I guesse his lurking hole is in the indefinite condition of the terme Men for dares he say that by this doctrine of ours we make God unmercifull to all men even to the very Elect Yet when he saith to men at all the face of his discourse in the common understanding of it should look this way But if his meaning be that he is not made mercifull to all hath himselfe any farther improved the mercy of God then by enlarging of it unto the children of God And if he by children of God understand all men created by him and we only those whom God hath adopted in Christ and regenerated I pray consider which of us delivereth himselfe in best congruity to the Scripture phrase and meaning Can he be ignorant who they be whom the Scripture stiles vessells of mercy Or that these are set in opposition to vessells of wrath and would he have us as brainsick as himselfe to put no difference in the accommodation of Gods mercy between vessells of mercy and vessells of wrath As for the comparison between men and other creatures he is like himselfe throughout in the execution thereof 1. He undertakes to shew that God is not so mercifull to men as to bruit creatures most men are determined by Gods omnipotent decree to such a being as is a thousand times worse then no being at all To let passe the absurdity of the comparison comparing things incomparable to wit being with no being and ascribing a betternesse to no being which is as much as to ascribe a better being to no being Doth not he himselfe acknowledge that as the elect are but few amongst them that are called so the number of Reprobates is farre greater then the number of the Elect Doth not himselfe maintaine that God hath determined all reprobates that is the most of men by his omnipotent decree to such a being as is a thousand times worse then no being at all according to his judgement and that this determination Divine is everlasting or though he dare not in plain tearmes deny that God hath determined most of men to damnation Doth he not here bewray the disposition of his heart namely either to maintaine that Gods decrees are not everlasting nor determined concerning men untill their deaths or that they are of a revocable nature Or will he fly to the qualification of the Divine decree here mentioned and say that albeit the most part of men are destinated to damnation by the decree divine yet not by an omnipotent decree I guesse his meaning is not by an absolute but by a conditionall decree for as for any distinction of Divine decrees into decrees omnipotent I never yet read or heard but this Gentleman being of a phrasifying spirit we must permit him sometimes to overlash otherwise we shall not have occasion to say of him as Augustus said sometimes of Haterius Haterius noster sufflaminandus est But if by a conditionall decree only God hath reprobated those whom he hath reprobated then the decrees of reprobation cannot be eternall but must needs be temporall for res conditionata the thing conditionated cannot exsist before the condition it selfe whereupon it depends hath exsistence Now the condition of reprobation is meerly temporall to wit finall perseverance in infidelity or impenitency 2. What if the condition of other creatures be better then the condition of reprobates For what sober man should expect that the condition of impenitent sinners should be better in the end then the condition of beasts who have made themselves worse then beasts But then he will say what shall become of all those amplifications of Gods mercy towards men commended to us in holy Scripture I answere they all have place concerning Gods children Gods elect the Scripture phrase acknowledging no other vessells of mercy and counting all others in distinction from them vessell of wrath and one end whereto tends Gods providence towards these vessells the Apostle signifies plainly to be the amplification of his mercy towards the vessells of mercy Rom. 9. 22 23. Which may be unfolded thus that by seeing the miserable conditions of vessells of wrath they may be more sensible of Gods mercy towards them in putting so gracious a difference between them 3. It cannot be denied but God foresaw what the condition of most men would be if they were brought forth into the World What then did God mean to bring them forth Where was his mercy in this Were it not a thousand times better for them not to be borne And by being borne was it not infallible that their condition would be a thousand times worse then the condition of beasts according to this Authors grave and Philosophicall discourse 4. Consider though God foresaw that being so dealt withall as God meant they should be they would never repent nor believe yet seeing God had other means and motives in store which he knew full well would prove effectuall to bring them to faith and repentance were he pleased to use them as Arminius acknowledgeth as I have often cited him and it cannot be denied by the maintainers of scientia media Where was Gods mercy that would both have them brought forth and use only such means to bring them to faith and repentance which he knew would prove ineffectuall and resolved not to use such means with them which hee knew would prove effectuall thereunto I appeale to the judgement of every sober man whether this proceeded not meerely from Gods absolute decree to make them vessells of Wrath that is fit vessells in whom should shine the glory of his vindicative justice even to shew the riches of his glory towards the vessells of mercy whom he had prepared unto glory as on whom he was pleased to bestow such means of grace as he knew full well would prove effectuall to bring them to faith and repentance and finall preseverance that so their soules might be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ
affection and soone found that he was little sicke in body but grievously in mind for in all other things he discoursed gravely and constanstly so as none of his familiar friends could discerne that the quicknesse of his discourse was any thing impaired Continuing still in his weaknesse many were much troubled and dayly his Chamber was full of People some curious to see and heare others were desirous to draw him to hope in the mercies of God I was present at many of his speeches with some men of honour and Learning To deliver that which I could observe I began first to note his age and his fashion He was about 50 yeares old free from the violent passions of youth and from the coldnesse of old age Nothing came out of his mouth that was light or foolishly spoken or that might discover any doting in him although he did dayly discourse of grave and important matters with the Learned and that some did propound unto him high questions especially in Divinity 2. I will briefly relate same speeches they had with him During his abode at Padua and I will not forget that he declared with a setled judgment that he did see the eternall vengeance of God prepared against the sinne that he had committed This was the true cause of his dispaire and not an ungrounded conceit of his reprobation but the conscience of his sinne cast him upon this and made him conceive he was a Reprobate For that he did find in him selfe that those things which God had given to others to rejoyce their spirits all conspired against him in despite of his horrible forfeit I doubt the phrase here in the originall was not well understood by the Traslatour For although said he that God for a great blessing had promised to many holy men a goodly issue and a great number of children in whose love and obedience they may repose their age yet in the midst of his miseries The hands and faces of his Children were as horrible unto him as the hangmans and indeed for the good of his children he renounced Gods truth for meere temporall respects It cannot well be expressed what griefe vexation he seemed to receive when his children brought him meat forcing him to eat and threatning him when he refused it He confessed his children did their dutyes and yet he tooke it in ill part saying that he did not acknowledge God any more for his father but did feare him as his adversary armed with judgment For he had been three weeks in this apprehension when he spake these things without eating or drinking but what they forced him unto the which he received with great difficulty resisting with all his power and spitting out that which they forced him to take Some of the Assistants were of opinion to make him afraid to make him the more apt to receive food first for the soule then for the body asking him if he did not feare greater and sharper torments after this life then those he then felt He confessed that he expected farre more sharpe and had already horror of them yet he desired nothing more then to be cast headlong in to them that he might not feare other more grevious torments They asked him againe if he thought his sinne so foule as it could not be pardoned through the bounty and infinite mercy of God His answer was that he had sinned against the Holy Ghost which was so great a sinne as is called a sinne unto death that is to say subject to the eternall vengeance of God and to the paines of Hell now judge I pray whether the example of Peter was sufficient to take him off from desperation for will any say that Peter in denying his Master sinned against the Holy Ghost whereof to wit the sinne against the Holy Ghost this poore wretch discoursed amply learnedly and too subtilly against him selfe Learned and Godly men which did assist him omitted no testimonies that might assure a wounded conscience that God is mercifull gentle and ready to pardon But all this could not divert him from this opinion neither could they draw any other thing from him then that he desired much that he might returne to some hope of pardon But it fares with me saith he as with criminall persons shut up in close prisons and fettered hand and foot Sometimes they are saluted by their friends passing by who advise them to breake Prison and to deceive their guards if they can Such Prisoners would gladly follow their counsell but it is a vaine desire Even so is mine said he 3. As for the Scriptures which were cited to him touching the love and affection of God the Father by reason of his Sonne Jesus Christ he did avow them adding that they belonged only to them whom Jesus Christ did repute his brethren and his members but as for him he had renounced that love and willingly rejected brotherly alliance neither was ignorant in how great tranquillity of mind they might be who had once embraced the promises of salvation and did wrest them continually therein For confirmation whereof this his sad disaster said he was propounded for an example before all mens eyes that if they were wise they should not hold it light nor happened by any chance but to learne by his ruine how dangerous it is to fall any thing from that which belongs to the great glory of the Sonne of God Adding that it was a slippery and very dangerous passage yea most fearfull to him that stood not carefully on his Guard Moreover forasmuch as such evident examples of the vengeance of Almighty God did seldome appeare to the eyes of men they deserved to be the more carefully regarded That amongst a great number of Reprobates in the World his calamity was not singular but his only punishment and ruine did satisfy God a just Judge to admonish all others to have a care of themselves He added withall that therein he did acknowledge the severity of Gods judgement who had chosen him to make him a spectacle rather then any other and to admonish all by one mans mouth to abstaine from all iniquity confessing withall that there was no reproach or punishment which he had not deserved by reason of his foule offence After he had discoursed thus sincerely and gravely of the justice Divine he said they should not take it strange this his long speech touching the true reason of the will of God for that oftentimes God doth wrest out of the mouthes of Reprobates most assured testimonies of his Majesty his justice and his fearfull vengeance How strangely doth he plead for Gods justice against himselfe as a Reprobate when our Arminians are like to blaspheame that justice of God against Spira which Spira justifies against himselfe using a long discourse upon this sentence and desirous to shew the greatnesse of Gods judgements There are some saith he who have all things so wishfully as they live in all delights who notwithstanding are registred for
eternall life by way of reward and inflict eternall death on the other by way of punishment yet in conferring the grace of regeneration of faith and repentance upon the one and denying the same graces unto the other the Lord carrieth himselfe not according to mens workes but merely according to the pleasure of his owne will shewing mercy on whom he will and hardning whom he will in which respect he is said to make men in what condition he will as Rom 9. 20. Shall the thing formed say to it that formed it why hast thou made me thus Though indeed he makes but one sort of them after a new fashion leaving the other in the state of naturall corruption wherein he findeth them And likewise is compared by the same Apostle to a Potter who out of the same lump makes one vessell unto honour and an other unto dishonour But to returne I have I trust sufficiently shewed that in all this which he hath delivered when things are rightly understood and duely considered ther 's nothing found alien from the holy nature of God no more then it is repugnant to his holy nature to decree and execute vengeance condigne vengeance even the vengeance of damnation on men for their sinnes in such sort that it shall unavoidably overtake all those that breake not off their sinnes by repentance before their death Nothing more agreeable to Scripture nor to the nature of God revealed unto us in holy Scripture then this and consequently nothing more agreeable to Christian reason But as for naturall reason God forbid we should make that the rule of our faith as concerning the resurrection of the dead and the powers of the world to come the rewards of heaven and the torments of hell where the worme never dieth and the fire never goeth out And may it not seeme very strange that a Christian and a Divine and one magnified by the Arminian party for great abilities should undertake to prove this doctrine to be contrary to Scripture to the nature of God and to sound reason Well let us proceed to observe how well he performes what he undertakes And here he saith 1. That the Scripture makes man the principall nay the only cause in opposition to God of his owne ruine We answer the Scripture makes man the only cause of his owne ruine in the meritorious cause thus man's destruction is of himselfe But this nothing hinders God from being the cause why vengeance destruction and damnation are executed upon man for he is the God to whom vengeance belongeth he delights as well in shewing judgment as in shewing mercy Indeed did we maintaine that God damnes the Reprobate whether man or Angells of his mere pleasure this Argument of his were seasonable We know full well that God of his free grace shewes mercy but judgment only upon provocation and herein he proceeds slowly too for he is slow to wrath and easie to be intreated Yet God's afflicting is not alwaies for sinne neither doth it alwaies proceed in the way of punishment when we suffer for Christ we have cause to rejoyce that he counts us worthy to suffer for his name neither were the afflictions of Iob brought upon him for his sinnes but for the tryall of his faith and to make him an example of patience to all succeeding generations and as for that of Ezech I will not the death of the wicked It is the usuall course of men of this Authours spirit thus to render the wordes whereas our last English translation renders them thus I have noe pleasure in the death of the wicked Now as a man may will that wherein he takes noe pleasure as a sick-man takes a bitter potion sometimes for the recovery of his health so God may will that wherein he takes noe delight And whether it be meant of first or second death it cannot be denied but God wills it for he workes all things according to the councell of his owne will Then againe if we consider the infliction of death as an execution of judgment God not only willeth this but delights therein also as it is expressed That of Prosper is nothing to the present purpose we treating here of the cause of damnation not of sinning we say God is the God to whom vengeance belongeth not to whom sinne belongeth Besides sinne as sinne hath noe efficient cause at all but defficient as Austine hath delivered many hundered yeares agoe It is true it is in Gods power to preserve any man from any sinne it is in his power to take any man off from any sinfull course by repentance if he will but he is bound to none he hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardeneth and in all this he is not culpable In the next place he tels us It is contrary to God's nature but what To damne men for their sinnes neverbroken offby repentance for all our divines maintaine that God is Authour of damnation to none but such and to such God is not mercyfull nor gratious nor suffers them any longer nor shewes any goodnesse towards them while they lived he did yea much long suffering and patience inviting them thereby to repentance yea and by his word also inviting many but after they dye in sinne therewithall an end is sett to the dispensation of Gods gracious proceedings with them Much lesse doe we deny him to be good and mercifull and of great kindnesse to all that call upon him For Gods mercy doth not exercise it selfe by necessity of nature but by freedome of will yet he heareth the cry of Ravens and not a Sparrow falleth to the ground without the providence of our heavenly father and the very Lyons roaring after thir prey doe seeke their meat at the hands of God These mercyes are temporall but as for spirituall mercyes for the working and cherishing of Sanctification these are not extended unto all but to some only even to whom he will And accordingly the elect of God are called vessels of mercy Yet to the execution of damnation on any he proceeds not till after death and stayes no longer so slow to wrath he is towards the worst and no more slow to the best of them Who is a God like unto thee saith Micah that taketh away iniquity here this Authour out of wisdome maketh a stoppe leaving out that which followeth and passing by the transgressions of the remnant of his heretage That restriction belike he did not so well brooke but having leapt over that he is content to take in that which followeth he retaineth not his wrath for ever because mercy pleaseth him to witt towards the remnant of his heritage of his people But I hope nought of this can hinder God from being the Authour of damnation to all that dye in sinne without repentance without any prejudice to his holinesse though he retaineth wrath for ever against them We come to his reason which he calls soūd saying that it
pleasing to them At saith he ut innotescat quod latebat suave fiat quod non delectabat Dei gratia est quae humanas adjuvat voluntates We doe not smother this truth of God that we may delude men we rather represent how all flesh are obnoxious and endangered unto God that all are borne in sinne and therewithall children of wrath and such as deserve to be made the generation of Gods curse and that it is at his pleasure to shew mercy on any only the word of God hath power to raise us from the dead his voyce pierceth the graves and makes dead Lazarus heare it and it is his course to call some at the first some at the last hower of the day Thus we desire to bring them acquainted first with the spirit of bondage to make them feare that so they may be prepared for the spirit of Adoption whereby they shall cry Abba father neither doe we despaire of any that are humbled with feare we count rather their case most desperate who are nothing moved hereby or that perswade themselves they have power to believe when they will and repent when they will we account no greater illusions of Satan then these yet these abominable opinions may be fostered by some and masked with a pretence of great piety forsooth and a shew of holinesse and a zeale of defending Gods glory and salving the honour of his mercy justice and truth 3. The third is in their obligation to believe and the aggravation of their punishment by not believing The Divells because they must be damned are not commanded to believe in Christ yet poore men must be tied to believe in Christ and their torments must be encreased if they believe not I make no doubt but this Author is as confident of his learned and judicious carriage in shaping this comparison as that the fruit of Adams sinne is the guilt of eternall death in all mankind But none so bold we commonly say as blind Bayard and it seems either he knowes not or considers not that the first sinne of Angells was unto them as death unto man that sinne placed them extra viam and in termino incur abilis miseriae as death only placeth wicked men in the like case Now we doe not say that God commands man after he is dead to believe in Christ any more then he commands obedience unto Angells since their case is become desperate The Divells are not commanded to believe or repent because God doth not nor never did purpose to damne any of them for want of faith or of repentance but for their first Apostacy from God But it is otherwise with man for God doth not purpose to damne any of them but for sinne unrepented of And therefore as good reason there is why their damnation should be encreased for want of repentance and acknowledging of Gods truth as why the Devills should be damned for their first Apostacy If perhaps as it is likely enough this Author to hold up his comparison shall fly to God decree of reprobation upon supposition whereof it was impossible that men should either believe or repent I answere first that in like sort upon supposition of Gods foreknowledge that they would neither believe nor repent it followeth as necessarily as it is necessary that Gods knowledge should be infallible that it was impossible they should believe and repent and the like followeth as necessarily of the Apostacy of Angells as of the infidelity and impenitency of man And as men are pretended to harden themselves in vitious courses upon supposition of the unalterable nature of Gods decree So Austin gives instance in like manner of one that hardened himselfe upon pretence of Gods infallible knowledge De bono persever cap. 15. Fuit quidem in nostro Monasterio qui corripientibus fratribus our quaedam nonfacienda faceret facienda non faceret respondebat qualiâ—cunque nunc sim talis ero qualem me Deus esse futurum praescivit Qui profecto verum dicâ—hat hoc vero non proficiebat in â—onum sed vsque adeo profecit in malum ut deserta Monasterii societâ—te fieret canis reversus ad â—uum vonutum tamen adbuc qualis sit futurus incertum est Secondly I answer that the like may be said of Angells upon presupposition of Gods decree to deny the grace of standing unto them which Austin professeth expressely namely that either in their creation minorem acceperunt amoris divini grattam or that afterwards the reason why the one sort stood when the other fell was this to wit because they were amplius adjuti then their fellowes and consequently the other minus adjuti And as God gave grace to the elect Angells which he denyed to others So it cannot be denied but that from everlasting he decreed both to bestow it upon the one and deny it unto the other Now howsoever I know the Arminian party cannot swallow this morsell yet by this it appears how supersiciary is that augmentation of the difference between Men and Angells wherewith this Author contents himselfe yet notwithstanding it is not want of faith alone that condemneth any man by want of Faith man is lest to the covenant of works to stand or fall according to his own righteousnesse or unrighteousnesse whereof if he faile and withall despiseth the counsell or God offered him in his Gospell is there noe good reason his condemnation should be the greater For certainly it is in the power of a naturall man to afford as much faith to this as to many a vile and fabulous relation which is farre lesse credible by judgement naturall we see both prophane persons and hypocrites so farre to believe the Gospell as to embrace a formall profession thereof and sometimes proceed so farre therein as that 't is a hard matter to distinguish them from sincere professors yet we say a true faith is only such as is infused into the heart of man by the spirit of God in regeneration Now what one of our Divines can be represented that ever was known to affirme that the damnation of any man shall be encreased because God did not regenerate him and in regeneration inspire a Divine faith into him As for our answer in generall to this argument considered in briefe and this Authors reply my refutation thereof I dispatcht in the first place Although he carrieth himselfe not fairely in relating the answer on our part in as much as therein he mixeth the consideration of justice divine which is aliene from the present purpose with the consideration of mercy divine which alone is congruous that so while he puts off the plenary justification of his reply to that which is aliene he may seem to undertake a full justification of his reply to the whole But I hope we shall be as able by Gods assistance to manifest his sinister carriage in the interpretation of Gods justice as we have done already as touching his accommodation of