PRAEDESTINATION, As before privately, so now at last openly defended against Postdestination. In a correptory Correction, Given in by way of answer to, A (so called) CORRECT COPY of some notes concerning GOD'S DECREES, Especially of REPROBATION; Published the last summer, by Mr T. P In which CORRECT COPY of his, he left so much of Pelagianism, Massilianisme, Arminianism uncorrected, as Scripture, Antiquity, the Church of England, Schoolmen, and all orthodox Neotericks will exclaim against to his shame, as is manifestly evinced, By William Barlee, Rector of Brockhole in Northampton shire. To which are prefixed the Epistles of Dr Edward Reynolds, and Mr Daniel Cawdrey. Augustin. Epist. 107. add Vital, Carthaginens. Quomodo dicuntur negare liberum arbitrium voluntatis, qui confitentu● omnem hominem, quisquis suo cord credit in Deum, non nisi sua libera credere voluntate? cum potius illi oppugnant arbitrium liberum, qui oppugnant Dei gratiam, qua verè ad bona eligenda & agend● fit lib●ru●. London, Printed by W. H. for George Sawbridge, and are to be sold at the sign of the Bible on Ludgate Hill, near Fleet Bridge, 16●●. To the very Reverend, and his most worthy Sympresbyters, the Ministers of Christ, ordinarily meeting at the Lectures in Northampton and Dayntrey, particularly to those Seniors amongst them, who having long since subscribed to the nine and thirty Articles of the Church of England, do yet firmly adhere to the dogmatic part of them. Brethren, WHEN I could any ways impetrate Section 1. from myself, some leisure from other studies, not having any great affinity with these which I now offer to you, and to which of late years I have been much addicted, since some heterodox disowned, and at last owned papers of Mr T. P's, have in a clandestine, and in an open way, fluttered about our Country; I think it not fit to tell you, with what expedition & cheerfulness, I did draw up an answer to them, satisfactory to myself, and to some others much better able to judge betwixt things that differ: Yet now that I am forced to entertain sad and serious thoughts of publishing my conceptions, my witness is on high, that I am not able to express to you, how various and great the anxieties of my tumultuating spirits are; and that not only for those more personal reasons long since, and of late given in to my Antagonist, for which I am sure he owes me thanks, not scorns, the only returns which yet I have had from him; (Ingratum si quando dixeris, omnia dixeris) but much more for those of a higher altitude and contemplation. Alas for my dear mother, the Church of God amongst us, after so many worse than Scyllan or Marian, civil, uncivil contests, which lately, yea still do abound in her sacred and spiritual republic; is it not high time for her to take her Supersedeas from contention, and to use the Historians phrase, quasi aegrae sauciaeque requiescere quomodocunque, B. Florm, lib. 3. cap. 23. ne vulnera curatione ipsa rescinderentur? Knows not all the Reformed Christian world by this time, to the grief and sorrow of it, that we are long since grown sick of our remedies, as of our diseases? Lord Christ, is Nec morbe● nec remedia f●rre possunt, Tacit. this a time, when pens, hands, tongues, to speak of no sharper things now, are up and busy, not only against Ministers, but contra Presbyterium ipsum, the very ordained ministry of Christ itself, lately blessed be God, vindicated by yourselves, for Ministers one against another, as it were in a hostile way, to be breaking their spears and lances, and to stand, Tela pares acies, & pila minantia pilis, See the preface to the reader, p. 55. of Jus divinum Ministerii Evangelici, with Mr T. Bal's Pasterum propugnaculu●. as if the Devil in this last of ages had not conjured up enemies enough to destroy them all, and that by their own divisions? Hitherto I thank my God for it, both in foreign parts, and in my sweeter home, as to all my Protestant Brethren in the Ministry, in whom there hath but appeared the least glimpse of true piety, what is observed to have been the happiness of Myconius, hath T. Fuller Abel Redivivus in the life of Myconius, p. 139. been mine, we together, cucurrimus, certavimus, laboravimus, pugnavimus, vicimus, & viximus semper convinctissime, etc. with all such, even when in all things, conscience would not suffer me to colere unitatem opinionis, I did colere unitatem ordinis, and so did maintain the union of the spirit in the bond of peace. This felicity my (as he calls himself Protestant, p. 4.) * Antagonist should not have envied me, by Bullinger upon occasion of Bolsec his disquieting the Church of Geneva, by his opposing the doctrine of Calvin touching election, returned this answer; that he which did teach that Gods eternal election did depend on foreseen faith, did maliciously abuse the doctrine of the Church of Tigurum. interrupting my peace. Can there be at this time a day, after that so many invincible Heroes have subdued all Pelagian and Arminian monsters, who heretofore have corrupted God's truth, and disquieted his Church, any great use or honour (if that were any way to be heeded by modest Divines) in open field to appear against slain and conquered enemies? Who so great a stranger in the Israel of our God amongst us, but knows that more famous Writers have anticipated all that can be said according to Scripture, Right reason, antiquity upon these arguments, than ever wrote the History of the Marathonian fight? and yet G. I. Vossius, tells me in his observations upon I. Sleidan, p. 17. de quatuor summis Imperiis; pugnam Marathoniam ferè à trecentis historicis esse descriptam. And truly to say nothing of others, I must confess I know little use of, and less honour in writing more upon these arguments, till the adversaries bring new ones, for the supporting of their graceless cause, which have not long since been confuted (if I may so speak) by those Herculesses or sampson's in Divinity, Austin, Bradwardin, and out of them, Dr Twisse. For my part upon these and other grounds, I could most willingly have given my adversary leave to have reviewed his arguments, and have compared them with the answers of most renowned authors, and so to have allowed See T. Fuller's Abel Redivivus, p. 336. him yet longer space to have come to his Retractations, the second or the third time, (for he hath been at them several times already, p. 24.) and to keep touch with us, in what he puts us in hopes of, p. 72. that how dogmatically soever he may seem to have spoken in many places of his discourse, that he will submit to those of deeper and profounder reach, and myself could have rejoiced to have betaken myself to the wont crypts of my silence, though I were to be jeered for it by him, p. 4. * There he jeers me with my very great leisure. then thus to appear upon an open Theatre. But when pious, prudent, and by me studied Section 2. delays shall, and that by no beggars, be interpreted to be a scrinking in the main cause, that noble and brave cause of grace, defended by me the meanest of its votaries; when not only my count, smooth, polite adversary shall disdain (as I know he doth) to to think how low and mean qualified an enemy he hath in me met withal to deal against him. Rusticus (saith he) es corydon, nec quicquam curate Alexis. But when by some, even of Christ's friends, it shall be thought that he hath the better of the cause, because he of a long time hath had the last words, it is high time for me to arowse myself, and to cease from that which the most call slothfulness, whatever I may call it In causa haerese●s neminem op●rtet esse patientem, Hier. myself. And now I trow if you will not be angry with me, (as I hope you will not) for bringing my labours in this Dedicatory to your doors, I am sure no body else will be able to give any reason why they should be so, for calling upon you upon this occasion. Have I, or am I solicitous to have any more knowing, able, more proper or competent patrons, yea, Ecclesiastical, Ministerial judges of my work and cause then yourselves? who have ever with L. Capella, judged it unreasonable, L. Capellae Epist. Dedic. ad Spicilegium. illis (be they Lords or Ladies, or whoever they will be) mea inscribere, qui vix libri titulum adspicere dignantur, quique inscriptam sibi Epistolam, saepe vix legere, multo minus intelligere possunt, ne dum ut de operis pretio & merito, vel ejusdem demerito rectè judicare valeant I cannot doubt but you have been grieved at the very heart, for the pleasing poison in a golden cup of Oratory in the papers answered, propined against your judgements and liking unto many of your incautelous auditors, and may a little be refreshed by a sound, though homely antidote, now at last come forth against them. None of you, as you know, are the Fathers of your poor Sympresbyters papers, (as Mr T. P. is not ashamed somewhere in his Epistles to me, to suggest that you were to be). Would to God you could have stooped so low, as to have been so, or at least to have appointed those three most Reverend Praefacers, (whom I have, as was most fitting, set in the forefront, seeing they have been pleased like themselves, doctorally to speak to the main Questions controverted) Dr Reynolds, Mr Thomas Whitfield, Mr D. Cawdrey, to have been so, my adversary would have felt any one of their little fingers to have fallen heavier upon his cause, than all my loins: but you know I have been long deeply engaged to you for your pious and learned society, and for your constant good affections not so much to my cause, as to our Lord Christ's, our common Lord and Master. To such friends as I own much, so I would gladly out of my poor treasury, pay out by public acknowledgement, some mites of gratitude; the rather because I fear before this now begun contention in our parts be ended, you with your more robustious arms, must come in Ecclesiastically to decide it; I fear me, pray God in this I prove a false Prophet, the late Correct Copy, though for the present taken up, and examined by a fratrum minimus of your order, yet in the issue, as most probably in the intention of our duelist, must be taken up by some Majorite of your company, before he will cease from displaying his banners of defiance against the truth and grace of God. I believe every body will think I should Section 3. rather make some Apology for the length, lightness, or pleasantness, and for the tartness of my stile in the work, then for beseeching you to patronise it. For the two latter, let me crave leave to begin à posteriori, I list to say little, because most, even of you may judge me faulty, and I will think so, and say so too, yea, and most willingly come to an open penance for it, also with a peccavi fate or from my heart and mouth, veniam peto, si unquam posthac. Defendam ego non passiones meas, sed veritatem Christi, if any of your society shall, convince me of scurrility in the former, or Calumny in the latter; else I must humbly crave leave to think, that if the conditions of my adversary were but as to all matters as well known to others, as I am made continually to know them, feel them, and understand them, I should have enough to plead an excuse for that which otherwise might sound ill in my way of sometimes play fullness, and anon sharpness with him: Every one can tell how to tame a shrew, but he that hath her. As for the length, I can safely say, It was not projected by me at the first; and now I perceive how much it is beyond my first designs, I am much displeased with it; yet I must crave leave to say in my own behalf, that whilst, 1. I labour to draw out my Adversary out of his ambiguous lurking holes. 2. whilst I study to avoid obscurity in deep matters. 3. whilst I state questions all allong left unstated, after a careless fashion by Mr T. P. 4. Whilst I pull away ancient Authors from him. 5. Vindicate the moderns. 6. Myself being a mere pigmy, Zacchaeus-like, get upon the shoulders of many ancient and modern tall writers. 7. Whilst I am somewhat loath to leave any thing which hath but the very physiognomy of an Argument wholly unanswered 8. Whilst I study to prevent the adversaries pelting of me with oratoriall Triobulary Pamphlets, which but for the logs which I throw in his way, he hath a geniús to do from month to month. I say, whilst I do all this, lo, before I am ware of it, I swell into a kind of a volume, which to some I doubt not, will neither be unprofitable, nor unpleasant towards their Antipelagian, and Anti-Arminian studies: and as for others of less leisure, if they will but be pleased seriously to per-use my answer to the two Portals of Mr T. P's book; in which, for the gratifying of some, I was purposely the longer, and but let the margin alone to professed Students and Divines, they will not find the work overbulky, and yet I trust have enough, by God's grace, to settle them in the truth, and to take off the edge of objections. To conclude; the work, such as it is, is now Section 4. exposed to open view, for every one to pass what censure upon it, he shall judge most fitting. I shall but beg of all, that neither I, and less God's truth by me maintained, may be condemned before it be heard to speak for itself. If Mr T. P. who as yet stands ad oppositum, will take upon him that which he calls, p. 20. the drudgery of a Reply, let him do it candidly, not so much against the more lighter parts of my book, wherein after some work, I took a little leave to play; as against that, wherein every judicious person will say the strength of it lies: If he do otherwise, he shall henceforth sibi & Musis canere, take all the sport to himself; as for me, I will be as a deaf man, who will never dance at any such music. As for you my dear and Reverend Brethren, as I have had, so I humbly beg the continuance of your prayers upon my Ministry, labours, person, for the afflicted Church and people of God amongst us, that it may at length enjoy truth, peace, righteousness, in a settled way, according to Christ's mind, that we may all speak and mind those things, whereby both we, and those who hear us, may be saved. In Christ I continue your indebted Brother and fellow-Labourer, William Barlee. Brockhole Febr. 6. 1655/ 6 A Postscript to be subjoined to the DEDICAT. Reverend Brethren, Four full months after the winding up of my first Dedicat. to you, and the dispatching of it away from me to the Printers, it hath been my happy unhappiness to light upon a third piece of Mr T. P's, which he seems not to be very unwilling in his Epist. Dedicat. we should call his monumental OBELISK for the eternising of his memory; and which some in intuition of many passages in it, might think reasonable enough, to call the REPROBATES PLEA for sinning, drawn up by his fair spoken and last Advocate; rather then as he, or some friend for him, doth entitle it, The sinner impleaded in his own COURT. In this tract it is most certain, that there be many bona mixta malis, and almost as many mala mixta bonis; as if he had been ambitious to make it known to the world, that where he doth well, none can do Vbi benè nemo melius, ubi maelè nemo pejus. better, and where he doth ill, none shall or will do worse. I doubt not but that as many of you as have had leisure or opportunity to peruse it in any or all the obnoxious passages of it, will with me conclude, that I may be very well allowed to call in my Apology in my first address to you, f●r my appearing at last in the world against a Minister nunc dierum, in a polemical way, for my not intended prolixity for the Acrimony of my stile. As to the first; I think I am rather now bound upon the bended knees of my soul and body, to ask God, and you his Ministers, together with our dear Country, pardon for deferring the publication of my writing so long. Had that been forth presently after it was in September last finished by me, possibly the author of this last Pamphlet, might have thought it reasonable to have abated much of his scornful insolency in many things which he hath again belched out now this third time against God's absolute Decrees and Counsels, from p. 241. usque ad 250. and else where up and down. The best is, (and it's that wherein I am bound not only to observe, but even to adore the Divine overruling Providence) my plea for my otherwise, as might be thought, unexcusable prolixity, is become very easy, and it is this: That my one book gives a full answer to all material passages of no less than three of my Antagonists, viz. To his first Cryptick one, which as yet is so to most of the world: To his CORRECT published Copy, which I use to call his Daemon Meridianum: And now to his third piece, which was altogether in Cryptis to me when I wrote mine. If this by any rational body, can be proved to be otherwise, I shall be content to be by you put to the penance of writing a third volume for answering all; but I know you will not judge it needful. As for the third thing, the tartness and acrimony of my stile, which some before out of love to me, and undeserved respects to Mr T. P. weresomewhat stumbled at. (who yet from many acts and deed public and private, was then as well known to me, as he is now: Sic mihi notus Ulysses) I do now fear, since in his last he hath to the open view of the world so fully displayed himself in his unconscionable, wilful, and not weak or childish misrepresenting of the opinions of his adversaries, for the making of them odious, so as a Bellarmin from Rome, or a Stapleton from Douai, would hardly have done, as you will easily see, if you do but peruse what he, like another slanderous Dragon, Rev. 12. 15. casts out of his mouth, p. 320, 321, 332, 333, 334. 368, circa finem, 383. & alibi passim. I say I do now fear that against so stomachful and railing an Adversary, I shall rather be judged too soft and playful, rather than too sharp and serious against one who in many things behaves himself but too like Elymas, in drawing away the Deputy from the faith, and may seem to deserve as cutting a reproof, as he received from Paul, Acts 13. 10. sed reprimam me. Oh my worthy dear brethren, what now remains, but that we should be, First, deeply humbled before the Lord, and if it were possible, with floods of tears be wail it, that from among ourselves, and our own sacred order, there is one arisen furnished with the greatest advantages of wit, Art, Oratory, Applause of no beggars, to speak such perverse things, to draw no mean Disciples after him. Secondly, That with all possible Alacrity and Vigour, we should go on with what we seem some way to be beginning, to unite into an Ecclesiastical and spiritual association, that to use Cyprians phrase, we may Deificam confaederare disciplinam, that by word, tongue and pen, and Christian censures, we may what lies in u●, suppress the growing up of such errors, which threat our Churches with as much mischief, as ever F. Socinus and his followers brought upon the Polonian, or since Arminius and Vorstius brought upon the Batavian: verbum sapienti sat est; principiis obsta, etc. within the mere orb of an Ecclesiastical sphere, you shall find me as truly yours, as I am or desire to be my own, Dum meus ipse mihi, dum spiritus hos regit artus. W. B. Brockhole, June 30. 1656. For his Reverend and worthy Friend, Mr William Barlee, Minister of the Word at Brockhole in Northamptonshire. SIR, I Return you many thanks, for communicating unto me, your elaborate and learned answer to an Anonymous book lately published concerning Gods decrees, reported to be written by one, whom, for his polite parts of wit and learning, I have, and do respect; but have been long since taught a very good rule by Aristotle, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Arist. Ethic. lib. 1. cap. 4. I was sorry to see this controversy revived amongst us, which caused anciently so much trouble to the Church of God, and in our memory so much danger and distemper to the Belgic Nation; whereof King James was so sensible, that in a Letter to the States, King James his Declarat. against Vorstius in his works in English, p. 350. & 355. he calleth Arminius an enemy of God, and chargeth Bertius with grossly lying against the Church of England, in avowing that the Heresies contained in his blasphemous book of the Apostasy of the Saints (they are the Kings own words) were agreeable with the Religion and profession of this Church. And he did solemnly desire the Ambassadors of that State, to forewarn them from him, to beware of the disciples of Arminius, of whom, though himself lately dead, he had left too many behind him. When you first acquainted me with your purpose to answer that tract (which was before I had seen it, it being then but manuscript, and had only heard from you the drift of it) you well remember what my judgement was, that in polemical writings, it was best to forbear the persons of men, and to hold close to the Argument. I learned it of Tertullian, a grave writer, Tertul. advers. Hermog. c. 1. viderit persona, cum doctrina mihi quaestio est. And it was the speech of an aged holy divine of this Country, now with God, that in disputes, soft words and hard arguments, were best. Yet I deny not but the case may so be, that in writings of this nature, there may be a necessity as well of sharp rebukes, as of strong refutations, Tit. 1. 13. And truly it was matter of much trouble to me, to find in that Treatise, a distinction of Modest Blasphemers, and others who are for Ligonem, Ligonem: And to find so eminent servants of Christ, as Calvin, Dr Twisse, and others, to be ranged under one of those members, as men that tell the world (though such words are not where found in them, but the quite contrary) that the evil of sin in man proceedeth from God only as the author, and from man only as the instrument; yea, to be worse than the Manichees and Marcionites of old, as to this particular blasphemy. Vide Aug. count. Julian. lib. 1. cap. 2. For though the names of the authors are not, as is said, in civility cited, yet the references in the margin of the book (which surely were not set there to bear no signification) make me think of Tacitus his observation Tacit. Annal. lib. 3. verbis ultim●is. touching the Effigies of Brutus and Cassius in the funeral of Junia, praefulgebant Brutus & Cassius eo ipso quod effigies eorum non visebantur. It had been much to be wished, that imputations of such a strain, had been left by men professing modesty and ingenuity, unto Bolsec and others of his complexion. But by whomsoever used, they are but as the Confectioners beating of his spices, which doth not at all hinder, but strengthen the fragrancy of them. I do not jurare in verba, either of Calvin, or any other man. But I cannot but with grief be sensible of so high a charge as blasphemy, to be laid upon persons so deeply acquainted with the mind of God in his word, as they were. The vindicating of them I leave to you▪ and shall only say, that their Lord and their Brethren before them, have met with the same measure Mar. 2. 7. Mat. 26 65. Acts 6. 13. And that there have been men of great learning, and not wholly devoted to the judgement B. Andrew's opuscul. p. 115 of Calvin, who have taught even dissenters thus to speak of him, Calvino, illustri viro, nec unquam sine summi honoris praefatione nominando, non assentior. But it is no new thing to draw invidious consequents from such opinions as we have a mind to render odious unto the world. A fate which hath ever Vide etiam contra Julian. 6. 2. cap. 1. & l. 3. cap. 24 & lib. 4. cap. 3. followed these controversies from the beginning of them. Nine or ten Pelagian calumnies, Austin, that renowned Champion of grace, is put to remove in his second and third books, contra duas Epistolas Pelagianorum. In the Epistles of Prosper and Hilary unto him, we find many heavy consequents charged by the Massilienses, upon his doctrine, the vocatione secundum propositum & de praedestionatione, that it giveth occasion of sinning, makes men careless of standing, careless after lapses, of rising again, taketh away all industry and regard of virtue, induceth a fatal necessity, weakeneth vigour of preaching, is contrary to the edification of hearers, rendereth fruitless all Christian correption, and driveth men unto despair. Yea, that holy man, or Prosper his follower, (for the work goes under both In respons. ad Articulos si bi falso impositos in edit. Basil. Prosper ad capitula object. Vicentian. Histor. Gotschalc. cap. 2, 3. Amica Collatio. p. 294. names) was feign to conflict with these very objections of Gods making men to destroy them, and of his being the author of sin. And after that, the same objections were made against the same doctrine of Austin, under the odious name of Haeresis praedestinatiana, as the renowned Bp Usher, and learned Camero have observed. And the same we find revived in handling the same controversies in our days, rendering those opinions, which please us not, as fore impedidiments unto true piety, by the Author of the book, called God's love to mankind, and others. From which charge they have been sufficiently vindicated, Prosper ad capitul. Gallor. Histor. Gotschalc. cap. 5. as of old by Prosper, Aquitanicus, Rhemigius, Lugdunensis, and others, so of late by those learned men who have answered the forenamed book. But this being a taking medium, I find used also by the Socinians. Ionas Schlingius hath written a disputation against Meisner a Lutheran divine, in defence of Socinus to this very effect. But how ill it beseemeth sons of the reformed Church of England, to take up that charge * Bolsec. in vita Calvini. cap. 23. Bellarmin, de Amiss. great. & statu peccat. lib. 2. cap. 4, 5, 6 Becan, opuscul. to. 1. opusc. 3. & 11. Kellisous Survey. lib. 5. cap. 1, 2, 3. Fitz Simon Britannomach. lib. 1. cap. 12. Stapleton. de justific. lib. 11. Fevardent. dialog. to. 2. p. 155-195. Maldonat. in Mat. 26. 14. 24. Pineda in Job 1. 21. Horontius loc catholic. lib. 3. cap. 2, 3, 4. Possevin. select. biblioth. l. 8. cap. 32. which Bolsec, Bellarmine, Becanus, Kellison, Fitz Simon, Stapleton, Fevardentius, and others of that party, have unjustly cast upon the worthy instruments of God, in the reformation of the Church, and which have been so expressly disavowed, and so fully wiped off by a whole cloud of learned Writers, (some † Calvin. instit. lib. 1. cap. 17 §. 3. & cap. 18. Sect. 4 & lib 2. cap. 4. Sect. 1, 2. in Psal. 105. 25. in Hos. 13. 11. & cont. Libertinos. count. calumnias adversus doctrinam ejus de occulta Dei providentia. opusc. p. 850. 870. Epist. ad ministros Helvetic. in Dan. 4, 35 Beza abstertio calumniarum Tilmanni Heshusii calum. 1. opusc, part. 1 p. 313. 324. & contra calumnias Sebastiani Cast●llionis advers. doctrinam Calvini. p. 339. 424. Muscul. loc. come. de lapsu. Hominis. Sect. 4 & de provident. p. 493. 496. Pet. Martyr loc. come. class. 1 cap. 14. Zanc. de nat. Dei, lib. 3. cap. 4 & To. 4. lib. 1. cap. 3. thesi 4. Hyperii opusc. to 2. p. 143 Geo. Sohnius operum to. 2. p. 708 723. 744. Fulk and Carthwright ans. to the Rhem. Test. on Mat. 6. 13. Junius operum to. 1. col. 1851. 1855. Perkins Treatise of praedestination, p. 613. 621. and on the Crecd, p 156 161. Paraeus in Rom. 1. dub. 19 & Rom. 3. dub. 4. & respons. ad. Bellarminde amiss. gra. & statu peccat. lib. 2. cap. 4 8. Chamier controvers. tom. 2. l. 3. cap. 1, 2, 9, 10, 11. Bp Morton Apolog. Cathol. lib. 1. cap. 25. Whit●ker contra Duraeum. lib. 8. Dr Field of the Church, lib. 3 cap. 23. Bp Abbot Reform Cathol. part. 3. p. 60. 90. & Antilog. advers. Apolog. Eudemon Joannis, cap. 5. Sect. 5. Vrsin. Explicat. catechet, de peccato. qu. 7. Sect. 4. the provident. qu. 27. Dr John Whites way, digress. 41. Sect. 51. Dr Franc. Whites Orthodox Faith, cap. 8. Sect. 1. p. 218. 230. Dr Crackenthorp. contra Spalatens. cap. 36. Ames: Bellarmin, enervat. tom. 4. de causae peccati. Bp Davenant's answer to Hoord. p. 108. 146. Dr Twisse vindic. great. lib. 2. digress. 2, Walaeus loc. come. de primo peccato & de actuali Dei provident. Dr H. Alting. loc. come. part. 2. p. 421. & theol. problemat. part. 1. Problem. 29, 30. & exeges. confess. Augustan. art: 19 & denique theolog. elenctic. nova, p. 287 319. Rivet Catholic Orthodox. Tract. 4. qu 6 7. Spanheim dub. Evangel. part. 3. dub. 51. Sect. 5. Maccov. loc. come. cap. 48. Cloppenburg. loco de gubernatione contingentium. Pelargus compend. theolog. loc. 10. qu. 10. 13. & loc. de peccato. 11. qu. 19 few of whom I have è mea tenui supellectile, in the margin pointed unto) I leave unto you to show. Sure we are, that upon a candid examination, it will appear, that in this argument, Protestant Divines have intended no more than * V Aug. Epist. edit. Colon. 48. p. 58. 9 & Epist 59 p. 103. D. De Gen. ad lit. lib. 11. cap. 3. 12. the spirit & lit. cap. 31. enchirid. cap. 11. 27. 95. 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 104. octoginta trium quaestionum, qu. 27. contra Julian. Pelag. lib. 5. cap. 3, 4. the great. & lib. arbit. cap. 20, 21. the praedestinat. sanctorum, cap. 10. 16. 20. Augustini sententiae pii omnes. & modesti acquiescent. Calvin. Instit. lib. 1. cap. 18. Sect. 3. Modestis ingeniis semper haec Augustini responsio sufficit ibid. Sect. 4. Vide Chamier. to. 2. lib. 3. cap. 8. Austin before them did say, whom none will by name accuse, for making God the Author of sin, though some as Baronius observeth, dumb in nova●ores (so he calleth our divines) insurgunt, à sancti Augustini sententia de praedestinatione recedunt. Nor have they intended any more than by multitudes of † Gen. 45. 5, 6, 7, 8. Exod. 7. 3. 13. ●0. 1. 20, 27. 11. 9 D●ut. 2. 30. Josh. 11. 20. 1. Sam. 2. 25. 2 Sam. 12. 11, 12. 2 Sam. 16. 10, 11. 1 Reg. 12, 15. 1 Reg. 16. 3. 11, 12. 1 Reg. 22. 2●, 23. 2 Reg 24. 2, 3. 20. 1 Chron. 5. 26. 2 Chron. 25. 20. 2 Chron. 36 17. Psal. 69. 27 Psal. 105. 25. Psal. 109. 6. 11. Prov 16. 4. Prov. 22. 14. Isa. 6. 9, 10. Isa. 10. 5, 6, 7. Isa. 13. 3, 4 17, 18. Isa. 19 2. 14. Isa. 23. 11. Isa. 62. 17 jer. 47. 7. jer. 50. 21. jer. 51. 2, 3. 11, 12. Ezek. 14. 9 Amos. 7. 17. Mat. 13. 1●▪ 15▪ john 9 39 Acts 2. 23. Acts 4. 27, 28. Rom. 1. 24. 28. Rom. 9 17. 22. Rom. 11. 8, 9, ●0. 32. 1 Cor. ●●. 19 2 Thes. 2. 11, 12. places of Scripture they were led unto, which places as we read with adoration and trembling, at the unsearchable judgements of God, so we cannot but with all submission acknowledge the holiness and authority of them. For my part I thus judge, That if men would candidly carry this controversy to its native and proper issue, it would amount to this. 1. Whether the graces of faith, perseverance, and the glory following, be not Gods 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 withhold them, without any injury unto any? 4. Whether it imply a contradiction, for God by his power so to determine the will of the creature, hic & nunc ad unum, as that it shall retain its own nature, and yet shall not the facto, fully and victoriously resist divine grace, but shall invincibly and most certainly, as to God's determination, and yet most sweetly and willingly, as to its own manner of working, make choice of that good, in the choice whereof, it is demonstratively convinced, that its felicity doth stand? If this imply not a contradiction, (as I believe it will be difficult for him to prove, who shall undertake it, for why may not God determine the will, as easily as the will can determine itself?) then sure I am, that that omnipotency which could say, let there be light, and there was light, can say, let there be a will unto conversion, and there shall be such a will: That Omnipotency which could give a creature a Being out of nothing, can by an invincible persuasion or traction (the radical indifferency of the will remaining still the same) suspend the actual praevalent reluctancy thereof, and work it determinately unto such an action, as is rationally most convenient and behooveful for a rational appetite, as the will is, viz. to choose its own blessedness: for that is it which every convert in his effectual vocation, by the power of grace really doth. 5. 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 counsels 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 Sovereignty, and lay our hands on our mouth, as amazed at the unsearchableness of his judgements? Now, certainly in all this there is no blasphemy. God doth permit sin, and whatever he doth, he doth by the counsel of his own will, therefore he did ab aeterno decree to permit it; for otherwise he could by confirming grace, have hindered 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 counsel 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 wisdom and power was ordinable thereunto. He may out of that common and equal mass, wherein he did decree to permit it, decree in some in whom he did permit it, to pardon it, and on them to show free mercy, in others to punish it, and in them to show due and deserved justice, the one having nothing to boast of, because the grace which saves them, was Gods, the other nothing to complain of, because the sin which ruins them is their own. He may by this huge discrimination of persons, who were in their lump and mass equal, and in themselves indiscriminated, show the absolute sovereignty which he hath over them, as the Potter over his clay. He may by his most sweet, and yet most powerful efficacy, work the graces of faith, repentance, new obedience, and perseverance in the wills and hearts of those on whom he will show mercy, giving them efficaciously, both to will and to do of his own good pleasure, and leave others to their own pride and stubburnness, his grace being his own to do what he will withal. And I say once again, in all this there is neither modest nor immodest blasphemy. 1. God's glory is dearer to him then all the things in the world besides are, or can be. 2. Every attribute of God, is infinitely and absolutely glorious, and the glory of every one of them, infinitely dear unto him. 3. Whatever is infinitely and absolutely glorious in God, he may by an absolute will and purpose, decree to show forth the glory thereof in his works, without fetching an antecedent Reason ab extra, from without himself, leading and inducing him to make such a decree. 4. The subject on which God is absolutely pleased to manifest the glory of his mercy and justice as to mankind, is massa perdita. 5. Out of this mass of lost or lapsed mankind, he hath ex mero beneplacito, chosen some unto glory and salvation, for the manifestation of his free and undeserved mercy, and passed by others leaving them under deserved wrath, for the manifestation of his justice. 6. That such and such particular persons out of the same equally corrupted mass are chosen, and others are rejected, belongeth unto the deep and hidden counsel of God, whose judgements are unsearchable, and his ways past finding out, to whose sovereignty it appertaineth to form out of the same lump, one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour, to show mercy on whom he will show mercy, and to pass by whom he will pass by. 7. God doth so absolutely will and decree ab aeterno, the manifestation of the glory of his attributes in his works, as that withal he purposeth that the temporary execution of those eternal and absolute decrees shall finally be in materia apta & disposita for such a manifestation. 8. All those intermediate dispositions between the decree and the execution thereof, whereby the subject is fitted for such manifestation of God's glory, if they be gracious, they are by God's eternal will, decreed to be wrought, and accordingly are in time effectually wrought by himself and his grace, in and with the will of the creature. If they be evil and sinful, they are in his eternal purpose permitted to be wrought, and are in time actually wrought by the deficient and corrupt will of the creature, and being so wrought, are powerfully ordered by the wise and holy will of the Creator to his glory. 1. So then, God did ab aeterno, most absolutely will and decree his own glory, as the supreme end of all, consulting therein the counsel of his own will, and not the wills of any of his creatures. 2. In order unto that supreme end, he did freely elect some Angels, and some lapsed men unto blessedness; for he might do with his own gifts, what he would himself. 3. In order to the same supreme end, he did leave some Angels, and some lapsed men to themselves, to their own mutability and corruption, not being a debtor unto any of them. 4. But he did not ordain any creature to absolute damnation but to damniaton for sin; into which they fall (as they themselves know) by their own wills & whereof they are themselves the alone causes and authors; Gods work about sin being only a willing permission, and a wise, powerful and holy Gubernation, but no actual efficiency unto the formal being and obliquity thereof. I am sorry I am led on by mine own thoughts thus fare into your proper work. But here I stop. I was glad to see two Orthodox and sound Axioms, stand before the book of your Author, as the basis of his superstructure. Two men of quite different judgements in these very arguments I find to have done so Prosper count Collat. c. 14. before. The one Cassianus the Collator, of whom Prosper hath these words, Catholicarum tibi aurium judicia conciliare voluisti, quibus de praemissae professionis fronte securis, facile sequentia irreperent, si prima Liv. decad. 3. lib. 8. placuissent. Which words of his, bring into my mind a saying of the Historian, fraus fidem in parvis sibi praestruit, Ang, de great. Chr●sti, cap. 39 ut cum operae pretium sit, cum magna mercede fallat; and the censure of Austin upon Pelagius, Gratiae Vid. Savilii praefat. ad lectorem & Andr. Rivet. Grotian. discuss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Sect. 8. Sect. 11. & Voss. Hist. Pelag lib. 1. cap. 26. vocabulo frangit invidiam, & offensionem declinat. The other, the famous Archbishop Bradwardine, (whom learned and good men will honour, notwithstanding the hard censure passed by Hugo Grotius upon him) who premiseth two Hypotheses as the ground of that profound work of his, de causa Dei. I will have so fair and just an opinion of your Author, as to believe that he did this in candour and integrity, following therein rather the learned example of Bradwardin, than (if Prospers censure may be taken) the artifice and cunning of Cassianus; yet because this is a course, which may by the credit of true principles, draw the less cautelous and circumspect Readers, to consent to deductions not naturally consequent upon them; It is requisite, as for writers, as Pliny adviseth, saepius respicere titulum so for Readers to follow the Apostles counsel, to prove all things, and hold fast that which is good. I observe in your author, much credit given to a paper published under the name of Bp Andrew's. If controversies were to borrow their credit from the names of men, you could easily oppose the great Bp of Hippo, and a cloud of many other learned men, unto that great name. But I know not whether the ipse dixit of an Anonymous publisher, be attestation enough to prove the authenticalness of that paper. Dr Sanderson, a learned writer, who once drew the divers opinions touching these controversies into Tables, speaketh of Dr Overals judgement, but maketh no mention of this. And the two Prelates, unto whom the publication of his opuscula, was by special order referred, do not give any account of this paper to the world, but (that which seems to induce the contrary) they diligently satisfy the Reader, cur haec & non alia (speaking of the things by them published) sibi ad scribendum delegerit. Therefore it is probable, that either they owned not this as his, or willingly suppressed it; for something they did suppress, as they intimate in these words, illud quidem nobis curae fuit, ne quicquam prodiret, cujus occasione sancti manes queri jure possent, famae suae apud posteros male consultum à nobis esse. Therefore till I come to have a better assurance of it, than the testimony of the two letters, F. G. and the company of Fur Praedestinatus, I shall take the liberty of an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this particular. I now conclude with answering your desire, which was, that upon reading your book, I would give you my opinion of it. I have read it so well as I could, a Copy not in all places alike plainly transcribed: And truly, so far as my weakness is able to judge, for the theological & argumentative parts of it, it is so solid and substantial, as that I assure myself, it will be very acceptable to many learned men, & very useful to the Church of God. You have therein given a good account to the world, that you did converse with that second Bradwardine, Dr Twisse, unto very good purpose. I hearty with that there may be no further reciprocation of the law of contention between you, but that truth may so prevail, as that you may become both one, both in opinion and affection. It will be a happy time with the Church of God, when swords shall be beaten into ploughshares, and 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: Unto this let all our writings tend, for this let all our prayers contend. I commend your person and labours unto God's blessing, and remain Your most loving Friend, and fellow-Labourer, Ed. Reynolds. For the Reverend, my very good friend, Mr William Barlee, Preacher of the word at Brockhole Reverend Sir, I Return you many thanks, that you were pleased to gratify me with a sight of, and liberty to peruse, your elaborate correction of a Correct (so called) and Uncorrect Copy; wherein to my apprehension, you have done yourself, and the Truth itself, much right, 1. In your dextrous discoveries of the ambiguities. wherein that sort of men do use to hid themselves, and their poisonous doctrine. 2. In your solid rescuing the Augustinian and English Church, from his interpolations. 3. In battering his flourishing but weak Arguments, borrowed from the Pelagian and Arminian Schools: And lastly, in a right stating of the Questions between you and your adversary (which he altogether neglected, or willingly mistated) for his next undertaking; which if he do, I believe he will discover himself far worse, than yet he appears. I perceive you are sometimes pleasant with him; ridentem Convenit veritati ridere. quia tuta est. Tertul. dicere verum quid vetat? and sometimes you are sharp enough, but you could hardly otherwise do the Truth and Grace of God right, seeing nature and error ready to insult and tyrannize over them. And he hath little Grace or Truth, whose heart rises not with indignation against the oppugners and opressors thereof. Go on, Sir, to improve your Learning and Parts, in vindication of those, which alone can make you free. You shall, I verily persuade myself, much honour God, his Grace, his Truth, the true Church, and yourself. Commending you and your labours to the blessing of the God of all Grace and Truth; and wishing those your papers and pains, good success upon the hearts of all those that love the Lord Jesus Christ, and his free Grace, I am, Sir, Your Brother and Fellow-laborer in the work of the Lord, Dan. Cawdrey. Decemb. 8. 1655. Some general observations upon the Vncorrect Copy. SIR, THE Author of this Copy, (for the sight whereof I thank you) as he discovers himself to be a man of an insolent spirit, slighting his adversaries, under the notion of the half witted rabble of absolute praedestinarians, so he seems to be some Novitius in these controversies, being either grossly ignorant of the answers given long since to his Arguments, or scornfully negligent to take any notice of them. The mischief which these notions may do, upon weak and unstable judgements, justly calls for your best endeavours to antidote and prevent it. For as they say, poison given in strongest wines, is most deadly; so is error tempered or administered by men of Parts and Wit; whereof this author is supposed to have his portion. Had he (which I wish) but as much grace, he would not exercise his Parts of Nature, against the free grace of God. To speak to each particular, is your undertaking; I shall only make some general Animadversions, and leave them to you to improve them, to the best advantage of the truth. 1. He takes no notice of the usual distinction, betwixt God's decree, and the execution of it, but jumbles these both together. It is granted, that conditions go before the execution, but not the decree. Choosing of good goes before salvation, but not before the decree to salvation. All conditions are means tending to an end, and appointed for the sake of the end; therefore the end is first intended and appointed: so fare as they are means, they have an efficacy in producing the end, and so are causes of it. God's decree is actus ad intra, ergo, eternal, ergo, hath nothing going before it. It is actus independens, ergo, without causes or conditions. All those whom God chooseth to salvation, he brings them to it by fit means, as primarily, by making them of an unwilling will, to have a willing will, and therefore willingly to choose good, and refuse the contrary. Himself grants so much, if he mean clearly and candidly, when he saith, that the power to choose good, is given us merely of God's grace. But I doubt that here, latet anguis in herba, that by this power, he means not any new created habit, or gracious quality, which God infuseth into man's soul, whereby the natural motion of man's will is changed, though the liberty of it be not taken away; but only some externum auxilium, by precepts, promises, threaten, etc. whereby the natural power that is in it to good, is excited and stirred up. His similitude of the bladders plainly intimate so much; which can yield no help to a dead man, but to one that hath a principle within to set them on work. 2. He takes no notice of that usual distinction, of voluntas decreti, and voluntas praecepti. For from that saying, that God wils not the death of a sinner, he concludes that God decrees not the death of a sinner, nor the salvation of a believer but conditionally: for (saith he) Gods will and decree are both one; whereas the will of his decree, and the will of his precept, are really distinct, for 1. The will of his decree cannot be resisted, who hath resisted his will? but the will of his command is daily resisted by wicked men. 2. The will of his decree is eternal, (being actus ad intra) but his commands are given forth in time, one after another. 3. The will of his decree is immutable (being all one with himself) the will of his command is mutable, as in Abraham's case. 4. The will of his decree, is always fulfilled; he doth what soever he will; the will of his command is seldom fulfilled by wicked men, and not always by good men. 5. The will of his decree, is within himself, the will of his command, is that which he puts forth from himself, and therefore as much differing, as the creature and the Creator. 3. He takes no notice betwixt an absolute, and a conditional necessity: or, which is the same, a causal and consequential necessity. The first of these arising from the necessary connexion of causes, and their effects, the other from God's decree: Hence he infers, that if God hath decreed, a man should do good, than he doth it not freely, but forcedly against his will, which is altogether false. For God's decree doth not infringe the liberty of the second causes, but rather establish it. 1. That it doth not infringe it, appears, 1. Because Christ's death was decreed, yet he died voluntarily and freely, otherwise it had not been meritorious. 2. The Angels in Heaven obey freely and voluntarily, yet is this decreed, for they are called elect Angels. 3. When the faithful believe, they do it freely, yet they are elected to do this. 2 Thes. 2. 18. 4. If all our free actions and motions are not determined, we shall exclude God from a great part of that his providence, which he exerciseth in governing the world. 2. The decrees of God dye establish the liberty of the creatures, because he hath decreed not only rem ipsam, which comes to pass, but modum rei, the manner of them. Why do some things come to pass necessarily, but because God hath decreed they shall come to pass by necessary causes? Why do other things come to pass contingenuly, but because he hath decreed they shall so come to pass, by contingent causes? and the certainty of his knowledge, doth as much hinder the liberty of the creature, as the certainty of his decree. For as he cannot be frustrated in his purpose and decree so he cannot be deceived in his knowledge; therefore what he knows, must necessarily come to pass by this consequential necessity: yet none will say this takes away the liberty of the creature. Had this Objector been pleased to take notice of these distinctions, and throughly digested them, he might easily have seen, that they would have utterly enervated those his paralogismes, which he calls demonstrations, and holds forth with such confidence. He grants afterwards, that God foreknows all things, and that his certain foreknowledge doth not hinder the liberty of man's will. And upon the same ground he must grant it of his decree also, for they are both actus ad intra, of which the rule is, that they do nihil ponere in objecto. The decree of God being an act within himself, whiles he puts it forth in some outward act, tending to execution, works nothing upon the creature. Now let him show if he can, in what outward acts upon the creature, tending to the execution of his decree, he doth any way necessitate man's will. For outwardly he works upon him only by moral suasion, and inwardly by infusing gracious habits, which sweetly incline, and dispose him freely to choose what is good, in good actions. In evil actions he works not inwardly at all, by infusion of any ill quality, or principles, but only by leaving him to the liberty and free motion of his wicked will, (which he is not bound to restrain) and outwardly by propounding such outward objects, as are in themselves good. By which it is apparent, that God's decree doth not at all necessitate man's will. Yet upon this false foundation, that the will is necessitated by God's decree, he goes on usque ad nauseam, to infer most absurdly, irrationally, and contrary to all Logical principles, that if the end be certain, the means are needless. If man's salvation be certainly determined, than no need of faith, and repentance, obedience and the like: then all precepts, threaten, etc. are to no purpose: Whereas he cannot be ignorant, that media sunt propter finem, and that finis intentionis est causa mediorum, and media sunt causae executionis. And whereas the Apostle useth this as an argument, to make us careful, to be sober, and to put on the breast plate of faith and love, and the helmet of hope, 1 Thes. 5. 8. (is parts of that spiritual armour, whereby we must mainte●ne the spiritual combat) because God hath not appointed us unto wrath but to obtain salvation by Jesus Christ, ver. 9 He argues the quite contrary way that if we be appointed to salvation, these things are needless. And whereas the Apostle saith, that we are chosen to alvation, through the sanctification of the spirit, and belief of the truth, 2 Thes. 2. 15. and so makes sanctification and faith, as certain and necessary, as salvation itself, we being chosen to both, by one act of God's decree, which is both eternal and unchangeable, he saith no: if we be chosen to salvation by any unchangeable decree, than neither sanctification nor faith are needful; and so severs the end and means, which God hath inseparably joined together. He might as well argue; that because God had determined that Hezekiah should live fifteen years after his sickness, therefore he need no longer make any use either of food or physic: yet this is his manner of arguing all along his discourse. 4. His conditional decree draws after it these absurdities. 1. He takes away all difference between election and reprobation betwixt love and hatred. For by this, Esau is loved, as well as Jacob, if he chooseth good; and Jacob hated as well as Esau, if he chooseth evil, and both these lef● merely to the liberty of their own will, whereas it is said, that God loved Jacob, and hated Esau, before they had done good or evil. 2. He makes the decree of God to be uncerteine, because it hath no certain object, neither salvation nor damnation is the certain object, it being equally disposed to both these, and both these cannot consist together, being contraries. 3. It makes God's decree to have a beginning and an end: his conditional decree hath an end, and his absolute decree a beginning; for this takes no place, till the other be expired. M●n is not absolutely elected, till the condition be fulfilled, ●●l he hath persevered in believing. Obj. God foresees from all eternity, who will do thus, and on that decrees. Ans. If he foresees this, it is either without or within himself; he cannot foresee it without himself, till the thing have a being, non entis non est conside●a●io. If he foresee it within himself, it is in his own will and decree (which is the only cause of futurition) which they deny. 4. It maketh its to choose God before he chooseth us; for his election is upon the foresight of choosing of good; contrary to that which is said we love him, because he loved us first, 1 John 4. 19 5. He makes us to make the difference betwixt ourselves, and those that are lost: for upon our choosing good, God chooseth us, and so puts a difference, contrary to that, who made thee to differ? 1. Cor. 4. 7. 6. He gives us a better part in our conversion, than God; for he only gives power to believe, we put forth this power into act; and actus is more excellent than potentia. It is in our power to frustrate what God doth in our conversion; and so the chief honour is ours. It makes Gods will to wait upon ours, in all things tending to salvation. 7 It makes the d●fference of vessels of honour and dish nour, to arise from the quality of the matter, not from the will of the Potter, Rom. 9 21. cont. Neither can he quit himself from Pelagianism, by saying, that the Pelagians held, that there was a power in man's will, to do the will of God, without his grace: for the latter Pelagians, with whom Prosper had to do, denied not the work of grace in our believing, but held that this grace is give to us, according to our merit. Aug. de praedest. sanct. l. 2. And how does this differ from that doctrine which teacheth, that we are chosen to salvation, from the foresight of the right use of our free wil●, in choosing that which is good, and refusing the contrary; and makes grace only an help in doing this, when a man sets it on work, as he that swims doth his bladders. Yours and the Truths, Thomas Whitfield. Animadversions upon the Title Page. CORREct.] As yet uncorrected of most of the Pelagian, Semipelagian and Arminian tenants, faulted in the disowned Copy. SOME NOTES.] A just voluminous Tract, by an unusual Catachresis, styled, some notes; among which there appears scarce any of any good note. CONCERNING GOD'S DECREES.] More truly it might have been said against God's Decrees. You leave to God all along many commands, promises, threats, etc. but no Decrees, save what are dependent on, and subsequent to man's wil The worst kind of Independency, is this. REPROBATION] Rather DAMNATION as you should have said, most solemnly in this your owned, and in your other disowned Treatise (and that upon design) confounded with Preterition, or Negative REPROBATION, for the private use of a friend, possibly for the use of the man of honour and integrity in your Dedicat. who it seems stood in need of a matter of 600 Copies, which within less than two months were almost sold in this very Country, as saith W. C. Test is idoneus. CALUMNY] i. e. truth; for no other matters can I learn you yet to be slandered with. When writings coming from your faction take not, the usual Apology of old, received from your dogmatic Sires, is, vel inemendata fuisse surrepta (in your English uncorrected Copies) vel omnino August. de Grat. Christi. cap. 2. & sic fermè Armin. ad artic. sibi objectos. negant sua, or none of theirs; as the former writing in my hands, scil. is either not yours, or was not fine enough to be owned by superlatively fine Mr T. P. Out of a Lettter of Dr George Kendal, directed to me, Aug. 30. 1655. YOU may please to know, that I much rejoice to hear you have an answer ready to Mr P's Pamphlet, which I was requested by a most Reverend old Bishop, to take into consideration, and bestow some correction on it; but hearing that a Minister of Northamptonshire had prevented me, I was willing to save my pains, though I could not learn who the Minister was. The Pamphlet is well worded, but slight enough I wis, and is only stuffed out with passages of Calvin, and others, which I have construed in another sense, in my answer to fur praedestinatus, which hath lain a good while in Dr Owen's hand, etc. Sir, I wish you the assistance of God's spirit in the finishing of your work. Dr Twisses memory will be beholding to you. Mr P. is to me unknown, otherwise then by his book, of which I was full, as soon as I tasted it, and the farther I went on, the more I disgusted it, etc. Answer to the Dedicatory Epistle. SIR, I can be content to leave you in your proper Element of Courting your Noble patron (as you say) of honour and integrity, of erudition too, above his fortune or blood; and if so, you are to blame in concealing his name, and not saluting of him with a Mace●as Atavis edite Regibus, Or a. Tuque ades, inceptumque unâ decurre laborem, Vi●g. O decus, O famae (merito) pars maxima nostrae, Macenas, pelagoque volans da vela patenti: The rather because you put an ominous task upon him of defending of you and your Arminianism, which by a great Dr of it, even when it was more courted at Court, was thought somewhat dangerous. (a) Dr jackson in his Dedicat. Epistle to the Earl of Pembroke. But methinks you should not be so supercilious, as in your Epistles, to check me for going to some of my Sympresbyters with my private papers drawn up against yours, whilst you take the liberty about yours to consult with Lords and Ladies: But possibly it becomes you as well as it did Pelagius and Arminius before you, to shun Ecclesiastical Tribunals, and fly to Secular, as the first did to the Lady Demetrias, and the other to the Lords the States of Holland, passing by all Synods and Classes, etc. 2. I cannot blame you to provide for the safety of your person, and the vineyard and budget you talk of in an Epistle you wots of; and well could I wish all safety, hail and happiness to these, provided the licentiousness of the age did not make it so safe for you, to divend your poisonous heterodoxal grace-blasting doctrines: A liberty which now adays you have in common, and of course with some Weavers in the West, (b) See Mr Whitefields Refutation of lose opinions. And Mr Wetherhall his discovery of false, betwixt Bridge and Lincoln. and Blacksmiths (c) See Mr Whitefields Refutation of lose opinions. And Mr Wetherhall his discovery of false, betwixt Bridge and Lincoln. in the North. Jam est is ergo Pares. 3. Next to the continual feast of a good conscience, if it be any way haveable in the way you be in, you do well not to be indifferent to the good opinion of good men; (d) Sufficit mibi consci●ntia mea, necessaria est aliis fama mea. Augustin. but then, since the great coil which hath been kept against Monopolies of all sorts, you do not so well to monopolise in your first and second papers, the opinion of good men to Cassandrians (p. 11. of the first papers) Lutherans (p. 16. of these) admirable Grotians, whom you prefer above Austin himself, in the matters to be debated (p. 28.) altogether excluding those good men, Allobrogenses, by most called Calvinists, Genevenses, in England Puritan, Presbyterians, or any such like goodish things; these as you know, I cannot, since your Endoctrinating of me by your private Epistles to the contrary, according to you, reckon amongst the good men, you would be well thought of. Yea, all these kinds of good men of the first or second Reformation, must be ranked amongst modest or immodest blasphemers, with Manichees, Marcionites, Carpocratians, Turks, in that p 11. 35, 55. & passim alibi very writing which you do offer to the view and reading of Quicunque vult. 4. You may too, as the times are, be well enough allowed to betake yourself to your crypts, to bury yourself amongst your books. Eas tu mi frater in sellam & dic miserere. I myself in my time, even in these times, have not a little been wont to that. (e) jer. 9 1. Montes & sylvae mihi tutiores, quam concursus hominum. Hilary somewhere to that purpose. But would to God you were not so much in your Muses, for poring upon or believing in the points controverted, Molina, Bellarmine, Lessius, rather than Cornelius Jansenius, for Hugo Grotius the admirable man with you, and who indeed to you is in all things, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, rather then L. J. Bogerman, or J. Latius, for the Remonstrants, rather than the Contra-Remonstrants, though p. 4. most disingenuously you are loath to own either of them; you then would not have put me to a hard study of the latter, in opposition to the former, whom you like better. Similes labra lactuc as. 5. But though with some grains of allowance, you may be very well borne with in the former, yet that why you, who would be thought to be so much against all wilful and premeditated lies, p. 1. should, I cannot say weakly, (f) Under my hand and seal, Feb. 25. 1655. he had this. Say and write in a way that you dare to own, & as just occasion shall be given: I will not be afraid nor ashamed, to give you and the Church of God, some account of what I have been doing against a trifling pamphlet, savouring of your Genius, and said and believed to be yours. If it be not, no man in the world should more rejoice then myself, if you would renounce the Pelagiana & Semipelagiana dogmata, contained in it. If you be wronged in the transcribing, you will exceedingly gratify me, and right yourself, if you would pleasure me with a copy which you will avouch, Feb. 27. in answer to a terrible longwinded pasquil he had thus much more from me. You may then know how much I understand of Pelagianism, and how well I can prove you to be one, when your insolency shall have provoked me to make more public use of an answer to your pamphlet, then in all likelihood it might otherwise have been put unto by the author of it, etc. turn what you had under my hand and seal, in Hypothesi of your insolency, into an absolute saying, that I intended to make your first papers public (p. 2. Dedic.) I cannot divine; unless perhaps your mistaken charity take all my wills to be absolute, who will to the Almighty himself, allow no other than an hypothetical one; or that, having fulfilled the condition of insolency against God's truth, as well as my ministry, flock, name, etc. You yourself, did even think it fitting, that my otherwise hypothetical will, should, to use your Nic. Grevinchovius his phrase, transire in absolutam: Truly else, had you been but as wise, as your friendly DANIEL would have had you to have been, as since your threatening you have lived long unanswered; so sure as for me you might have stayed till Saint Neverstide, unto which there is a long day. 2. I can less give any honest reasons (though some others I think I can give) why you should so peremptorily deny the former papers to have been yours, which I must think, say, and write to be yours. If either I must believe yourself, who up and down oppose this your correct, smooth, fair Copy, to your other uncorrect one. An uncorrect one of yours, is some way yours, though a thousand times over you should repeat that of the Poets unto me, which you do in your Epist. 4. Meus est quem recit as O fidentine Libellus Ast male dum recitas incipit esse tuus. Thus I must think, until you tell me by whom, in what, cur quomodo, quando, you have been wronged. 2. If against your ipse dixit in your own cause, I may but be allowed to give credit to the testimony of two Reverend Divines, who have professed to me, to have seen one, and one to have transcribed one from under your hand, which is as like to that first one which fell into my hand, as face answereth to face, ovum ovo non similius, some politic omissions only excepted. 3. To say nothing of a third grave ancient Reverend Divine, from whom I had mine, who hath oftentimes told me, that when you would have had the papers out of his hand, which he put into mine, you did not deny them to be yours, nay, but confessed them so to be; and against him endeavoured to maintain the Materia substrata contained in them. Another very honest man, who by the Gentleman you mention, p. 4. was put upon the transcribing of your first papers, upon the sight of your hand, which I shown him, told me, that he wondered you should deny the first papers to be yours, or against him (who had an extraordinary care in transcribing of them, and from whose copy mine came under the hand of a very Reverend and Learned Divine) give out that in transcription you had been wronged. 4 The consanguinity of matter, stile, very words, sparkling wit, when compared with your public owned copy, proclaim them to be yours, though now you call your child bastard, and force it after a sort to say, Est mihi namque domi durus pater, etc. 5. If some who love you but too well, out of hopes, as I trust, of gaining you and your truly gallant parts, to be servants to God's truth and grace; (which hopes of theirs pray God they may never give up the Ghost) would but speak what they know in these matters (and truly it concerns them, since in your Epistles, as well as in your public writing, you accuse them of ignorance, malice, forgery, etc.) I should not need to cast about me for Topical arguments, to prove you to be the father of the first papers, what they can produce, would be as demonstrative as any in Euclides Elements. They are of years and discretion, let them plead for themselves upon a high charge; and let this what I have here said, serve for answer to what you have p. 4. and else where. As to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Erysipelas objected to me, I confess I was never half so good as yourself, either at Copiam or Elegantiam verborum, who in these things to give you but your due, are a very Magister Artis. I know too, and feel full well, that the parrhesia which I use in speaking, when as near as I can, I do but call things by their proper names, procures me small favour in the world. Obsequium (you know) amicos, v●ritas odium parit. 2. But in the terms which I gave you, I reckon it to have been foelix infortunium to me, that no other dropped from my pen, than were usual to Austin against Pelagius, and to learned orthodox King James against Arminius, your true doctrinal proparents, as I hope my book will evidence: And I trow you will not think it reasonable to provide a napkin to wipe their foul mouths. 3. And if perchance I had been out in the broadness of my expressions, when sub sigillo I as another Cynthius did aurem tibi vellere, by rounding of something into your ear, of which you might have made good use; yet why will you in your open Correct Copy, be so strangely revenged upon me, as to proclaim to all the Christian orthodox world wherever your book shall come, that I told you but the truth, and quod semper licuit, did but mordaci rodere vero. 4. The Erysipelas, as I understand by a profounder Physician then yourself, is a disease rather hot Doctor Fernelius. then hurtful, and is sometimes the indicium of a Recovery from some great sickness, possibly from a dangerous fever, nay frenzy, or from the spiritual Nitnia, which you my charitable physician, thought me your poor patient to be sick of. And truly but for your quaking Epist. secunda à me Publicata terms which you use in print, as before in private, I might have spelt the two letters T. P. after another guesse-fashion then now I shall do, who take them to be the true initials of the name and surname of Mr Quondam grave physician; who yet methinks when in Divinity he talks of high matters, doth rather talk like a Drs Pharmacopaeus then like the Dr himself. 7. But that neither the old or young Trojan, whom you compare to Pausanias or Nicostratus, have half of your spite, against any thing of yours, which you have manifested against God's truth and God's way which they walk in, you might have had such a retortion from them, as you would have been loath to have heard of; but because they own nothing but good will to your person, in hopes of amendment for aftertimes, they will spare you for this time. Sed parcius ista viris, tamen objicienda memento. 8. If by what follows in the 3. and 4. pages of this Dedicat. you would not slily (which I much fear, who have some more than ordinary reasons to be jealous over you that way) insinuate first, that simple heresies not obstinately maintained in matters of Religion, are no fruits of the flesh or evil works, whilst you say, that God Gal. 5. will render to every man according to his works, not according to his opinions; but that as your Batavicke brethren, the Remonstrants' talk, that they are pura put à Ap●log. Contra Censuram. innocentia nullo modo suo proprio nomine noxia. Or 2. That you are endowed in your way of teaching, with I cannot tell what peculiar, rare, mystical faculty of making your proselytes sincere ones, before in the very fundamentals of the Covenant of grace, you make them so much as orthodox ones. 3. Or that you and the pious men of your way (of the most of whom to be sure that is true, that we may Illis dare eloquentiam & eruditionem, fidem & religionem nunquam coluerunt) because you are great admirers and followers of a Practical Catechism you wots of, published the sixth time, are the only nonesuches, and peerless patterns of true piety, with whom none of ours recommended to the world for piety, prudence, moderation, by Mr T. Fuller, in his late Abel Redivivus, or by Mr▪ William Clerk in the Lives and deaths of some later Divines, who have much contended against your way, and yet not lost the practice or purity of religion, but rather exercised both in so doing. 4. Or that you will not pin upon my credulity that the press was your fear, rather than your itch, which I know and can prove to be quite contrary; I say were it not fear that in your ambiguous general expressions, you would intimate all these things, I could have been willing to have forborn all further criticisms upon the fair text of your Dedicat. I can be content to enjoin myself silence from telling any Tales out of your pious practical School, and I shall with expedition address myself to a more down right schuffle with you, about what you have in your second portal or Paraenesis. Nunquam bella piis, nunquam certamina desunt, Et quocum certet mens piasemper habet. My mind much misgives me, or upon search we shall find, that Gramine sub hoc viridi latet anguis. Tit. Paranesis p. 1. THE necessity which you suggest of publication, was a selfe-created necessity, and yet I am sure no ways opposite to your Liberum Arbitrium, or free will. Else pray good Sir, what made you as it were per saltum, to fly from the fair hopes which your first alarming Letter put me into, of having (to use your own words) a true copy, and such a one, as you would own not only in the night, but if need be at noon too: Which hopes with much civility and respect, were entertained by me, as may be seen p. 3, 4. in marg. Of this Answer, I say what Epist. prima à me publicata. made you fly so unexpectedlie to the press, as unto your only sanctuary, with a Copy, which to my knowledge had been in some men's hands six months before. Unto which, when I perceived you hastening, I was willing enough to will you good speed, and that your beloved press might but prove as beneficial to (g) Hieronym. Epist. ad Ctesiphont. Ecclefiae victoria est vos apertè dicere quod sentitis. Idem, semper docent & semsemper negant. Quicquid vident displicere, non suum, sed alienum esse contendunt. The Carthag. father's complain to Austin, that, etiamsi Pelagius Celestiusque correcti siut vel se ista numquam sensisse dicunt, & quaecunque scripta contra eos prolata fuerint, sua esse negabunt, n●c est quemad modum de menda cio convin cantur. you, as the penitential stool (at which you jeer, Epist. 2.) had been to many a Northern Scotick wild blade; for as some diseases do better when they break out, then when they are kept in; So it hath been more beneficial to the Church ever, for Pelagiam and Arminian errors by the Authors of them, to have been published, then for them hatching of them in their bosoms, to communicate them only to their confidentiaries, (a) in cryptis. §. 1. Ibid. I Am too conscious of my own frailties, which are great and many, then for to cast stones at you for not being infallible. (h) Cic. humanum est errare, labi, decipi. Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puta. Horat. Quisque suos patitur manes, optimus ille est qui minimis urgetur. In many things we offend all, Jam. 3. 2. or Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, we trip all. And had all your Erratas been only slight ordinary trip or stumblings, or but which used to be said of Cyprians errors, tantum naevi in candido pectore, I trust by God's grace, I should either not at all have taken notice of them, or at most only have proceeded against them in the Spirit of meekness. But many of your faults are of such a complexion, as that I am forced to come against you with the rod, 2 Cor. Iniquity is bound up in the heart, even of your Correct Child, Copy I mean, and the rod of correction must drive it far from you, Prov. 1. It is well you will not allow that Abaddon or Apollyon, or accuser of the brethren to be upon the bench of your Censors, when your cause comes to be tried. Yet I am, Sir, pretty well assured, that neither in City or Country, you shall well find any better affected to your cause and way of management of it, than himself. He likes of your fair beginnings, I can assure you; Hoc Ithacus velit & magno mercentur Atridae. 2. I cannot well fancy how you should expect the God of heaven to speak for you, whom upon supposition of an absolute decree, you are not ashamed, horresco scribens, p. 24, etc. to make an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, nay, to be worse than the devil himself, p. 41. and p. 13. 3. Nor can I well tell how any of the brethren who are faithful, chosen and true, Rev. should vote on your side; whom as it is well enough known, you seldom use to name, but in the Accusative case. I cannot well tell who you would have to be your Judges, or allow to be of your Jury. 4. As for the cause I maintain against you, were the Ecclesiastical Laws and Courts as they have been, ever since the Reformation of the Church of England from Popery, I durst commit myself to be tried by God and my Country. Nay, yet still I am content for my writings of all sorts, which upon this occasion I have drawn up against you, to leave myself to the judicial ministerial censure of any 10. noted Senior Sympresbyters of worth, for learning, piety, constant painfulness in the work of the Ministry, and who since the times have been most upon their Tropics, have been least Tropical. These of all others I think fittest to determine matters betwixt us, as our proper Judges; if at the time of trial, they will but renounce all Francisco-Clarian glosses upon the 39 Articles of the Church of England. §. 2. p. 1, 2. FIrst, But that possibly you may think it a huge credit for to be publicly pointed at, as the Autesignanus, and the very Captain General of all the Arminian rout (a thing formerly only known to some of your near neighbours) most wise men would think; and to my knowledge, some who love you very well do think, that by thus appearing upon a public Theatre, before you were in that way challenged by an open enemy, hath been so fare from staunching the bleeding of your name, as that it hath but made it bleed more mortally and dangerously then before. Such a wound indeed you have given it, as is not to be healed again but by a Recanting tongue or pen of yours; so that now your name saith to you, Ovid. Namque ille, aut nemo, vel qui mihi vulnera fecit, Solus Achilleo tollere more potest. 2. Unless it may be judged fitting, that (whilst you and your party are sharpening your tongues and pens against God's sovereignty, grace, counsels, servants) the Ministers of God, whom the Prophet would not have to be dumb dogs, should be mere edentuli; there is a necessity for them not to be toothless at their tongue's end or pens end, and yet your faction will not have reason enough to give out, that they do valere caninâ eloquentiâ. It is within their commission to be cutting, Tit. 1. 13. 3. I wish not only that you were for a retreat, but also for a serious Retractation, that now would to you be most honourable, even as Austin's was to him. That would to you be quasi tabula post naufragium, and make some amends, and possibly gain you some thanks from the Reformed Church of England, yea, from all the Protestant Churches in Christendom, who do in doctrinals, maintain correspondence with her. You ought not so much to stand upon punctilios of honour, unless your arguments which you draw forth into the field, had been more for pugnam, and less for pompam, and not long since, been beaten before you brought them forth. 4. As for me, who from your pasquilling Epistles, have a little more reason than other people, to know how stiff you are in the instep, I much fear, that notwithstanding your profession of a kind of willingness to blot out your writing (Oh that there were a deleatur for the whole, under your grave venerable hand!) we shall rather find you as peremptory, as he who cried out, quod scripsi scripsi, sed Deus meliora: definam ego malè ominari. 5. Your defensive buckler (as you call it) I am sure, which no buckler should be, is offensive enough, when you make it to fall on those, whom your first papers call the half witted rabble of absolute praedestinarians, and these your owned polite ones, absolute reprobatarians, p. 13. whom you deal withal, as the persecutors did of old with good Christians, who by them were put into bear's skins, and then they set dogs upon them; so you transform the holiest and ablest of your adversaries, into modest or immodest blasphemers, who are for the Ligonem, Ligonem of Gods being the author of sin, and then you set the bandogs of your rhetoric upon them. But how sharp soever your shield, I trust the two edged sword of God's word, will be able to cut it all in pieces, Heb. 4. 12. Sect. 3. p. 2. AS for your private conference, I had thought that you had not been at all for private divine Conventicles, and not having been at it, I cannot guess much, how much or how little it was for edification: but since the breaking of it up, from the report which here you make of it, and I have otherwise heard of it, me thinks I may gather these notes. 1. That because you thought your first draught containing the sum of your conference to be so inconsiderable, as not so much as to vouchsafe it a reading over, before you did part with it out of your hands. You have made it impossible for yourself with reason, to make such invectives as every where you do against the Transcribers of your scribble; for how can you now tell that some did not honestly write according to what they found you to have written before them, without any of the least adding to, or detracting from your first Copy. 2. It is somewhat strange, that you who are a public Preacher, and provided of a public place, to divulge any wholesome sound doctrine in which it cannot be gainsaid (and what have you to do with any other?) should yet in a time wherein Liberty enough in all Conscience is given and taken to, and by those, who do but pretend to Liberty of Conscience, be so to own what you teach, should in mere points of Religion, be so much for Conjurations of greatest secrecy (p. 3.) for whispers and murmurs, nay for a readiness of going with your own hands to the fire with your papers, rather than to the Light, p. 4. as if your own conscience did tell you, that they were very fit to be burnt for heretics. Aliquid (in this sure) latet quod non patet, veritas est temporis filia, & dies diem docebit * See how like the Pelagians you are in this, apud August. Epist. 104 & 105. Sunt qui occultius penetrant domos & quod in aperto jam clamare metuunt, in secreto seminare non quiescunt, etc. . 3. That by what I know and have heard, and could tell further, if need were, you were in the way of gaining close proselytes to you, not so happy in that other Gentleman you mention, as you were in tripping up of the heels of the first, whom you felled to the ground, as the report goes by a strange longwinded syllogism, with which you begin your first papers. If ever you get beyond sea again, you must not cry victoria for gaining all you ever conferred with, unless you will do it with as little verity, as Dr Weston at St See Dr Featlies' preface to the Protestant Relation. Nostra damus cum verba damus, quia fallere nostrum est. Omars, did glory that the Bishop of Chalcedon, had made the Earl of Warwick to become a good Roman Catholic. Sect. 4. p. 3, 4. 1. IF you did not after your wont fashion, feed us with empty spoons, put us off with mere words, and bare pretensions of your inability to fathom, the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Apostle, or the Abyss of the Psalmist, you would Calvin. instit. lib. 3. c. 23. 7. not p. 24. so tartly and sarcastically have gibed at Calvin, for calling the decree about the permission of Adam's fall, and the consequents of it, horribile decretum, in no other sense as its evident, then because upon the consideration of it, it did affect him with some awful horror, that would in very deed have well becomed you, were your head of a thousand times deeper reach than it is, to have been strucken with a reverential and amazing silencing pause, at the mysterious gulf of divine predestination, seeing both the Apostle, and the Psalmist, and all humble modest Divines with them, and Austin (i) August. ad Laurent, c. 99 ad Rom. 9 Hoc loco quidam stulti putant apostolum in responsione defecisse, & inopiâ reddendae rationis repressisse contradictoris audaciam. Sed magnum habet pondus quod dictum est, O homo tu quis es? Et in talibus quaestionibus ad suae capacitatis considerationem revocat hominem. Verbo quidem brevi, sed reipsâ magna est reddita ratio. Idem eodem lib. cap. 98. Nunquid iniquitas apud Deum? absit, iniquum enim videtur ut sine ullis honorum malorumve operum meritis unum Deus diligat, oderitque alterum. Qua in re si futura opera vel bona hujus vel mala illius, quae Deus utique presciebat vellet intelligi, nequaquam diceret, non ex operibus, sed diceret ex futuris operibus; eoque modo istam solveret quaestionem, immo nullam quam solvi opus est faceret quaestionem. willingly confess themselves to be at a stand about the several mysterious ways of executing those decrees, which the ever holy wise God takes, in the course of his providence. 2. But he that runs, if he be but reading of your book in his hand, may easily perceive, that in your doctrines about this matter, you are but too n●er allied to that proud, haughty, and daring generation, I mean now of the Jesuits, Arminians, and Socinians, who think it high scorn, that any thing about this mystery, should baffle or give check to that which they take to be the Lydius Lapis for the trying of all doctrines, viz. their Recta Ratio. And pray, according both to you and them, what depth according to mere natural reason, is there in it, for to allow God the sole assignment of the conditions upon which he will Elect and Reprobate? 2. Or for to maintain that it was fitting for him to make final faith or infidelity, the conditions of those decrees, as final legal obedience or disobedience; and yet this is the ne plus ultra of the deepest Bathos of your predestination, by which have you not turned it into a fordable shallow, for any child to wade through? 3. And why, seeing you do in these trim public papers of yours, give out faith and infidelity to be the causes of Election and Reprobation, p. 70. do you so much as seem to deny, p. 56. what you had strenuouslie asserted in your uncorrected Copy, p. 11. that when two are equally called, whereof the one converts himself, the other miscarries, it is not God but man that puts the difference? (k) August. in johan. 6. Quem trahat & quem non trahat, quare illum trahat, & illum non trahat, noli velle judicare, si non vis errare. Can you assign a cause of the cause of Election and Reprobation, and can you assign none of the Effects and Consequents of the one and the other? In your divinity belike (unless it be where in Traditionals you dote upon the authority of the Mother Church; for than ignorantia est mater devotionis, and your Rationale Ceremoniale, consuetudo sine veritate, est vetust as erroris, Cypr.) You never think, that nihil scire jucundissima vita est, you be the happy knowing men, all wisdom must die with you, Job 12. 1. Virg. Foelix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas. Yet remember, that Plinius for pyring to near into the causes of the Vesuvian fires, was consumed by the flames thereof; Scrutator Majestatis opprimetur à gloria, Aug. 4. As for us poor orthodox Ignaro's, we think it the highest perfection of our sober wisdom, not to be wise above what is written (l) Aug. the correp. & great. c. 8. Quantum itaque nobis sua judicia manifestare dignatur, gratias agamus: quantum vero abscondere, non adversus ejus consilium murmuremus, sed hoc quoque nobis saluberrimum esse credamus. & so we give no other causes of predestination, than what the Scriptures do, Mat. 11. 25, 26. Rom. 9 11. Eph. 1. 4, 5. and we judge with Austin (m) Jam si ad illam profunditatem scrutandam quisquam nos coarctet: Cur illi ita suadeatur ut persuadeatur, illi autem ita, duo solum occurrunt interim, quae respondere mihi placeat. Oalti tudo divitiarum! & nunquid iniquitas apud Deum? Cui responsio ista displicet, quaeret doctiores, sed caveat ne inveniat praesumptiores de spirit. & liter●, c. 34. Idem alibi. Cur autem illum poti us liberet aut non liberet, scrutetur qui potest judiciorum e●us tam magnum profundum, verumtamen caveat praecipitium. Idem de verbis Apostoli. Serm. 20. O altitudo! Petrus negat, la●ro credit! O altitudo! Quaeris rationem, ego expavescam altitudinem: Tu ratio●inare, ego mirer, tu disputa ego credam. Altitudinem video, ad profunditatem non pervenio. Paulus dicit inscrutabilia sunt judicia ejus & tu scrutari venisti; hic dicit, investigabiles sunt viae ejus, & tu investigare venisti. Si inscrutabilia scrutari, & investigabilia vestigare venisti, crede jam venisti. that you by your daring to the contrary, have not avoided a precipice, but split yourself upon it; you have not run from the wolf, but have run just into his mouth; and pray God that ever hereafter in our Church, you become not Lupus in fabula for it. 1. You be too stately an Orator for to state any old Questions at all, either in a new found way, or in an old, that would but have shackled your luxuriant rhetoric; and therefore as a thing much beneath you (Aquila non captat muscas) you wholly leave all stating of Questions to your less elegant, and more rugged neighbours. 2. But if it be as you say, that you do not novam semitam in veteri viâ quaerere, state an old Question in a new found way, than belike we may take it for granted, that without any further ado, you be for old Arminianism, scil. a thing which sure concerned God's Church much at this time, for to be acquainted with, under your own hand, habemus confitentem reum. 3. Only pretend you what you list to the contrary in what follows next. 1. I am so well acquainted with the altitude of your spirit, & myself and others are so well acquainted with your Cassandro-Grotian strain, wherein as you are, so you affect to be accounted eminent, to be indeed Dux caput ipse gregis, as that I doubt not but you aspire to a Moderatorship betwixt the contending parties which you mention: And in this kind some others might, have expected some great feats of performance from you. 2. But as for myself, I find you so wholly wedded to the latter parties against the former, as that I find you to have the hard hap of most modern Reconciliators, (n) So Huge Grotius was early, when he wrote his D●fensio Pietatis ordinum Hollandiae, under the pretence of a moderator, the known advocate of State, for the Arminians and Vorstians. Vide I. Bogermani notas. His Cassand●ian volume pro pace, ended, as is plain by his last book, viz. his Discussor, in a down right plea for Popery, vide ipsum, pag. penultima & ultima. Et Andraei Riveti Dialysin contra discussorem per totum. The design of the Cassandro German Interimists, ended at last in a bold extirpation of Protestan: is●●e, to the uttermost that was in them. joh. Sl●idan, An. 1549. page 374 & passim. The Gallican moderators do but bla●n●h over Arminianism. Vide D. D Davenan●●i append●cem ad ●ractat. 2. de reprobat. & sat●sfact. Ch●isti. Sic mu●●er formosa superne D●sinit in piscem. who in words fawn sometimes upon two different parties, but indeed fall most foully upon, and do most hostilely pursue that which they are most resolved to hate, and withal their might to beat down. I should therefore have been extremely satisfied, if in this your Press Copy, you had not openly and only appeared for the Remonstrants' opinions against those of the Antiremonstrants: For not so much the ancient fathers before St Austin (from whom as I hope elsewhere, to show, Austin differed in no material things.) As for Austin Junior against Austin Senior, for Austin the Presbyter, against Austin the Bishop; when as yet the good old Bishop did cry peccavi, and did some kind of honest penance for some of the errata calami, which fell from him by over-lavish expressions, in the commendation of Nature and free will in his younger times: (o) Aug. De perseverant. c. 3. 11, & 12. In prioribus illis scrip●●● Augustinus ●o● s●r bend●. sed sine praejudicio al●●rum cau●a●um quas prud●ntes p●ssunt inv●stigare, de quorum vetu●late frustra ipsi praescribitur quia Laicus quaedam Romae Caep●●, & ●a A●●rica Presbyter explicavit, quo tempore si de rebus istis dub●●av●●, n●mo ut op●nor est tam in●ustus atque invidus qui cum proficere prohiberet, atque in hac dubitatione ipsi remanendum esse judica●●●. Unto which emendations of his, the African, Ephesin, Milevitan, Arausican Councils, did all consent; for not so much the Synod of Augusta, (which never that I could learn, or I think you will ever be able to show, did differ from that of Dort, in the matters debated and determined there; unless perhaps in some more lax phrases, wherein, as is used to be said of the Fathers, that ante exortum Pelagium, they did securius loqui, so those might speak somewhat more broadlie, before Pelagius Junior, alias your beloved Jac. Arminius appeared upon the stage) as in a down right way against the Synod of Dort, and so by an inevitable consequence against the very orthodox Protestant Church of England (whose very genuine son, you would in this very page, have us to take you to be.) Know you not, that by the then Learned Supreme Political Governor of the Church of England, British Divines were sent thither with Orders from him, to suppress Arminianism? that they had the first vote and suffrage given them, in that almost ecumenical Protestant Synod (Cui nunquam similem vel secundam vidit Protestantium orbis Christianus.) Have you the forehead, which yet I know to be sometimes sufficiently steeled, to maintain, that your opinions do not diametrically clash with the determinations of that Synod, and our own Divines there? were they not the visible lawful Representers of our Mother English Church there? or must we be so wickedly uncharitable against them, as to look upon them as upon so many Ignaroes, of what the doctrine of their own Mother Church was? or so wretchedly pharisaical, as that when a motion did but seem to be made somewhat prejudicial, to the Hierarchick flaunt of the English Church, they would unanimously enter their Joint Attestation against it; and See the Joint Attestation published by them, Anno 1646. that yet those very venerable Fathers of our Church, would vote down, concur in anathematising the very doctrine of our Mother, the Church of England? Pardon me, Sir, for not believing them to have been such unnatural execrable Cham's, Gen. 9 21. I am cordially troubled, for to hear you say, that you are a very orthodox Protestant of the Church of England, whilst you do openly appear for Arminius his opinions, against those of Mr Perkins: for Bellarmine's against those of Twisse: for a foreigners, and at last a fugitive Baro's, and recanting, praevaricating Barrets opinions, against those of learned Whitakers; and at the same time of the whole Universities of Cambridge, as well as of Dr Estius, Dr Somes, tindal's, Chattertons, willet's, and a number more; nay, against those of both the then Archbishops, John Whitegift Cantu●riensis, Matth. Eborac. the Compilers of the 9 Lambeth Articles; of all which things Vide A. Thysi. qui horum opera latinè transtulit & edidit Amstelodami, 1613. joh. Vogerman Nota, 107. & 107. in Grotium. I rejoice even foreigners with much content and honour to our Church, to have taken notice, and grieve to see you to be so great a stranger in your own Israel, as not to have seen, yea, to oppose, Quis talia fando, etc. For my own part in what you set down here, I cannot tell what most to admire, whether, 1. In so great a Politician, as I take you to be, your improvident mentioning of Contra-Remonstrants, Dort, Whitaker, Perkins, etc. towards the rousing up of my memory, and that of other men's, unto the consideration of the grand Heroes of the Protestant Church, opposed by you, you discover who you side withal somewhat of the soon. 2. Or else your disingenuity, if you have but read any of the Remonstrants' writings, in that here you mention them so slightingly, who have (as you must needs think, if you have but seen them) deserved so well of you. Ingenuum est agnoscere per quos profeceris. 3. Or else whether or not that supercilious scornfulness, upon the confidence, which you have of your own great natural wit, in adventuring to maintain Remonstrant opinions, and yet not vouchsafe to look so much as upon any Remonstrant author. But perhaps I commit an error against the aptness of your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and the Euphues of the pia mater of your brains, which doth Bishop Carleton against Montague. teach you Arminianism without book as fast, as once Bishop Montague learned it, and as fast as Bidle of late learned Arrianisme without a Raccovian Catechism. 4. Or if not at any of these, yet then at what is worse. (pardon sweet Sir, a bugs-word from me) Your bold impudence in making a show of being no Arminian Remonstrant, when as your book à Capite ad Calcem, abounds with it, as much as any ulcerous body doth with botches. In tanto corpore non est mica salis. 4. Much may be excused, from such prelate's as Out all and Davenant, etc.] 1. Diminutively spoken of Praelates, by such an admirer of Praelates, and that Quadratus tales, as yourself. Is excuse instead of Laurels of commendation, all that you will allow them, especially Davenant, for their great pains in clearing the controverted points? Perchance it's as much as they do deserve for their over-masculine opposing of Arminianism, and so of your great Diana. 2. But how do you prove, that either of these Prelates did only moderate betwixt the contending parties, the Remonstrants, and Contra-Remonstrants, and their Complices; and that they did not both adhere to the latter, and stoutly oppose the former. It is well known what side Doctor Davenant took in the Synod, and after it. (p) Bishop Hall and B●shop Davenant, in their Letters annexed to B●shop H●ls Reconciler, p. 75. 84, 85. aver, that the Arminian errors condemned at Dort, are contrary to the English Church. Animadversions against Mr H●rd his God's love to mankind, p. 10. And 3. As for Bishop Outall, I shall in as fitting a place, tell you more of him; in the mean while content yourself with what his fellow Bishop Davenant saith of him, that he did, together with the Church of England, Conjoin the particular absolute decree of God, not depending upon the praeicience of humane faith or will, but upon the purpose of Gods will and grace towards those whom God in Christ hath chosen to deliver, with the general and conditionarie will, or general promise; which every body now may know, is none of the way which you take. 5. Amongst the Clergy and amongst the Laity] (q) This contemning of the Clergy too yo● have learned from Pelagius, or at least took out the lesson without book. Aug. l. 2. cont. jul. c. ver. Quos, inquit, (Clericos) urbana exagitatos dica●itate, vel potius vanitate contemnis, quia non possunt secun dum Categories Aristotelis de dogmatibusjudicare, quasi tu qui maximè qu●reris examen vobis & Ep scopate judicium denegari, peripateticorum possis invenire concilium; ubi de subjecto & de his quae sunt in subjecto contra originale peccatum, dialectica sententia proseratur. Aug. l. 2. operis imperfecti: hoc dixerim ut ostenderem quam sis acutus, qui me obtusiore dicis esse pistillo. Indeed, if our Country as to the clerical or ministerial part of it, did yet abound with such Ministers, as were only fit to supplere locum idiotae, with such poor rats, such lazy Hierarchick, non residentiall, none preaching Lubbers, as it hath, by the report of honest knowing people, abounded with in former times, you might speak thus (after your wont manner) scornfully and diminutively of your neighbour Clergy men. 2. You sure take yourself, as a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to be one of those hundreds fit to speak of these mysteries, when at Daintrey, you came out with that which you have, p. 26. about Gods preparing torments for the Devil and his Angels, but not for any wicked men. And when at Northampton (contrary to your promise as some say) you vented that goodly argument, which you set down, p. 72. about the universality of Christ's death. 2. For my part I dare not be so uncharitable, but to assure myself and others, that not one of the hundred of your despised Presbyterian brethren, but would have handled those matters, even ex tempore, better, i. e. more solidlie and orthodoxlie, than you the trim finical bean-cleric. of the Country, did after all your artificial preparations. 3. As you, and your Pelagian and Arminian faction, by debasing of them, handle these mysteries, who make election to be nothing else, p. 2. but a consequent reward upon persevering in the faith, and well doing, and reprobation to be nothing else, save a punishment to the contrary. Either every Preacher is fit to divulge these, not operta, but aperta, or he is fit to be no preacher at all. 4. Not one in a thousand of the scorned Laity (if but competently instructed and catechised) but would even instruct and teach you, (otherwise a Great Rabbi in our Israel) that vocation, faith, repentance, and all graces, are subsequent genuine fruits of election, and not antecedents to it, as you speak of them, even when you strive in your own defence, to speak best of them, p. 56, 68, 69. something else therefore, besides what you do in the next lines so demurely pretend to, which though I can tell what it was, yet for to spare you, I will not at this time blab out, was the cause of that silence, and afterwards secrecy which you talk of in the way of venting of your notions: Which now they be out, are not vera, but placentia, writ just as heedid qui Terent. Hoc. sibi negotî credidit solum dari Populo ut placerent quas fecisset fabulas. 6. Forced to be more public] viz. By the fierce impetus of your own 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, but by no other force that I wots of, whose preparations to the press, had you not appeared in it, I am much assured, would have been none at all, and that for reasons wherein I can satisfy myself, are like to be slow enough. 7. One of the falsest] A thing which you by what you confess, of not so much as reading over your own first Copy, have (as has been showed) made impossible for you to prove. And I am well assured it is but the second, taken from your own first, I say not best; for neither of them are so much as good. 8. Great leisure] In your second Epistle to me, you seem to call it Laziness, whilst you tell me of taking less pains with a lesser, then with a greater Congregation; though I bless God for it, and pray let me crave leave to speak it without boasting; I do by one half take with those few who are under me, more pains, than you yourself do with your more numerous flock. And I am some what confident through Christ who strengtheneth me, that my Sermons be more wholesome, though not so handsome as yours. But well it is for me, that this laziness, which I think in me was ever like unto Dr jackson's vigorous rest, is, you yourself being judge, turned into great leisure. I like it the better, because I am sure you are none of the procurers or promoters of it. Deus, Deus, nobis haec otia fecit; and for that as God will have it at this time to be, it may be of some use unto the Church of God, for me at some leisure to observe your Snakelike motions, and to return some answers, to your mischievous poisonous papers. 9 Not from any ambition to be followed] 1. Believe that whoso will & can, that knows you. For my own part I cofess my faith as to this point, to be at a loss. 2. But good worthy Gentlemen of our Country, for whom the snare in these papers is laid, let me crave the boldness to beseech you to take for once, this Gentleman on his word, satisfy his desire, and do not you follow him. Not only I, who am unknown to the most of you, and who were I better known to you, might not seem to deserve to be heeded by you; but all those Reverend Bishops and Doctors, who have been already mentioned, and those who may yet farther be mentioned, together with your own sacred mother the Church of England, cry and call with loud voice to you, not to follow him, because he leads you amiss; and who with himself may bring you (which God avert) into bogs and praecipices. 10. Humble desire to be rightly understood] 1. The English world was never so full of pride, as since it hath abounded with proud actions, and humble phrases. But the best is, I have at last brought myself to it, to understand these expressions, when they came from mere Compliments the clean contrary way. 2. It is little for your credit, or the Church's ease, that now at last she understands, and that under the hand of T. P. that he is guilty of Pelagianism and Arminianism, though he have the audacity to deny both: Yet vox populi, vox Dei, do you what you can to the contrary, you will henceforward be reputed to be, what really you are. Conveniunt rebus nomina saepe suis. 11. An Apology and an Appeal] 1. Apologies should be modest, & be made use of only for wiping off dirt from ourselves, but not for the flinging of dirt in the faces of all we meet with, as this of yours doth, as often as in your way, you meet with any Reformers you like not of, or even with the whole Nation of Reformers, in the first Reformation. 2. Yours gins with Calumnies, that men in the world of no small name, do make God the author of sin, p 8. Goes on with Jirkes and squibs, and ends with Compliments. In hac Apologia multum inest turpitudinis. 3. An appeal (r) Either for you we must erect a Court of Cassandro-Grotians, or you had need as Pelagius of old, to appeal to an Auditorium Philosophicum. Aug. lib. 6. contra jul. c. 20. Ad hoc redacta est haere sis vestra, ut gemant sectatores vestri, non inveniri dialecticos judices in Ecclesia, de scholis Peripateticorum, sive Stoicorum, à quibus possitis absolvi. to those you scorn to be censured by, as I am confident you would be by all the present Clergy of the Country, clerically to be convened about the matter, or by all the Christian orthodox Laity in these parts. 12. Such a secret might be communicated to one] If it had been any part of the mystery of Godliness, spoken of, 1 Tim. 3. 16. you had leave enough from God and the Church, to have communicated it to many; but since the secret is now come forth, and appears to belong to the depths of Satan, Rev 2. 24. great pity it is, that by so fine and elegant a tongue, it should have been communicated to any one. Poisons sometimes go down glib s Ruffinus predecessor to Pelagius did propone his fi●st poison in a book, composed by Sixtus a Pythagorean Philosopher, under the name of Siatus a Martyr, and Bishop of Rome, vide Hieron Epist. ad Ctesiph & in c. 23. Hierem. l. 4. Comment. Hoc enim (saith my author Jansenius for it) ideireo eum s●cisse existimandum est, ut venenum aureo martyris poculo biberetur. when presented in a golden cup, and commended by noted Physicians. 13. Which belonged only to the fire] 1. Sure you may be thought to suspect your papers to be guilty of some heresy, because you would thus with your own secular arm, have cast them into the fire. 2. And yet in so doing, you would neither have dealt worse with with them, than they deserved. (K. James at the first sight of P. Bertii his book, entitled Apostasia sanctorum, professed that ob solum Titulum, it was liber dignus igne) 3. Nor worse then, as the report goes, your admired G. Vossius, to whom you are much beholding, did to a basket full of his writings, for fear of the approaching Synod of Dort, and that he might stand firm in his Praesidentship in Collegio Belgico D. D. ordinum Hollandiae. It's well for you, that his Historia Pelagiana, did escape his fierce fingers; for else what would you have done for a Warehouse to fetch quotations out of? 14. So much as a Massilian] That sure you are, as the minimum quod sic, for the opinions of the Molinists. It's plain, that our own British Divines in their suffrage given in at the Synod of Dort (t) Synod Dordrac. p. 2. p. 256. in 410. Inter Massiliensium errores, refertur quod n●gaverint dari cuiquam talem perseverantiam, à qua non permittitur praevaricari. Quem errorem refellit, August. de bono perseverant. c. 6 relate it out of a letter of Hilaries to Austin, that it was reckoned amongst the Massilian tenants, that they did deny there was given unto any such a perseverance, from which they were not permitted to prevaricate. And 'tis as plain, that you maintain many to fall off, and to prevaricate totally and finally from Grace, even the grace of Regeneration and Justification. p. 67. 15. A very orthodox Protestant of the Church of England] So indeed you would be reputed to be, yea, even so very a genuine son to the Protestant Church of England, as if for many miles about you, our good mother had never such another. And all this in despite of many Articles of the Church in King Edward the 6. his Reign. Of the 17. Article in Queen Elizabeth's Reign. Of the 9 Lambeth Articles towards the latter end of her Reign. Of the explanatorie Articles of the Church of Ireland, in King James his Reign. Nor so much as to dare to mention the Confession of faith, Catechisms, etc. of the late Westmonasterian Assembly, though highly commended by the Reverend and incomparable Primate of Armagh. For my own part, I have in fidelity, though with much weakness served my mother the Church of England, now above these twenty years, in the work of the Ministry, and if I be not able to prove, that the Doctrines which I have taught all along, contrary to what you deliver in this book, are most agreeable to her faith, and that yours are as opposite to it, as heaven and hell, light and darkness, the Arctic is from the Antarctic pole, I shall be content to be cursed by my mother, even with Anathema Maranatha. But of this more, if need be, when I shall come to what you say, p. 16. Only let all the true Christian sons and daughters of the Church of England, tell me what true sons to her at any time she hath found Arminian clerical ceremonialists to be? The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself, bringeth his mother to shame, Prov. 29. 15, 16. Managed discourse, etc. not from the hidden mysteries of Gods secret will, but from the clearest expressions, &c] This trim flim-flam will then Apologise for your methodus procedendi, when as you shall have proved, that Rom. 9 11, 13, 16, 18, 21, 22. Eph. 1. 4, 11. Act. 15. Rom. 8. 25, 29. 1 Tim. 2. 19 Rev. 13. 8. 20. 15. and other Scriptures more, which do professedly handle the matter of Predestination, and acquaint us with what God hath fully determined shall be, and how he doth (if I may so say) make up his decree, to be no part of his revealed will or word, concerning his secret will conceived in himself, (u) Of which will manifested in the word, Dr Whitaker in his Cygnea Cantio, writes excellently well, conformable to Scriptures. And Austin, Rom. 11. O altitudo! ultima illa Apostoli exclamatio, hanc sententiam confirmat. Neque enim tantae allitudinis est ut penetrari inequeat, Deum od●sse homines propter peccatum, etiam antequam nati sunt, immò rationi convenientissimum est, ut Deus serre nequeat, quod est naturae suae contrarium. Ibi demum infinitum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & Abyssus est divinae discreti●nis, quando sine peccati ratione quidam reprobantur, & alii qui nihilo erant amore digniores ad vitam & foecilitatem praedest●nantur. I●iquum videtur (ait Augustinus) ut sine ullis bonorum malorumque operum meritis unum Deus diligat, odiatque alterum. Deus igitur hunc dil●git, illumque odit sine meri●is ●llis operum aut b●norum aut malorum. Hoc videri p●ssit al●cui iniquum, sed est aequ●ssimum, quia sic Deo visum est, neque Augustinus affirmare veritus est, eos Apostoli verbum evacuare qui judicium divinae discretionis ad opera reducunt praevisa aut praeterita, etc. or that those Scriptures are placed in God's book, (as a Doctor once openly did deliver it in my hearing, in a sermon at Christ's Church, (which had been better delive'rd extraaedem Christi) as the forbidden tree was in the Garden of Eden, not to be meddled with, or that as Adolphus Venator once had it; The Apostle might have found him some other work, then to have wrote those Scriptures. Till you shall have made some attempts towards the proving of some of these matters, you must pardon us, though we continue believing the forementioned Scriptures, to be as true and clear Scriptures for what we prove out of them for absolute praedestination, as any promises, commands, threats, etc. frequently quoted by you, do signify what God likes or dislikes, will reward or punish, when believed, done, or left undone. The former signify, whom, why, how he doth praedestinate (the main things disputed.) The latter, tell after what fashion, and upon whom that praedestination is to be executed, of whom there is no question or difficulty. And would God be pleased, which I pray for in your behalf, to give you some of the Collyrium, spoken of Rev. 3. you would quickly see this with me too. 17. Of divers interpretations unto the Analogy of faith] 1. Texts I find you, (p. 13, 17, 34, & passim) as it were, to be casting in by dozen, as if Baker-like you were bound to throw in so many fine Manchets into a Buttery hatch: But when by Interterpretations you crumble them out, either they fall into your own crude dictates. or else they be turned into sippets, fit for none but Pelagian, Massilian or Arminian Palates. This if it hath been done knowingly by you, upon reading of their writings, your falsehood and impudence is to be detested, who protest against any the least inclinations unto Pelagianism, p. 55, 56. But if ignorantly, some may think the felicity of your symbolising, jumping wit with them, to be much commendable, who still without conferring notes with any of them, do hit upon the same Texts, Interpretations, Illustrations, etc. As for me, I must needs say that it is natural for you and every body else to be a Pelagian, etc. (x) That is an excellent observation of Jansen. in his Aug lib. 7. Tom. 1. cap 4 That if Austin did not at first avoid Semipelagian, tam proclive est corruptae naturae. (quae velut mortem ipsam horret, omni fiducia libertatis f●nditùs exui) in sententiam Semipelagianam labi, tenu●ssimasque fibras illius erroris retinere, then can no other look to be free from it, etc. I cannot but give my vote for it; that whensoever the harmony of the Confessions of their faith, shall be brought together into some one Syntagma, or Corpse le Grand, that your first and second Tome, come to shut up the harmony, as being most agreeable to the Analogy of their faith, perfidiousness rather, but to no other wholesome, sound form of Doctrine, that I wots of, as yet entertained by any Catholic Christian, Reformed, Protestant Church. 2. In our Interpretations of Scripture, I believe we are not so much to attend what is congruous to safety, (by which I doubt not but you, and many wanton wits more (y) Castallio praefat. ad suos Dialogos de praedestinatione, electione & libera voluntate vulgus merum (nisi qui sunt à literatis corrupti) melius & sanius sentit quam quidam literati. S●quuntur enim illiterati homines rationis & sensuum judiciu●, quoth in his rebus integrum est, quae sub rationem subque sensus cadunt: a●que utinam hac in parte hominibus relinquer●tur naturae judicium. understand nothing but security to your mother wit) which you in your first Comment, (give me leave to be yet so foolish, as not to understand you sine Commentario, or the domestic Interpreter of your meaning) call right reason, as what is congruous to verity, and the series of the Text and Context. Bonus textuarius est bonus Theologus. But this I am sure of, is little heeded by you, or any of your party, who all along rob God of his sovereign determining power, and leave him nothing but a Legislative and Judiciary power, to give out sentence secundum allegata, & probata, of the merits or demerits of men. 18. Who am a babe and an Idiot, etc.] I hungely fear not yet so much as a babe in grace, unless it be such a one as you say, p. 67. may fall from it, and outlive their innocence; I know you to be no babe in malice, Malitia supplet aetatem. Certain it is, you take yourself to be wiser than Austin, whose signior or manlike writings, you confute ever and anon by his more infantile, junior babe-like writings, as to your shame shall be seen when we come to p. 44. of this your second scribble. 2. As babe-like as you would be accounted to be, in your very next words, you like some Archithalassus get to the rudder of Christ's Ship, and profess to be a steersman of it, to keep it off from fatal shelves, and to guide it thorough, as anon after, the dangerous Archi-Pelago. Truly for this I would not blame you, who by your place and office in Christ's Ship, are, though not an Admiral, yet to be sure some what more in it, than a common Sailer, even a Pilot, a Steersman. And hearty I can wish, that you would not steer the ship you are one of the guides of, per Archipelagum, through the main ocean unto Rome again. Unto this place do most of your doctrines direct us; and it is true, if the present Pope be but of his last praedecessors mind, you and your wares, your doctrines I mean, would be much more welcome there, as the Bull of the H. Father Innocentius decimus published, An. 1653. Contra Augustinum Cornelii Jansenii doth assure you, than any of ours would do, with the Grand Turk, if according to your charitable wish, p. 35. they should in the next Reformation, be shipped over for Turkey. Sed naviges tu potius Anticyras. My small vessel sound dashed, and many others much greater shipwrackt] Believe it who list, there is belike no safety but in a Semipelagian or Arminian Bark; all the reformed who have followed Scripture, Austin; Calvin, etc. they all as lead, are sunk into the Gulf, only your late modest Jesuits, your cooler Lutherans, in that I am sure, in this no Martin Lutherans, as I shall show elsewhere, your polite and politic Grotians, (in these Controversies, though no Cassandrians) are the only men who hold their head above water, and are kept from sinking into the deep. Whereas yet blessed be God in all ages, the Pelagians, Semipelagians of old (z) See this proved at large by Cornel. jansen. ●om. 1. l. 6. c. 20, 21 & inde. Arminians of late, witness P. Bertius, Tilenus, Slatius, Thomson, and a number more of the Transmarines, together with the profane spawn of the English Arminians, from Montacutius to this day down ward, have shipwrackt more in few years upon the rocks of Atheism (a) Vide D▪ Nic. Vedelii Arcan. A●minianismi. superstition, Socinianism, profaneness, than any of their opposites of any considerable note, have done at any time: And you my good brother consider with yourself, whether since your sailing off from us in the points of the Absolute Decree, p. 24. and the Resistibility (as you call it) of grace, you have not well-nigh, if not altogether, made shipwreck of faith and a good conscience. Nolo ego ulterius Camerinam hanc movere. This sea will cast up nothing but mire and dirt; those are most like to be not only dashed, but drowned, who for the liberty of their wills, dispute against God's praedestination. (b) Aug. de bono perseverant. c. 18. Hoc unum scio, neminem contra istam praedestinationem, quam secundum scripturam sanctam defendimus, nisi errando disputare posse. And if Abulensis may be believed, no such way to a breake-neck in all Religion, then to err in the great mysteries of praedestination. (c) Tostat. in G●nes. c. 19 In nulla ma●●ria periculo sius erratur quàm in hac de praedestinatione, Eligerem enim magis contra totius si dei v●r●tatem perversè sentire, & in hac non ●rrare, quàm in omnibus recte judicando in hac sola de●●are. 〈◊〉. in Thom. p. 1 q. 22 〈…〉 ●●●●ster, non evidentia veritatis inspecta, sed altitudine inaccessibili veritatis occultae. & hoc ingeniolo meo satis rationabile videtur. Minus de Deo sensit, qui hoc tantum de illo credit, quod suo ingenio metiri potest. Similiter idem in Rom. 9 Quum objicies conjunge haec vera simul, viz. infallibilitatem decreti & liberum arbitrium; respondebo me scire, quod verum vero non est contrarium, sed nescire haec jungere, sicut nescio alia mysteria fidei quae credo. Haec ignorantia quietat intellectum meum. 19 Hovered a long time betwixt the absoluteness of a decree, and the liberty of a will, &c] But 1. How could you be said to hover all that while that you were, as you say, p. 24. for the absolute decree, till calvin's expression about it, frighted you into your wits, p. 24. were you then when you stood, as well as since you have tumbled, a man unstable in all your ways? 2. If your great wit would not serve you to reconcile the absoluteness of God's decree with the liberty of man's will; yet 1. Why would you not think them reconcileable by some other, better seen in these secrets then yourself. 2. Or why would you not with Cardinal Cajetan (d) See the like testimony about Ph. Melancton, producedby Walaeus de provide. div. cap 3. p. 84 Edit. in 410. be so modest as to acquiesce in your ignorance without disputing against God? 3. Why were you not so pious and so provident; even for the safety of your own soul (e) Aug. Tutiores vivimus, si totum Deo damus: Non autem nos illi ex parte committimus. Idem lib. de perseverant. sanctorum, cap. 11. sanc cum Apostolus dicat, ideo ex fide ut secundum gratiam firma sit prom ssio: Miror homines infirmitati suae se malle committere quam firmitati promissimis Dei▪ sed in●●r●a est mihi, inquit, de me volun as Dei. Quid ergo? Tua nè tibi voluntas de te ipso c●rta est n●c times? Qui videtur stare, videat ne cadat. Cum igitur utraqve incenta sit, cur non homo firmiori, quam infirmiori fidem suam charitatemque committie? that when as to you there seemed to be a necessity, that either God's absoluteness, or your freedom and absoluteness; should be aloft, to sit down yourself by the loss, than that God's power, grace, decrees, should be losers? Have you not heard of a good proverb among the Jews, that praestat demere de profano & addere ad sacrum, quam è contra? and will you hating sacrilege, not think your own will and freedom to be a profane thing in comparison to Gods will? The Lord deliver you from your miserable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (f) This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of yours, makes you so like the Massillians, though you would not be thought any, of whom Prosper. thus Epist. ad Ruffin de lib. arbitr. Ab hac autem confessione gratiae Dei ideo quidam resil●●nt, ut cum eam talem confessi fuerint, qualis divino cloqui● praedicatur, & qualis opere potestatis suae agnoscitur, etiam hoc necesse habeant confiteri, quod ex omni numero hominum per saecula cunctanatorum certus apud Deum definitusque sit numerus praedestinati in vitam aeler●am populi, & secundum propositum Dei vocantis El●cti. Quod quidem tam impium est negare, quam ipsi gratiae contr●ire. love God more, and yourself less. 22. Walking upon a rope] I perceive you be excellently good at turning from what you were but just now, and will become presently again a Sailor; you are here a funambulo, a rope dancer: And perchance in all the feats of activity which you show upon your cord, you little think that you do but continue walking upon Semi-pelagian or Massililian (g) It will be w●rth the while for those who have skill and leisure to see how these Massilian cable-ropes, are drawn out at Length by Cornelius Jansenius, whom as to the matter, no man can commend enough for his incomparable pains; his words are most remarkable. Aug. Tom. 1. lib. 8 cap. 1. Massilienses tanquam Catholicae fidei sectatores Christum naturae perditae salvatorem omnibus modis sibi retinendum esse duxerunt, ●u●ndamque●gratiam ejus, ut quemadmodum Augustinus dicit, nobiseum pro Catholica side perniciem Pelagiani erroris impugnarent, lib. de praedestinatione. Sect. cap. 14. Sed cum istud praedestinationis & electionis propositum, quo quidam, pro solo Dei beneplacito, nulla prorsus habita consideratione voluntatis, à perditionis massa quam peccatum f●cerat, aliis in eadem causa praetermissis, discerni debere dicebantur, & consequenter omnes voluntatis actus, quibus ex illa massa perditionis eripiuntur, à prima credendi voluntate usque ad ipsam Gloriae coronam accipere, durissimum ipsis esse ac desperationis causa videretur, adeoque Catholicae veritati & antiquiori patrum sensui repugnare, aliam viam salva Dei gratia & praedestinatione sibi aperiendam esse duxerunt, qua mitigata illa divini propositi fatalitate, unusquisque si vellet, per gratiam ab illa perditione posset liberari. Itaque scalas quasdam sibi machinati sunt, (let Mr T. P. conceive these ladders to have been made of the rope he speaks of) quibus à naturae bonitate, quae non prorsus peccato deleta fuerat, tanquam prima & initiali quadam gratia ad salva●ricem Christi gratiam, quis quis vellet sine ullo Pelagii errore vel gratuitae gratiae laesione conscenderet. Thus Mr T. P. may perceive he is not the only funambulo. Sic scilicet itur ad Astra, alias ad inferos. cords, they, as their genuine successors the Jesuits, the Arminians, and yourself, in the lucky device (as you all think) of scientia media are still devising new Chimaerical shifts, & that under pretendency of reconciling Gods infallible decrees, and man's most fallible free will; but which really set up the rotten dagon, and proud Idol of man's will, against the certain, never missing determinations of God, which are as the brazen mountains, spoken of Leu. 6. 1. which are never moved. I should not wonder though the cords of your will, and those too of Antecedent and Consequent, and a number more reckoned up. 27. by which you would (if it were in you) limit and bind the Almighty, break all together with yourself, and give you a desperate fall; but as for the counsel of God, that shall stand, Prov. 19 21. In the Lord is no mutability or shadow of turning. 23. Bold as the Pelagians] This Epithet of boldness, you put twice upon the Pelagians, once in your former papers, and now here; and I think de industriâ, as a select term picked out by you; for that possibly in your more polite Massilian, Semipelagian, and politic judgement, you take them living among Christians, as they did, to have been too bold and too daring, when sub Christiano nomine (to use Tertullia's Tertullian. Apologet. phrase) they did gentes agere, when the first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, if you will, face of their heresy, was merely Ethnic, all See praedestination maintained against postdestination. the while that by grace they understood nothing else but nature, which they did confound with grace. This I'll believe you take too have been somewhat to bold and gross, and even Pelagius himself, dissembled at least to be of this mind before the diospolitan Fathers (h) Vide J. Lai. ex August-Epist. 106. Damnatus exis. set, nisi objecta sibi contra gratiam Dei dicta, quae obscurare non potuit, ipse damnasset. Praeter enim illa quae quomodo potuit, ausus est qualicunque ratione defendere, objecta quaedam sun quae nisi remota omni Tergiversatione anathematizesset, ipse anathematizatus esset. 2. You do not any where call their errors haereticall, unless perhaps, p 55, 56. in a mollified sense, (es tu inter Pelagianos molliores) whereas you can find in your heart to stigmatize the doctrine of special redemption with pestilent heresy. It is most likely you think Pelagians to have been more bold than false or untrue in their say; but their enemies to have been both bold, yea, bloody and false too. 3. When the Pelagians were most bold, (as they were in their first edition, before they met with opposition from their Catholic adversaries) they were hardly more bold and adventurous than yourself were in your first papers, where you tell us, p. 1. that that is a preposterous saying, that God does not elect us, because we choose the good, but we choose the good because he elects us. That p. 14. when two are equally called, whereof the one converts himself, the other miscarries, 'tis not God but man that puts the difference (i) August. Epist. 106. Quis te ab illa perditionis massa discernit? Vnde Apostolus interrogat dicens, Quis enim, te discernit? Vbi si dixerit homo, fides mea, voluntas mea, bonum opus meum: Respondetur ei, quid enim habes quod non accepisti? si autem & accepisti, quid gloriaris quod non acceper is? etc. nay, than you are in this very Correct Copy of yours, wherein you would feign have us believe, that you are multum mutatus, from what you were in your first Vncorrected Copy: witness for this what you have up and down, chap. ●. and what you set down expressly, chap. 4. p. 70. That because such man as are in Christ by faith, are better than such as are out of Christ by infidelity, therefore those are taken, and these are left. An assertion as diametrically Antiapostolicall, as any can be, Rom. 9 11. and (as shall be showed in its proper place) as purely Pelagian, as ever bold Pelagius uttered any. Sic conveniunt ultima primis. 31. Nor so bloody as the Manichees] 1. We need not be (k) August. lib. ad Bonifac. cap. 18. Hominem Dei opus defendimus: nec ex illius potentia vel in malum vel in bonum invi●um aliquem cogi. Prosper. ad Ruffin. Adjiciunt etiam (accusatores Augustini) duas illum humani generis massas & duas cred● velle naturas, ut scilicet tantae pietatis v●o Paganorum & Manichaeorum adscribatur imp●tas. Et in Epistola ad August. Massilienses; dieunt, sub hoc praedestinationis nomine fatalem quandam induci nec●ssi●a●em, aut diversarum naturarum dici dominum conditorem, si nemo aloud possi● esse quam factus s●i. troubled at the objection of Manichaeisme, it having been so protrite a stallion, or threadbare objection of the Pelagians against the Catholics: and for that many hundred years ago it was, upon the like pretences objected by the Papists, to our old suffering and late bleeding brethren, the Waldenses (l) Philip. Morne's mystery of iniquity, progression. 49. & 48. p. 355, 331. edit. Anglic. ad A. p 63. & 64. vide Aug. lib. 1. cont. Jul. c. 1. lib. 2 the nupt. c. 3. & 29. & alibi saepissimè apud August. lib 1. operis imperfecti. Haec semper fuit maximum inter Manichaeos' (seu Catholicos) Catholicosque (id est Pelagianos) discrimen, & limbs quidam latissimus, quo à se mutuo piorum & impiorum dogmata separantur, imo magna moles, quasi coeli â terra profunditate disjungens, quod nos omne peccatum voluntati malae, illi vero malo eorum naturae (tribuunt) qui cum diversos errores, sed veluti de capite sontis istius effluentes consequenter ad sacrilegia flagitia perveniunt. 2. But damn Quintiliane colorem for any such objection, for do any of ours maintain, that there be two paramount uncontroleable, unsubordinate principles; whereof the one is principium boni, the other principium mali? Or do we maintain that the only true & good God, the author of every good gift, James 1. 17. is at all proprij nominis author, of that which is sinfully evil, as such? This latter though you be so impudent, as every where to object, or to take for granted that your adversaries hold, you shall never be able any more to prove against them, than I shall be able to evince against you (who was never so mad as to make any show of attempting it) that you are a witty Epist. or a bare Epist, etc. 25. Robbing God of his efficiency in any one act, which is naturally good] 1. But what if you do not rob God as he is the author of nature & of all natural good actions, if you do rob him of all first efficiency, and of every thing which in propriety of speech, may be called efficiency, about the great works of grace and conversion (as hath been and (m) Praedestination defended against Postdestination, by W. B. against T. P. M. S. shall be abundantly proved) are you for that any thing the smaller thief, and not for that very reason so much the more sacrilegious? Rom. 2. 22. Thou who abhorrest Idols, committest thou sacrilege? 2. If your time were but come for the venting of all your Pelagian and Arminian secrets (you being a close Votary to them, though yet loath openly to own your best friends) you would be found to rob the God of nature, as well as the God of all grace, by maintaining in the point of God's providence, that God hath no influx upon any voluntary act of the creature, any otherwise then per modum concursus in suppositum, not per modum operationis in voluntatem (n) Dr Twisse against Mr Hoard, p. 25, 26. Arminius will have God's concourse to an evil act, to be every way as much as his concourse to a good, and that he concurs to the working of a good act, no more then to the working of an evil act, which we utterly deny, etc. Arminians hold, that God works in man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 velle, modo velit as absurd an assertion, as ever any man breathed. Dr Twisse, lib. 2. pr. 1. p. 142. Edit in 4●0. Col. 2. but veritas est temporis filia, time will unmask what you hold in these points. 26. Aspersing his holiness in any one act, which is morally evil] 1. This, though you have malice enough to charge your adversaries with the holding of (si accusasse suffecerit: quis erit innocens?) Yet they will clear themselves to hold more than yourself, that God is no author of sin, Psal. 5. 4. Hab. 1. 13. nor can be; for that if (I may so speak) the very Augustin passim. esse of sin is merely privativum, & nullam habet causam efficientem, sed deficientem tantum. 2. But how you will do to clear your own doctrine about free will, which you do all along place as to the very Essence and being of it, and so as it is a creature of Gods making, in a cylindrical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or turne-pin indifferency, not only ad contradictoria sed & ad contraria (o) Vide D. Anton. Walae. count. Corvin. c. 6. Si liberum arbitrium primi hominis consistebat in illo aequilibrio affect us & inclinationis ad malum & bonum, tum sanè homo ante lapsum, non tantum Dei imaginem, sed quod impium auditu est, etiam sa●anae imaginem retul●t; Cum Christus concupiscentias ad malum, satanae concupiscentias vocet, Joh. 8. 44. Aug. in Adamo voluntas cupiditatem, non voluntatem cupiditas, duxit Contra est in lapsis hominibus. of good as well as evil, and evil as well as good, p. 64. I say how you will clear yourself from aspersing God with the unholiness of all moral actions, flowing from your fountain of free will, so according to you, made by himself, I think as great a Master in our Israel as you be, you will never be able to explain: Turpe est doctori dum culpa redarguit ipsum. Dum vitant stulti vitia, in contraria currunt. Others unhappily kept and fed in a place where superstition and profaneness makes matches. Vota loquor, And the people who are caused to err by your means. 27. Rock of presumption] 1. This indeed with some colour might be objected against our doctrine, if what you and your Complices, would feign make the world believe we hold, you could prove, viz. that we teach men about Election to divide the decree about the end, the salvation of men's souls, from the decree of the means, as if these were like German's lips, which are said to have been nine miles asunder. These decrees, which though we are forced because of our weak apprehensions, to distinguish, not to distract, yet we all agree, to make up in the Almighty, who is purus putus actus, but only one single decree of praedestination. (p) And all the Reformed Churches assert the same, which those Divines have in the Synod of Dort, p. 3. p. 44. Adeo ut hoc unico decreto, quod à justificatione distinguunt, sentiant Deum singularibus illis personis, non tantum gloriam, sed etiam gratiam suam, per quam certo & efficaciter ad gloriam perducantur, destinasse ac praeparasse: seu eos non tantum ad finem, qui est vita aeterna, sed simid etiam ad omnia media ad hunc finem consequendum necessaria, destinasse, eaque suo tempore certo atque efficaciter iis administrare. Ac proinde destinationem ad gratiam aequè late se extendere, at que destinationem ad gloriam & vice versa. Or that we do maintain; that though men of years should never believe at all, repent at all, be converted at all, be holy at all, that their absolute praedestination, without any of these, would bring them to Heaven, contrary to 2 Thess. 2. 13. Things which methinks the very Devil himself might even blush to object against our tenants. The most that we teach men to presume upon, is, and this is pia praesumptio, (q) August lib. 2. cont. Jul. cap. 8. prorsus quantum sancti de misericordia Dei tantum vos de vestra quae nulla est virtute praesumitis. that the same God, who by his grace of election and vocation, according to purpose, Rom. 8. 28. 1 Tim. 9 was the author of their faith and salvation, will by virtue of that very same election, in the use of the very same means, by which he did at first regenerate them unto newness of life, be also the finisher of their faith and salvation, Heb. 12. 2. 1 Pet. 1. 5. that for this they may presume upon the unvariablenesse of God's decrees, 2 Tim. 2. 19 the faithfulness of his promises, 1 Thes. 5. 24. 2 Cor. 7. 1. the strength of his manutenency, the never failing succesfulness of Christ's meritorious intercession, Joh. 11. 42. 2. But you indeed and your party, are the praesumptuous teachers, whilst you cry up I cannot tell what occult quality in men's free will (the very same thing which Austin, as he confesseth of himself, when he spoke as a child; for afterwards he did most solemnly retract it, calls occultissimun meritum) (r) For when Aug. lib. 83. Quaest. 968. upon Rom. 9 18. he had affirmed much the same which you quote out of him, p. 71. Velut de occultissimis meritis, etc. praecedit ergo aliquid in peccatoribus quo quamvis nondum sint just●fi●ati, digni eff●●iantur justificatione, etc. He doth most solemnly retract all such say, and gives his reason from 1. Cor. 4. 7. de praedest. sanct. lib. 1. cap. 3. Quo praecipuè testimonio etiam convictus sum, cum similiter errarem, putans fidem quâ in Deum creditur non esse donum Dei, sed à nobis esse in nobis, etc. & lib. retractat. cap. 60. qualifying you not only for your temporal vocation, but even for your eternal election, p. 69. upon which broken reed you teach men to lean, that they might be called, nay chosen. So fare you teach men to presume upon their own wills, as that for Grace and glory, they are more beholding to them then to Gods (s) August. de pec. merit. & remis. lib. 2. cap. 18. Si nobis l●b●ra quaedam voluntas ex Deo est, quae adhuc potest esse vel bona vel mala; bona vero voluntas ex nobis sit, melius est id quod à nobis, quam quod ab illo quod non nisi absurd ssime dici potest. . High presumption this sure! But 3. You must still be allowed to Pelagianize (t) Prosper ad August. Hoc propositum vocationis & lapsus curam risuigendi adimere & sanctis occasionem teporis afferre. Causam addunt eo quod utraque parte superfluus laber sit, si neque rejectus ulla industria possit in-●●are, neque electus nullâ negtigentia possit excidere. Quoque enim modo se egerint, non posse aliud erga eos quam Deus definivit accidere, & sub incerta spe cursum non posse esse constantem. Cum si aliud habeat pnaedestinantis electio, cassa fit annitentis intentio. Removeri itaque industriam tollique virtutes si Dei constitu●io humanas praeveniat voluntates. even whilst you declaim against it, as Arminius is said to have done in his declamation against Pelagianisme, and Semipelagianisme. 28. Gulf of despair] 1. Into this indeed would our doctrine sink men, if we did teach, that though men did knock never so hard, Heaven gates should never be opened unto them, Mat. 7. though they did seek never so much and so well, they should never find, though they did believe and repent, etc. never so sound, yet for want of praedestination, they could never be saved. This you'll prove against us ad calendas graecas. 2. But you sure, p. 67. drive some babes of grace to despair, whilst you tell us, that they may outlive their innocence, so as to be transformed into vessels of wrath. The precious gold of your sanctuary may become dross, or reprobate silver, Lam. Their hopes of glory may make them ashamed, and like that of the hypocrites Job 20. 5. last for a moment, and then give up the ghost. They may, to use the words of that eminent and sweet Dr (u) D● Reynolds in his late Sermon before the Lord Mayor, p. 21. be as Adam's forbidden fruit, seconded by a flaming sword; as B●lshazars dainties with an hand-writing against the wall; in the midst of all such joy, the heart is sorrowful, and the end of that mirth is heaviness, Prov. 14. 12. Like a flame of stubble, or a flash of gunpowder, claro strepitu, largo fulgore, cito incremento: sed enim materia levi, ●●duco incendio, nullis reliquiis. A sudden and flaming blaze which endeth in smoke and stink. Like the Roman Saturnalia, wherein the servants feasted for two or three days, and then returned to their low condition again. Desperate doctrine this, unless with J. G. any man be so fare enchanted, as to believe the doctrine of the Saints apostasy, to be more comfortable, then that of the Saints perseverance. Miserable merciless comforters are you all, Job. 3. But you must be allowed in words to renounce Pelagianism, yet still reason so against us, as if you were spit out of their mouths (x) Against all such kind of Massilian and Pelagian quarrelings, taken either from their common Topics of despair or presumption, See Augustine's solid answer, lib. 2. de bo●o persev. cap 15. Sed aiunt, ut scrib●tis, n●minem posse correptionis stimulis excuari. Si dicatur in conventu Ecclesiae audientibus multis, ita se habet de praedestinatione definita sententia Dei, ut alii ex v●bis de infidelitate, accepta obediendi voluntate v●neritis ad fidem, etc. Ista cum dicunt, it a nos à confitenda Dei gratia, id est quae non secundum merita nosira datur, sed secundum cam prae●estinationem sanctorum, non debent deterrere: sicut non deterremu●à confitenda praescientia Dei, si quis de illa populo sic loquatur, ut dicat, five nunc rectè vivatis, five non rectè, tales critis, quales vos Deus futuros esse praescivit, vel boni si bonos, vel mali si mal●s, etc. . 29. Nature of God's will] Which you do altogether nullify, whilst you allow him none of a decree properly so called, but only of an external promise or statute, or if you do, it is only consequent to man's will, not antecedent to it; for to this upshot comes your distinction of voluntas antecedens and consequens. 30. Condition of mine own] Which would to God you did know, ever since the fall, to be lost not indeed as to its essence and nature, but as to its integrity and goodness, (y) Alicubi Aug. Libertas arbitrii vulnerata est, prostrata est, imo perdita est: but your opinion about the condition of your will, is just that of the Massilians. Aust Epist. Quidam vero horum in tantum à Pelagianis semitis non declinant ut cùm ad confitendam eam Christi gratiam, quae omnia praeveniat humana merita, cogantur, etc. ad conditionem hanc velint uniuscujusque pertinere▪ &c & quantum quisque ad malum, tantum habet facultatis ad bonum, parique momento animum se vel ad vitia vel ad virtutes movere. as that now it is only evil, and that continually desperately evil, Jer. 17. 9 were you convinced of this, you would be as much afraid to name your free will, as once Austin was, yea as Melancthon, (z) Apolog. D. Morto. c. 69. p. 266. Edit. in 80. Aug. Serm. 12. de verbis Apost. Ad hoc idonea est voluntas tua, quae vocatur libera, & male agendo sit damnabilis ancilla you would talk less of your humility, but be more really so, Gal. 6. 3. 31. Confidence] Oh that upon good grounds, you were more in God, and less in yourself, than would your anger expressed in your first papers, cease against your adversaries, for maintaining that in the matters of salvation, man is not at all to glory in himself, but in God (a) Aug. Epist. 106. p. 549. Aug. the great. & l. arbitr. c. 9 Quando subetur, ut operentur, liberum eorum convenitur arbitrium, sed ideo cum timore & tremore, ne sibi tribuendo quod bene operantur, de bonis, tanquam suis, extollantur operibus. Idem de corrept. great. c. 9 Innullo gloriantes, quia nostrum nihil: ut qui gloriatur in Domino glorietur; idem de praedest. ex Cyprian. lib. 1. c. 3. only, you would not be as another Pyrgo-Polinices, crying out, Quis me audacior homo, quis me confidentior? 32. Humility] For my part how much soever you may have of it in your person, (pray God it may be more) I am sure I can find little or none of it in your doctrine; which storm as much as you will at me for saying so, I can, shall, and have proved to be stuffed full of Pelagianism, and Semipelagianisme, those mountainous and proud errors (b) The late Belgic Annotations on Rev. 8 8. maintain Pelagianisme to be the mountain burning with fire, there spoken of, because that it makes the proud will of man to be mountainously high and lofty. Hinc Aug. lib. 3. ad Bonifa. c. 3. Impudentiam Pelagianorum & insanam superbiam vocat, & superbissimam vanitatem lib. 4. c. 7. Hinc Hieronym. Epist ad Ctesiph. Tu per superbiam ad astra sustolleris. Et rursum: tu ipse l. 1. Dial. ad Pelag. Tu ipse qui catoniana nobis inflaris superbia, & Milonis humeris intumescis. Prosper Epist. ad Demetriad. p. 866. Quibus non potuit diabolus persuadere vitiorum amorem, immisit laudis cupiditatem, ut inde novissima instrueretur tentatio, unde nocuit prima deceptio. Nimirum Pelagius haud secus atque Adam atque diabolus, p. 866. & 875. Non dignabatur dives esse nisi propriis: tanquam hoc haberetsimile Deo, ut bonorum suorum ipse sibi sit sons, ipse sibi sit copia. Quae superbia, inquit, omni peccato nocentior, omni herene et elationis insanior. hatched by one, who of old was styled the proud devils primogenitus, as like the father as he could look, and who in his words, doctrine, and deeds, was the very emblem and paradeigma of pride, from all which the Lord deliver Mr T. P. 33. Unworthy for him to own] With all the speed that may be, renounce your doctrines divulged in these papers, for most of them are unworthy for him to own, because they will be found too light in the balance of his sanctuary. 34. God's peculiar] Be then content to be elected and determined by Grace, and not to be an electer and determiner of it, as you attempt to be, p. 70. Be a servant that you may not be sacrilegious. 35. Settle my judgement upon these two grounds] We I am sure shall not wish for some Samson to overturn these your two pillars, but we shall rather wish that you had been like some Hiram, to have fastened these in the Temple of God, as Jachin and Boaz were by him in the Temple of Solomon, and then they would have been to me as Hercules Columns, beyond which I would never have attempted to have stirred; but because you, as well as Dr Jackson before you, who had delivered himself in much the like words, do give us great reason to suspect, that you mean nothing so well as you speak, and that you stand not at all upon the Terra firma, which you would seem to lay down, I must crave leave in reference to these your principles as you call them, p. 7. and as they are set down by you, to tell you, 1. That I & many more with me, cannot tell to what purpose you should thus set them down in the forefront, unless it were standerously, to insinuate that any had blamed you for being the patron of these opinions, and that some ill neighbours of yours did maintain the contrary; or else at least (as doubtless you do) craftily under the shield and shelter of these truths, as they are usually understood, when they are delivered by men of known orthodoxy, to take an occasion to vent your misshapen conceits, which are contrary to them. You play the Grecian under a Trojan harness; your voice in these your propositions, is jacob's voice, but your hand elsewhere, is Esau's hand. Tuta frequensque via est sub amici fallere nomen. 2. None of our adversaries, the Remonstrants, until they grew shameless (c) See this acknowledgement in Collatine Hagiensi. and excusserant omnem de fronte ruborem (d) For then though the orthodox in reference to the first proposition, say as well as you, with A. Rivet. Dissput. secunda, Thes. 13. Absit, ut Deum vocemus in societatem cum diabolo, & peccatum imputemus decretoriae ipsius voluntati, vel dicamus Deum provocasse diabolum ad seducendum primum hominem aut in terna impulsione cum ad consentiendum permovisse; yet with the same author they must add, that all those things, imponuntur nobis à Pelagianis, & semipel●gianis novis. did ever so much as accuse us, for denying either of them: And therefore sure you forge yourself enemies, but find none. 3. The holding of these propositions as they lie in the Letter, will never be able to clear you, or any body else, from Pelagianizing, Semi-pelagianizing, and Arminianizing, unless you give in up and down such expositions of these Theses, as shall make it clearer to every one, that your heart and your pen go together, and that they do not proceed ex labiis dolosis. It is well known what goodly words to this purpose, we have had from all those three sorts of grace-blasting enemies (e) Of Pelagius. Sic Augustin. lib. 1. contra Julian. Nisi in eorum co●spectu (viz. patrum Diaspolitanorum) audituque damnasset eos, quod precatum Adae ipsum solum laeserit & non genu● humanum, & quoth infants nuper na●●, in eo statu sint quo s●●t Adam ante peccatum, nullo modo inde nisi damnatus exisset. Idem Pelag. as to your second proposit. Apud August. c. 35. Legant inquit illam Epistolam quam ad sanctum virum Paulinum Episcopum antè duodecim fermè annos scripsimus, quae trecentis fortè versibus nihil aliud quam Dei gratiam, & auxilium confitetur. 2. The Massilians or Semipelagians, were more plain in both. Prosper Epist. ad Augustin. Haec ipsorum definitio ac professio est, omnem quidem hominem Adam peccante peccasse. Et expressius: sub quo (peccato originali) omnes homines similiter in primi hominis damnatione nascuntur. jidem fatente Hilario in Epist. ad Augustin. Nec inde quemquam proprio arbitrio liberari posse consentiunt, sed id conveniens asserunt veritati, vel congruum praedicationi, ut cum prostratis, & nunquam suis viribus surrectur is annuntiatur. Idem Hilarius, caeterum ad nullum opus vel incipiendum, nedum perficiendū quemquam sibi sufficere posse consentiunt; & multo inferius; bominari se & damnare testantur, siquis quicquam virium in aliquo remansisse, quo ad sanitatem progredi possit, existimet. Imo ipse Augustin, the ill is lib. de hono perseverant. cap. 16. A Pelagianorum porrò haeretica perversitate tantum isti remoti sunt, ut fateantur quod eorum praeveniat voluntatem quibus datur haec gratia. 3. As for the Arminians, every one who hath but read their third and fourth Articles of their Remonstrance, will not make any the least scruple of this. . Nor do I now repent myself, though once I did very largely elsewhere, to have cleared this. See my praedestination defended against postdestination. 4. You will never be able to clear yourself, contrary to your first proposition, from maintaining God to be the author of sin, so long as you place the essence of man's free will, both before the fall and after it, in an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (importing not only a possibility in Adam to fall, but an inclination to evil, and so to fall,) unto good or evil as you do, p. 57 (f) That of A. Rivets will prove most unavoidably true. Disp. secunda Thes 2. Qui affirmant inclinationem ad peccandum etiam ante lapsum, in Deum naturae authorem consiciunt omnem peccati culpam, cum inclmatio talis vitiosa non esse non potuerit, quae tamen fuerit à Deo necesse est, si detur ante lapsum: Imo consequetur, hominem fuisse miserum, priusquam in peccatum laberetur: & Deum ab initio non creasse hominem rectum, qui sine curvitate non esset. . 5. Both these propositions coming from so crafty and versatile a head as yours is, may very well without any breach of charity, be suspected to be stuffed with the usual Pelagian captions and equivocations, with which that mystic (g) Of whom S. Hieronym. complained of old. Epist. ad Ctesiph. solam hanc hae resinesse, quae publicè loqui erubesceret quod secretò tra●red non timeret. Id. Ib. generation have ever been bold to abuse the world. Ex. Gr. In reference to your first: As among the Romanists there is said to have been a Bonaventura, in quo Adamus non videretur peccasse, in whom Adam the protoplast you speak of, may seem not to have sinned, so what if in your own deluded imagination at least you should ever have been without sin, or at last by your pious labours, have arrived to a sinless condition here on earth; in what sense then can you maintain Adam to have been the promoter of your guilt, which either at first was none at all, or is long since ceased in you? For my own part, I know him to be a fool which believeth every thing, Prov. 14. 15. yet perchance I should be stupid, if I should absolutely disbelieve what at first, was by a Reverend Minister told me alone, and afterwards by the same man, delivered before many more Ministers in my hearing, and as heard by him from your own mouth, viz. that you believe no sin to be in you, that you were above sin, that by your own power you could abstain from all sin. This testimony I wrote, as the testator of it did dictate it to me. And how much less saith he openly, p. 56 who professeth never to have lain under the least temptation to any degree of Pelagianism; which all men know all our sinful natures to be most inclinable to. 2. I might seem by your terrible threats, of I cannot tell what statute against Libelers to * Epist. prima post Edit. 2. have been frighted out of my wits, to use your own phrase, p. 24. or at least to have been braved by you, if I should I say not with you, (for I am sure you cannot believe it, by what was this very day assured to me, by an unquestionable witness, who wrote out your first papers out of your own first Copy) but if I should not believe the first papers to have been a true transcript of yours, and in them I am certain you say, 1. p. 8, 9 that adam's sin was none of our own, contrary to the Apostle, Rom. 5. 12. In opposition to that, you say that God had distinctly and largely said, that no man shall die for the sin of another, but every Ezek. 18. one for his own sin. 2. That Adam's sin, which all along you confound in that writing with original sin, and say, is none of our own, never alone damned any, for p. 8. none in the world dying infants, are damned. And in this case I think that of Dr Twiss is very considerable, p. 39 against Mr Hoard. If none are lost, but all are saved, is it not a pretty guilt of eternal death, for which not any suffers? And you may guests by this, whether this Author's pretence of natural corruption (of which our Mr T. P. p. 9 speaks in his first papers) be not only from the teeth outward. 3. That infants notwithstanding original sin, are harmless, p. 9 which in this your Correct Copy, you style babes of grace, p. 67. and for that you had said in your uncorrected Copy, that they have all universal grace, p. 9 because all men in the world were once infants. 4. That the harmless infant, as every man hath a free will, cannot continue so, when he comes to use his will without his will; nor can he cease to be so, viz. harmless without his will. Now I cannot tell whether you may not think, that since you came ex Ephebis, you have not used your will so well as not to have sinned, which if so, than you are free from the guilt of the protoplasts sin, which you mention, and from the filth of it too, which I think is not for nothing omitted by you, but for reasons which I have elsewhere opened in my praedestinat. defence. 2. In this your owned writing, though p. 67. you had just occasion enough to have mentioned original sin, yet you wave it, and I think candidly and ingenuously, because you thought it not reasonable to own that in a public Edition, which was contrary to your bosom opinion, among your bosom friends, sufficiently intimated to them, in your first most genuine papers, however upon politic reasons disowned now by you, whilst you act your part upon a public stage. In these respects I think we may, but too justly, apply to you, what of old was by Austin applied to your dogmatic praedecessors, the Pelagians, lib. 2. contra Julian, cap. 8. Initio dolus abundat in ore vestro, sive peccatores vos esse dicatis, & justos credi velitis, five profiteamini perfectionem justitiae quam profecto in vobis non esse sentitis. Et expressius acriusque paulo post. Ubi enim virtus est & tanta jactantia est, hypocrisis est: & ubi hypocrisis utique dolus. Prorsus quantum sancti de misericordia, tantum vos de vestra, quae nulla est virtute praesumitis. 3. It would be worth the while for you to be our Oedipus in unfolding to us, whether you think the Protoplast to have been the promoter of our guilt, so far, as by virtue of it, to make us liable to death in the full latitude of it, Rom. 6. 23. or only so far, as to bind us over unto a necessity of temporal death, conformable to the notions of the Pelagians, Socinians and Arminians. 4. As to your second principle, it is to me (and many others with whom I have conferred about it) unexplicable in what sense you say that all the good which you do, comes from special grace and favour, unless perhaps appretiatiuè and comparatiuè. You put that stile upon something, which you for declining of envy (h) August. count. Jul. vocabulo gratiae frangens invidiam. call grace, when it is compared by you with that which is and is called pure nature; as we say a Bristol Diamond is a rare jewel, when compared with a trifling glass; for else it is not evident from both your writings (i) See of the first at large praedestinat. defence. 1. That you neither do, nor can maintain, any special grace, as derived unto you by any special, certain, absolute, gracious decree of your heavenly father, as 2 Tim. 2. 9 Against this you do dispute strenuouslie all along, and especially, p. 70. 2. Nor any special grace, as particularly and specially procured for you by Christ's blood, more than for all the world besides; for this you count, p. 38. a pernicious heresy (k) Just as Faustus Rhegin. Coryphaeus S●mipelagianorum, lib. 1. de great. & lib. arbitr. c. 17. Ille vere impius est, qui eam (viz. gratiam) no● omnibus ingeri, non omnibus testatur impendi. Omnibus eam off●rt atque ingerit ad salutem omnium cond●●or & redempior: ad haec illi longe à pictatis tramite rec●dentes, (viz. Catholici) respondere praesumunt; non eam salva or omnibus d●dit, quia nec pro omnibus mortuus est. . 3. No special grace, as by which any special habits of grace, viz of conversion, regeneration, sanctification, etc. are infused into your soul, as any abiding seed of grace, or life of God; for in both your papers you are highly silent as to these matters, though ad phalerandum populum, p. 56. you make some slight mention of grace infused by God, by which (as we shall see when we come to it, if then and there I can but have leisure for doing it) you cannot understand any habitual grace, but only some light internal Coruscations or Irradiations of it. 4. No real efficient, insuperable, and in that sense irresistible grace, but only of some external, moral, not physical work of grace, p. 57 but only, p 62. strongly and effectually (as you talk incongruouslie enough to your own principles, p. 62.) inclining the will, and that only for a spurt or a season, at such critical opportunities, and by such congruous means, as by which the will doth very certainly and undoubtedlie assent. 5. No special antecedent, determining, absolute, unconditionate grace, in the susception of which your will is merely passive, but a mere conditional, consequent grace, which finds your will so busy and active, as to be not only pragmatical in your temporal vocation, (but lo what an active thing T P's will is) but even in your very election. 1. Papers, p. 11. 2 p. 69. (l) J●st like the Massili●ns in Epist. ad Augustin. Tales a●unt perdi (inquit Prosper) talesque salvari, quales futuros illos in annis majoribus, si ad activam ser●a rentur aetatem, scientia divina praeviderit. 6. No special, abiding, lasting, continued grace, according to that, Joh. 13. 1. having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them u●to the end, but as it may fall out, a grace which may turn into hatred, for as we have had it already, your babes of grace, p. 67. many of them outlive their innocency, and fall from grace. A goodly special grace this sure, which hath all these mischievous qualifications; I am sure all the orthodox in all ages, have maintained the contrary, and upon the matter called grace, especial grace in the same sense, that the Wetteravicks do in these their ingenious verses (m) Synod Dordrac, 4to, prae. 2. p. Gratia sola Dei certos elegit ab aevo, Dat certis Christum gratia sola Dei, Gratia sola Dei fidei dat munera cèrtis, Certos stare facit gratia sola Dei: Gratia sola Dei cum nobis omnia donet, Omnia nostraregat gloria sola Dei. Chap. 1. Sect. 5. p. 7. HAD I not been deterred by what I have met with in your praevaricating portals, the fulgid illustrious star of B. Fulgentius shining in the margin of this Section, would have put me in some hopes that you had been resolving in this Correct Copy of yours, to have made a recantation of what you did solemnly and openly once deliver at Dayntrie, and which you set down out of Origen, p. 26. and before that time had cast upon your first papers, and tanquam re bene gestâ do much more oratorially prosecute now through almost your whole chap. 2. A thing which that very Fulgentius quoted by you, makes his very business to confute; anon after the recital of the words which you mention, where he largely proves, that though God do not praedestinate men to sin, yet he doth to their punishment for sin, of which he denies not, but asserts God to be the author (n) Fulgent. lib. 1. ad Monim. P●aed●st●natos affi●mat Augustinus, non ad delictum sed ad supplicium; neque ad malum quod injustè admittunt, sed ad cruciatum, quem justissimè patientur; & ad tormentum quod illis propria iniquitas malè parit, & aequitas divina bene retribuit; nec ad mortem animae primam; sed ad mortem secundam quam necesse est patiantur, etc. . So albeit the Church will ever look upon Fulgentius, as upon a fixed prosperous Star in the Firmament of it, yet you are like to be looked on as some of the Planets spoken of, Judas 13. if you repent not the sooner, the rather, because though you would make us believe, that you have taken a great deal of care, even your best care, as you say (sed quid dignum tanto tulit hic promissor hiatu?) that your conclusions might not differ from your true premises: Yet any of those who have but in the least measure their senses exercised, to discern betwixt things that differ, Heb. 5. 14. will easily perceive, that 1. You have a great deal of care of pouring out a world of humane rhetoric, in the very words which man's wisdom teacheth, 1 Cor. 2. 13. but none at all of any spiritual logic, for you not where exercise any thing of that art, unless it were in drawing up a cracked syllogism of four terms, as we shall see when we come to p. 19 and then pinning it upon the Apostle, that mighty spiritual Logician. 2. Any body that is but furnished with half a good eye, may easily discern, that though with you in these, as well as in your former papers, p. 2. tria sunt omnia, three are all with you, Scripture, Tradition, Right reason (as you and the Socinians have learned to style, carnal men's fond way of reasoning about the deep matters of God:) Yet you frequently relinquish the two former, as shall be showed, for the courting of the latter, which as some of your faction give out, it is even since the fall most incorrupt, and the most fitting about matters of praedestination, prescience, free will, etc. to be appealed unto, against the judgement of the whole ancient and modern Church (o) The words of Schast. Castallio, (the fi●st corrupter, as upon good ground is believed, even of ●ac. Arminius himself) are very remarkable, in the praef. ad D●alog●s de praedestinat. Illud adjiciunt fidem veram (●b hoc fides vera, I● distinguished from the m●tters following) de qua h●c loquimur v●lgo igno●am esse: s●d de tribus primis videlic●t praed●stinat●on●, electione, & libera voluntate vulgus hominum (nisi qui sunt à literatis corrupti) melius & sanius sentit quam quidam literati. (And who these quidam are, viz. the ancient Church and the modern Church since Austin, Castellio's praefacer ingeniously tells us) Sequuntur enim illiterati homines rationis & sensuum judicium, quod in his rebus integrum est, quae sub rationem subque sensus cadunt: atque utinam hac in p●rte relinqueretur hominibus natura judicium, nos non laboraremus. Sed quia multum labour antony's li●●rati ut persuadeant hominibus ea non esse, quae sentiuntur, hoc est ut hominibus oculos effodiant, nos laboremus in hoc errore r●fellendo. . Some wittily unreasonable, as you are pleased to style those, whom elsewhere you call the rabble of half witted praedestinarians, first papers, page 11▪ are not like to comply with you in this; for that with the Prophet, they will be more ready to say, that such logicians are fools, and such spiritual, rather carnal men (jangling about spiritual matters) are mad men, Hos. 9 7. Let the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of your reasonings, be more subject unto the Scripture, or else the shallow judgement you talk of, p. 5. which there you complementally say, (and would have us cry up to the height, because you the owner of it, decry it so low) is the deepest which you have, will be none at all; yea, worse than none, Mat. 6. 23. And if the light which is in thee, be darkness, how great is that darkness? §. 6. p. 7, 8. YOU be terrible long before you can get into your dialectical trappings or jeers (p) Jul. Se●lig. Exer. 307. Sect. 20. Rationibus agendum est viro veritatis studioso, n●n. Tullianis Platonisque pigmentis. Declimationes enim ambitiosorum, opera etiosorum sibi sunt: naturae divinita●isque negot●is impedito animo, stud●ndum est brevitoti: quae res aequ●t verbi●. Marlor. comm●n. in prior Analyt. cap. 8. vocabula artis religiosissime observanda sunt, ut semper eodem modo explicentur, ut in omnibus propriis vocabulis artium fieri debet: Varietas enim obscuram his facit disputationem. . A body would have thought that we had had enough and enough of oratoriall praefaces faces and out▪ faces, yet we must be cloyed with at least a Section and half more of the like stuff: In this (that I may give in short the sum of the whole) we are served in first with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, (to use your own phrase, p. 12) against your not only seeming, but your real contradictions; for indeed in this your book, though you be not at all for Classes, you be much for clashing, your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 liberi arbitrii, in which you maintain the creature indifferently as to good or evil, to have been created, p. 64. agrees not with your first pretended principle, p. 6. of Gods not being the author of sin. Your concession in the beginning of chap. 3. that every reprobate is predetermined to eternal punishment, is directly at daggers drawing with your almost whole chap. 2. where you strenuouslie dispute, that God determines none to punishment. The posterior part of your chap. the 4. from p. 56. to the end, fights directly with the anterior part of it, as to with your second principle: Mulier formosa superne Desinit in piscem; & sic in caeteris, as we shall see in the progress; and therefore wise man as you be (and indeed ever, full of courtesy, full of craft) you do prudently provide some kind of salves, for these kind of sores; but truly none of them will procure any healing for you, not only is it because your unmercifulness in your deal with the names and writings of others, as we shall see, p. 8. may be like enough to procure some harsh usage of you from others; He that will show no mercy to others, hath small reason to look for it from others, Jam. 2. 13. He shall have judgement without mercy, who shows no mercy. 2. But for that secondly, the ingredients, alias the reasons which you put into your salve, are not contrary to your sores, when as yet such a Medicaster, as you would be accounted in all your private Epistles to me, knows well enough, that contraria contrariis tantum curantur. 1. Not that of Augustine's; you know that aliquando bonus Vide Cornel. Jansen. Augustin lib 5. cap. 1, 2 & 3. Tomi primi. dormitat Homerus. Well might Augustine in such mighty and various volumes as he wrote against the contrary heresies of the Manichees and the Pelagians, and that many years one after another, and when to, that (especially of the Pelagians) did like the moon in Helvidius his late Selenographia appear in divers shapes; sometimes as hath been showed, in a mere Ethnic shape, sometimes in a Semy-ethnicke, sometimes in a Judaicke, sometimes in an half Christian shape. I say Augustine upon these occasions might seem now and then to enterfere with himself, and yet be no excuse to your contradictions, which do abound in two such whisting pamphlets as your printed and unprinted one's are; wherein (I speak now as to that which appears upon the stage) so careful a man as yourself, used your best care to be a guide in your conveyance, p. 7. 2. Lest that of Bucers, though you say it was the more remarkable because it was Bucers; indeed it would have been more remarkable than any thing the fingers in your margin, p. 9 point at, if Bucer who is a known man against your opinions (q) and for the reformation which you dislike, p. Even a supralapsarian, as Dr Whitaker takes him to be in his concione ad clerum. Bucerus per massam intelligit primam humani gener is originem ex quâ homo conditus à Deo, & sabricatus est. 35. should have any thing to say for you. Though I have not the book by me to turn to, I am pretty and confident, that Bucers' saying relates to none but to the seeming differences betwixt the more ancient and latter Fathers after the rise of Pelagius (who indeed may as easily be reconciled, as the different expressions of the Fathers before and after Arrius (r) Vti enim Hieron. ad Rufinum. Antequam daemonium Nicidianum Arrius nasceretur vel simpliciter erraverunt patres, vel aliosensu scripserint, vel à librariis imperitis eorum paulatim scripta corrupta sunt. Innocenter quaedam, & minus caut è locuti sunt. So it is as old & true an observation, antequam exoriretur Pelagius, s●curiusloqu●ban tur patres, who yet are reconciled to those who came after even by a Bell larmine de great. & lib. arbit. 1. c. 14. . and such neoterics as Melancthon and Calvin, who may seem to differ, when as really they do not as shall be shown in due place. 3. Well you might hope, that that man of Moderation, Cassander (as you call him, papers 1. p. 10.) whom you so great a Cassandrite, do so highly magnify, for reasons of which I have elsewhere of my first papers given an account, who yet will not serve your turn one whit, as to the matters now in debate, wherein it is most plain, he is as deadly an enemy to you, as any that you can have (s) See his Epistle ad Johan. a Bauchtim. . And than least of all will that which you quote out of Dr Twisse, be any way subservient to you, who by what you say out of him here, doth neither contradict, nor so much as seem to contradict what he delivers elsewhere; for do not the words which you rehearse out of him, relate to the decree, not of preterition, but of damnation, not to the moulding and making of it in the intention, but to the temporal execution of it? and doth Dr Twisse any where else deny these latter to have been without the consideration of sin, and not rather for the consideration of sin (t) A thousand places out of his Latin and English books might be produced for this. Let that remarkable one serve, p. 8. answer to Mr Hoard, wherein consists this harshness (viz. of God's decrees) in intention, depending merely on Gods will. Is it in this that nothing is the cause of God's decree? and will nothing temper the harshness of it, unless a thing temporal as sin, be made the cause of God's will which is eternal, and even God himself? But let us deal plainly, and tell me in truth, whether the harshnesle doth not consist in this, that the mere pleasure of Gods will, seems to be made the cause not of God's decree only, but of damnation also, as if God did damn men not for sin, but of his mere pleasure? And this I confess is wondrous harsh, & yet no more harsh than it is untrue; though in this juggling world, things are so carried by some, who will both shuffle and cut, and deal themselves, as if we made God of mere pleasure to damn men, and not for sin, which is a thing utterly impossible, damnation being such a notion, as hath essential reference to sin. But if God damn no man but for sin, & decreed to damn no man but for sin, what if the mere pleasure of God be cause of this decree, what harshness is this? ? either than you do, which I am sure is common enough with you, abuse the admirers of Dr Twisse, or else they admired what they understood not, I suppose they may be of years to answer for themselves. 2. In the next place you serve us in with a promise of a recantation, in case the unhappiness of your pen, or the unsteadiness of your brain, hath let fall any thing contrary to the two principles just now laid down. O how well I should like you, if you would but keep touch, stare promissis! that your recantation, either Sermon or Epistle, would be ready, both ad clerum & ad populum, so soon as either myself, or some you would like better of, shall have proved, that of ten parts of your book, nine at least must be revoked, if you will allow nothing to stand in it, that is contrary to the true scriptural, catholic, orthodox sense of your second principle laid down, p 6. How quickly should we like brethren and neighbours shake hands, rather than in a way of writing against each other, be like Ishmael, Gen. 16. 12. Amon it a faxit Deus, that we may agree, and both in the principles you speak of, p 6. 3. Your third is a frank offer to be restored in the spirit of meekness, if you should be overtaken in a fault, Gal. 6. 1. A gallant resolution if it were but seriously in you. Errare possum, Hareticus esse nolo, was an excellent saying; but truly you have given small cause to your fellow brethren Presbyters in these parts, to believe you to be in good earnest. Did you ever impart your doctrinal scruples first of all to the most pious and learned of them, before you vented them among (to say no worse of them) unwary and weak Gentlemen, when you had made a promise, as I am informed, to some of your best friends in the Ministry about us, that you would in Pulpit at Lectures, vent nothing but what was agreeable to their known tenants? Did you keep your promises any better with them at Northampton or Daintrey, then Jac. Arminius did his first at Amsterdam, with the Consistory there, or afterwards with the Curatores Academiae Leidensis (u) G. Van Roggen, lib. Belgic. praefat. ad Syn. Dordracenam. ? Are you ready to refer matters in debate betwixt us, to the ministerial decision of any ten of the gravest incumbents, known, ancient, stayed, protestant, preaching Presbyters of our Country, who have least been upon their tropicks, in these tropical times, if so, and that they will vote for your opinions against mine, I'll promise for ever hereafter, as to all writing against you, to become a Siliturnian, nay to cry peccavi. Pray De Siliturnis, vide Fred. Wend. praefat. ad Loc. Commun. you, let it be tried who is most ready to be reclaimed by the Spirit of meekness. 4. You conclude your Section with excuses for your dissenting from your want of infallibility, apprehension, company of thousands of thousands, your invincible ignorance, etc. Unto all which in few words, 1. You know none of your brethren Ministers, who do maintain, that either conjunctim or divisim, they be infallible, they leave that to the papal Church, unto which you approach much nearer, when p. 10. of your first papers, you cry up Cassander so highly for moderation, and are not ashamed to cry up Hoffmisterus for a choice Protestant, who was a known Papist (x) Vide A. Rivet. Dialys count. discurs. H. Grotii. , yet they may infallibly tell you, that it hath been a proud and malapert error in you, to slight their judgements, piety, and learning, so much as you have done, who every where dissuade whom you can from coming into their combinations, and yet without arrogance, they think they may tell you, you might from some of them have learned to have mended your positive, polemical, and practic Divinity too, had you not scorned to have been more conversant with them. 2. Your apprehension is well known not to be stupid, but your malice to be very great against those you like not; and that occasions but too much your stupefaction, none you know, is so blind, as those who will not see (y) Periit omne judicium cum res transit in affectum. . 3. The thousands of thousands you speak of of your side, is feared to be no other than the crowd of carnal Idiots, mentioned lately out of Castalio, or those thousands of thousands, who either wittingly or unwittinglie, suffer themselves to be befooled by the polite and politic sons of the Devil, the Jesuits and their followers, or indeed the Devil and his angels, who truly make a great, but not a creditable company, from all whom good Lord deliver me and you. As for all good Christian, Apostolical, Ecclesiastical companies of all sorts, I doubt not but they will be found of the opposite side to you, and so long we shall not be afraid to glory in it, that there will be more for us then against us, 2 Kin. 6. 16. 4. The Church (I speak now of the true reformed Church) of England, as it hath stood ever since Queen Mary's days, is like to have but an unhappy son in you: who whilst as she thinks, and shall be further cleared, p. 16. you were in the right, for the absolute decree, p. 24. than you were vincibly knowing, but since you are turned off to the conditional or respective decree, you are become invincibly ignorant. Pray God send your mother more grave and stayed sons. Sect. 7. p. 8, 9, 10, 11, HEV quantum mutatus ab illo? Are you the man who all along the former Section, were a puling Petitioner, as it were, sub forma pauperis, praying for mercy, moderation, deprecating immoderate criticisms, if through the unsteadiness of your brain, or the unhappiness of your pen, you should be overtaken with any escapadoes, crying all along as David, gently, gently with Absolom my son my son, 2 Sam. 18. 5. And do you so quickly in this Section, turn tyrant against the persons, and (say it be so) unwary lines of other men: Men, the Lord knows, and the Church knows by fare your betters (z) Unto whom I may safely enough apply what Rom. B p. Abbot, did once against one who upbraided others with their flight to G●neva. Erant illi homines doctissimi quibus il le certe haud satis dignus qui Amanuensis esset. Abbat contra Thom. de intercisgratiae. , with whom you are not like to compare in haste, either for depth of theological learning, holiness of life, or savoury name, and fame in the Church: Against these men's blessed works and memories, you rage and ramp it, and make slaughters among them; Nimrod, or Nero-like, and that more ways than one. 1. By a palpable Jesuitical calumny; (whose maxim you follow in this, calumniare fortiter & aliquid adharebit) I had almost said a loud lie; which harsh phrase I am sure I may more truly use in this matter, than you in the same cry out, that some are, p. 23. for Ligonem, Ligonem; that some as you here call them open, or as there you style them, modestblasphemers, do put you upon a necessity of proving your principles to be true, when as yet your conscience could tell you, if you would but consult with it, that all the adversaries that you have cited, do avowedlie upon all occasions, deny God to be the author of sin (a) And here again it is not amiss for you to take out another Episcopal admonition, once directed by the same hand to the fore mentioned author, and exceedingly befitting you. Abbot ad eundem Thomson, p. 332. Nulla hic libertinorum pestis est, sed pestilentissimus calumniator. Thomsonus (alias T. P.) qui adversariis suis de illorum nomine invidiam facit, quos libertinorum hosts & profligatores fuisse novi●. and so assert your first principle. And that all the question, indeed the only question betwixt you and your opposites, is, Whether it be possible for you to adhere to your second principle, if you do but resolve to stick to what you stickle for, in your first and second mischievous papers. 2. You represent them as a company of (Judas 16) murmurers, or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, complainers of their hard fates, according to what you quote out of Pro 19▪ 3. when as it is famously known to all the ●hristian world, that that charge belongs to none so properly, as to your self and faction; unto whom now you undertake to be a Ringleader, and will needs appear in the van of: Who when you do not or will not conceit aright of the counsels and decrees of God, than you fret against the Almighty, and cry out, Fate, Fate (b) You say with Faustus Rhegin Semipelagianorum Coryphaeus. Intra gratiae vocabulum absconditur fatale venenum. If praedestination be absolute, Nemo vigilet, nemo sej●ne●, nemo libidini contradicat. . You slander the footsteps of the anointed, and Julian-like, throw up days against Heaven, as if with him you were resolved to breath out your last with a vicisti Galila● in your mouth, see p. 24. the Lord be merciful to you. 3. Through the fine and thin aulicall complemental lawn of your civility, which with a gentle hand, you would seem to lay upon no other than the ever blessed names of reverend Calvin, and my never to be forgotten Dr Twisse; you make your hypocrisy to be very conspicuous: so have I known Joab and Judas to have given a kiss, when they meant a stab, as you with good words in your mouth, mean to pierce through and through those men's works and books, which have been (c) Left any should think a whit the worse of calvin's institutions, for your bespattering him and them, I shall think it worth the while to transcribe what I find in reverend R. B●lton, quoted out of judicious Mr Hooker, as you style him, p. 14. Instruct. for afflicted consciences, p. 25. For my own part, I think Calvin incomparably the wisest man, that ever the French Church did enjoy, since the hour it enjoied him. In his preface, p. 3. Though thousands were debtors to him as touching divine knowledge; yet he to none but only to God the author of that most blessed fountain, the book of life, and of the admirable dexterity of wit, together with the helps of other learning which were his guides. Ibid. We should be injurious to virtue itself, if we did derogate from them, whom their industry hath made great. Two things of principal moment there are, which have deservedly procured him honour throughout the world. The one, his exceeding pains in composing the institutions of Christian Religion. The other, his no less industrious travels for exposition of holy Scripture. In which two things, who ever they were, that after him bestowed their labours, he gained the advantage of prejudice against them, if they gainsaied, and of glory above them, if they consented. Ibid. p. 9 The more learned and holy any Divine is, the more hearty he subscribes to Paulus Thureus, his true censure of his institution. Praeter Apostolicas post Christi tempora chartas, Huic peperere libro saeculanulla parem. No marvel then, that a learned Bishop of London in Queen Elizabeth's time, began his speech thus against a lewd fellow which had railed against Calvin. Quod dixisti in virum Dei Calvinum tuo sanguine non potes redimere, etc. I poor Presbyter durst not have let such words have fallen from my pen, lest I should have been suspected by him (as I perceive he is apt to do, Epist. 2. post. publicat,) for a design of taking away his life, or as he there, of burning of him, which was the judgement and practice of Mr Calvin. And that I may not be wanting neither to my own old friend, and father's friend, I think I may subjoine the testimony which famous and learned Dr Rivet gives of his writings, unto which I doubt not, but most ingenious Protestants will subscribe. Praef ad Dr Twissum, count. Armin. & Corvin. De auctore, ejus methodo scholasticâ, disputandi formâ, acumine, & accuratione, judicium lectoribus relinquo, quibus praeiverunt doctissimi ex toto orbe Christiano viri, etiam ex iis qui in contraria sunt parte fatentes, nihil accuratius, nihil exactius & plenius in hoc argumento hactenus proditum fuisse. Hoc saltem (idem ibid.,) omnibus piis placere debit, quod usque & ubique in bonam causam fuerit intentus, camque si quisquam aliu● ab absurdis objectis, & adversariorum calumniis ita vindicavit, ut ex illius labore habeant non docti tantum sed etiam minus exercitati quo se possint extricare laqueis adversantium: and will be valued by learned and good men in the Church, when the memory of yours shall rot, and serve for nothing but waste paper among those, who do vendere thus & odores. Alas for your civility, you do not so much as name those men, who yet blush not to be named; for they were men of renown in the congregation, very Masters of the Assembly, and whom up and down this your last Pamphlet, you do whip and strip, and whom you do as good as name to any attentive reader when you do very particularly quote them presently, as to book, Section, page, and almost line; whom to name by their proper and well sounding names, you were inhibited not by your courtesy and civility to them, but by some inward secret fear and shame, openly to fling dirt in the faces of those, whose labours God hath honoured, and I doubt not, will honour as long as Sun and Moon shall endure in the firmament, whom (I speak now chief of the latter Dr Twisse) I and others have seen and heard, to have acted more, written more, preached more, prayed more, against sin in some few weeks, than I fear you will do in all your days. The naming therefore of him, and his like, as those who have told the world out of the Pulpit, and from the Press, that God is the only author of sin, and man only the instrument: Things which slanderous Arminians have endeavoured in terminis, to fasten upon the writings of P●scator, Maccovius, Ricardus Acronius, etc. But I never met with any before your impudent self, to be so foolhardy, as to fix upon Dr Twisse his writings; I say the naming of him, and their writings for this, would have only purchased a black brand, a mark of infamy for your slurring those most noble works, which you will never be able to imitate, and care not to understand, but only now and then by the by look into, as spider's suck flowers for to gather poison out of them, and not as profitable B●es, to gather honey from them, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 4. You draw up a malicious scattered inventory or Catalogue of broken expressions, gathered here and there out of their writings, without any due regard to the scope of the words, or the authors explained meanings; upon which because you do lay the stress of all your invectives against them and others, to make them and their doctrines a grateful sacrifice, to men of weak heads, and carnal minds; I must needs crave some patience from that very reader you appeal to, that as he hath any candour, conscience, piety, and true christianity left him, he would be pleased favourably to heed me whilst I deliver in, 1. Some general observations relating to your behaviour, in this Section, and elsewhere up and down. 2. Whilst I clear all or the most signal obnoxious passages fingered out for such by your notes in the margin, from the horrid crime of blasphemy laid to their charge. 3. Whilst I in a word or two affix something to the oratoriall peroration annexed to this Section. 1. For my part I am clearly defeated by you of my expectation: You did promise (Epist. 3.) before you were of any public note (so as that with the finger you could be pointed at for some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) that I should receive a copy of your Horat. digito monstrarier, & dicier, ●ic est. Creed in the particulars which I did intimate, and the very worst of what you writ in your former trifling papers from such a Copy as you would own very shortly from the Press; but in this I am sure, I and others are made rather to hear what calvin's, Dr Twisse, and others men Creed is, in your distempered head taken to be, than what is your own Creed; your Creed it seems consists rather of Negatives then Affirmatives; would it not have concerned you, and that in the first place, if you would have kept your word with me positively and dogmatically, to have delivered, in what your own opinion concerning Gods voluntary, unconstreined, and in that sense efficacious premission of sin had been rather than what you think others to hold about it? Facilius est destruere aliena quam astruere sua: You are not then the most valiantest man which I have met with 2. This bespattering of others names, to which you do, most solemnly addict yourself in this Section (d) Just as Massilian Gennadius had before bespattered Augustine's writings. Vid. His●. council. Triden. edit. lat. in 4to. Augu. peccatum non effug●sse, ac dum errorem illius sermone multo contractum, l●ctâ hostium exaggeratum, nec dum Haeresis dedisse quaestionem periculo haeresis Augustinum non cartre manifestè significat. , is contrary to that reverence which in the very entrance into your work, p 1. you say you bear to that punctual Register within you so as not to affront it with a wilful & premeditated lie so as to unsheathe your pen to wound the reputation of any man living, unless perchance of the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, mentioned in your Dedicat. which cannot be, unless you think the reputation of no man living concerned to uphold the reputation of those, who being dead, yet speak in their works; and I hope yet live in the hearts of most Christianly disposed people. Must you revere not to wound the reputation of any living man, who hath power at his tongue's end or pens end, to answer for himself? And must you in your profession, be understood to have at all none to those living-dead men, who yet live with God, and live in the Church, but must the futuro answer for themselves by other men's tongues and pens, or else their names as well as their bodies, must lie under the clods and dust of infamy, which you cast upon them? 3. Suppose many unjustifiable phrases had dropped either from Mr calvin's, or Dr Twisses praeproperous pens, whilst they open the obstrule point of God's efficacious permission of sin; yet how much the nearer would that have been towards the determining the dispute, which your conscience cannot but tell you, was raised (as is plain by your first and most genuine papers) betwixt you and the Gentleman spoken of, p. 2. about absolute election and praedestination; might not predestination be absolute, though Calvin and Twisse should foully have been mistaken in some of the expressions, which out of them, p. 9, 10. you make a representation of? 2. Or how much the nearer should we have been for the Copy of your own, expected and promised Creed in these matters? For truly, if what you have (p. 14) about an equitable sense, be all that you hold about God's providence in the ordering of sin, it will be easier before the Christian world to convince you of Atheism, which takes away the very subject of a Deity, then to convince Calvin and Twisse of blasphemy, for maintaining the true God to be the author of sin. 4. Had you had but t●● lest dram of that moderation, which you do so highly every where pretend to, would you not have conformed yourself to the very first element and rudiment of all moderation & pacification? viz. (e) See J. Duraeus, Daven. Morton. etc. the pacif. Evan. Read calvin's full discourse against the Libertins, especially consult him in his Epist. ad Rhotomagenses, ad versus Fransiscanum illum Libertina illius pestilentiae propugnatorem. Vid. vindic. Gra. & providd●vin. D. D●is Twisse praecipue per c. 5. l. 11. p 5. p. 53. & inde in 4to. In this cause you might well have said of Calvin, of Ph. Melanc. of Luther, sciebam horridius scripturum Lutherum quam senti●. That that only must be taken to be the express positive opinion of any which he holds forth every where to be so in the most significant terms he can express himself in, when he makes it his business to declare himself, and not that which either a malicious adversary lying upon the catch, will adventure to prove to follow from his words and expressions of his opinion, nay, nor which a loving adversary doth know and can prove very well to follow from his opinion: Every man must be allowed to be the best interpreter of his own mind. Direct positions must be produced to prove what other men's judgements are in any matter: Consequences may only be produced to show men the absurdities of their assertions: And if this be true, as it is most true, are you so great a stranger in Israel, as not to know that the men you speak of, and all of their way, do a thousand times over, up and down in their works, deny God to be the author of sin, whilst they repeat it at every turn, that sin hath no efficient cause (f) How often have you this repeated by Dr Twiss, as if decies repetita placeret? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Aug. de civitate Dei l. 11. ? And must a few broken abrupt expressions, by a man full of gall and spleen against them and their way, torn off from the scope and series of their discourse, be produced against their avowed, full and open declarations every where to the contrary? If you allow of the measuring out of such measures unto others, then whensoever * Vid. Jo. Videl. arcana Arminian. Vedelius and others shall have proved, that most of the Arminian, and so most of your opinions, have an unhappy tendency, first to a fine spun, and then to a gross Atheism; we may (according to the method of your proceed used here) charge you with the greater and lesser Atheisms, and say not only that your opinions tend to it, but that you are absolutely for Atheism major and minor (g) And at this rate of proceeding it will be easy to abuse any party, Dr Twisse had it well against Bellarmine whom you imitate in these slanders, l. 2. crim. 3. sect. 1. p. 52. Cum nobis probe constitit quâ conscientiâ versatus fue●i● in superioribus consequentiis informandis jux●a veritatem ipsam praesentem tuam ratiocinationem in hunc modum procedere aequum est, quandoquidem ita blasphemum, & Christianis auribus intollerandum videtur, ut sane videri debet, Deum & peccati esse auctorem & solum ipsum vere peccare, atque istas blasphemias ex adversariorum dogmatis consequi per qualescu●que consequ●ntias. sed praeter omnem ver ecundiam confictas demonstravi, quip qui perinde potuissem easdem blasphemias partim ipsis Jesuiti nostris, vel maxime Dominicanis per consequen●ias nihilo minus legitimas exprobare, etc. . 2. When you had met with any harsh sounding expressions in any who (before your eyes were open) had been graced with being parents in Christ to many a Christian soul, would it not have concerned you not Cham-like as you do, to uncover your father's nakedness, but rather dutifully to have gone back into their writings, and out of them to have taken the mantles of their own interpretations, and have thrown upon it; (h) Synod Dordrac. session. 132. Examinata fuit concepta rejectionis calumniarum formula qui addendam quoque existimabant non nulli rejectionum duriorum quarundam & in commodarum loqutionum, quae in non nullis reformatorum doctorum scriptis reperirentur, quae infirmioribus offensionem, adversariis calumniandi ansam praeberent. Quem in finem rationes quaedam in utramque partem à Theolog is magnae Britanniae Hassiacis & Bremensibus, aliisque propositae sunt. Quibus utrinque diligenter expensis, visum fuit potioribus suffragiis rejectionem incommodarum locutionum esse omittendam: ne calumniari possent adversarii, etiam doctrinam orthodoxam quam professi essent illi qui in ejus explicatione ejusmodi phrasibus durius, aut imprudentius usi videntur, pariter damnari; cum praesertim manifestum esset non nullos ex iis loquendi modos esse, quibus ipse spiritus sanctus usus esset, nonnullos quoque quos sano sensu ipsi Remonstrantes admisissent: longè autem plurimos, qui dextrè, ac commodè, modo charitas adhiberetur, explicari possent. as well then you would have found, first, That you might have taken Ex. gr. these, Isa. 6. 9 Isa. 29. 11. Mark 13. 14. Mark 4. 12. Luke 8. 10. Acts 28. 28. Rom. 11. 8. Jer. 20. 7. 2 Sam. ●4. 1. compared with 1 Chron. 21. 1. Ezek. 14. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1 King. 22. 22. Acts 2. 23. Rom. 9 18. 2 Thes. 2. 11, 12. 1 Pet. 2. 8. Judas 4. Rev. 17. 17. and God knows how many scriptures more, and tragically have cried out against them, that they make God the author of sin, that they made God's hand weary, your heart tremble, both your ears tingle, (p. 11) For pray if we be allowed to shape our interpretations any thing congruouslie to the words, and what they must signify, do they fall any thing short? nay, do they not go beyond the highest expressions of your bold or moderate blasphemers, as you call them? p. 23. Quis talia fando temperet à lacrymis? 3. That they seldom enter upon the treating of these high arguments of reprobation, desertion, etc. punishing of sin with sin, or the like, but with some profession of amazement at the height of these mysteries (i) Twisse lib. 2. prae 2. crim. 4. edit. 40. p. 341. Locum hunc de permissione cujus executionem, sibi proponit Arminius (fateor quod res est) non semel à me tentatum gravibus subinde difficultatibus obsitum & circum septum expertus sum, adeo ut ad extremum vix ac ne vix quidem mihi per omnia satisfecerim, etc. Vide & Calvin. lib. 3. cap. 23 sect. 5. and some fearfulness of their being enforced to express themselves, in the language they cannot but do. 4. That when the wiser sort of them, such as Calvin and Twisse, in their expressions rise highest, they seldom rise higher, if so high, as all sorts of parties have done, when they have spoken to these arguments. Witness Austin (k) August. in lib. de predistinatione & gratia c. 16. Si humanum genus quod creatum primitus constat ex nihilo, non cum debita mortis & peccati origine nasceretur, & tamen ex e●s creator omnipotens in aeternum nonnullos damnare vellet interitum, quis omnipotenti creatori diceret, quare fecisti sic? qui enim cum non essent esse donarat, quo sine non essent, habuit potestatem, etc. the Pontificians (l) Similia citantur ex scholasticis, Greg. Armin. in 1 sent. didst 1. dub. 1 Deum non injustum futurum si pro arbitrio absque peccati interventu B. Virginem addiceret aeternis suppliciis, Gab. B●el. in eadem distin. Si justus aliquis sic immeritò esset condemnatus▪ gratias Deo ageret, quod esset objectum divinae justitiae Pet. Alliacens. in 1. 4▪ 12. artic 3. fol. 185. nullam injustitiam & crudelitatem esse, etiamsi aliquam creaturam Deus aeternitate puniret vel affligeret, sine ullo peccato, Occam in 4. 9 3. ad dub. 2. Deum post opera dilectionis, posse non dare vitam aeternam sine injuria. Holcum de imput. peccati ad 2. priuc. artic. 1. ad 12. Deum sicut posset infigere poenam sine merito poenae si vellet, it a p●sse punire peccatum poena majore, quam sibi condigna. whether Jesuits (m) Medina in 1, 2. 9 ●9. a. 2. confitetur Ocham & Gabriel affirmare, quod Deus in rigore, & in proprietate locutionis est causa peccati. An expression I am sure you shall not find in any Calvinist of note, unless perchance in a book which the Assembly of Divines judged worthy of the fire (unto which the Parliament did condemn it) whom you would be ready enough to call a rabble of half witted Praedestinarians, p. 10. first papers. Catechismus Triden. in explicat. primi articuli symbol. Bellarm. cap. 13. lib. 2. de peccato. Deus dicitur per quendam tropum imperare atque excitare ad malum, praesidet ipsis voluntatibus malis, easque regit, gubernat, torquet & flectit. or Dominicans (n) Alvares disp. sect. 7. Deus aeterno suo decreto, atque absoluta & efficaci voluntate, praedeterminavit omnes actus nostros ●n particu●ari, ante corum praevisionem, & independenter ab omni scientiae media liberae creat●onis futurae ex Hypothesi: Haec est sententia Thomae & omnium Thomistarum, Scoti Vegae & sanctorum patrum. De utrisque Jesuitis, v●z. & Dominicanis, notentur illa quae habet D. D. Twisse, lib. 2. p. 1. crim. 3. sect. 1. p. 52. Negari non potest Aquinatem jamolim docuisse ipsum actum peccatiesse â Deo, Idem docent hodiè Jesuitae, ex quibus quam facile quaeso fuit viris istis indoctis, quales erant Libertini, colligere Deum auctorem fuisse omnium scelerum, quae ab hominibus perpetrantur: Addunt Dominicani Deum determinare voluntatem creaturae ad omne actumm suum, etiam ad actum peccati: Nunquam tam formaliter & diserte sententiam suam expressisse hactenus reperti sunt Calviniani. the very Batavian Remonstrants. Belike Dr Twisse may not do what every body else of all parties may do. 5. It is easy to be discerned why in these your last, and in this respect your worst papers, you have not perchance altered your mind, but I am sure most odiously and enviouslie you have altered your method. In your first you began with Election, and so with an affirmation; in these you begin with matters belonging to reprobation and damnation, and so with a negation before you assert any thing. A way most unscriptural, Rom. 9 11, 18. unscholasticall, and illogicall a course taken up by none, but by a company of wrangling sophisters, who strive not for truth, but for victory, not so much for the credit of their own opinions, as for the discrediting the opinions of their Antagonists. It is easy to discern throughout all your papers, you are as fell and fierce upon this way, and that for the very same reasons, as ever the Batavian Remonstrants were in the Synod of Dort, who rather than not to begin at the wrong end, and not to reserve unto themselves a liberty perpetually to nibble at, Calvin's, Beza's, and other reformers expressions, shamefully deserted their own cause, and were hissed out of the Synod together (o) See Synod. Dodrac●n à Session. 25. ad 63. inclusive. like will to like, you be birds of a feather. 6. Whosoever they be that shall deny to use such expressions and interpretations, or their like in sense as Calvin and Twisse have done, they must, as we shall see in the progress, 1. Deny most plain and palpable scriptures. 2. They must exclude God from the rectory of by fare the major part of the actions which are acted in the world, they must turn him (as we shall see p. 14.) into a mere speculator, and deny his sovereignty and working providence. Qui tollit providentiam tollit Deum. And thus have I done with the first thing propounded. I proceed to the second, viz. To the wiping off of the aspersion of blasphemy, from Mr Calvin and Dr Twisse (good Lord what kind of men when compared with this upstart Mr T. P.) their fair names endeavoured to be daubed on by the foul fingers of our Gentleman in the margin. And now truly having spoken so much to this in the first thing proposed, I might wholly decline this second task, but that I greatly fear, that few of your admirers, who are flattered by you, and for it flatter you again, either can or will, so much as look into the several Sections in Calvin or Twisse, unto which you direct them. They like enough will take all upon your public faith, and from the shell of their words represented by you, conclude without more ado, that the kernel of their meaning, is just that which you would feign persuade the world, that it is: pomum erit quicquid in vasinium conjeceris. I must therefore go on to say something to this Libel or Decacorde of slanders; (for no better can I take them to be, whilst by the wresting of their true words, you wring out a meaning never dreamt of, nay opposed by them, as Doeg against David, Psal. 120. 3. and the false witnesses against Christ.) And here for the first (as well as the second) quoted out of calvin's Institutions, lib. 3. cap. 23. Sect. 6. It is somewhat that by your reverend marginal fingers, they be not marked out as grand delinquents; it seems to you they be modest blasphemies, p. 23. and then indeed will the assertion which you have in the five first lines of your p. 9 be blasphemy, when as that you shall have confuted the former part of it, by Eph. 6. 11. Isa, 46. 10. and divers other places; and the latter part of it by Rom. 9 11. or from Pro. 16. 4. the very place produced by Calvin for the proof of it, and that just before the words which you carp at, which therefore you prudently decline to quote, as you do all along all the proofs, brought by the authors, abused by you for the confirmation of their positions. 2. When contrary to all Scripture, Eph. 1. 4. and antiquity (p) Prosper Epi. ad Ruffin. Ab hac confessione gratiae Dei ideo quidam resistunt, ne cum cam talem confessi fuerunt, qualis divino eloquio praedicitur, & qualis opere suae potrstatis agnoscitur, etiam hoc necesse habeant confiteri, quod ex omni numero hominum per saecula cuncta natorum, certus apud deum definitusque sit numerus praedestinati in vitam aeternam populi, & secundum propositum Dei vocantis electi, quod quidem tàm impium est negare, quam ipsi gratiae contraire; & rursum lib. de vocatione gentium, in qua electione quicquid hominum in Christo praecegnitum non est, nulla eidem ratione sociabitur, omnes enim qui in Dei regnum de c●j●●sl●bet temporis vocatione v●nturi sunt, in ista quae saeculae cuncta praecessit adoptione signati sunt. Cui accedat Fulgentius adversus semipelag, hujus praedestinationis ita manet aeterna sirmitas & firma aeternitas, non solum in dispositione operum, sed etiam in numero personarum, ut nec de illius numeri plenitudine quispiam salutis aeternae gratiam perdat, nec extra illius numeri quantitatem ad donum salutis aeternae perventat. Deo enim, qui scit omnia antequam fiant, sic non est incertus praedestinatorum numerus, sicut dispositorum operum dubius apud cum non invenitur effectus. you shall have proved God's decrees to be temporal and not eternal. That any thing falls out in time, not decreed by God before all time, a thing denied you even by a very brother of yours in divers of your wild opinions, J. Goodw. see Redemption redeemed. 3. When you shall have put it past all question, that there be no personal absolute decrees of election and reprohation, a thing denied you by Jac. Arminius in his fourth decree (q) Armin. in declare. sentent. Where it is remarkable, that he calls his the three first decrees praecise and absolute, and of the fourth he saith, that by it decrevit singulares & certas quasdam personas salvare & damn●re, and all these ibid. he grants to be eternal. And the Remonstrants in the Hague-conference, we find quarrelling with their adversaries for saying, that they hold Gods decrees not to be personal, Colla. Hag. p. or to be conditional. And in their second Remonst. p. 7. An. 1617. p. 2. they appeal to the 16. Article of the Belgic confession, where there is express mention of eternal election and reprobation and by his disciples after him in the Hague-conference. 4. When as it shall be unlawful for Calvin to use much the same expressions, which the very Pontifician Tridentines are forced to take up, when they speak of the decrees of God (r) Catechismus Tridentinus in exposit. primi articuli symboli. Non solum Deus universa quae sunt, providentia sua tuetur & administrat, verumetiam quae moventur & agunt aliquid, intima virtute ad motum & actionem ita impellit: ut quamvis secundarum causarum efficientiam non impediat, praeveniat tamen, cum ejus occullissima vis ad singula pertineat. And I hope all this is somewhat more than prescience, even as much as an express order and decree. . 2. Nor is your second volley of shot discharged against Calvin out of his institutions, l. 3. c. 24. like to wound him, until you shall, Sir, have overthrown those Scriptures, which in that very place, viz. Exod. 4. 21. Eph. 2. 3. and 2. 12. Jer. 1. 10. Isa 6. 9 John 12. 39 Mat. 13. 11. are brought for the backing of it. 3. Until you shall have cleared it, that Calvin understands not that assertion of God's judicial proceeding against unbelieving obstinate sinners, unto whom the word is and will be a kill letter, a savour of death to death, and so shall have confuted his words by his meaning given of them, in the upshot of the Section; what say you (saith he) means God to teach them, by whom he cares not to be understood? Consider whence the fault is, and thou wilt cease to ask: for whatsoever obscurity be in the word, there is always light enough in it for the convincing of wicked men's consciences. 4. Until your demonstrations shall have made it past all question, that God never punisheth sin with sin, contrary to Rom. 1. 20. 2 Thes. 2. 12, 13. and so among others the wilful contempt of the word by giving men up to their scornful dispositions, Hos. 4. 13. Acts. 13. 41. Rev. 22. 11. they that will be filthy, etc. 5. When as you shall have made it evident, that whilst in anger you did let fly against Calvin, you have not hit Austin (s) Austin de bono perseveran. lib. 2. cap. 14. In eadem perditionis massa relicti sunt etiam Judaei, qui non potuerunt credere factis in conspectu suo tam magnis clasque virtutibus. Cur enim non potuerunt credere, non tacuit Evangelium dicens, Joh. 12. Cum autem tanta signa fecisse● coràm eis non crediderunt in eum, ut Sermo Isaiae Prophetae impleretur quem dixit, Isa. 53. Domine quis credidit auditui nostro, & brachium Domini cui revelatum est? & ideo non poterant credere, quia iterum dixit Isaias, Is. 6. Excaecavit oculos eorum, & induravit cor illorum, nè videant oculis nec intelligant cord, & convertantur, & sanem illos. Paulò post, vobis inquit, Mat. 13. datum est nosse mysterium regni coelorum, illis autem non est datum. Quorum alterum ad misericordiam, alterum ad judicium pertinet: & circa finem ejusmodi capitis, exhortamur ergò atque praedicamus, sed qui habent aures audiendi obedienter nos audiunt: audientes videlicet corporis sensu non audiunt cordis assensu, etc. . Thus ever are you besides the mark, p. 15. and miss of your aim. 3. Much less is your third like to pierce any thing deep, though pointed out to the slaughter, by your digit in the margin, you speak by your fingers, Prov. 6. 13. and yet say nothing from cap. 18. sect. 4. for your what truth more protrite, and more readily of old received in the Christian Church, (t) Austin lib. 2. de gratia & lib. arbitrii, cap. 20. probatur Deum uti cordibus then that God doth often most justly stir up wicked men to acts as acts, which yet to the actors are and will be unjust: God is no more in so doing, than you are when you set spurs to a dull jade, or then the pure Sun when it draws out noisome evapours out of a nasty impure dunghill; the very simile used by Calvin (and overlookt by you) for the illustrating of this matter. 2. And how irrefragablie doth Calvin in the very Section, under your evil finger, and once under your evil eye, by variety of scripture, and Scripture-cases, prove this, as from 2 Sam. 16. 22. 2 Sam. 16. 10. 1 Kin. 12. 20. Hos. 8. 4. Hos. 13. 11. 1 King. 12. 2 King. 10. 7. But these forsooth, p. 11. are too literally expounded by Calvin (u) etiam malorum ad laudem atque adjumentum bonorum. Sic usus est Juda tradente Christum, sic usus est Judaeis cruci figentibus Christum, & quanta inde bona praestitit populis credituris, qui & diabolo utitur pessimo, sed optimè ad exercendam & probandam fidem bonorum, non sibi qui omnia scit antequam fiant, sed nobis quibus erat necessarium, ut eo modo ageretur nobiscum: plura in hujus rei probationem vide passim per totum illud caput: and as literally by Sir Austin, throughout cap. 20. and 21. lib de gratia & libero arbitrio, who draws up the conclusion of those chapters, thus: His & talibus testimoniis divinorum eloquiorum, quae omnia commemorare nimis longum est, satis quantum existimo manifestatur, operum Dei cordibus hominum ad inclinandas corum voluntates quocunque voluerit, sive ad mala pro meritis corum, judicio utique suo aliquando aperto, aliquando occulto, semper autem justo. . 4. As for the fourth quoted by you out of cap. 11. 17. sect. 12. which yet I cannot find there, something to that purpose I find quoted by one who calls himself the praedestinated thief (x) Fur praedest. p. 27. Impii occulta Dei manu & vi sive potentiâ, tanquàm laqueo latente nescientes diriguntur ad scopum ipsis ignotum, etc. (p. 110.) Austin Enchirid. ad Laurent. Omnis natura etiam si vitiosa est, in quantum natura est, bona est, in quantum vitiosa est, mala est, mala omninò fine bonis & nisi in bonis esse non possunt, quamvis bona sine malis esse possint. a book I doubt you as much or more delight in, because it makes you more sport, then that which you commend of Bp Wintons', p. 11. unto which I suppose you found it annexed, and which is under your second digit, it makes something a higher sound, but no harsher sense in any Christian ear or heart, if so be the more rough phrase of a command (as it may seem to be to dainty ears) be but dexterouslie expounded, as it is by Calvin, lib. 1. Institut. cap. 18. sect. 1. and cap. 17. (y) Austin lib. de gra. & l. arbitr. cap. 20. Dum disserit de exemplo Shimei unctum Dei improbe male dicentis sis inquit. Quo modo dixerit Dominus huic homini maledicere David, quis sapiens & intelliget? non enim jubendo dixerit, ubi obedientia laudaretur: sed quod ejus voluntatem proprio vit●o suo malam in hoc peccatum judicio suo justo & occul●o inclinavit, ideò dictum est dixit ei Dominus. Nam si jubenti obtemperasset Deo, ●audandus potius quam puniendus esset, sicut ex hoc peccato postea novimus esse punitum, nec causa tacita est, cur ei Dominus isto modo dixerat maledicere David, hoc est cor ejus malum miserit vel dimiserit, ut videat inquit Dominus humilitatem meam, & retribuat mihi bona pro maledicto ejus in die isto. Austin and others, not of a command given out by God, for any man to yield obedience to, which would be contrary to Deut. 29. 29. but of that occult law of God's stupendious workings, even whilst men sin, which God hath appointed to be the law of his providence, and so of his out-going, but not of our conversation, Isa. 8. 20 2. And truly, woe, woe, would it be to all Christians, if the Devil and all his Angels, together with all his agents, which are acted by him, even when they are committing the worst feats of their wicked activity, were not ruled and overruled; and in this sense, as it were, in a compulsory bridle, like the Devil in a chain, Judas 6. Rev. 20. 2. So that when as they do cast up the mire and the dirt of their outrageous sins, Isa. 57 20.— God all this while should not order them, as well as he doth the wild ocean, when he saith, Job. 38. 11. Hitherto shalt thou come, but no farther; and here shall thy proud waves be stayed. Deus est author nullorum, sed ordinator & rector omnium peccatorum, rector omnium peccatorum & peccantium (z) Of whose actings that of Austin's is most true, l. de gra. & lib. arbit. cap. 21. Nunquid sine sua voluntate venerunt, aut sic venerunt sua voluntate, ut mendaciter scriptum sit, quod Dominus ad hoc faciendum eorum spiritum suscitavit; immo utrumque verum est, quia & sua voluntate venerunt, & tamen spiritum eorum Dominus suscitavit. Agit enim Omnipotens in cordibus hominum etiam motum voluntatis eorum, ut per eos agat quod per eos agere ipse voluerit, qui omnino injustè aliquid velle non novi●. Idem. lib. 5. cap. 3. adversus Julian. Pelagian. Haec Deus miris & ineffabilibus modis, qui novit justa judicia sua non solum in corporibus hominum, sed in ipsis cordibus operari, qui non facit voluntates malas, sed utitur eis ut v●luerit, cum aliquid iniquè velle non possit, & cap. 12. Quis non ista judicia contremiscat, quibus agit Deus in cordibus ma●orum hominum quicquid vult, reddens tamen eis secundum merita eorum. . 5. Your fifth place quoted out of him, from which yet you keep your threatening finger, or marginal fist, lib. 1. cap. 17. sect. 5. is like unto the former, and therefore may be served with the answer which was given in to the last. And truly it may as truly be charged with blasphemy by you, as David for calling wicked men Gods sword, Psal. 17. 13. or Isaiah, for calling Ashur the rod of God's anger (a) B. Fulgent. l. 1. ad Anoni●●ū, Licet Deus author non sit malarum cogitationun, ordinator tamen est malarum ●oluntatum. and the staff of his indignation, Isa. 10. 5. Item, for styling Nabuchadnezzar, Jer. 50. 23. the hammer of the whole earth, the fierce nation stirred up by God himself, to break down the whole earth; confute the Prophets, (turn Helvidianus, p. 17. if you dare) when they tell us Isa. 7. 18. of hissing for the flies, of lifting up an ensign to the nations, Isa. 5. 26. to fall upon Israel's spoil, the very works of God, Isa. 42. 24. or prove that men when they are so stirred up, do not wickedly sin for the most part, or else when in Calvin, or such like honest men, you meet with such kind of passages, keep off your censorious fingers from them, 6. Though you were got off from Calvin, by your second assault made towards the foot of page 9 upon Dr Twisse, yet that same wicked Calvin sticks so much in your stomach indigestible, as that twice more you disgorge yourself upon him, p. 10. out of l. 1. c. 18. 5. from which place, or any others of the like stamp, you will only be able to prove that he opposeth such an idle speculative permission, as you, and the worst of your associates plead for, p. 14. (about which I hope we shall ere long come to some sober reckoning together) a permission which makes evil things to fall out, though not without his prescience, yet against his determination, & all kind of will, viz. such as whereby they be suffered to fall out by the sinful will of the wicked. It is plain (though a man should run, yet he might read it) and therefore turn to your book, and the section of calvin's again, that he pleads not for God's agency in sin, as it is sin, (b) Calvin in these and such like places, will be understood as he explains himself, l. 2. Institut. c. 4. sect. 2. Proprie agere dicitur Satan in reprobis in quibus regnum suum, hoc est, nequitiae exercet, dicitur & Deus suo modo agere, quod Satan ipse (instrumentum cum sit irae ejus) pro ejus nutu ac imperio hùc atque illùc se inflectit ad exequenda ejus judicia justa. Omitto hic universalem Dei motionem, undè creaturae omnes ut sustinentur, ita efficaciā quidvis agendi ducunt. De illa speciali actione tantum loquor quae in unoquoque facinore apparet. Idem ergò facinus Deo, Satanae, homini assignari videmus non esse absurdum: sed varietas in fine & modo facit ut illic inculpata Dei justitia reluceat, Satana hominisque nequitia cum suo opprobrio se prodat. which he stoutly every where opposeth. But for 1. God's sovereign judiciary ordering and ruling of sin, and over it, according to his eternal wise counsels. 2. And so much the very instance of a Judge in his words produced by you, do evidence, that God is the author of the punishing of a sinful Ahab, by his i. e. Ahabs' sin, but that he, i. e. God, is no author of his sin. 2. You fall fiercely upon him, with a passage which you quote out of his book, the providen. c. 5. and 6. & sic citatur, lib. 2. the provide. part. 11. p. 36. And this again you note with your severe malignant finger; and because in it you show as much virulency and spleen against Calvin, as his enemies who had quoted it against him before you, I think it deserves that zealous answer which Calvin upon the place makes to it, and which for the belief of the English reader, I translate thus. (c) Calvin de occulta D●i provident. p 736. In quinto a●ticulo, non sine providentia Dei quam oppugnas factum est, ut locum notares, ill●c videbunt lectores, quae soleant adversarii o●j●cere contra meam doctrinam, me v●lut in ●orum persona recitare. Tu mutilum illud dictum arripiens, nun dignus es in cujus faciem omnes conspuant? In sexto tamet si locum non designas, longius prosilit tua impudentia. Egone, qui tàm reverenter ubique praedico, quoties peccati fit mentio, procul removendum esse Dei nomen, usquam d●xerim maleficia non tantum eo volente, sed etiam authore perpetrari? certè ut quidvis contra tam pr●digiosā blasphemiam dicatur, libenter patiar, modo ne immerito immisceatur nomen meum. Quantum ad stultos fallendos proficias nescio, sed non timeo, si quis figmenta tua cum scriptis meis conferre volet, ne tua improbitas te execrabilem, ut dignus es reddat. Whensoever therefore henceforward Mr T. P. or any of his associates, shall charge Calvin, or any holding with him, to maintain God to be the author of sin, we may with confidence enough, appeal to all ingenious readers, as he did of old. Varius Scuronensis, M. Aemilium Scaurum, regia merce decorruptum, imperium prodidisse ait. M. Aemilius Scaurus huic se affinem esse ●ulpae negat, viri creditis? [In the 5 Article it fell out not without God's providence, which you oppose, that you did note the places, there the readers will see, that what things the adversaries do use to object against my doctrine, are recited by me as in their person. Thou snatching that mutilated saying, art thou not worthy in whose face all should spit? In the 6. though thou dost not mark out the place, yet thy impudence leaps out further. Do I, who reverently every where preach, whersoever there is any mention of sin, that than God's name must be moved far from it; I say, that I should have said any where, that wicked actions are not only committed, he willing, but he also being the author of them, certainly I can willingly suffer that any thing should be said against so prodigious a blasphemy, provided that my name be not undeservedlie intermingled. How much you may prevail in deceiving of fools, I know not, but I do not fear, but if any will compare your forgeries with my writings, that your wickedness will render you, as you do deserve, to be execrable.] Read on good Sir, for your learning, and the showing in what sense, that some phrases stumbled at by you, are understood by him. 7. Now I am come to answer for what you quote out of my reverend and worthy friend, Dr Twiss, by which Paul (let me so speak now) I had once the happiness to be beloved as another Timothy; Oh how do I bewail it that he is not alive to answer for himself; verily, I think that his very grave, stern, scholastical look, would have frighted such a finical rhetorician as yourself, out of that parcel of little wit, p. 24. which is left you, out of that shallow judgement, which yet is the deepest that you have, p. 5. and of which I am sure you are sufficiently proud. You the very great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and formidable Zanthia zummim (as you take it) inter fraterculos classiarios Rusticanos, would for fear have betaken yourself to your heels, I fear me and have been in Dr Lopes his condition, by reason of breaking, you would have purified yourself. For my part I am glad you have, as they did deserve, joined Calvin and Twisse together, as a nobile par fratrum, the rather because the less will need to be said for Twisse, so much having been said for Calvin, upon the like light suggestions, and wild inferences of yours; and for that to Dr Twisse, having been as a very Eagle for the sublimity of school Divinity, and yet for elegancy well styled (d) Sam. Rutherford in his Exercitationibus Apologet. pro div. great. by a learned Scot, flos ingeniorum scholasticorum, and for perspicuity (if a man may so speak, for take this cum grano salis) as another Bonaventure, in quo non videretur Adamus peccasse, certe non multum delirasse. I question not but that I shall prevail with all ingenious Scholars, to turn to the passages which you do so point at with your marginal fingers, to turn them by perverting his words, out of the way of his candid orthodox meaning. Yet let me subjoine some few words for my old friend, and father's friend, the remembrance of whom shall be precious to me Dum meus ipse mihi, dum spiritus hos regit artus. And first for what you have out of him, lib. 1. part. 1. digress. 10. cap. 1. sect. 4. p. 125. I will only first, beseech the Reader, to hear how he explains himself, both in the place alleged by you, and cap. 3. in princip. for (saith he) speaking of the internal decree, or will of God; The mind of his manifesting justice, seems not to proceed from justice: For as it is not from omnipotency that he would have a monument of his omnipotency, so it is neither of justice that he would afford a document of his justice, and chap. 3. p. 127. As for reprobation, the last act of it remains to be considered, and the will or intention of condemning for sin: Condemnation itself for sin, is an act of God's avenging justice, and it doth presuppose sin; but the will of condemning, or the decree by which a man is destined to condemnation for sin, seems not to be (he speaks you hear modestly, yet not fit to be called, p. 23. a modest blasphemer) an act of justice, and without any obscurity, it may be demonstrated, that it cannot presuppose sin. How he proves this, consult further on the very place anon after that which is under your digit, and is the worse for your thumbing of it, as also in his answer to Mr Hoard, presently upon the stating of the question: How gallantly he illustrates this, see in his answer to D. H. statim à principio. Confute him if you can; It is enough for his discharge, that he maintains, 1. No internal or exernal act of God's sovereignty to be against his justice. 2. Are you so intoxicated in your passions against Dr Twisse, (a man I am confident who never wronged you in thought, word or deed) as not to see that God's internal and eternal decrees (if you grant but any such, which I am sure Arminius and the Arminians did, but what you do, I am by your discourses much to seek) cannot, to speak properly, be acts of justice; (yet they are not against justice.) Acts of justice are ad alterum, and presuppose an object actual and not potential only; predestinatio nihil ponit in objecto, nec egreditur extra se (e) See bef. re p. 108 de Collat. Hag. passi. Dr Twisse lib. digr. 6. 5. 4 c. 3. p. 96. Nihil vulgatius in scholis quam praedistinationem & reprobationem nihil pon●re in praedestinato & reprabato quod & evidens ratio confirmat: sunt enim actus Dei immanentes non transeun tes, omnis autèm paena est actionis transeuntis in creaturam effectus, etc. . 2. As for the second place quoted against him, in your line ult. p. 9 out of sect. 12. p. 140 about the distinction of voluntas signi, & bene placiti, which you nibble at here, p. 12 and in divers other places. 1. That I shall else where show, that you by denying of it, rob God of all sovereignty and deity, and make him to be a mere legislator to appoint what should be as to duty or to give out orders, not to determine what shall be, as to particular events. 2. It had been more valiant for you, to have confuted the instance, which Dr Twisse brings from God's willing or commanding, not willing or not determining the offering up of Isaae, Gen. 22. then vainly to cavil at the distinction, which that is brought to prove. 3. Dr Twisse in the very place hath taught me and you, if you have but a mind to learn with me, (as you say you have, p. 8. if you may but be taught in the spirit of meekness) that these two wills are not contradictory, as being not ad idem, nor secundum idem, as belonging to different objects and different ways of working, he thus concludes the Section, (somewhat otherwise than you translate him, who foist in several words of your own, to make him the more odious.) Nor yet is there any contradiction betwixt these two divine wills; for voluntas signi, or the sign of God's will, is improperly called will, for it only signifies what men ought to do, or what will please God, if it be done. But voluntas beneplaciti, or the will of liking, is properly and simply his will, whereby namely he hath decreed what shall be, either God effecting it, or God permitting it. 3. As for the last and largest passage quoted out of l. 2. part. 1. p. 142, 143, 147, 148. which contains a most elaborate, succinct, learned, and useful discourse; out of which certain scraps and bits of his words, are incoherentlie huddled together; I must needs beseech the Reader, who can, so far to gratify me and himself, as to turn to the places quoted, and then I doubt not, but perceiving how egregiously that indefatigably painful Dr is abused by misrepresenting his sense, they will of their own accord, be ready a second time, to read over that tart lecture of calvin's to Mr T. P. for abusing so gallant a man as Dr Twisse: In the interim let it be remembered, that when the Dr saith, that Gods will is no less efficacious in the permission of evil, then, etc. That the same Dr finds a wide difference betwixt God's efficient will, and his efficacious will. The first relates to what God will do himself, the latter, to what shall be done by the sinful will of others, lib. 1. sect. 10. p. 140. the place quoted by T. P. but just now. We grant saith he, there * Dr Twisse disputes against Jac. Armin. his text. speaking of the latter, even that will to be efficacious, but the last consequence, if by an efficacious will, ergò by an efficient, we totally deny as in consequent; and then succeed the words mentioned by you, p. 10. line 21. & inde. In both Gods will is efficacious, but in the one it is only permissive, but in the other effective. 2. As for the prostitution unto sin required, which you speak of, doubtless he speaks of some judiciary acts of God upon impenitent sinners, as the Prophet Hosea 3. 13, 14. when your daughters, etc. the Apostle 2 Thes. 2. 3. You may as well deny God to put forth any providence in governing of the world, as deny God to administer occasions of sinning unto wicked men (f) Be content for once, to learn something that is good from your beloved Jac. Armin. Disput. 9 the ●ffic. prob. Dei in mullo, Thes. 20. propter incitamentorum & occasionum oblationem, directionem & determinationem Dei, permissioni peccati additam, dicitur Deus, quae ab hominibus malis & Satana perpetrantur, mala ipsa facere, quod probat ex Gen. 45. 8. & 37 25. 28. & 4●. 12. 12. & 41. 19 Job 1. & 2. 2 Sam. 12. 13. 12. 2 Sa 15 & 16. Sic Deus fecisse dicitur, quod Absalon fecit: quia potissimae parts, in actionibus isti apotelesmati producendo adhibitis, Dei fuerunt. Accedit huc, quod cum sapientia Dei norit, si per talem incitamentorum, & occasionun oblationem, directionem & determinationem, rem totam administret, certo & infallibiliter ●xisturum, quod à creatura sine scelere perpetrari nequit; & cum voluntas ipsius decernat administrationem istam, liquidius patet cur Deo factum hujusmodi tribuatur. Fidei humanae potest subesse falsum. , and that those occasions (not God's sinning in offering them, accursed be such a blasphemy) do really affect the imaginations, according to all those degrees, whether that of profit or pleasure represented in them. See this largely proved by our good and great Doctor, past all fear of being confuted, in his answer to Mr Hoard, p. 26. & inde. And thus I hope I have in reference to the second thing proposed, set Mr Calvin and Dr Twisse, and all that hold with them, into their proper honourable stations of sound and able Divines again, by wiping off the aspersion of modest or immodest blasphemy from their names. But I shall be forced to leave Mr T. P. amongst the accusers of the brethren, and of his own mother's sons, Psa. 50. 20. were he at least but a genuine son, a member of any true Protestant Church. In this I have been the longer, not only to testify my respects to two such great luminaries of the Church, but because by so doing, I have quite overturned one great rotten pillar, upon which all this book doth rest, which now as we shall see more briefly in what follows, will be Psal. 62 3. as a bowing wall, and a tottering fence. And now thirdly, in reference to the third thing proposed for the finishing of this Section, I have but a few words to say to your quaking, trembling, oratoriall peroration, with which you wind up this Section. 1. I must profess it to be some part of my faith (pray God I may be out in it) to believe that you will rather turn Quaker, and with them get into your trembling and shivering fits, when you are big with no spirit of prophecy, than you will not upon any or no occasion given, take liberty by abusing such as Mr Calvin and Dr Twisse, make the hearts of God's people sad, whom he hath not made sad, Ezek. 13. 22. make their very ears to tingle, and hearts to tremble. 2. Now I can upon certain knowledge, tell how little conscience you have used in reading or representing authors; I may justly fear you do rather act the Tragedian part of a Stage-player, for the making your adversaries odious, then that you greatly fear even real blasphemies; if you did so, you would not upon supposition of the absoluteness of God's decrees (which cannot possibly be otherwise, unless as I have elsewhere showed, we resolve to be madly Atheistical) to call in Poets, p. 13. if not Devils, p. 24. to help you to blaspheme. 3. But though, since Mountebank like, you have thrust yourself upon a stage, and find it necessary for the carrying on of your design, to have in readiness the very pages and lines of those several authors whom you design, (if you can do it) shall be offered up as victim to the popular Jury of ignavoes, or ill affected persons: And that rather than this shall not be done, you will rif●le the well furnished Cabinet of the Batavian Remonstrant writings, (g) Scripta Synodalia Remonstrantium. Fur praedestinatus, tied to the tail of the book quoted by Mr T. P. as to Andrew's his book or not stick to be beholding to very thiefs, viz. such roguish pamphlets, as fur praedestinatus, and others are, rather than you will want materials for invectives against Calvin, Beza, Twisse, etc. Yet pray, Sir, why should you express your sense of indignation, against, as you say, too literal expositions of some Texts of scripture, of those (vid.) or the like enumerated by me, p. 103? Know you not that bonus textuarius est bonus Theologus? and that sensus scripturae est (h) Vide Dr Ames. in Psalm. secundum. tantum unicus, isque grammaticus, where the letter is not plainly metaphorical, typical, or contrary to other more plain places, and the clear analogy of faith? But belike when all your Socinio-Grotio-Percian glosses and Annotations shall be compiled together, and be published, for the clearing of the forequoted places and the putting of milky, mild Socino-Arminian glosses upon them; the plumbeus cerebrofities of the now Protestant reform world, will be better indoctrinated, and recede further from the words of those Scriptures, but approach nearer to the genuine sense of them. Credat Judaeus Apella, non ego. And thus have I done with this your seventh Section, and I might say too, with all this your first Chapter, wherein I have and shall at every turn be forced to meet and scuffle with the Don Quixot you mention, Epist. 2. ante publicam edit. and of which you may read in my last abused friend, Dr Twisse, upon the very like occasion writing against Jesuit Bellarmine (i) Dr Twisse lib 2. div. gr. 2. cap. 5. p. 53. quasi vero operosa demonstratione opus esset ad illud confirmandum de quo né libertini quidem dubitant, nempe in hac palestra dominab●tur Bellarmin (una cum socio suo T. P.) & egregiam laudem referet de triumphatis prodigiosis quibusdam host bus & chimericis, quales for sitan ne Hercules quidem unquam aggressus est, quales etiam unica tantum in terris regio suppeditat, quae dici solet utopia, quales denique parturit & parit imaginatio● Interea for sitan his artibus hoc tandem lucrabitur, ut non pauci talibus insidiis & dolis capti, ad injustā quam Bellarminus ingerere cupit, suspicionem de nobis concipiendam eo facilius inducantur, quasi nos minime puderet, Deum peccati insimulare, adeoque omnia flagitia Deo autore fieri palam profiteremur: sed notentur imprimis sequentia ● D. T. P. nostro Sed non ipsi Pontificii Bellarmino modestiores, quotquot non omnem excusserunt fronte pudorem, haec nobis exprobare, quae solet Bellarminus, unquàm ausi fuerant. Sed contra potius pronobis ab istis criminibus absolvendis pronuntiant. Sic enim nos excusat Gabriel Vasquius, quamvis & ipse Jesuita in 1. disp. 99 cap. 4. Caeterum observandum est, non omnes haereticos nostri temporis docuisse Deum esse autorem peccati, ut peccatum est, sunt enim qui planè dicunt, peccatum ut peccatum, non esse in Deum, ut in causam referendum, sed tantum Deum esse causam operis peccati, eo modo quo supra explicuimus ex ment ipsorum. Ita docet Beza aphorismo illo 33. Calvin l. 3. Instit. cap 23. sect. 9 Zwinglius in Serm. de providentia, cap. 6. Similia producit ex Suarefio, etc. Idem ergo de indiculo à T. P. exarato contra D. Calvinum & Twissum possumus pronuntiare, quod simili occasione protulit D. Prosper contra Augustini adversarios. Prosper in Resp. ad objectionem vicent. contexunt, & qualibus possunt sententiis comprehendunt in aptissimarum quarundam blasphemiarum prodigiosa mendacia, eaque ostendenda & ingerenda multis publice privatimque circumserunt, asserentes talia in nostro esse sensu qualia diabolico continentur Indiculo. for my life I cannot light upon the fair L. Helena 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you talk of to me in the same letter, unless (as I think) to you it be the slurring of all the fair names of all the men of renown, who have been active in the first or second reformation; p. 35. And the enjoiment of this your Helena by you, haud equidem invideo, sed miror magis, how have you dared so publicly to do it, after such great protestations of affection, both to the first & latest reformers. But of this, verbum sapienti sat est; verbum haud amplius addam, (p. 121.) Falleris aeternam qui suspicis ebrius arcem Subruta succensis mox corruet ima tigillis. Answer to sect. 8. p. 11. etc. usque ad finem capitis primi You have from hence to the end of the first Chapter, an excellent cause to maintain against Sir Nicolas nemo, asserting God to be the author of sin, and therefore I could hearty wish your arguments, from Scripture, reason, and authority against him, were somewhat stronger than they be. However I will not show you the flaws of them, not only lest my book out-swel the printers mind to commit it to the press, but lest another day you should as well give it out against me, as you have done against my betters, that you have not the better of the cause, whilst against Sir N. N. you plead God not to be the author of sin. I'll therefore rather take you off from your dispute with a plaudit, and with an egregiè Dom. magister, haec tibi sufficiunt. Egregia tibi laus, & spolia ampla debentur. By my consent, because omnia leviae tendunt sursum, for your great conquests obtained against that formidable Knight, by Scripture, reason, and authority: So soon as ever a new Capitol shall be erected to Jupiter Hammon, you shall enter the citadel, tanquàm victor ovans, with the acclamations of the people following you, veni, vidi, vici. But yet I must needs say that Calvin and Twisse, and their copartners, who maintain God to will sin, in no other sense then that of Augustine's (k) Augustin. ad Laurent. cap. 95. Non fit aliquid nisi Omnipotens fieri velit, vel sinendo ut fiat, vel ipse faciendo. Nec dubitandum est Deum facere benè, etiam sinendo fieri quaecunque fiunt malè. that nothing falls out but what God wils shall be, either by his real effecting of it, or his voluntary permission of it for his own glory; who maintain this determining of sin, just after the rate that my most reverend friend (l) Dr Ames unto whose memory I own much. Thus than he in his disceptat. scholast, cum Grevencho●. edit in 4 to, p. 50, 51. opponis obsoletum de peccati praescientia & praedeterminatione. Cui ego respondebo, parcius multo in scriptures declaratum esse, quid Deus de malo quam quid de bono apud se decrevit, satis igitur esse, si de bonis nobis constet, licet malorum origo intellectum nostrum fugiat: deinde, non est eadem ratio futurorum bonorum & malorum; bona enim sunt ex virtute positiva, quae semper cum sui● effectis ab efficaci Dei voluntate fluit, sed mala ex defectu sunt oriunda, atque adeo qua talia non pendent ab efficaci aliquo decreto: quicquid habet entis positivi, ab efficaci decreto pendet; quicquid purae negationis, ex ejusdem decreti negatione sequitur; quicquid verò privationis & pravitatis in sese continet, peccatoribus ipsis debetur in Solidum. Dico igitur ipsa peccata cognosci in decreto Dei, absolute definiente illud quod iis inest boni, & ipsius mali permissionem. Ipsum etiam peccatum, quamvis non quà peccatum, a Deo praefinitur, in ipsa etiam praefinitione certò videtur, & aliquo modo dici potest decreti illius consequens, effectus autem nullo modo. Vult Deus actus bonos, & quà actus & quà bonos, malos quà actus non quà malos. Sic Augustinus hanc objectionem solvere solebat semper. Saepius etiam à Pelagianis eadem occinebatur ipsi cantilena ut videre est contra Julian. 3. 9 & 5. 2 & de lib. arbitr. lib. 2. 19, 20. most pithily, and yet fully expressed their sense: (whose words I do the rather give in the margin, because that book is not easily to be had, or in many scholars hands) I say I must needs believe, that they, and such as they take themselves to be nothing concerned in any of the Scriptures, reasons, or authorities, which you bring against them; and were they alive, I doubt not but they would deny that which you say, p. 15. that you shot somewhat further than you aimed, (which certainly was but to calumniate them, and to asperse their writings) though they would be agreed upon the Question, that by many furlongs, you never came near the question debated between you and them. I may therefore be allowed to afford you some orthodoxy (who have elsewhere but little of it) in your flourishing fears against Sir N. N. and shall not find myself necessitated any further to quarrel at the text of your 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. Sections, than I can discern a quarrelsome Spirit working in you, against the sound tenants of the Christian orthodox party of the first or second reformers, whom you like not as appears, p. 35. and therefore in reference to your Sect. 8. p. 11. give me leave to say, 1. That I like your text better as it lies in your letter, than I like your marginal gloss, either out of your admirable Grotius as you call him, Epist. 2. about the commending of whom, and your design in it, you will give us a more fitting opportunity to speak else where, in answer to p. 28. of yours, or your Saintlike Andrew's, of which something too must be said, because of of the epithet imposed upon him by you, p. 47. The former speaks indeed, as to the forepart of his saying, conformable to the most usual phraseology of the scripture and the ancients, (l) August. Enchirid. In sua quae falli mutarique non potest praescientia, opera futura suà disponere, illud omninò nec aliud quicquam est praedesti. nare. which say not much or often, that God doth praedestinate men unto sin; the phrase of praedestination mostly both in scriptures and the fathers, denotes only such things as God will effect and do, and that in reference to man's eternal condition, and not such things as God determines to permit: But for the other part of his saying, that God doth not praedestinate or praedetermine men unto punishments, is both contrary to manifest Scripture, Rom. 9 12. Judas 4. &c and to pious antiquity (m) Augustin. ad Dulcitium, Epist. 61. Deus occulta satis dispositione, sed tantum justâ, nonnullos corum poenis praedestinavit extremis etc. & Tract 48. in Joh. Quomodo dixit vos non est is ex ovibus meis? Quiae videbat eos ad sempiternum interitum praedestinatos, Tract. 107 filius perditionis dictus est traditor. and the later Joh. Scot in Hist. Go●teshalci. Edit. à D Vsserio, p. 128. praedestinatio semper in bonis, ●emper in operibus suis, etc. Sic Synod. Valentina. ib. p. 180. Valentine Council, who understood the opinions of the ancients in this matter, as well as the admirable Grotius; they stick not to affirm, that God did praedestinate wicked men to punishments for their sins. 2. Your second Saintlike Andrew's is out, when he will needs have Rom. 11. 33. only applicable to praedestion or election, when as by the series of the discourse, unto which the words are a conclusory Epiphonema they are as well applicable to reprobation as to election, if not more, as appears by ver. 32. to reprobation then to election. 2. None of your opposites quoted by you, had used the phrase of praedestinating unto sin, nay, in the sense of the Arausican Council quoted by you, p. 16. condemn it, and therefore you might here very well have forborn your verbal criticisms. 3. Your conclusion here, God is not where said to praedestine to sin, ergò, he doth only in your speculative aequitable sense, p. 14, 15. permit sin, and not voluntarily decree, that it shall fall out, and that he will have the ordering of it, is as valid a conclusion, and yet thus you must draw your ergò, if you will conclude any thing against Calvin or Twisse, as that Baculus stat in angulo, ergo Sacerdotes non debent nubere, and look you to that formidable ergò, who are said to be against all second marriages of ministers, sect. 12. p. 12, 13. I might as quickly glide off from your sect. 9 p. 12. and turn it off as I did the former, as being nihil ad Rombum, because your premises and conclusions, notwithstanding your best care promised, p. 7. that they should be fast twisted together, hang together like ropes of sand, and if I may use your hated Calvins phrase, are desultationes à gallo ad Asinum (n) Calvinus contra Libertinos. . If I may but suspect, that you intended a dispute against forsooth your blasphemous catalogue, set down, p. 10, 11. Meus est quem recitas, (you know, Epist. 3.) o Fidentine libellus; Ast male dum recitas incipit esse tuus, for there against Calvin and Twisse. God every where professeth that he wils not sin, commands it not, approves it not, punisheth it, expostulates against it, etc. ergò he doth not so much as determine or will, that sin should by his permission fall out by the voluntary wilful wills of wicked men, is a conclusion which makes me cry out, utinam me nemore Pelei. 2. I have elsewhere answered to the scriptures which you produce here out of Psal. 81. 13. Isa. 5. 3, 4. Ezek. 18. 2. 29. when as you brought them forth in your first papers, more strongly for the carrying on the design, which there you were upon, and yet so mistook the Texts, and expounded them worse, then either a Jewish Rabbi Kimchi on Isa. 5. or the Batavian Remonstrants in their Synodick writings, I list not (as much leisure as you may take me to have) eandem serram reciprocare. Those writings may in due time see the light, if it shall be judged sitting. 3. From your 19 line of p. 12. almost to the end of your 10. sect. p. 13. you set upon such a desperate way of railing, ranting, nay, of diabolical blaspheming of the footsteps of the anointed, I mean of the counsels and unknown footsteps, Rom. 11. 13. Psal. 77. 19 of the high almighty holy one (upon a wilful mistake and misrepresentation of your adversaries tenants about them) as that you seem to me, to have taken up a resolution, to blaspheme down all the railing Rabshaka's, who some say was an Apostate from the true religion (o) R. D. Kimchi in Isaiah. ; and you confess you were once in calvin's way, p. 24. and so in some sense you be an Apostate, optimi vini pessimum acetum, none likely such stomachful opposers of God's truth, as those who have forsaken the way of his righteous word and commandments. All the scoffing, Atheistical Lucian's, the wanton Satirists, the furious Bolsers, the wild Roguish praedestinated thief (p) Fur praedestinationi●, s●● 23. B●nae●fiae voluntates De● in cereb●o meo perpetuo moluerunt, son●n●que veluti mola asinaria. etc. or any whosoever at any time, may, as it were for a fee (q) As one said well, in the Synod of Dort upon the like occasion, that the Remonstrants did behave themselves tanquam conductitii R●proborum patroni, so doth T. P. a new advocate to those kind of Clients. have set their tongues to lale in the behalf of the Devil, and the reprobates, for the prompting them with arguments (as if of their own accord they could not find them fast enough) to dispute against his just, but unconceivable Sovereignty; unto all which diabolical rhetoric, I might justly answer (and the Apostle and other holy and wise men would bear me out in it) with silence (r) Aug. Enchirid. ad Laurent. cap. 99 Hoc autem qui eo modo audit ut dicat, quid adhuc conqueritur? Nam voluntati ejus quis resistit, tanquam propterea malus non videatur esse culpandus, quia Deus cujus vult miscretur, & quem vult obdurate. Absit ut pudeat nos respondere quod respondisse videmus Apostolum. O homo tu quis es qui respond as Deo? Nunquid dicit figmentum etc. Hoc enim loco quidam stulti putant Apostolum in responsione defecisse & inopia reddendae rationis repressisse contradictoris audaciam, sed magnam habet rationem quod dictum est, O homo tu quis es? & in talibus quaestionibus ad suae capacitatis considerationem revocat hominem, verbo quidem brevi. sed reipsa magna est redditio rationis. Si autem non capit haec, quis est qui respondeat Deo? Si autem capit magis, non inveniet quod respondeat or at least with O homo quis tu●es qui respond as Deo? which of all other answers would be the solidest & the fittest (s) G. Voctius in respons. Belgica contra Tilem. Ames praefat. ad rescript. scholast. Si cum Diabolo mihi Altereandum esse● (non auderem ego non ausus est Michael Archangelus ille Jud. 9) in istoc g●nere par pari reponere: Divino praesertim nomini; tam soedos titulos, imaginesve sub quocunque praetex●u, vel verbis, obducere, & applicare. Spiritum & reverentiam Jehovae non sapiunt, non o●ent haec ●um prophana, quae ne nominari quidem inter nos dibent, sicut decet sanctos: Judicis illius referre videntur mores, qui Deum non timebat, nec hominem reverebatur, Luke 18. 2. And thus according to this staring hairebraine Divinity of yours, the rule of a man's acting must be given him after the act is done, and not before he is to go about it. scrutator majestatis opprimetur à gloria. Snails (unto which one well compares these foul blasphemous slimy injections) are better trampled upon, then leisurelie drawn out of their impure nasty cottages, which they carry upon their backs: Yet lest you, and the infernal black guard at your heels, should vapour as if you had champion Goliath-like routed all the host of reformed Israel, by your invincible arguments I think it not amiss to return some Answer, howbeit a● briefly as possibly, I can; And that for fear of defiling myself with the pollutions of your execrable lines; he that toucheth pitch; you know cannot but be somewhat bepitched; and ergò, 1. Though you seem to have a marvellous good mind to deny that God hath a secret will, as well as a revealed will, and therefore here and elsewhere, p. 24. and p. 33. are still nibbling, Serpent like, Gen. 3. 15. at the heels of that received distinction, of voluntas signi, and voluntas beneplaciti; or, as it is by others expressed, voluntas praecepti, & decreti; yet whensoever you shall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, downright deny this distinction, as it is by orthodox divines used and applied, I hope as I have done in answer to your first papers; so shall I elsewhere, more in answer to these, prove you must fall upon gross and flat Atheism. But of this when we come to examine your p. 24. 2. When, where, or how will you, or any of your broken faction, prove that the two wills, you mention, of secret or revealed will, are not only divers and distinct from each other, but contrary to each other about the same acts. Whereas the object of the revealed will (for example) is, that this or that shall be the duty of the creature to do, or to leave undone by sin, the object of the secret will, that this or that shall come to pass. What show of contradiction is here betwixt those two wills? Are the objects of the one or the other the same? or is the manner of Gods acting toward the fulfilling of what he commands to be done, by his grace, giving to will and to do, and that merely according to his good pleasure, Phil. 2. 12. the same with his manner of working in those who keep not his commandments, & by him are left to walk, not in his, but their own ways? For shame cease to wrangle rather than reason after this order. 3. But then how much less will you be able to prove that monstrous & hideous assertion of yours, that the positive will of God, viz. that which is so (for of that is the dispute) in God's counsel and mind, aught to be done, viz. by way of duty by the creature? for so you must understand it, or else you object nothing. A thing both 1. Unlawful for any creature to do, Deut. 29. 29. Isa. 8. 20. 2. And an impossible thing for him to know, but by the event, and that is after it is done: For no other way can he know what Gods secret will is concerning future events, unless by an immediate revelation given him before hand, or a spirit of prophecy, which I suppose you will grant me, reprobates have not, though you will here needs suppose that reprobates do certainly know themselves to be so; and that they are so well acquainted with God's secret will, and so obedient to it, as that they know, and do the evils which they must do. Well may enraged Massilians of old (t) Faustus lib. 2. cap. 6. sub pietatis fronte Gentilitatis fatum, & inter gratiae vocabulum absconditum eri● fatale decretum. and a wicked, roguish, wild fur praedestinatus, condemned to the Gallows, as is said, reason of late (u) Fur praedestinatus, p. 24. Tutissimum arbitratus sum semper efficacem Dei voluntatem sequi, ne frustraneum laborem capesserem. . But it becomes not him to reason so, who pretends to have out-witted all the rabble of half-witted praedestinarians, page 10. of your first papers; and by the consideration of calvin's Decretum horribile, p. 24. to be frighted into his once lost wits again. A frightful wit of your own you have. 4. As for the Atheological sport you make, and others use to make with the distinction of God's antecedent and consequent will; to that I have spoken somewhat largely elsewhere in my first papers, and may perchance add somewhat more, if need shall be, when I come to your p. 27. where we are troubled with it again, and me thinks you should not so unhandsomely have forced it in, in this place, unless you had been disposed to have cuffed your own objection, about contrariant wils, which will be found no where to be so, but in your distinction of Antecedent and Consequent will. We know and teach Jam. 1. 17. That in God there is no variableness or shadow of changing. 5. What therefore is now become of your objecting, either in your first scribble, or your last Gnosticisme, Marcionisme, Manichaisme, or elsewhere of Stoicism, and Turkism, p. 55. unto the reformed. (O how you love them!) when as your own reasonings here, and elsewhere, are just the cavellings of your own objected Marcionites mentioned by your own Tertullian against the Catholics, and are nothing else but the expuitions of the Semi-pelagian Massilians (x) Canes ait Tertullianus adversus Marcionem, lib. 2. cap. 5. quos foras Apostolus expellit, latrantes Deum veritatis, haec sunt argumentationum ●ssa, quae obroditis, si Deus bonus & praescius futuri, (And as well may we say, as we shall hear anon out of Austin, praedeterminans futurum) & avertendi mali potens, cur hominem & quidem imaginem & similitudinem suam etc. Passus est labi de obse quio legis in mortem, circumventum a Diabolo? Si enim bonus qui evenire tale quid nollet, & potens qui depellere valeret, nullo mode evenisset, quod sub his tribus conditionibus divinae majestatis evenire non posset. Quod si evenit, absolutum est è contrario Deum neque bonum credendum, neque praescium, neque potentem (J.) Vinc. Object. 4. apud Prosp. Quod major pars generis humani ad hoc cretur à Deo, ut non Dei, sed Diaboli faciat voluntatem. Object. 5. Quod peccatorum nostrorum autor sit Deus, eo quod malam faciat voluntatem hominum; plasmet substantiam quae naturali motu non possit nisi peccare. Object. 6. Quod Deus tale in hominibus plasm●t arbitrium quale est Daemonum, quod proprio motu nihil aliud possit vel velit nisi peccare. cap. 14. Qui Evangelicae praedicationi non credunt, ex Dei praedestinatione non credunt, & quod ita Deus definierit, ut quicunque non credunt ex ipsius constitutione non credunt. against Austin and his party, which once more you take up, to spit them out upon the Protestants? But I pray you, before you object, as you do, p. 12, 13. absolute Reprobatarianisme to any, have you so much as any where attempted to state in what sense your Adversaries whom you oppose, p. 9, 10. maintain absolute Reprobation? As I bless God I have taken some honest pains about stating the Question about absolute Election, in my first papers, by which this other about reprobation, will be the more easily determined, and which Dr Rivet, according to the mind of the most, doth very pithily and succinctly set down (y) In disputationibus 13. It's a saucy way of reasoning, (yet none of Tertullias, as is plain by that of your own in the margin, Quis iste Deus tam bonus ut ab illo malus fiat?) to tattle what is better or worse for God to have done, when once it shall from Scripture be made evident what God wil●, as it is plain enough that God wils that sin should fall out. . 2. Is not this a French trick of yours, learned perchance from your French Massilian Monsieurs, who in like sort upbraided the Catholics with an heresy of their own forging, which they called absolute praedestinarianisme: As may be seen in Histor. Gotteshalci. 3. Why stick you not to the first fine epithet given to your adversaries, whom you call the half-witted rabble of absolute praedestinarians, p. 10. of your first papers? 4. Your odious reasoning out of Tertullian à minore ad majus, that it had been better and more reasonable, etc. Will, 1. Be of some force against us, when you shall have proved, that God's voluntary decree of permitting sin to be done, which is terminus diminuens, makes him to be the principle or author of evil; which because that he doth not will to do or effect it, but only determine that sin shall be done, (z) Non facere, sed in bonum finem ut fiat permittere. Quo sensu secundum Augustin. & veritatem ipsam, bonum est malum esse. Magna opera Dei & exquisita in omnes voluntates ejus, ut miro, & ineffabili modo non fiat praeter ejus voluntatem, quod etiam fit contra ejus voluntatem, quia non fi●ret si non sineret: nec utique nolens sinit, sed volens, nec sineret bonus fieri malè, nisi omnipotens etiam de malo facere posset bene. not as a duty, but as a fact that shall fall out by the sinful will of the creature, which makes only the sinning creature the sole efficient cause of his sin (if there can be an efficient of that, whose very being is consisting in a deficiency) makes God only to be the cause of its permission and regulation. 5. Of God's decreeing of punishments without all respect to sin, and of his necessitating of his creature to sin, terms of your own coining, which you would make the world believe, you took for the owned currant coin of your Adversaries; we shall be forced to speak to this often enough in the sequel, ad Sect. 10. p. 13. For all the leisure which you conceive me to abound with, p. 4. I am sure I am not at leisure in reference to James 1. 13, 14. fully to open in what sense God may some way be said to tempt unto sin, and yet not be the author of sin: He that hath a mind to see that fully and satisfactorilie done, let him consult with Dr Twisse against Mr Hoard, from p. 17. usque ad 28. (a) S●c interpreters reconciling those two places 2 Sam 24. 1. 1 Chron. 21. 2. In transcurs●, I can run and yet read, that you have a months' mind, that Calvin and Twisse should be jumbled together with the modern Ranters; but sooner will you and the modern Jesuits agree, & in unâ sede morari. 3▪ I cannot conceive to what purpose you quote, 1 Cor. 10. 3. Is that promise made at random to every man, or to the elect and believers only? but I forget, that according to your first and second papers, all are or may be elect? My wonderment is, if this may pass for truth, why any are damned, or be overcome by temptations. 4. I cannot find, but your wicked wanton reasonings out of Terence in Eunuch. and upon that account too, of what you have out of Cornel. Agrip. makes full out as much against the prescience of evil, before it fall out, as against the praedetermination of it; and Austin hath been full out as stupid as myself in thinking so (b) Augustin. l. 2. the persev. sanctor: cap 15. Ayunt● viz. Semipelag●ani) neminem posse correptionis stimulis excitari, si dicatur in con ventu Ecclesiae, etc. Ita se habet de praedestinatione, d●finita sententià voluntatis Dei, etc. ista dum dicunt it● nos à confitenda Dei gratia, id est, quae non secundum merita nostra dat●r, & à confitenda secundum eam praedestinationèm sanctorum, deterrere non debent. Sicut non deterremur à confitenda praescientia Dei. S● quis de illo populo sit loquatur, ut di●at, sive nunc rectè vivatis, sive non rectè, tales vos eritis postea, quales vos Deus futuros esse praescivit, vel boni si bonos, vel mali si malos. A notable place confuting many of your perverse wranglings, unless you have a mind transilire in Castalii, & Socini Castra. . 5. Whilst per charientismum (as your word is Epist▪ 1. before publicat.) you say you dare not say, and yet you do say by the mouth of a wanton whistling Younker, whom you bring upon the stage, Quid si haec voluit Deus? You give me just occasion to say, that I have reason to believe your mind to be worse in the objection, than the very mind of that lewd Atheistic lad, whose spokesman you will needs be. It is a thousand to one, but that Ethnic lad, for the excusing of himself in his frolicks (as he calls them) conceived that he might apologise for himself and his debaucheries, from the examples of such gods, whom he was bid to worship, and who yet willed to approve of the worst of sinners, by their own acting of them: Witness Jupiter, Mars, Vulcan, etc. of whom your own good author, Terence, explaining himself, hath it thus, it's no matter for Englishing such passages; if any reverence of divine Majesty were left in you, you would tremble to make such parallels, Terent▪ in Eunuch. Dum apparatur virgo, in conclavi sedet suspectans tabulam pictam, ubi inerat pictura haec, Jovem quo pacto Danaem misisse quondam aiunt in gremium imbrem aureum: egomet quoque id spectare caepi, & quia consimilem luserat jam olim ille lusum, impendio magis animus gaudebat mihi, Deum se in hominem convertisse, atque per alienas tegulas venisse clanculum per impluvium, fucum factum mulieri. At quem Deum? qui templa caelisumma sonitu concutit. Ego homuncio hoc non facerem? Ego illud verò ita feci ac lubens. Hactenus verba illius in Eunucho. 2. Will not the workings of the very consciences of such sons of Belial, Rom. 2. 15. whom you abett in their sport against God's counsels and decrees, tell them one day that you are to be abhorred for putting such Sophisms and Paralogismes into their heads, whereas their hearts tell them, that notwithstanding all that Divines have delivered about Gods praedetermining of sin, they were free and unconstreined enough in committing of it, and in running out to those excesses of riot? 1 Pet. 4. 4. Et tamen illa libertas non tam erat libertas, quam contumacia dicenda. So Austin. Did not those very heathens, who acknowledged fate in a higher degree than ever Christians have, or need to do (c) Prosp. ad objection● primam Gallorum. Praed●stinationem Dei nullus Cathol●cus negat: ●atalem au●em necessita●em multi etiam non Christiani resutant, proinde qui praedestinationis nomine fatum praedicat, tam non est probandu●, quam qui fati nomine veritatem praedestinationis infamat: viderit noster, T. P. , yet from the convictions of their own consciences, blame themselves for their sins. Witness for this Queen Jocastas in Sen●ca, who anon after she had complained of her hard fates, yet withal professeth, that if God the Creator of all, should make his wrath break forth against her, and strike her with a thunderbolt from heaven, yet this were no sufficient punishment for her sins. Non si ipse mundum concitans diuûm sator Corusca Saeva tela jaculetur manu, Unquam rependam sceleribus poenas pares. 6. Did not Austin long ago against his way, meet with such blasphemous, scurrilous ways of reasoning, and reject them with highest indignation and scorn (d) In Psalm. 31. he blames those, who, when they are found in their sins, say fatum mihi fecit, stellae malae fec●ru●, but saith he▪ Quid est fatum, quae ●u● st●llae? Certè istae quas● Caelo conspicimus, & qui eas f●cit? Deus: qu●s ea● o● dinavit? Deus: erg● vid●s quod volui●ti dicere, De●● fecit ut p●ccarem Mars sec●● homicidam; Venus adui●trum. . 7. What more mysterious piece of iniquity was there ever committed in the world? or can there possibly be committed, than the kill of him who is, and is truly called, the Lord of glory? 1 Cor. 2. 8. and yet saith not the Scripture expressly, Acts 2. 23. that though he was crucified by wicked hands, yet he was delivered up, by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God? Acts 4. 27. Herod and Pontius Pilate▪ with the Gentiles and people of Israel, were gathered together, for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done (e) August Epist. 48. ad Vincent. & de great. & l●b. arbitr. ad Valent. cap. 20. Quum pater tradider●t filium, & Christus Corpus suum & ●●das Dominum, cur in hac tradi●●one Deus est justus, & ho●o reus, ●●isi●n re una quam fecerunt, causae non una est ●b quam fecerunt . But perchance by the help of some, not too literal exposition, of which, p. 11. you will make a shift to get off something more handsomely than ever Arminius did, who is forced to grant, that God's counsel, not withstanding, it might so have fallen out, as that Pontius Pilate and the Jews, should never have crucified Christ (f) ●ac, Armin. Respons. ad Artic. 31. Nego ossa Christi resp●ct●● decreti d●v●● con●ring▪ non potuisse, etc. . 4. As concerning the discomposednesse of your mind, and your fearfulness to have so much as repeated these bold expressions, but to good purpose; I shall then have cause to believe you, (Siquidem novi ego Simonem & Simon me) when as that good purpose of yours shall not appear to be the defaming of those men's names and writings, who will live in the hearts of all God's people, when the memory of all your wicked cavillings and scribble against them shall rot, and your name be written in the dust. 2. When as you shall have proved yourself to be a more dutiful son to your mother the Church of England (whom Spaniel like you fawn upon for your own ends, and so fare as serves, your own turn) even whilst you oppose the Articles of her faith, as we have seen, and shall see, p. 16. then contrary to her advise in her 17. Article, to put curious and carnal persons, (such as are sure the wantoness you conjured up to reason against praedestination, p. 13.) upon the continual having before their eyes, the sentence of God's predestination, whereby the Devil doth thrust them into desperation, or into wretchlessnesse of unclean living, no less perilous than desperation. Sect. 11, 12. p. 14, 15. FRom Scripture, which had as well left you, as you it, whilst you were slandering of your graver brethren, and upon that occasion launching out into depths to high for you, and lashing of truths which you did not, or would not understand, you come to reason (or as I who endeavour after my plain and blunt fashion, to call things by their proper names (g) Scapham Scapham, & ficum ficum appellare. to Treason) against the Majesty and Sovereignty of the Almighty, and his holy workings, not of sin (to hell let that blasphemy go, from whence it came) but in, about, and over it, sin (as used to be said of old) habitat in alieno fundo, is (if you will give me leave so to translate it) a very bad tenant to a good Landlord. In the two next Sections, viz. 11, 12. you do only three things, which any way concern me to take notice of. 1. You do set down and explain, that monstrous opinion, which you have about God's providence in the evil of the creatures sin. 2. You bring in, as to your purpose, an impertinent observation out of Mr Hooker. 3. You are for some pretended concurrence with Beza, a man otherwise as little liked by you, as his colleague, Mr Calvin. About the first which you adventure to set down, p. 14. in these words. You hope to make it appear, that God almighty is so fare from being accessary to sin, and doth so many things to hinder it, that he doth not permit it but in an equitable sense. And then further to explain and amplify in these, p. 15, so fare from that, that God Almighty doth not permit sin, as permission signifies connivance or consent; but he permits it, as it signifies not to hinder it by main force. And p. 15, 16. [In like manner all that is done by God Almighty by way of permission, is his suffering us to live and have that nature of the will, with which he made us. This is all that I am able to apprehend or pronounce, that God permits our sins in this sense only, and that he disposes and orders them to the best advantage.] Now about this full and equitable declaration of yours, give me leave that I may a little keep touch in my promise made with you. 1. Note somethings more generally. 2. Than something more particularly. For the first, Though elsewhere up and down in your book, because of your amphibolicall double dealing, I find you to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a kind of two souled man, your meaning useth to be somewhat like the Mass, Mysterious; yet in what you let fall here, you are apertus homo, do openly unbosom yourself. 2. That in what you say about your aequitable sense, you do verbatim transcribe out of your first papers, both as to your Position, and your subjoined illustration, p. 15. If I see a man stealing, and say nothing to him, etc. A shrewd Topical Argument to me tantamount almost to a Demonstration, that the first papers were before your eye, as well as in your memory, whilst you wrote these second, and yet p. 2 & 3. you will at no hand be known of any such matter. 3. That you will never be persuaded to forbear an odious representing of your real adversaries opinions, (for by what law am I bound to take notice of any of your chimaerical ones?) as if they made God accessary to sin, p. 14▪ or a conniver at it, or consenter to it, p. 15. in the usual acceptance of those phrases (and you know, loquendum cum vulgo) as such expressions imply, a love-liking or approbation of the things permitted (h) Qui silet consentire videtur. . Here as much as you, I am sure more cordially than you, they say, Psal. 5. 4. Thou art not a God that hast pleasure in wickedness, neither shall evil dwell with thee. Hab. 1. 13. Thou art of purer eyes then to behold evil and canst not look on iniquity. They conclude as willingly as you, p. 14. though not so thrasonically against Sir N. N. whom you soundly cuff (i) In your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Andabatarum pugna, you talk of, Epist. 3 ante 2 publicat. Dan. 9 7. O Lord righteousness belongeth unto thee, etc. All that they say is, that God doth not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, volens nolens, but willingly decree that sin shall be permitted to fall out, and in that sense be acted by the wicked wills of men, for the advancement of the glory of his justice, Pro. ●6▪ 4. Rom. 9 22, 23. 2. As for any more particular confutation of your first dear, & clear, Article of your unchristian Creed, which we had from you, since we have had the unhappiness to see this your last Pamphlet, amongst understanding Christians, recitasse, refutasse est. I have somewhat largely done it elsewhere, in my first answer to your first scribble, by Scripture, Fathers, Reasons, and even Batavian Remonstrants. Here let it therefore suffice you and the Reader, to receive summa capitula rerum, that if this be your All that you allow to God's efficacious providence in evil (I will now use no other than Jac. Arminius his phrase (k) Jac. Armin. Disp. pub. 9 de justitia & ●fficaci provivid●ntiá Dei in malo. . Then 1. You will limit the Almighty in these matters to the same boundaries which he hath set to the children of men, so that if they can, they must to their ultimum posse, hinder sin, or they be guilty. Qui non prohibet cum potest jubet. A thing most monstrously erroneous as applied to God, as (l) Aug. lib. 5. adversus Jul. Pelag Nos certs eos in quos nobu potestas est, ●i an●e oculos nostros perpetrare sce●era permittamus, rei cum ipsis erimus; Quàm verò innumerabilia ille permittit fieri ●nte ocu●os suos, quae utique sivoluisset, nulla ratione permitteret, & tamen justus & bonus est. Austin, reason and experience show. 2. You take the Almighty off from all kind of praedetermination and ruling of perchance more than the thousandth part of the actions which are done in the world, which, the whole world lying in sin (1 John 5. 19) are rather evil then good. You allow him only an after game, when cursed men have played out their play to make the best (you force me now so to speak) of a bad bargain; for say you he disposes and and order them to the best advantage (viz.) when they are done, as is plain according to you, not before they be done: And then welfare Castalianisme (m) Vide Felic●s Turpionis praef. in Dialog. Sebast. Castellionis, p. 12. edit▪ in 120. Aresdorfi●i, An. 1578. and Socinianism. 3. Then clearly (which you say you will not do p. 5.) ●ourob God of his efficiency in many acts which are naturally good. For then, 1. God in whom we live and move and have our being (Acts 17.) who give us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, is not the sole supreme cause of any of these things, if once by the fault of the creature per accidens, sin do but cleave to them. 2. God may not nor doth at any time punish sin with sin, contrary to Rom. 1. 24. 1. Thes. 2. 9, 10. or do any of those many things, which even by Arminius, (n) Arminius and others, I have elsewhere transcribed at large, look after them, Armin. Disp. 9 pub. Tilenus' in no less than 8 positions in Collatine cum camerone. The Remonstrants in script is Synodal●bus, who as they do all confute the aequitable sense, so let Austin shut up the rear in proving Gods punishing sin with sin, and pleading for other acts of God's providence about sin, lib. 5▪ contra Julian. Pelag. cap. 3. Per totum fer mè caput. Nec tacetur de coecitate Israel. Quar●? donec plenitudo gentium, inquit Rom. 11. intraret, nisi sortiter istam poenam negabis esse, quam si lucis internae amator▪ esses, non solum aliquam, sed valde magnam poenam esse clamares. A● ista caecitas suit judae is grande incredulitatis malum, & grandis causa peccati, ut occiderent Christum. Jam istam caecitat●m, si poena fuisse negaveris, simil●m te perpeti etiam non confitens indica●is. Similia habe●us passim al●bi. Tilenus and others, are granted for the avoiding of Atheism in the denial of God's sovereign providence to belong to him. 4. You would make us believe that God hath no other ways of withholding us from sin, but by destroying us, robbing us of our free will, turning us into stocks, uncreating his creature: Which if so, pray what becometh 1. Of all Gods diverting ways, by common and special providence? 2. Of all his restraining ways by Laws, inward fears? etc. his ways of conviction by common graces? Heb. 6. Besides, what is done by arts and civilities, didicisse fideliter arts? etc. 4. What of his converting ways of the worst of sinners, when ex nolentibus, he makes them volen●es? 5. Of his preservatives of the good Angels, who per magis auxilium, by the super-addition of greater grace preserved in their first station, which surely if it had pleased God, he could have given unto man also for the preventing of his fall? 6. Of his timely taking men out of the world, or translating them to glory, lest as the ancients were used to say our of Ecclesiastic. Malitia mutaret in●ellctum ejus? If any of these ways of hindering sin, tend to the destruction of free will, I beseech God demolish that Idol as much in me, as ever Moses did the Golden Calf, when he beat it to powder, Exod. 32. 20. 2. As for what you in the second place quote out of Mr Hooker, I am sure enough of it, were it not that you were a Platonic lover (you see I borrow a fine phrase from you, p. 24. (rather of his Ecclesiastical policy, then of his Divinity, you would not have made him your spokesman, who saith nothing to God's mere speculative permission of evil. I think you would rather have snibbed him for his so profuse commendation of Calvin, as you know we have had out of him. 2. All that he saith, hath been most readily consented unto by men, because in another Class of church-policy, less liked by you (o) Let one, who hath been long an Advocate fo● Protestants, speak in his w●y for the rest, D● Ames. Rescript. schol. ad Grevinch●. cap. 3. D●●o igitur quod & antea dixi, recte à scholasticis haec ita exponi, ut non sit assignanda causa divinae voluntatis ex parte actus volend●, quamvis potest ●ssignari ratio ex parte vol●torum in quantum scilicet Deus vult esse aliquid propter aliud, Th. 1. q 23. a. 5. Quo sensu rectè etiam dicunt, Deus vult hoc esse propter hoc, sed non propter hoc vult hoc. q. 19 a. 15. illud ordinationem unius rei ut causae ad aliam affectam notat, hoc verò motum ipsius voluntatis divinae ab externo medio, quod jure dixi indignum Deo & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : For what saith he in effect but this? 1. That though considering all inferior causes and things, as they stand in subordination to God, his absolute will is the cause of them; yet as they stand in relation to each other, so they have many other causes and laws besides God's absolute will. In a word, God's absolute will is the sole cause of the making of his decrees; (and it is Atheistical to say otherwise, even Arminius himself being judge (p) Armin. Disp. publs. 4. Thes. 51. Non movetur a causâ externâ ut velit, non ab ●fficiente alio, non a fine, qui extra ipsum sit, ne ab objecto quidem quod non sit ipse Etrectè Augustinus (apud Lombard. l. 1. d 45.) Qui causam quaerit voluntatis divinae, aliquid majus ●â quaerit, cum nihil eâ majus sit. Et si habeat causam voluntas, est aliquid quod antecedit voluntatem Dei, quod ne●as est credere. but there be many causes besides of the execution of his decrees. If to this true and undeniable assertion, you would but take in what all your adversaries will as willingly yield unto you; that God in his absolute decrees, the results of his will and wisdom and prescience, doth not only determine all things and actions, but their several modalities too, as to the manner of their being, whether as necessary, contingent or voluntary, (and so that his decrees are the supreme cause not only of all necessity, but of all contingency and voluntariness too (q). I know, you Deus ordinat omnia ut proprios motus exercere sinat. August. Tho. Aquin. Ordo praedestinationis est certus, & tamen libertas arbitrii non tollitur ex quâ contingenter provenit praedestinationis effectus. Idem Aquinas ad object. ad art. 4. the provident. In hoc est immutabilitas & certus divinae providentiae ordo, quod ●a quae ab ipso providentur cuncta eveniunt eo modo quo ipse providet, sive necessario sive contingenter. out of your Jac. Arm●n. would not keep such a pother as you do, about necessity and freedom, as if it were impossible they should proceed out of the womb of one and the same decree, caderent omnes de crinibus hydrae, but of this when I come to your, p. 47, 48. 3. As for what you say, p. 14. that no other reason is known to us of God's works, besides his absolute will, and that he works all things according to the counsel of his will. 1. The latter part of this saying is most true, and strenuouslie pleaded for by your enemies, especially by Calvin (r) Vide Calvinum fusè l. de praedestin. p. 700. & 728. who was not so mad, as all along you would have the Christian world believe he was, as to hold that God's wills and decrees were absolute from all true and right reason known to God, though from all known to us, or any other creatures beyond what he is pleased to reveal unto us about them. 2. The former part of your saying too, that no other is known to us, is a most rare and precious truth. But as falling from your pen, I may well say, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. For it doth directly overthrow all that you have in all your four following Chapters, about the conditions (you might as well say causes) of Reprobation, chap. 2. and of election, vocation, etc. Unto which purpose I trust we shall make some good use of your own concession here. 4. That of yours too is really true, that if he be pleased to set himself a law or rule, not to reprobate any, but upon prescience of sin, that this can be no prejudice to the perfection of his being. But 1. If he no where saith so, but the contrary rather, Mal. 1. 2. Rom. 9 11. or if by Reprobation, you do as you should understand the mere denial of, or not electing to grace or glory; you must not be so bold, as to say that he hath made such a law (s) Aug. compescat se humana temeritas, & id quod est non quaerat, ne id quod est non inveniat. and so give (O horrid!) your Maker the lie, because you fancy such a law would have been most conformable to his goodness, from what you imagine fit, to what ab aeterno was concluded by God. I am sure non valet consequentia, 2. Nor is it probable. possible, or by rational men Imaginable, that what no under-soveraignes will do here on earth (so fare as it is in their power to prevent it) the God of Heaven should condescend to do, viz. to be on●●● a mere Legislator of conditional decrees, laws, and statutes, but no absolute Determiner in a sovereign way, and yet without sin, which it is impossible for him to be capable of, of the several acts of obedience or disobedience in relation to them. God belike did decree what should be de jure, but not at all determine what should fall out de facto, a vastum & non Christianum postulatum this sure. 3. As for your seeming concourse and compliance with most reverend Beza, and for what you have any where else up and down your 15. p. take all in short thus. 1. Had your agreement with him, not only in that orthodox saying which you quote out of him, but also in other substantial matters of your Creed been more and more cordial, you would by much have been the better man, more useful to the Church, and your name would sound better in all Christian Reformed Churches. 2. You are of the youngest, to say as once Bellarmine of Calvin, utinam Calvinus sic semper errasset, as you wish of Beza, that he had never spoke otherwise, unless you had invincible arguments to prove, that very often he hath spoken otherwise and worse. But perchance you have out of him too, as well as out of his honoured Colleague Mr Calvin, many frightful say quoted to the very page and line 11. of which you may one day in your terrible contentions, make as good use as you have done of the former, out of Calvin and Twisse, against your dreadful enemy, Sir N. N. 3. If Beza (unto whom you may as well add the Synod of Dort (t) All these do but upon the matter, say what the Synod of Dort in their Judic. c●rca 3. & 4. Artic Can. 16. S●cuti per lapsum homo ●on dashed esse homo, intellectu & voluntate praeditus, nec peccatum quod universum genus humanum pervasi●, naturam generis humani ●ustulit, sed depravav●●. & spiritualiter occidit, ita etiam haec d●vina regenerationis gratia, non agit in homin●bus tanquam truncis & s●ipitibus, nec voluntatem ejusque pro●rie●ates tollit, aut invitum violentex cogit, sed spirituali●er vivificat, sanat, corrigit, suaviter ●imu● ac poten●er sl●ctit: ut ubi antea plene ●ominabatur carnis rebellio & resistentia, nunc regnare incipiat prompia ac sincera spiritus obedientia; in quo vera & spiritualis nostra vo●untatis instauratio & libertas consistit. And thus before spoke our Articles, Edw. 6. Art. 10. Gall●c. Art. 1623. Chap 3. 22. Irish of the year 1615. Art 28. the Gallican Articles, the English and Irish Articles, besides many more of the rest of Reformed Churches) were for no compulsion of the will, no turning it into a wooden Engine, etc. then you deal most unworthily with Beza elsewhere, and with your neighbouring Sympresbyters, who neither have, or are known to have any other opinions about these matters, than Beza had, when you compare them to Marcionites, Stoics, Manichees, Turks, etc. p 55. 4. In what sense you, first, Hold praedestination to be in Christ, I shall speak when I come to your p. 56. 2. And how impossible it is for you in any true Christian sense, to maintain what here you say & approve of, that in our conversion, God of willing makes us willing, I shall then & there (God whling) make plain too. You must find a deleatur for the greatest part of your fourth and fifth Chapters, or betake yourself to some Pelagian or Neophotinian glosses, in the expounding of these phrases (u) Viz. Some such trim one as Pelagius was wont to give when he was hard put to it. Aug. lib. 1. de great. Christi contra Pelag. c. 7. a. 41. Quam gratiam nos non ut tu putas, in lege tantum modo, sed & in Dei esse adjutorio confitemur. Adjuvat enim nos Deus per doctrinam & Revelationem suam, dum cord●s nostri oculos aperit, dum nobis ne proesentibus occupemur futura demonstrat, dum Diaboli pandit insidias, dum nos mult●formi & ineffab●li dono gratiae coelestis illuminat. Qui haec dicit (and happily T. P. will hardly say so much) gratiam tibi videtur negare. a & liberum hominis arbitrium & Dei gratiam confitetur? . 3. Though the means in order to Reprobation (you speak most absurdly, Condemnation you should say; for Reprobation is an eternal immanent act of God, and to speak properly, hath no means in order to it) are none but evil, as wicked men choose and pick them out, who are said to love death, Prov. 8. 36. yet in the Almighty, the voluntary permission of those means to fall out, is not evil, unless you will say it is evil in God to give men up to strong delusions, 2 Thes. 2. 11, 12. that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned, who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. Ad Sect. 13. p. 16. Answer to S. 13. p. 16. AFter a mighty conquest obtained against your frightful chimaerical adversary, the often mentioned Sir Nicolas Nemo, by Scripture & Reason; for not so much as the very Libertines (against whom your real adversary, Mr Calvin, with much gallant theological animosity, made up himself in several books, for maintaining as they did, sin to consist in a mere negation, not (as indeed it doth) in a privation, and so to have neither (as is impossible) an efficient, but not so much as a deficient cause, the deficient wicked will of man) did offer to maintain God to be the Author of sin, but that Sir N. N. was the doer of all, you fling your last killing stones at him, from the authorities of Christians, of Jews, and Gentiles: Oh triumphant Mr T. P. the mighty conqueror! But not to detract any thing from your valiant achievements against your fantastic adversary, give a poor suppliant leave to ask so great a conqueror, 1. What reason you had to express so much reverence to the Augustan Confession, when as one of the chief compilers of it, Ph. Melancthon, of whom you and your party use to boast much, when you have small reason for it, as we shall see when we come to your, p. 29. acknowledged the imperfection of it? (x) See Contra Remonstrantia secunda Lugduni Batavorum, 1617. p. 20. etc. Et denuo multa huc ref●rentia lectu dignissi●a, & ad modum rara quae hic i●serta fuissent ni marginis angustia prohibuisset a. p. 69. ad 71. All the Latter Lutherans, and you with them, have reason to follow tha● good counsel which Reverend Bp Morton gives them. Sentent. D. Morton de pace Evangelica; eos eba●xè ●r● precorque (inquit ille) primum ut in hac causâ ●n gratiam redire v●lint cum suo Luthero, qui (prout decuit filium gratiae) gratiam D●● omnimodo gratuitam esse semper arcte ten●bat, accuratéque d●fendebat D●inde ne patiantur se ab ipsis Papistis etiam Jesuit●cae sectae doctoribus primarii▪ Bellarmino, Toleto, Sua●zio, Salme rono, Maldonat●, in gratiae d●vinae patrocinio & propugnatione superari, à quibus doctrina d● praedestinatione ex praevisione fidei aut ope●ū tanquam purus putus Pel● gianismus explosa est: post●emò non ultima prudentiae laus est ex hoste utilitatem capere. Prodiit duobus abhinc annis Liber Guil. de Gibiensse Ordinis Oratorii Presb. & doct. Sorb●nici hodierno Papae Vrbano dicatus: in quo inseruntur verba Clementis octavi de aux iliu gratiae Summa est, ●otam cam doctrinam ad no●mam doct●inae sancti Augustini de gratiâ astringi debere, eundem Augustinum ducem agnoscendum esse atque sequendum. when as not only, the four Imperial Cities of Argentorat, Constance, Memming, and Lindow, but the Protestant party in the Kingdom of Bohemia, Moravia, the Marquesdome of Baden, the Earldom of Emden, and East Friezland, did do the like, and did declare their mind in the Controversall points, to be just the same with that of the Contra-Remonstrants in Belgia, with whom did join the Churches of the principality of Bipont, the Landgrave of Hassia, of the Republic of Bremen, and of the Electorate of Brandeburg, and especially the Churches under Fredericus Pius, who in the public Imperial Diet, held at Augusta in the year 1566. did declare that he did indeed continue in the faith of the Augustane confession, but as a fuller and exacter explanation of it, did add the Catechism of Heidelberg. 3. When as the Protestant Churches of Palatinate, in the Newstad Admonition (p 18.) did complain that it was plain by the History of the Augustane Confession, and by many of Luther and Melancthon's Epistles, that there were many Articles which should have been expressed in that confession, but were omitted, because they were accounted odious by some, and might have cast in some impediment to the whole business of Religion, amongst which yet verily there be some, concerning which, it were necessary to have the Church's Declaration, as (viz.) of Providence, of Freewill, of the Politic Domination of Bishops, with the causes of Divine election, etc. And from thence it is evident that the perfection of the Augustane Confession, was not so great as some Divines took it to be, and that therefore the Church would be ill provided for, if she were alone to depend upon it, as the sole Rule of all Ecclesiastical Doctrine. 4. Though your very good friends (whom yet disingenuously enough, p. 4. you have no mind to own) the Low-Country Remonstrants, when they were picking out of that Confession as much for themselves, as possibly they could gather; yet poor men, they bring in but this sorry crop as making for them, that the Augustane Confession did not forsooth in this matter, teach the Contra-Remonstrants opinion (y) Remonstr. secunda Lug. Bat. p 17. Quae (viz Augusta●a Confessio) in hac materiâ Contra Remonstrantium confessi●nem non docer. . And sure enough it is that it taught not the Remonstrants. 5. That when as yourself in your first papers, p. 9, 10. upon another occasion had commended the Ratisbone Synod, and the Augustane Confession, and yet as I have there largely showed, are forced to recede from them both. See my first Answer, p. 4. But as Mr Hoard, Mr Mason▪ (z) See Dr Twisse against them. p. 87. and give reverend Bp D●venant, in his Animadversions p. 61. leave, gravely to read you a Canonical check for this. If you embrace the Lutherans opinion, and bring within the compass of the P●aedest●nary Pestilence, the Doctrine of praedestination, which they disallow, you manifestly brand the Church of England with this note of infamy, and might as well charge us with the Sacramentary Pestilence, for denying their feigned Consubstantiation, as with the praed●stinary pestilence, for denying thei● conditional praedestination up●n foresight of men's belief in Christ. and all of the English Arminian faction before you, had against all good Conscience and Reason, asserted much like the same with you, that the 39 Articles of the English Church, have the greatest regard and conformity to that Confession, which is so untrue, as that (blessed be God) the Articles of our Church fill up the vacuities of that Confession, in the matters complained of by the Palatines, and were drawn up (as saith Bp Carleton) against Mont. (a) Ex●minat. of appeal, ch. 2. à principio. by men adhering in those matters, more to the principles of the first Lutherans, then to the principles of the latter: So you in a special manner out of love to the Mass of Ceremonies, left in the Lutheran Churches (and alas as you cry out now with much ado, cast out of our Mother English Church!) thought it reasonable out of love to that Ceremonious litter, rather than out of any real compliance with the doctrines of the first and best Lutheran Reformers, to express your reverential consent to the Augustane Confession. 2. As for the greater reverence which I am sure you own, and here express to bear to our own 39 Articles of the Protestant Reform Church of England, I were easily able to prove it (were it not for overglutting my Reader) that you are no better friend in the points under debate, to the Articles of the Church of England, then once your great but unsuccessful friends, Barnaveld, your admirable Grotius were to the Articles of their Belgic Confession, who being the politic Leaders of their true followers, the Remonstrant faction, they put them fiercely upon stickling for a Revision of their Confession and Catechism, etc. (b) Vide praefationem ad Synod. Dordrac. I say I must needs beseech you, how troublesome soever it might prove to you, to crave your proofs of this your veneration of the doctrine of our own English mother Church. Whether hope you to prove this (as certain it is you may easily do it the clean contrary way) by your consent to the Articles of the Church, published in King Edward the 6. days, An. 1551? 2. Or by your Approbation of a writing in the fiery bloody days of Queen Mary, signed by the blessed Martyrs, Bradford, Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer, in opposition to one Henry Heart, who with opinions, the very same with yours now, troubled the consciences of poor imprisoned Martyrs? 3. Or not helping yourself with any Francisco-Clarian gloss, by giving the true sense of the 39 Articles, published by the Convocation in 1562. Art 9, 10, 13. Art. 17. & c? 4. Or by demonstrating of your allowance of the 9 Articles of Lambeth, agreed on, November 20. 1595? 5. Your concurrence with the Articles of the Church of Ireland, 1615. especially with their 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. Articles? 6. Or by gliding along with the stream of the Authors of the greatest note and renown in our Church, opposing Barret and Baro, and since with all the eminent Authors, Bishops, (c) Bp Carletons' examination of the Appeal, p. 8, 9 When our Church was disquieted by Barret and Baro (as now by T. P.) the Bishops that then were in our Church, examined the new Doctrine of these men, and utterly disliked and rejected it. And in the point of Predestination confirmed that which they understood to be the Doctrine of the Church of England against Barret & Baro, who oppugned that Doctrine. This was fully declared by both the Archbishops, Whitgift of Canterbury, and Hutton of York, with the other Bishops and Learned men of both Provinces, who repressed Barret and Baro, refuted their Doctrine, and justified the contrary, as appeareth by that book, which bo●h the Archbishops then compiled. Good Mr T. P. read on to the end of that Bishop's Chapter, upon my honest word it may b●e much for your edification; and others, in our Church, appearing against the late Arminian Montacutian faction? Truly, Sir, if your book can be by you maintained to agree with all these, (who certainly very well understood the doctrine of their own Church, and bore as great a reverence to it, as yourself, or any of your party) then eris tu mihi magnus Apollo, I will lay down the bucklers, with a profession too, that when the Commons assembled in Parliament, Jan. 29, An. Dom 1628. entered this following Remonstrance into their journal book, they meant to testify their agreement with you and your party. We the Commons now in Parliament assembled, do claim, profess, and avow for true, that sense of the Articles of Religion (which were established by Parliament, in the 13. year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth) which by the public Acts of the Church of England, and by the general and current exposition of the Writers of our Church, hath been delivered to us, and do reject the sense of the Jesuits, and Arminians, and all others wherein they differ from us. But all this will be done by you, as soon as an Eagle will swim, or a Dolphin fly. Virg. A me leves ergo volitabunt in aethere Cervi. Well may you be able to show your front in the undertaking (d) Aug. centra Jul. lib. 1. Mirum si in fancy homin●s tantum intervallum sit inter frontem & linguam, 〈◊〉 hac causâ s●●ns non compr●ma● lingua●▪ , but you will show no force in the Conquest. 3. I even skip for joy, at your referring your Reader to the citations which follow your first inference, Sect. 18. whereby you sufficiently intimate, that they are but brought in there as fresh Auxiliaries, coming in towards another fierce Battalio, which you wage with your once conquered enemy, Sir, N. N. in this Chapter, from thence all along (though you do foully asperse your real enemies, but the Churches, and my real friends) I may safely conclude, I may forbear all over-anxious pains about those authors, which the necessity of the cause by me defended against you, will not require, however something may be said to stop the mouth of your importunity: You yourself give me a supersedeas (when here you tell me to what purpose you produce them) from troubling of myself much about them, who with them from my sold, detest your hatred against Sir N. N. assertion, but have no mind to be employed in the resolving of the Question, An chimaera bombinans in vacuo comedat secundas intentiones? To chap. 2. and especially to the front and rear of the chapped. sect. 14. and 20. p. 17. and 31. with chap. 3. sect. 35. p. 46. YOU had so valiantly with Scripture, Reason and Authority, beaten Sir N. N. out of the field, for maintaining God to be the Author of sin, in your first chapped. as that in this and up and down in your third, taking spirits to yourself, after your victorious achievements, you adventure against God, against the Ancients, against Reason, against Arminius, against your very self, to start up another proposition, viz. That man himself is the sole efficient cause of his eternal punishment. This it seems you resolve in the two next following Chapters, to defend contraomnes gentes sive Ethnicas sive Christianas', & that by Scripture, Reason, & Authority. In this, certainly Hortensius noster sufflaminandus est. And ergò that your courage may be a little cooled, I crave leave before I clear it, that in this undertaking you fight against God, good men, and even yourself. 1. To ●u● up your memory with the old observation, that Qui bene distinguit bene docet, He who distinguisheth well, teacheth well, which had you minded, you would not all alongin these two Chapters, have confounded the Efficient, or as I may say, the making cause of all punishment, cujus vi res est, with the meritorious or procuring cause, ob quam res est, of all punishment, whether temporal or eternal, The first is the Almighty himself; for that must needs hold true, Amos the 3. 6. shall there be evil in the City and the Lord hath not done it? 2. The second is only the sinful will of man and Devils; for that in another Prophet will hold as firmly, Hos. 13. 5. O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself, but in me is thy help. 2. I beg leave to tell you, that p 46. sect. 35. even there where you are giving in the Summa totalis of all your conquests, obtained in these two Chapters, your gallant spirit seems to sink into your heels; for whereas you begin with saying, p. 17. sect. 14. that man himself is the sole efficieut cause of eternal punishment, you only conclude, sect. 35. p. 46. Conclus. 2. That sin is properly the cause of its punishment, which may full out as well be understood of a meritorious or procuring cause, as a properly efficient or working cause. 2. Nay you yourself in your next Conclus. 3. Ibid. do seem to allow a man leave so to interpret it, when you say, p. 46. that man is the procurer of his own misery, which if so, are you not then again at cuffs with your chimaerical Sir N. N. And do not you who complain, sect 16. p. 20. of odd fashions and modes of speech, speak out of all fashion yourself, whilst you interpret an efficient cause, by a procuring or meritorious cause? 3. Are you any thing mindful (O my good friend, and Mr T. P.) of putting (according to your promise, p. 7. sect. 5.) your care, your very best care to it, of connecting your praemises and conclusions aright together? For surely (to use a phrase of some of your very doctrinal friends) non Remonstrantes in praef. Apol. sapiunt haec demorsus augues. 1. God all along throughout chap. 1. hath been proved not to be the Author of sin, ergò, it may be concluded all along in this 2 and 3 Chapters, that he is not, or cannot be the author and determiner of punishments for sins. Or 2. p. 46. Man is the procurer of his own misery, (viz.) in time, for miserable he could not be, nor procure misery before all time. Non ens nullas habet affectiones veloperationes. Ergò, 2. Reprobation (an internal, eternal, immanent act in God, if you do but allow of any eternal Reprobation, and if not, speak out, Loquere ut intelligamus) is a conditional thing before all time. Take you (who begin this Chapter something Mathematicallie, p. 17.) these Ergoes to be as firm as any Mathematical demonstrations in Euclid; surely if his be no more conclusive, scholars will never give him leave with one for joy to cry out, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or with another to boast, Da ubi constem & terram movebo (e) Rami praef. in scholas Mathemat. . These observations will be of use to us, to save us a great deal of pains throughout the Chapters, and therefore here I thought fit to premise them. And now I come as briefly as may be to clear it, that your assertion as it lies in the head and tail of your second Chapter, p. 17. and 31. and as all along it seems to be explained by you, fights against God, Scripture, etc. 1. Against God. 1. You having dared by the by, and that by virtue of that mere speculative providence, the all which your equitable sense, p. 14, 15. will allow to God about the evil of sin, to deprive God of his sovereignty, you do here like some Orlando Furioso deprive him of his judiciary or justiciary power too. For if he be not so much as the efficient cause of man's eternal punishment, which he justly determines to inflict upon reprobate sinners, how doth he judge the world in righteousness? Rom. 3. 6. shall not the judge of all the world do right? Gen. 18. 25. Quae (to assert) non sani esse hominis, non sanus juret Orestes. 2. Why may you not as well say, that God is not the author of any temporal punishments, of famine, pestilence, or the sword, or wild beasts, etc. as say, that Tophet or hell torments are not prepared by him, or wrought by him? Isa. 30. 33. Rom. 1. 18. and 2. 5. 6. 9 Is he author of the smaller punishments, and not of the greater? 2. Upon Scripture-grounds it falls out most irrational. 1. To make reprobated, condemned creatures not only meritors of their hell and unexpressible torments, but makers, creators, efficients of them also: If so, sure their very Hell if of their own making, would be cool enough, nothing so hot as Popish purgatory, which some say, doth only in Bellarmine. duration differ from hell torments. But we know otherwise, Rom. 2. 9 2 Thes. 1. 9 2. Do the Judges of the earth or parents in the world leave it to malefactors or to their children, so much as to choose, and then less to be the efficients of their gibbets, racks, rods? etc. and must man now be the sole efficient cause of his eternal punishment? This (to speak with an Anticalvinisticall friend of yours, upon that score, dear to you, with whom you jump much in your railing rhetoric, p. 12, 13, 24.) is absurdorum absurdissimum. (f) Albertus Graveru● libro cui Titulus, Calvino. Turcismus. 3. This is as much against all Authority, both, 1. (g) See this Answer before, in answer to your Sect. 8. and (if you can get him) reverend Mat. Eborac. de electione & reprob. Histor Gott●shal. edit. Vsserian. passim. B. Fulgen. ad Monim. lib. 1. After that he had paraphrased upon that place which you abuse (p. 21.) out of Wisd. Quod ante Gehennam mali pereunt, non est divini operis; sed humani, qood autem in Gehennâ perituri sunt hoc facit Dei aequita●, cu● nulla placet peccantis iniquitas. Non ergo praedest●n●●● sunt mali ad hoc, 〈…〉 operantur, à 〈…〉 sua abstracts & 〈◊〉 sed ad hoc, qu●d j●s●e ●●●untur inviti. That of the Ancients, as we have seen before from Austin, the Valentinian Council; unto which, if need were, might be joined multitudes of say out of Fulgentius, Prosper, and others, all conjunctim & divisim, agreeing God to be the efficient of no man's sin, but of every man's punishment for sin, whether temporal or eternal. 2. So also even of the latter, of your very Arminius, and his good followers, who as I remember somewhere, is so frank in the maintaining God to be the author or the efficient of all punishment, even then when as he punisheth sin with sin, as that (which I know you yet wonder at) his good friend and yours, Dr Twisse, is forced somewhat to check him for his too free offerings. 4. Nay, in this, you who should best understand yourself (and want not for high conceits of your own quick apprehension) do not once or twice, but very often, in this and the next Chapter contradict yourself, & your own proposition, set down by you, p. 17. 1. Whilst in Terminis you divers times say, that God inflicts eternal punishment, p. 21. Is he who hath the supreme power of life and death, in the inflicting of that punishment, deputy to any? Apage blasphemian? Doth he inflict that punishment, of which some body else was the maker, and he only the executioner? 2. Whilst by your distinction of antecedent and consequent will, (for which you quote chrysostom, Theodoret, and Damascene, p. 26, 27, 69▪) you grant often, p 20. That God will have every man perish that is impenitent, and will he not do that of which he is the willer and determiner? You then cross yourself, who divers times grant God to be the doer of all that which he wils and determines to be done (h). 3. Whilst you do most nobly grant, p. 23. that unto God, Rom. 12. 19 belongeth vengeance, and he repaies it, gives it wages, which as you say, sinners have dearly earned; and doth he pay this out of a treasury of his own making or filling, or out of that which was made to his hand? All these Escapadoes of yours, I can according to your request, be content to put up, and ascribe, p. 8. to the unhappiness of your pen, or the unsteadiness of your brain; Siquidem nemo sapit omnibus horis, always provided, you will not think it necessary for me to be long in the confutation of what you produce from the beginning to the end of the Chapter, towards the support of that wild Thesis of yours, set up in the front of it, p. 17. 2. And if the reader will be but of the same opinion and faith with you; (as truly he may well be) for why should I be largely elaborate in the beating down of that which falls by its own absurdity, so soon as ever it is mentioned, which the very author and father of it, owns and disownes, says and unsaies? As Saturn of old, begetting, and then devouring of his own children (i) Vide L. Vivem. Aug. de civitate Dei. . I trust then both parties will be agreed, that I may without any prejudice to my cause, quickly skip over the rest of the Ecstatick extravagant lines & leaves, which follow in this Chapter. The thing in it to be defended, was, p. 17. that man himself is the sole efficient cause of his eternal punishment; but for all his complaining upon another occasion indeed on no occasion of skipping from the first Question to the second, p. 66. instead of fight for that, he doth so fly, and that praeter casam too, or to use his own phrase, he shoots, p. 15. so fare beyond what he aims at, that he loseth his mark quite, and starts up I cannot tell how many impertinent questions besides, about God's universal will to save all, p. 17. Christ's universal will to die for all, p. 18, 19 Gods not intending to damn any, or actually damning any but for sin (a thing readily granted him by the crabbedest among all the rabble of half-witted praedestinarians, as he calls them, 1. Papers, p. 10.) (k) See Dr Twisse's Answer to Mr Hoard, p. 8 & centies alibi per vindicias gratiae, etc. . I for my part, love not, like not, Sectari cor vos testâ lutoque, to follow my gentleman Starter to the utmost bounds of all his roving and wandering vagaries. Yet lest he should give out, that I have handsomely swallowed all which he brings in (though praeter propositum) in this Chapter; take all in short thus, to the several Sections of the Chapter, as they follow in order, Respons. ad Sect. 1. p. 17. from p. 17. to 32. and so to the end of the Chapter. 1. It is plain, that Sect, 1. p. 17. your Greek Ammonius, in Joh. 8. neither our English Hooker, 1. 5. Sect. 72. speak any thing for your purpose; for whosoever casts but any careful eyes upon their words in your margin, will quickly see that they will be understood of what men by their ill manners procure for themselves, as, so a fools back calls for stripes, (l) Magister Sentent. lib. 3. dist. 4. Dicuntur filii Gehennae non ex illa nati sed in illam praeparati. and not of what they are the efficient of by the workmanship of their own hands. 2. You speak first impertinently, when you say that the devil only incites, proposeth objects, and persuades unto sin; for now the question is, not what he doth about sin, but what kind of actor he is in the punishment of sin. 2. You speak falsely, when in reference to punishment, you deny the Devil to be an efficient, when both his will and hand is in it, as an instrument under God, in inflicting of punishment, Heb. 2. 14. Instrumental causes, as is known, use to be reckoned among secondary efficient causes. §. 15. p. 17, 18, 19 THE Scriptures belike out of Ezek. 33. 11. Ezek. 18. 32. 2 Pet. 3. 9 1 Tim. 2. 4. 1, 2, 6. Rom. 2. 4, 5. 1. Tim. 4. 10. 2 Cor. 6. 14. 2 Pet. 2. 1. did meet-your pen so quickly, perchance came so fast tumbling in to you (if I may so speak) as that you hardly considered whence they came, or what you would have them to speak for you: I must therefore needs say, that they say not one word for you, that God is not, or may not be the sole efficient cause of eternal punishment; if by them (as you should do) you do understand a sole supreme sovereign cause, according to whose determination and arbitrament, that punishment is inflicted; for will it follow even amongst men? The judge likes not simply that men should perish; a father takes no delight to whip a child. Ergo, The Judge is not the efficient cause of the hanging of a malefactor, or the father is not the efficient of the child's whipping. To small purpose therefore did these Scriptures so quickly meet your pen, and make their appearance before you. 2. If you would rifle your Concordance and memory never so much, you, nor any of your Semi-pelagian, or Arminian fraternity, are able to bring in stronger for the proving of God's universal saving love, Christ's universal redemption of all mankind, for which they seem to say something, but indeed say nothing; and that hath so oftentimes been cleared by an innumerable company of valiant champions of Jesus Christ against Pelagians (m) Pel. g Vult inquit omnes ad agnitionem veritatis venire: sic citato C. Jansenio in suo Aug. lib. 19 cap. 15. Tom. secundum Agust. count. Julianum c. 8. Prosp. Carmin. de ingratis, c. 8. Cum sine delectu, seu lex seu gratia Christi omnem hominem servare velit, Dominique vocantis sic sit propositum, ut nullus non possit ad illud libertate proprioque vigore venire, sitque salus dignis salvari ex fonte volendi. Massilians (n) Massilians Prosper in Epistola ad Augustin. Deus vult omnes homines salvos fieri, etc. Quantum ad Deum pertinet omnibus paratam vitam aeternam. And thus he explains their meaning. Carmin de ingratis, ut cunctos vocet, ille ●uidem, invitetque, nec ullum praeteriens studeat communem offe●re salutem omnibus & totum peccato absolvere mundum. Arminians, and also somewhat by myself, in answer to your first writing, (for most of them use to be their great fortresses and bulwarks) as that I am even almost ashamed, as well as weary of delivering in the old and sound answers often given to them. Yet 4. Seeing it must needs be to stop the mouth of your importunity, take for answer, a little to each scripture. 1. That out of Ezek. 33. 11. with 18. 32. should not have been produced by you, who oftentimes grant, that God, by his consequent will, wils the eternal punishment of sinners, who stand it out against his antecedent will, as you call it. 2. You ought not so lightly to prefer the vulgar Translation of the Romish Church, before our better English translation of our own mother Church, when as the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is as indifferent, for being translated by pleasure, as by will. 2. For that in the place, Ezek. 18. 32. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is fare better translated by non cupio, then by nolo, by I have no pleasure, then by I will not. For that in the words (and the like is too in those of Ezek. 33. 11.) there seems to be a manifest comparison, non tam quam, God professing that he doth more delight in the conversion of a sinner, Luke 15. 7. then in the destruction of an impenitent. 3. It appears by the series and scope of both texts, that the utmost that will be wrung out of them, is but what the Belgic Annotations have excellently well upon Ezek. 33. 11. have I any pleasure, as you do think and complain, that I am enamoured with your death, though you should repent yourselves of your wickedness: As if it were all one with me, whether you did repent or no, whatsoever you do, whither well or ill, you must however be dispatched, as ungodly murmurers and hypocrites use to speak (o) And as those who devised the heresy of the praedestinatians as they call it, and charged it upon Augustine's followers. Genebrard in Chronico sub loc. mihi (inquit ille) dicebant, quod nec pie viventibus prosit bonorum operum labour, Si à Deo ad mortem praedestinati fuerint: nec impiis obsit quod improbe vivant, si à Deo praedestinati fuerint ad vitam. Quae assertio & bonos à bonis avocabat, & malos ad mala provocabat. . Compare above Chap. 18. 23. with the Annotation. This true explication of these places, you belike will not down with; for if you did, what would become of those impious invectives which you put, p. 12, 13. into the mouth of such kind of clients of yours, or of that worse than diabolical wittily wicked comparison, p. 24. of God's platonic loving of so excellent a creatures everlasting misery, of his being an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, ibid. worse than the very Devil himself, avaunt, avaunt, depart from me O thou satanical blasphemer, qui diabolum ipsum blasphemando superas, Mat. 16. 23. thou art an offence unto me; for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. 2. Nor makes any thing for the proving that God loves all men alike to salvation, 2 Pet. 3. 9 (for that sure is the business which now you are upon, or else neither can I, nor you, neither tell what you are about) when as it is plain, 1. By the very words of the place, that that speaks of believers, of pure minds, ver. 1. of the beloved and elect of God, ver. 8. God is long suffering to such, to usward. 2. And if God did alike will the repentance of all, if that do but hold true, that Psal. 135. Quicquid voluit fecit, surely he would give them all repentance unto life, Acts 11. 1. 3. Though the Pelagians, Massilians, and Arminians, swagger a great deal more with 1 Tim. 2. 4, 6. urged by you, as well as by them, for the former purpose; yet it doth you no service at all, for that the letter itself saith no more, but that God will have all men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to be saved, salvos fieri, which implies the duty which in the use of means God would have them to be employed about, and which when effected, he is well pleased with (p) Mat. 10. and Mar. 15. in sacris literis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est aeternam salutem consequi. not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, salvos facere, which implies what he will effect and do. 2. By the scope of the Apostle and his own explication, ver. 1. the words are most pertinently expounded of some, of all sorts of men, whether Rulers or Subjects; the rather for that we know that we are not without some kind of limitation, always to pray for all, 2 Tim. 4. 14. Gal. 5. 12. Rev. 6. 10. 1 John 5. 16 3. Your Fryar-like put-off, of this latter exposition, though true enough, and ancient enough (q) Qui omnes homines vult salvos fieri, etc. non quod nullus hominum esset quem salvum èsse nollet, sed ut omnes homines, omne genus humanum intelligamus, per quascunque differentias distributum, Reges, privatos, nobiles, ignobiles, etc. Aug. Enchirid. ad Laurent. c. 3. I am very apt to believe you are the more tickled with, for that it is so opposite to that odious opinion of your adversary, Calvin, which is as you say (in your first papers, but which as I am sure you will never prove) that all the Caesars are in hell. 4. If it had pleased you, and the Comical Friar together, you might as well have concluded with Chrysost. That few Kings go to Heaven, because in all there be but few, and of those, but few that know what belongs to their place, or discharge a good conscience in it. Insomuch, that the same Chrysost. used to say, That all the Kings which are saved, may be written within the compass of a ring. But this is harsh doctrine for Aulicall ears; that of the Friar (you speak of) will go down much better. 5. You know, (as appears by your p. 28.) that of old, there were no less than four Expositions of this place, none of all which fits you, but that, which though Austin seems disputandi causa, to be for, yet concludes against, before he leaves it. 6. As for the emphasis, which you and others would put upon the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, v. 6. let no less than an Archbishop some hundred years ago, (for by them more than by any, you love to have your mouth stopped) take off the edge by the true exposition which he makes of it (r) Hist. Gotteschal. Vsseri. p. 89. Quod autem Dominum nostrum etiam pro impiis in sua impietate perituris mortuum, uno similiter Apostoli testimonio confirmare videtur, quo ait, qui dedit semet-ipsū redemptionem pro omnibus, profectò non recoluit, nec diligenter consideravit, ita haec Apostoli verba esse accipienda, ut consonent Domini verbis, quibus se in Evangelio ad boc venisse dicit, ut animam suam daret redemptionem pro multis. Et de pretio sui sanguinis similiter ait, Qui pro vobis & pro multis effunditur in remissionem peccatorum, etc. Quae porrò confirmantur ex Luc. 22. 20. 1 Tim. 2. 6. Heb. 9 28. Rom. 5. 18, 19 from Mat. 20. 28. & 26. 28. Heb. 9 28. Rom. 5. 18. with 19 From Rom. 2. 4, 5. produced p. 18. you can infer nothing, but that the works of Gods common goodness and long-suffering, have in their nature a tendency to provoke men to repentance, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and that God will take it well, if they be made use of to this end. But they say not, that God hath peremptorily decreed, that all men shall make use of them to that end. You know, alius est finis operis, alius operantis. Here to help you out, if you will make some kind of use of the Antecedent and consequent will, which you talk of often, neither will I hinder nor force wiser men than I (s) A. Rivet. disp. 7. the great. universali, Thes. 26. Nec tamen distinctionem illam rejicimus, si verè explicetur, vel ut Deus dicatur id velle voluntate antecedente, quod apparet per se bonum & expetendum secundum suam naruram absolutè consideratam; consequent autem, quod non per se, & secundum suam naturam tantum, sed & secundum omnes adjunctas circumstantias, objectum bonum & expe●endum appareat, atque ita omnibus consideratis simpli citer & proprie in divinam voluntatem cadit; vel ut dicatur voluntas Dei antecedens, ordinatio causae ad effectum aliquem, licet effectus, seu finis non sequatur; consequens autem, cum non solum Deus vult, id est, ordinat & probat talia media ad finem consequendum, sed ea etiam vult efficere. . It is pretty, that in the drawing up of these first testimonies, by which you think to have proved Gods equal and universal love to all men, you someway slur and disparage your own evidences; and yet in the gathering of them together, though you used no concordance, yet that eloquent learned man, Vossius (a man not very stable in the Arminian faith, as I shall show when I come to your p. 25.) who 26. years ago, tied my ears to his most fluent oratoriall tongue, was your concordance, or as you say, Expositor, from the authority of the Ancients; but where I cannot tell; sure I am, not as your margin directs, (whether by your own, or Printers mistake, I will not dispute) lib. 6. Thes. 2. where I find no such matter; but in lib. 6. Thes. 10. I find he starts up a Thesis out of Austin, about absolute praedestination, and preferring one by his grace, above another, which quite undoes all your chapped. 5. (t) Vossius lib. 6. thes. 10. Caeterùm Augustinus ut fortins premeret Pelagium, communi patrum, & à se jam Episcopo defensae sententiae, appendicem hanc annexuit, quod gratia uni prae alio offeratur, inque uno magis quam alio efficax sit, id ab absoluto Dei decreto provenire. Hoc enim, cum deficere non possit, eos omnes ac solos salvari, quibus Deus gratiam conversionis & perseverantiam, absolutâ salvandi voluntate destinavit. By 1 Tim. 4. 10. 2 Cor. 5. 14. Rom. 11. 32. 2 Pet. 2. 1. you seem to be upon confuting of the heresy (as you are pleased to call it, p. 38.) of Christ's dying only for the elect; yet you never declare, whether you believe that Christ died equally for the elect and reprobate; nor do you any where enucleate what kind of benefits Christ by his death, hath procured for reprobates, as well as for the elect; (and yet you should know, that the hinge of the controversy turns upon these matters) nor can you without monstrous wronging your own conscience, and abominable slandering of your brethren, put Helvidianisme upon them, as p. 19 for giving the lie to the very words of the Text, as you have a good mind to asperse them with; who honest men and true as they be, would only have you and others, interpret them aright, and not play with the word (All) where ever you meet with it in Scripture; as he did, who as some where I long since read of, standing on the port, booked down in his Table book, all the ships as his, though not one of them belonged to him. Your first out of 1 Tim. 4. 10. (in which note, that there is not one word of Christ's death) belongs not to you, 1. Unless you can prove, that the former part of your text, which hath the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in it, will not, as well as the Greek verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Septuagint, or the verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Hebrew, be understood as it is, Psal. 56. 6. of a common providential salvation, by virtue of Christ's mere divine power, as God, blessed for ever. In which sense, if you please, you may be allowed to call him a general Saviour, even of those who are unbelievers; and for this you may cite Heb. 1. 3. and many more places, rather than of a mediatory salvation, as a daies-man or propitiator Job 9 33. procured only for the elect, and his mystical body, Acts 20. 28. 2. Unless you can evince, contrary to the strain of other places, Gal. 6. 10. Phil. 4. 11. 1 Tim. 5. 17. and 4. 13. that the Adverb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the latter part of the Text, implies not such a distribution, as carries away all that, which is, proprii nominis salvation, purchased by Christ to another sort of people, even believers, when as those mentioned before, are to content themselves with a common temporal salvation, common both to men and beasts, the evil and the good, Psal. 36. 6, 7. Mat. 5. 45. 3. Until you shall have taken into your Creed, with your Copartners the Remonstrants (u) Corvin. count. Molin. c. 27 pronuntiat ad sect. 4. Se omninò credere futurum fuisse ut finis mortis Christi constaret, etiamsi nemo cred. disset Exam. censur. p. 59 objecerant Professores Letdenses, si hoc tantum meritus ●st Christus tum nobis non est meritus fid●m nec regenerationem; respondent Remonstrantes, sanè ita ●st; nihil ineptius nihil vanius est quam hoc Christi merito tribuere: Sin, dicatur meritus nobis fidem & regenerationem, tum fides condi●io esse non poterat, quam à peccatoribus Deus, sub comminatione mortis aeternae exigeret; imò tum patet ex vi meriti istius obligatus fuisse dicatur necesse ad conferendum nobis fidem. and have proved it too, That it was no part of Christ's purchase by dying, for to procure as well for his people, faith and repentance from dead works, by which they are made good or gracious, Tit. 2. 13. as to procure a place for them in heaven, when they shall cease to be obstinate unbelievers, or upon condition they will repent & believe, as you have it, p. 18 and so consequently that it did wholly depend upon man's believing or unbelieving, his will to the one, or the other, whether Christ should not be an head without a body, a King without subjects, a Shepherd without sheep, &c. (x) Episcop. censur. censurae: Neque vero necesse esse credit (ut ipse loquitur) ad hoc ut Christus Rex sit, & caput maneat in terris, Ecclesiam al●quam veram semper esse, cum regnum Christi, non subditorum voluntate, sed regnantis potestate definiri debeat; & ea Ecclesia quae necessitate quadam, ecclesia est Christi, spiritualis ecclesia esse nequeat, quip quam obedientia sola, quae liberrima esse debeat, constitu●re potest. , For the byblow which p. 19 you give unto Dr Twisse, (a man whose writings you only peep into) (y) And so deal with his writings, as some did with Augustine's, against whom Jansenius inveighs in suo Augustino, Tom. 2. l. 1. That they behave themselves as Hares insulting over a dead lion. Cujus libros nec cum illa sedulitat● qua oportebat, scire studuerunt, nec ullo modo corum fundamenta penetrarunt. as it is plain, for to cavil at, and to snatch if it were possible, at some advantageous passages, who had that Samson been alive, would more easily have broken the strongest Cables of your Arguments, than ever Samson did break the green with'hs; it hits him not at all, for that 1. He doth not contradict (as is plain by the following words) (z) Vid● R●spons ad Armin. praesat. 16. col. a. that which he had said about the difficulty of answering the arguments proposed by you, p. 19 l. 1. but he saith, that the argument proposed by him, according to such Arminian principles as we also do in part admit of, is easily answered. 2. Because it would have been most improper for him, in an answer to a preface of Bertius, to have there forestalled himself, in what often in the body of the book, he makes his work, as he doth in all his writings, unto which yet, never so much as an essay hath been made, having so much as the face of a solid answer, returned by any of the great valiant Herculean Leaders of your noble faction. 3. He was not such an Ignaro, as not to have known, who as he tells you, in the very place which you quote (after a misshapen fashion, as you do almost every thing, which you bring out of him and others) before even Arminius was heard of, had heard that Argument usually brought and answered in the Schools; and who knew well enough, that the first thing that every sinner, to whom the Gospel is preached, is bound to believe, is not that Christ died for him in particular, but that there is salvation in no other, Acts 4. 12. and that Christ is the true Messiah, the son of the ever living God. He as well as any body else (a) Vide Collat. Hag. edit. Brand. p. 153. could have told how to have retorted that Argument upon the adversaries; but you must have leave to have a pluck at dead men's beards (b) Dr Twisse his Apology might all along be the same with Augustine's against Julian, the Pelag. l. 4 cap. 8. Tu autem vir honestus & verax, abstulisti verba quae dixi, & dixisti quod ipse finxisti, red verba mea, & vanescet calumnia ●ua, etc. . Your second Text, 2 Cor. 5. 14. from whence you draw up your formidable Argument, (the only one in all your book, unless perchance that of p. 69. may be thought to be such another) and which whether you have borrowed from the Coryphaeus, the great leader of the Semipelagians (c) Faustus Regius l. 1. de gra. & lib. a▪ b. c. 16. or from your much honoured D. H. or from the great Universalist, Huberus (d) Hub. Thes. 48. Snecanus de praed. p. 486. 492. 494. c●●ante D. Willet, the great. univers. p. 136. Ambros. de vocat. Gent. l. 1. c. 3. populus Dei, suam habet plenitudinem & in electis & praescitis sua quaedam censetur universitas etc. August. count. Jul. lib. 6. cap. 12. Dictum est omnes justificari per Christum, non quia omnes justificantur in Christo, sed qui justificantur, non aliter justificantur, quam in Christo. Sicut dicimus omnes homines intrare in domum per unam januam, quia non intrant nisi per ipsam, vid. Aug. de Nat, & great. c. 40. I will not stand to discuss. But 1. Sure enough I am, that it is a cracked syllogism of four terms, and therefore will not pass in any Logical, or Theological School. For the major of that hypothetical syllogism, both in the sacred canonical text, (and in your Apocryphal too) must, as it is plain, for these words, one died for all, be understood of an (all) of a certain kind, as is frequent in Scripture and antiquity, Gen. 7. 14. Joel 2. 29. Mat. 4. 23, 24. and be expounded by the (All) in the words following: who are dead, not in trespasses and sins, but unto sin: who henceforth live not to themselves, but unto him, which died for them and risen again; of such, who ver. 14. are constrained by the love of Christ. The place is well paralleled with Rom. 6. 6. Heb. 9 28. And if you otherwise understand the term (all) in your minor, you must take the impurity of Helvidius to yourself; or not allow the Apostle to be his own interpreter, in ver. 14, 15. utrum mavis accipe. 3. Nor will the sound of the word (all) do you any more pleasure, which you think rings well in your ears, Rom. 11. 30, 31, 32. which 1. If either the Apostle interpreting of this place, Gal. 3. 23. only of believers, or of such Jews and Gentiles, who in after times should through mercy, and mercy only obtain salvation; just so as the believing Jews and Gentiles, who by grace were in part possessed of it already, ver. 30. Eph. 2. Or if Austin (e) In Rom: 11. 32. de Civ. Dei, lib. 21. c. 18. & 24. Intelligitur, de Judaeis & Gentib. praedestinatis: Conclusit Deus omnes in infidelitate, ut omnibus misereatur; non deo dictum est, qued neminem sit damnaturus, sed superius apparet unde sit dictum. Nam quum de Judae is postea credituris, Apostolus loqueretur ad Gentes, ad quas utique jam credentes, conscribebat epistolas, sicut●n. vos (inquit) non credidistis Deo, nunc autem misericordiam consecuti estis, in illorum incredulitate; sic & high, non crediderunt in vestra misericordia, ut & ipsi. misericordiam consequantur. Deinde subjecit, unde isti sibi errando blandiuntur, atque ait, conclusit Deus omnes in infidelitate, etc. Quos omnes, nisi de quibus loquebatur, tanquam dicens, & vos & illos? Deus ergo & Gentiles, & Judaeos quos praescivit, & praedestinavit conformes fieri imaginis filii sui, omnes in infidelitate conclusit, etc. omnium miseretur vasorum, misericordiae: Quid est on nium? & eorum scil. quos ex gentibus, & corum quos ex Judaeis praedestinavit, vocavit, glorificavit, non omnium hominum, sed istorum omnium, etc. on the place, as well as upon such others, may but pass with you, for a fit Commentator of this text; if this (I say) can be but gained from you, a man may peremptorily conclude against you, that it is no absurdity to say, that none but the elect and believers were so, that is, with that intention concluded under unbelief, as to obtain mercy, as the believing Jews and Gentiles had. These latter, as well as the former, in Gods own time, should find, that the gifts and calling of God, of which the Apostle there speaks, were without repentance, ver. 29. Neither 4. will 2 Pet. 2. 1. produced by you, p. 18. afford you one crumbe of comfort, unless you can prove, that according to an usual way of speaking, those may not be said to be bought by the Lord, who were so sacramento tenus, as Austin (f) In Psal. 47. p●pulus Dei censentur, qui sacramenta ejus portant etc. Joh. 6. 66. multi discipulorum abierunt ret●ò, etc. Nunquid non & isti discipuli appellati sunt, loquente Evangelio, & tamen non ●rant veri discipuli, secundum id quod ait, si manseritis in verbo meo, veri discipuli mei estis. who had once professed and did themselves believe that of themselves, that they were such, and according to the judgement of the Church's charity, were taken for such, whilst they did militate under Christ's standard. I will not at this time trouble myself at all, with what you assert about the absoluteness of God's decrees, the sufficiency of Christ's merits, etc. because I shall have a more opportune place for the first, when I come to your 3. Chapter, and for the 2. when to p. 25. But because, as the fashion of you and all your complices (pray own your own phrase, Epist. ult.) is, under very saucy and coarse phrases, of Christ's begrudging the extent of his death, to the major part, but of one world, p. 20. Thus odiously representing it as a doctrine illiberal to the merits of Christ, when as we should wonder, that Christ would die so much as for any, rather than grumble that he did not die for all. All those he died for, were his enemies, and uncomfortable to Christian souls; it is not amiss against the second time of the drudgery you speak of, p. 20. to request that you would resolve us, how much more honourable to Christ, or comfortable to true Christians, these following known propositions of the Arminians are (g) These or the like say in words or sense, are so frequent in the writings of all sorts of Arminians, as that I will not abuse my own, or reader's leisure, by transcribing them. . 1. That Christ by his death hath not purchased actual salvation for any, but a possibility of salvation for all. 2. That he did rather redeem the Father, that it might be possible for him to show mercy, without violation to his justice, then that actually he intended the redemption of all or any. 3. That he hath merited by his death, as much for Cain, Judas, and all the damned in hell, as for Paul, Peter, the Virgin Mary, or any glorified Saints. 4. That Christ's death notwithstanding the conditions of the old covenant of works, might have been put upon us. 5. That Christ never merited faith or repentance for us, for the fulfilling of the conditions of the new covenant. 6. That we are not justified by faith alone in his death, but by Gods accepting of I cannot tell what, Evangelicall righteousness of faith, wrought by ourselves, in stead of legal perfect righteousness (h) Yea Arminii his liberi orphani novem, assert it to have been the opinion of their father, Epist, quadam dedicat that we are justified by works, as well as by faith. . 7. That it is disputable, whether any of the Fathers were saved by the death of Christ? 8. And that it is passed all dispute, that the Infants of Christians, dying in infancy, are not at all saved by the virtue of Christ's merits: for they have not any sin of their own to damn them; original sin never damned any. So your first papers, etc. I pray God send you and me other comforts, against the time that we shall most stand in need of them. As for what you quote, p. 20. out of your Saintlike Dr Andrew's, (as you style him, p. 47. where you may look to hear more from me about him) when you shall have proved him to have been as very a Saint, as every body knows he was a learned Dr, I shall then be more troubled that I find him so much an Arminian. I am not scared at what he dictates, rather than proves, in your margin; for that he saith nothing but what Faustus the Father of the Semipelagians did (i) Faust. lib 3. the great. & lib. arbit. c. 7. Quis tam in. memor salutis suae sit, qui attrahentis misericordiam negare praesumat: Sed ille verè impius est, qui eam non omnibus ingeri, non omnibus testatur impendi, etc. , and what hath been answered a thousand times, or been warily expounded. And if any such expression did unwarily fall from Bernard, in a Sermon, knowing what a declining age he lived in, we may well say, Bernardus non vidit omnia; but wonder he spoke so well elsewhere, (k) Bern. de lib. arbit. & gratia. Quid agit liberum arbitrium? Salvatur. Opus hoc sine duobus effici non potest, uno à quo sit, altero in quo sit. Deus author est salatis, liberum arbitrium tantum est ejus capax. p. 20. by which he hath made amends, for any thing he may have let fall amiss here. In Popery it used to be said, Si sint sancti, orent pro nobis; si doctores, respondeant ad argumenta. As for the Apology which you make for the less convincing nature of evidences brought by you, for the present, I much wonder, that having perfected even this your perfect Copy, at least a full half year before the printing of it (which I know by one, in whose hand it was, so long before) I much muse that so neat a disputant, as you pretend to be in this your Meridian, (a phrase of your own in an Epistle to me) Correct, polite Copy, should not have amended all imperfections, and in stead of Topics, have given us demonstrations. As for your threaten of making all sure, against all common shifts and subterfuges, I wonder not much at them, when I consider the altitude of your spirit; Aquila non captat muscas. You put us in fear, that you will kill all in your next. For my part, I am not yet turned Quaker, as over much affrighted at what you denounce; yet I can assure you, if you do not at your second coming forth, argue much more strongly against the common shifts, etc. alias, against the true common sound faith once delivered to the Saints, then as yet you have done, or than your often beaten Associates have done before you, I will here once for all, give it under my hand, that you shall have leave to reckon me free among the dead, you shall glory if you will, in the head of your party, that you have quite routed me, and that I will appear no more in the field. The counsel which in scorn you give me, of slighting your papers whether Correct or Uncorrect (in an Epistle) shall be in good earnest followed by me: I shall once again retire to my beloved rest, (leisure you call it. p. 4. laziness you could have been content to have called it) However I am somewhat to seek, how this holding up a threatening fist for a second blow, consists withthat modesty you pretend to all along, and the protestation which you make to the man of Honour and Integrity, in the winding up of your Dedicatory, That the temptation must be greater, and the necessity more urgent, than I hope it will be, if you draw at either end of the saw of strife. Totus orbis exercet Historiam. And I know you are as good an actor, as ever Sosia in Plautus. I cannot expect you should agree with me, who agree not much with yourself: Only before you appear upon the stage again, let me beseech you to remember that, which once you had in the close of a letter from me out of Cyprian, pingues hostias litat Diabolo, qui contristat Ecclesiam. Wound not the Church more by your second, than you have by your first writing; study to make up, not to make sores. Sect. 16. p. 20, 21. I Find nothing in all this Section, unto which you have not had enough, and enough already, by way of Reply, if but enough may serve your turn. 1. You have a complaint of Modes and Fashions of speech, and yet yours all along is in the Al●a mode de Pelagian, Massilian, Arminian, etc. Indeed modo quo prius, with the not over old Montacutian, late the Francisco-Clarian fry. 2. You are constant in nothing, but in the confounding the meritorious cause with that, which you truly call, p. 21. f. the energetical efficient cause; as appears by your quoting Hos. 13. 6. with Jam. 1. 15. 3. You are very daring, in charging that with blasphemy, which must needs be a very truth, that, Rom. 6. 23. death, so fare forth as under the notion of punishment, there is any thing in that privation positive, is from God, as the author of it. In that sense did not he threaten it before it was? Gen. 2. 17. Did he not bring it in, when his threatening was not dreaded? Rom. 5. 12. Are not from him the issues of death? Psal. 68 20. 4. You would feign prove an Apocryphal opinion, by an Apocryphal text, out of Wisdom 1. 13. etc. (as Joh. Scot, cap. 17. had done before you, Hist. Gottesch.) which yet, good thing as it is, will be understood of no other than a meritorious cause: And this you have been told already by Fulg, ad Monim. quoted before. I have no more therefore to say to it, save that you leave me in my muses, why you should so solemnly, in the front in your Epist. Dedicat. in the corpse le grand, as here towards the rear, p. 64. quote Apocrypha, especially if these passages should be found transcribed out of Cardinal Bellarmine. It may be towards my resolution, you would have me read over the Motto about the tie of the Knights of the Garter, Honi soit qui male pensê; Add this also, that when at any time the Fathers say, that God made not death or hell, or the like (l) August l. de Gestis Pelag. cap. 3. , they mean it in opposition to Pelagius, who maintained that Adam was made mortal, whether he sinned or not, he should have died. Hence the Carthaginian Council, pronounced an * Can. 1. Placeat omnib. Episcop. etc. Anathema on such as said, Adam was created mortal; that is, not by the merit of sin, but necessity of nature. Otherwise (as was said above) it were strange, that he to whom belong the issues of death, who threatens it, inflicts it, should not be the author of it, so fare forth, as there is any thing paenall in it. Sect. 17. p. 21, 22, etc. I Might also as quickly, for my own, Christians, and the Printers ease, (now I have in my poor measure, rescued the sacred Scriptures from their ravishments) bowl off from this 17. Section of yours, wherein you turn to Reason. I could never yet find any of the carnal reasonings of Pelagians and Arminians, bear weight in the scales of the Sanctuary, and therefore I might justly neglect them, how much soever they call for a Philosophical (m) Austin. de quant. Animae. cap. 7. Authoritati credere magnum compendium est, & nullus labour. Nam imperitiores si ratione velint verum comprehendere, similitudinib. rationum facillimè decipiuntur, etc. rather than a Theological School, to have them tried in. But that I may not altogether let you alone in your stumblings, in the forepart of your Section, or in the wicked rail (I speak diminutively of what you have, p. 24.) in the postern of it, I must crave leave, 1. To put in a few Theses, which will overthrow the Dagon of this Section, and undo many, most parts of your book besides. 2. To affix very briefly a few Animadversions to the very text of this Section. For the Theses. If you were not ignorant of them, you continue to be hatefullie malicious; if you were (which is hardly possible, considering how often you quote Calvin and Twisse) you were shamefully to blame in these Arguments, to set your pen, either to an Uncorrect or Correct Copy. The Theses are these. 1. That all sublapsarians, as well as supralapsarians (may I crave leave without offence to either party, to use these distinguishing titles, who am a good friend to both, (n) Dr Twisse vindic. lib. 3. digress 1. They all meet in this. Quod homines à Deo in praedestinatione considerantur tanquam pares, ante praedestinationem horum, & reprobationem aliorum. which my adversary is not, when p. 2. of first papers, he takes up the bucklers against both) are agreed, that there is no absolute predetermination of sin's permission, going before that which they use scholasticallie to call visionem simplicis intelligentiae, or of the possibility of sins falling out. 2. That all sublapsarians (amongst whom Calvin * See the testimony presently cited out of him. must ever be ranked as none of the meanest) premise the consideration of original sin, indeed of that only before the Act of preterition or negative reprobation; And that both these, and the supralapsarians with them, premise the consideration of all actual sins, to the decree of positive reprobation; usually called damnation. 3. Indeed they are neither of them so simple as to apprehend these objective considerations, to be at all any causes of God's decree (o) D. Rivet. disput. 3 Thes. 14. Non solum quaestio haec (de objecto praedestinationis) abstrusa est, ac in penitiori Dei sanctuarii adyto condita, sed quia otiosa curiositas alenda non est, cujus illa nimis alta speculatio alumna est, & nutrix: He adds the other part. Quod ex damnata Adae sobole, Deus quos visum est elegit, quos v●●t reprobat; quae sicuit ad fidem exercendam longè aptior est, ita majore cum fructu tractatur. In hac igitur doctrina, quae humanae naturae corruptionem & reatum in se continet; libentiùs insistit, quia non solum adpietatem propius conducit, sed magis etiam, videtur Theologica: He had said a little before: Paulum docuisse Deum ex perdita massa, eligere & reprobare quos ipsi visum est. as that in him is an internal, eternal act, though they be the proper causes of his temporal transient acts, and of the execution of those decrees. They be loath to incur that censure of madness from Aquinas, (as above) or so much as to receive a gentle check from yourself, when as p. 51. you acknowledge that these kind of considerations must only be ascribed to Gods will, secundum res volitas, not according to the act of Gods will, considered in its simplicity. A better speech than which, you never uttered any in all your book, and which rightly understood and applied, overthrows all that you say against absolute praedestination. 4. That all these considerations of sub or supra, are only some honest, ingenious, necessary devices, which some therefore well call, ingenii nostri figmenta, for the helping of us poor creatures, crazy mortals, (who cannot approach to that light which inhabiteth eternity) to understand some little something of all that which Scripture reveals concerning Gods decrees, but that God ab aeterno decreeing, did both will and foresee all things, unico intuitu, unico actu. All things are, as I may say, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in the very twinkling of an eye, open and naked before him, Heb. 4. 13. What we distinguish by our signa rationis, and moments of time, he wils and foresees all at once, end and means together. It is therefore extreme childish to wrangle overmuch with one another, about the different conceits, which all we crazy people may have, about the mere ordering or marshalling of God's decrees, according to first, or second; when as the very purblind Jewish Rabbins can assent to it, that in God there is neither first nor last. An unworthy thing than it is, for any praetending to Divinity, foully to be spatter one another about mere methodical mistakes. (which I am persuaded the very Angels in Heaven are not exactly acquainted with) Oh what horrid uncharitableness must it argue (in you) upon a mere dislike of calvin's ordering of God's decrees, to fling and flounce, and to pour out damnable blasphemies, and then when you have done, to say, p. 24. that you do it for edification? 5. That when upon the consideration of Gods being a free and judicious agent, it is by all Christian mortals agreed, nemine contradicente, (unless perhaps by one giddy headed Nich. Grevinchovius) (p) Who yet could say, count. Ames. p. 113. Gradus hosce, seu momenta varia quae fingi solent, in decretis Det, infirmitatem nostram posse sub●●vare, sed in ipso Deo, unum & idem esse. Yet alibi contra, Nego simpliciter decretum hoc, esse decretum finis, & medioorum; medium come fine in ipso decreto quod ais conjungi, nemo sanus dabit. that in Gods one decree, we must needs distinguish betwixt the decree of the end, and the decree of the means; and that we must needs place the decree of the end, in so wise an agent as God is, before the decree of the means, according to that well grounded Rule, dictated by nature itself; that, Quod prius est in intention, ultimum est in executione; that is last executed, which is first intended; it must needs follow, for all your jerking toyish gybes, p. 2●, 23. that of punishment (for example) be last executed after sin, as all the world knows it is; and if that may be looked upon in any consideration, as an end intended by God, as Prov. 16. 4. seems to make for it, then as to our manner of apprehending things, it must needs be most evident, that punishment must be decreed before the permission of sin; or else sin in execution must be punished eternally, before it be permitted or acted; which if you cannot like of, you will easily perceive to whom the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Divinity, (with which, p. 23. you make yourself so merty) will of right belong. 6. But seeing the supreme ultimate or sole end of God, (as Calvin and all the orthodox agree (q) Calvin. de praedest. p. 728. etc. was not, is not, nor ever will be, the mere destruction or tormenting of his creature, animi gratia, as Nero set Rome on fire, or as you against your conscience, would have us to hold, for recreation to cut up animals alive, like the Spanish Prince: (most odious and for ever to be Ananathematized comparisons) but the just tormenting of him, for the just manifestation of the glory of his justice, Rom. 9 22. 2 Thes. 1. 6. after much long-suffering and patience. Dr Twisse (r) Epist. dedic. ad Reg. Bohem. Ego verò sic instituo, Deum neminem destinasse ad damnationem nisi propter peccatum. Nec ullo vel naturae momento priorem esse judico destinationem ad damnationem, quam sit consideratio peccati, secundum quam fiat ista praedestinatio, etc. hath nobly and irrefragablie, strongly proved an hundred times over in all his writings, That because man's destruction and torment is not an end of itself intended, but only a means tending to a further end, and not willed for its own sake, but propter aliud, and that in God's decrees, all means are to be coordinated, not subordinated▪ none are before or after another in divine consideration, as not in order of nature or time to him, he makes it evident, that your suggestion, That God intended the eternal destruction and misery of his so noble and excellent a creature, before he intended to permit his sin, the only true meritorious cause of all his misery, is so fare from being true, that never any rational creature, noble or ignoble, did ever in time, suffer so much, as to the cutting of his finger, but for his sin. Nor did God ever entertain any thoughts that he should suffer for any thing else. 2. By what hath been said, I trust you will say yourself (I am pretty confident that every honest body, will say, not wilfully prepossessed and blinded by the dust of your flaunting rhetoric) that I have an easy task in the second thing proposed, viz. Animadversions upon the text of this Section: Take therefore briefly this. 1. That you are at your hot fierce scuffle with your old over vanquished Adversary, Sir N. N. whilst you do so tediously plead for that, which no honest body will deny you, viz. That God did not make hell, p. 24 by an absolute purpose, merely because he would that some should suffer it, and not in a previous intuition of their sin. But there-hence it follows not, that sin is the cause of God's decree, but only of the execution of it. Belike you will not believe that you have killed your Adversary, till with the coward in Sir Philip Sydney's Arcadia, you look upon him twenty times dead at your feet. Can you believe that what you say in this, either 1. Makes for Gods not being the author, and that ab aterno too, as to intention of man's eternal punishment for sin, the thing offered to proof, p. 17. Sect. 14? 2. Or to what you fell upon afterwards, God's equal love to mankind, or Christ's equal redemption of all mankind, Sect. 15. 2. If you will needs have it granted you, which you plead for next, (as I see no great absurdity in it, why it should not be yielded you) that sin and punishment are relata secundum esse, & simul natura; I cannot conceive how this makes for you, but rather against you: For if Relata qua talia, are simul natura, then sin and punishment, according to what I have pleaded for, at least in God's decree, are not one after another, but rather together. But I would not wish you hence to infer, as you seem to do, (your discourse here and every where else seems to have a wishlie look that way) 1. That God did not at all from eternity, for sin intent to damn any men, but took up that resolution in time, when men have actually merited it by their sins. 2. Or to think that God's intention to kill men for sin, before they were born, makes him (a man might tremble again, to write it over) an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, p. 24▪ to slay men before they were borne; when as you should know, that praedestinatio ab aeterno non egreditur extra se, and so is no more a real punishment, than Gods resolving to create us rich and noble, makes us actually so. And this Dr Twisse, if you be but willing to learn any thing from him, will fully instruct you in (s) Vindic. l. 1. c. 3. in 4●0 col. 1. Nil Vulgatius in scholis quam praedestinationem & reprobationem, nihil ponere in praedistinato, etc. Quod & evidens ratio confirmat: Sunt enim actus Dei immanentes, non transcuntes: omnis autem poena est actionis transeuntis in creaturam effectus. . 3. Or to believe that you had just cause in both your margins, p. 22, 23. to bring Calvin again to your whipping post, (nay, upon that occasion, p. 24. to break out (as you wretchedly speak, for edification sake) into horrid blasphemies against the Almighty himself) for saying nothing, but what first, he proves by Scripture, reason, and authority, out of Austin, which you do not so much as offer to put away; for saying nothing but what multitudes of Schoolmen, some hundred of years before Calvin was born, had said, with a most unanimous consent, (t) Scot l. 1. dist. 41. & l. 3. dist. 19 Suarez in 3. disp. 5. p. 103. Probabiliorem existimo communem sententiam Theologorum, asserentium electionem hominum praedestinatorum, antecessisse permissionem originalis peccati. Contra-Remonstr. secunda p. 90. Agnoscimus & docemus Deum non decrevisse quenquam damnare, nisi ●ustissime propter sua ipsius peccata: atque hoc respectu decretum hoc non posse it a absolutum vocari, ut Deus sine ullo peccatorum respectu decreverit quenquam damnare, etc. viz. Scotus with the whole Army of Scotists, and which all the supralapsarians in the Church of Rome do say, which Suarez himself being witness, are by fare the greater number. Yea, for saying nothing but what Bellarmine himself is forced to bear him witness, he hath Austin for: Nay, for saying nothing, but what (as we shall have occasion against your 3. Chapter to prove) must be granted, if we have no mind to turn Atheists. As for what you have out of him concerning the horribile decretum, p. 24. which as you say did fright you into your wits, and upon that occasion belch out of your mouth slanders against heaven, oftentimes confuted, as fast and as full, as the apocalyptical Red Dragon, Rev. 12. against the woman to drown her. 1. That is by Calvin upon the place, understood not otherwise, then as that decree is of such a nature, as that it cannot but incutere ho●ror●m, as it did make the Apostle cry out, O the depth, Rom. 11. 33. Not that it is to be abominated, as you do now; for which, the Lord, if it be his blessed pleasure, give you repentance. 2. Your former little wit (now much better as you think, since you have left calvin's horribile decretum) is neither much for the prior or posterior part of it, to be heeded, unless you had grace to make better use of it, than here you do; who use it in this place, just so as that Wilding in Prov. 26. 18. who easts firebrands, arrows, and death, and saith, am I not in sport? Belike this way you will have it verified of you, that nullum magnum Ingenium est sine mixtura dementiae. 3. The true and just cause (give me leave to speak plainly what I think, In repub. libera, liberas oportet habere linguas) is not so much your amazement at any thing Calvin delivers, about the absolute decree, as the extreme pride of your own heart, and the deep love you are fallen into, with your over-gallant parts. (which I beseech God, they may not do your precious soul as deadly a displeasure, as ever Absalon's brave hair did to his body) What of old made many a man a Massilian (u) Prosp. Epist. ad Ruffin. Ab hac confession Gratiae Dei, ideo quidam resiliunt ne cum eam talem confessi fuerint, qualis divino eloquio praed●catur, & qualis opere suae potestalis agnoscitur, etiam hoc necesse habeant confiteri, quod ex omni numero hominum per saecula cuncta natorum, certus apud Deum, definitusque numerus sit, praedestinati in vitam aeternam populi, secundum propositum Dei vocantis, electi. Quod quidem tam impium est negare, quam ipsi gratiae contraire. hath made you an Arminian: Good brother return, return, whilst there is or may be any hopes of you. As for your girding at the excuses, which you say, though falsely, we make to excuse God. 1. We were never so wicked as to attempt that; we praise God we need not do it, who know him to be holiness itself, holy, harmless, separate from sin and sinners, Heb. 7. 26. Jer. 12. 1. Hab. 1. 13. even when he willingly permits them. Only we are forced often to stop such wranglers mouths, as yours are here, when they be wide open against truth, which they do not or will not understand. 2. If you will needs have it so now, we excuse God no otherwise, by the distinction you so scornfully jeer at, then Jac. Armin. himself, your great Master had taught Dr Twisse, as may be seen in that very place (x) Textus Arminii citatus ●à D. Twisse, sect. 13. Tertia distinctio qua Deus dicitur velle peccatum, non qua peccatum est, sed qua est medium illustrandae gloriae ipsiu● etc. Caeterum ut istam distinctionem rectè usurpemus, ut aliquis sanè aliquis est usus; dicendum est, Deum permittere peccatum, non qua tale, sed ea de causa quia novit & potest illud facere medium. Imo potiùs uti tanquam medio ad gloriam suam illustrandam: Ita ut peccati ratio qua tale objiciatur permissioni Dei; causante interim permissionem ipsam, tum consideratione, quod istud peccatum medium esse potest gloriae divinae illustrandae, tum ordinatione ut peccatum permissum medium sit, reipsa, illustrandae gloriae ejusdem. , for the repeating of which, you so fiercely oppose him. I say, notwithstanding those salt stinging jeers, and the haste you pretend to be in, to gain some refreshment from your next 18. Section; You will find one day, that it would have been much better, that leaving your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Homer, you had orderly put your bridle upon your horse, and with it rid upon a slow pace, ad Garamantas usque & Indos, then thus to play the Lucian, and elsewhere the Carpocratian, p. 42. against Heaven; lest (which God avert) you with Achi●ophel, one day saddle your Ass, and speed no better than he did. If you judge me now (as once you did, Epist. 2. upon a slight occasion) to be in a high frenzy, you must pardon me: Your rage against Heaven, hath put me out of all patience with you. Severum medicum intemperans aeger facit: And now it is fallen to my turn, at least to endeavour to be your Physician, who have been long a physicking of me to no purpose. §. 18. from p. 24, to 32. AND now we are come to this Section, I am glad I shall have some refreshment as well as yourself, p. 24. Eja age, tripudiemus: Arcum non semper tendit Apollo. You have gladded me much by what you have told me you aimed at, in the drawing up of this Catalogue, p. 16. sect. 13. what p. 17. sect. 14. you tell me, they must say for you, viz. as to the first, That God is not the author of sin, let that same wicked Sir N. N. errand villain as he is, look to that: As to the second, That God is not the efficient cause of eternal punishment, most of them will be testes muti, as to that, and those who speak any thing, speak the quite contrary way; as Basil, p. 26. Chrysost. ibid. Damascen. p. 27. Oh how much more propitious is this list to me, then that of your 7. Section? p. 10, 11. But lest you should vapour among your associates, that I bring in a nihil dicit, to what they seem to speak, for God's equal love to all mankind; Christ's as equally diffusive Redemption, your much beloved Helena 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, (in one of your Epistles) you do still so valiantly appear for, I must say something. 1. To the preface prefixed to the second Catalogue, or Jury (if you will) impanelled for your self, as your first was, p. 10, 11. drawn up in terrorem Calvinistarum. 2. Something in general, and but in general I have to say to the Authors you would have to bring in verdict for you, For the first, I hope before I have done with you, if there be any front left in you to blush, to make you change colour, for abusing of Augustine's almost sacred name, as if he had any thing to say on your side, who doth so perfectly appear against you every where: Yet if he and all the Greek and Latin Fathers to boot, before Pelagius, or upon Pelagius his first appearing to the world, in a mere Ethnic garb (y) Vid. Cornel. Jansen. Augustinum tom. 1. l. 5. c. 1. p. 130. Hunc statum haeresis ista, in ipsis suis habuit incunabulis, quando primò à Pelagio proferri & praedicari caepit. Tunc●n puram putamque naturam, sicut à Deo conditur, & ex utero matris prodit, nullo externo sive scientiae, sive potentiae praesidio, sed solo liberae voluntatis arbitrio, & naturali illa possibilitate ad omnia omnino quae ad bonam beatamque vitam magna facilitate consequendam pertinent, abundè sufficere docuerint. , as a denier of all Grace, and a mere champion of Nature, should seem some way to plead for you, (when as a diminutive grace maintained by them, was enough to overthrow the first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherein Pelagianisme appeared) it would be very little for your credit, only thus fare to concur with the former Father's, or St Austin himself, and then afterwards to leave Austin, when the necessity of the cause against Pelagius, drew him out to a more ample declaration and vindication of grace. This will at least argue, (which yet you deny, p. 4.) that you stick in Massilianisme; that you are willing to begin, but not to end with St Austin. 2. You here and every where confounding the decree of Reprobation negative, with that of positive condemnation, I know not one, either of the ancient, or modern orthodox Writers, who will not readily yield, That God did not absolutely decree the reprobation (positive) of any creature, but upon prescience and supposition of wilful rebellion and impenitence. You must still be allowed to skirmish with your implacable enemy, Sir N. N. You have small reason to be over-confident of your great Collector, Vossius. 1. For that before the Synod of Dort, he was known merely to be of the Arminian party, for which too, he was put by his Regency of the Belgic College in Leyden, and therefore is at best but testis ex sin●. 2. For that he was not over-stedfast in his faith, who upon all occasions of turn, discovered much levity, and by facing about, recovered some kind of station among the orthodox at Leyden, as Historiarum professor there. 3. He may well be suspected, not to deal so candidly in other matters, as were to be wished, when as he is not afraid against the credit of all the orthodox, to rank Faustus Rheginensis, and Lucidus the Pelagian, who were the known Leaders of Pelagians and Semipelagians (z) See Dr Twisse against Mr Hoard, p 56. where he quotes a saying out of Isidore, de viris illustribus Would you but compare Vossii Hist. Pelag. with the collections of Reverend Jac. Armach. in his primord. Eccles. Britan; or with those of that stupendious Jansen. in his August. or of L●tii comm●n●●●. l. 2. the P●l●g etc. you would be less enamoured with Vossius; or with your admirable Grotius. among Catholics. 4. He hath utterly spoiled your market, whilst from him you learned it (and I wish he had never taught you a worse lesson) to apply the distincton of voluntas antecedens & consequens, not to actum volendi in Deo, but to res volitas, p. 51. which application alone, overthrows all what you say about God's conditional or respective decrees; and declares, that with your Scriptures, Reasons, and Fathers, you still fight against Sir N. N. or yourself, but against no other wise body. 5. You have not yet persuaded me, that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, is to you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, whereas without any other necessity, save what you have created, of bespattering of Mr Calvin, Twisse, etc. you have made your former less than three sheets of paper, to swell up into eleven almost in this your Correct Copy; yet have not retracted any one error, but rather committed more. 2. As for what need to be said to the particular Authors brought in your Muster-role, from p. 25. to 32. besides what hath been said already, give me leave to vent myself in some few general propositions. And here first, Because I affect to be somewhat Classical, I shall tank all the Authors quoted by you into three Clastes. 1. Of the Ancients before any Pelagian questions were started up. 2. If you will but give me leave to coin a word, the Augustinian Classis, during Pelagius his time, or anon after. 3. The Modern Classis, either of Pontificians, or of Protestants, foreign, or of our own Church. I say first in general, in reference to Position 1. all those, unless it were Origen, p. 26. I find they speak nothing, if they be candidlie interpreted, which makes for God's equal universal love to all mankind, the only end for which you bring them, or else they are brought in for no end, and are disquieted in vain. 2. More particularly, all those of the first Position 2. Classis, whether Greek or Latin, which you bring, might all very well have been spared. 1. because they cannot be presumed to be, fit determiners of those controverses, which did arise in the Church, after they were dead and gone (a) You have surely heard, that Ante exortum Pelagium, securius loquebantur patres. August. de praedest. sanct. c. 14. & count. Jul. l. 1. c. 2. Disputantes in Catholica Ecclesia, non se aliter inrelligi arbitrabantur; tali quaestione nullus pulsabatur, etc. . 2. We cannot but allow such, (especially in Sermons, Epistles, popular Catechisms, discourses against known heretics of another strain then the Pelagians) a greater neglect of their stile and phrase, than it were any way fit should be yielded them, when known heretics risen, watch the advantages of all unwary expressions. 3. Most of the Grecians, especially those who came from the Philosophic schools, to be Doctors in the Christian, brought so much of their Philosophy with them, into the Church, as that Divinity was fare the worse for them (b) Corn. Jan. in Aug. ●. 2. proem. Inter graecos, etc. Theologicae doctrinae princeps olim Origenes, post illum Chrysostomus fuit, unde sua derivarunt Theodoretus, Oecumenius, Theophylactus ac Damascenus, sed ita, etc. . 4. Yet none of them all was such an Erra pater in Divinity, as Origen, who abounds almost with as many errors as lines; and who, as our reverend Bishop Hall said of him wittily, desinebat esse vir, (for he would need understand that place, Mat. 19 12. about castration, literally) sed non malus interpres. This very man, who also hath learnedly been proved, many years before Pelagius was born, to have laid the grossest foundations of Pelagianisme (c) Jansen. August. Tom. ult. p. 1136. Origenes in Epistolam ad Rom. & in libris p●riarch. errorem d● praedestinatione secundum praescientiam, omnesque caeteros Pelagianorum, & Massiliensium, tanta copiâ & accuratione praecudit, ut post Pelagii aetatem vixisse videatur. vid. & lib. 6. c. 13, 14, 15, etc. . He I say, and he alone is brought by you contrary to scripture, Rom. 9 22. Judas 4. and some of that very antiquity appearing in your Catalogue, (as any body may see, who will but overlook it) for to father a notion for you, which also you had the boldness to communicate to your auditors, in a Lecture at Daintrey, viz. That God made hell only for wicked Devils, but not for wicked men, full out as bad as Devils. 5. Not only learned orthodox Protestants (d) See at large for this, Dr Whitaker, de peccato origin, l. 2. c. 2. D. Morton Apolog. 1. part. p. 267. Bogerman cont. Annotat. H. Grotii but even the learneder sort of Papists (e) Cont. Discuss. H. Grotii. have warned us against the overlavish expressions of Theophylact, Euthimius, Chrysost. Oecumenius, Macarius, etc. which yet are in very great state produced by you, as in this your list, so up and down your book, without taking notice of any such Advisoes given in: But it will not be amiss to remember, that abundans cautela non nocet. 6. Most, if not all these Authors, were, before ever Vossius booked them down, collected to his hand, by your admirable H. Grotius, in his ordinum Hollandiae, etc. Westfrisiae pietas, who also had borrowed them out of several parts of Bellarmine's writings (f) Bogerm. ubi supra parte secunda. , and that same unconquerable Grotius of yours, hath from Joh. Bogermen, received a particular answer to most of them, where you shall do well to fetch yours also. 7. Damascene, though of much later standing, than the former of the first Classis, yet he as a Grecian, may be ranked among them, as living in the Grecian Churches, nothing near so much pestered with Pelagianism as the Latin. As for the distinction of God's Antecedent and Consequent will alleged by you and others, sometimes out of him, and out of Chrysost. (as indeed as yet, sub judice lis est, who was the father of that invention) I have already in this writing of mine, showed, that possibly there may be some good use of it, if wise men may but have the management of it; and I have elsewhere (in my first writing) made it evident, that ever since the first minting of it, it hath been a very apple of contention in the Church, especially among the Schoolmen; none of all which, if we may believe a great Schoolman, Dr Twisse, one only excepted (g) That is Gregor. Ariminens. D. Twisse vindic. l. 2. digr. 8. p. 455. Sciendum quod quaecunque Deus vult nobis, aut facit in nobis, vel habent in nobis causam meritoriam, & talia dicit Damasc. Deum velle consequenter, sicut poenam quamlibet, quam propterea vul● nobis, quia peccamus; ita quod peccatum est causa meritoria poenae quam nobis infligit. Aut non habent in nobis talem causam meritoriam, saltem primam, sed ex sua gratia, & sua voluntate, illa nobis concedit, & talia sunt omnia bona quae habemus; & hoc dicit ip sum Deum velle nobis voluntate antecedente, quoniam nulla in nobis causa antecedit, nec propter aliud in nobis, vel ex nobis vult prim● aliqua bona nob is, sed ex sua bonitate primo; unde & merita nostra dona sunt ejus, ut August. 13. de Trin. Non ergo talis-voluntas consequitur causaliter vel meritoriè aliquid in nobis; & ideo non excausa nostra, sicut voluntas punitionis, sed ex seipso, Et ideo vocat illam consequentem, hanc antecedentem; & hanc manifestè patet, intuenti diligenter, esse intentionem ejus, etc. had ever the happiness to explain it any thing handsomely. 3. Damascene the great pretended Author of it, 1. Seems not to be constant to himself; for here as you quote him, p. 27. out of lib. 2. c. 29. orthod. fidei, whilst he distinguisheth in God, his antecedent from his consequent will, he must needs (at least as the words sound) ascribe deliberation properly so called, in counsel and mutations, of counsel also to God, which else where he doth deny; for saith he, ib. c. 22. 29. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. To advise, or to take counsel, is an argument of ignorance. 2. In this his device, he seems but to jump with much such another, as before him was taken up by the Massilians for the same end and purpose (h) Quia non omnes salvos fieri certum est, hinc illud propositum generale, non absolutum, sed ineffieax & quasi conditionatum statuunt, viz. Si homines ipsi velint, & consentiant. Dilucidis verbis eorum sensum Prosp. ad Aug. promit. Itaque quantum ad Deum pertinet omnib. paratam vitam aeternam, quantum autem ad arbitrii libertatem, ab his eam apprehendi, qui Deo sponte crediderunt, & quxilium gratiae merito credulitatis acceperint. And this to be your meaning, the same with theirs and their Leaders, Faust. Rheg. l. 1. de great. & lib. arb. is plain throughout your book, but especially by what you have out of Dr Andrews p. 20. and out of Hilar. p. 260. and Anselme, p. 27. And yet you would make us believe you are much for Prosper. . 4. The Arminians, (and yet it seems to be most proper Lettuce for their lips, the very Helena they are enamoured withal) could never yet, by it commend or divend any of their Arminian wares, any thing the better, for that at no hand they agree in opening the mystical meaning of it. And you amongst all the rest of that generation, are the most unhappy in the management of it, for that you are, not only as your great Vossius, and your domestic Dr Jackson (to whom you are much beholden for abusing the world with your two first principles, p. 6. which you took from him, and which you understand full out as equivocally as he) driven to confess, p. 51. that you understand this distinction not in respect of Gods will simply, in which there can be neither prius nor posterius, but in respect of the things which are the objects of his will, but also because, p. 40. you do, it seems, even in propriety of speech, ascribe such velleities, would bees, yea, such an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Almighty, as is most contrary to his nature. In the first way of explaining the distinction, you are unhappy, however it be foelix infortunium to the Church, in that with your own hands, you overthrew most part of your book; to be sure all your third Chapter, as I shall show when I come to it. In the latter, if you do but stand to it, you will become Atheistical (m) And say with Vorstiu● de Deo, p. 195. Non satis circumspectè loquuntur, qui Deum ut essentia, sic voluntate prorsus immutabilem esse affirmant. Voluntas Dei ad extra, non minus in Deo, quam in Angelis & hominib. ad opposita vertibilis. Id p. 371. Nihil absurdi inde sequitur, quod Deus in tempore quaedam praecise velle, vel nolle dicatur, quae fortasse non antea ita praecise voluit vel noluit, p. 486. poenitentia Deo rectè convenit, quatenus ipse opera sua propter supervenientem aliquam causam, insperatam verè improbat, deseri●, aut mutat. . And this for the Authors of the first Classis. 2. As for the Authors of the second Classis, Austin and his genuine followers, I make not the least doubt of it, but you would as gladly have them all unclassed, as you could wish that Calvin and Beza, had never at Geneva, appeared for Classes & Synodi; a thing which I am sure you are as angry at, as the fellow that wrote the Clerico-classicum of late. And this I gather, 1. In that in the matters debated, bordering upon Pelagianism, (against which, if in any thing he was his crafts-master) you would have Austin turned off from the Bench of your Jury, p. 28. and that upon some shadow of reason, which one, and but one Grotius delivers in, in a book of his, wherein (beyond Cassander) the Text which he was to defend, he carrries on his cruel Popish design against all Protestants, (n) Riu. Dyalis. in Discuss, Grot●i, p. 595 etc. The discussor being the last book that ever Grotius wrote. Grotium nobis benè volu isse, nec suisse quantum potu●t, in nostrus, persecutionum incentorem & incendiarium, nemo credet sanus; qui postrema ejus scripta legerit, in qu bus, omnibus pacem offered, ut nobis solis bellum indicatur, etc. And what the goodly design was, which Grotius before his death traveled with, he thus tells us himself, in the last leaf save one of that his last book, p. 255. as if he were making of his last Will and Testament. Restitutionem christianorum in unum idemque corpus, semper optatum à Grotio sciunt, qui ipsum nôrunt. Existimavit autem aliquando incipi posse à protestantium inter se conjunctione. Postea vidit id plane fieri nequire, quia praeterquam Calvinistarum ingenia fermè omnium, ab omni pace sunt alienissima, Protestants nullo inter se communi Ecclesiastico Regimine sociantur. Quae causa est, cur parts aliae, & aliae sint exsurrecturae. Quare nunc planè ita sentit Grotius, & multi cum eo, non posse protestants inter se jungi, nisi simul jungantur cum iis, qui sedi Romanae (N. B.) coherent, sine qua nullum sperari potest, in Ecclesia commune Regimen. but especially against all Calvinists; and wherein, as to Pelagianisme, he outstrides the most of the very Jesuits in his compliance with it. Questionless it is monstrous, that any man pretending to learning (upon the bare authority of such a prodigiously Erastio-Arminio-Socino-Pontificio-politick head-piece, as those who know him at all in his writings, and in his designs, know him to be) should contrary to the judgement of all Catholic Doctors, who were his contemporals, of whole Councils, who did transcribe his writings, verbatim, and turn them into Church-Canons (o) As it is famously known, of the Ephesine, Carthaginian, Milevitan, Arausican, yea, Roman Councils. Vid. Jansenium, Aug. cap. 14, 15, 16. And in slighting Austin, you comply with Gennad. Hist. Concil. Trident. who used to say of him, what Solomon hath of babblers, Pro. 10. 19 Hist. Gotesch. p. 20. Nay with far worse men, not only all the old Massilians, but with the worst of Jesuits, Molina, ●essius, Vasquez, etc. vid. Jans. Aug. T. 2. lib. proem. c. 16. , of several Roman Pontifes, (who upon another score, were desperately angry with him, as with all the African Fathers) be so far infatuated, as upon any reason, to believe him to be an unfit judge, who was the fittest (so far forth as any man may be looked upon, as a fit ministerial judge of controversies) to judge of any question bordering on Pelagianisme, as sure the question is, Whether God antecedently love all alike? whether Christ died for all alike? If one reason from Grotius, can weigh down so much reason from his and your betters, I know you care not for Austin, save that you must scaenae inservire. 2. I collect this from the supercilious pif, which you somewhere make at the modern orthodox, having only one Austin alone, by whom they would be tried, p. 31. which were it so, (as it is most false) yet 1. It were much more rational, next to Scripture, to stick to one Austin, who for twenty years together (p) Prosp. lib. count. Collat. Viginti amplius annis, contra inimicos gratiae Dei, Catholica acies, hujus viri ductu, pugnat & vincit. De quo idem suaviter carmine de ingratis sic canit. Nam quocunque gradum convertit calidus hostis, quaque per ambages anceps iter egit opertus; hujus ab occursu est praeventus &c most studied these controversies, and successfully contended about them, as Grace's Champion, against Pelagian nature, and Massilian diminutive grace, then to heed others, who perchance never studied these matters so many hours, as he did years. 2. That one Austin to the world's end, will by all the learned gracious world of Christians, be thought to weigh down a thousand such as Molina, Lessius, etc. or Arminius his second H. Grotius, with myriads of such as Episcopius, Tilenus, Corvinus, Bertius, Grevinchovius; yea, even though T. P. should bring up the rear (q) D. Ward Conc. ad Cler. degra. discrimine ad finem. Illud etiam verè adj●cere possum plus uni Augustino tam veterano, & in ista causa versatissimo tribuendum, quam centum Grotiis, Corvinis, Vorstiis, Bertiis, & id genus recentiorib. dogmatistis. Accedit & illud coronidis loco, Augustino semper adhaesisse hac ex parte, ecclesiam universalem, ab ejus temporibus, Ecclesiam item Anglicanam, ab initio Reformationis, & celeberrimam hanc nostram Academiam, etc. . 3. This is easily concluded, from your intolerable abusing of Austin, when you quote him, as if you did almost as much hate him, as Calvin and Beza, Dr Twisse and the rest of the first or second Reformation, p. 52. witness for a taste (for fouler matters we shall have, when we be arrived to your p. 44.) that in this place, p. 28. what you quote out of his lib. de sp. & litera ad Marcell. cap. 33. you produce something from his dispute, where he ventilates matters pro & con, against his express conclusion and determination of the question (r) The question proposed to Austin, you rightly propose as he doth, in the beginning of cap. 33. but before the resolution which Austin stands to, comes in, which is not till cap. 34. you snatch something for you from his dispute, which is continued throughout the whole c. 33. and not ended in the beginning of the 34. chap. as is plain by these words, Haec disputatio, si quaestioni illi solvenaae sufficiat, sufficiat; but then falls to dispute again, and concludes quite contrary to what you represent, thus: Attendat & videat, non ideo tantum, istam voluntatem divino muneri tribuendam, quia ex libero arbitrio est, quod nobis naturaliter concreatum est, verumetiam, quod visionum suasionib. agit Deus ut velimus, & ut credamus: And then coming to the critical point; Si ad illam profunditatem scrutandam, quisaquam nos coercet, cur illi ita suadetur, ut persuadeatur, etc. He shuts up all with an, O altitudo divitiarum, etc. and a check to such as Mr T. P. Cui responsio isia displicet, quaerat doctiores, sed caveat, ne inveniat presumptiores. , both in that place, and in other writings of his. It had therefore been honester and safer for you with Arminius, to have cried out, non stamus Augustino; or with your Oracle H. Grotius, out of the very book which you cite, to say, multa retractavit Augustinus, said in pejus. And dealing thus with the Master, we need not wonder if you use his scholar Prosper no better, in what by pieces snatched from several parts of his works, you huddle altogether, p. 29. Indeed I see nothing but what with a prosperous gloss of Prospers own making, in several other parts of his writings, will down with me very well; so that I shall not need to fly to that, aliquando bonus dormitat Homerus, that Prosper might Massilianize a little, as being tired with the perpetual calumnies of Massilians and Semipelagians (s) Yet so Bogerm. a man who deserves no small commendation out of Paraeus disp. de lib arb. p. 253. Apparet (inquit) de Mossiliensium faecibus eum (Prosperum) aliquid hausisse, & p. scq. Inter defersores liberi arbitrii, & praedicatores gratiae, mediatorem se profitetur, in quaestione quomodo Deus velit omnes homines salvari. And yet he concludes against T. P. that he doth not, illicò facere cum parte altera, etc. Nec decet frustulis hinc inde corrasis, sententiam authoris, alias publicè notam elevare, quemadmodum hodiè scriptis non tantum veterum, sed & recentiorum, Calvini, Musculi, etc. in rem suam abuti solent Novatores; quibus interim in votis est, ut sententia Prosperi, Calvini, etc. Passim quam ut impiam & blasphemam, traducunt, evertatur, & exterminetur. . Yet I have reason enough to suspect, that you value not Prospers judgement, more than Augustine's, and make not here so fair a representation of it, as you might do, as shall be somewhat more cleared in my next position. 3. As for the Authors of the third or lowest Classis, we should be agreed in it, that they are no farther to be valued, than as they agree with Scripture, pure antiquity, and the harmony of the Protestant Confessions. (as indeed, no mere humane authorities, are to be set up higher, Isa. 8. 20.) You quote but one Anselme, p. 27. who yet, 1. Saith nothing of God's intention equally to save all, but rather the contrary, in the very words cited by you: His words must needs be understood de voluntate signi, of what his dispensations import, and not the voluntate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, of what he hath decreed to bring to pass. 2. It is famously known, that Anselme, as well as a number of Pontificians more, are against you, in the matter of praedestination (t) Anselm. de Concord. cap. 2. Necesse est fieri quae praesciuntur, & quae praedestinantur. , and also in their magnifying of the distinction of the sufficiency of Christ's death in reference to Reprobates (u) Ansel. in Elucidario, Innocent 3. l. 2. de officio missae, c. 4. sanguis Christi pro solis praedestinatis effusus est, quantum ad efficientiam; sed procunctis hominibus quantum ●d sufficientiam. Sic. Th. Aquin. super Rev. 5. De passione loqui est dupliciter, aut secundum sufficientiam, & sic passio redemit omnes; omnibus n. redimendis & salvandis sufficiens est, etiamsi plures essent mundi, ut dicit Anselm. lib. 2. Cur Deus homo, cap. 14. Aut secundum efficientiam, & sic non omnes redempti sunt, per passionem: Sic Stapulens. ad Rom. 5. Tapper Artic. 6. Sonnius lib. 3. Relig. Christianae. cap. 19 and of the efficiency of it only to the Elect. The Protestants you call on your side, 1. Phil. Melancth. p. 29. but quote nothing out of him advantageous to you; if by reprobation, he mean but positive reprobation or damnation; the meritorious cause whereof, no man denies to be sin. Melancthon was a man, who because he ever had a name in the Church, and that deservedly, for depth of learning, for calmness, prudence, and moderation, your vapouring party use much to glory in, upon a pretence that he is one of theirs; when as the contrary is most evident. 1. From his intin acie, which to the last he maintained with Calvin; who also dedicated his book against Pighius (such another wrangler as yourself) unto him, as to a Patron and chief Vindex of the doctrine contained therein. 2. From a testimony under Melancthons' own hand, and that towards the time of his death, Anno 1543. that he Calvin Epist 48. agreed with Calvin in the doctrine of praedestination, free will, etc. save that Calvin's way was the more profound, but that his ways were (to use his own words) simpliciora, & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, & usui accommodatiora. 3. Indeed his scholar Christoph. Pezelius (x) See Pezelius, & Joh. Bogerm. contra Grotium, a. p. 160. ad 179. and concludes with a strong syllogism, p. 179. thus. Qui sententiam Lutheri & Calvini in quibusdam scriptis ●radidit plenè & aperte à priori, in nonnullis prolixe cam inculcat à posteriori; is, etc. who was to Melancthon, what Timothy to Paul, or Prosper to Austin, hath so abundantly made it evident, that there was no other difference betwixt their doctrine of praedestination, save in the manner of delivering; Melancth. beginning à posteriori, from vocation wrought in the heart, etc. Calvin speaking of it often à priori, as conceived in the bosom of the Almighty; as that to all the Arminian party, who boast of Melancthon, he hath left nothing but falsehood joined with impudence, as often as they make him of their party. 2. Next you produce P. Moulin, a man in all the five Articles controverted, in that very Anatome by you cited, against you, and your great Dr Arminius, that a man would wonder what was become of your forehead, when you call for help from him. For what though in some one odd notion of yours, about the object of reprobation, he may seem to be yours, should that embolden you to produce him as if he were completely yours? If you had the spirit of valour in you, you should take up the bucklers for him against Dr Twisse, who hath made it evident in the point you quote him for, that Non tenetur Magister sententiarum in hoc Articulo. 3. The last man you quote for you, with a superlative encomium given him, p. 29 etc. is our own Dr Overall. (though some (y) As they who subjoined it to his dissert. de praedest. & repr. ascribe that treatise to Dr Davenant) As for him, 1. If he will in the lax general phrases, be no otherwise understood, then as Dr Davenant expounds them, of a sufficiency in the death of Christ for all, together with an intention, that Christ's death should be a general remedy, not actually to be applied to all, but applicable to all upon condition of faith and repentance (z) Though reverend B●sh●p Davenant in his dissert. seem to g●e a way by himself, yet the sum of all he would have, himself being judge, p. 23. is but this, Non est al●enum à divina sapientia, statuere & ordinare media ad finem aliquem appl●cabil●a, licet intelligat, interveniente aliquo obstac●lo, quod ipse removere non d●crevit, ipsam application●m fieri impediendam. Huc of ferri potest illud Aquinatis de vest. disp. de praed●st. ubi discrimen ponit, inter providentiam communit●r sumptam & praedestinationem, quae est specialis pars providentiae: providentia (inquit) ordinem & finem respicit tantum, praed●stinatio respicit exitum vel eventum ordinis Quae per providentiam illam communiorem ad si nem ordinantur non semper finem consequuntur; at quae per praedestinationem singularem ordinantur, semper consequuntur, etc. . When I shall understand this to be all which you plead for in this point, I shall be willing that whatsoever difference about this may remain betwixt us, may be determined in a cool conference. 2. I doubt not but therefore Dr Overall is so high in your favour, not so much because he symbolizeth with you in opinion, as because you are tickled at the very heart, that he as well as you, plays upon Calvin, as elsewhere he doth traduce the Puritans also (who have been cleared of the crimes, by as wise, learned, and more moderate a * Bishop Usher in his Sermon before the Commons 1620. Bishop Carleton against Montague, quo supra, etc. Bishop then himself) for heterodoxie about praedestination; yet what both you and he bring out of Calvin, doth you not the least service. For 1. If in both places Calvin, as he doth understand the (all) for all of a certain sort, viz. for all so belonging to Christ mystical, their spiritual head, as all without exception do belong to Adam their natural head: Calvin upon the place hath it well, waving the very question, which you would have him determine for you, De nihilo agitaretur illa quaestio, quia non disputat Apostolus quàm paucis, vel quàm multis prosit mors Christi, sed intelligit simpliciter, aliis, non sibi mortuum esse. 2. What though he say and truly, that men are hindered from being saved by their own incredulity, doth he any where say, 1. That God by the virtue of the death of Christ, hath resolved to take away that incredulity from every body? 2. Or doth he say any where, that God intended Christ's death should save all, whether they did believe or not? But you cannot forbear lashing of Calvin, no otherwise then as if you were afraid that his severe ghost, per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might arise one day in England, to scourge you sound with some Presbyterian rods, for your Interimisticall-Cassandrio-Arminio-Grotian designs: But fear not my good brother, old Cynic Calvin is dead, and some Erastian Politicians of the times, will it seems, have a pious care of you, that you shall never smart under any such discipline. Oh happy time for Mr T. P! Though none were so full of Helvidianisme, (as you have a mind to upbraid some, p. 19) as to deny any general words of the Scripture, which they would have rightly interpreted, not expunged; yet it is most plain, that the Church in all ages, hath been for special Redemption, against general Redemption of all at random. And this appears, 1. By the four several interpretations of 1 Tim. 2. 4. which yourself acknowledge; all which carried it off from the general Redemption, which you maintain of all, both Elect and Reprobate (a) H●st, Gotesch. p●ssim. . 2. By the frequent objections of the Pelagians, and Semipelagians, where with they upbraided the Catholics (b) Faust. l. 1. de gra & l. arb. Dominium Nostrum Jesum a●unt humanam carnem, non pro omnium salute sumpsisse, nec pro omn●bus mort●um esse. Hoc omnimodis Ca●hol●ca detestatur Eccl●si●. H●l●r. Epist. ad Augustinum. Ind est, quod ●lius sententiae expositionem, inquiunt M●ssilienses, non cam quae arte deprompta ●st, suspiciant, id est, ut non nisi omnes homines salvos fieri vult, & non eos tantum, qui ad sanctorum numerum pertin●bant, sed omnes omni●ò, ut nullus habeatur exceptus. , for denying that universality of Redemption, which they, and they only did maintain. 3. By the express, full, and distinct confessions of the first Primitive Churches, delivered by the Church of Smyrna (c) Euseb. lib. 4, cap. 15. in Epist. de Polycarpo, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. . Which tells us, that Christ did suffer for the world of those who are to be saved, conformable to the expression, Rev. 21. 24. delivered in by Ambrose (d) Ambr. de vocat Gent. l. 2. c. 3. In ●lectis & praescitis & ab omni generalitate discretis, specialis quaedam censetur universitas, ut de toto mundo, totus mundus liberatus ●st, & de omnib. hominib. omnes homines videantur redempti. In eundem sensum, quem postea expressit Augustin. in Joh. 15. mundus redemptionis, unus, ex perditionis al●ero electus, qui & Epist. 102. asserit non pe●●isse u●um ex illis, pro quibus Christus mortuus est. , who tells us, that out of the whole world, the whole world was delivered; and out of all men, all men, viz. all the special universality, who were elected and foreknown, and dissevered from all generality. 4. As for the second Primitive Churches though you, and your Grotius, p. 28. think none so unfit to speak as Austin; yet I hope every body else will think none so fit to be heard as he (ut supra). And both he and the Valentinian Council after him, speak out as distinctly, what the judgement of the Church was in this point, as if you were to have it from Geneva or Dort. Nor should any be so foolishly suspicious, as to surmise, that Austin brought a new opinion into the Church, the contrary whereunto, he himself from all sorts of Authors, proves at large against the quarrelsome Pelagiant, whilst he doth demonstrativelie ad oculum clear it (e) August. l. 1. c. 2. con●ra Julian. & Respons. ad Artic sibi impoes. art. 1. Quod ad magnitudinem & potentiam pr●tii, & quod ad unam pertinet causam generis humani, sanguis Chr●●●. redemptio est totius mundi. sed qui hoc saeculum sine side Christ●, & sine r●genera tionis sacramento p●rt●anseunt, redemptionis alien● sunt. Cum itoque, per unam omnium naturam, omnium causam à Domino nost●o in veritate susceptam, ●edempti omnes rectè dicantur, non tamen omnes captivitat● sunt eruti, redemptionis proprietas, haud dubium, penes illos est, de quibus princeps bujus mundi, missus est foràs, & j am non vasa Dia boli, sed membra sunt Christi: Cujus mors non impensa est humano generi, ut ad redemptionem ejus, etiam qui regenerandi non erant, pertinerent: Sed ita qa●d per unicum exemplum gestum est pro universis, per singulare sacramentum celebra●●tur in singulis. Poculum quippe immortalitatis, quod consectum est de infirmitate nostra, & virtute divina, habet quidem in se, ut omnibus profit, sed si non bibitur, non proficit. , that in the foundation of all he wrote about Redemption, or efficacious grace, he was one with all the Greek and Latin Fathers, and his truth in this, is witnessed, even by a Bellarmine. And in truth, it is monstrous to conceive Augustine's opinions to have been so new, as the Pelagians and Massilians of old, and our Arminian Neopelagians would have a foolish credulous world, now to believe: For it can hardly sink into any sound man's head, that all the African and Western Churches and Councils, should be so fondly enamoured with one Austin of Hippo, as to adhaere to him novellizing, and to turn his writings into Canons, against their Catholic received teneus'. And then much less is it credible, that the Church of Rome, who in her Pontifes, begun to take unreasonable state upon her, and held Austin and the Africans under an excommunication (f) Phil. Morn. mist. iniqu. progr. 9 etc. upon another account, who watched for advantage of Appeals; and upon that score, was long before she assented to the condemnation of Pelagius and his followers; I say it is no way credible, that the Roman Church, should against her own interest, have suffered herself to be swayed by poor African Austin. 5. All this is most evident from the black brand of infamy, wherewith Austin stigmatizeth the Pelagians, for maintaining, as now the Arminians do, That men are redeemed, but not delivered from the power of the Devil (g) Aust. lib 3. count. Julian. cap. 3. redimuntur, sed non liberantur, lavantur, sed non abluuntur; Haec sunt sententiarum portenta vestrarum. Haec paradoxa Pelagianorum Haereticorum etc. Caeterum rogo te, quomodo potest intelligi ista redemptio, nisi à malo redimente illo, qui redimit Israel ab omnib. iniquitatibus suis: Vbi enim redemptio sonat, intelligitur & pretium; & quod est hoc, nisi pretiosus sanguis agni imm●culati Jesu Christi? De hoc autem pretio quare sit fusum respondeat ipseredemptor, ipse mercator, Hic est (inquit) sanguis meus qui pro multis effunditur. in remissionem peccatorum. Pergite adhuc, pergite, & sicut dicitis, in sacramento salvatoris baptizantur, sed non salvantur, redimuntur, sed non liber antur, etc. Mirasunt quae dicitis; nova, falsa sunt quae dicitis; mira stupemus, nova cavemus, falsa convincimus. . These opinions he calls portentous, new, Pelagian, Haereticall paradoxes, more wonderful than those of the Stoical Philosophers: And though it be true (as the late Bishop of Salisbury hath learnedly observed) that that place in the letter, speaks only of children; yet who sees not, that by just analogy, it may be extended to others? And elsewhere the Church is as peremptory in censuring those, who maintained, that Christ died as well, and as much for unbelieving impenitents, as for believing penitents (h) Concil. Valent. celebratum Anno 855. cap. 4. Quidam sunt, qui sanguinem Christi, etiam pro illis impiis, qui à mundi exordio, usque ad passionem Domini, in sua impietate, & aeterna damnatione puniti sunt, effusum definiunt, contra illud Propheticum, ero mors tua, O mors, etc. Illud nobis simpliciter & fideliter tenendum, ac docendum placet, juxta Apostolicam & evangelicam veritatem, quod pro illis, hoc datum pretium teneamus, de quibus ipse Dominus noster dicit: Sicut Moses exaltavit in deserto, etc. & Apostolus, Christus semel oblatus est, ad multorum exhaurienda peccata. Add to this the sharp censure of the Church of Lions, at large set down in Hist. Ga●teshalci, p. 79, 8●, 81. . By all that hath been said, I doubt not, but every ingenuous Reader will easily grant me, that you have small reason to brag of your Get, either in your Latin, p. 29. or your English summary, p. 31. That you are most ridiculous, in making so much of your notion out of Origen, p. 26. about everlasting fire not being prepared for wicked men, but for the Devil and his Angels, as to repeat it again, p. 29. I confess somewhat faintly, whilst now, as it were upon second thoughts, you shuffle in the term (especially) and not by a peremptory irrespective decree: But still by your eagerness to defend Origen, you 1. Leave some kind of suspicion behind you, as if in process of time, you would go on with him, to maintain redemption from hell itself, yea, salvation of Devils. 2. You quite forget your own reasoning, p. 21. where against Gods being the author of man's death, you say, if death be that monster, of which sin is the dam that brings it forth, how foul a thing must be the Sire? And can there be any greater blasphemy, then to bring God's providence into the pedigree of death? And is it less blasphemous to make God the author of preparing eternal torments, for those who were once the Lords more noble creatures, Angels, though now Devils, then to prepare the like torments for as great, if not greater sinners, wicked men, and that for the punishment of their sins? But I will leave you at your leisure to unriddle this, and take my leave of you at this time, from this your second Chapter. I will presume, my Reader will much thank me, if I shall affect more brevity in the Replies which I make upon the three following Chapters; which therefore I will most solemnly promise him to do, and for that purpose resolve to give in mostly my marginal quotations in more short references, and not at large, as hitherto I have done. I will in the beginning of each Chapter, deliver in such generals, as shall quite overthrow all his wild Asiatic discourses, in the several Sections, and then content myself with some brief Strictura's upon his nibblings at sound doctrine; and give him leave to please himself and foolish people, with his gaudy rhetoric. I may the rather take this course, for that, what follows, hath been much confuted in what hath been said; his whole design opened; and because with not many material variations, unless in what he hath out of Roetius, and in his distinctions, about necessity and contingency. I find that from this chap. 3. p. 32. even unto the very end, his book is almost verbatim the same, with his first renounced papers; unto which I hope every body will say, I have answered enough, if not too much. These papers may one day see the light, if the Church be any way pleased with any of my poor endeavours, in the defence of her truth and grace. Chap. 3. from p. 32. to 54. SIR, THE method of your proceed in these three Chapters, seems to me somewhat mystical; In the first you plead strangely against Sir N. N. (whom because, as you would have us believe, p. 10, 11. your affrighted fancy mistakes to be a Calvinist, you lay the harder at) That God is not the author of sin. In the second and this third, That he is not so much as the author of punishment, whether temporal or eternal; and yet (whether soberly or no, as you talk of Calvin, p. 30. I know not, but surely enough) you begin this Chapter, p. 32. with a palpable contradiction to yourself, when you say, That every reprobate is praedetermined to eternal punishment, sure then, God is the author or efficient cause of that punishment; unless he be not the author of all that he determines to do or inflicts; the conditionality or absoluteness of it, altars not the case. It had been somewhat hard for me to have divined, what you aimed at in these eccentrick Chapters and Sections, unless you had indoctrinated my plumbeous cerebrofity, by a kind dilucidary, which you set down, p. 46. ●in four several propositions; whereof the first is, without more ado, allowed you; and if you please, you may understand it of the sole efficient, or rather deficient cause. The 2. and 3. are easily granted you, if by cause you will but understand the sole meritorious cause, not the sole efficient cause; nay, that you may perceive how kind hearted I am, now I am on the giving hand, I will grant you the fourth also, which is the great thing you do strenuouslie fight for, tanquam pro aris & focis: Provided always, that 1. By reprobation, you understand (as not where you seem to do otherwise) positive poenall reprobation, or praedamnation; which none of your fiercest adversaries maintain to be decreed or inflicted but for sin (i) So Dr Twisse often, Calvin in 2 Thes. 2. Reprobi suo delicto morti devoti sunt, non pereunt, nisi qui digni sunt. Zanc. de nat. Dei. l. 5. p. 712. peccatum non est causa rejectionis, sed est causa damnationis. . 2. That by condition, you do not understand the condition of God's eternal, internal, immanent act of willing, but of the thing willed, or the damnation to be inflicted (k) D▪ Riu. de reprob. 12. Decrevit eos quos reprobavit, propter peccatum damnare; neque tamen propterea sequitur, peccatum esse causam decreti, quam●is est causa rei decretae: quia potuisset Deus, etiam considerato peccati merito, homines illos revocare ad meliorem viam, quod aliis accidit, qui non minus in se habebant causam damnationis. Sed tamen non decrevit Deus absolutè eis infligere poenam, sine conditione peccati, et si conditione posita, potuisset non infligore. . 3. That by condition you do not understand such a causal condition, as was in no sort arbitrary unto God, to have taken, or not have taken the advantage of; for if so, we must all have been damned; for God saw sin enough in all. And now we seem to have made up the composition you put in for, p. 47. I might allow myself an holy day with my Mr T. P's good leave, as finding little work for me to do about this Chapter: But that you may know, how much better I like to keep at my work, then to play, I will adventure to do two things. 1. Without all craft and deceit, (as much of it lurks in generals) to put in some generals, which to any intelligent attentive Reader, shall quite overthrow all or most of the particulars of this Chapter, until, p. 47. 2 Out of my free heartedness towards you, I shall affix some Animadversions to your text, where you are jeering, railing at, or nibbling at doctrine, that cannot, must not be gainsaid. In reference to the first, I have (as briefly as the matter will bear) these four things to say. 1. In what sense our Divines say or say not, that God's decree of election or reprobation is absolute. 2. That in the sense to be opened, that of irrefragable Archbishop Bradwardine, must needs be true, that all God's decrees or wills are absolute. 3. That reverend Mr T. P. in this very Chapter, saith as much in effect. 4. I shall show what be Mr T. P's chief mistakes and grand sophisms, throughout the body of this Chapter. As to the first, I might justly refer to the very first thing, which I have done in my first papers, wherein I have at large handled this, the rather, because I may hope, that that which relates to the stating of the questions belonging to these 3, 4, 5. Chapters, may come to light not long after this. Yet lest any disaster should fall out, take the very abstract of all, thus. 1. As for the terms, absolute, necessary, irrespective, fatal, irresistible, etc. they are not chosen by us (l) Bp Carletons' Exam. p. 14. We use not these terms; we reject them, we need them not, we have enough in Scripture to maintain this doctrine. , who have others more scriptural (as these are not) to express our meaning, about God's decrees; but rather imposed upon us by our adversaries; who also in that imposition, usually understand them not in that sense, which we sometimes have when we are forced to make use of some of them; but in the sense they are pleased to give them, for the making of us and our doctrine odious. But as for the terms of irrespective, conditional, incomplete, indefinite, not peremptory, they are terms of our adversaries own coining, though fare less scriptural than most of the former, and therefore ought not by them to be disowned. When we say then (e. gr.) at any time, That God's decree is absolute, we mean not that it is, 1. Irrational, that were an abhorred blasphemy against the God of all reason: As he can do no unrighteous thing, so, nor irrational; how little soever men or Angels may be able to give a reason of that justice (m) See Calvin at large before, citing Scripture, & Austin for his de praedest. 700. & 728. voluntati ejus quis resistit, nunquid responsum est ab Apostolo, O homo, falsum est quod dixisti. Non; sed responsum est, O homo, quis tu es, qui responsas Deo? . 2. Or that it is devoid of, and hath no respect to an efficient, material, formal, or final cause, ab interno movens, moving from within; though we deny all cause moving from without, causam procatarcticam, and all distinctive conditions formal, in or from an external object (n) Riu. disp. 5 Thes. 3 & 4 D▪ Dau. in prolegom. de Rep. moving from without. It will be an eternal truth, that praedestinatio non egreditur extra se. 3. Or that it is without all science or prescience of what shall be, or shall not be future, as to different conditions and qualifications in the object, (this were horribile dictu, to throw dust in the Almighty's eyes (o) V●de Walaeum cap. 3. the provide. count. Corvin. p. 71. Licet verum sit quod decretum ejus antecedat scientiam visionis; quia alioqui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, aut temeraria existentia induceretur; tamen & boc verum est, scientiam & sapientiam Dei hic esse divinae voluntatis quasi norma, & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. ,) though we say not, dare not say, cannot prove it when we have said it, that God doth from eternity discern this or that upon the prescience of, or for the sake of those different qualifications. 4. Less, by an absolute decree, do we understand (as Mr T. P. and all the Jesuitical, Anticalvinisticall, etc. associates with him, would feign make the world believe, that we hold) such a decree, which for salvation or damnation, was intended to be executed, without all consideration of the different wills and behaviours of men (p) That would be decretum horribile indeed, even a very cyclopic one; monstrum horrendum, etc. Vide Apol. Remonstr. , so as that, though men had believed or repent never so much from their whole heart, yet by virtue of an absolute decree, they should be designed to eternal torments, and dragged to them; and others again (whom Episcopius, in scorn, speaking of the Elect, calls albae gallinae filios) by virtue of their election, should be as certain for heaven, whatever their lives and faiths had been; As that fur praedestinatus (a book which extremely all the Batavian and English Arminian party, are taken with, nota loquor) would have the world believe, that upon our principles, he was after his horrid debaucheries, and his impenitence in them all (q) See fur praedest. ad finem, when he comes to his Te Deum, p. 64, 65, etc. where he doth most wickedly misrepresent and misapply some undeniable truths. These wild fancies are no other than the slanderous expuitions of malicious inveterate enemies of us and the Church; for the venting of which pray God forgive them, and make the Church as really to shun them, as the woman upon Eagles wings, did fly from the red Dragon, when he cast a flood of water after her, etc. Rev. 12. 15. All that we mean, when we say that God's decrees are absolute, is, that, 1. They be sovereign, free, unforced, Eph. 1. 11. not dependent, praedestinatio non est in potestate praedestinati, sed praedestinantis (r) Anselm. Si vis omnium, quae fecit Christus & passus est, scire necessitatem; scito, quia ipse voluit. . 2. Eternal, not temporal. 3. Unchangeable, not alterable. 4. Infallible, certain, by virtue of God's counsel (not doubtful) and in this sense necessary. 5. Definite and personal: not general and indefinite, relating rather to general conditions, then having respect to particular persons, or events. 6. Praeconstituent, and in time effecting every thing any way conducing to salvation, in the way of causes, means, qualifications, etc. So that every thing which is accompanying salvation, is a proper fruit of the decree of election; only permissive, and governing of every sinful thing, which tends to the chambers of death (s) In malis est antecessio ordinis, non causalitatis. , which are not fruits of reprobation, but merely consequents; yet all punishments, whether temporal or eternal, are prepared by God. In a word (for many more things might be profitably added) even whatsoever this Author, and the less profligate sort of Batavian Remonstrants would seem to ascribe to prescience, we do as much ascribe to praedetermination, the ground of all that which they call scientiam visionis: And by so doing, we do as little introduce Manichism, Stojcism, etc. as themselves (t) See Dr Davenants Animadversions, p 36, 37. . Now 2. That all decrees in God, properly so called, in the sense declared, must needs be absolute, I prove especially, 1. By Bradwardines' Argument, as Dr Twisse relates it (u) Dr Twisse, Synod of Dort, and Arles, p. 68 , unto which he subjoines another of his own. 2. By the direct tendency, which the contrary opinion hath to Atheism itself, and that the grossest also. For the first, He first proves out of Bradwardine, that if we yield not to the absoluteness of God's decree, we must like wicked men, ambulare in circulo, walk the rounds till our heads run round. His argument is thus: If there be any conditional will in God, (I mean this quoad actum volentis, or decernentis) the condition of that will of God, is either willed by God, or not: If not willed by him, then that must be acknowledged to come to pass in the world, without the will of God, which he holds to be a great absurdity: But if that condition be also in some sort willed by God, then either absolutely or conditionally: If absolutely, then also the thing conditionated, shall be absolutely willed by God. But if it be said, that the condition spoken of, is willed conditionally, than a way is open to a progress in infinitum, which all disclaim; for it would make us all run round, run round, In montibus inquit, erant, & erant in montibus illis. That which he subjoines of his own, is no less strong, and therefore he hath challenged all the Arminians in the world to answer it, many years ago, yet no Reply is made. That Achillean Argument of his in the same place, he sets down thus. If any will of God be not absolute, but conditional, then surely the decrees of damnation and salvation are conditional, even to the very Acts of God's decrees: But (saith he) I will evidently demonstrate, that in Christian reason, this cannot be: For if any thing be a condition of the decree of salvation, then either by the necessity of Nature, or by the constitution of God; Not by the necessity of Nature, as is evident of itself, and all confess; but neither by the constitution of God; for then God did constitute, that is, ordain, that upon the position of such a condition, to wit, faith, etc. he would ordain man to salvation. Mark, I pray, the notorious absurdity hereof, God did ordain, that he would ordain, or God did decree, that he would decree; where the eternal acts of God's decree and ordination, is made the object of his decree or ordination; whereas it is well known, that the objects of God's decrees are only things temporal, and not eternal. Thus fare he, whom we may style our English Austin, or our Bradwardinus redivivus; who, as I have heard him say often, when he was but a young scholar in New College, transcribed all Bradwardine with his own hand. A man more fit to be heard in these matters, than Grotius the Great. 2. As for the direct tendency of the contrary opinion about the respectiveness and conditionality of God's decrees, to gross Atheism; to say nothing of the great (x) In his Arcan. Arminianism. lib. 2. in octa. & eorum defensio in 410. undertake of D. Nich. Vedelius, (a man, as I am well assured, my good friend Mr T. P. can no way brook, as little I think as he can answer him) I prove by these following arguments, which I shall presently set down, Dr Twisse had some reason to ask (y) Against Mr Mason, p. 37. why it should not be possible for an Infidel to turn Manichee, and an Arminian to turn Atheist, if he be not one already. And possibly, that author of whom the same Doctor speaks, and who in his time, was a known oracle to all the English Arminian party, had some sense of this, who because (as the late B. of Salisbury observed against Vorstius (z) Animadvers. p. 520. he was loath to admit of such a praedestination as agreeth with God's nature, he shaped out a nature for God, suitable to that praedestination which he dreamt of, when he was not ashamed to protest, That he thought it less dishonourable to the blessed Trinity, to say with the Atheist, there is no God, then to feign such a God, as the decree maintained by the Contra-Remonstrants maketh him to be. Now the chief Arguments to prove the tendency of the respective conditional decree to Atheism, are these which I shall now give in short, but which I shall, God giving me life, health, and opportunity, be willing to draw out more largely, whensoever I shall be called forth thereunto, or dared out by any of the great Grandees of the contrary faction. 1. Respectiveness in God's decrees ab aeterno, as to the internal act of willing in himself, introduceth a chief cause before the chief and first cause; and by this means nullifieth a Deity, as even Arminius himself confesseth (a) Armin. disput. de Deo Thes. 51. Austin de Genes. contra Manich. l. 1. c. 2. voluntas Dei, omnium quae sunt, ipsa est causa: Sin. habet causam voluntas Dei, est aliquid. quod antecedit voluntasem Dei, quod nefas est credere. Vide Walaeum contra Corvin. cap. 3. the provide. p. 98, 99 . And truly what more essential to God, as such, then to be the first and chief of all things, which are or shall be? This once denied, overturnes all Deity, and so I think introduceth a worse mischief than the most hurtful evil, which even the praedominancie of splendida bilis in Mr T. P. durst object against us, when p. 55. he chargeth us with Manichisme, which as cursed as it is, is some what better than Atheism, by how much better it is to have one God too much, than none at all. 2. It introduceth a most fatal fatality, worse than any of the Stoics feigning, with which also, in the same place he doth upbraid us, viz. such a fate as doth not only bind the creatures, according to the decree and appointment of the great God, but which doth bind the supremum numen itself, according to the vertible cylindrical will of a vain creature, turning upon his tropicks, contrary to the will and determination of God. 3. It introduceth an eternal futurtion of all contingent voluntary things before any decree, either of God, or of man, hath passed upon them. No decree of God, say our great patrons every where, hath passed upon them; for that would bring in praedetermination, before prescience, a thing which to their soul, is more hateful, than the lame and the blind were to david's, 2 Sam. 5. 6. No decree of man could, who certainly ab aeterno, could not determine himself, this or the other way; Non ens non habet affectiones. 4. It divorceth, yea, nullifieth eternal prescience in God, and it was Augustine's saying many hundred years ago, Qui tollit praescientiam, tollit Deum. It divorceth prescience from praedetermination; for according to our Mr T. P. and the rest of the upholders of the respective decree, all future contingent things are only foreknown, but not determined; See Mr T. P. throughout all his Boethian discourse, à. p. 48. to the end of the Chapter. And thus we have an absolute prescience, & but a conditional praedetermination; so that whereas in men, it is yet an undetermined question in the schools (b) Dr Riu. Synops purior. Theolog. & disp. de lib. arb. cap. 8. Thes. 5. , whether man's rational judgement, and his rational will, make two distinct faculties really, rather than notionally only, distinct; in God, prescience and praedetermination, must be both in nature, and in time distinct; nay it nullifieth all eternal prescience; for never yet have the Arminians, though provoked by their adversaries to do it a thousand times, been able or willing to show, how all mere contingent things, (as for example) in themselves, as the foreseen faith of Paul (c) Austin. de bon. perseverant. Haec dona Dei quae dantur electis, secundum Dei propositum, quibus datum est, & incipere credere, & in fide usque ad vitae hujus terminum perseverare, sicut tanta rationum atque authoritatum contestatione probavimus; haec inquam, Dei dona, si nulla est praedestinatio quam defendimus, non praesciuntur à Deo, praesciuntur autem. Haec est igitur praedestinatio quam defendimus. Vnde aliquando eadem praedestinatio significatur etiam nomine praescientiae. , and the infidelity of Judas, should from eternity pass from the condition of mere possibility or contingency, into a condition to be certainly foreseen as future, before all divine praedetermination. He that among the Arminians can unriddle this, erit mihi magnus Apollo; which because the wisest of them could never do, therefore Episcopius leaves it questionable, whether there be any such matter (d) Episcop. Thes. private. , and the rest, though otherwise vocal enough, are Mutes about it, throughout their Synodalia Scripta. 5. It is most praejudiciall to God's wisdom and power, as well as to divers other attributes, which I will not now mention. 1. To his wisdom; God and Nature we use to say, make nothing in vain; But according to the opinion (if a man may so speak in imitation of our Mr T. P. p. 13.) of the conditional praedestinarians and reprobatarians, God hath made all rational creatures, men & Angels, in vain, contrary to Prov. 16. 14. before he could foretell, or had determined their temporal or eternal conditions, what should become of them, for good or evil. 2. To his power, in bringing to pass whatsoever he will, in heaven, or in earth, Psal. 135. 6. (e) Aust. Enchirid. cap. 90. Nisi hoc credamus, periclitatur ipsum confessionis initium, quia in Deum patrem omnipotentem credere confitemur, neque enim ob aliud veraciter omnipotens diceretur, nisi quia quicquid vult, potest, nec voluntate cujusquam creaturae voluntatis omnipotentis impeditur effectus. What man is there, who if it lay in his power, would not make all his purposes absolute? and shall not this be in the power of God, yea effected by him? 6. According to this Divinity, we are not to pray, Mat. 6. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven, but contrà, Thy will be done in heaven, as men shall conclude upon it on earth. 7. It introduceth a number of uncerteine velleities, and wouldbees, in the Almighty, in propriety of speech, an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the which belike our Mr T. P. p. 40. is not afraid to ascribe to him, though his Arminius (f) Armin. disput. 4. de Deo. think, and that truly, that it is most unbecoming the divine Majesty. By these, and I cannot tell how many myriads more of absurdities, it is easy to see, whither conditional decrees would carry us, even to put it into our creed, Deum non curare mortalia quenquam. 3. (For that was the third thing proposed by me) Reverend Mr T. P. himself, our ipse dixit himself, (for I am sure we have in this Pamphlet, a world of dictates, rather than Arguments from him) is forced to yield to the substance of all that hath been said, for the absoluteness of God's decrees, in the sense declared, when he tells us, p. 51. That the distinction of voluntas antecedens & consequens, (and he explains the Antecedent will of God, by conditional upon the place) is not made in respect of Gods will simply (in which there cannot be either prius or posterius) but in respect of the things which are the objects of his will. And good Sir, ought you not to have known, that all the dispute betwixt you and your adversaries, is about the internal simple act of Gods will, and not about the external object, or thing willed by him? Do you not then perceive, as yet, how handsomely and soberly by this concession, you do quite and clean overthrow all that you labour to build up, throughout your whole book, and especially this Chapter? Truly as the wisest are observed, not to be wise at all times, nemo sapit omnibus horis: So neither are the wildest always out, they have their dilucida intervalla; est & olitor aliquando opportuna locutus. In the oddness of the look and mean of your book (to phrasifie a little with you) you are all for the conditionality of God's decrees, and staringly against all absoluteness; but here all upon a sudden in this your saying, you are as much for an absolute decree, as any of your calvinistical Adversaries would have you. You belike are one of the modern Politicians, you do loqui cum vulgo, but sentire cum sapientibus. If so, Sir, let wise men have more of your meaning and fools more of your gaping. But if yet you do not understand, how fairly by this grant, you have broken the back of your finically fine Corrected Copy, learn it from Doctor Twisse, for once, whom you have so often wrested and abused; who though he never thought of you when he wrote it, yet now speaks very pertinently to you thus (g) Dr Twisse against Mr Hoard, p. 49. . I would not have any think, that I reject any of those ancient Fathers, that seem to be most opposite to Augustine's opinion, in the point of praedestination. I think they may be fairly and scholastically reconciled, without acknowledging of so much difference betwixt them, as Vossias maketh, and tha● by such an interpretation, as sometimes is admitted by Vossius himself of his own phrase, of his own distinction, though he dreams not of the applicable nature of the same to the will of God, in praedestination (h) Hist. Pelag. lib. 7. . His distinction is, of voluntas Dei antecedens & consequens, and this he makes equivalent to that other distinction of the will of God, absolute and conditional. Now this conditional will of God, he interprets, not quoad actum volentis, but quoad res volitas. Like as Dr Jackson professeth in express terms, that the former distinction of voluntas antecedens & consequens, is to be interpreted, namely, quoad res volitas, and not quoad actum volentis. Now according to this construction, there is no difference between them and Austin, nor the least impediment to the making of the will of God, both in praedestination and reprobation, to be most absolute. For though sin be acknowledged to be the cause of the will of God in reprobation, quoad res volitas, in respect of the punishment willed thereby, this hinders not the absoluteness of reprobation, quoad actum reprobantis. And unless we understand the Fathers thus, we must necessarily charge them with such an opinion, whereof Aquinas (i) Aquinas affirmat, nem nem esse, tam insanae mentis, ut diceret, merita esse causas praedestinationis, ex parte actus praedestinantis, lib. 1. q. 23. a. 5. is bold to profess, that never any man was so mad as to affirm; to wit, That any merits should be the cause of praedestination, quoad actum praedestinantis. And why so? because praedestination is the act of Gods will, and there can be no cause of God's will, quoad actum volentis. Now, who seethe not, that by the same reason, there can be no cause of divine reprobation, quoad actum reprobantis; for even reprobation is the act of Gods will, as well as praedestination; and every way it must be as mad a thing to devise a cause of reprobation, quod actum reprobantis. Thus fare that learned Dr, all which if it be true, quite overthrows your book; and if not, pray confute it, and your own grant too. 4. As for the grand sophisms, and numerous mistakes, they be especially these, relating to this Chapter, as to what for argument's sake, must be reduced to it, out of others. 1. We have a parcel of wild consequences, so extremely remote from the premises, as if at the same time you had sent a bill of divorce to Calvinisme, p. 24, and 48. You had with it also manumitted all natural and artificial Logic, ex. gr. p. 33. God hath a true will, which is usually called voluntas signi, a commanding, threatening, promising will; ergo, That is all the will he hath; he hath no other above it or besides it; for no body mainteins he hath any contrary to it. 2. Upon the perpetual confusion of election and salvation, as if they were one and the same, throughout Chapter 3. and 5. Salvation is actually bestowed upon none (viz. of years, for other wise it is false) but upon faith and repentance, and perseverance in it. p. 69. None were elected to them, but upon foresight of them: they be the conditions of election, as well as of salvation. 3. Upon a like mistake, that there is the same reason for the making of God's decree, that there is in the intended execution thereof, p. 39 (k) The falsehood whereof Doctor Ames Rescrip. scholast. ad. N. Grevinch cap. 5. and Doctor Twiss also, have confuted by many instances. In his answer to Mr Hoard, p. ●89. The decree of showing mercy in pardoning of sin doth no more presuppose sin, than the decree of showing the power of balm, in curing a green wound, doth presuppose the wound: or the decree of showing the power of a cordial against poison, doth presuppose the poisoning of a man's body; or the decree of advancing a subject by way of reward, doth presuppose his service; or the decree of a patron to prefer his son to a benefice, doth presuppose his fitness for it; or the decree of Solomon to bring Shimei his grey hairs to the grave in blood, did presuppose the offence for which this was brought to pass; but rather from these decrees and intentions, each author in his kind, proceedeth to bring to pass every thing that is required to the accomplishment of the end which he intends, etc. You conclude with a sure, but not surely; that which is the reason of their condemnation, was the condition upon which they were determined to be damned. If you dispute concerning the cause of God's internal will, quoad actum volentis, as you must, or else you pinch no body with it, but Sir N. N. 4. Promises of rewards, threaten of punishment; some covenants evangelical, are proposed and published with conditions; p. 33. A blessing if ye obey, and a curse if ye obey not, etc. ergo, God takes up his eternal decrees concerning events and persons, upon the same conditions. And in this latter way of arguing, you do so please yourself, (as your brother Arminian Mr Hoard, had done before you) as that from p. 33. to 36. you make 4. or 5. Arguments of one, (and that a very lame and inconsequent one) as if the punishments, rewards, promises, threats, exhortations, etc. would afford you different mediums, for different arguments. Just as we might conceive, that that Herald, who by command of his Master, in opposition to the long catalogue of Kingdoms, enumerated in the title of the King of Spain, cried out, The King of France, the King of France, had reckoned up several Kingdoms belonging to the King of France. How well you may be satisfied with such sequels, I cannot tell, but most acquainted with the ways of arguing, will fear, that neither Scripture, nor your best care (which you promised to use, p. 7.) were your best guides in the conveyance of them. 2. As for pure Theologicall Sphalmata, I cannot tell how many they be; but I am sure, these be some of the chief of them. 1. Though I cannot tell in what good fit upon him (sure he was in some good mood when he did it) he grants, that there can be no prius nor posterius, and so no conditionality in Gods will simply, p. 51. Yet he doth all along throughout the Chapter, most simply shall I say, nay, most confidently plead for a conditional decree, and for a conditional decree only of election and reprobation. Whereas the very Remonstrants were once angry with their adversaries, laying it to their charge, that they did in Terminis maintain, God's decrees to be conditional * Collat. Hag. in Statu. controv. ad cap. 1. p. 124. Nos nusquam diximus electionem esse conditionalem. . It's a wanton creature which overturnes the vessel, into which it had poured forth good milk. 2. He overturns all God's decrees properly so called, and instead thereof, p. 33, 34. etc. substitutes mere mandates, promises, exhortations, statutes about personal qualifications, etc. These with him and all his party, are the decrees of praedestination. As if when Princes put forth Proclamations, Statutes, Orders, etc. for ship-money, taxes, excise, etc. they did praedestinate us to the payment of them. 3. Clearly instead of a scriptural praedestination going before a praedetermination of man's will, he introduceth a postdestination of Gods will, as his own phrase is, p. 53. dependent upon man's will. And here indeed we find the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he talks of, p. 23. of putting the child before the parent, etc. There we have the hypallage of the horse upon the bridle. 4. As pleasing a man, as he would be thought to be, yet in this Chapter, and throughout all the forefront of his book, contrary to the more rational and Theological way which he had taken in his first papers, he loves to be dealing chief, in the more harsh and less explicable or comfortable point of reprobation, than in that more comfortable, and in the Scriptures oftener mentioned point of election (l) Ames Rescript. ad Grevinch. cap. 5. he hath his answer. Calumniandi animum ab iis prodi, qui ab electione ad reprobationem, à gratia ad peccatum, i● disputationibus hisce tam avidè solent, & praecipitanter ferri. 2. sui dogmatis consectariis omnibus urgeantur ipsi, non iniquum esse; quip qui consilii divini, totiusque decreti quod electionem attingit, rationem se reddere posse dicunt: à nobis verò non aequè requiri posse, ut consequentias omnes calumniosè colligatas cuique praestemus, qui mysterium hoc, mortalem omnem superare mentem u● credimus, sic & ubique docemus. 3. Non eam esse reprobationis rationem, quae est electionis, id est, ut scitissimè dixit Augustinus, nec ita reprobationem esse causam mali, ut praedestinatio, est causa boni: Nec obdurationem ita facere hominem malum, ut misericordia facit bonum. 4. Hanc eandem dicam, & Augustino Pelagianos & Apostolo Paulo veritatis hujus hostes impegisse, quam ipsi cum papistis, nobis nunc impingunt. ; For which I can assign no other good reason, but that having taken in a liberal Dosis of Arminian Divinity, he thought it as requisite for the making of his adversaries odious, to adhaere as well to their method, as to their matter. 5. Yea, as little compliance as he would seem to have with his good friends, the Arminians, p. 4 and 5. he doth in this Chapter all along, out-stride them. They at least at first (as may be seen in stating the Question in the Hague-Conference) would be thought only to presuppose faiths praevision before election unto life; whereas our Mr T. P. most valiantly presupposeth not only faith, but all sorts of good works and perseverance in them to the last gasp before election, p. 36. as the performance of faith and obedience, is that important condition, without which, as the former will not be had, so the latter, viz. reprobation or damnation, be avoided, so p. 69. 6. In the way of objections against orthodox protestant doctrines, we have nothing, but what many hundred years ago, was against Austin and his followers, spit out of Pelagian and Massilian mouths; we have nothing but their old cram, as I had thought at large in the particulars, to have represented in my margin, but shall be forced to do it in short references. All those four things which I promised, being now fully dispatched, I scarce know any child but might run and read, and then censure all which you have in your several sections, until p. 47. where you put in for some Articles of composition. But because all are not of a like quickness, for the use of very babes in Christ, I will, as I promised above, in the second place, affix some few short animadversions to the words of your text, where any the least need shall seem to require. And here the most that will need to be said, will be to your 22. Section, p. 33, 34. where first you seem to have a months' mind to maintain, that God hath no other than a revealed will, that is, such a one as is made known by commandments, promises, threats, exhortations; for you say, that we must guess at his secret will, by what we know of his revealed will; and yet more plainly, We must only judge of his eternal and impervestigable decrees, by what we find in his word, concerning his promises and his threats; all which is nothing but a remonstranticall petitio principii: For the question betwixt you and your adversaries, is not, whether yea or no, God hath made such decrees, as you represent; viz. That every believing soul shall be saved, and every final impenitent one be damned; but whether these be all the decrees which God hath made, or whether to speak properly, this be any decree of praedestination at all, wherein no body is either praedestinated or reprobated (m) See what Dr Davenant hath in his animadv. even out of your much valued Dr Overall, p. 10. and 256. ? 2. It doth seem to hold forth, that you be as well able from Scripture to open to us what be the conditions, upon which God doth elect or reprobate, as you can show the conditions upon which God either saves or damns men (n) Ibid. p. 6. He should have showed us, with whom God conditioned, upon what terms, and where the conditions stand upon record: and p. 38. conditional decrees of salvation and damnation have been published in the Gospel, and are acknowledged by all Divines, but conditional decrees of eternal praedestination and preterition, are not found in Scripture, nor allowed of by the Church of England. Every man knows where to find these conditional decrees. If any man believe and repent he shall be saved, & contra, but it will be hard for any Remonstrant to show those other, If any man believe he shall be praedestinated; if not, he shall be reprobated. : And this you will do when the Greek Calends come in. 3. You would insinuate, that you and your complices (your own phrase to me in an Epist.) are the only meek, modest, lamblike people, who confess, that you were not of God's counsel, and therefore dare not forsooth pry into the secrets of God's counsel; but that your adversaries are as bold as ever Pliny was, when he would be peering into Mount Vesuvius; whereas it is all the Christian world over, most famously known, that one of the grand questions betwixt you and your adversaries, upon the hinge of which all the rest do turn, is, Whether there can be any reason by men assigned, why God would praedestinate some men to life, and leave others? which you adversaries hold in the negative, but you in the affirmative. Foelix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas: Only the mischief is, you put non causam pro causa. it is as famously known by this time, as your work is any where famous or infamous, that upon a presumption which particular persons may have, that they be absolutely reprobated, you would according to our principles, have them conclude, p. 41. That it is a reprobates duty to be damned; that it is a duty in the greatest part of men, to go industriously to hell: That when a reprobate says his Paternoster, he vehemently prays for his own damnation. In none of all which grand mysteries of iniquity, do any Calvinists that I know, understand themselves from any principles of their Creed to be instructed in, any more than those ignorant Papists understand their Creed, who, as Dr White tells me (o) in some parts of Lancashire, Way to the Church. use to say their creed thus, Creezum tuum patrem onitentem, creatorem, ejus amicum chrixus fixus poncho pilati; and besides, for vitam aeternam, Amen, say, Bitehum & turnehum again. But you belike, quick witted man, as you be, understand better what follows from calvinistical principles, than the most quicksented men among themselves; Laurea tu dignus! But if it may be possible for the rectifying of yourself, at least for the antidoting of docible Readers, it will not be amiss in few words, to show, 1. What we mean by asecret will. 2. In what sense we call it secret. 3. That God hath such a one. 4. That it is no way clashing with his revealed will. For the first, by a secret will, we understand nothing but the will of God's counsels, concerning persons, and the event of all things from all eternity, known perfectly only to himself, and so locked up in scrinio pectoris omnipotentis, Eph. 1. 9 2. We call this will secret, not as if at all, neither in his word or works, he had made so much as in general, any discovery that he hath such a will; for that were contrary to many places of Scripture, Deut. 29. 29. Psal. 135. 6. Prov. 16. 4. Isa. 46. 10. Rom. 9 11. Acts 15. and Acts 21. 14. 2 Tim. 2. 19 but because he hath only revealed it in general, and not in particular; what it is before it is acted, in reference to Titius or Sempronius, etc. 2. Because he no where gives any mortals (o) Prosp. l. 1. de vocat. Gent. Latet discretionis istius ratio, sed non latet ipsa discretio. Upon this score, th●t the doctrine of praedestination was altogether secret, as the Massilians supposed, they would have it wholly rejected, as Mr T. P. doth. Idem Prosp. in Epist. ad August. Eò postremò pervicacia tota discendit, ut fidem nostram aedificationi audientium contrariam esse definiant, ac si etiam vera sit, tacendam; quia & perniciosè non recipienda traduntur, ut & nullo periculo quae intelligi nequeant, reticcantur. any particular account, why and upon what reasons he would take up such a will, otherwise then that by so doing, he would glorify himself in time, Pro. 16. 4. Rom. 9 22. 3. That God hath such a will some way distinct, and above that of his precepts, which is usually called voluntas signi, is most clear, 1. From many Scriptures oftentimes quoted already; unto which we may add, Psal. 115. 3. Mat. 26. 42. Rom. 9 19 Eph. 1. 11, etc. 2. From multitudes of Prophecies of all sorts, concerning things divine and humane, in their own nature merely contingent and free, foretold many hundreds of years before they came to pass, and therefore were not only foreseen, but praedetermined, before all humane praevision, and praedeterminations: For surely, he that shall say, that these things were not absolutely willed by God (in the sense often explained) but with Dr Jackson, shall acknowledge no decree of God, concerning humane actions, good or bad, no not of those which God promised to effect, concerning his mercy in Christ and Christians, or concerning his judgements to be effected by the wicked, but only disjunctiuè▪ that is, by his own instances, Part. 2. Sect. 2. cap. 17, etc. Aut erit, aut non erit, either it shall rain all day to morrow, or be fair all day, (in which example of a false disjunction, he may seem to teach, that God's decrees may also be false (p) See Praef. of Dr Ames, (for that to be his, I know from his own mouth, before Dr Twisse his book, called the discovery of Dr jackson's vanities. .) The sun will either shine or not shine this day at twelve of the clock: I say, he that shall say so, had need, not only (as Dr Jackson hath the phrase, Epist. Dedic. to the Earl of Pemb.) be in an error or ignorant; but I dare say, he had need to turn Atheist, and believe the Scripture no more, than he would the Sibylline Oracles, Aio te Aeacide, Romanos vincere posse, etc. 3: From the daily and hourly events, which fall out, many whereof are far enough from being agreeable to God's commands. 4. That this no way clasheth with Gods revealed or praeceptive will (so as to make two really contrary wills in God, though they may seem so to us) hath been in part shown before, unto which I refer; and do but add that known Maxim, that subordinata non pugnant, that pars non opponitur toti. That part of God's will which is manifested in his precepts, threats, promises, exhortations, etc. is not contradictory to the other part of his will of decrees, or secret will; neither as it relates to the elect or reprobate: Not, to be sure, as it relates to the elect, for so Gods voluntas signi, is also voluntas beneplaciti; God not only thereby declaring what is the duty of the elect to perform, if they will be saved, but what he, who makes them his workmanship, created unto all manner of good works, Eph. 2. 10. intends first or last to work in them: so that in reference to them, there is neither contradiction, nor so much as a show of it, betwixt these two wills: nor are they contradictory, in reference to the reprobates; for they only in the letter of them, and divulgation of them, declare what is every body's duty to perform; what is in itself, holy, just and good, Phil. 4. 8. & è contra, and so pleasing or displeasing unto God, what, when performed or neglected, he will reward or punish, which certainly he wils, and shall be; and therefore, that which saith nothing of God's secret will (otherwise than what by just consequence is inferred from other places, and relates to the elect, as I said just now) that can contradict nothing of God's secret will: Qui nihil dicit, nihil opponit. If about this reconciliation of the secret and revealed will of God, you would be pleased to consult learned Zanchius (q) Zanch. de Natur. Dei, l. 3. cap. 4 & 10. Voluntas arcana & revelata, non duae sunt voluntates, neque unquam contrariae, sed una eademque, semperque secum consentiens Dei voluntas. Voluntas enim revelata, cum impletur (quod cer●è tandem efficitur in omnibus electis) eadem si, necesse est cum arcana; quia ea tantum fiunt, quae dominus vult, arc●na voluntate sieri, Lege autem sua, Deus non solum docet nos electos quid nostri sit officii, & illud, ut praestemus mandat, sed etiam significat & revelat quid omninò decreverit, & simpliciter atque absolutè velit à nobis fieri; imò potiùs quid ipse velit in nobis operari. Quum vero non impletur, totum hoc non est illa Dei voluntas, quae propriè voluntas appellatur. in Abrahami & Pharaonis exemplis manifestum est: & est tamen mandatum declarans quid Deus probat , or peruse the 5. Chapter of succinct and acute Amesius, in his scholastical Rescript. sent to Nich. Grevinch. I dare promise you, if you mind it but attentively, it will by God's blessing, do you much more good, than not only the 5. book, with which you swagger so much, p. 48. etc. of your much commended Boethius, but than indeed all his 5. the consolation Philosophiae; in all which I can hardly pick up five crumbs of true Christian Comfort. These things thus premised, which are of use against the whole Chapter, I can be content you rhetoricate it, along from p. 33. to the beginning of p. 35. to as small purpose, as to any advantage to your cause, as if with some Sir Don Quixot, (mentioned Epist. 2.) you were strenuously beating the air, about some fair chimaerical Lady 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which you would have, or die for her: Only in your winding out of this Sect, p. 35. you seem afresh to set up another ranting note against the Calvinists, when you say, That no man is infinitely punished for an unavoidable necessity, but for not doing his duty, etc. As if any orthodox body had ever said or wrote otherwise. I am sure, those whom you will account to be fierce Calvinists, the Contra Remonstrants in the Hague-conference, do as peremptorily affirm this, as yourself (r) So Calvin himself, the occult. Dei provide. Resp. ad 1. Totum illud, de nudo puroque Dei arb●trio, ex malitiae ●fficina productum est. Sic cont. Remonst. passim per totum Colloq. . Good Sir, what wrong hath that same saucy fellow, Sir N. N. done you, that if my life lay on it, I cannot get you to forbear quarrelling with him? Can I but guess what hurt he had done to my good Mr T. P. I would join my forces with yours, and labour to be as certainly the death of him, as that same King in our English story, who with his Poniard, swore he would stab all the Frenchmen. Impossibility (say you) is not a sin, and therefore no man is punished, etc. True, where the thing commanded, is, and was ever impossible (s) August. l. 3. de lib. arb. cap. 16. Ex ●o quod non accepit (Adam) nullus reus est; ex eo verò quod non facit quod debet, justè reus est: Debet autem, si accepit voluntatem liberam, & sufficientissimam facultatem. , and where the impossibility is absolute, as in a brute or a stone, to believe and repent; not where men since the fall, and by their voluntary fall, have made it impossible to themselves (t) Aquin. p. 1. q. 23▪ art. 3. Cum dicitur quod repro●atus non potest gratiam adipisci, non est hoc intelligendum secundum imp●ssi●ilitatem absolutam, sed conditionatam, quae non toll it libertatem. , for else, 1. Natural men, who live and die in the state of nature, should not sinne in violating the covenant of works, under which they are, nor be justly damned for it, because it is impossible for them to keep that covenant. 2. It would be no sin in the obdurate to continue impenitent, though Arminius himself▪ Disp. publs. say as well as the Scripture, that it is impossible for such to repent, Heb. 6. 4. 3. It would be no sin in the regenerate children of God, not to love God with all their heart, power, strength, etc. because in statu viatorum, it is impossible for them to do so. 2▪ This objection of Impossibility comes out of the Pelagian school, among whom for the destroying of original sin, there was none so great a maxim, as one which they snatched out of Austin (u) Julian apud August. l. ●. oper. imperf. count. Julian. Nihil esse peccati in homine, si nihi● est propriae voluntatis, vel assentionis, hoc mi●i hominum genus, quod vel leviter sapit, sine dubitatione consentit. Idem. ibid. Nec semper fuit maximum inter Manichaeos catholicosque discrimen, & limbs quidem latissimus, quo à se mutuò pi●rum, & impiorum dogmata separantur: ●mò magna moles, ●uasi c●li & terrae pro●unditate disjungens. quoth nos omne peccatum voluntati, illi verò malae ●orum▪ naturae tribuunt Qui cum diversos s●qu●ntur errores, sed veluti de capite fon●is istius eff●uentes, consequenter, ad sacrilegia ●lagi●iaque perveniunt. Aug. lib. de vera Relig. usque adeo peccatum est voluntarium malum, ut nullo modo sit peccatum, si non sit voluntarium. , That all sin is voluntary: With whom, how much our good friend Mr T. P. (a great hater of Pelagianism, as he saith)▪ in making the same use of it, concurs, I have showed elsewhere (in first papers) and possibly may again, when I come to p. 65▪ It was the cruelty of Adonibezek to cut off men's thumbs, etc. a greater in Pharaoh, to require bricks, and deny straw. 1. This would pinch hard, if you could prove, God did forcibly bind men's hands from working, and then require work; that men were very willing to perform the uttermost of that little which they can do, since the fall, but God would not suffer them: that he requires any thing from them, more than what once they were able to perform, Eccl. 7. 29. and ceaseth not yet to be due: that his fatal decree of reprobation (as you use to style it) deprives them of any natural or moral powers to work, which are left in them since the fall (x) Prosp. ad object. resp. 15. Nemini D●us correctionis adimit viam, n●● quemquam boni possibilitate dispoliat. Non est autem co●sequens, sicut putant, qui talia objiciunt, Deus quibus poenitentiam non dederit, res●piscentiam ab●●ulerit; & quos non levaverit, alliserit. Cum ●liud ●it insontem in crimen egisse, quod alien● est à Deo, aliud criminoso veniam non dedisse, quod de peccatoris est merito: & August. Deo reprobante non irrogatur aliquid quo homo ●it deterior, sed tantum non irrogatur quo fiat melior. 2. You should rather say, that men by sinning cut off their own thumbs, and scatter their own straw, make away all their own powers, like wicked prodigals, and that therefore they are justly punished for not working, though they have disenabled themselves from doing any thing that is savingly good. 3. How many painted words, and pargited speeches soever you give us, p. 56. (as you are excellently good at laying on paint upon rotten posts, witness the Praefacers paint, in the Dialogue betwixt the two Ladies, mentioned before,) by which you would engender in us a conceit, that you much under value the power of nature, and magnify the power of Christ's special grace; yet by what you say here and elsewhere its plain, that you feed us there, upon design, with empty spoons, whereas your bosom opinion is clearly, That a mere natural man without the special grace of Christ, hath a moral possibility in him to be without sin; yea, to fulfil all the law of God, by which he may avoid all punishment: For else if man have not this power, God is as cruel as Adonibezek, as Pharaoh, if he require any work at his hands. And if this be not Pelagianisme, nothing ever was. 4. You do not or will not see, that all these objections, of injustice, cruelty, etc. which you do so much joy to cast up, fall as foul upon divine praes●tence, as divine praedeterminati●n; as even a Jesuitical Molina is forced in effect to grant (y) B. Davenants Animad. p. 386. citys his words, de conc. p. 368. Punctum ve●ò praedestinationis, & abys●us inscrut●bilis d●vini con●i●ii, in eo sunt posita, quod cum Deus infinitas alias providendi non praed●stinatis ration●s nov●rit, qu●bus pro ●adem ipsorum libertate, in vitam d●v●niss●nt aeternam, fui●●entque proinde pr●d●stinati: ●●emque infinitas alias noverit rat●●nes providendi praed●stinatis, quibus sua libertate bea●i udinem amitterent, fu●ssentque reprobi, pro sua tantum libertate▪ & n●● pro qualitate usus liberi arbitr● praevisi, ne ut conditione quidem sin● qua non, ●um providendi modum▪ utrisque elegeri●, p●r qu●m p●aevidit ill● sin vitam ●●●nam, pro s●● libertate 〈◊〉 perve●●u●●▪ . But we go on with what you say more: An opinion, brought among other merchandise out of Turkey into Christendom, and would be rooted out in the next reformation. 1. I am not so well skilled in Turkism, (as never having read the Turkish Alcoran) as exactly to know what their opinion is concerning absolute praedestination; but I am so competently versed in Popery, and so well acquainted with your affections, both to first and second Reformation, p. 5. who will never like of any but a Cassandrian, Interimisticall, Grotian Reformation, as that you will (as I have told you heretofore) sooner put in for Rome, than we for Constantinople, or you for Geneva; there, as neither in other Protestant well reform Coasts, your wa●es of conditional election and reprobation, are not like to go off at all; though they will at Rome, where they will be good chaffer, as Pope Innocent the tenth, and last Pope save one, assures you in his Bull published, 1653. against Jansenius. 2. My wonder is, that living in a climate as you do, where you know there hath no small stir been made of late abou● Reformation; and whereas you know, the very life, breath, and being of all your liberty, must come under God, from those who are deeply enough engaged to defend Christ's Religion, and the Religion of their own Country, which in the point controverted (as hath been proved) is diametrically opposite to yours, you should dare to be so bold, as to object Turkism to it. But this objection of Turkism is but a stolen one of the Batavian Remonstrants (z) Vide cont. Remonst. 2. p. 57 Remonstrantes existimârunt se populum & membra Ecclesiarum à nobs ave● suros, & ad suas partes pertracturos esse, si doctrinam nostram odiosè proponerent: esse illam horrendam, blasphemam, Stoicam, Manichaeam. & Turcicam, etc. nos docere Deum esse authorem peccati, etc. . From Sect. 23. p. 35. to Sect. 32. p. 43. BY the Independency, or incoherence of your Ergoes upon your premises, you seem to me to be an huge Independent. Your Deca●chorde of Arguments drawn out at length, and not in figures, hangs all upon the cord which I have broken before, viz. That there is the same reason for the conceiving of a decree, that there is for the executing of it, which is never true in God's decrees, and not very often true so much as in man's. 2. And then by your so frequent repeating of one and the same argument, taken from punishments, commands, etc. as if appearing in several shapes, it were divers; and by frequent rolling over, it did multiply: You▪ to me look like some Pharisaical Battalogi●t; who because he hath many the same words, concludes, he doth as often vary his matter, as he doth his expressions. There will then be a necessity, to give in a more particular and elaborate answer, to what you h●ddle together here in these several Sections; when you shall have proved. 1. That you have not mistaken yourself, in stating of the question about absolute election and reprobation, and so shoot all your Arguments at Rovers. 2. That what you bring hath not abundantly been answered already. 3. That you, who no more than your Master D. H. will be counted a Socinian, (Epist. ult.) have many answers in readiness against Socinians, objecting most of the same, to be sure, very like arguments against eternal prescience (a) Vid. Socini praelect. c. 8, 9, 10, etc. & Castal. Dialog. , which you would make us believe, p. 48. etc. You yet hold, which here you bring forth against eternal and absolute praedestination. Yet lest you should crow and strut like a Peacock, that I decline to answer you, because it is not possible to be done, let me in few words say something to what you bring. And here to that, Sect. 23. from punishment, which you repeat again, Sect. 26. Reas. 4. For what are greater degrees of damnation, but punishments? And again, Reas. 5. From death, which what is it but a punishment, whereby men are deprived of life? Sect. 27. p. 38. Reas. 10. From hell, Sect. 31. unto which Dives, p. 41. was sent, which what was it but a place of torment, or punishment? Unto all which I shall not need to say any more (if I do it will be a work of supererogation, and I ought to merit something by it at your hands,) then than first, You ought to be punished (though I confess, not burnt) as you are angry Servetus was, (as you say by Mr Calvin. Epist. ult.) for repeating one argument so often, which I have answered already, against what you have, p. 24. and will not punish myself or the Reader, with repeating of it. 2. That you will never prove out of Calvin, or any good author, that God ever doth, or intended to punish any one with temporal, and then less with eternal death, but for sin. To what you have about the Bear, the Peacock, the Fox, and the Tower of Siloam (b) It's grounded upon the most unscholasticall mistake, That all praedetermination of the first cause, takes away all causality in the second; whereas è contra; Rectius Cumel, quiae Deus concurrit cum causis secundis juxta naturam & exigentiam ipsarum, et si concurs● praevio, ideo dici solet influxum causae primae modificari in secunda, & ex secunda, Et Gregor. de Valent. Quia Deus concurrit cum causa secunda, sic aut sic disposita, ideo libertas per hunc concursum non tollitur; modo addatur (ut probè mo●●t. D Walaeus) in actionib. bonis, hanc dispositionem non esse à voluntate, sed à gratia praeveniente, aut auxilio speciali. . 1. I have answered largely elsewhere, by way of return to your first papers, where you have verbatim, the very same words, as here, p. 35. And truly me thinks in your first papers, I had all along to deal with the Peacock, Bear, etc. or the strongest arguments which you have to produce for your cause; and in these your second, I have only to deal with the fair plumes of the Peacock, and the long tail of the Fox, and sometimes with the raging of the Bear, in his cruelty against Mr Calvin. 2. You will then prove these instances, to have been pertinently produced by you, when you shall from any of our principles, as understood and explained by us, have cleared it, 1. That the weakness and wickedness of lapsed man's will, annuls the will, or the freedom of it (c) August. de great. & lib. arbit. Semper est voluntas libera, sed non semper est bona. Aut enim à justitia libera est, quando servil peccato, & tunc est mala; aut contra, etc. , though indeed it annuls the goodness of it. 2. That a wicked man sins not much more freely, deliberately, ex consilio, (wherein the liberty of the will consists) then, I do not say a Peacock is proud, or a Bear is cruel, etc. but then a very regenerate man, set free by the son of man, John 8. 36. in the day of Christ's power upon him, Psal. 110. 3. performs in this world any one act of grace or devotion, Rom. 7. 21. Gal. 5. 17. 3. That the liberty of man's will since the fall, is not preserved by a liberty of a contrariety, as they call it, which is to a velle or nolle, a willing or nilling, quoad exercitium, unless over and above we grant him still to have a liberty as they call it, of contradiction to good, as well as evil alike; to gracious, as to ungracious works (d) It is remarkable what Jansen in his August, hath about this distinction, lib. de great. primi homin. c. 6. Tom. 2. p. 101. Ad rationem libertatis, illam indifferentiam, & quasi ab utroque extremo undependentiam postulant, ut viz. semper agere possi●, & benè, & malè, vel certe agere & non agere, Sed qui secundum istud, ad rationem libertatis postulant, fortè tolerandi sunt; qui primum, (ut passim T. P. facit) in ipsam impingunt Catholicam fidem. , the great Diana the Pelagians so much contended for. 4. That the reason of the moral impotency of man to any thing which is spiritually good, to be performed after a spiritual manner, is not as much, if not more, to be taken from his will, than from any thing else: He wils not, because he cannot; he cannot because he will not. I say, until such time, as you shall have demonstratively proved all these matters, well I may believe, that you have the cruelty of a Bear, against Calvin, and those who hold with him. But I shall not think you do in this Section argue like an Animal rationale: Well you may have the Thievery of the Fox, when out of Fur Praedestinatus, and such like pleasing authors, you filch out matters against Calvin; but I shall hardly believe, that you have so much as the subtlety of a Fox left to you, in your arguments (e) Fur praedest. & Castal. Dial. reasons like you, that according to our doctrine Homo ex Dei creatione ac praedestinatione, habet ad malum propensionem, sieut lupus ad homicidium, etc. forgetting as well as you, that we out of Austin, say, l 7. de Civ. Dei. Deus it a ordinat omnia, ut ipse proprios motus exercere sinat. vid. conses. Remonstr. cap. 9, 10, 11. . 2. To your second reason, taken from the nature of a covenant, which ever implies a condition, as you say S. 24. p. 36. 1. You and the Arminian Remonstrants, do rightly jump together, whilst you change the coveant of grace, into a covenant of works; whilst you make faith and obedience important necessary conditions, not only for the obtaining of salvation, or eternal life, but for the obtaining of eternal election: For this argument is brought in by you, for the proving of conditional election, as well as conditional salvation. I do now the less wonder at the (f) Liberi orphani novem; in Epist. Dedicat. ad c. 7. ad Romanos. Orphans of Arminius, who speaking their father's mind, say, that we are justified by works as well as faith; at Poppius, or Grevinchov for saying, eadem est electionis & justificationis ratio; or at yourself for recommending to me your admirable Grotius, de justific. peccatoris ad vitam; who as Dr Rivet tells me, (for I never saw any book of Grotius with that title) maintains in it, that it is most absurd to grant, that there is any such thing, as imputativa justitia, imputed righteousness. 2. You should know, that God enters not into an everlasting covenant with his people for the electing of them, but because he hath elected them to the obteinment of faith and obedience, Gen. 15. 1. Deut. 15. 11. 2 Thes. 2. 13. 3. That the covenant of grace, is first and chief made with Christ, as the Head and Mediator of the Church, Isa. 53. 10, 11. 2 Cor. 1. 20. Gal. 3. 16. before it is made with Christ's people, and in him it is more absolute than conditional; or belike, as Austin observed of old against the Pelagians (g) Aug. l. de praedest. Sanct. c. 10. Promiserat quod ipse facturus est, non quod homines: quia et si faciunt homines bona, quae pertinent ad colendum Deum, ipse facit, ut illi faciant quae praecepit, non illi faciunt, ut ipse faciat quod promisit. Alioquin ut Dei promissa compleantur, non in Dei, sed in hominum est potestate; & quod à Domino promissum est, ab ipsis redditur, etc. Idem lib. de gra & lib. arb. c. 16 Magnum al●quid Pelagiani se scire putant, quando dicunt, non juberet Deus quod sciret ab homine fieri non posse. Quis hoc nesciat? Certum est nos velle cum volumus, sed ille facit ut velimus, de quo dictum est; quod praeparatur voluntas à Domino. , it depends more upon men than God, that the Lords promises are fulfilled or that Christ hath any flock at all. 4. If all covenants divine, as well as humane, are conditional, you nullify all the absolute promises, which in scriptures are made to the elect of giving them Christ, of giving them vocation the circumcision of the heart, faith, illumination, repentance, etc. which sure are absolute promises, or else assign you us the condition of them, without falling into absolute Pelagianism, and stumbling upon the first stone of the most hateful point of it, That the grace of Christ is given according to the works of nature. 5. If the Covenant of grace be as inindifferently made with all mankind, in the second Adam, Jesus Christ, (the great thing which for the introducing of universal grace, the Pelagians did most stoutly plead for (h) Aug. lib. de gest. Pelag. Gratiam Dei, secundum merita nostra dari. Prosp. epist. ad Aug. Quantum ad Deum pertinet, omnib. paratum esse vitam aetarnan, etc. Armin. Resp. ad Art. 31. Art. 13. 19 Deus universum genus humanum, in reconciliationis gratiam assumpsit, & cum Adamo omnibusque ejus posteris in eo foedus gratiae inivit, etc. ,) as the first covenant of works, was in the first Adam before his fall; then, 1. All the Rakehell's in the earth, nay in hell, are as truly Christ's confederates and members of his body, as any of the elect of God, given to him of the father, or any of the Saints in Heaven. 2. Then, if God in Christ hath made a covenant of grace promiscuously with all, he would not certainly divulge it to so few in all ages, Psal. 147. 19 6. If the covenant of grace be still as conditional, as that of works made with Adam, was, which runs thus; Do this and thou shalt live, and that still this is all the covenant which God under the Gospel hath made with his people; Believe and obey, and thou shalt be saved, then, under the Gospel's man's yoke is not made lighter, but heavier. Christ is not as one that takes off the yoke, Hos. 11. 4. but as one who ties it on faster. 1. By how much two conditions are harder than one. 2. By how much less any light of nature suggests any thing tending towards the belief of that great mystery of Godliness, recommended to us in the Gospel, 1 Tim. 3. 16. then it doth towards the believing that God as our chief good, is to be loved with all our hearts, etc. Mat. 22. 37. and that we are to be justified by an inherent righteousness of our own, rather than an imputed one, of a crucified Saviour. 7. As for your criticism about the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in the Title of our Gospel, all know, that there it only signifies the books of the New Testament: but if we attend the Apostles explication of the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Heb. 9 15, 16, 17. we must take the Gospel's covenant of grace, to be rather a Testament then a covenant strictly so called, which on both sides is conditional. By virtue of the former, our Testator procures grace for us, for the fulfilling of the conditions of the covenant, which therefore is said to be established upon better promises, Heb. 8. 6. and 9, 10, 11. By virtue of the latter, both parties are left to their liberty, upon non-performance of conditions: As for your third, taken from the unlimited generality of promises and threats, etc. 1. None of them all are proposed, that we might obtain election, or avoid reprobation, but that by them, our salvation might be promoted, and our condemnation avoided. 2. Even these are not so much as divulged (at least not ordinarily) unto all, but only to such, as some way or other are in the Church. 3. According to this Divinity, election unto life is made as common, as the proposal of promises, exhortations, etc. 4. The sequel of it, is all along but this; preaching would be vain, exhortations deceitful, etc. Vain towards the elect. 1. Though by them, as by external means, God intends to bring such to salvation, Rom. 1. 16. 2. Though he intent to work with them and in them, what he exhorts them to (i) Aug. l. de gra. & lib. arb. cap. 15. Facite vobis cor novum, etc. Qui dicit, dabo vobis cor novum, Quomodo ergo dicit facite vobis? ●ur jubet, si ipse est daturus? Quare dat, si homo facturus est, nisi quia dat quod jubet, & adjuvat ut faciat, cui jubet. Vid. plura. l. de persev. 2. c. 14. Dominus ipse hominibus praecepit, ut crederent, nec tamen, ideo falsa est sententia nec vana definitio, ubi ait, nemo venit ad me, nisi datum fuerit à patre meo. . 3. Though they, as well as any, stand in need to be acquainted with their duties, and to be excited to the performance of them. Deceitful words to the reprobate. 1. Though by them they come to be acquainted with their duties, which though without special grace, they cannot perform, yet they do not cease to owe to God. 2. All fig-leaves of excuse are taken away from them, because it is their course to brag, as Austin observed of old, that if they might but have known Gods will, they would have done it. 3. They are oftentimes by heeding of them, made much better by attaining to some common graces, shunning some sins, procuring an easier hell, ut mitiùs puniantur, was Augustine's phrase. 4. If they had heeded them, as they should have done, they would certainly have been saved; they refused them not without their wills. 5. This objection is nothing but an old Pelagian, Massilian, Arminian, protrite Stallion, answered in the Christian Church a thousand times over. 6. If these promises, exhortations, etc. were not in the Church, promiscuously proposed to all, they could not come at all to the ears of the elect of God, for whose benefit they be primarily intended 1 Cor. 12. 28. (k) Aug. lib. de dono. persev. & de corrept. & gra. cap. 15. Nescientes enim quis pertineat ad praedestinatorum numerum, quis non, sic offi●i debemus charitatis aff●ctu, ut omnes velimus salvos fieri. Vide & lib. 22. de Civ. Dei, cap. 2. . Your 4. reason, Sect. 26. p. 36, 37. is nothing but your old cram, with which you do both cram and torment your readers. Magis & minus, non variant speciem. I hope you will think yourself to have been punished enough, by what hath been said to you about punishments, against your poenall arguments. I pray God what hath been said, may rather heal you, then hurt you. Me thinks I find by this and many other of your arguments, that when your power of hurting your adversaries by hard arguments fails you, that then you call in your never failing rhetoric, to the hurting your own soul. As in this Section your behaviour against God's decrees, and against God's servant, Mr Calvin defending them, is much like that of the persecutors of old, who first did put Christians into Bears skins, and then ●et dogs upon them; As you first misshape Gods decrees and servants, unto your misguided fancy, and then you let out your bandog of your Oratory upon them; and by so doing, you rather wrong your own soul and name, than those you fight against. For good brother, assure yourself, that you may play and sport, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; play with any thing rather than with such edged tools. For what you quote out of Mat. 10. 15. I have heard it often quoted by the Batavian Arminians, to prove the third Article of the fifth Article controverted, about the way of Gods working upon the soul, per solam suasionem, and to prove their Jesuitical scientia media, but before you, I never saw any bring it to prove, that God hath not absolutely resolved to damn men for sins. You bring it, and divers other Scriptures with it, in your margin, as so many cyphers, signifying nothing. 2. For what you say, Mat. 11. 20. that it was not impossible for the Cities to have repent, whom our Saviour upbraids with impenitence. We say so too in a sober sense, who know of no decree of reprobation, necessitating impenitence in any, unto which it is a mere Antecedent, but no positive cause. God makes not repentance by his decree, impossible to men (l) Aquin. Quaest, de volunt. Dei ar. 5. Divina voluntas in contingentibus non tollit potentiam ad oppositum voluntatis sed actum: & part 1. Quaest. 23. à. 3. ad 2. Aliter se habet reprobatin in causando quam praedestinatio. Reprobatio non est causa ejus, quod est in praesenti, scil, culpae, etc. Est tamen causa ejus quod reddit●r in sutu●o, scil. poenae aelernae: Sed culpa provenit exlib arbit ●jus qui reprobatur, & à gratia deseritur. , but they make it so by their own hard and impenitent hearts, Rom. 28. which cannot yield. All men even naturally, have potentiam remotam resipiscendi; As Adam when he stood had potentiam remotam, for posse est naturae; but no men have potentiam proximam resipiscendi, without the special grace of Christ, John 15. 5, for velle est gratiae. 3 For what you (immoderately given to your jests and jeers, rather than to any serious matters) scum up, as so much miro and dirt, Isa. 57 20. about jeering a poor creature, most incongruous to our Saviour's pitiful nature, about a salt sarcasme, or bitter jest. Answ. 1. It is no other stuff for substance, than what hath been answered often, and what your heart is full of, and out of the fullness of your heart, your mouth speaks; every vessel will empty itself. 2. If any ingenuous front had been left you, (vales certè ingenio (& cadendi indulges genio) sed non vales ingenuitate) you would never have upbraided us with this. For 1. Those are only properly jeered and gulled, who are put in hopes of such things by promises, etc. which they do not only want, but which with all their hearts and souls, they would most willingly have, by any possible means if they might be put into a way, how to come by them (m) That jeer of yours, come to are and I will lift thee up, is an old Pelagian ro●ten objection, H●●ron. ad C●esiph●nt. So●eti● & hoc decere; aut possib●l●● esse mandata, & recte à Deo data, aut impossi●●●ia & non in his esse culpam, qui accepêre m●ndata. said in eo qui dedit impossib●lia. . And will you, or dare you say, this is the case of reprobates, who most willingly refuse the offers of grace, as having no mind to them. 2. By what revelation can you clear it, that all those whom our Saviour spoke of, Mat. 11. 20. were reprebates; and that some of them by his upbraiding of them, might not be brought unto repentance, never to be repent of, 2 Cor. 7. 10. as well as that lwed son I have heard the story of, who was never wrought upon, till a most tender compassionate mother, had most earnestly and fiercely denounced an Anathema against him? 3. Would not the jeering and sarcasme from Christ, (horresco referens) have been real, if your Arminian doctrine (the very basis upon which your sarcasms rest) about universal grace, had been true? for then Christ should not only have invited them to belief, have called upon them for their duty, have upbraided them with their willing and wilful neglect of it, but also have told them, That by a general grace, he did really design to bring them to heaven, though by virtue of it alone, never any had, or ever should come thither. 4. How are those jeered, who never use to complain of that, which you call jeeringly, their fatal or natural infirmity? for than they would seek after a Physician to heal them, who then would be welcome to them: but who feel the stir of a wicked will in them, in the opposing of all the offers of grace, made in the means of grace. 5. How are those jeered (I speak now of them, whom the text, Mat. 11. 20. speaks of) who have means external, abundantly sufficient, in the way of such means, & which in God's children are efficient, upon whom God often bestows as much grace, as before conversion he bestows upon any, and more than Christ is bound to bestow upon any, and as much as your Arminian principles, will allow God to bestow upon any at all, of the elect of God, towards their conversion? I say, how are such jeered by Christ or any of his Ministers? 6. Are not you the only sarcastic merry blade, who would feign make the world and Church believe, in this very page, that you at no hand like it, that any should shelter themselves under the hear sie of Pelagius, by denying original sin, and man's natural impotency, and in that sense, impossibility to any saving good without God's grace, and yet in this very place flout at it, under the notion of a natural and fatal infirmity, with which God made him, as really as he makes a stammerer or a blind man? Whereas I think you cannot but know, that 1. Both against the Jesuits and you too, as I conceive, we all maintain, that man at first was created in true righteousness and holiness, Eccl. 7. 29. Eph. 4. 24. 2. That then he needed not so much as the golden bridle of original righteousness, which your Comrades the Jesuits, so much speak of, for the repressing of his natural concupiscence. 3. That it may be lawful to upbraid those, with their impotencies, who have lamed or blinded themselves, or bound their own feet; to such we may say out of our just indignation, come hither to me, and I will lift thee up, as well as the Lord did play upon Adam, presently after his fall, Gen. 3. 22. or as he did long after upon the Israelites when they had forsaken him, Judg. 10. 14. Will you say, that God cannot be in good earnest with such, unless he set their feet at liberty, though he never did tie them, nor is bound to lose them, nor they in the case they are in, do care to have them loosed, yea, would think it the only bondage to be freed from their sins? If we do this, do you think yourself able to avoid that Pelagianism (u) Let any wise man tell me, how much your opinion about free wills conjunction with grace, set down c. 4. differs from that of Pelagius. in his Epist, ad Innocent. Quum liberi arbitrii potestatem dioimus in omnibus esse generaliter, etc. in omnibus est liberum arb. aequaliter per naturam, sed in solis Christianis adjuvatur gratia, etc. illi ideo judicandi & damnandi sunt, quia cum habeant liber. arb. per quod ad fidem venire possent, etc. male utuntur libertate concessa, etc. which you would feign fasten upon Calvin, p. 37. and which will stick upon him as a dart in a rock, but cleaves as fast to your opinions as your skin to yourself? To show what great affections you have to protestantisme, you do once more enter your protest against a great Leader of Protestants. The first you take out of lib. 3. institut. c. 23. 7. You have been told divers times, how these expressions of his and others, must be taken, viz. of a will of efficacious permission or ordering of the fall, (and say you, if you dare, that when Adam fell, and all mankind in him, God stood by as a mere speculator, or gazer on) not of real effection, or working of it, by any force or violence. 2. How harsh soever in this place his words may sound in your delicate tender ears, yet 1. When on the place he quotes Austin for what he says, out of his Enchirid. ad Laurent. 2. When as elsewhere he declaimes most strenuously against those, who are for God's absolute power or will, as it is separated from his justice (o) Calvin de divin. praedest. p. 7. 28. Sorbonicum illud d●gma, in quo sibi plaudunt papales theolegast●i, detestor, quod potentiam absolutam Deo affingit, etc. , and makes lapsed man only, the object of reprobation (p) Ind constanter exordiendum esse semper docui, a●que hodie doceo jure in morle relinqui omnes reprobos, qui in Adamo, mortui sunt a●que damnati, de aeter. Dei praedest. , when as he saith nothing but what the Schoolmen of old were wont to say, without any control (q) Vid D Dau. animadver. p. 245. etc. . All these things might have abated your rage against poor Calvin. 3. You belike have a world of other just reasons, besides the just will of God (for if it be once proved to be Gods will, it must needs be just, he can neither do nor will any unrighteous thing (r,) Carthus. in 4 dis. 46. a●. 1. Totus ordo justuiae o●ig●nallter, ad div●nam voluntatem reducitur, etc. to bring in why God would permit the fall of Adam: Yet Arminius himself, a wiser and warier man than you▪ would ever confess this point too hot for his fingers (s) Vid. Cameron cap. defence. sent. 2. The next place against Calvin you take out of Ezek. 18. 23. with which text you say he was pinched; but how ●a●d he was pinched, I will not now determine, because I have not the book by me; only let me say, 1. As to the gloss which you make upon his words, That God wils wicked men's conversion, so as to command it, but he does not will it so, as to leave it possible, that is, he wils it in show, but not in reality. You have been often told, that wicked men's conversion would be possible enough, if their own wicked wills did not make it impossible (t) Austin. de Gen. ad lit. 11, 12. Posset Deus horum voluntates convi●c●re, quoniam omnipotens est. Cur ergo non secit? quia noluit. Cur noluerit p●nes ipsum est. . And yet that no man's conversion shall ever be actual without Gods special grace, giving him repentance, Acts 15. Yea, that God really would like or approve the conversion of any sinner, though he neither here, nor any where else say, that he will effect, or work all men to repentance. 2. As to the inference which you make, of the impossibility of calvin's avoiding ugly sequels, I suppose you mean the ugly sequels of jeering, or opposing the secret will (u) These two may well stand together. Ruiz. d● volunt. Disp. 20. p. 215. etc. Deus vult ut omnes credant & salvi siant. Deus vult & d●crevit permittere, ut qui dam increduli maneant, & pertant volunt are absolu●a. to the revealea, (or else I cannot tell what you mean by sequels) unless he will fall upon the heresy of Pelagius, in maintaining that a sinner may repent by the strength and force of nature. I suppose not any the least child but can see, how to clear Calvin from the accusation of Pelagianism, by saying, that it is in God by his special grace to remove any man's impenitency when he pleaseth, (as was said afore) but I fear, the most Epidaurian Lyncian eyes of the (x) Aust. Epist. ad Sixtum. 105. Cum àb istis quaeritur quam gratiam cogitarent sine ullis praecedentib. merit is dari, respondent, sine ul is praecedentib meritis gratiam ipsam esse humanam naturam, in qua conditi sumus. wisest men who see best, will never be able to discern how Mr T. P. can be freed from this charge, who maintains no other grace, for the touching of a man's heart, (as we have seen, and shall see more, p. 55, 56.) but what is the very same with the much cried up Pelagian universal grace, the same indeed with proud nature. Turpe est doctori, etc. Solomon indeed, was wise enough, when he set down, Prov. 1. 26, 27. but he is no wiser than sapientum octavus, who shall bring it in, as clashing with any thing, which Mr Calvin or any solid Divine says. Sect. 27. p. 38. IT appears by your fifth reason, taken from the nature of death, as that doth signify privation, and as privation supposes a former habit, that you have more poison in your pa●e, to poison or choke, if it were possible, all your adversaries, the prophetical Calvinists, (as you may be apt enough to call them) and yet they will be most ready to take all that you propine in this Section, down at a draught, and never fear dying (y) Aug. l. de nat. & gra. c. 51. Si iste, inquit, qui hunc librum scripsit, de ill a hominis natura loqueretur, quae primò, in culpata condita est, utcunque acceptaretur hoc dictum. , were you but pleased to understand this privation of grace, you talk of, of what Adam once had, and we all in him, in the state of our integrity; but seeing it may be very strongly suspected, that you understand it, of man, even since the fall, that by universal grace given to him in the second Adam, he hath some seeds of that which the Apostle, Eph. 4. 18. calls the l●fe of God, remaining in him, they are sorry that you should so often deny yourself to be a Pelagian, when as yet, by what you say here, it doth most manifestly appear, that according to your divinity, not only Semipelagismus, (as once Arminius said) might be verus Christianismus, but the highest degree of Pelagianism, when it first set forth, and did deny all original sin, and hurt to any, but to Adam himself, by the fall, must needs be most orthodox divinity (z) Aust. l. 2. de peccat. orig. count. Caelestinum. Quod peccatum Adae ipsum solum laeserit, & non genus humanum. . So that now you may do well to join in with Molina the Jesuit, in stomacking at Austin for keeping such a foul coil against the Pelagians (a) Molina's words as I find them cited by Jansen. in August. l. 8. cap 9 because they be very remarkable, I thought worth the while to transcribe. Quae si data explanataque fuissent, fortè neque Pelagiana haeresis fuisset exorta, neque Lutherani tam impudenter arbitrii nostri libertatem fuissent ausi negare, obtendentes, cum divina gratia, praescientia, & praedestinatione cohaerere non posse; neque ex Augustini opinion, concertationibusque cum Pelagianis tot fideles fuissent turbati, etc. . You for any thing I know, say more than ever he durst say, That a man may be dead born, but he cannot possibly be dead begotten; deprived of life he cannot be, in the very act of his conception, understanding this of a spiritual death in sin, since the fall, as for any thing I can find to the contrary you do; you do nullify all original sin, and contradict the Psalmist to the very mouth, Psal. 51. 5. Behold I was shapen in iniquity, (and that sure is in a spiritual death, 1 Tim. 5. 6.) and in sin did my mother conceive me, or as the word is in the Hebrew, make me warm. 2. As to the sequel; If yet perchance (which I think not) you understand it in the first and orthodox sense, it is none at all, God once made all men upright, ergo, none were absolutely reprobated, or appointed to be left to the sin and misery which they should bring upon themselves; and yet this is the goodly argument à fine operis ad finem operantis & internam ejus intntionem, in which Castallio first (b) p. 265. S. Castalion Dialogi. , and all the Arminians his followers, have ever since so triumphed. There is nothing in your sixth Reason, or 28. Section, p. 38. which hath not had its full, if not overflowing answer. Therefore here I resolve upon nothing, but 1. To observe your pelagianizing, 1. In what you have in this, as well as your first papers, when you oppose Adam's sin to ours, as if in different respects, that which was adam's, was not ours also (c) Halensis, part. 2. q. 105. memb. 1. p. 296. Secundum Augustinum concedimus quod non punitur parvulus pro culpa patris, sed pro culpa sua propriè loquendo Adamo cadente à justitia originale cecidit etiam quaelibet voluntas posterorum. Sic Cajetan, Bellarmine, Malderus. . 2. In quoting and triumphing in John 1. 9 as if it would prove universal redemption hand over head, whereas it will only prove, that Christ as God in a common way, enlightens every body. The Pelagians and Massilians of old, would have had it prove more, but invitâ Mineruâ. 3. Your intolerable impudence and uncharitableness, in branding not only most, if not all your neighbour Ministers, but also all the Churches formerly mentioned, if not the whole Catholic Church, whilst you belie the whole stream of fathers, p. 39 with the brand of heresy, even pernicious heresy, as you would have it thought, by wresting 2 Pet. 2. 1. to that purpose (d) It seems with you good man, this heresy is a heresy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, but Pelagianism is the milder heresy, p 55. similes labra lactucas, like will to like, I must be a little quick with you, in causis haereseos neminem oportet esse patientem. Hieronym. . A likely matter, that by the Church, (Epiphanius, Austin, or any body else in its behalf, giving in an inventory of heresy, in their several Catalogues) that should pass for one, that Christ died for any but whom he at last saves, who is a Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, heb. to the utmost, who deny him to have laid out his blood upon those, unto whom he denied his prayers, John 17. 9 who were not his friends, John 15. 13. not of his body, Acts 20. 28. who many of them were obdurate, persecuting, sinning against the Holy Ghost, and for so sinning to be packed to hell afterwards. I grant indeed, that many a gallant, noble Divine, (amongst whom I hope ever to reckon, Bishop Davenant, Dr Ward, and many more) extend the phrase of Christ's dying for all, and such like phrases as you quote out of the third Article (which ought in all reason to be explained by the 17.) unto singula generum, as well as genera singulorum; but then when they came to explain themselves, they first peremptorily deny that Christ by his death brought all into a state of peace & reconciliation. 2. They maintain the propriety of Christ's redemption, as to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Rom. 11. 29. to be only peculiar to the elect. 3. They have so many handsome orthodox put-offs, of all Arminian glosses, as that I will sue out a writ of melius inquirendum, before I pass any damnatory censure upon them, who I am sure, make not for your purpose, who hint not the least discrimination in Christ's dying for the elect, or the reprobate; but who reject the distinction of the sufficiency and efficiency of Christ's death, which the Authors mentioned plead so much for, and do most amply explain, that which you quote out of 2 John 2. 2. helps you nothing at all, though we should allow your gloss of Christ's dying for infidels and impenitents to be true; for so he might do, and yet those infidels and impenitents be no other than such, who for the present were so, but were not to continue so, and that by virtue of Christ's death. No question, Christ died for all people, tongues, and languages, Rev. 5. 9 who either actually did, or for after times, should believe in his name, John 17. 20. And you my good friend, who are so tender as you say, p 72. as that you dare not tell your people, that any crucifying wretches, (though Paul, for any thing is known to the contrary, and other elect vessels of God, were at that time among them, Acts 19 15. who afterwards were brought to the faith) were precious vessels of election. Yet here you dare say, without the least limitation, that Christ died for all sorts of infidels and impenitents: your hardness and tenderness goes by the placet of your interest, as kissing useth to go by favour, Sect. 29. You are a most deadly man; for here a fourth or fifth time, we must be all struck dead, become Ala-mort, by your seventh deadly reason taken from the condition of temporal death, and other temporal punishments; and this will kill just as many as your former, p. 24 and up and down elsewhere, did even all those who against all rational warning, with you, are weakly or wilfully resolved to confound the absolute eternal decree, with the temporal conditional execution of it. And pray you, what wise body ever yet denied the execution of God's absolute decrees to be conditional, and the causes of that execution, though not of the decree itself? I will not be so adventurous, as to say to your followers, Quando quidem hic populus vult decipi, decipiatur. But I would charitably by this time hope, that they perceive how your immoderate eagerness to get in to your beloved vein of rhetoricating with a matter of twelve quibbling interrogations (which need to be answered by no body, but by your deadly enemy, Sir N. N) betrays you to the forgetting of all sound distinctions in divinity, and well couched forms of logical argumentation, for what you have about Hezekiah and Nineveh, 1. I have elsewhere given a large return to it, in answer to your first papers, where you bring in these instances, almost in the same words for the same purpose. 2. God's decrees in both these cases, might be absolute and peremptory enough in themselves, and in him, and yet he not at first dash reveal all his mind to his Prophets, concerning what he had resolved on, that Hezekiah and Nineveh might be put upon prayers, not to reverse his decrees, but the absolute seeming damnation of them, when as they were only to be understood conditionally, as the event did declare afterwards (e) Jac. Crucius in Beverovicia, in vitae ●ermino, p 10. explain, it well thus. Sub hoc nuntio tacitam contineti conditionem, ut in ill a conciene Jonae, ad Ninivitas e●cidio perituros nisi resipuerint: Sic moriturum Regem, nisi seria poenitudine so ad Deum convertat, etc. . Deus saepe sententiam mutat, concilium nunquam. Sic Gregor. N. You should not take upon you to teach the Almighty, how for the trial of his people, to propose his denuntiations; Neither should you comment upon them otherwise, than God himself doth by his after-works: But I had forgot, that you love not (Epist. 2. ante publicat.) sapere cum commentario, which makes you so unhappy in those which you make upon his decrees. 3. As for your saying, that God's decrees are conditional, if you understand them as they be in God, (or else you say nothing to the purpose) it both opposeth what you grant, p. 5. in Gods will simply considered, there can be neither prius nor posterius, and doth induce such uncertain velleitios, and depending wills, and wouldbees, as that the very popish Schoolmen do chide you for them (f) Ruiz. de vol. disp. 10. Sect. 1 Velitiones purè conditionales sunt alienae à sapientia & prudentia Dei. V●sques, disp. 83 p. 511. Voluntas Dei conditionat● dici potest, non quia actu feratur in objectum sub conditione, sed quia ex ill● volu●tate quae praesens est, etc. 2. As to what you say concerning Rom. 9 and the quaeties you put about it, p. 40. 1. I cannot but smile to see how cowardly you come to it, even tanquam canis ad Nilum lambit & abit, Indeed it hath put all your valiant party so terribly to their shifts, for the warding of the blows which it gives to your cause, as that I cannot greatly wonder, though in this your public theatrical corrected piece, you do seem to me laborare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to tremble at the very mention of it, yet in your uncorrected as you call it, indeed your truly domestic and genuine firstborn, you had spent no less than one, by fare the longest Sections in whiffling of it off, as you could. But alas, as I trust I have made it in my answer copiously evident, that place doth and ever will stick in the heart of your cause, Tanquam lateri laethal is arundo. I have there showed, 1. I hat how troublesome soever the matter of the Chapter is, to obstreperous flesh and blood, especially in carnal men, yet it speaks out its mind as fully and clearly, as words can deliver it, both in Thesi, Rom. 9, 11, 18. 2. and in Antithesi, v. 19 2. That it is a most shameful ridiculous subterfuge to interpret texts, speaking plainly concerning what God hath decreed to do, or shall be done, by texts from promises, commands, exhortations, etc. declaring what ought to be done, believed, or avoided. 3. That to speak properly and theologically, no one text hath any more than one sense (g) Vide Dr Am●s in Psa. 2 though the parts of that one sense, may be made up of several ingredients. 4. That the two senses, which like some Janus bifrons, looking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which you in your first papers, and your complices in theirs, give of it, are too plain and easy to be true, and leave us no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to wonder at, about the whole matter of praedestination, unless it were at your daring impudence, who every where cry up your superlative affections to christianity, and yet seem resolved upon it, to believe nothing but what you can fathom with your brains, and mother wit, making indeed your brains your Bible (h) August. de verb. Apost. serm. 20. Quis Deus est, & quis tu sis attend, ille Deus est, tu homo, etc. Tu homo à me expectas responsum; & ego sum homo; itaque ambo audiamus dicentem, O homo tu quis es? melior est fidelis ignorantia, quam temeraria scientia, etc. . 3. For what you say about Ahab, p. 40. that God did not absolutely damn him before the foundations of the world were laid, nor doth any body say so, as you have been often told by Dr Twisse, and others, but none so deaf, as those who will not hear. But say you, and prove you if you can, that God's decree about Ahabs' damnation, (which actually could not be, may I with fear and reverence to divine Majesty so speak, so much as by divine power, before Ahabs real and actual existence) was not eternal, and that he did not absolutely resolve to deny him grace and glory, or to number him among the elect. 4. For what you and the Arminians use to scrape together out of Lament. 3. 33. Hos. 11. 8, 9 Exod. 32. 14. Plaier-like for the exciting of people's passions, when you should by strong arguments, be informing of their judgements, as young as you profess yourself to be, p. 5. yet, 1. You have gone long enough to school, to have learned that symbolical divinity, is not argumentative, unless reduced to proper expressions, that those things, which as the very Rabbins have it, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, after the manner R. David Kimchi. R. Maymon, etc. of men are ascribed unto God, (as these expressions are) must be interpreted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, so as is most suitable to the Majesty of God, in whom there is no mutability nor shadow of turning, no parts nor passions, which Deo conveniunt non secundum affectus sed effectus. Misericordia in Deo, etc. & sic analogicè in caeteris est actio sublevantis, non passio condolentis. Then may God be said to be stirred with Passions, when these things are done by him, which nor men or Angels can do without passions and commotion. 2. If you yield not to this, you are less ingenuous than the fiercest Arminians in their Synodall writings (i) Acta Synod. Remonstrant artic. 3. & 4. De expectatione fatendum est, eodem planè modo Deo spem tribui non posse, quo homines dicuntur à se mutuò aliquid expectare, sed analogicè tantum. . By what you belch out in your eighth and tenth reasons, Sect. 30. p. 41. and Sect. 31. p. 42, 43. taken from the little flock which belongs to God, and that numerous herd, which belongs to belial, and the absurdities which must follow, if God's decrees be absolute. You do not I bless God, shake me one whit in my faith, about absolute election or reprobation; but you do almost absolutely persuade me, that when you blurred that paper with such diabolical stuff, you were almost in the mood, that that desperado was in, when he cried out, Flectere si nequeam superos Acheronta movebo, Rather than want arguments against Gods absolute decrees, and against Calvinisme, you will rake hell for them, and persuade the world, that by our principles, we make for the profaner sort of reprobates, a new decalogue, p. 42. and for the demurer sort of them, a new diabolical Pater noster, p. 43. I profess unto you, Sir, and that in the presence of God, whom I serve in the ministry of the Gospel, I much fear, that no man could write thus, but one well-nigh in the same condition with Simon Magus, who was in the gall of bitterness, and bond of iniquity; I for my part can beseech you as a Minister of God, to repent, and pray God the thoughts of your heart be forgiven you; for if this be not open blaspheming against plain Scripture, I know not what is; For is it not as plain as Scripture can speak any thing, that Christ's flock is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a little flockling, that many are called, but few are chosen, that the elect only obtain, when the rest are hardened, Rom. 11. 7. that the elect only enter into the Kingdom prepared for them, when the rest go unto their own proper place, Acts 1. unto which they are designed, and before appointed, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, written down in Judas? Those things which can as well be gainsaied, as the Bible be overturned, and looked on as a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, because they are not digestible with profane wanton wits, must they therefore be flouted at? will it become you, who, as you say, p. 33. meekly confess, that you were none of God's counsel, to call God's wisdom in question, for not choosing more, which in your fine, filthy-language rather, is to yield the major part unto his Rival Rebel, the black Prince of darkness, that the major part of men go to hell, though condemned thither for their sins? will you say that it was by mere fortune, or by man's mere procurement, without any eternal decree of God? Do you think the Devil plucked them out of God's hands, whether he would or no? For a conditional decree depending on man's will, is rather man's will and decree, not Gods at all. If God content himself with a little flock, why should you grumble that it is no bigger? was it not free for him, absolutely to resolve in whom he would glorify the riches of his grace? may he not do with his own what seemeth him good? must your eye be evil because his is good, in a special way of goodness to some, and not to all? was it not in him to resolve what attributes he would be most glorified in? the less diffusive and extensive his special mercies are, are they not the more miraculousie intensive to those who are freely made partakers of them? since the fall for original sin alone, might it not have been just with God to have sent us all to hell when we were but children of a span long? (k) Vid. Austin ad Laurent, cap. 27. Et fiquidem in melius hominum Reformationem nullam prorsus esse voluisset. Sicut impiorum nulla est Angelorum, nun meritò fieret? In a word, if our Divinity hold about absolute election and reprobation, God is absolutely certain to have a flock, though but a little one, whereas if yours, which is conditional, should hold, it might fall out, that the Devil might have all; and God none; for it might more easily fall out, that none should believe, than that any should, man's nature being so opposite to Christian faith, and universal grace alone, having never brought any to heaven. 2. God is as truly and really glorified in the way of his justice vindicative, in those that perish, Rom. 9 22. Prov, 16. 4. as he is in the way of his mercy, mixed with justice in those who are saved, nor tends it all to the honour of the Rival Rebel, or black Prince as you call him, that he hath so many under him (l) By this passage it appears, that though you object Manichaisme, p. 51. to others, here is none so Manichaicall as yourself, who do maintain the Prince of darkness to have obtained his principalities (such as it is) God not so much as decreeing to suffer it, i. c. invito Deo, which what is it but to set up (oh most horrible) the power of the Devil above Gods, & this is something worse than Manichaisme itself. , not as under a Prince, but as under a base general executioner, Heb. 4. 14. or tormentor, who also for the honour of God, and not his, is kept under chains of darkness, until the judgement of the great day, and in the mean while he is tormented as well as a tormentor, for the Devils believe and tremble, Jam. 2. 19 2. As for that which you put into a Parenthesis, * about the sufficiency of every drop of Christ's blood for ten thousand worlds, I think will not easily be proved, nor do such assertions so much tend to the magnifying of the precious nature of Christ's sufferings, of which there can never be too much said, as they might tend to the disparagement of the wisdom and love of God, & lover of his blessed only innocent Son, in being so prodigal of so much blood, as his Son shed, for the bringing Heb. 2. 10. of many sons only unto glory, who were taken out but of one world (m) Joh. Sleid. Ep. 21. lib. ult. post. edit. . I find none of note to speak so, unless P. Clement, when he makes it a foundation for indulgences, unto that which Mr T. P. hath, p. 41. about the sufficiency of one drop of blood, for purchasing redemption of ten thousand adam's, and ten thousand worlds of his posterity; and I find no orthodox Divine of note, to speak after this lavish and adventurous rate: only I find in Joh. Sleydan, Commentar. lib. 1. de statu Relig. fol. 12. that when Cardinal Cajetan thought to choke Luther with a Pope's Bull, he quotes against him for a foundation of indulgencies these words out of one of P. Clement's extravagants. Belike even in the Church of Rome, these expressions are placed inter Extravagantes. Ibi Clemens Pontifex tempus illud, uti vocant Jubilaeae centesimo quó que anno praefinitum à Bonifacio octavo, redigit ad quinquage simum, & de Christi servatoris beneficio locutus, una guttula sanguinis ipsius liberari potuisse genus humanum demonstrat: quum vero tantum sanguinis copiam profuderit, ut toto corpore, nihil esset in eo sani, nihil aspectu miserabilius, omne illud quod super fluum fuit, maxim thesauri loco reliquisse dicit, in usum Ecclesiae: ac Divo Petro, qui fit caeli claviger, ut eum thesaurum in homines vere paenitentes atqune peccata sua confessos diffundant, & tanquam Oeconomi distribuant, etc. In your ninth reason, set down, p. 41. though you love not to be counted a Dictator, you do nothing but dictate, when as you say, 1. That the reprobation of Angels was not irrespective, contrary to the credit of the most part of the Schoolmen (n) Jansen. lib. 8. de Haeresi Pelag. cap. 10. V●d River. ex Aquin. disp. 3. sect. 3. And how this doubtful point was even to eagle-eyed Austin, may be seen by his doubtful discourses about it, in several parts of his works, Aug. de Civit. Dei, lib. 12 cap 9 & lib. 11. cap. 13. lib de correp. & great. cap. 1●. where all along he disputes, that some Angels ●ad more grace freely given them, than others, who afterwards fell, because some knew that they should never fall from their happiness, others did not. . If by reprobation you understand God's decree of permitting them to fall, or of not bestowing the grace of confirmation upon them, by which the good Angels were preserved from falling. 2. When you say that the sublapsarians, who place the object of praedestination in massa corruptâ, must needs grant, etc. the Scriptures being more vocal about man's reprobation, and less about Angels. And so, they be much more busy in directing how men may get out of the misery into which wicked Angels have helped to bring them, then sub quo signo formali, Angels were considered in their reprobation. 3. Like a stout Champion for the sublapsarians and yourself, who are gone beyond Massa corrupta, as touching original sin only, (the way of the otherwise orthodox sublapsarians) to the presupposing of perseverance in all sorts of actual sins to the last gasp, before all peremptory reprobation; you should have tried your strength in answering the two arguments, with which Dr Twisse shuts up the Chapter which you quote, and by which he proves, that it is both impossible and absurd, that the praevision of Apostasy in the Angels, should be the cause of their reprobation, the very pillar of your argument, which you prove not but beg: But had you attempted this, you would have found how much easier it is for you to laugh at, or nibble at Dr Twisse, then in plain field to have put him to the foil. Your tenth reason from absurdity, p. 41, 42. Sect. 31. hath nothing in it from the instance of Dives, which I have not else where answered fully in my first papers, yea, in these, and without prejudice to any thing I do or have maintained; your whole Argument about Dives might be granted, and yet you be never the nearer to the proof of conditional reprobation; for what you say about God's end in damnation, you have been told that God's end is not the creatures damnation, but his own glory in his just condemnation: As for your diabolical and unhallowed inference, with which you are so perverse, the best answer would be silence (o) August. d● bono perseveranti●, lib. 2. cap. 14. Tu quis es homo qui responde●● Deo. Nunquid ideo negand●m est, quod ape●tum est, & quia comprchendi non potest quod o●culium est, nunquid inquam dicturi su●us quod ita esse perspiciamus, non ita esse quoniam cur ita sit non possumus invenire, cui sub●ectere placet instar commentarii in locum illum Augustin. D. D. Rivet. disp. 5 de reprobat. Thes. 29. Cum in scriptures certum habeamus discrimen electorum & reprobatorum ab ipso Deo ab aeterno d●spositum, si nihil aliud adversus blasphemas hasce, ●ōs●quentias nobis suppeteret, quod repom remus nec solvi illa possent quae sunt obscura, non p●opterea neganda sunt, quia sunt perspicua, sed Deo judiciis suis relictis quae adversus obtrectatores omnes suo tempore facile● d●f●nsurus est. Suffic●et nobis illud, Rom. 9 Sic Castalio Dialog. lib. 1. or that of the Apostle, O man, who art thou who repliest against God; yet the answer will be easy enough, 1 When you shall have produced your dispensation, for waving the rule of obedience set by God himself, Deut. 29. 29. which su●e is by a practitioner to be known, not after his work is done, but before he goes about it, Isa. 8. 20. 2 When you shall be able to show how any one particular person can know himself without all doubt to be a reprobate. 3. When you shall have cleared it, that it is no sin in the Devils and the very damned in hell, who certainly know that they be absolutely reprobated, to curse God and their King and to look upwards, Isa▪ 8. 21. until this time, I think you have a thousand times more need to repent, for your Atheistical Lucianizing, and Castalionizing, (unto whom you are beholding for these flowers of your rhetoric) than we so much as to think what answer for to return to your sporting with Carpocrates against us. Every thing may well enough be absolutely ordained by God, (in the sense often explained) and yet not effected by him, forasmuch as sin hath only a privative not a positive entity, and so hath a deficient, and not an efficient cause. God can ordain nothing but good, and ergo, it is good in God to permit sin, though it is not good for any sinner to commit it (p) Aug. Ench●rid. ad Laurent. cap. 27. Melius judicavit de malis b●n●facere, quam mala nulla esse permittere. , sin and hell must be exceeding good. Sin and hell are exceeding ill coupled together by you. It is good Judges should set up Gallows for thiefs, and in that sense gibbets and halters are good (q) Your own Boethius teacheth you this, lib. 4. Habent impii, cum pumuntur, boni aliquid annexum paenae. , but felony in a thief is naught, by which those good things are procured for him. To your second, p. 43 you have been showed before, that there is no contradiction betwixt Gods revealed will that all should repent, it belongs to them in duty to do so, and his secret will, that very few shall, i. e. that as faith and repentance are not performed by all, so it was not Gods will or determinate counsel to give it to all, but only to his Israel repentance unto life, Acts 5. 31. Rom. 9 18. The inference which you make, that then, p. 43. It is his will, that his will should not be done, is no such great absurdity in the judgement of a far more learned▪ wise, holy man, than yourself, even St Austin (r) Enchirid. 95. Non aliquid fit nisi omnipotens siert velit, vel sincado ut fiat, vel ipse saciendo, your own Both. lib. 4. p. ●15. edit. 8. , if it be but warily explained, viz. of a voluntary permissive will, that his commandments be neglected, which is contrary to his preceptive will, though not contrary to his permissive will, which God never made the rule of any man's actings. And if your spirit and stomach serve you to deny this, then deny too, that our blessed Saviour, Acts 2. 23. was delivered up to death, by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, and yet that those hands were wicked hands which did crucify and slay him. Say that Shimei's tongue was no wicked tongue, when he cursed the Lords anointed; or that David did tell a lie to show his humility under the cross, when he had said, the Lord did bid him curse David: And though much of what hath been said, may take off what you say next, that then God hath one will which is the same with Devils, (for which diabolical argument, you are much beholding to your Sebast. Castalio, whose smooth Latin with some inversion, you have turned into smother English (s) S. Cast. Dialog. primo. , or if not so, one and the same malus genius did dictate one and the same thing to you both) and yet would the Devil be not a whit the less excusable, any more than that wicked son, (qui ante diem patrios inquirit in annos, Ovid:) is commendable, for desiring of the Father's death, just at the same time when it falls out, and when God willed it Psal. 31. 15. Job 14. 5. 2. With all the wit and craft which you have, you will never be able to prove God's will, and the Devils (according to us) to be one and the same, when as our Divines can easily assign many differences betwixt them in the matter willed, in the end of the will, in the manner of executing that will, unto all which particulars, I thought to have set down something, but am forced to delay it till some other time. Augustin, ad Laurent. cap. 100L. Fieri potest, ut hoc velit homo voluntate mala, quod Deus vult bona: velut si malus filius velit mori patrem, velit hoc etiam Deus, tantum inter est quid velle homini quid Deo congruat, & ad quem finem quisque referat voluntatem. And so by these wild▪ and mad diabolical consequences, you bring me to that, which authore & presidente diabolo, you will maintain to follow from our opinions, and it is taken from the Devils Pater noster, p. 43. that when a reprobate says his Pater noster (thy will be done) he vehemently prays for his own damnation. Wherein I shall beseech the Reader to observe, that this is but the very same objection, which was objected against the doctrine of Austin, and therefore may be contented with the same answer which Prosper gives to it, viz. that those who are not to do the will of God, and yet pray that they may do the will of God, are heard in that which is to be done by the will of God, that the imitators of the Devil may be judged with the Devil, for those who have despised his inviting will, shall feel his revenging will (t) P●o●per ad ●bject. Vincent. 16. p 345. 〈◊〉 L●van. in oct U●to what I have englished, mark that to the Latin, which ushers it in. Illud (n 8) con●●a se petunt quod divinae v●●u●at●s esse n●n dubium est, u● scilic●t cum ven●rit sil●us hominis in m●jesta●● s●● & s●derit super thronum gloriae suae, corgregentur ●nt● cum omnes gentes, & s●p●ret eos ab invicem, abos ad d●xtram, alios sta●●ens ad s●nist●am, & audiant eu● dextri dicentem, venite ●en●d●c●i; patr●s mei, p●ssi dete regnum vobis paratum à constitutione mundi, audientes sinistri. d●sced●●e à me maledicti in ignem aeurnum, etc. . 2. You are a marvellous ignaro in the opinions of your adversaries, if you believe that they can think any other prayers would be well pleasing to God, than such as are agreeable to his word, than such as are put up in faith by the spirit, etc. If you think otherwise, you will as soon prove it from their writings, as Dr Jackson shall, from any true Philosophy, prove his vigorous rest, or Dr Hammond the great, that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or superstition in scripture, is taken in a good sense. 3. Whether, if according to our principles, any individual person here in this life, could be certain that he were an absolute reprobate by God's praedeterminati●n, or according to you, absolutely foreknown by God to be a reprobate? (unless you maintain God's prescience to be as well conditional, as his praedetermination) he were bound to say the Lords prayer, or no, I will not dispute; but I may say that Austin some where hath it, that if the Church were but as certain who are reprobate, as it is certain that Judas is gone to his own place, Act. tam pro illis non oraret, quam non pro Juda vel damnat is ipsis. 4. You tell me news, that when reprobates say their Pater noster, they pray vehemently; I would hope that those whom you do commend unto me for the power of Godliness, without any affected form, say their Pater noster (u) I believe indeed, in them it i● a formless thing, even rudis indigestaque moles, Jam 5. 16. after another guess-fashion. Sure I know, that true vehemency or zeal of spirit, is a fruit of faith, and of the Spirit, and so not belonging to reprobates, Tit. 1. 1. 5. How falsely and wickedly soever you object the Devils Pater noster, whereby a man is bound to pray for his own damnation, I am sure that Austin of old against the Pelagians, who denied the special grace of God, by which it is given the elect to do, and to will according to Gods own will and pleasure, tells them that they do but flout God in their prayers, when they pray to God to bestow that upon them, which is in their own power to bestow upon themselves (x) Augustinum de natura & great. cap. 18. Quid stultius quam orare ut facias quod in potestate habeas? Idem ad Vitalem, Epist. 17. 107. P●orsus non oramus Deum; sed orare nos fingimus, si nos ipsos non illum credimus facere quod oramus. Rursus Labia dolosa si in hominum quibuscunque sermo●ibus sunt, saltem in orationibus non sunt; Absit, ut quod facere Deum rogamus, oribus & vocibus nostris, eum facere negamus cordibus nostris, & quod est gravius ad all us etiam decipiendos non laceamus, disputationibus nostris & dum volumus apud homines defendere liberum arbitrium, apud Deum perdamus orationis auxilium. . And the like may be said of your prayers, though as one of your first Uncorrected Copies tells me, you say them in a Chapel, p. 11. And I doubt not, but you judge too, the prayers to be the holier for the Chapels sake, or else you hold not with your St Andrew's, commended for such, by your p. 41. (y) A man so deeply in love with templary Relative holiness of material Churches, even in the dries of the Gospel, as that Reverend Mr Meed told me above 20. years since, that the sight of the Chapels of Bp Andrewes ●nd his devotion about them, put him first upon the study of the holiness of Churches, which afterwards little to the credit of his other opinions, he wrote so much for. , for there is nothing so manifest, as that by what you there say, p. 11. about man's concurrence in his first conversion, (for about that you should know, that the dispute lies betwixt you and your adversaries, the Anti-arminians) and by the bright simile, by which in this Correct Copy taken from the eyelid, p. 63. where with you illustrate your assertion, that you must hold, that it is more from man then God, that any is illuminated or converted; this than forceth me to conclude with that excellent Poet, Buchanan. Psal. 36. 1. extra flammis mille sacrificiis cremes, Oscula des saxis ingemicesque pr●ces, Arasque donis largus aceumules tuis, Non facies tamen, ut te rear esse pium, As for what you close up this wordy Section withal, that Prosper in behalf of himself and Master, calls the sequels of that opinion which he disowns, most sottish blasphemies, and not only prodigious, but devilish lies; you have very finely passed a censure upon most of your Pamphlet, to be sure upon all the ugly sequels which you would fasten upon calvin's doctrine, or those who follow him. For he and they, do as strenuously as ever Austin or Prosper, disallow all such sequels as you would fasten upon them, any way to follow from absolute praedestination, as they state it in their own writings, and not as you to make them odious, have all along represented them in this your Pamphlet; wherein you deal as disingenuouslie with them, as the worst of Papists (your good friends in the doctrines vented in this your book) did with John Huss at Constance, when they set upon him an hatfull of painted Devils, to signify how diabolical his opinions were. For although in the diabolical Index which you draw up, p. 11. there be some of their words snatched from their meaning, as the Massilian Vincentius did snatch many from the very text of Austin. (as is most plain) Your Index may justly be styled the Devil's Inventory, Qui colit, Deos ille facit. Meus est quem recitas O fidentine libellus; Ast male dum recitas, incipit esse tuus. They no more maintain God to be author of sin, nor to damn men without any intuition of sin, (as you lay to their charge, most petulantlie and slanderously) than Austin did the most of things objected by Vincentius. Sect. 32. p. 43, 44. etc. IF that be true which you say, that these latter citations are but to the same purpose with your former, for the proof of that second inference, which is, p. 46. That sin is properly the cause of its punishment, or as You have it, p. 32. That every reprobate is praedeterminated to eternal punishment, not by God's irrespective, but conditional decree. If you will cast upon this latter some grains of salt, I think I have sufficiently cleared it, that you will bring them in to no purpose, unless it were to flourish with them against Sir N. N. whom you prosecute with a Vatinian, or Anticalvinisticall hatred. But 2. Because at first dash of this Section, where you say you will first (mark that this first hath never a second to be his second) set down the confession of Mr Calvin, you would feign make the world believe, that Mr Calvin (who as I (z) Calv. de Aetern. praedest. Si ex Augustino, integrum volumen contexere libeat lectoribus ostendere promptum esset, mihi non nisi ejus verbis ejus esse. remember somewhere, professeth, that if he were to bring in a full confession of his faith about praedestination, he would not wish to set down in other words or senses, than Austin up and down hath done) is a great separatist (a) And how much soever upon this occasion you undervalue that one more modern; he is no other than Laurentius Valla, a man of no mean note in the world, about the time of the first Reformation; who therefore too, since you are become a Lutheran, p. 16. should be the more respected by you, because he is highly commended by Luther, Joh. Sleidan, ad Ann. 1520. in ejus scriptis multo cum fructu versari. from Austin, in the point of absolute praedestination; and that as you are not ashamed to brag, p. 33. that Austin speaks as plainly and fully in your behalf, as any man, that can be bribed to be an advocate or a witness. I shall be forced to discover, how frontless you are in this assertion; and that by abusing and wresting Augustine's writings as you do, what ever you pretend to the contrary, you have (were it not for the shame of the world and speech of people, even of very many in the Roman Catholic Church,) as good a mind to spurn at Augustine's writings, as ever we have found you hitherto to have done at calvin's. And before I clear this, let me in reference to this Section, 1. Observe, that the Ancients and Austin, and most of the signior Schoolmen, speaking of divine prescience, understand it not of a mere notional and theorical prescience, opposed to praedetermination, (such as Mr T. P. mainteins) but of a practical, which never is, nor can be without some kind of praedetermination (b) See D. Davenant about this animadversion, p. 60. & alibi. This is plain by Augustine's definition of praedestination, which he proves to have been anciently received, de bono perseveran. l●b. cap. 17. 2. In sua quae falli mutarique non potest praescientia, opera sua futura disponere, id omnino, nec aliud quicquam est praedestinare, cap. 17. pertegatur totum. And this answers to your two first passages out of Prosper, Augustine's scholar. As for what you have out of Hieronym. p. 45. and as for the third passage out of him, that no man is created to the end that he may perish; either none of ours speak so, or else they add some mollifying interpretation. , They speak of it as the Scripture doth, Rom. 8. 29. Acts 15. 2 Tim. 2. 19 2. That neither in the Ancients, nor so much as in Augustine's time, but long after were the questions of praedestination disputed upon, betwixt the parties, in the terms now used, whether absolute, unconditional, respective, or conditional. 1. They contented themselves to maintain, that nec electio, nec reprohatio, was in potestate electi vel reprobati, sed eligentis, vel reprobantis, contrary to what our opposites in their conditional decrees maintain. 2. That neither the number of the elect or reprobate, could be decreased or increased, August. de corrept. & great. 13. Prosper de vecat, lib. 2. cap. 20. 3. That the elect obtained all their graces by which they are saved, by virtue of their praedestination or election. 4. That the dispensation of salvation or damnation, were regulated by God's infallible, certain, merciful or just decrees. Who ever in these or the like particulars, agree with the Scripture, with the Ancients and with Austin, I dare be bold to say, shall agree with Calvin, as well as with the truth; and I durst undertake in the behalf of any sober Calvinist, so called, he shall not upon the first point of praedestination, canvassed betwixt us and the Arminians, be much quarrelled at. As for what you bring out of calvin's Instit. lib. 3. cap. 23. 1. It is possible that Calvin might commit some sphalma against the first observation, as, aliquando bonus dormitat Homerus. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Jacob. 1. 2. 2. But as for the matter of what he saith, he speaks nothing but what Tertullsan, (c) Quoted before. Austin, (d) See the passages in stead of many more, quoted out of his book, de bono perseverantiae, quoted not long since. and I cannot tell how many Schoolmen (e) If you understand Calvin and them, not of God's efficacious will, by which he would work or force Adam to fall, but permit and order the fall, and then see, for School men before, agreeing to what one hath, viz. Vasquez in 1. 2. Quaest. 23. disput. 13●. cap 9 disp. 133. cap. 1. Negare non possumus ex voluntate sola Dei constitutum fuisse ut gratia originalis traduceretur in posteros, si Adamus in gratia perseveraret, & amitteretur, si peccaret. had done. That full little reason you had to gird at him, for having but one more modern on his side, who yet was no Sir N. N. when as yourself poor man, have none but one Dr (of any considerable note in the Church of England) St Andrew on your side, if at least that writing, which you quote for you, be his: of which more when we come to p. 47. Sect. 33. In setting in the forefront of your citations, August. ad Simplicium. lib. 1. Quaest. 2. you discover, shall I say your simplicity, yea, (give me leave upon this occasion to deal plainly with you) impudence. 1. I find this to be a place in which many Jesuits, and many Arminians triumph exceedingly (f) N. Grevinchov. contra Ames. . 2. That when orthodox Divines have met with it, they have about it been divided in their interpretations. And some have done it more dexteriouslie than other some (g) Dr Twisse l. 1. p. 2. p. 217. Dr Ames Rescript. p. 216, 217. edit. 1. 2. . 3. You had small reason to prefer this saying of his, out of a writing of Augustine's, as most think, (to be sure as (h) Bellarm. l 2. the great & lib. de arbitrio. Bellarmine) when Austin was but a Presbyter, and the Pelagians but young sucklings in their opposition. 4. You cite a broken passage, as any body may see, who will but look round about the words which you quote, where Austin rather queries and disputes, than determines, as appears by the many Ans and utrums both before and after. No sooner had he produced the words which you quote, but he falls to a dispute, rather contra then pro, to what you set down. 5. Austin himself doth most solemnly revoke and retract it (i) Aug. lib. 1. Retractat. cap. 23. Ad hoc perduxi ratiocinat. ut dicerem, non e●go elegit Deus, opera cujus quam in praescientia, etc. nondum diligentius quae siveram nec adhuc invener âm qualis sic electio gratiae: De qua idem Apostolu● dicit. Reliquae per electionem gratiae salvae factae sunt. . He puts himself upon penance for what you do so magnify (k) Jansenius l. 3. de Haeresi, Pelag. cap. 10. Name & Pelagius per Esau & Jacob, in cap 9 ●d Rom. 13. Eos prophetari doc●t qui futuri erant ex operibus boni & mali, & ex ipsis operibus aut odium Dei habere, aut misericordiam. . And indeed it was high time for Austin to call it in, not only, 1. Because it came from him, but very doubtfully. 2. And because, as I could show at large, he had in the very question proposed to him, two divers times knocked that saying in the head by his own maxims and positions, but especially by that most apt and pithy illustration of his, taken from fire and a bowl; the one burns not that it may become hot, but because it is so, non enim ut ferveat, calefacit ignis, sed quia fervet. Nor doth the bowl run that it may become round, but because it is so, nec ideo bene currit rota ut rotunda sit, sed quia rotunda est, and he applies it as well, for saith he in the Apodosis, sic nemo propterea bene operatur ut accipiat gratiam, sed quia accepit; but much more justly. 3. did he retract it because it was even literally the Pelagian, and the after Massilian gloss, (l) Prosper ad Augustin. de Mossiliens. penè omnium par invenitur & una sententia, qua propositum & praedestinati●nem setundū praescientiam receperunt, ut eos praesciverit vel praedestinaverit. vel proposuerit eligere, qui fuer ant credituri. and with which, (as somewhere I have read, & that not long since, though I forgot to set down the place) the Pelagians or the Massilians twitted him (m) I think it be in Prosp: ad August. or in Hillar. ad eundem. . Thus fare then you have not much credited Austin, or yourself, by quoting of him, you are but a Simplician in quoting of Austin: I but you will prove yourself a right Augustinian in what you quote next out of his E●chirid. ad Laurent. cap. 98. And indeed you will, when as a Pelagian objection produced by Pelagius himself, shall among Augustine's friends and admirers (n) The objection is plain in the words that you repeat, and then follows Augustine's answer presently thus: Quadratus in re si futura opera, vel bona hujus, vel mala illius, quae Deus utique praesciebat vellet intelligi, nequ●quam diceret non ex operibus, sed diceret futuris operibus, eoque modo istam solveret quaestionem: imò nullam quam solvi opus esset faceret quaestionem, etc. And so I pray you read on, and from a popish Bishop, (yet whose books have been condemned by the last Pope) read with patience that check due unto you for your careless, if not worse quoting of Austin. August. Jansen. Tom. 2. lib de great. primi hominis, p. 135. Pro Augustini assertionibus, nonnunquam Pelagii pronuntiata capiunt pro decisionibus disputationes Augustini. And no wonder they upbraid him with it, for he wrote it before he was fully settled in it; that faith was the gift of God, lib. 1. retractat. cap. 23. Profecto non dicerem si jam scirem etiam ipsam fidem inter Dei munera reperiri, quae dantur in eodem spiritu. Yea, your learned and beloved Vossius doth acknowledge Austin to have revoked all such say, as you and others use to quote out of him about prescience, and that Vossius is of no other mind than Austin, in matters of praedestination; for his own opinion, see him in his de historicis lat. lib. 2. cap. 17. of Augustine's opinion, lib 7. histor. Pelag. p. 655. Augustinus rejectâ hac opinion (viz. de fide & pietate praevisa) existimabat Apostolum loqui de quorundam electione ad vitam, aliorum item praeteritione, non habita in his vel in illis ratione sive bonorum, sive etiam matorum quae personalia sorent. , pass for one of his opinions, though he do most solemnly confute it in the Chapter quoted by you, and in some part of the next, as any body may see, who hath but will and skill to turn to the place. Oh, what a hard Student you are in Austin! Oh how you love him! I now wonder not at your preferring Grotius before him. I shall not need to say any thing more to any other Authors quoted in this Section, but may securely refer to what I have delivered before, and wish you to study your Vossius better, that you may not shame yourself too too bad in quoting of Austin: And let me beseech the Readers to take heed how they confide too much in you, as on a man they may build upon in your quotations, for you have many a sly trick with you; only for old acquaintance sake, take a word or two about what you have, out of my old reverend friend, Dr Twisse, I perceive you love to be nibbling at such Authors, as laborious, honest, Piscator, as liking in these points, better those things which come sub Annulo Piscatoris, from the Trans-Alpine Prelate, than such as come from Hannaw (o) Yet I take not myself to be tied to hold all for truth which Piscator hath about the order of God's decrees. But I think there is no reason to bespatter him and other Protestant Authors so frequently, as Mr T. P. doth. , or any other reformed Protestant Coast. 2. If that be true as it is, which you quote out of Dr Twisse, the more shame for you to represent him in your mistaken uncharitable Index, p. 9 10. as one maintaining God to be the Author of sin, or as maintaining God to damn men without any respect to sin. If you can blush, I am sure there is reason enough for you so to do; if not, the Lord I beseech him free you from an adulterous forehead at last, rubor est virtutis colour. Sect. 35. p. 46, 47. HEre you do nothing else but 1. Bring us in a list of of your gets and conquests, of your demonstrations, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, p. 47. all your geese are swans. I trust every discerning body by this time, doth see, that what you have got, you may well put in your eyes and see never the worse. 2. You jeer us, who yourself be a man made up of flouts (especially when you play upon Calvin) when you tell us of an excuse you have made for being orthodox, as if any malignant evil eyed neighbour of yours, would have envied you that honour (p) I do not perceive that you make any haste to be honoured with orthodoxy, who have retracted it, or called it in, p. 48. by a conversion, wh●ch I think hath made you almost as good a convert as the fellow, who calls himself mutatus Polemo, heu quantum mutatus ab illo. Totus ●rbis exercet Histrioniam. . It concerns you far more to cry peccavi for bespattering of far more fairer names than your own is like to be in haste, for your confounding in your demonstration here, p. 47. and every where else, the motives to the execution of a decree of God, which is according to his decree, and the motives to the decree itself, as it is actus imman●ns in Deo, even whilst you yourself are forced to confess, p. 51. that there is neither prius nor posterius in Gods simple act of willing. 3. If much more fitly you would have called, p. 33. no● God's promises and threats, the copies adn transcripts of his eternal and impervestigable decrees, which cannot be so but in part, but rather have much more called Gods works done in time so; which are much more fitly and fully by divines, called specula praedestinationis (q) Vide Theologos Embdanos & Nassovicos in Synod Dord●ac. cirta primum articulum do praedestinatione. ; and that you would but have granted what even Mr. J. Goodwin doth confess, that nothing falls out in time, but what God hath decreed before all time, viz. either to do, or voluntarily, and not against his will to suffer to be done, you would not then throughout your book, have been so much misled yourself, or have been an ignis fatuus to all your Readers. For then, ex. gr. from God's permitting and ordering adam's first fall in time, you would have concluded that God did decree to permit his fall before the praevision of it. 2. From God's effectual calling of some only in time, according to purpose Rom. 8. 28. not a whit better, yea, oftentimes worse than those who are not vouchsafed such a call, you would have concluded with the Apostle, Rom. 9 11. that God decrees to give grace to whom he will, and whom he will he hardens, Rom. 9 18. 3. That because Christ doth not in time promiscuouslie save all, ergo, God did not decree that he should promiscuouslie die for all. 4. That because many who do enjoy the same external, yea, the same internal common means of grace, do yet not attain to the same special graces of faith, repentance, etc. that God did decree therefore otherwise to work upon these latter, by some what a more efficacious work, than he puts forth towards the former. 5. That because the faith of the elect of God is upheld. Tit. 1. 1. by the mighty power of God unto salvation, 1 Pet. 1. 5. when as the temporary faith of others is not, that therefore the faith of the former is of another kind, than the faith of the latter, and that all those who have true justifying faith, shall by virtue of God's decree, persevere to the end. But if this had been done by you, what use would there have been of your Uncorrect, or even your Correct Copy? §. 36. p. 47. WE have words again, and nothing but words, as if you would have me say of you, as the fellow said of his Nightingale, vox es & praeterea nihil. 1. You put us in hopes after all your quarrelings and wranglings of a composition and reconcilement with you, about swallowing the word necessity, whereas I suppose, were the Church in statu quo prius, it would expect a recantation and abjuration from you, before it would admit you to composition: you were to satisfy for wongs done to your mother, and choice sons, nay, Reverend Fathers in Christ, before it would so much as treat with you upon Articles of composition. 2. You needed not at all to have stumbled at the word necessity, applied to God's decrees, unless you had been, 1. disposed to quarrel with Scripture expressions, Mat. 187. 1 Cor. 11. 19 2. With the expressions of witnesses of all sorts (r) Among whom, such or the like expressions are frequent. Nemo potest corrigere, quem Deus despexerit. Ruiz. de scient. disp. 66. Sect 1. p. 634. Cogenti cupiditati bona voluntate resistere non potest. Idem de perfect. Just. resp. 5. the Pharaone; obtemperare Deo non potuit: Ratio est, quia infallibilitas actus est aliqua impotentia omittendi, & infallibilitas omittendi, est aliqua impotentia, operandi tal●m actum. De scient. Dei disp. S. 6. . 3. If you had not been set upon confounding necessity, with necessitation, n●cessitatem infallibilitatis, with necessitatem coactionis. 4. If without infringement of man's liberty, you would have but allowed that to the praevious determination of God's will, in determining man's free will, which all allow to man himself; he, but a mere creature, spoils not his own liberty, by determining it to one, Quicquid est, vel agit, necessario est, vel agit, quando est, vel agit. And yet if God do so by his decree, he overturns man's liberty forsooth. 3. You give us little hopes that you will keep your composition Articles, when you have made them; because throughout all your Boethian discourse, Sect. 39 from p. 48. to the end of the Chapter, and especially in your instance about necessarily going to London, p 62. (s) Where you renounce the received distinction, of a necessity of coaction, and infallibility; and if you allow of neither, what shall we get by the wideness of your swallow, in taking down the word necessity; or what third one will you devise? The same may be said to what you have, ad Nauseam, p. 60, 61, & ●. you break all again, and are faedifragus. But I should remember▪ that p. 7. and 8. you put in earlie cautions for contradictions. 2. You discover your intolerable partiality, in degrading, and what lies in your power, unsainting Dr Whitaker, (a known Regius Dr, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, before Mr T. P. could either pipe or peep, or be known by the letters, T. P.) whilst he must only be styled Mr Whitaker; and Dr Andrew's loaden with the epithets of Learned, Reverend, Saintlike: when as it is well known to the Christian Church, that Dr Whit. was before Dr Andr. in time, not a whit behind him in solid learning, and in all probability, fare before him in sanctity. Had not Dr Andrew's in some other of his writings, discovered more of learning or sanctity, then in that which you do now the second time so highly commend, and every where so much follow, but especially, p. 56. where you order God's decrees by the Andraean order, p. 70. where you affirm, as it were, out of Pelagius his mouth, as well as his, That there must be a difference, before there can be an election, and confirm this by a place out of Augustine ad Simplic. (produced as simply by him, as by you) had he not (I say) got himself a better fame in the Church by some writings of good note, especially that of his catechistical doctrine, written by him, when as most think, that knew him, he was as much, if not more a Saint, then when B. of Winchest. Yet I would not have any mistake me, as if 1. Either I took it for granted, that that whiffling writing fathered upon him by F. G. was truly his, any more than Fur Praedest, at the tail of it, was a genuine son of his. Till this be proved further, I must charitably have leave to be a Sceptic: what can I tell, but the same audacious Armintanizing of F. G. might as well abuse Dr Andrew's, as in the very entrance of his preface, he doth most sottishly abuse Dr Whitaker, and after Dr Whitgift, the Reverend Archbishop himself. 2. Or as if I did mislike, what in the margin you quote out of him, which for substance is nothing, but what a thousand times over, all our own writers, with whom you use to be so angry, say as well as he (t) For a reason afore expressed, I must not wonder that you never commend any other Saints to us, but of his stamp; yea, worse, Cassander, Grotius, Hofmeisterus, known Papists. . 3. You complain of some, who censured you to hell: who these some be, I cannot tell; if I could know them, I would surely chide them for censuring another man's servant, who stands or falls to his own Master. What, any so foul mouthed, as to censure, not only Mr T. P's foul opinions to hell, but his fine person too? What ever become of your Tenants, I shall ever pray for your person, that you may never descend into the place of torments, from whence there is no redemption; And I will allow you to pray the same prayer for me, and never shend you for it. Sect. 37. p. 48. IN this you do nothing, save, 1. Take back, what just now, Sect. 36. you had yielded, about the term necessity, in your composition Article, p. 47. Quo teneam nodo? etc. If God's prescience (and you may as well say his praedetermination too) be constant and infallible, must it not in some sense, give necessity, though not coaction to all the events, which are the objects of them? (u) Dr Twisse saith well to Dr Jackson, p. 275. The authors of this opinion maintain, that God by his decree, layeth contingency upon some things as well as necessity upon others. And that as he will have the fire to burn, the Sun to enlighten necessarily, so he will have Angels and men, produce their actions contingently and freely, etc. Yet that you may seem with reason to contradict yourself, as well as us, you run out from Sect. 38. to the end of the Chapter, through six whole pages, into a wild Asiatic digression, wherein you do nothing but bewilder yourself and your Readers. 2. You who have so much reason, of thinking to correct your own errors, will needs be correcting the errors of the vulgar, & of vulgar Mr Calvin among them. Tantum est tibi abs re tuâ otii aliena ut cures. 3. We have a parcel of tender soft words from you, about the mistakes of men of good parts, and these wrapped up in a fine Italian proverb: Unto which I shall need to say no more, but that 1. It is not likely we should have had any mention of good parts, but that you would not have us think, that elegant and ingenuous Mr T. P. wanted good parts, whilst he was for the absolute decree; so that for any thing I know, you commend yourself rather then any body else. 2. If the former mistake, and that of other men of good parts, were only about a philosophical notion, and that as you acknowledge, bordering upon truth: (for other than an emplastrum philosophicum, do not you, your own and other men's great Physician apply to their sores, in all your Boethian discourse) then surely you were extremely to blame for ranking greater Divines and Philosophers, than yourself, amongst modest blasphemers, for mistaking of themselves in a point of Philosophy. 3. Me thinks it suits very well, that an Italian Roman discourse, such as yours is turned to, since your conversion (as you call it) should be a little interlarded with some Italian language: conveniunt rebus nomina, etc. And truly I have been so wearied with writing against your Uncorrected, and Corrected Copy, that I could even have wished, that they had been both written in that language, the present language of the Roman Beast; for than would none of our plain hearted English men, by your fine lines, have been betrayed into Roman doctrine, or I have been well able to have answered you. 4. You do but antiquum obtinere, in exagitating of calvin's opinion, as if it were his alone, that God's prescience (viz. praescientia visionis, quae est rerum futurarum) is grounded upon his praeordination. Unto which▪ pray take an answer for this time, (and I can see no reason, why it may not stand for a full answer to all your Boethian discourse) from Dr Twisse, who both seriously and merrily, writes thus to Dr Jackson for this opinion, which you do very magisterially censure, as an ill weed, which hath not only Calvin for the patron of it, and Valla alleged by him (that one more modern, with whom, p. 43. you upbraid Calvin) but Scotus also, the father of the reals, yea, and Alv●r. ● Thomist, a Sect of School-Divines, commonly opposite to the Scotists; yet herein professedly concurring with Scotus, and avouching also Aquinas himself to be of the same opinion. You had need therefore look well to your tackling in opposing such, who I tell you, were never reputed Babies (x) Unto whom add Ruiz. de praedest. & repr. disp. 2. S. 2. p. 19 etc. Omnibus hominib consideratis sub esse possibili, prius ratione, quam praedest●nar entur, au● reprobarentur, nulla fuit ratio discriminis, quae potuerit divinam voluntatem movere, ut praedestinationem Judae negaret, poti●s quam Paulo. Nulla scientia visionis, ultimo formaliterque constituit reprobationem, sed potius, totam reprob●tionem supponit ex parte objecti. . Yet I confess they were but men, and may have their matches. Leave then your censures, and trust to your sword, and dint of arguments, and do not think that words or phrases, or figures (much less imperious censures) will carry it: pray take this good counsel from that learned and venerable Dr▪ p. 277. in his answer to Dr jackson's vanities, p. 277. Sect. 38 to the end of the Chapter. p. 54. SIR, IT concerns me, who have often promised myself and friends, not to swell into a volume or Tome against you, (who at first sight of your Correct Copy, did well hope, I might have been much briefer than I have proved) not to follow you as I have done, but too much hitherto, from Section to Section, and from word to word, (who yet by wording, am never like to get the better of it, against your wordy self). In reference therefore to what you bring in, from Sect. 38 p. 48. to the end of this Chapter; I will only do the●e three things▪ 1. Deliver in some observations, which relate to all your Boethian Transcript. 2. Because in your preamble to this discourse, you talk, p. 47. of composition, charity, and reconcilement, and that I be some way certain, that next to truth, I have reason to love peace, and truly do so, the peace, the peace of my Mother the Church, the Mother of us all, Gal. 4. 6. I never was of a Spanish temper, of whom of old it hath been observed, that they did, Bella gerere solo pacis odio. I hope my Motto shall ever be, Nulla salus bello, pacem te poscimus omnes. Oblato placuit componi foedere bellum. I will therefore 2. Attempt to make some composition Articles for you, which if the next general Assembly in Gods good time, legally to be convened in England, (for which I pray, for which I do long) shall be pleased to ratify in your behalf, I doubt not but they will do you and the Church a better service, than all the Bulls of Licence, which under the hand of any Italian Signior Con, you may easily be able to procure, for your whole Correct Copy, as for the present it lies. 3. I will vindicate the passage of calvin's, against which, p 50. you do so insolently insult, like some Massilian Gaul. Of the Gauls it was observed of old, that primi impetus gallorum were plus quàm virorum, secundi minus quàm mulierum. And then as to the gaudy flowers of your Oratory, with which you do as you think, most triumphantly conclude this Chapter, you should pleasure yourself and fine friends with them. As to the first observations. 1. They have a rare turn of it, who chance to be, or do but seem to be on your side, since your late conversion (as you call it) p. 48. viz. to Pelagianism and Arminianism, they shall not from you their Eloquent Tertullus, want for bays of commendation, Boethius shall be admirable, p. 48. He shall be a most excellent Christian, a profound Divine, a terror to heresy, and a Martyr to boot, p. 51. Though as yet I can but learn that he was a Christian, but cannot learn what Christian books he wrote, to the terror of Heretics, nor what he was banished for (which I think is the Martyrdom you speak of) unless as it appears by what I collect from the lib. 1. Consolat. Philosophiae, for some public politic contests betwixt him and his fellow Consuls, and that to me makes him not a Martyr, as John the Divine was, Rev. 1. 9 who was relegated to the Isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. If you can in this better enlighten me, you will do me a real courtesy, for which I will remain your Debtor: My scant library in this for the present, fails me, I am no way able to divine why you should so much dote upon Boethius, but that you abound with so much 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to yourself, and those who be like you, as indeed Boethius is in Oratoriall, Musical, Poetical, & Philosophical transcendent strains. 2. I cannot apprehend, whilst you were on our side, and for the absolute decree, that there was any thing of a robustious, sound, theological stomach in you, when a mere Philosophical, and in many things chimaerical discourse, (see p. 95. 102. 99 103. edit. Lugdun. Battavor. in oct. An. 1590. interlarded with the strongest Pelagianism) about the absolute and unpraejudiced freedom of man's will, p. 98. 119. 131. 144. (manebit voluntatis integra atque absoluta libertas) besticked too, which methinks you should not like, with Stoicism, p. 55. about fate and necessity, p. 109, 110. Ordo fatalis ex providentiae simplicitate proced●t, p. 144. with Platonisme, throughout his five books, which yet if it had pleased him, he might about prescience and praedetermination, have represented somewhat better than he did (y) Indeed it cannot be denied, but the Platonists did so decipher their humane Ideas of divine decreeing, as Mr T. P. and Dr Jackson had done before him. Alcinous de doctr. Platonis. Sic fatum pronuntiat, ex sententia Platonis; Quaecunque animae talem vitam el●gerit, & hujusmodi quaedam commiserit, consequenter talia patientur, etc. Libera ergo est anima & in ejus arbitrio, agere vel non agere, ponitur: quod autem sequitur actionem, ab ipso fato praefinitur: yet by fits Plato was of another mind See Marsil. Ficin. de Theolog. Plat. c. 13. Deus naturarum omnium temperator, dum regit cuncta, singulas pro singulis regit naturas, etc. with contradiction both to himself and you, as any may perceive, if they will but peruse that fifth book of his, (as I out of love to you, have perused all the five) and in which there is not a word directly nor indirectly, which gives us any the least hint of his comforting of himself in his greatest distress, in his Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, in his love, grace, promises, the only Christian cordials. I say I stand amazed at it, that this fifth book of his should so enlighten you, p. 48. & work such an admirable conversion in you, as you talk of very often. In this same you will not imitate Austin, whom you commend so highly for his retractations, p. 51. and whom you use to imitate the clean contrary way, by licking up again, what he had cast up, as we have seen in your simple do about Simplician, p. 44. (he, when Pelagius at first set forth in a mere Ethnic, Philosophic garb for nature against grace) he then with all his might opposed it with as much of Christianity and Grace, as in the days of his minority he was acquainted withal (z) Vide fusè Jansen. per tot. lib. 5. de haeres. Pelag. in Augustino suo. August. serm. 11 de verb. Apost. c. 7. & in lib. de great. & lib. arb. c. 13. & hoc Pelagiani ausi sunt dicere, gratiam esse naturam in qua sic creati sumus, ut habeamus mentem rationalem, qua intelligere valeamus, etc. Sed non est haec g●atia, quam commendat Apostolus, per fidem. Jes. Christi, etc. . And when Pelagius grew more crafty, and to decline Envy, dressed up Nature in a Semi-Christian dress, as Austin grew stronger and stronger in grace, and in some sort to be of a tall stature in Christianity, so he opposed him more resolutely in the fullness of the might and grace of Christ. But you on the contrary, will not follow Austin so fare; but your nè plus ultrà, and terminus ad quem, was what he made his terminus à quo. Nay, by your Boethius, you would bring us back again to pure primitive Pelagianism, alias Paganism; and this you would call the special grace of Christ, p. 55. and dub yourself a convert. If your friend now might but be allowed to give you counsel, your way to imitate Austin in his retractations, would be, against the next time of your drudgery (as you, p. 20. call it) to turn most of your five Chapters, into one penitential Chapter of retractations. My good brother, be not ashamed to do what incomparable Austin did. 3. Your admirable Boethius, though in the discourse he seems to have manifest strains of contradiction both to himself and you, yet ever and anon, he doth not so crudely propose his judgement about prescience of things certainly to become future, without all divine previous determination as you represent him, p. 124. Quae ille cuncta prospiciens, providentiae cernit intuitus, & suis quaeque meritis praedestinata disponit, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and when he is most himself, and comes to determine, p. 141. (a) p. 123. Licet de finire casum esse inopinatum, & ex confl●entib. causis, in his quae ob aliquid geruntur eventum; concurrere verò & confluere causas, facit ordo ille, inevitabili connexione procedens, qui de providentiae sonte descendens, cuncta suis locis, temporibusque disponit. he seems but to say what not Christian orthodox soul, though much opposed by you, ever denied you yet, that all things by virtue of God's decree and prescience, which are necessary, should fall out necessarily, and all contingent things contingently, and free things freely, without altering the nature of things or introducing violence and coaction. And if this be all you and he would have, you need not (as we have divers times seen) have made such a stir about that which none denies. 4. You might have been the more of Boethius, not only for opposing that maxim received in all Christian Schools, denied not where, but in the Jesuitical, if it be interpreted of that which they call Scientiam visionis. That non ideo sunt res futurae, quià Deus praeviderit, sed è contrà, p. 126, 127. Futurition depends not on God's prescience, but prescience upon futurition: But also for the starting up almost, as many objections against the prescience, which he and you maintain, p. 128. as you had belched out blasphemies against the praedetermination which we maintain: all which he doth allay but very weakly and sorrily, as you may see, p. 144. in the very winding up of all his Philosophical consolations. So that you had not need to be too bold with such objections, as you with the help of Boethius, will as little be able to conjure down, when raised up against prescience, as we can do, when they are brought in against praedetermination. 5. Though for your greater credit, and honour's sake, you would seem to fetch your greatest light p. 48. from Boethius, (however that light be but darkness) yet (b) Armin. Resp. ad Artic. 5, 6, 7. Quod verò res quae respectu secundarum causarum contingenter sit, necessariò fieri dicitur, respectu decreti divini, id non modò perperàm sed & imperitè dicitur, vide p. 115. And he instanceth in the Jews crucifying of Christ. Videses Simon. Episcop. ad Joh, Beverovic, etc. Arminius, Episcopius, Nich. Grevinchovius, and every Trivial scribbling Lad belonging to the Arminian School, could have helped you to as much light, as there you (to use your own phrase, p. 57) enlighten yourself withal. Nor it is likely when you were in our way (if you were ever in it) who are receded from it, 1 John 2. 19 you so bookish a man, could be ignorant of this. 6. In the strength of all your Philosophical, Platonical consolation, fetched from Boethius, your scope is and must be, (if you will oppose Calvin, or any orthodox person holding with him) from the 38. Section to the end of the Chapter, by heaps of distinctions huddled oddly together, to maintain, 1. That God hath rather a post determination, than a praedetermination of all future contingent things, yea (as I could enlarge in the proof, if I were not tied to brevity) a Postscience, than a prescience: and then the sum of what you strive to prove, is but what Dr Twisse, told Dr Jackson he laboured to make out; if you speak to purpose in this, and that by way of opposition, your Dr jackson's vanities, p. 279 meaning must be this: God doth not first decree them, and afterwards foreknow them (viz. future contingent things) but rather he first foreknows them, and then decrees them, which is as much as to say, that God foreknowing that they will be, doth hereupon decree, that they shall be, so that God's decree of things future contingent, proceedeth in this manner, seeing they will be, they shall be. 2. You as before, appear all along, for a mere intuitive prescience, devoid of all praedetermination of by fare the major part, and more noble part of all sorts of actions done by Angels, men or Devils in the world, whereof God is no ways a praedeterminator, but takes his part after man; and is, and was ab aeterno, as a mere spectator, p. 48. as yourself have it in that Boethian simile, when you behold men walking on the earth, or the Sun shining in the Heavens. And is not this worse than to divide the government betwixt God and men? Divisum imperium cum Jove Caesar habet. Is it not to exempt all rational creatures, and their actions, qua tales, from all divine government, unless such as is without all praedetermination (c) And is not this, as one learnedly, Abr. Vand. Mylen, in Beverovicio, p. 27. Fortuito casui omnia tribuere, & pervigilem Dei curam dissolvere, some nolento villico negligentiorem facere? Nullum numen ●dest si sit prudentia: T. P. facit Deum dependere ab humana prudentia, quae ipsa fortunâ est magis versa●ilis. Te nos facimus fortuna Deam, etc. coeloque locamus. And yet this Ʋander Mylen was an Arminian. . 3. You would gladly out of that Boethius p. 110. revive that long since exploded opinion, of the actual existence of all things eternally with God, which therefore you would have called, not praevidence, which is of things future, but providence which is of things present. Whereas there can be nothing so plain, as that from eternity, there could be nothing actually present besides God, unless we shall fall back to maintain the world's eternity à priori, unto which I find your Boethius but too inclineable, when though he dare not say, that the world was eternal, yet he saith it was perpetuum. Which is as true, as that Mr T. P. was a thousand and millions of years ago, writings of his 〈◊〉 Correct Copy. Indeed, as Philoponus the Grammarian ans;wered well, more like a Christian then a Heathen, when he was asked by those that denied the world's creation in time, and so that it was possible to be before it was, where that possibility did lodge before it was produced into act, he answered that it was in the agent (d) Dr Twisse vind. great. l. 1. digress. 1. S. 4. p. 54. objectum dici non potest esse simpliciter, sed duntaxat in Deo, ut cognitum in ment Dei, etc. in God, all things from eternity had in God an intentional being, but not an actual. In which sense, the Apostle saith, that God calls all things, not being as if they were, Rom. 4. 17. It is but a quasi of being, not a real one, existing extra causas. God then in his decrees, looked upon them as entia possibilia, and as such things which by virtue of his decrees, were in their own time and order and way, to obtain actual being. But these things are so evident in themselves, and have been so learnedly ventilated by Dr Twisse (e) Against Dr jackson's vanities. and many more (among whom, I do not reckon my reverend good friend Dr Kendal, against Mr John Goodwin, to be any of the meanest) as that I should but abuse my leisure further to insist upon them. 4. By your frequent repetitions of that first and second will of God: of your antecedent and consequent will, the absolute and conditional, your inviting and revenging will, p. 51, 52. your will of mercy and judgement, all which distinctions, as you say very well, come to one and the same purpose, p. 41. 52. and with which, as rare dainties, we were once served, p. 36, 37. etc. in that Deca-chorde of Arguments of yours (already sufficiently considered) oditur chorda quae semper oberrat eadem. I say by all these you would feign make us believe, what I am confident no Christian in the world will dare long to believe; that God's antecedent first and chief will, and that which as I may so say, God is most big withal, and enamoured with (f) Vid. D. Riu. disp. 7. the great. univers. thes. 12. Nemo sibi in Deo imaginari debet, sicut in hominib. voluntatem, studium sive conatum aliquem, quo velit, studeat, imitatur, & quantum in ipso est agate, ut omnes salventur, quod tamen propterea non assequatur, quia bonae ejus voluntati obsistat mala hominum voluntas, qua praevalente & impediente, divina frustretur: Quod commentum, divinae potentiae & faelicitati repugnat: Si enim non potest Deus quod vult, quomodo omnipotens? Si non assequitur quod optat, quomodo faelix & non potivomiser? , as he is with the manifestation of his own glory, in one kind or other, Prov. 16. 4. Rom. 9 12. may be repealed, annulled, etc. p. 52, 53. etc. But that his consequent will, which depends upon the creature, p. 53. and which he cares no more to have, than a just Judge, p. 52. to hang a murderer is absolute and unrepealable, etc. and so made by the act of an impendent headstrong creature. He that can believe these things, hath a wide swallow (g) And I (r) Wider then that of Avistotle, Rhet. lib. 2. St enim voluit & potuit, id etiam fecit; omnes enim cum volunt & possunt aliquid facere, id etiam faciunt. trust, all the Christians in England, whether Episcopal, Presbyterial, or congregationally▪ Independent, will a thousand times sooner agree among themselves, than be willing from you, or any of your adherents, upon the terms of believing such theological paradoxes to compound with you. And for my own part, how much soever you flout me with my opinions, and Religion, in the last words of this Chapter, p. 54. and who by God's blessing, believe this as firmly as any Article of my Creed, that in God there is no mutability nor shadow of turning, Jam. 1. 17. Mal. 3. 6. (h) August. Enchirid. cap. 102. Quantaelibet sint voluntates, vel Angelorum, vel hominum, vel bonorum, vel malorum, vel illud quod Deus, vel aliud volunt quam Deus; omnipotentis voluntas Dei semper invicta est, quae mala esse nunquam potest, quia etiam cum mala irrogat, justa est, & profecto quae justa est, mala non est, etc. . I would not for a thousand worlds, in these points change opinions or religions with you, any more than Fr. Gomarus, as he professed in a full assembly of States, would appear in the faith of Arminius, about the ipsum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere, in the matter of Justification, before the Tribunal of Christ (i) Vid. Praes. ad Synod. Dordracen. , at the bar of which, we must one day all appear, 2 Cor. 5. 10. I have no mind to a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to an aurum pro carbone. I am not for a conspiracy, with whom you say a conspiracy. No, my good brother, come you to me, I am not like to come over to you (God defending me) to change religions in haste; & yet in this I wish you no more harm, than Paul did Agrippa, when he prayed, that in every thing he might be like him, his chain only excepted, Acts 26. 29. 2. But in hopes, that you who gave me the first hint by your soft words of Charity, Reconcilement, composition, will come in upon some easier terms, than the last Articles which you propose, p. 53. I be take myself briefly, to the second thing promised, viz. to the drawing up of Articles of Composition for you to subscribe to, if you be in good earnest to come in, upon a personal treaty. If you yield to them; as poor a Presbyterian as I am, I durst warrant that you may be, as to the matters contained in these l●st Sections▪ and third Chapter, upon terms of peace and reconciliation, with any orthodox Protestant Assembly in England or Christendom, ever to be summoned, but if not, I must bid an Aeternum vale to you. and I doubt most Christian Churches will do it with me. Honest easy Articles of Composition, for Mr T. P. Article 1. YOU shall no more dispute against Sir N. N. and make the whole world believe, that all the while you be disputing against Mr Calvin, and the whole Nation of the half-witted Rabble of Praedestinarians, (as you call them, first papers, p. 11.) Article 2. You shall no more confound Election and Salvation, reprobation and damnation, as you do all along: Nor yet the decree of God, as it is an act immanent from all eternity in him, with the temporal execution of it. Article 3. You shall with all the speed you can, gather up all the Distinctions which you have brought together, for the reconciling the Liberty of man's will (such as now it is since the fall) with divine prescience. As viz. that of an absolute and hypothetical necessity, p. 49. that of a consequence, from that of a consequent, p. 49, 50. that of infallibility or certainty, from necessity, mostly so called, ibid. and divers other distinctions useful in their kind and way, numbered up by you, Chap. 4. p. 60, 61. and girding like a valiant man, your Gladius Delphicus you speak of, p. 5●. by your side, you shall as dextrouslie and indifferently, apply all these useful distinctions for the cutting asunder of the knots about free will and praedetermination, as you do for the cutting asunder of the chiefest knots, in the Question about free will and prescience; and then as to those matters, we shall be in a fair way of agreement. In like sort you shall bundle up those other distinctions which you have, viz. that of the antecedent and consequent will of God, that of his comparative and absolute will, p. 51, 52. of his inviting & revenging will of God; of his mercy, & of his justice, ibid. & you shall not apply them to the mould and making of God's decrees as they are in themselves, but to the execution of them in time, which you ought to yield to, who have unwarily, I wish but cordially confessed, that in Gods will simply, there is neither prius nor posterius, p. 51. And then, as to all what you have, Sect. 40, & 41. (excepting always that which you put into a parenthesis, p. 53. about the dependency, or independency of God's will, which we must ever maintain to be independent) we shall be marvellous like to accord with you. Article 4. You shall for the future, next to the holy, blessed, unerring book of God, in the Quinque-Articularian Controversy, and what depends upon it, study the best and most choice orthodox authors, such as of old hath been Austin, Prosper, Fulgentius, Hilary, Historia Gottes. etc. and of late (that you may know that we are not so Presbyterian, as in every thing to cross the Episcopal humour) Matthew Hutton, Archiepiscop. Eborac. Jacob. Armachanus, Rob. Abbot. Satisburiens. Jos. Exon. John Dau. Sarisburiens. Georg. Cicistrens. and a number more. Article 5. You shall not for after times, with Tilenus, be such an Antizelote, as he was in his Paraenesis ad Scoto● disciplinae Genevensis zelotas, to Presbyterian discipline, as out of hatred to it, to abhor all the doctrines which are delivered by the men of that way and order, and so in opposition to them, turn Arminian and Thompsonian, and then yet call yourself in despite of all the orthodox Fathers and Articles of the Church of England, a very orthodox Protestant of the Church of England, p. 4. For indeed now, if you have such tricks with you, you will not only deserve to be disciplined as somewhere Hieron. professeth of himself, that he was by the Lady M. in a vision, Quod potius Ciceronianus quàm Christianus esset, and as you might be for your Boethian rather then Christian Philosophy. But you will give cause to your Mother the Church of England, to look upon you as a son that causeth shame, to desire your room rather than your company, and to tell you, that at Rome, as appears by the Bull of Innocent the tenth, you and your doctrines shall be more welcome, than they can be to England, whiles the Articles of the Church are in any credit with the sons of the Church. 3. As to the third thing promised, viz. the clearing of the passage quoted, p. 50. out of Mr calvin's 4. Section of the 23. chap. of the 3. book of Institutions, he shall not need to be reverenced any thing the less, or suspected any thing the more for what he saith there, if that may be but considered, what hath been said often in his behalf already, upon occasion of such like passages, in answer to p▪ 9, 10. But you lessen your own reverence, and give reason enough to Protestants, for to the marking you atro carbone, with the black coal of their censures, for your so frequent branding of Calvin, whose spots whereover they do appear in his writings, were but like those of Cyprians, Naevi in candido pectore, whereas yours do but appear to be like those which are not the spots of God's children, Deut. 32. 5. you do but in your censures resemble him in the Poet too much, who did pass by the Crows, and shoot at the Pigeons, 〈…〉 Praeteriens Corvos, vexat Censura Columbas. But what must Mr Calvin be suspected for? for maintaining that God did praedestinate Adam, and in him all men, to the cause of their damnation, sin. But first, that which is in the objection, which was made against calvin's Doctrine, which he had delivered in his former third Chapter, is it also in calvin's Resolution? Doth he consent to the whole of that objection (k) Doth he not deny it with a non protinus sequitur Deum huic obirectationi sub jacere? ? Doth he join his fateor, I confess, to the all of it, as it lies? or doth he only say, which unanimously enough Schoolmen (l) Ca●thus. in 4. q. 1. dist. 46. Causa naturae & proprietatum ●jus est divina voluntas, (vel eligentis vel reprobant●s) ideo totus ordo j●st●tiae or●ginaliter, ad div●nam voluntatem reduci●ur & dist. 41. D●●o quo● Deus ord●navit A. ad essectum praedestinationis, & non B etc. had said before him, that Gods will was the only prime sovereign cause, why Adam, and in him all men, were at first left to their own free sinful wills, from falling into which, God might have preserved them, if he had been so pleased, as well as he did uphold Adam any one hour, before his fall, or doth the Angels unto this day. 2. You misrerresent Calvin most shamefully, contrary to his clear Doctrine in the foregoing Section (m) What Ruiz. de vo●. d●sp. 39 S. 3. says Aliq●i modi in voluntate non reducuntur in Deum tanquam in consume, pras●rtim, quando culpabilis est nodus se habendi, vid. & disp. 6. n. 12. , when as you would have him teach, that God doth as much praedestinate men to the misery of sin, as to the misery of punishment, which followed upon it, that very thing which he had confuted, Section 3. just before the objection which you would have him in the whole to consent to. 3. You fear not, or be not ashamed to add to his answer, when you say, that by the express will of God, etc. The word express, is an express forgery, fingis non leg is, you foist it in, but read it not in calvin's text: and it so sounds, as if by an express warrant, or approbation from God's will, Adam had fallen into sin, whereas Calvin's decidisse filios Adam Dei voluntate, signifies in him at the utmost, but an efficacious permissive will, which differs much from his will of approbation, or his effective will, as we have heard long since. 4. You will take no notice either of what Calvin disputes against the Sorbonists, who were for God's absolute power and will, devoid of all reason, known to himself (n) lib. 3. c. 23. s. 2. Commentum non ing●rimus absolutae potentiae, quod sicut profanum est, it a meritò detestabile nobis esse d●bet. Non singimus Deum exlegem, qui sibi ipsi lex est. etc. Section 2. nor of what he doth in this very fourth Section, as well as Section 2. before, and Section 4. immediately behind, produce for God's unaccountablenesse for any of his decrees or do, to any of the children of men. And yet these Reasons to the Apostle, to Austin and others, as Calvin shows you before and behind the place, which you quote out of him, were judged very weighty. But about these, and other such Cavils of yours against Calvin, I hope ere long you will be soundly paid, when the answer of Dr Kendal comes forth against Fur Praedestinatus, unto whom for these and such like objections, you be very much beholden. Est is ignobile par fratrum, as Simeon and Levi, brethren in evil. 5. Your triumph against Calvin about the dereliction of Angels will be but like the joy of the Hypocrites, Job 20. 5. which is but for a moment. If you will but turn back to the answer which you have had to it by me, or if you would but (which methinks should be easy for so multifarious a distinguisher as you show yourself to be, in the latter Section of this your 3. Chapter) distinguish betwixt the sole cause of the Angel's dereliction, or rather as it is in Mr Calvin, reprobation, which was God's act, How Calvin must be understood in this, and such like expressions, See Dr Riu. disp. 3. Thes 13. and no sinful one, though a secret one, and the sole cause of the Angel's defection or apostasy, which Calvin ascribes not to God, (though you most impudently thrust the word defection, instead of dereliction into his text. His is thus: Si illorum (viz. angelorum bonorum) constantia in Dei beneplacito fundata fuit, aliorum (viz. malorum) defectio arguit fuisse derelictos. Cujus (supple) derelictionis, non defectionis non potest alia adduci causa, quam reprobatio, quae arcano Dei consilio abscondita est. And for this God cannot be blamed any more, than the Scripture doth blame him, Judas 6. when it tells us, that they relinquished, viz. voluntarily and sinfully their first station. And thus I am at last come to the end of your terrible long third Chapter. Unto Chap. 4 and 5. from p. 55. to the end. IT would be easy to me, (who in short notes, as well as in extended ones, against your first papers, have delivered in a world of matters, referring to this) as well as useful to others, to be voluminous in the answers to what you have in the two next ensuing Chapters: but because I find it most necessary for the present, (as it were) to contract all my own Iliads into a Nutshell, I will (God being with me) in opposition to all your extravagancies in these two Chapters, (wherein with a witness you show yourself to be clericus vagrans) confine myself to these ensuing particulars. 1. I'll wipe off, nay, retort the most of the aspersions of Stoicism, Manichaisme, Marcionisme, Turkism, which you would feign bespatter our Doctrine of absolute praedestination withal. 2. I'll charge home, and prove the charge of Pelagianism, and Massilianisme, to belong to you, against all your solemn disavowing either of them, p. 55, 56. etc. 3. I'll make some additions to what I have proved already, p. 79, 80. that it is impossible that in any orthodox sense, you should hold your second principle, again repeated, p. 55. and yet opine as you do in your former Chapters, and in these two last. 4. I shall a little show the disorder of your St Andrean order, p. 56. wherein you marshal as it were into rank and file, the several decrees belonging to praedestination. 5. I shall somewhat more elaboratelie, than I shall do any thing else, state the Question about God's irresistible or resistible (as you call them) operations in the way of gracious workings upon persons to be converted, about which you make a most irresistible coil and pother, from Section 44. p. 56. off and on, to the very end of you 4. Chapter, ending. p. 68 and yet about which you do most weakly, if not wilfully, most mistake yourself. 6. I shall somewhat discover your escapadoes in the Quaestions of free will, and the Saints perseverance. 7. And then I shall wind up all in answer to your petitionary epilogue for Liberty of Conscience, and commend myself and all my labours, and even you, unto God's mercy. Unto the first then, and here to the 1. The charge of Stoicism, I need but say, 1. That Stoicism belongs more to you, then to us, who have, 1. As much, nay more reason than we, to tie the Almighty to the fate of the Stars (o) See before, p. our saying useth to be, astra regunt homines, sed regit astra Deus, certè non regitur ab astris, nec à voluntatibus hominum. and their influences, then to the much more versatile turn pin fates of man's slippery free will. 2. Who use with a much greater 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to speak of the powers of man's free will, in making themselves good and happy, than we do or dare to speak. 2. That all fatality (the chief thing laid to the charge of the Stoics) is not to be denied, unless you will renounce all certainty in God's decrees, as Austin hath taught us, (p) de gra. & lib. arb. 5. c. 1. Si propterea quis quam res humanas fato tribuit, quia ipsam Dei voluntatem vel potestatem sati nomine appellat, sententiam teneat, linguam corrigat. and withal, kick up your own admirable Boethius (q) Whose saying it is, l. 5. the consol. Fatum est immobilis dispositio, rebus mobilib. inhaerens. Sic. Aquin. par. 1. q. 116. à. 4. See Dr Dau. an imadverl, p. 24●. . 3. The very Stoics, who were most for fates, yet they were so much for confatalias too, for a sapiens dominabitur astris, as they made a shift, not withstanding all the hard opinions which they maintained about fates, to be the strictest living Philosophers in the world, and if I may so speak, very Puritans amongst the Gentiles. They did not believe, (and yet they excelled more in Logical skill about consequences, from antecedents, than any other sect of Philosophers) that their opinions about fate, did necessitate them to neglect virtue, (in which they above any other Sects, did place their happiness) or excuse them in their vices, as you would have the doctrine of absolute praedestination to do, p. 42. etc. alibi. 4. No objection more common among Pelagians, or Semi-pelagians against Augustine's doctrine about praedestination, then that of introducing Stoical fate (r) Prosp. ad August. objiciunt sub hoc praedestinationis nomine, fatalem quandam induci necessitatem, &c 2. As to Manichaisme, and Marcionisme, 1. Had you not more studied to multiply the tale of accusations, then to prove the pertinency of them against our doctrine, you would not have objected Manichaisme and Marcionisme, as two distinct things: whereas it is well known (s) Vid. Lambert. Danaeum in August. de haeres. , that Manichaisme was the latter in time, but the same in opinion with Marcionisme and Cerdonianisme, from whence they both derived their blasphemous and monstrous conceits about two principles, or Gods, whereof the one was the author of all good, the other of all evil and wickedness: which you may as often as you please, object against our doctrine, but shall never be able more to prove it against us, than the Pelagians, and Semi-Pelagians were to prove Manichaisme against Saint Austin (t) Prosp. Epist. ad Ruffin Adj●ciunt ètiam accusatores, duas humanl generis massas, & duas cr●di velle naturas, ut scil. tantae pi●●atis v●o, Paganorum & Manichaeorum adscribatur imp●etas. , and yet they had nothing more frequent at their tongues ends, and pens ends against him. 2. You yourself look a thousand times more like a Manichee, than we do, who up and down do maintain, especially, p. 41. in opposition to us, that the Devil is bec●me master of most part of the world, the very black Prince of the world, and yet by not so much as a full voluntary, just, permission of the Almighty, p 14. who now is the Manichee, in making God not only a coordinate power in a different kind with the Devil, but a superior to him? 3. As to that of Turkism, it hath been so fare answered before, as that I can assure you, 1. That if Pope Innocent the tenth's late Bull, did not promise that your doctrine should be more welcome at Rome, than the grand Turk hath ever done that ours shall be at Constantinople, you would never set forth (pray God you may not, and I pray it seriously) for Rome the first, nor were we ever to be like to sail to Rome the second, alias Constantinople. 2. It's easy to tell who were your praedecessor: in objecting Turkism to our doctrine, v●z. your beloved S. Castalio (u) Turp Apol pr●d●fens Theol. Castal, praef Mahumetanis ac plane perditis hominib. rel●nquenda est ea (doctrina praedestinationis) quam Diabolus ad Christiani populi perniciem induxit, etc. , and the Belgic Remonstrants, who as Learned J. Bogermanus observes well, would have done the like against King James, but that then they were afraid of his Triple Crown (x) Bogerman. Annot. 104 cont. H Grot. Velure hoc solo nomine, plerique odium alicui conflant, quod Calvini & Bezae sit studiosus: & in eo toti sunt, ut hos Dei servos velut Turcis, & Marianis crudeliores & plebi reddant exosos, etc. & apud mul●os hoc dedere eff●ctum ut quotidiana experientia testatur Nec mitius hoc genus hominum tractaret ipsum Britanniae Regem, nisi fastigium formidaret regium. . Thus as to the wiping off of aspersions from us, which stick nothing so fast to us as rain to the most slippery oiled coat. But as for the second, it is not all the water of Noah's or Deucalion's flood, can wash you (without a recantation) clean from the charge of Pelagianism, and Massilianisme, now to be proved against you, 1. For both, I think it hath been sufficiently well done already, up and down in the margins of this book, so that he that runs may read them. 2. As for the charge of direct Pelagianism (I do not say learned out of Pelagius his book, but out of your Pelagian nature; for nature inclines us all to Pelagianism, it is the most natural heresy that is in the world) I had thought to have proved it at large, by making good this assertion, That Pelagius when pursued by Adversaries, gives as good words to grace, nay ascribes more to it, in the matter of habitual grace, in the matter of the remission of sins, and divers other matters, then as yet you have in this, or in your former papers, discovered yourself, according to your way of reasoning, to allow of (x) Compare but what you say, with what Jansen. in his Augustin. l. 5 & 6. de haeres. Pelag. doth quote as Pelagian Concessions, out of their writings, and no body will doubt of the truth of this. . 3. By what you have in these papers, within the compass of these 4. and 5. Chapters, as well as in your former as genuine papers, about the three capital points of Pelagian Heresy, viz. 1. Original sin (y) As for original sin, the very first root and basis of all Pelagianism, as every body knows, who sees not, that in these your corrected papers, you do most warily decline all express mention of it, when p. 6, 65, 67. you had reason and occasion enough for so doing, the strongest expression looking that way, is that which you have, p. 6. of the Serpents and the Protoplasts promoting of your guilt, which who sees not? You may as well interpret of a promoting it by way of persuasion in the Serpent, & of example in Adam, and of imitation in you & others, the very phrase of the Pelagians. And as for the guilt you speak of, may you not also interpret it only of reatus poenae, and that only as to temporal punishment, death temporal, then of any guilt of sin? And why may not I more than suspect this of you, when as I find in two Copies of your first genuine papers, where indeed for fashion sake, you own the term original sin; but then, 1. You define it only thus, It is the want of original innocency, together with natural concupiscence in the posterity of Adam, p. 10. 2. You quarrel with the definition of absolute praedestinarians, p. 11. 3. You oppose, p. 10. original sin to a man's own, and quote Ezek. 18. for it. 4. You maintain, it never killed, never damned any: Your express Thesis there, is, p. 10. That none in the world dying infants are damned. 5. Ibid. You maintain, the state of all infants to be a harmless state, and that it cannot be utterly lost in our riper years without our will. All which, what do they speak, but that of Pelagius. August. de nat. & gra. Naturam humanam neque in parvulis indigere medico, quia sana est, & in majoribus sibi ipsam ad justitiam posse sufficere, si velit. . 2. Free will. 3. Universal grace, p. 71. This will be put past all dispute against all frontless denials, as the more learned sort of Readers (whom this most concerns) will easily discern, by viewing what I bring for proof of it in the margin. By which it is very clear, that out of courtesy and craft, rather than kindness and love, you do compliment with grace, giving her 1. The higher title; she is with you, p. 55. the nominal mistress. 2. And bestowing upon her, an encomiastic declamation, of just 24 lines long, p. 46. in a book of 74. pages, wherein now and then you bedaub her with some fine words, yet nothing so full nor significant, as any body may see, as those of the Remonstrants, in their third and fourth Articles, whose method, as well as matter, you own really, though not verbally, throughout your book, which I think too, was the rather distinguished by you into five Chapters, that you might some way discover to your friends, how well you liked their five Articles. For these great services, over the left shoulder, done to grace, Oh that in case of your obstinacy, there were but in England a Synod or Council, like to that of Orange, as Civil, to use your own phrase, p. 55. to reject your haeresy, as it did that of Pelagianism, and then it would be done effectually. You would be sound rated for Courting that Mistress, and in the mean while lying and committing spiritual fornication, with that more beloved Handmaid, Dame Nature. After you would be shent, Can. 7. An Haeretico falleris spiritu. An Resistis ipsi spiritui. sancto. Nay the Anathema of the 4. Canon, Concil. Milev. Can. 4. etc. And then 2. As to Massilianisme, (which once your great Oracle, Jacob. Arminius (z) Art. 10. with some grains of allowance, would have questioned, whether it were not to be looked upon, as verus Christianismus, true Christianity) none shall have any the least shadow of reason to doubt of that, who either can or will but compare what you have in your fifth Chapter, about conditional election (a) Massilianisme, or Semipelagianisme, may as well be denied by you, as that your nose stands in your face, unless you will blot out most of all your fifth Chapter. There, 1. to you, Election is founded upon prescience, p. 69. 71. So the M●ssilians, Psosp. Epist. ad August. Qui credituri sunt, quiuè in ea●fide, quae deinceps per Dei gratiam sit juvanda, mansuri sunt, praescisse, ante mundi constitutionem Deum, & eos praedestinasse in regnum suum, quos gratis vocatos, dignos suturos electione & de hac vitae, bono fine esse excessuros praeviderit. 2. Faith in Christ, which you make the difference between the elect and reprobate, and a difference you say there must be, before there can be an election. So they, as Austin himself did, when he held their error, August. Epist. ad Hilar. Non potest in rebus omnino aequalib. electio nominari, quoniam sp. sanctus non datur, nisi credentib. 3. Election to you, is a retribution, p. 70. reprobation a punishment, passim cap. 3. So they, Prosp. resp. ad dub. Genuens. ut ipsa electorum praedestinatio, non sit, nisi retributio. 4. The number of the elect or reprobate, is not to you fixed, nor determinate; if it be conditional, how can that be? But you say most expressly in your first papers, p. 4. That God praedestinated Israel, both to salvation and reprobation; God does write and blot, and write again, p. 8. So they, Prosp. ad August. Nec acquiescunt praedestinatorum electorum numerum, nec augeri posse nec minui. Sic Hilar. Arelat. ad August. 5. According to you, none can be certain of election, till he have believed, obeyed, and persevered in both. p. 69. So they, Jansen. l 8 de Pelag. haeres. Ab electione sola, ad bona opera, nemo (secundum illos de quibus loquitur nemo potest simpliciter electus, aut praedestinatus esse vel dici; hoc enim nemini competit, nisi postquam non solum sanctus esse, bene vivere, sed etiam in eadem sanct●tate, ac bona actione permansurus esse praescitur. 6. Add to this your doctrine about universal grace and free will, p. 64. & 71. wherein you and they are one. Prosp. ad August. universis hominib. (aiunt) propitiationem, quae est in sacramento sanguinis Christi, esse propositam, ut q●icu●que ad fidem & ad baptismum accedere voluerint, salvi esse possint. August. lib. de gra. contr. Petag. Habere nos possibilitatem utriusque partis à Deo insitam, velut quandam radicem fructiseram, & soecundam, quae possit, ad proprii cul●oris arbitrium, vel ni●ere flore virtutum, vel sentibus horrere vitiorum. , p 69. and other matters with the marginal parallels, which I have drawn up in short, and may have occasion as to Pelagianisme, and Semipelagianism, to draw out more at large some other time. The third thing proposed, hath been proved already in the second; for whosoever proves you a Pelagian, or Massilian, proves you either no Christian, or but a piece of one; and as good never a whit, as never the better. But that you may know how kind hearted I am to you, after all the many course salutes which I have had from you; I will add somewhat to what already in these, and much more to what I have had in answer to your first papers, towards the probatum est, that in words you do indeed say over your second principle, p. 55. but that it is impossible that it should be consistent with the rest of your tenants: for which in this book, and in these very last Chapters of it, you do appear like another pugnacious Bellarmine, Anagrammaticè spirans Bella, Arma, minas. Take these few Arguments, as a supra-pondium, or auctarium, to what hath been brought in already. Argument 1. He defends not the special, evangelical grace of Jesus Christ, of which Christ said, you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, John 15. 16. who mainteins his good works to be a necessary condition (we shall find that to be tantamount, when we come to it, if leisure will serve to speak to it, to a necessary cause) of our election. But that doth Mr. T. P. indeed, and in ipsis terminis, p. 69. Ergò quod est causa cansae, est causa causati. If Mr T. P. his good works be a necessary cause, or say but a necessary condition of his election, it must much more be so of his vocation, justification, adoption, etc. For as Bishop Carleton learnedly proves, it's possible that a prior grace, may in some sort and sense be said to be the cause of a posterior, as ex. gr. election of vocation, vocation of justification and Sanctification, etc. but that a posterior grace should be the cause, or a necessary condition of a prior, is most absurd and impossible (b) See B. Carleton at large, exam. of the Author of the appeal, p. 52, 53, 54. etc. where these words are most remarkable. To hold the contrary to this, is, for love to hold with Pelagius, to say something wherein they forsake▪ understanding, reason, Divinity, and Philosophy, & speak nonsense. For that I call nonsense, that is against Divinity, Philosophy, and common sense, as this is, which maketh a subsequent gtace, to be the cause of a precedent grace, to set the effect before the cause. . If then faith and good works, and perseverance in them, be before election itself, the very first grace and fountain of all grace, Rom. 8. 30. Eph. 1. 4. then of necessity man's free will and good works, must be before all true Christian special grace, according to you. Arg. 2. That grace which for kind and species, is but the same with the grace which was given to the first Adam, from whence he fell totally and finally, that is none of the special grace procured and purchased by Jesus Christ. But such is the grace which Mr T. P. doth most courageously stand up for, p. 95. Sect. 52. which as Jansenius doth most learnedly out of Austin dispute, did only afford unto Adam, adjutorium sine quo non, without which it had been impossible for Adam to have stood at all; but did not afford him Adjutorium quo, by which he was enabled certainly to stand. Ergo. Arg. 3. That grace which doth not absolutely give us to will and do, according to Gods will and pleasure, but only upon condition of our willing and doing, and that in the very first act of our regeneration and conversion, that is not the special grace of Jesus Christ, Phil. 2. 12, 13. But no other grace doth Mr T. P. stand up for, either before regeneration, as may be seen and read of all men, in the application of his illustrious simile, taken from the opening of the eyelid, as a necessary condition for the intromitting of light, p. 63. (A thing which as Austin hath well cleared, is most necessary, even sanis oculis, to those who see best, and unto whom not a faculty of seeing is given, but external light) nor after regeneration, as is plain, Sect. 45. p. 57, 58. by what he disputes there, and what is not greatly, as he might have known, disputed betwixt him and his adversaries; who deny not but that after the first grace received, and after the habits of grace infixed and impacted into the will, that doth voluntarily act being acted. But T. P. mainteins the will to be not only the material cause, or rather the subject in which and upon which as not a blockish and brute instrument (as he represents it) but upon a rational intelligent subject, grace works (c) Bernard. de lib. arb. & gra. opus hoc sine duobus perfici non potest, uno a quo sit, altero in quo sit. Deus est Author salutis, liberum arbitrium tantum capax. De hoc primo actu intelligendum est quod Augustinus dicit, Deum ut velimus, in nobis sine nobis operari; Idem quod Thomas in primo actu voluntatis qui procedit à gratia praeveniente, voluntatem esse motam, & non moventem. or the formal cause which doth elicit the acts of willing, believing, doing; for questionless we will, when we will, we believe when we believe, and God doth not will, believe, repent (d) August. de gra, & lib. arb. c. 16. Certum est nos velle cum volumus, sed ille facit, ut velimus bonum, etc. Certum est nos facere, cum faciamus, sed ille facit ut faciamus, praebendo vires efficacissimas voluntati, vid. & de bon. persev. cap. 13. , but he doth, as hath been seen often, and in his never to be forgotten simile, p. 63. make the will as very an efficient cause of its own willing, as the faculty of seeing, is of the eyelids opening, ergo, T. P. defends not the special grace of Christ. Arg. 4. He that maintains no other grace then what is conveied by a general covenant, founded o●●y upon conditional promises, he doth not maintain the special grace of Jesus Christ, Jer. 31. 33. Heb. 10. 16. But that doth Mr T. P. p. 36. 71. Ergo. Arg. 5. He that so interprets those scriptures which speak of Gods most efficacious omnipotent wonderworking grace, as to allow grace, not a supernatural real efficacious work, but only a forinsecal, moral, suasive work, he, say he what he will to the contrary, shuts Christ's special grace out of doors, and makes it stand in the cold, lackeying upon man's will, Pelagian like (e). But that doth Mr T. P. by his glosses (d) August. de gra. count. Peag. & Celestina. l. 1. cap. 7 Adjuvat nos Deus per doctrinam & revelationem suam; dum cordis nostri oculos aperit, dum nobis ne praesentib. occupemur futura demonstrat, dum Diaboli pandit insidias, dum mult●formi & ineffabili dono gratiae coelestis illuminat. Nay, doth Mr T. P. allow so much as Pelagius doth, who c. 38. ibid. hath these words, N●s qui per Christi gratiam, in meliorem hominem renati sumus, qui sanguine ejus expiati. & mundati. upon Phil. 2. 12, 13. Sect 45. and upon Ezek. 26, 27. Cant. 1. 14. 1 John 3. 9 Sect. 47. p. 60. etc. Ergo. Arg. 6. And last, He that mainteins Christ himself to jeer at sinners, p. 37. etc. alibi, and every where jeers at Christ's faithful servants, for maintaining with Christ and his Apostles, John 15. 2. Rom. 8. 7. 1 Cor. 2. 14. men to be so impotent since their fall, as that they cannot come to Christ, unless Christ and the Father draw them by their special, all conquering power of grace, not communicated unto all, John 6. 44▪ But this doth Mr T. P. p. 37. and in this Chapter, from Sect. 44. p. 56. almost to the end of it. Ergo, I trust I may upon the whole matter, something more theologically and logically conclude with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, than Mr T. P. that though in emulation to Dr Jackson (f) Of divine Attri. praef. , the very oracle, and Arminius revived to all English Arminians, you did think it most conducing to the credit of your interest, to maintain God to be the special author of all grace and goodness, p. 5. yet you will never be able, without contradicting most of your whole book, to defend it: If the three fair lines and a half, set down, p. 55. or the four and a half set down, p. 6. must stand uncrossed, you must provide a deleatur, and an Index expurgatorius, for many five hundred lines of good English, but bad Theology in your book. 4. As to the fourth thing promised, touching your ordering of God's decrees proposed by you, p. 56. 1. The Father loves the Son, etc. I list not much in these high points, to contend with any man, about mere matters of order, (g) D. Riu. disp. de praedest. thes. 12. Certè inter eos qui credunt, praedestinationis causam, referendam esse ad summam voluntatis divinae libertatem, non ad prae visa bona, vel mala in hominibus controversia in re nulla est, etsi in loquendi modo, videantur dissentire. if all other matters were but right, especially in an age and Church, which after many vows and Covenants for good order and discipline, seems to have adjured both good order, and all Ecclesiastical discipline; but yet I must needs confess, I think not yours, though it be verbatim, a Saint Andrean order to be either sound, 1. Theologicall. 2. Rightly rational. 3. Or so passable, as that of Arminius himself. 1. It is Atheological, without any necessity to multiply decrees in God, who is purus putus actus, and in whose will simply, (as you say very truly, p. 51.) there cannot be either prius or posterius, first or second. Frustra fit per plura quod fieri potest per pauciora. The orthodox do much better, who for their own ease, distinguish one entire decree of praedestination, into that about the end, and that about the means according not to the diversity of God's acts, as according to the great diversity of objects among themselves, about which in time, according to praedestination before all time, God puts forth many and sundry acts. 2. It is so, to pretend to give in the whole order of praedestination, and yet to give in only the order of election, as if reprobation, and praedamnation, were in no sense at all, parts belonging to praedestination. 3. It savours not of Divinity, wholly to obscure Gods chief ends in creating men, and suffering them to fall, Prov. 16. 4. as if the Lord had not made them for any ends of his own, and only to acquaint us with that which is only Gods secondary end, the benefit, the gracing, or the glorifying of the creature. 4. Here we have Christ by the Father loved as Son, or rather as it should have been, as a Mediator, or head of the Church, (for the Father's loving of the Son, as Son, is nothing to the business of praedestination) before he did so much as think upon any to be redeemed by him, to be his purchase, his spouse, the members of his body, contrary to John 3. 17. (h) Here I may safely say with Dr Riu. disp. 3. de praedest. Thes. 28. Pessimè de magno illo mysterio sentiunt, qui talem decretorum ordinem instituunt, ex quo sequitur, Christum ita fuisse destinatum hominum servatorem, ut tamen Deus, nullas certas ac designatas personas respexerit, ita ut nulla infallibiliter Christo assignaverit me●bra, nullos subditos, nullam sponsam, etc. Cum praedestinatio nihil aliud sit, quam praescientia & praeparatio beneficiorum Dei, quibus certissimè liberantur, quicunque liberantur, unus praedestinatus est ut caput nostrum esset, nos multi praedestinati, ut membra ejus essemus. 5. Divers things are omitted, as God's love, in giving Christ unto, and for his people, of his sending him into the world to be a ransom for them, of his preparing them sufficient and effectual means of grace. 6. Here divers are considered as beloved in Christ, before so much as endowed with the spirit: A thing which otherwise the Arminians before you, and you after them, do use so much to declaim against, p. 70, 71. 7. Those who are to be elected, are here considered, as endowed with the spirit, (which if you will speak like a Christian, what can it be so much as the spirit of vocation, regeneration, faith repentance?) before such time as they be so much as elected or praedestinated to them. Belike they rather elect or praedestinat themselves to them, then that they be elected or praedestinated to them, contrary to Rom. 8. 29. Eph. 1. 3, 4. 2 Thes. 2. 13. Acts 14. 13, 46. 8. Election and praedestination come bringing up the rear of all Christian graces, which hitherto without control, in Christian Churches and Schools have been taken for the first causes and fountains of them. These things according to your devotionary way, you may possibly judge saintlike, because you are beholding to your St Andrew, p. 47. for them, but they be not Divine-like, as I doubt not but most versed in Divinity will quickly judge. Nor yet secondly, is this order so much as Rational or Logical, which always requires, that in rational free counsels, the end should be before the means, and not è contra, that is first in intention, which is last in execution, Primum in intention est ultimum in executione; and then according to your way of ordering of God's decrees, we should be first saved and glorified, and then be loved in Christ, endowed with the spirit, elected and praedestinated. Spectatum admissi risum teneatis amiei? But about these matters, for this time, I would rather see you and Dr Twiss set together by the ears, in answer to Vindiciarum, lib. 3. digress. 3. then to strive any longer with you. Nay, thirdly, though for substance it be much the same with that of Jacobus Arminius in his declarat. sententiae, p. 95, 96. and which is bad enough, and hath been sound confuted by a multitude of most learned Authors (i) Dr Twisse vind. gr. passim. D. Walaeus count. Coru. c. 12. D. Riu. disp. 3. de praedest. D. Dau. Animadvers. D. Ames count. Grevinch. Bogerman. count. Grot etc. , yet it is more unhandsomely proposed, than Arminius doth propose his. Of the four decrees proposed by Arminius, he doth expressly acknowledge the two first of them to be precise and absolute, and in effect the fourth too, whereas this Saintlike order hath not a word of absoluteness in it. 2. Arminius in his third decree, speaks of sufficient and efficient means to obtain salvation; but of this with you in your order, there is high silence. 3. Arminius in his fourth decree, speaks of appointing certain particular persons unto salvation and damnation, but your order speaks on that fashion, as if all were beloved in Christ, all were endowed with the Spirit, etc. at lest quantum ad Deum, and none were appointed to destruction, Rom. 9 Mr T. P. must then as yet be so civil to me, as to give me leave to descent from him, both in the matter and in the order of his Correct Theology. And thus I am at length brought to the fifth thing promised, the stating of the question about the Resistibility, or Irresistibility of grace: And here I shall be forced to make some longer pause, or stand and not to come quickly to my period, or if you will, to my finitus Orestes, or determination of this question. The Arminians of late, as well as the Pel●gians of old, place all the fortunes of their cause (if I may so speak) in the gaining of the term resistible, and the matter denoted by it; and some good hopes they give us, that we shall carry the cause against them, because they will needs obtrude upon us, in this cause, the terms of irresistible, ineluctable, necessary; and content themselves with that of resistible, etc. magna est veritas & praevalebit. Somewhere I am sure Austin hath it to this purpose (k) De gra & lib. arb. e 18. Sinon ex Deo, sed hominibus vicerunt Pelagiant, etc. . If grace be strongest, the Catholics have conquered, but if man's will be strongest, the Pelagians have conquered. I think it therefore reasonable upon this occasion, to handle these three things. 1. In brief to show what is the state of the controversy betwixt the contending parties. 2. To show the several Sophisms, and mischievous feats of the Arminians, and of Mr T. P. their true Disciple, and genuine son, in fastening the terms of irresistible, physical, and such like upon us, whether we will or no. 3. To show for what ends and purposes these terms are sometimes taken up by the orthodox, since they will needs have us to espouse them. As to the 1. That it may be by all perceived, I am resolved to be fair, I will set it down, 1. In the very words of our adversaries (l) Arnold p. 263. etc. An Pos●●is operatiamb. omnib. gratiae, quib. ad conversionem, in nobis ●fficiendam Deus utitur, manet tamen ipsa conversio, ita in nostra p●tes●ate, ut p●ssimus non converti, id est nosmet ipsos convertere vel non convertere? Assi m. tuentur Remonstr. viz. Wither when all the operatios of grace are granted, which God doth use for the effecting of cur conversion, it doth notwithstanding so remain in our free power, that we may not be converted, that is, that we may convert ourselves, or not convert ourselves. Or else as even Suarez hath it (m) In br●vi resolute de gra. effi●ac, S●ct a punctus controversiae est quid addat hot auxilium ●fficax, supra auxilium s●ffi●●ns. aut ●ur in uno habeat actualem ●ffi●aciam, non in alio. , what addition is made by effectual grace (which Mr T. P. would seem to be very careful. p. 61. in distinguishing from sufficient and irresistible) above that which is called sufficient, or why in one it hath an effectual efficacy, and not in another? 2. And then in the words of our friends (n) Quaestio est, a motus voluntatis, qu●m Deus per gratiam effi●it, cum homin●m ad se vocat ●fficatit●r, sit p●op●●ius, immediatus & verè ●ff●ct●vus, an verò mediatus tantum & metaphoricus, D. Riu. disp. 9 thes. 19 , all wimples of words being removed, the question is, Whether the motion of the will, which God doth effect by grace, when he calleth men effectually to himself, be proper, immediate; and truly effective, or only mediate and metaphorical, and so God be only a cause dispositive, imputative, excitative, by the way of counsel entreaty, or the like. Our adversaries, and Mr T. P. with them, as is plain, p. 45▪ 57 Sect. 47. p. 60. hold the first in the affirmative, we in the negative. They hold the latter in the negative, we in the affirmative. 2. As to the second, the discovery of the several Sophisms and feats about this question, their Snakelike wind and turn, both of the Arminians, and Mr T. P. non mihi si centum linguae oraque centum, can I express into what various shapes they put themselves, that they may play boo peep themselves, and yet spit out their venom of rancour against us (o) D. Preston hath proved, and that in no less than 5. particulars, that the doctrine of the Jesuits is more orthodox, then that of the Arminians, and so of T. P's. Thes. de irresistib. gra. , tantae molis est Romanam condere gentem, to set up the Roman Jesuitical Idols of resistible grace and free will. Sooner shall you wrest Hercules his club out of his hand, then be able to make them desist from upholding these fair Diana's of theirs. Yet if I have been able to observe any thing in either of their Serpentine like motions; the chief of them be these. 1. With a world of confidence and forehead, they make the world believe, that these terms of Resistible and Irresistible, were of our own coining, choosing and picking out, whereas we say, they came first out of Jesuitical and Arminian Schools (p) Vid. Bogerm. Arnot 82. Synod stas se●mè omnes in ●llorum judicio. they are pinned upon us, but not willingly owned by us. Even old Paraeus, when he had one foot in the grave, could find at least six or seven canting equivocations in them (q) Synod. Dordra. Sess. 99 p. 256. Edit in 4 to, etc. . It was not only Dr Twisse then as he pretends, p. 59, 60. who found fault with them: But Paraeus, Rivet (r) Disp 9 Thes 11. in hac materia introductae sunt voces prodig●osae, ●rr●sist. b●l●a●is, etc. , and I think almost every judicious Author writing upon these questions, can be content that Mr T. P. should again, with his adjective in Bilis, p. 67. and the forepart of it, Resisti or Irresisti, go to school among the technicall Grammarians, and get the Irresistibilis and Resistibilis to be whipped, for being barbarous, and false Latin, as some good Latinists stick not to affirm (s) Paraeus supra. . 2. When from pregnant places of Scripture, such or the like, as our Mr T. P. reckons up p. 57 p. 60. Phil. 2. 12, 13. Ezek. 36. 27. Cant. 1. 4. 1 John 39 ●n the question about the gracious workmanship of Gods own hand, Eph. 2. 10▪ they be u●ged hard, they are not ashamed (to use your own phrase, p. 66.) so fare to skip from the question, as to betake themselves to their tottering hold of mere speculative prescience, opposite to all praedetermination. This when it is done (as hath been showed) in the questions about eternal praedestination, is bad enough; but it is most absurd and monstrous, when it is done in the question of God's temporal gracious operations: And yet this is Arminius (t) Cont. Perkins. p. 153. Praescit Deus, quae argumenta, sthoc rerum statu, & tempore animum sint motura hominis, eo quo Deus illum inclinatum cupit. Sect. 31. and M T. P. their way, p. 61. and this way is the way of their shame and folly. The question is, how in the collation of grace God determines the will, and they talk of prescience (u) Aug. de corrept. gratiae. Quae promisit Deu● potens est facere, non a●t quae praescivit potens est promutere, aut quae praedixit potens est ostendere, etc. sed quae p●omisit potens est facere. . 3. These terms are imposed by them upon us, but in the matters debated, they are owned by themselves, as Mr T. P. doth, p. 67. for a double end and purpose, and in a double way, (Arminians are much for double dealing) in a way offensive against us, as is every where to be seen in their writings, that they might if we own them, securely accuse us, for maintaining Stoicism, Manichaisme, Turkism, and what not? for turning reasonable creatures into brutes, introducing fate, coaction, violent raptures, and enthusiasms. 2. To the great injury of God, men and Angels, good and bad, whilst placing upon occasion of this question, the will in an absolute 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to good or evil (x) Pelagius like, Hieronym. ad C●es●●h, Destruitur volun●as quae alterius open indight. Sed liberum dedit arbitrium Deus, quod aluer liberum non erit, nisi quod-volu●ro f●c●ro: Ac per hoc aut utor semel petestate quae mihi data est ut liberum serv●●ur arbitirum, aut si alteri●● ope●i●d●geo libertas arbitru in me distruetur. , they strip God▪ Angels, and Saints departed, Heb. 12. the wicked on earth, and the Devils in hell of all liberty of will, which in any propriety of speech, can be so called, p. 63. T. P. (as his Arminius before) conceives it absurd to say, that God doth choose to be good. 2. In a way defensive, and for the recovery of what ever good words, they do sometimes for the commendation of grace, and for the disparagement of nature, give in, out of their policy rather, then love to grace. Armin●us at first entering upon his profession, having the term of resistible, as a mental reservation in his head, professed before the Curatores Academiae, and the Deputies of Synods, that he did allow of all that Austin and the Fathers had written against the Pelagians and Semipelagians, and that he took them all to be justly condemned. And in another solemn conference with divers great divines (y) Praefat. ad Synod Dor Ibid drac. , he professed, that if grace was not maintained to be irresistible, he would yield to all other imaginable operations of divine grace (z) Armin. Profitebatur omnes s●s● gratiae d●vinae operationes quaecumque possum statui modo ne gratia ulla statuatur quae sit irresistibilis agnoscere; Gomarus ostend●bat quae ambiguitas, ac qundolus sub ista irresistibilis voce lateret occuliatam nempe sub eadem damnatam Synergistarum opinionem. . And upon this score it is, because for some reasons, Dr Tw●sse waves the terms of irresistible, that you can reconc●le as you say, Armin●us and Dr Tw●sse p. 60. id est, that greatest enemy which grace (for divers centuries of years since Pelagius and his followers hath me● withal) with one of its greatest and most noble defenders and champion's; great things will you do, which if you do this, eris mihi magnus Apollo: But before you do it in the point of grace's efficacious working notwithstanding all kind of nominal agreement, you must remove the real difference betwixt them, wherein you shall find a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, almost as fare distant, as heaven is from hell, and find set down distinctly, in the very place you point at. 2. And indeed by this door of resistible grace, do they, both Arminians and Je●uites, as is to be seen every where in their writings, let in their doctrines. 1. Of the Almighty's dependency on the will of his creatures or vassals. 2. Of man's absolute free will since the fall. 3. Of mere moral suasion in the work of conversion. 4. Of scientia media. 5. A bare slight concourse in the work of grace. 6. Universal grate. 7. Totall and final falling away from grace, etc. Any Reader may pick up passages proving this, without my help, out of the s●verall Sections of T P's two last Chapters. 4. The Arminians, and Mr T. P. with Bellarmine, and divers other Jesuits, waving either altogether, or as much as they dare amongst Christians, the terms of irresistible, necessary, physical, immediate, proper, effectual, (for the most harsh sounding of all which, they might among our authors, if their pride would but suffer them to consult with them, find sufficiently made digestible to any Christian by our interpretations) take up instead of them, those of certain, infallible, moral, sufficient, efficacious, resistible, etc. Out of which when it serves their own turns best in Cryptis among their Disciples, they can take out all real efficacy or operation, and make them signify nothing, but either, 1. A mere certainty of event, p. 60. depending if not upon fortune, or upon the mere ●ubrieity of man's choice, yet upon bare speculative, and intuitive prescience. p. 61. 2. Or an odd congruous determination adapted to the critical good hour and opportunity of our wills being at leisure forsooth, and in a handsome posture for the entertainment of divine influences and suggestions, p. 62. (a) Vti Suarez and other Jesuits, Moralis suasio et si abundans non sufficit, physica determinatio nimia est, tollit enim libertatem, sed in congruitate quadam tota gratiae efficacia consistit. And so they glow to a viator post lapsum, not so much grace, as Aug. allowed to Adam before the fall, of which see at large, and learnedly, Jansenius in his Augustinus, cap. 20. de gratia primi hominis No wonder the book was condemned by the Pope, for it will ever be in the sides of Jesui●es and Arminians, tanquam lateri lethalis arundo. And look what questions Jansentus puts upon his adversaries the Jesuits, to be resolved, would be re●olved by T. P. p. 177. Tom. 2. 3. A mere forensical foreign work of suasion, per modum proponentis & laudant is objectum. 5 Yet the Arminians when they have been by the vindices gratiae, the orthodox, hotly pursued, they have been ready to throw up all their get, whilst they have been forced to confess, that God's works of grace is absolutely irresistible in the illumination of the understanding, excitation of the affections, yea some way in the persuasion of the will, and yet they never clearly discovered either, why it should be more absurd to defend the irresistibility of the understanding, then of the will. 2. Or how the affections can irresistibly be wrought upon, and yet not the will be wrought upon too, when as the affections according to the best Philosophers, are nothing else but the will extended or dilated, vehementia voluntatis transit in affectum. But as for Mr T. P. though he serve us often in with the exp●essions of certain infallible, undoubted, and sometimes comes in words so near us, as that it is hard to say wherein the difference lies betwixt us, as ●hen he saith, p. 61. that the vessels of election do very certainly persevere to the end (b) And more when he saith, p. 67. that grace so powerfully persuades the Elect, as that they will certainly both believe and obey, and persevere to the end. , yet for the most part in these two Chapters, taking him according to the series and plain scope of his words, he is fa●re less ingenuous, than the Arminians in divers parts of their writings appear to be. And when he grants us most of efficacy in the way of grace, he 1. Maintains that to proceed only from divine prescience, not from the omnipotent working of God's hand, p. 61. which cannot be frustrate. 2. He bespatters us, who maintain the ineffable, real victorious work of grace (c) We in the point hold but what Austin did, the correp. great. c. 12. where he assigns the difference of the grace betwixt the fi●st and second Adam, fortissimo quippe dimisii atque permisit facere quod vellet, infirmis servavit ut ipso donante invictissimè quod bonum est vellent, nec hoc deserere invictissime nollent. , whereby God gives us to will and to do according to his own good will and pleasure, and infuseth the habits of grace into the soul, with overturning the nature of the will, as if it did not correct, but destroy the will, p. 57 to work as Balaams' Ass, p. 63. for the mistaking of the question so wilfully, some would cry out, though I will not, Asinus ad lyram argumentum est Asininum. 3. He doth all that he can to enervate the most efficacious Scriptures, proving the efficacy of grace, p. 60. but all after so ridiculous and childish a fashion, upon such mistakes of the matter, as very Alphabetarians in these controversies, would hardly run into, as that I should blush to spend time (having laid open matters as I have done) in the confuting of them. 6. The Arminians and Mr T. P. when as they can scarce be ignorant that the debates betwixt them and their adversaries, are chiefly of God's way of working upon the soul in the first act of conversion or regeneration, yet for the serving of their own turns, they will make the world believe, that even after conversion we maintain, that God works always irresistibly in his children, as to all occasional individual acts, whereby they are kept from sinning against him, p. 56. This liberty and freedom of the regenerate will, is at once expressed, Psal. 119. 32. p. 65. I may wonder as well as Grotius, Nullum magnum ingenium sine mixtura dementiae, ●emo sapit omnibus horis. You, and your admirable Grotius with you, may trifle and toy: for pray when was this ever questioned by any adversary which either of you had? 7. If what the Arminians and T. P. every where say, that we cannot prevail for the irresistibility of the will, because it destroys it, how can they look to prevail for the resistibility of it, for that will be as contrary to it, as the former (d) De his vide Dr Ward concionem de gratediscriminatrice. Dr Ames in coronid, ad Artic. 3. & 4. J. Bogerm. Annot. contr. H. Grot. Dr Riu. disp. 9 agnoscunt in homine illam potentiam resistendi semper manere, qua si vult resistere poorest. Sed negant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 velle resistere. . And this I trust may serve abundantly as to the second particular proposed, p. 326. For the third, what ends the orthodox have when they use these terms of irresistible, physical, necessary, etc. 1. It is seldom done without some renitency. 2. Never done without granting some resistency actual before, in, and after the work of conversion, from Rom. 7. 22, 23. Gal. 5. 17. not in the least fashion denying a connate and adnate power of resistency, to remain in us to the last (e) Vid. Antea in marg. p. 171. , however strenuouslie denying any of these actual or potential resistences to be stronger than the grace of God, which in God's elected converts, and that by virtue of the grace of their election and conversion goeth forth conquering, and to conquer, gets the mastery, and binds the resisting and strong man. 3. They never use them for the destroying of the essential liberty of the will, the introducing of fatal necessity, coaction (f) Dr Prest. p. 17. Haec. cautio praemittenda est, hoc vocabulo irresistibiliter non intellegere nos vim aliquam voluntati ill at am, said in superabilem tantum efficaciam gratiae divinae. , who in reference to God's eternal decree and temporal execution of it in the the matter of grace, introduce no other necessity, than what in reference to divine prescience, T. P. with a world of other Arminians, he calls certainty, infallibility, a necessity of consequence, p. 61. etc. save only we date no● be so bold, as with him, 1. To suspend God's decrees upon the mere certainty of event, p. 60. as if it were not directed by God's determinate Counsel. 2. And then fare less dare we when we speak of saving gracious works, (for of them he is treating, and he knows, or should know the question to be) say with him. p. 61. that it is one thing to follow as the effect of a cause in order of nature, and quite another to follow as the sequel of an antecedent, in the way of argumentation. For although this be a true Logical maxim in itself, yet when it is applied, as here it is, to the acts of God's grace there can be nothing clearer, however you do peremptorily deny it several times. Chap. 4, 5. p. 73. but that you deny God's decree of eternal election, and his grace of temporal vocation, to be any causes in nature, ex. gr. of faith, repentance, or any other grace as the genuine fruits thereof. Habeamus confitentem reum. Sorex se prodit proprio judicto (g) That questionless is truth which Dr. Preston expresseth, Thes. de great. convertentis irresistibilita●e conversio simul est & libera & irresistibilis. Irresistibilis est, quia non solum necessitatem consequenti● sed consequentis sequitur physicam inclinationem voluntatis praeeuntem, & ultimum dictamen intellect us illud probans & confirmans, nos dicim us veluntatem non posse tum physicè motioni à gratia profectae, tum divinae suasioni reniti vel refragart, sed necessitate consequences ductum Dei sequi. . 4. But when they use them, they do it as Austin (h) August. Enchirid. cap. 96. Liberum arbitrium non potest De● salvum facienti resistere. Prosper contra collat. cap. 6. Non quae resistentem invitumque compellat sed, ex inviio volentem faciat. Aug. de praedest sanctorum, cap. 7. Haec gratia quae occultè divinâ largitate humanis cordibu● tributtur, à nullo duro corde respu●tur; Ideo quippe trihu●ur ut cordis d●r●●ia pr●mitus aufera●ur, alib: à nullo duro corde rejicitur. Inspirata nempe ut loquitur. de sp. & lit. cap. ●7. g●attae suavi●●t● per spiritum sanctum, faciente plus delectare quod praecip●t, quam delectat quod ● p●di, & ut alibi brev●us indendo certam scientiam & victricem del●ctationem. Si● lib de praedest. sanctor. lib. 1. cap 20. in nobit mirabil● modo & in●ff bili operatu● & velle. Prosper de vocat. gent●um, cap. 33. Nihil obsistere divinae grat●ae posse, quo m●nus id quod vol●erit impleatur. Fu●gent. de remissione peccat. lib. 2 cap. 2. Quia ho● vult, qui omnia quae●u●que voluit fecit, quod semper insuperab●l●ter facit, ho● utique in his impletur quod ommpotentis Dei volun●●s immutabili● & insuperab. lis ●acit. and others have done, such as are tantamount with them, to express as fare as lies in them, that which to the full is ineffable viz. Gods working in the soul graciously. 1. By a proper real way of working, opposed to an external, meraphoricall constructive or merely moral way. 2. By a most internal penetrating way of putting into the soul, the life of God, and all the habits of grace, called the seed of God, depth of earth, oil in the lamp, and not only by some slight coruscations; or irradiations, which most probably you may call, p. 56. grace infused. 3. We understand by such expressions, an Almighty, Almercifull grace, a most durable, lasting, everlasting work of grace, in the commending of which, the Scripture is most sweetly and excellently copious. In all which matters, oh that Mr T. P. were but sound instructed by that teacher, qui cathedram ●abet in coelo, John 6. 45. and in which, if it pleased him, he might have had sound information from all our orthodox writers, but that I perceive he is above them all, for he tells me (in an Epistle) that stultum est sapere cum commentario, our Eagle forsooth will catch no flies. However I am come to the end of the fifth thing promised; and having finished that, and so as I trust, not only discovered, but even battered down that which is to the Arminians, and Mr T. P. with them, their great Palladium and fortress of strength, wherein yet they make lies their refuge; for all along in it they stand up for lies, and with all their strength, tanquam pro●aris & focis, stand up for a wretched, miserable, lying, sinful power of resisting the grace of God, which he that hath most of, is the more truly a slave, and the more to be hated by God and man, if he will offer to plead for this Baal (i) See Mr Pemble about the nature and property of grace and faith, p. 150. To be able to commit this act comes not from power and strength, but from weakness and infirmity, perfect strength and liberty is to have no power or will to commit sin, etc. As for my part, what would become of so good natured a creature, as T. P I will not determine. But as for myself, were I to be left to the good mannagement of my own free will, I were certain to go to hell. August. de corrept. cap. 12. Inter tot a● tantas tentationes infirmitate sua voluntas succumberet; & ideo perseverare non possent quia deficientes nec vellent, ●ut non ita vellent infirmitate voluntatis ut possent. , I say, having thus overcome this, I may be much brief in the sixth thing proposed about the liberty of the will, and perseverance of the Saints. As to the first, your splendid, gaudy, Idol free will; And yet (as a Reverend Father calls it) the rotten D●gon, for which you do so freely and voluminously plead, as the only Baronissa (k) Bogerman, ex D. Pareo Annotat. p. 75. Si remonstrantibus suis liceat uti aequivocationibus, Deus da● velle, invitando & rogando hanc liberam BARONISSAM ac DOMINAM. Lady Empress whom you court, though I might deliver in many things, yet I will deliver only in these few things, which are not the sphalmata corrector is praelii, but are the proper and only faults of the Corrector of the late uncorrected Copy, and the chief of them be these following, which I would beseech you Mr Corrector, to amend in your next edition. 1. You carry matters so throughout, but especially, p. 57 59 etc. as if your adversaries did wholly, and in all cases, deny free will, whereas they are most ready with Austin, to take up that voluntas est semper libera, sed non semper bona. The Question is not about the wils freedom, but about its freedom to grace and goodness, not about the essence or faculty, but the powers of man's will (l) Aug. lib. ad Bonifac. c 2. Quis nost●um dicit quod hominis peccato perierit liberum arbitrium de humano genere; & paulo post: Nam liberum arbitrium usque adeo in peccatore non perii●, ut per illud peccant maximè homines qui cum delectatione peccant, & amore peccali, hoc in eyes plac●t, quod eis libet. , si● semper es tu praeter casam, or if you will not in your own phrase, p. 15. you shoot still beyond what you aim at, to be sure what you should aim at. 2. I cannot tell how it comes to pass, (rem scio, modum nescio) but I am sure so it is, you will needs most Jesuitically place the esteem of the wills freedom, just as and where the Jesuits do, viz. in an undetermined indifferency, both ad contraria & contradictoria (m) Dr Preston quò supra, est definitio in cerebro Jesuitarum solummodo consita. . It cannot be said to be free with you, unless it be alike inclineable to good, as to evil, & è contrà (n) Which because that Austin of old would not do, the Pelagians quarrelled with him extremely V d. Jansen, in suo August. cap. 2. lib. 3. de statu not. lapse. , for else it is but taking, not choice, p. 62. and all this you do in despite of Fathers, ancient Philosophers, the more ancient sort of Schoolmen, who thought the essential liberty of the will, to be well enough preserved, if it were but secured, 1. From natural necessity which is confined though spontaneouslie to one as you dispute, p. 61. 2. From external violence and coaction, the very thing you flout and jeer at, p. 62. 3. If it were but allowed to be the former principle, and the subordinate intrinsecall efficient principle of its own volition. You will by no means allow it to be free, unless it be exempt from all divine (and in that sense only) necessary praedetermination, p. 61. and but for shame of the world and speech of people, you would have as well concluded it free from all divine prescience, ibid. p. 61. 3. You give no considerable or sufficient indications of any vast difference betwixt the wills liberty in the state of its integrity, or in its lapsed state. But you so carry matters in your quotations of Tertullian, p. 57 and the son of Syrach, p. 65. who speak chief, if not only of the condition of man's will before the fall, as if man's freedom to good or evil were alike in both. Slightly indeed you touch upon something looking towards some difference, when you say, p. 6. that the Protoplast was the promoter of your guilt; and when by way of explication you add, p. 57 that God doth correct, but not destroy man's free will; but (o) So that according to you, man's will before the fall, and since, as to liberty, to goodness, differs but as your correct Copy, from your uncorrect, and that I am sure for substance, is very little, Austin otherwise, cap. 53. the nat. & great. Quid tantum de naturae possibilitate praesumitur vulnerata? Sauciata, perdita est, vera confessione non falsa defensione opus habet. when all this comes but to a correcting of (p) Viz. not of a will dead in trespasses and sins. man's free will, in stead of reviving of it, of a restoring of it to its pristine integrity in some measure, (and in that sense a destroying of the vicious inclination of it) nay, when this correction of it, p, 63. is but to concur to its perfect sanity, as the light of the Sun is to the eyelid, and the opening thereof, which rather supposes a faculty of seeing in the eye, (as Austin was used to say, even in reference to Adam, that lumen est necessarium san●ssimis oculis) then any way effects it; to me you assign no difference at all, but suppose them alike in both. 4. You are so confident of your notions about free will, Lat. liberum arbitrium, and Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, though in the Latin Vulgar, & Greek Septuagint, there words be not a word of either, & though the Hebrew relating to the freedom of man's will, as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (q) Riu. disp. 8. thes. 1. Liberi arbitrii phrasis non legitur in vulgata interpret. latina veter● & novi Testament. rather refer to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or spontaniety, which you reject, p. 64. then to what is the full liberty of the will, option, option twice, which in all cases you plead for, p. 64. optio est optimorum (r) Sic Jacob. Armin. Art. 2. p. 132, and you transcribe him, p 63 just as Julian twitted Austin, Non minore stultitiae profissione quam profanitate liberum v●cas, quod dicis nisi unum velle non posse. Aug. upon Matthew, suprà. besides that (as we have heard) both Austin and Melancthon, scarce durst name the free will of man since the fall) I say you are so confident of them, as that you deny unto God himself, all true liberty of will, and election of good, as if he (s) Just as the Pelagians had done before, Aug. l. 1. operum imperfect. liberum non est nisi quod duo potest velle, id est bonum & malum. Liber Deus non est, qui ma●um non potest velle, de quo etiam ipse dixisti, Deus esse nisi justus non potest siccine D●um laudas ut ei auferas, libertatem, etc. were not liberum sed necessarium agens, no free, but necessary agent, p. 63 whereas the very School of Plato, wherein your admirable Boethius was brought up, could have taught you better (t) Let him but look, saith my old good Tutor, Dr Ames Praef, to Dr jackson's vanities. Marsil. ficin Theolog. Platonia de immor. anim●, he shall find this title, voluntas Dei necessaria simul est & libera. and in the Chapter itself he shall find, that the Platonists would be ashamed of such flim fl●n●s. In ipso bono certe summa naturae necessitas cum summa libertate voluntatis concurrit, usque adeo ut necessario liber voluntariusque Deus sit, & voluntary necessarius. A nobis id tantum ubique affirmari optamus, quod Deo dignum sit, quale est in Deo cum summa necessitate summam congredi libertatem. . And thus to your illiberal escapes about free will. Come we to the next, to speak of your mistakes about the Saints perseverance which we maintain, or of the Saints Apostasy, which you like better, and treat of, p. 65. to the end of the third Chapter. And here I find it true, what you my good Medicaster (you know in your Epistles, you began with me medicè, offering to be my Physician) do observe very truly, p. 60. that an error in the first concoction, is hardly mended in the second, & therefore you having taken in so many errors about praedestination and free will in your first concoction, are not like to mend in your last about perseverance. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Uno absurdo dato mille sequuntur. The chief of them be these; for drawing up towards a conclusion, I am only for the summa capitula rerum. And here your first stumbling stone is, that Adam, p. 65. fell from the same kind of grace, which is now by Jesus Christ the Redeemer, given unto Christians to preserve them from falling, and that ergo Christians may Apostatise, as well as he, whereas Austin long since hath shown many differences betwixt the grace given to the first Adam, and the grace given by the second Adam: the chief whereof be these. 1. That God did more give up the first strong Adam into his own keeping, but that now he puts his weak lambs into a stronger hand, viz. into the hands and keeping of the second Adam, out of whose hands no man or Devil shall be able to pluck them. 2. He gave to the first Adam a power to stand if he would, he now gives by Christ to his elect, a will to stand and persevere by his power, and not by their own. 3. All the grace which Adam (u) Posse si v●llet, velle ut possit. had, was only adjutorium sine quo non, a certain help, without which, neither men nor Angels could have stood. The grace which true Christians have now, is adjutorium quo, such a succour, by which they do, and shall certainly stand, which two differ as much as Augustine's solemn illustration useth to be, as the giving and continuing of the faculty and act of seeing to a blind man, and the giving of the light of the Sun to a seeing man (x) The giving of food to a living man, and the raising up of a dead man, see him in the place before quoted, cap. 12. the correp. great. most excellently and fully. Nunc sanctis in regnum Dei per gratiam Dei praedestinatis non tantum tale adjutorium perseverantiae datur, sed talis ut perseverantia ipsa eis donetur. , ergo Adam might and did fall, but the elect Saints shall not. 2. Your next rock of offence is, that upon which your admirable Grotius, p. 65. makes you to stumble, and here caecus caecum ducit, whilst neither of you will distinguish betwixt a partial foul fall, such as david's was, p. 66. and a total and final Apostasy; whereas even apostatising Bertius in (y) Bertius de Apostasia sanctorum. his famous book which he wrote about Apostasy, might have taught you, that though David by his fall, did most heinously resist the Holy Ghost by grieving of it, yet he did not totaliter expectorare spiritum sanctum, which made him to pray, Psal. 51. 11. that the Lord would not take away his holy spirit from him, ergo, as yet he even had it after his fall, viz. to restore unto him the joy of his salvation, ergo, he was fallen not from the state of salvation, but from the joy of it. And if this had not been true, David after his fall must have been circumcised again, and all Christians at any time falling into enormous sins, must be baptised again. I hope Mr T. P. shall not need to turn Anabaptist, so soon as he shall have recanted for writing his offensive Correct Copy. As for what you scoff at about the circular return of God's omnipotent grace, coming and giving it, is for substance but a Pelagian flout, who used to cry out, that if grace be necessary unto every act of doing good or shunning evil, that then God is conquered and his grace, and not man and his will (z) Hyeronym. Dialog. l. 3 Si non f●cimus quod praecepit, aut voluit nos ad●uvare Deus aut noluit, si voluit & adjuvit & tamen non quod voluit facimus, non nos sed ille superatus est. Si autem noluit adjuvare, non est culpa ejus qui voluit facere. . 2. Fare wiser and holier men than yourself, dare maintain it against all your jeers, that some graces of God (a) Greg. mor. lib. 2. cap. 42 In sanctorum cordibus secundum quasdam virtutes semper manet spiritus, secundum quasdam recessurus venit, & venturus recedit, in his virtutibus sine quibus ad vitam non pervenitur in electorum suocum cordibus permanet , do go and come, &c, and that at sometimes in preferring of his people, he doth more put forth his omnipotent power of grace, than at other times, upon which indeed they should not: but indeed they will more sin when grace withdraws, and will repent when it returns again. 3. Upon your reviving of a sottish notion, of an half english, half Belgic, but a really drunken Dick Thomson, of a falling damnably from grace, (you and he mean a total, though not final fall, falling into a state of damnation, Rom. 8. 1. John 5. 24. which none of ours say: yet they all say, that whensoever any man falls into any sin, he falls damnably, is so as to deserve damnation, Rom. 6. 23.) and upon the urging of a worse conceit of your own. that no man is elected until he hath persevered, p. 69. in faith and repentance, which cannot be till he is dead: you sport yourself with a baby of your own making, or you be at ● deadly feud with Sir N. N. again, and I wish b● could be conjured up to answer you, for I am even 〈◊〉 ●eary of such toys, and of such capering and skip●●●● ●●to questions of your own making, and your 〈◊〉 ●●●●ngs indeed never approaching to the questi●●● 〈◊〉 you and your real adversaries: And yet with m●c● such kind of stuff, answered long ago in my first papers, are we cloyed, from p. 67. to the end of the Chapter, as ex. gr. Who doubts but that those who at best had but common grace, or perchance at most, only the grace of the external means of grace? as those in Isa. 5. 4. Mat. 23. 47. Jona 4. 11. or that those who had only grace baptismo tenus, as Austin speaks, as the sweet babes of grace you speak of? or some official grace (if I may so speak) unto magistracy or unto ministry, of which Tertullian speaks? cap. 11. or at highest only some temporal (b) See about this Riu. R. Abbot, count, Thompson de intercision. great. , but not saving grace, of which Austin makes mention, (c) Augustin de correp. gra. Sunt quidam qui filii Dei propter susceptam vel temporaliter gratiam dicuntur à nobis, nec sunt tamen Deo. Quicunque ergo in Dei provid●tissima dispositione praescii, praedestinati, vocati justificati & glorificati sunt; non dico etiam nondum renati, sed etiam nondum nati, jam filii Dei sunt, & omnino perire non possunt. the great. & corrept. cap. 6. & 9 of which kind of persons, I am sure he speaks somewhere, that how much patience soever God allows them, he never gives them true and saving repentance, that namely, of which the Apostle saith, that it is a repentance never to be repent of, 2 Cor. 7. Quantamlibet illis praebeat patientiam, nunquam illis concedit salubrem veramque poenitentiam, and of whom in the very Chapter you quote, he saith, (d) And he gins the very Chapter with a Ne nos moveat quod filiis suis quibusdam Deus non dat istam perseverantiam. Absit enim ut ita esset, si de illis praedestinatis essent, & secundum propositum vocatis. August. de corrept. &. great. cap. 9 they were no sons, when in profession & in name they were sons. Non erant (saith he) filii etiam quando erant in professione & nomine filiorum, non quia justitiam simulaverunt, sed quia in ea non permanserant. Or that those who were yet never called, but to be called as the lost sheep, or were fallen in part as the lost groat, the prodigal, etc. might in some sense be lost, fall, and yet rise again, p. 67. I say, whoever amongst your much abused Calvinists, (whom you love as well, as he did, who wrote the Calvino-Turcismus, for unto Turks you compare them, p. 55. Or that other fellow, who wrote the Absurdorum absurdissima Calvinistica absurda) (e) Or to that other quoted by Bishop Hall in his Peacemaker, Sect. 5. who used to put it into his Litany. A fraternitate Calviniana libera nos Domine. did ever question any of these matters? But if you would be entreated by your now tired friend, who is even wearied off of his stumps by following you in your vagaries, for the matters really about the point of perseverance, debated betwixt you and your enemies, to consult well that pious, reverend Bishop of Salisbury, Rob. Abbots, in his diatribe against Thompson. de intercisi. justif. & gratiae, cap. 6, 7, 8. You would better learn to state questions, might possibly be much edified, by receiving full satisfaction, about Augustine's opinion in the matter of perseverance in those and such like passages as you quote, p. 68 Pray forsooth, good Sir, let me persuade you to muse a while on him, reckon you two together, I am not at leisure for this time to quit scores with you, but must finish the sixth thing which I promised, and my answer to all your fourth Chapter. And well might I now be allowed to stride over all your fifth Chapter, which hath been so battered, mauled, and broken by my answers to the former, as that it moulders all to pieces, like Isa. 30. 13.) to the swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly. And indeed if you could not stand, whilst to make us odious, you opposed absolute reprobation, how do you think to stand, when you enter upon the defence of conditional election, depending upon faith and obedience, and perseverance in them, p. 69. which will make you most odious almost all Christendom over? And to pass on to the final epilogue promised before. But that you may know, having traveled so many miles with you, I will not break off for some way bits; take in these few short answers to what you bring in from Chap. 5. Sect 55. p. 69. and Sect. 60. p. 73. and if any one shall conclude that I am too short in these answers, let him consider, that it is because in others I have been too long, we have already sufficiently weakened all these objections, and if need shall require, I may, God giving life, grace and opportunity, enlarge more some other time: However take some few, 1. General, 2. Particular Animad versions. 1. The General be these. 1. That our good Gentleman is not much enamoured with the Doctrine of free election, the fountain of all saving grace, which makes him thrust it into the very posteriors of his Pamphlet, with a preface before it, p. 68 that it was a subject which he least of all studied, and least delighted in of any other, and that too, as it is plain by his first papers, after that he had actually f●iled one weak Gentleman with his Arguments for conditional election, and that he had been tampering to have tripped up the heels of some others whom he found somewhat too tough for him. As to this present Correct Copy, it is to me somewhat more than probable, that in the behalf of reprobates, for which he pleads in 4 whole Chapters, having overheated and overstudied himself, he was willing to tell the world that he had not much studied that point of election, but however was resolved to maintain it to be conditional, because he had sped so well in opposing absolute reprobation, Egregiam verolaudem, vitulâ tu dignus. 2. Having by a matter of 12. or 14. lines, which I think is the summa totalis, over-spoken himself, p. 56. in the commendation of grace, and having before it, p. 51. professed himself to be much for retractations, he doth by no less than five reasons in this fifth Chapter of his, retract or do penance for his over lavish expressions: for it is not possible that his concessions there, p. 55, 56. should be consistent with his steadfast belief, p. 68 as he saith, divulged in this Chapter? How can all those good things spoken there, be given us by special grace, and yet all along in this Chapter, be presupposed as conditions of that election, by which they be all conveyed? How can God by his grace, as he saith, p. 56. make us to differ, and yet here, p. 70. presuppose the difference made before he elects us. 3. The whole Chapter crawls as much with real, yea even with verbal Pelagianism and Massi●●anisme, as hath been showed before in the parallel, as ever Egypt crawled with louse Exod. 8. 7. The very punctum & apex Pelagianismi, was in this saying (f) Aug. the praedestin. Sanctorum, cap. 18. Praesciebat ergo ait Pelogianus qui futuri essent sancti & immaculati per liberae voluntatis arbitrium, & ideo eos ante mundi const●tutionem in ipsa sua praescientia, qua tales futuros esse praescivit, elegit. Now follows the answer of Austin. Elegit nos in ipso ut essemus sancti & immaculati, non ergo quia futuri eramus, sed ut essemus, nempe certum est, nempe manifestum est, ideo quip tales ●ramus futuri, qui elegit ipse praedestinans ut tales per gratiam ejus essemus. , The Lord, said the Pelagian, did foreknow who should be holy and umblameable by the liberty of their freewill, and therefore he did in his prescience, whereby he did foreknow that they should be such, choose them: Unto which Augustine's answer unto the point upon the place was, that God did not choose us, because we were holy, but that we might be so, for therefore were we to become such, because he praedestinating did choose us, that by his grace we might be such. 4. The whole Chapter throughout, disallows all absolute grace, or grace absolutely bestowed; for without the least haesitation, or the least indication of any limitation, the man Mr T. P. steadfastly believes, p. 68 that Gods decree of election from all eternity, was not absolute and irrespective▪ but in respect unto, and prescience of some qualification; without which, no man is the proper object of such a decree, and p. 7●. the Scripture gives as none but conditional promises. So that now, if (as is most true) we be but ca●led according to purpose▪ Rom. 8. 29. with a holy calling, not according to works of righteousness which we have done, 2 Tim. 1. 9 If made God's workmanship, created unto all manner of good works, Eph. 2. 10. If faith, Eph. 2. 8. If repentance be but the gifts of God, Acts 11. 18. Mr T. P. such is his skill, can give us a reason and cause, and condition for all this, viz. because man reputes, believes before hand, before he be chosen to them (g) From hence, as Bishop Carleton well against Montacutis examinat. what can follow but this, that God giveth these graces, in respect of these graces, which were to run giddy in a circle. Impii ambulant in circulo, just as the Massilians had done before, Comment. in cap. 21. ad Timoth. Curio non impletur ●jus voluntas? ●ed in omni conditione sensus est, conditio latet. Vult ●nim Deus omnes homines salvos fieri, sed si accedant ad eum, non enim sic vult ut nolentes salventur, sed vult ipsos salvari, si & ip●i velint. . A thing somewhat worse than that of the Pelagian, that grace is given secundum merita operum, according to the merits of good works. 5. All the five reasons labour of one incurable disease, viz. of a way of argumentation from the order of God's intentions in the making of the decree to the order of the execution of it. And thus as to the general flaws, which are as warp and woof, uti vora vibiam sequitur to this Chapter. There needs then the less to be said to the five following arguments, from p. 69. ad 71. The first page, 69. hath the last mistake, as a leproste in the head, in the very front of it. And though the good man had so oratorially declaimed against a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in divinity, p. 23. yet he here fiercely runs upon it, whilst he makes the sequel, God doth not in time bestow upon those of ripe years, eternal life, before the actual existence of faith, repentance, obedience, etc. ergo he did not so much as intent election before the foresight of them. Of the wildness of this sequel, pray let the reader see Dr Twisse in his answer to Mr Hoard, p. 44. 2. The first proposition of his syllogism, is absolutely false, unless it be understood of grown rational persons, with exception of all Christian infants, dying before, or presently after baptism; of all Christian natural fools, dumb and deaf persons, who have no explicit form faith, repentance or obedience. 3. The sequel from the justice of the decree, to the justice of the performing of it, without faith and repentance in the most, is most ridiculous; for the decree of election is an act of Gods sovereign power and liberality, whereby he resolves to give grace and glory to whom he pleaseth, Rom 9 18. The actual collation of eternal life or glory, is so an act of grace, Rom. 6. 23. as that the Lords own promises, and Christ's merits considered, it is an act of remunerative justice, 2 Thes. 1. 6, 7. 4 (h) Bp Carletons' Exam. p. 92. the 3. proposition that Peter was not glorified, without respect to his ●aith, obedienc●, and repentance, we grant the reasons, because salvation & glorification are in the nature of a reward. Now the Scripture witnesses, that God will reward every man according to his works. The necessary condition which you speak of in the foot of this argument, p. 69. and the merits which you would seem to renounce, in the tail or close of your last, p. 73. in despite of all that you have pleaded, or can plead to the contrary, will force you to maintain meritorious causes of divine election, as fare as ever Pelagius did, and in the sense that the Fathers did take the word merit, and deny grace to be conferred according to works. Your second argument, Sect. 56. p. 69. and 70. hath that mistake in the ●ail of it, which the other hath ● the head, namely, because that Christ in time is the head of the Church, and before all time was designed to be such, therefore he was the meritorious cause of election itself, and not only of salvation, and every saving grace tending to it, (which none but Socinians, and the grostest sort of Arminians use to deny) and so the election of Christ being in the in●uition of the backsliding of the first Adam, p. 69. ergo say you it must needs be respectively: but because you do but in this imperiously dictate, and offer no proof at all, and that you be a direct Anti-Augustinian in this, Augustin using against the Pelagians, to triumph in the contrary Argument, taken from Gods freely choosing Christ to be the head of the praedestinate (i) Aug. lib. de p●ecatorum merit. & remis. de persev. sanct. cap. ult. de corrept gra. cap. 17. Nemo enim quisquam tanta rei hujus & sidei caecus est ignorantia, ut audeat dicere, quamvis de spiritu sancto, & Virgin Maria filium hominis natum, per liberum tamen arbitrium, bene vivendo & sine peccato bona opera faciendo, mer●isse ut esset Dei filius; resistente evangelio at● dicente verbum caro factum est, etc. . I shall think nothing so fit, as to send you to School again to Dr Twisse, that famous School-man whom you point at, when you reject the saying which some affirm, p. 70. that Christ is not only the means, but the meritorious cause of our election; and there you may understand (I pray God give you grace to do it) how that assertion is maintained by him, without the least diminution to Christ's blessed merits: but to the certain overthrow of your cause, D. I will only at this time leave you to muse upon that saying of Th. Aquinas 1. q. 23. Artic. 5. Nullus ita fuit insanae mentis, ut diceret merita esse causam divinae praedestinationis, exparte actus praedestinantis, and whilst you be musing on it, ask but of yourself this question, num satis sobrius? 3. Your third proposed, Sect. 57 p. 70, 71. is so horribly and most uglily gross in the forefront and ●ear of it, as that it would even affright a Christian to look upon it; And yet 1. The sequel of it is but taken from the analogy of humane election to that of divine, because man may ●ay must, if he will choose rationally, find a difference in the object whom he prefers; for that by virtue of his choice he cannot make it a whit better than he finds i●, erga, so God must in his choice, and by virtue of it not make, ●ut find a difference proba (scilice●) cons●quent●am. I might wonder (k) Even a popish Aquinas could have taught you better, v. Thomam. 1, 2 q. 2 3. artic. 4 V●luntas D●l, qua vult bonum alicui dilig●nao, est causa cur illud b●●um ab co prae allis hab●atur: probe enim observat, D. Rivet disp. 3. the p●aedestinat. thes. 10. Notandum esse electionem & dil●●●anem aliter in nobi● ordinari quam in D●o, e● quod voluntas in n●bis diligendo non causat bonum sed ex bono praeexistente, incitamur ad diligendum & ideo eligimus aliquem quem diligimus: unde dilectio praecedit electionem in nobis; in D●o autem est è converso. our Saviour could not hit upon this, when he said, John 15. 16. You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you, not because he di● find or foresee fruit, but that by virtue of their election, they should go and bring forth fruit, and that then fruit should remain. That the Logical Apostle Paul, should be so dogmatically contrary to this, Rom. 9 11, 18. that he should keep such a coil with his, v. 20. Man who art thou that thou repliest against God. That the beloved Disciple so often in Christ's bosom, as Christ had been before in his Father's bosom, should have heard neither tale nor tidings of this, when he wrote, John 1. 4, 10. that herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins. But I ceased to wonder when I considered that none of these blessed ones, had ever sat at the feet of any Arminian Gamaliels. 2. The sequel of it seems to be corroborated with a saying out of that very same book of Augustine's, ad Smplic. of which you had formerly made a very simple use, nor are you yet in your deal with Austi●●, come to your much commended retraciation, p. 51. what Austin cast out by way of argumentation in concertatione, whilst he was as some where he hath it (l) As we have seen before, and often since, in Epist Hilar. ex lib. exposit. qua rund. proposit. Epist. ad Romanos lib. de persev sanct. cap. 18. Yea, your Vessius confesseth as much, Histo●. Pelag. 655. And so much you might have learned out of Damascen. quoted by yourself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. in conflicts de gratia & libertate, you produce as his victorious conclusion in determinatione. 2. Whilst you and your St Andrew with you, from whom you had this quotation, and almost your whole 57 Section, for which he is therefore most worthily shining in your margin, p. 70. take up that for which Austin himself did beshrew himself very often, and yet all this while, p 70, you would make us believe, that man hath no matter to boast, though God never choose him, till he hath persevered to the last gasp in faith and obedience. Mira sed non vera canis. 4. Your fourth Argument at length, and not in figures proposed from 71. to 73. Sect 58 hath nothing in it, but what for the most part, even by me hath been often confuted, you impose upon your readers, but prove nothing. As for what you say about the respectiveness of God's counsel as it relates to Christ. p. 71. Counsel as it implies consultation and debates, cannot properly be ascribed to God. 2. It might relate to Christ as head of the predestinate, or the chief, yea, the only meritorious cause and means of the executing of praedestination, & yet be no meritorious cause of the decree itself. The praedestinate were chosen in Christ, not because they had faith, obedience, but that they might obtain them for Christ's sake. The rest about the intentionality of Christ's merits, universal grace, and redemption, Christ's invitations, warnings, etc. we have found and dealt with all so often, as that I have not a mind to salute them now, as hasting to my wont rest. But as for that which you now, p. 72 sound out by the press, which I once heard you trumpet forth out of Northampton Pulpit, p. 72. about the prayers of Christ. I shall then imagine that it will serve your turn, 1. When you shall have proved that amongst those homicides for whom he prayed, there were not some of the elect of Christ, who yet were not come into his sold, John 10. 16. as possibly Paul and many others, who afterwards came in, Acts 2. 41. & alibi. 2. Or you shall have showed how any by our doctrine, can comfort themselves in the most crimson sins that can be named. Like some in the world, who never do, dare not, nor can tell any in particular, committing such sins, that certainly they are of the number of the elect; though we dare say it is possible that among such (for any thing we know to the contrary) there may be some to be converted from those sins who may belong to the election of God (m) Anselme in elucidario ut Columba grana pura eligit, Ita etiam Christus suos electos, de his ommbus generibus latentes colliget, qui e●iam quosdam de latronum genere assumit, novit enim qui sunt cjus pro quibus etiam sa●gu●●em audit. Item Christus pro solis electis mortu●s est qui erant impii, hoc est in insidelitate positi, pro om●bus autem dicit, de ommbus scilicet gentibus & ommbus linguis, & non solum illius temporis, sed & pro futuris ommbus. . 3. Nor can we imagine, who possibly may teach this last that I just now mentioned (though but rarely, and I hope prudently too) how this should be by one thousand times so dangerous to teach, as that which you do, and plead that you must teach, that Christ did die for such miscreants, and that without any such limitation, as whether they be elect or no, behevers or no, from whence it is most easy for them to conclude, that Christ could bear them no greater love than he did, John 15. 13. none can lay any thing to their charge, because it is Christ that died, Rom. 8. 32. 33. that they be of his body, of his sheep, and therefore certainly must never perish. Lo, how prodigal you are of Christ's blood in your Sermons, to very monsters of men, and yet how tender and streight-laced to some wicked sinners, who as yet may be among the lost sheep of the house of Israel, for any thing can be known to the contrary: for God calls some as well at the last hour, as others at the first. 5. As to your fifth, taken from the authority of the Fathers, p. 73. against whom you would needs oppose the sons, Noble Beza, and Dr Twisse; I have spoken so much to them formerly, when I spoke to the Authors of my first Classis, as that I may we●● string up my pen, only I cannot but observe, that ut convenirent ul●ima primis, that you might end as you begun with abusing such Authors as Dr Twisse and Beza, you will needs have them stand in opposition to the opinion of the Ancients before Saint Austin; and therefore you will not suffer Beza (without some censorious check) to say what Bellarmine (n) Bellarm. lib. 2. cap. 14. Co●nel. Jansen. in suo Augustino poe haeresi Pelag, lib. 7. cap. 17. , Jansenius, and many more in the Church of Rome, have said about ORIGEN and some of the Fathers (o) And this very objection you borrowed from the Massilions, Prosp. Epist. 5. ad August. Obstinationem suam vetustate desendunt & ea quae de Epist. Pauli Apost●li proferun●ur. See Dr Twisse against Hoard, p. 46. & inde Massilie●ses & ea quae de Epistola Apost●li P●uli Romanis scribentis ad manifestationem divinae gratiae, praevenientis electorum merita, à nullo unquam Ecclesiasticorum ita esse intellecta, ut nunc semiantur affirmant. Hoc est idem quod Augustino dicit H●●rius. Hoc enim & ill is locis suorum opusculorum & aliorum quae prosequi longum est se dem●nst●are testantur. . Nor will you stick to say that Dr Twisse yields you, that all the Ancients before St Austin, did place the object of election in fide praevisa, when all the world who can but read Latin, can in the place you quote, vindic. lib. 1. p. 110. find no more, but that quibusdam videsur to some it appears, that they do; and that it is not to be wondered at, that before Austin, their writings cò propendere videantur, which I am sure, if you li●t, you could have translated right thus, or if they do seem to incline that way, etc. And else where I hope to your warning, you have heard (both in his vindic. in the place you quote, but especially in his answer to Hoard he hath cleared it) that neither did the Ancient Fathers before Austin, differ much in the point of praedestination from Austin, nor Dr Twisse any thing materially from any of them. And thus (having given you in beyond what I promised my answers to this your fifth Chapter, as a deed of supererogation from my hearty good affections unto you, and as a legacy, which possibly may be the last, which I may ever give you by my last will and Testament.) I hasten to the seventh and last thing promised, my most longed for epilogue, and ultimum vale to your whole gaudy, new, fine well-worded Correct Copy. And here, as to your request about Liberty of Conscience: let me but say, 1. No orthodox Minister but allows you full liberty without begging for it, to preach your doctrines, which quasi sub forma fra●ris m●ndicant●s, you beg that you may preach, as if any herein did go about to restrain you. 2. But most Ministers I think will believe with me, who are but acquainted with the doctrines of the Church of England, as well as of God's word, that in all conscience, & against all good conscience, you have sufficiently abused the Liberty of your Conscience, in an age wherein we may all cry out, that Licentiâ omnes deteriores sumus. 3. That were it not for a promise you know I have made you, and I hope shall keep with you, that how troublesome soever I might prove to your bo●k, I would not be so to your budget or vineyard (Epist. ult. post. Dedicat.) it might upon this occasion be debated, what liberty ought or ought not to be allowed to men in the Ministry, abusing their liberty to the defamation of the doctrines of the Church whereof they be members, nay, Ministers (p) About these matters, who lists may see, contra Remonstrant 2. p. 77. & inde. It might be somewhat troublesome to your ease, to ventilate the question which J. Bogerman. Annot. ●8. hath in Ecclesias Anglicanas adultas, & tanta veritatis luce collustratas concordi hactenus veritatis prosessionem nobiles & exemplo aliis praelucentes, post tantos pro veri●ate labores publica authoritate & quidem neglecta synodi convocatione liceat & expediat introducere, sive in iis stabilire probare ●ut far 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in pastoribus & doctoribus qui populum & juventutem pro virili seducunt, orthodoxiam palam impugnant plerique etiam blasphemant, & de graviorum insuper errorum, occultatione apud quàm plurimos sunt suspecti nec cessabunt nisi (obstante lege) novis discipulis sententiam suam ad ministerium posteritatis transmittere: Sed M. D. T. P. nec in ventilatione, vel in decisione hujus quaestionis ero tibi ulterior, h●c qu●dem vice molestus. ? But because for the present I know no regular Ecclesiastical Authority, before whom I list to debate or determine this Question: Nay, though I think both you and I be certain, that you did but jeer when you talked of Minister's authority to make you pardonably erroneous, I will wholly wave this debate, and speak but very few words more to you of my own, viz. That because I know how much you do reverence Episcopal authority, and how highly you pretend to be an obedient son of the Church of England, p. 4. I shall beseech you, and if it please you upon your bended knees, to hearken and say, Amen, to a most pious, learned, Fatherly, Episcopal, and as it were Canonical admonition of the Right Reverend Father in God, George, once Lord Bishop of Chichester, directed to Mr M●ntague, then but a Presbyter, and now as fit for Mr T. P. For the speeding of which to the good of your soul, and the edification of the Church of England, I will but cry grace, grace, to the fatherly counsel given you (q) Minte● in melius mutare non levitas est sed ●irtus, Amb●os. in Psal. 119. , and so I conclude my whole book with an Amen fiat. è Musaeo Brocholensi, Sept. 26. 1655. The Admonition is extant in Bp Carletons' Examination, etc. p. 44, 45. etc. IF Saint Peter was called in consideration and respect of these things, than was that grace of his calling given in consideration and respect of these things, and so gratia datur secundum merita, whether we translate according to merits, or in respect and consideration of merits, all is one, I stand not upon any curiosity of words, there is no difference in the matter, it follows necessarily, that this man teacheth that doctrine, for which Pelagius was condemned for an Heretic; let him shift this as he can: Here the Author of the Appeal, may consider what wrong he hath done to the Church of England, in obtruding for doctrines of our Church, the old rotten heresy of Pelagius; and let him also consider, who doth now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, trouble and betray the Church of England. We teach with the Scriptures, and with the most orthodox ancient Church, That St Peter was praedestinated and called unto faith, obedience, and repentance. This man runneth with the Arminians, into the depth of Pelagius his poisoned doctrine. And was it not likely that he should run this way, who being a private man, without authority, taketh upon him to impose doctrines upon our Church, to change those that are received, and in place thereof, to revive the Pelagian errors, to bear men in hand, that these are the Doctrines of our Church, to scorn men that have been reverenced for their learning, and will be reverenced in the ages following, such as Archbishop Whitgift, Archbishop Hutton, Dr Reynolds, Dr Whitaker, and the other Bishops and learned men that joined with them, whom this man sometimes accounted Calvinists and Puritans, sometimes they were reputed learned, as if himself had that in truth, which they did but seem to have, who being a Priest of the Church of England, accuseth Bishops his superiors, to be Puritans, as all must be to him, who yield not to his foolish and erroneous doctrines, who in this exasperating humour, careth not, and professeth that he careth not what any think, that pleaseth not this his humour, who with such height of disdain, slighteth the diligence and industry of his brethren, gathered at the Synod of Dort: Yet they who were employed in that service, were authorized by his Majesty's Commission, directed by his instructions, and when they returned, rendering an account to his Majesty of their employment, were most graciously approved by his Majesty, only they cannot get the approbation of this Gentleman. It were good for him to consider these Aug. Epist. 105. O humana non justitia sed nomine justitiae planè superbia, quid te disponis extollere? exasperating humours, they proceed from pride (r) For to you as to him, r●s sordida est trita ac vulgari vi● vivere, Sen. Epist. 112. Nihil juvat obvium. You do sapere absque commentario in your Epistles. . Here is neither humility nor charity to be found, and therefore not the spirit of God: And what good can he do in God's Church, that cometh in pride, and a spirit exasperating without charity and humility? Sir, I writ not this in choler, nor in malice to your person (s) Aug. lib. de oper. monachorum, cap. 13. in cognition cavendus est error, in actione nequitia. Errat autem quisqu●s putat verita●em se posse cogn●scere, dum adhuc nequitid vivat. This would be well considered by your self, your Lic●feldian Amanuen●●s, and some of that party, quos dicere nolo. , but I have told you plainly the censures of those men, with whom I have spoken in this matter, both of the higher sort in the Church, who are your Fathers, and of the inferior rank, who are your brethren. I omit the censure of the Laity, I speak of them that are able to judge of your spirit; and because they have observed these things in you, I thought the best service I could do you, was to let you know these things, that you may amend them: It were good and necessary for you to understand how you have been fetched over by those cozening companions the Arminians, who have plunged you, with themselves, into the depths of Pelagius. Their end in devising that respective decree, is, that praedestination should not be ruled by God's will and eternal purpose, but by man's free will. And this is the end which you must embrace, unless God turn your heart, and warn you to avoid those dangerous and pernicious doctrines, wherein you draw the yoke with Pelagius. God make you to see your error, and to make some satisfaction to the Church of England, whom you have so much wronged. FINIS. The Author to the attentive Reader. Good Reader, MY occasions no way suffering me at London to attend the press, you cannot greatly wonder at the multiplication of Erratas. The truth is, my hand at best being but a scrawling one, misled some of my transcribers to mistake both my words, and the sense of them; when as yet they neither in margin or text, left me space enough fairly to amend their escapes, which occasioned difficulty to the overseers of the Press. For my part, I shall but desire the usual favour of a pardon, for all mere literal oversights of points and stops, that with me you would be pleased, 1. To observe, that divers times the numeral letters referring to the several answers of Mr T. P's text, have been omitted or confounded. 2. That his text hath not always, as it ought to have been, been expressed in the distinguishing Character, or per un●inos in margin, nor the pages rightly quoted. 3. That most of the following Erratas noted by me, must, before your reading, be amended, that I may neither do wrong to any Readers, or receive it from them. Vale. PAge 1. l. 17. these words [●or the private use of a friend] are Mr T. P's p. 3. l. 25. r. East. mar. l. 7. r. of false brethren. p. 4. l. 19 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, p 7. l. 17. r. Hernia. l. 2. in mar. r. Epist. secunda ante publicationem. l. 23. for Mr, r. my▪ and l. 28 r. Hesostratus. p. 9 mar. r. Epist. prima ante publicationem. p. 10. l. 28. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, p. 11. ●. 31. r. vel nenio. p. 14. these words in the mar. [nostra damu●, etc.] should be s●t against the beginning of Section 4. p. 15. l. 16 r. as fitting, etc. p. 16. l. 44. r. j am peristi. p. 18. l. 8. in mar. r. Bogerman. p. 19 l. 26. r. Overall. p. 24. l. 8. deal [for the opinions of the Molinists.] p. 26. l. 1. r. of which▪ p. 30. l. 21. Za●h. 6. 1. p. 32. l. 16. r. that you are a Witch, or a Bear, Epist. 3. p. 33. l. 20. all these words, [others unhappily, etc. unto 27. Rock▪ etc.] are not inserted in their proper place. p▪ 34. l. 37. r. & lapsis, p. 37. l. 22. mar. r. omni genere elationis. p. 44. l. 9 mar. expunge the words in the Parenthesis. Sect. 6. l. 7. mar. r. cibi. p. 46. l. 11. r. m●ridianum. p. 55. l. 15. r. as. p. 56. l. 15. for God's hand, r. your hand, and l. 12. marg. r. cui and 14. r. re●ectionem. p. 57 l. 7. mar. r. quo fine essent. and l. 11. r. beternaliter. and 12. r. Holco●. p. 60. l. 35▪ for your, r. for first. Sect. 12. l. 32. r. operari Deum in cordibus. p. 73. l. 31. after Ministers there should be a f●ll point, and a new Section. vid. Sect 9 p. 12. 13. p. 75. l. 30. the two lines of English put in the marginal notes. And thus according, &c▪ should be read, p. 76. l. 34. before those words, a thing▪ etc. p. 76. l. 20. after to do, r. or not to be left undone without sin. p. 79 l. 16. this [Ad Sect. 10. p. 13.] should begin a new Section. p. 80. l. 14. r. worst of sins. p. 82. l. 20. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, p. 86. l. 2. r. persevered. p. 87. l. 23. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, p. 93. l. 35. r. ante leves▪ etc. p. 95 l. penult. r. ungue●. p. 101. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. p. 103. l. penult. for force, r. far. p. 108. l. 30. after the merits of Christ, r. these words, and uncomfortable to Christian souls, and pass them over, l. 34. and 35. p. 124. l. 20. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 130. mar. l. 5. r. dissertation. l. 19 mar. r. Quaest. for de vast. p. 131. mar. l. 13. r. quae a te. l. 14▪ ibid. r. suscipiant. p. 146. l. 16. r. Ergo, none, etc. p. 150 l. 22. r. A●debetier, for, and besides. p. 153. l. 16. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, p. 154. mar. l. 16. r. hoc semper, etc. p. 163▪ l. 12. r. remotam cadendi, and l. 24. d. cadendi. p. 165. l. 23. for. we, r. you▪ p. 171. l. 16. for damnation, r. denunciation. p. 172. l. 4. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, p▪ 176. l. 10. pass over all the words in the five or six lines after indulgences, unto those words, only I find Jo●. Sleydan, etc. and l. 22. r. Jubilaeum. p. 177. l. 6. after grant, etc. read thus: They know of no such matter, who pitch upon massa corrupta in reference to men only, and not in reference to Angels, the Scriptures, etc. p. 178. l. 25. mar for qui●, r. quae▪ p. 181. l. 1. r. Act. 1. l. 34. r. extra sacrificis. p. 195. l. 9 r. Atheological▪ p. 202. for shent, r. sent. p. 213. mar. l. 8. for glow, r. allow. p. 218. l. 4▪ praeli. l. 21. for esteem, r. essence. l. 34. r. formal for former. p. 219. l. 29. d. words. p. 221. l. 29. for giving. r. going and l. p●nult▪ for preferring▪ r. preserving. p. 226. l. 13. r. vara. p. 228. l. 12. r. consequentia. p. 232. l. 2. post publicat. and l. 13. r. only, for that▪ and mar. l. 8. r. ●n eccle●ia, etc. and l. 32▪ r. sed ●ni D. T. P.