wipe off the stains which his unwary Admirers are wont to fasten upon his Name whil'st instead of contending that he was sorry for his failings and intended to publish his Recantation they indeavour to justifie what he condemn'd and so the Calvinists in effect do write the most against Calvin So vast a difference there is betwixt them that are but the Followers of that Learned man and us who are his real Friends Who do not follow him where he erred through thick and thin but just as far as he follow'd Truth and as far as we hope he did intend his Retractations § 6. Whereas my Assailant is pleas'd to add that they intended no more than by multitudes of places of Scripture they were led unto referring by figures to many Texts but in words at length not naming One I have several things in answer to him First who told him that they intended no more or that places of Scripture did lead them to the speaking of what they speak 2. What Errors or Heresies have there been within Christendome which have not pretended the very same thing that multitudes of Scripture did lead them to their assertions 3. Why did he not compare one of the frightfullest speeches which I accused with any one Text of Scripture by him producible 4. Let him name for the future one place of Scripture whereby Zuinglius was led to say That God makes a man Transgressor that Adultery or Murder is the work of God the Author Mover and Impeller what places of Scripture led Smoutius Vermilius Beza Triglondius Musculus Sturmius Piscator Borrhaeus not to mention the Doctrines of Mr. Calvin Dr. Twisse Mr. Hobs and a multitude the like to say that God is the Author of evil whether of punishment or of sin that wicked men sin by the force of Gods will that God effecteth those things that are sins that his Reprobation is the cause of incurable despair that both the Elect and the Reprobates were ordained to sin Quatenns Sin that he is the cause not only of the actions but of the very defects and privations that is of the obliquities irregularities and sinfulnesses themselves Thus we see who they are whose Doctrines of irrespective and unconditional Reprobation not places of Scripture have led them to charge God with sinfull actions sins sinfulnesse metaphysically abstracted beyond which no language no tongue can speak above which no fancy no wit can reach 5. Though the wonder already is very great yet will it still be much greater if we compare one of the Texts by which they are said to be led to their Intentions of speaking thus The first Text he refers to is Gen. 45. 5 6 7 8. from which place it is evident that God is affirmed by Ioseph to be the Author of much good which his guilty Brethren never thought of but not at all of the evil which they thought against him And it will seem to me somewhat more than strange if Dr. Reynolds cannot distinguish betwixt God's permitting or suffering evil to fall out by the wills of wicked men which are free to evil and by which they are said not to be unavoidably fatally or necessarily wicked but to be voluntarily and wilfully wicked I say it is somewhat more than strange if he cannot distinguish betwixt Gods permitting that evil that he might draw good out of it and his being the Author or Cause of that Evill upon occasion of which the good is wrought Before he had resolved to give an instance from that Text he should have compared it with what went before chap. 37. where because Iacob loved Ioseph more than all his Brethren v. 4. and therefore made him a finer Coat v. 3. they hated Ioseph and could not speak peaceably unto him v. 4. but they did not hate him by the Impulse of God as Mr. Calvin at first spake nor did God urge them or smite their mindes as Dr. Twisse For the Devil and their own Flesh one or both did intice and tempt though they could not force them to hate their Brother Well Joseph dreamed a Dream which was also a Prophecy that his Brethrens sheaves should make obeisance to his v. 6 7. which dream was from God and accordingly both good and true But his brethren hated him the mor◠v. 8. which greater hatred was from the Flesh and the Devil Joseph kind to his brethren as well as obedient to his Father went to seek out his brethren from the vale of Hebron to Sichem and thence to Dothan v. 14 17. This was from God But before he came to them they conspired against him to slay him v. 18. This from the flesh and the Devil Reuben said let us not kill him shed no bloud and would fain have rid him out of their hands to deliver him again unto his Father v. 21 22. This was from God the wise and holy disposer of all that happens to his Glory But they plunder'd Ioseph of his Coat and sold his Body to the Ishmalites for 20. pieces of silver v. 23 28. This was meerly from the flesh and the Devil being not hindered but permitted by the long-suffering God to execute their wills against his own And this he suffered the rather that he might order and dispose their wicked Fact of cruelty to their innocent Brother which was also their Rebellion against the commandement and will of their patient God to many great aud good ends which never could enter into their thoughts For by the wise and holy providence of God whose excellency it is to draw good out of evil not evil out of Good Joseph was sold by the Midianites into Egypt v. 36. and aduanced in Potiphar's House c. 39. 5. and by his Interpreting of Dreams which was a gift from God and not from Satan he was so advanced from one degree to another that he was made a Father to King Pharaoh Lord of his House aud Ruler over his land ch 45. 8. This was Gods doing but no sin sure for injured Ioseph to be advanced There was a Famine in all lands over the face of the Earth ch 41. 54 56. But that was no sin Iosephs brethren went up to Egypt for a supply c. 42. 43. still no sin Joseph supplyeth them c. 45. which was charitably done and so without sin What said Ioseph of Gods oeconomy to comfort his brethren when they wept aloud and were troubled at his presence v. 2 3. He said no worse things of God than that he sent him before to preserve life aud that I hope is no sin to preserve his brethren a posterity in the Earth and to save their lives by a great deliverance who had delivered him up to be destroyed with vassalage Nor was it his si◠to requite them with so much love for their hatred with so much good for their Evil. Ioseph goes on it was not you that sent me hither but God For they sent him no whither but sold him to
bound himself to this constant method or indeed that he ever useth it at all Whereas I have shewed on the other side both that the other method is possible and farther that God is pleas'd to use it and hath chosen to make it a principal part of the message for which his Son was sent unto the world even to publish that method that men might know it comply with it depend apon it and not deceive and destroy themselves by giddily fancying any other And for this I have produced a very evident passage of Scripture and shall produce many more as occasion serves I will not run out into greater length by insisting on his acknowledgment of a natural indifferency in the will of man for which I had Correptory Correption though I never spake of it Nor will I prosecute his use of the word Invincible by asking whether he means irresistible or not of which Paraeus did seem to be ashamed in those papers which he sent unto the Synod at Dort when he was threescore and ten years old I will only leave one thing to my opponents consideration to be compared by him with the present manner of his reasoning God may give us the ability to fast without eating as many dayes and nights as Moses or Elias He may also if he is pleased make our victuals to encrease in the very eating by such a power as he shew'd in the Widow 's Cruse 1 King 17. 14 16. He may feed us and cloath us like the Birds and the Lillies by the same omnipotency by which he said Let there be light and there was light He may convert us as he did Paul with equal power and expedition or as the Thief upon the Cross when we have only time left to cry peccavi to think a good thought and to make a short Ejaculation though that either of these two was irresistibly converted we have no reason to imagine For God to do those greater things doth not imply a contradiction and therefore he may do them by that omnipotency which could give the Creature a Being out of Nothing but what of this We cannot prove from hence that these are the Courses which God doth ordinarily use or that he useth them once in a thousand yeares and if we should thus argue we should but teach men to tempt their Maker and to ruine themselves by their Security It will be much more profitable to admonish the Reader in this place I speak of the unlearned and unconsidering Reader of the several wayes of Gods working with his several Creatures in proportion to the Natures which he hath given them He worketh one way with Natural Agents as we proverbially call the irrational Creatures but with voluntary Agents he useth another way of working We have an example of the former in that necessitating Omnipotence whereby he sayd unto the Sun stand still in Gibeon we have examples of the later in those compassionate wishings revealed to us in his word O that there were such an heart in them that they would fear me and keep all my Commandements alwaies that it might be well with them and with their Children for ever O that they were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end These and all other wayes whereby God works upon the wills of Men are such as are congruous and agreeable to the nature of a will or rational Appetite as by enlightning the Understanding and by perswading the will and by inclining the affections by strengthening the hopes and the fears of the voluntary Agent by the proposing of promises and denouncing of Threats by Exhortations and Dehortations and all other such means as are congruous to the nature of rational Creatures and for that very reason they cannot be irresistible like those other operations whereby God doth necessitate his natural Agents The whole may easily be discerned by all that shall read and consider Ier. 5. 22. 23. Where God complains of his Israel for not fearing Him and for not trembling at his presence who had placed the sand for the Bound of the Sea by a perpetual decree that it cannot pass it To which absolute will of the Omnipotent the Sea is obedient of necessity but his People sayd God hath a revolting and a rebellious heart they are revolted and gone Which passage of Scripture doth plainly teach us that the consideration of that power which God had shewed in his ruling the Sea was sufficient to move his People Israel to fear and tremble at his presence but it teacheth us also as plainly that it is not the same way of working by which he ruleth the Sea and by which he ruleth the wills of Men. He ruleth the Sea as the Sea but Men as Men and the wills of Men as the wills of Men. It was therefore a stronge Adventure in my Reverend Assailant to infer and argue from Gods Omnipotency that he doth those things which are incongruous both to the Nature of his Creature and to the rules of his working which it pleased his Wisdom to set himself And having said thus much by way of admonition to the more unskilful unwary Reader I now proceed from the fourth Question of my Assailant which consisting fallaciously of three hath occasioned this length unto the fifth general Question by him proposed CHAP. IX E. R. Whether the Lord hath not been pleased so to reveal in the Scripture the doctrine of his Decrees touching his purpose of glorifying himself in a way of mercy and justice as that there shall be an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the Creature to stop at and to adore that he will not have his councels fathomable by the shallow line of humane reason but when he doth with his Creature as the Potter with his Clay of the same common and equal Lump choose one part unto honour and leave another unto dishonour his purpose be not that we should acknowledge and adore his Soveraignty and lay our hands on our mouth as amazed at the unsearchablenes of his Iudgements now certainly in all this there is no blasphemy God doth permit sin and what ever he doth he doth by the councel of his own will therefore he did ab aeterno decree to permit it For otherwise he could by cōfirming grace have hindred and prevented the committing of it as well in all Angels as in some as well in Adam as in Angels and that without any violence offered to their nature at all Gen. 20. 5. Gen. 31. 7. 1 Cor. 10. 13. Neither can there be given any Cause out of God himself and the Councel of his own will leading and inducing him rather to permit then hinder it He did decree to permit it in order to his own Glory which is the supreme end and therefore by him absolutely willed because the being thereof by his unsearchable wisedom and power was ordainable thereunto He may out of that common equal Mass wherein he did
opinion of Reprobation for which the Synod at Dort thought fit to thank him I say they thank'd him for all his Letter without exception of any period although they could not but know that he was perfectly Arminian in what he said of Reprobation It seems Du-Moulin was a Favourite and for his other opinions sake to be commended even for that for which a Remonstrant had had their Correptory Correption § 3. How inexcusable the Doctrins of many Calvinists have been and how little to be owned by the more ingenuous of their own party the Reader may easily pass a judgement by these following observations First the Remonstrants were submonished by the President of the Synod who must be remembred to be Bogerman not to exagitate the pâ—int of Reprobation but rather to insist on the pleasant Doctrin of election thereby discovering where his shooes did most pinch him Secondly the Remonstrants repeating that submonition affirm it to have been that they should rather meddle with Election than with the odious matter of Reprobation And had they added the word odious or put it iâ— stead of odiosè they had been certainly reprehended by them that had them in subjection Thirdly from the beginning to the ending of that affair the Synod would not indure to hear what the Remonstrants could object against the Calvinists Doctrins of Reprobation but commanded them to answer to all such Questions as Mr. Bogerman should please to ask them Fourthly there were some in the Synod of more moderate dispositions and fearing God who did plead for a Rejection of such expressions as appeared to make God the Author of sin which is a Token of their dislike although they could not prevail against the Number of their Opponents nor indeed is it a wonder when such men as Triglandius must have the composing of their Canons Fifthly when they find such expressions in the Dominicans writings or the Iesuits they are forward enough to fling a stone at them although they cannot look inward and see themselves sure he that spies a Mote in his Adversaries Eye commends not the Beam that is in his own If Ocham and Gabriel are confessed by Medina to have said that God is the Cause of sin and that in the rigour or propriety of speech Mr. B. will tell us that we shall not find that expression in any Calvinist of Note as if the men in my larger Catalogue had been obscure if it is added by the Dominicans that God determins the will of the Creature to every act of sin it self Dr. Twisse will say that the Calvinists have not discovered their judgement in terms so plain as if peccatum qua peccatum and adultery in particular had been concealments of their opinion Sixthly Let them say what it is to be the Author of sin and how many wayes an Agent is said to be an Author and by how many expressions it may be spoken or made out and I will parallel it all from some or other of their writers § 4. If there were any possibility of excusing the words and expressions of my Assailant's Party why should he make it his last refuge to judge of their words by their Intentions when all that are Mortals have thought it fitter to judge of mens Intentions by the signification of their words God alone we all grant is the searcher of the heart and the infallible discerner of mens Intentions Yet as my Correptory Correptor did make it his ordinary practice to confute my heart and report my thoughts and quarrel with my Intentions when he found my words were true and candid and so cross to his ends as not to be liable in the least to his exceptions so here my Reverend Antagonist on the contrary extreme which is indeed much the better will needs be sure that his Brethren intended no more than Austin before them did say And again that they intended no more than by multitudes of places of Scripture they were led unto Suppose it were possible that he being but a man should know their Intentions however different from their words yet he cannot but remember that I accused their words not their Intentions And I judged of their words by what they signifyed not by what they did conceale If we may judge of their Intentions by such Interpreters as Maccovius Piscator Zuinglius Peter Martyr and the like and if such men may be allowed to judge of intentions by words such as I have mentioned Chap. 4. § 6. 7. then I have made it appear that I have hit their intentions too § 5. But let us look a little more neerly into his words sure we are that protestant Divines have intended no more than Austin before them did say c. 1. Protestant Divines is very equiuocally spoken For those that are of the Remonstrant's opinions are known to be Protestants as well as others of whom notwithstanding he will not aver that they intend no more than Austin said 2. The Papists as he confesseth of Baronius and must confess of many more dislike receding from S. Austin as much as any of their kinsmen the Prebyterians which proves the notreceding from Austin to be not the least character of a Protestant Divine 3. Hath Austin any where said what I cited out of those men If my Opponent will produce either the same expressions or others equal to them then will He not I be the accuser of S. Austin But as he hath not done it so I have reasons to believe he is not able 4. Suppose there had been such profanenesse in any part of Austins writings this would only have inferred he was not then Saint Austin Nor would falshood have been the better for having proceeded out of his mouth He that shall say the child is damn'd that is not baptized before he dyes or that hath not received the other Sacrament of Eucharist may say he means no more than Austin said but yet he must be taught to mend his meaning and his words too The truth ' on t is Austin was not only a Learned but a well-natur'd man and desired nothing more than that he might not be followed in any one of his Infirmities For neither ought I to deny they are Austins own words that there are many things as in my very manners so in my works also which may not only without rashnesse but very justly and judiciously be blamed Thus we see that Father had more humility than his Admirers and took a care not to be able to authorize their Errors Nor will I here conceal the publick confession of Mr. Calvin because confession is one step to Repentance and to be thought to have repented is the greatest Honour in the world His confession was this That of at any time his works should be reprinted he would moderate mitigate those things wherein he feared the danger of scandal or offense Indeed these words do help to
arrant strangers for nothing but money and sweet Revenge neither knowing nor caring nor at all considering what the Buyers would do with him nay they had killed him outright but that Iudah put them in mind there was no profit in his blood but the sole pleasure of Revenge whereas if they sold him there was revenge and profit too and so 't is plain they did not send him into Egypt But God did work such a kindness within the hearts of them that bought him as brought Ioseph into Egypt I mean not only that place but pitch of Dignity so that what God did was transcendently good good and wise to admiration tending to his Glory and all mens good to good temporal and spiritual to all of that age and all of this more particularly to the good of Ioseph and his Brethren crowning the former with successes in exchange for his afflictions as well as leading the latter to a sight and sense of their sins § 7. I have already said more than was due or needfull by way of vindication of that passage of Scripture from being apt to lead any into such horrible affirmations as it was brought to authorize by my Assailant But I have done it the rather that the common Reader by this one may partly judge of all the rest which he will find to be Instances of sinful men whom God by his wise and righteous judgment delivered up to the wickednesse of their own Inventions that is he did not restrain them having refused and resisted the sufficient workings of his grace but left them gracelesse to themselves as desperate patients because they had hated and despised the means of health and Reformation To this and that which I have spoken in my Accompt of Mr. Barlee and to that which I shall speak in my following Section I refer my Assailant for an answer to those Texts to which he doth nakedly refer the Reader withal I add this promise that if he will descend to every Text in particular setting down the words and not the figures only which not one Reader of Ten thousand will take the pains to examine and arguing from the rational Importance of them as much to his advantage as he is able I will return him a full and God giving health a speedy accompt of his Indeavours § 8. In the mean time it is observable how very willing and careful my Rd. Adversary was to decline the Question which was in hand and to lead the thoughts of his Readers to another thing Else why should he alleage so many Texts of Scripture not in words but in figures which were so wholly impertinent to the subject matter of my charge I had charged some men whose words I produced without their names as guilty of charging God with all the sins of the Reprobates for the effecting of his Decree of irrespective Reprobation Wherein were comprehended and by those Authors expressed not only subsequent sins to which the wicked are given up by God's Desertion and are called the punishments of other antecedent provoking sins but also the very first sins which were committed by Adam even in Paradise and by Lucifer even in Heaven Now the Texts which are referred to by my Assailant in excuse of those Blasphemies which I accused do only shew the punishment of sin with sin they being spoken of such sinners and of such subsequent sins as those sinners were permitted to fail into by the just judgment of God upon them whom they had provoked to forsake them and leave them to themselves in revenge of their having forsaken him first and rebelled against him by their former wickedness So that as his first Text was no less than against his purpose the rest which follow are quite besides it And that no poor soul may be betrayed by the false application of all those Scriptures to think reverently of his sins and irreverently of his God I will denudate the falsness of it by these following steps First when God is said to harden mens hearts to deliver them up to a reprobate mind to send them strong Delusions that they shall believe a lye and the like it is infinitely far from being meant of an efficacious Impulse in God Almighty God never hardens any mans heart as the Sun hardens clay by shining on it but as the Sun hardens wax by not shining on it by not softning it any longer and so leaving it to harden it self And that all those verbs to harden to blind to deliver up to send delusions to deceive and the like are by an ordinary Hebraism only permissive in signification though active in sound is placed without all controversie First by the verdict of all the Fathers both of the Eastern and Western Church Secondly by the confession of the chief Calvinists themselves that is the judgement of the Fathers Thirdly by Austins judgment in particuler whom our Adversaries prefer before all the rest Fourthly by the Adversaries confession that that is Austins own way of Interpreting such Texts Fifthly by the peremptorie assertion of Melancthon from whom my Adversaries cannot comfortably recede Sixthly by the grant of Du-Plessis that in the usual stile of the Scripture he who doth not restrain when he can is said to give up he who doth not take away when he can is said to give and He who doth not give is said in that case to take away God is said to raise out of the Grave when he only hinders from going thither and to lead a man thither when he only suffers him to fall or does not hinder him from falling The same Seigneur du Plessis doth farther exemplifie his Doctrin not only by that petition lead us not into temptation of which the meaning he saith is this Do not suffer us to be vanquished by the Temptations of the World and of the Divel but by that common Idiotisme of the French tongue which is as common also in the English Vous me donnerezla vie c'està dire vous ne la m'osterez point you shall give me my life that is to say you shall not take it from me So when Rahab did capitulate with the Spies of Iericho that when they took the City they should save her life or permit her to live the French Translation doth read vous me vivifierez ye shall make me to live Now if this figure of speech is admitted to be a figure where if it were not admitted it would not be of much moment how dares any man exclude it from those passages of Scripture where to exclude it is to blaspheme And if the learned Du Plessis doth acknowledge that figure who is of irrefragable Authority with many Followers of Mr. Calvin why should any man deny it at the hazard of making God to be the Author of sin But seventhly this matter is farther evident and that by the preachings of Bishop Andrews from vvhom his Adversaries in this
Preterperfect and again the fore-sight in the Preterperfect tense with the Decree in the Preterpluperfect As if he thought that Gods Decree were before his prescience or fore-sight even in order of time and that the portions of that Creature could have place in Eternity if he did not think so he might have satisfied himself with a non aliâ ratione quam and not have added an ideo quia therefore because in the very next Section But let his ablest Followers construe his words how they will or can they must grant his Doctrin to be this That whatsoever comes to pass which God foresaw from all Eternity he did also decree from all Eternity But it was also his Doctrin that God foresaw from Eternity all the sins in the world without exception therefore it was his Doctrin that God did also decree all the sins in the world withot Exception Nor can they possibly pretend that all sins are the punishments of former sins because then they would incur one of these absurdities either that no sins are the first or that there are sins before the first and so that the first are the second and the antecedent the consequent which would imply an unexcusable contradiction They are avowedly of this judgement that there is a necessity of all events and that God doth necessitate the very first obliquity of his creatures and for that very first doth also damn them as appears by what they say of the Damnation of Infants which though sufficient of it self to shew the false application of the 38. Texts yet is it not all I am to say of my Assailant's misfortune in that Attempt For Thirdly If those places by him alleaged were not figupatively spoken that is according to the Hebraisme already mentioned but did intentionally import Gods efficiency of sin in any kind or any thing else which imports him to will it only then would they be so contradictory to all the other places of Scripture wherein no figure can be pretended that we should find it impossible to reconcile them For when God in Scripture expresseth his hatred of sin in the highest terms of Detestation and forbids it by a Law and provides against it by Threats as well as by many other means and clears himself from all aspersions which Carnal Fancies have imagin'd to his dishonour his words are so plain and their literal importance is so rational that every man as he is man doth as naturally believe it as he naturally believes there is a God And such as have learn'd to disbelieve it have not learn'd that lesson as they are men but they have learn'd it so far only as they have learn'd to be inhuman And I appeal to all the world whether when two places of Scripture do seem to clash and contradict we are not obliged to interpret the hard by the easie the euivocal by the nnivocal the harsh by the agreeable and that which according to the letter hath materiam odiosam by that which according to the letter hath materiam favorabilem It follows from all which I have said that those 38. Texts are nothing at all to the purpose for which they were alleaged by my Assailant for they amount at the most to no more than this that God doth punish mens sins by not restraining them from sinning farther which is expressed in Scripture by giving up or hardning or some other word which according to the Hebraism so often mentioned is active only in sound but permissive in signification For when God is said to punish sin with sin it is meant negative As for example because God had purged Israel and Israel was not purged therefore he would not purge them from their filthiness any more that is he would permit them to be filthy still he would not cleanse them against their wills and so we see it is explained by God himself what is meant by his punishing of sin with sin He that will be filthy and is resolved on'c and rejects the means of his purification is left by God or given up or given over to be filthy still so that the writers whom I charged with making God the Author or cause of sin were not led into those mischiefs by multitudes of Texts of holy Scripture as my Assailant hath very dogmatically but very groundlesly pretended but rather they led those Texts of Scripture which way they pleased to serve their Turns The word of God hath been ever used as a Lesbian Rule by all sorts of Hereticks who have been first preengaged 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be humble servants to their opinion And when the Scripture is led by them or rather dragg'd and tortur'd to the maintaining of those Errors which they espouse they pretend to say no more than what they are led unto by Scripture And some of the people are so shallow so credulous so unexercised in reasonings or so unwilling to take the pains to consider and examin what they are taught as to swallow so dangerous and so thick a Fallacy But so far is the Scripture from leading any to say that God is the Author or Cause of sin as some much less the Necessitator and Compellor to it as others that it even compels us if we are sober to say the contrary There are indeed some figurative expressions which carnal men have profanely used but the figure in those expressions is so visible a figure that they who cannot indure to see it are fain to wink very hard There being nothing in Scripture so plain as this that as the womans faith is said to have made her whole not because it did heal her but because without it she had not been healed so God is said to have done many things not because he did or could do them but because without him they had not been done foâ— nothing can be or be done with his sufferance CHAP. VIII E. R. For my part I thus Jâ—dge That if men would candidly carry this Controversie to its Native and proper Issue it would amount to this 1. Whether the Graces of Faith Perseverance and the glory following be not God's own 2 Whether being so he may not do what he will with his own 3. If so whether he might not ab aeterno absolutely purpose in himself on whom to bestow them from whom to withold them without any Injury unto any T. P. § 1. NOW Reader observe how he displayes his strength He consideringly begins to handle the matter of main Debate Some weighty thing may here be look't for from one whose Parts and Abilities are so acknowledgedly great He now undertakes to state the Question and that by amassing together some Propositions which are not at all to the Question in hand and which being granted will not do him the least good office for it would never be thence conclusible that I have erred in any one period or that the Correptory Correptor hath justly
Plowshares spears into pruning hooks when the earth shall be so filled with the knowledge of the Lord as that all polemical writing shall be out of Date when the Lord shall be one and his name one and we shall all serve him with one shoulder Vnto this let all our writings tend for this let all our prayers contend I commend your person labours unto God's Blessing and remain Your most loving Friend and Fellow-Labourer ED REYNOLDS T. P. § 1. HERE is a palpable confession that the onely thing which was desired is the last and least thing by him perform'd Mr. Barlee courted his opinion concerning his Correptory Correction and in the room of that he hath told him his opinion of other things I did never desire him to give me his opinion upon the reading of my Notes nor did I expect that he should read them much less did I desire him to declare his opinion to all the world much less to declare it as much as might be to my discredit much less to the discredit of Bp. Andrews and the Doctrines by Him espoused yet he hath turned over his Books and made a muster of Citations and spent almost his whole Preface in that which did not belong unto him nor was at all desired of him either by me or my angry Neighbour Which why should he do if he had not a willingnefs to own his Cause to gratifie his Party to abett his Fellow Labourer to shew his strength and to challenge me to an Encounter I have answered his Challenge so much the rather because I think him one of the ablest of those that erre on that side and in the conversion or confutation of whom the greatest good is to be done to them that read us I had also more respect for a person of his Fame then to affront him with a contemptuous silence and a greater care of his Orthodoxie â—â—en to suffer him to live in such a dangerous mistake as to believe his Epistle unanswerable in case it were unanswered For as soon as he had wished and wished heartily that there might be no further reciprocation of the law of contention he immediately added but that truth might so prevail c. Upon which I considered within my self that if I had not made him some return to his Assault he might have imagin'd that Truth had been on his side and have ascribed both the patience and the modesty of my silence unto the prevalence of that which he is pleased to call Truth Let this suffice for his confessed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 § 2. Secondly He next goes on to encourage his Fellow-Labourer with some applause and commendation which his Fellow-Labourer had earned of him by quoting a passage of his Sermon preached before the Lord Maior taking that occasion to call him the Eminent and sweet Dr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 First he commends the Theological and argumentative parts of his Book which he did well to distinguish from the scurrilous and Invective as very acceptable to many learned men and very useful to the Church of God How directly contrary this is to the real merit of the thing I have partly shewed already and can do in greater abundance when my Rd. Assailant shall call me to it If to teach a wicked world that God doth tempt men unto sin that he praedestins and stirrs them up to that which is unlawful that his will and Decree of mens sins is efficacious and absolute if not a few but a multitude of such like Doctrines which have made so many Ranters and Libertines in Christendom to the great scandal of the heathen and the dishonour of Christianity is acceptable to the learned or useful to the Church then the Correptory Corrector hath highly deserved his commendations And let that suffice for a specimen of his Theological performances which if I listed to pursue in all the particulars that I have noted they would make a new Volume with too much ease Of his argumentative faculty which is the second thing commended I will also give no more then one or two Tasts It being a part of his Theologie that though a Saint may be guilty both of â—urder and Adultery with a complication of other sins and continue in them for some time without repentance yet that Saint cannot be possibly no not at that very time in a state of Damnation he seeks an argument to prove it from the Case of David who though deliberately guilty of Adultery and with the wife of Vriah one of the loyallest of all his subjects and added drunkenness to thirst and though when that would not take he endeavoured to conceal it by wilful murder and by the murder of most excellent Vriah to whom he was very much obliged and whom he had wronged too much already though he continued in these sins without remorse adding a deep Dissimulation and Hypocrisie and instead of repenting took possession of Bathshebah as Ahab did of Naboths Vineyard never crying peccavi till after the message of Nathan yet he was not all this while in a state of Damnation saith Mr. Barlee who farther tells us that David was not faln from the state of salvation but from the joy of it and that he had not even then lost the holy Spirit of God But because all this is but the begging of his Question he endeavours to prove it by several Arguments first from the suffrage of Bertius that very same Bertius whom he calls Apostate and who was called a Blasphemer by learned King Iames as my Assailant saith And though he doth not name the place where Bertius is of his judgment in this particular yet that is his first proof the Concession of Bertius Secondly he adds his misapprehension and strange abuse of that Text of Scripture Psal. 51. 11 which every childe knows was penn'd by David after the time of his Repentance Thirdly he adds that if this had not been true which was said by him and Bertius David after his fall must have been circumcised again and to give the Anabaptists as much advantage as he is able he adds to that also that all Christians at any time falling into enormous sins must be baptized again Fourthly he argues that Drunken Dick Tompson did also maintain a falling damnably from Grace meaning a Total though not a final Fall whereas he and his party do not believe either of them but only they say putting it off with that Trick that whensoever any man falls into any sin he falls damnably that is so as to deserve Damnation which is the same that he saith of all the whole Masse in Adam's Loynes Now from the Doctrine of Mr. B. thus argued they that are so shallow may make a very sad use For having first swallowed it down as an unquestionable thing that they are vessels of a most absolute unconditional Election and that they cannot fall totally much