Moses made Angry: OR, A LETTER WRITTEN and SENT To Dr Hill, Master of Trinity College in CAMBRIDG, Upon occasion of some hard Passages that fell from him in a SERMON preached at Paul's, May 4. 1651.  
By John Goodwin.  
Them that sin [de Presbyteris hoc dictum accipio. Calvin.] rebuke before all, that others also may fear.  1 Tim. 5. 20. 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.  Acts 9 5. 
Obsequium amicos, Veritas odium parit.  
Paradoxa quidem plurima, quae non paraloga.  
Si accusásse sufficiat, quis erit innocens?  
London, Printed by J. M. for Henry Cripps and Lodowick Lloyd, and are to be sold at their shop in Popes-head Alley near Lombard street. 1651.   

Mr Doctor Hill;  
I Understand by several that were your Hearers the last Lord's day, (and these not of the weakest or least intelligent of them) that in your Sermon at Paul's before the Lord Major and Aldermen of this City, with many others, you were pleased to vent yourself with much unseemliness of Passion (which gave great offence to the sober and most considerate part of your Auditory) against certain Opinions, which through the violence (I in Charity presume) of the distemper then upon you, you so far forgot yourself as to call Pelagian and Arminian; and that in the heat of your Discourse upon this Theme, you reflected in words of much bitterness, and with height of indignation, upon a Book lately published, which (as my Intelligence beareth) you either plainly said, or insinuated, maintains the said Opinions. That by this Book you meant that, entitled, Redemption Redeemed, your Auditory generally conceived, and yourself (I presume) will not deny. Sir, you are a Gentleman, to whom I never (to the best of my knowledge) gave the least offence: if unwittingly I have done it, I am ready to make you all Christian satisfaction. For your parts of learning and knowledge, according to what grounds I had to make an estimate of them, I proportionably honoured you: and much more, because (as I always conceived, until now) you chief employed them about that most honourable and worthy work of propagating the Glorious Gospel of God in the World. That testimony also and report, which from many hands, time after time, I received, concerning your Moralities, goodness of spirit, blamelessness of conversation, etc. much advanced my esteem of you. Notwithstanding had you poured shame and contempt upon my head alone, had you ground to powder only me, and my Name, you might have done it without trouble or inconvenience to yourself, at least from me: such Miller's in black clothing I meet with daily, and let them pass quietly by me. But in as much as you have magnified yourself, in your wrath and height of spirit, against the Truth, yea several of the firstborn and most important Truths of the living God, it will neither stand with that loyalty of obedience, which I own unto the Command of God imposed on me in that behalf, nor with that love which I own unto yourself as a Christian Brother, to suffer such a sin to rest upon you. The Lord God Almighty, before whom I stand, knoweth, that I delight not in Contests with men: I am all desires made, for peace with all men, and for a quiet and retired pilgrimage on Earth. So that whensoever I contend with any man, I sacrifice the darling-disposition of my Soul upon the service of the Truth. Nor shall any man approve himself more easy to be entreated, upon any equitable, yea or tolerable account, or more willing to receive satisfaction from him that hath offended him, than I. Therefore Sir, I beseech you, trouble not, dishonour not yourself, either with seeking out, or with pretending to find, any other construction, meaning, or intent of this Address unto you, then as a simple, , and right-christian Application of myself, to vindicate the just right and claim of the dearly beloved of my Soul (and I trust, of yours also) Truth.  
First therefore, whereas you were pleased to take that undue liberty of Conscience, as to affirm, That the said Book, against which you so publicly inveighed, before you had (I fear) privately surveyed it, or that the Doctrines or Opinions maintained therein advance carnal Reason into the Throne of God (or words to like effect) be pleased to understand, that this was an assertion, proceeding either from ignorance, and this extremely palpable and gross, or else from an itching humour to asperse, and defame, though never so untruly: both which are very evil Oracles for a Minister of the Gospel to consult about his Pulpit affairs. And Sir, I judge that I may very Christianly expect from you, that either you produce some passage from the said Book, wherein carnal Reason is so magnified, as you affirmed (which I am certain you cannot do,) or else that you make an ingenuous and free acknowledgement, that at this turn you lost your way of dealing Christianly. That Reason, the use, exercise, and service whereof the Preface of that Book requireth of all men, in, and about matters of Religion, is not carnal Reason, if by carnal, you mean, sensual, worldly, blind, corrupt, or the like: but that Candle, or Lamp of the Lord (as Solomon calleth it, Prov. 20. 27.) that spiritual or inward Light, which God himself hath planted in the Souls of men, by which they are made able, though not always willing, to search out, discover, and discern many worthy Truths, as well concerning God himself, as, that he is, that he is good, wise, just, powerful, etc. as in other things. It is not by carnal Reason [i. e. by Reason as it is made, or becomes carnal, through the wilful negligence, and sinfulness of men] that men by the force and help of it come to discover that there is a God, or that this God is Good, Just, etc. the carnality that cleaves to it, is a cumber, and hindrance to it, in such actings and workings as these: but it is by Reason, as retaining that of God in it, or such impressions of divine Light, whereby, notwithstanding much enfeeblement and dimness contracted by the irregularities of men in sundry kinds, it is yet able, and in some capacity, to discover and judge of many such worthy Truths, as those mentioned. Nor doth the said Preface ascribe this ability, or capacity we speak of, unto Reason simply considered, or as bare or mere Reason, much less, as carnal Reason, but as super-intended, influenced, and supported, in, and about her movings and actings, by the Spirit of God himself. Which Spirit of God seldom or never withdraweth himself, in his super-intendency over the Reasons and Understandings of men, to such a degree, but that they are still preserved in some capacity of searching after, finding out, and discerning aright, the things of their eternal Peace (I mean, things essentially requisite hereunto) until after much, and long abuse of his gracious presence and treatings with them, by walking stubbornly against that Light of the Truth, wherewith he hath enlightened them, and those motions and secret excitements unto Righteousness, with which he hath followed them from time to time. Besides, what Reason soever it is, which the said Preface interesseth in the discerning and judging matters of Religion, it is so far from advancing it into the Throne of God hereby, that it only subjecteth it to the Commands of God in this behalf, who in a thousand places enjoineth such duties unto men, to the performance whereof they cannot prepare or fit themselves in the lowest degree, without the use and exercise of their Reasons and Understandings. Therefore Sir, your Charge against the said Book, or Preface, with the advancing of carnal Reason, in one kind or other, but especially, into the Throne of God, is a most Unchristian, yea Unmanlike Slander, having neither ground, nor colour of ground, for the justification of it.  
Secondly, Whereas you represented (indeed, reproached) the said Opinions of your Contest, as the great Advancers of Natures, and Adversaries to the free Grace of God, I desire an ingenuous, fair, and Christian Account hereof also. For certain I am (and you may readily be so too, if you please, in case you be not as certain already) that the Scriptures lay not the least jot or tittle of any such imputation upon them. If you plead, but Reason doth; do you not give both me and others, by this plea, just cause to judge, that you manage your Religion by affection, or peradventure only, and reserve your Reason for unworthy practices? But however, I shall be content to stand by the award of Reason in the case. For certain I am, the matter being as clear as the light at Noon day, that the said Opinions are the great Afflicters, Humblers, Abasers of Nature (if by Nature, you mean, Nature corrupted and depraved) and withal, the great Advancers and Magnifiers of the free Grace of God; resolving all the shame, guilt, demerit, punishment, of all the sins that are committed under the whole Heaven, into the corruption and depraved Wills of men; and all Acts of Righteousness, Holiness, Faith, Repentance, etc. in the World, together with the rewards of them, into the free, mere, undeserved Grace and Bounty of God. Whereas your Chimerical Notions and Doctrines of a peremptory Personal Reprobation from Eternity, of necessitating Grace, etc. do most notoriously and manifestly burden and charge the most infinitely-pure and righteous, the most infinitely-sweet and gracious Nature of God, both with all the shame of all the sins and wickednesses, that are practised in all the World, as likewise with all the miseries, punishments, torments, which ever come to be inflicted upon poor Creatures for such things. All the water in the Sea will not wash your Opinions clean from the stain and horrid foulness of this abomination. They that have attempted the washing of them, AEthiopem lavarunt, have (according to the Proverb) but washed a Blackamoor. And as for your pretended magnifyings of the Grace of God by your Opinions, they are nothing else but the abuse of the simplicity and credulous weakness of inconsiderate men. For the certain Truth is, that were the Grace of God such a thing, as you, with others of your Sense, imperiously and importunely obtrude under that name, upon the Judgements and Consciences of men, the Receivers of it were never the nearer Salvation for the collation of it by God upon them. This is made manifest above all reasonable contradiction in Pag. 319. of that Book which you so much abhor.  
Thirdly, Whereas you, after the usual manner of those that abound in Passion, but are scanted in Understanding, filled the ears of your Auditory with a sound of words, purporting I know not what sad uncomfortableness in the Doctrine about falling away (maintained in the said Book) you should have done well, before you had condemned the innocent, not only to have heard his Cause, and weighed his Plea, but to have given likewise some competent account (at least) of the insufficiency and unsatisfactoriness of it. I can hardly think that you had perused the nineth Chapter of the Book you wot of, before your definitive sentence against the said Doctrine: because this Chapter chaseth far away that Bugbear of uncomfortableness from before the face of that Doctrine, and lodgeth it in the Heart and Soul of that Doctrine of Perseverance, which is (it seems) the enticing Dalila of Doctor Hills Soul. I perceive that the observation of this Rule of Christ, Judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous Judgement, is very rare amongst men.  
Fourthly, Whereas you put your Auditory upon the temptation to believe, that the nineth Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, doth not at all treat of Justification by Faith, but of your Personal Reprobation from Eternity, or (which comes to the same) of a liberty in God to choose and reprobate what persons he pleaseth; and sought to make them partakers of your faith herein, by telling them stories of v. 13, 14, etc. of this Chapter, as if they were all words, sentences, and thoughts made for your mind in the business, I here offer unto you in a friendly way, to confer with you at your best leisure, about the sense and import of these Verses, either privately with yourself alone, or with two, or more, or with as few, or as many, as you please, in presence. At this Conference I shall desire also to have the spirit of that boasting of yours throughly tried, which you built upon some other Texts of Scripture, with the slime of these, or such like words, in stead of better mortar, viz. that whilst they stand, your Opinions cannot fall. Indeed if you dare not trust your Reason with the managing of the Conference, but resolve to negotiate the business with your Passion, or with affection only, I am like to make small earnings (and yourself as small) of the opportunity, were you willing to afford it. But if you have that good Opinion of your Judgement and Understanding, that you will allow these to treat, I make little question but by the mediation and consent of these, I shall prevail with you, as to the argument, or subject matter of the nineth to the Romans, to exchange your Reprobation for my Justification, and to acknowledge, that the Apostle in this Chapter discourseth still forward that great Doctrine of Justification by Faith, which he had (only with some occasional insertions of other matters by the way) prosecuted (well-nigh) from the beginning of the Epistle. As for your conceit of a Personal Reprobation from Eternity handled in the said Chapter, you may, if you please, see the comb of the confidence thereof cut by that Hand of Light, which is stretched forth in the 68 Page of that troublesome Book we spoke of, where the 15 and 21 Verses of the Chapter are in part opened. Somewhat also upon the same account is to be seen pag. 462. of the Book.  
Fifthly, Whereas you challenged or charged your Adversaries, that they are wont indeed to discourse other the Attributes of God, but seldom or never speak of his Sovereignty; first, I do not remember where I ever found, no not in any of those Authors, which you (I suppose) presume yours, the Sovereignty of God numbered amongst his Attributes. But, 2. he his Sovereignty an Attribute, or no, I believe it was very inconsiderately (to speak softly) affirmed by you, that the persons you charge, seldom or never treat of it. I know none of them (nor do you, I suppose, know any more) that omit or wave the consideration of it, when ever any good occasion falls in their way to discourse it. Somewhat you may find concerning the Prerogative of God (which, I presume, is either the same, or of very near affinity, with his Sovereignty) in the Book so oft pointed at, pag. 67, 68 
a Yea the Sovereignty of God is expressly & by name asserted in the latter of these pages. . Indeed it is no great marvel if you find not the persons you mean speaking much of the Sovereignty of God, as you call Sovereignty: they are not wont to speak much of that which is not. I believe you will find that, which you notion for Sovereignty in God, disclaimed by the great Founder and Father himself of your Faith in your Contra-Remonstrancy, Mr Calvin I mean, in this Passage from his own pen. Facessant ergo procul à piis mentibus monstrosae illae speculationes, plùs aliquid Deum posse, quàm conveniat: vel eum sinc modo & ratione quicquam agere. Nec verò commentum illud recipio, Deum, quia Lege solutus sit, quicquid agate, reprehensione vacare. Deum enim qui exlegem facit, maximà cum gloriae suae parte spoliat, quia rectitudinem ejus ac justiciam sepelit 
b These Latin passages speak in English to this effect. Far then be such monstrous ●…culations as these from pious minds, that God can do something more, than what is convenient; or that he doth any thing without measure or reason. Nor do I admit of that devised conceit, that God is therefore improvable, whatsoever he doth, because he is free from all Law. For he that makes God lawless, despoileth him of the greatest part of his glory, because he buryeth his Rectitude and justice.  Calvin. Opusc. De AEternâ Dei Praedest. p. 843. I have ground to suspect, that by your Sovereignty of God, you mean a lawlessness, or exemption from all Reason, rectitude, or justice in acting. If so, you see you Anti Calvinize, as well as Anti-Arminianize, yea, and that which is worse than both, you Anti Christianize, blaspheming God by Attributing that to him, which is so inconsistent with his glory.  
Sixthly (and last) Whereas you reflected upon the Author of that Book, which so torments those that dwell on the Earth, as if he falsified, wrested, perverted Authors, after the manner of the Bishops in their days, when they pleaded for Altars, etc. or used words of this import; the very truth is, that this also, if it be comely to call a spade, a spade, is a pure, pute, and putrid calumny. The Authors cited in the said Book, at least the far greater part of them, speak as clearly, as directly, as distinctly, to the heart of the main Doctrines maintained in the Book, as the Author of the Book himself. Nor are you, nor any other man, able to prove the least touch of any falsifying, or perverting any one Author brought upon that stage. Si quid humanitùs acciderit, if there be any thing unwittingly mistaken (as mistakes in this kind may be incident to the most upright of men) in any quotation, this only proves the Author to be a man, not a falsifier. Yea, there is nothing asserted or maintained in the said Book, especially in the two main Doctrines there contended for, but what (for substance, and effect of matter) is plainly affirmed, and held forth, over and over, not only by he best and most Orthodox Fathers, Chrysostom, Augustin, etc. but by the most Orthodox Writers likewise of later Times, as Luther, Calvin, Musculus, and others. Yea yourselves, the Preachers of this present Age, how ever by times you appear in flames of fire against them, yet otherwhile, and sometimes in one and the same Sermon, you give Testimony unto them. There is sufficient proof made pag. 561. of the Book so impotently decried by you, that a Jury of no fewer than 52 Preachers, and amongst these, such as are counted Pillars, in, and about the City of London, in the same Pamphlet, wherein (as they pretend) they give Testimony to the Truth of Jesus Christ against Errors and Heresies, do clearly build up the principal Doctrine avouched in the said Book, viz. that which teacheth General Redemption by Christ. Yea yourself, in this very Sermon, wherein you set yourself with all the might of your indignation against it, yet gave the right hand of fellowship unto it, in granting and affirming, that you believe and teach, That had Judas believed, he should have been saved by Christ. See (I desire it rather to your satisfaction, than shame) the Doctrine of General Redemption demonstratively proved and evinced from such a Position as this, pag. 113, 114, 115, etc. and again, p. 135, 136. of that Truth-teaching Book, so often hinted. Yea the Synod of Dort itself (as is somewhere observed in this Book 
c Page 547 ) acknowledgeth, that If Redemption be not acknowledged as a common benefit bestowed on Mankind, that General and promiscuous Preaching of the Gospel committed unto the Apostles to be performed among all Nations, will have no true foundation. Therefore whilst you oppose and clamour against General Redemption, you do not only cry down the glory of the unsearchable riches of the free Grace of God, vouchsafed in Christ unto the World, but also quarrel and fight your best friends, as well as those, whom you count your Adversaries, and traduce under the Name of Pelagians, Arminians, etc. liveries made of the same, or like cloth, which the Servants of the Truth have been compelled to wear in all ages. Yea in such your inconsiderate Contests, you act as men divided, in, and against yourselves; and your say, like the children of Ammon and Moab, when they came forth to battle against Judah and Jehosaphat, help to destroy one another 
d 2 Chron 20, 23 .  
Sir, The Premises considered (with several other things of no better import, about which notwithstanding I shall not be troublesome unto you, at the present) I cannot but expect some Christian satisfaction from you, at least in the behalf of those most worthy and important Truths of God, which you so unworthily, and this standing in the place of God, traduced unto his People. And (to deal plainly and clearly with you) the Satisfaction I expect must be some ways commensurable to the misdemeanour, in circumstances respecting as well the publiqueness of it, as the notoriousness and offensiveness of it, in all particulars. I expect likewise that this Satisfaction be speedy, and without delay: or at least that you will speedily engage yourself verbo Sacerdotis, that you will accordingly expedite the same with the first opportunity. Otherwise I shall be necessitated to do that, which (I suppose) will not be for your Honour; I mean, to publish in print unto the World, your Athecological Demeanour in the Pulpit, as well in your Moral, as Intellectual Miscarriages; and shall out of hand begin with the printing of the Contents of this Letter, in case I hear not forthwith from you. Sir, if I knew how to relieve those Truths of God, which you desperately affronted, there, where they suffered by you, and may yet further suffer (I mean, in the Minds and Judgements of those who heard you, and of those who may hear the Contents of what you delivered upon this sad account) without making a breach upon your reputation, I should freely pass by mine own Interest, and demand nothing of you for Personal Reparations; although I believe that you hardly know how to provoke at much as higher rate, than you practised provocation upon me, in the Premises: unless (haply) that may be some allay hereof, that you were ravished by some other man's spirit, far worse than your own, into such a splenetique Ecstasy. For Dr Hill hath formerly worn the crown of a meek, temperate, and Christian spirit. But we read, that Moses the Saint of the Lord, and meekest man on Earth, yet was at the waters of strife provoked to speak unadvisedly with his lips: and I (with many others) do believe, that Dr Hill was overshadowed with the spirit of some Lion, or other (and which probably I could point at amongst the herd) when he conceived those roar (as David expresseth somewhat the like carriages of the Tongues of men, Psal. 74. 4.) or those devouring words (another Metaphor of the same pen) whereof he was delivered in the Pulpit, May 4. 1651. The ground of my conjecture herein, is, partly because that which was born of him here, had so little of his own likeness in it, partly because it had so much of the likeness of another man. But, concerning myself, the best is, that I am secure, that neither you, nor others, can value me at any lower rate, than I do myself. You trod but upon the Earth, when you trampled me under your feet. If you pursue me to the grave, you cannot hinder my Resurrection; the day whereof will be time enough for me to become any thing. I trust you will take nothing amiss in these lines. If there be any thing hard in them, I hope you will put it upon your own account, not mine. The Law of Nature and Reason is, that they who beget Children, should undergo the trouble and charge of keeping them, prove they never so troublesome, untoward, or hard-favored. They that will adventure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must make account to meet with that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which belongs to it. Howsoever my Prayer for you is, and shall be, that God will give you Repentance to the acknowledgement of his Truth, and your own Error.  
Your Brother, and Servant in CHRIST, John Goodwin. Colemanstreet, London, May 9 1651.   

POSTSCRIPT.  
Sir,  
IF in any of the Particulars taken notice of from your Sermon, there be any mistake in words, and much more if in substance of matter, to your disadvantage, I shall be glad, upon better information from yourself, to rectify myself in such mistakes, and so proportionably to case your burden of shame, and mine own of sorrow for you. I know the miscarriages of the best and wisest of men, are too many: and far be it from me to make any man a delinstrued with as much favour, as a good Conscience will, or can, afford. If you can, and be willing to, disclaim, or disown, any thing in the said Particulars, I desire to hear speedily from you upon that account: otherwise I shall (I judge, upon sufficient ground) presume, that my Informations touching the Premises were Orthodox and Authentic.  
FINIS.