CHAP. I. Assigning the Reasons of former Vehemency of affection, and acrimony of Style.

CHAP. II. Containing an answer to all Considerable personall Miscellany Matters.

CHAP. III. Conteining some Generall observations against his whole book, shewing the absurdity and inconsequence of the arguments which belong to his four Chapters; and overthrowing every thing which is argumentative in his chiefest Sections, which have not abundantly been spoken unto before in the Correptory Cor­rection.

NOw that I am, by Gods help, got thus far, I am sure §. 1. it would be easie to perswade most Intelligent and inge­nuous Readers, that I have dispatched the farr greatest part of General obser­vations on the whole book, my work, if they would but be pleased any thing seriously to peruse my Correctory Corrept; where, to the most material & argumentative things here again in his Philanthro. observed, they will find eight full solutions; or else that said, from whence it might be easie for them to pick out an Answer to any new thing served in. It is tedious to me to rowle over the same stone againe, Sisyphus-like, Eundem lapidem volvere re­volvere.

But because the age doth not abound with over much in­genuity, towards the professors of the truth, and lest that out new Dr's. Proselytes should give out their great Master to be an Irrefragable, more nebuchim, & perplexorum, I will once more put my selfe to the pains of doing three things in this third Chapter. First I will give in some generall observati­ons which undo his whole book: 2ly. I shall in reference to each of his Chapters, shew the Illogicalnesse, of that which is stamen & tramen as Warp and Woofe to the whole. Thirdly I shall deliver-in some thing, upon the severall Sections, which by any Judicious eye may be looked on, as most mate­riall.

SECT. I.

1. Generall Observations.

1. AS to the first, I think, first the di [...]ine Pro [...]idence is not a little observab [...]e in the Title which he gi [...]es to his book w [...]ich he calls▪ The DI [...]INE Ph [...]lanthropie defend­ed; And that is but 1. just [...]o [...]ch, had it been expressed in p [...]aine English, as, Gods LOVE to MANKIND DE­FEND [...]D, w [...]ich was the very Title of an Arminian book, farr more Rhetoricall and L [...]g [...]call then any, Mr. T. P. can tell how to make, some yea [...]es [...]ince compo [...]ed by M. Hoard, and Mr. Mason, and answered by no lesse, then three most eminent Divines, viz. by 1. Dr. Davenant late Bishop of Sa­lisbury, in his Animadversions upon that book, Anno 1641. By 2. Dr. Tw [...]sse in Folio wri [...]ter, to my knowledge, long before that of the Bishop's, but not published, till the yeare 1653. By 3. Dr. Moses Amprald in France, Contra Anonymum Anglum, Anno 1631. Wherein he de [...]ends Calvins opinion about absolute Reprobation, from any o [...] which three publish­ed books Mr. T. P. might have [...]etched An [...]wers to any thing which he hath, in any of the pamphlets which he hath pub­lished, and neither have troubled the World nor the Church, with his Correct Copy his Sinner Impleaded in his own Court, or with thi [...] his Satyrical Philanthropy. Ridetur, Chorda qui Sem­per oberrat eâdem.

2ly. As the former Author of Gods love to mankind, upholds in his Title an odious suggestion against the Adversaries to his book, as if they maintained, God, not at all to be a Lover of all mankind in the sen [...]e spoken of Math. 5. 45. Act. 14. 16. 17. and 17. 27. 28. 1 Tim. 4. 10. because they do not maintaine Him to be a Lover of all alike, as to the sa­ving graces, flowing from Election, the [...], spoken of Rom. 11. 29. & Rom. 8. 28. Aquin. dist, 23. art 1. ad 1. Deus omnes ho­mines diligit, & etiam omnes Creaturas, in quantum om­nibus vult aliquod bonum: non tamen quodcunque bonum vult omnibus. In quantum igitur quibusdam non vult hoc bonum, quod est vita aeterna, dicitur eos odio habere vel Reprobare. even so doth this our [Page 3] Author promote what lies in him the same suggestion. Third­ly, he doth early discover what a prevaricator, we are like to find him to be in the Pleas, which he makes for speciall grace Philanthrop. Chap. 3. 83. 84 &c: When as there in his inviting Title, he tells all the wor [...]d that he intends to plead for no other Love of God, then what is in him, common to all mank [...]nd.

OBSER. 2. He profes [...]ed in his Animadversions to the Reader, p. 4. to have been under a necessity of spending whole Sections upon things extr [...]nsecall to Gods decrees: and that there­fore he hath attempted to requite his Reader and himselfe, by making of a Table of those things which are most material and pertinent to the severall questions in debate. Answ. 1. And by this solemne profession, he hath, before he is a ware of it, honestly confessed that this his new Philanthropy is for the main of it, but a new Eccentrical thing, wandring from the main Question, which as his own CORRECT Copy saith (in the very Title page) was concerning Gods DECREES, especially of REPROBATION: what needs he be much disputed with who declines the chiefe thing in question? 2. I thank him hear­tily for his ingenuous Table, of things most material; for it hath been of good use to me; but yet, in plain English, I must needs tell him I do much wonder at his never failing im­pudence, for putting it into his Table and Text, that Railing is not warranted by Scripture Table verb Railing, that practicall Christians are no ill things v. Practical., as if they were any matter of debate or question to me! How wretchedly without any the least regard to consci­ence, he doth wrest my words as if I held the contrary to these things, may be seen, Philanthropy. Chap. 4. p. 10. and p. 13. unto which I will give no other Answer then this, that if any Godly Christian will but look over what I writ, and what he writes upon this occasion, they will much sooner bewaile it with me, that by such kind of scribling he doth make it evi­dent that he is become a Master Railer, and so an ill thing, be­cause no practical Christian, rather then they will believe that Imaintaine the lawfullnesse of Railing, or that it is no ill thing to be no practical Christian.

OBSERV AT. 3. Though by Mr. Whitefield and my selfe Mr. Whitefields Epist. p. 1, 2, 3. C [...]Rept Correct. p. 76. 96. 113. 137. 138. &c. he had been told of divers usefull dist [...]nctions, betwixt Gods decree and the execution of it, the Decree of the end and means, the decree of Gods Counc [...]l and Commandement, the difference betwixt an absolute and a cond [...]tional necessity, yet either he takes at all no notice of them or he takes no tolerable care of confuting of them, but runs out in his fo [...]mer mistakes which he was so o [...]ten told of, whilst he ever and [...]non confounds the Councils and the Commandements of God together, the rea­sons of the execution for the reasons of the Decrees puts Salva­tion for Election, &c.

Observ. 4th. He professedly only deales against the first 9. sheets of my book Philanthr. Chap. 44. p. 66. and even there (as any body may see) deales rather with the more personall and immaterial matters, than with tho [...]e which are most truly Argumentat [...]ve. He is altogether a Mute as to any opposition which he makes against the stating of the Question about the absolutenesse of Gods decrees, as held either by us now a daies, or by the Orthodox Catholiques of old, CoRRept. CoRRec. à p. 112. ad 115. Iterun à p. 137 ad 145. ab 194. and 197. &c. & inde ad finem usq. Libri. ab 151. ad 193. &c. cummultis aliis. he brings in nothing for the vindica­ting of his Decachorde of Arguments CoRRept. Copy CoRRec. p. 141. or for to cleare his mistakes about the points of Orig [...]nall sinne, free will, Resistibi­lity of grace, falling away from grace more Speculative prescience, which made up by farr the greatest part of his own CoRRect Copy, and of my Correctory against it, and yet he must needs give out his book to be a satisfactory Answer to all that had been said against him.

Observat. 5th. Wheresoever he recedes from Arminius, as in many things he doth, it is still for the worse, towards ranck Pelagianism and Socinianism. Ex. gr. 1. Armin [...]us and his followers, as I have shewed (c) elsewhere did only (at least, at first) presuppose the praevision of faith, before Election: but Mr. T. P. every where presupposeth perseverance in the faith, and in all sorts of good works, Philanthr. p. 7. 2. Arminius is out in making his ipsum [...] Credere to be that which is imputed unto us, for righteous­nesse; but he is worse out, who doth not so much as believe that, but will have all our works and good deeds to be as well the matter of our Justification, as Faith, Philanthr. p. 12. & 22. Sinner im­pleaded, p. 333. nullifying altoge­ther the imputed righteousnesse of Christ CoRRept. CoRRec. p. 159.. Arminius was for Gods efficacious permission of sinne CoRRept. Correc. p. 85. &c. for sin's only having [Page 5] a deficient cause; but our good Authour is fiercely against these things. I may afterwards possib [...]y have a just occa [...]ion to in­stance in many more things.

OBSERV. 6. When as any body▪ but in any tolerable fashion, acquainted with Pel [...]gianism & Semi-pelagianism may as easily perceive his whole CORRECT Copy to have a tenden [...]y towards them; nay even to begin & end in them, and that nothing was more fully and punctually pro [...]ed, in almost every other leaf of my Corrept Correct. Yet, Philanthr. Chap. 1. p. 11. he is not ashamed to make a publick Chal­lenge to the ablest of my abettors, to transcr [...]be any one period from any part of his Book, wherein they will affirm Pelagianism doth lie: with how much more modes [...]y might he have an­swered, as the Arminians, when Pelagianism was objected to Censura Cen­surae. them, (a) Quid tum? Pelagius recte sentit.

OBSERV. 7. When he cannot tell how to find him­self any imaginable rational work against me, he sets him­self to the making of 7. or 8. Arguments for the proving of me to be a Pelagian, and a Massilian, Philan­throp. from p. 7. to 12. and to the ma­king of 16. more for the proving of me to be an Arminian Ibid. from p. 12. to 17..

OBSERV. 8. Whensoever he is most desperately at a losse, for answering of an Argument, then he Jears and Scoffs most confidently, Ex. gr. when he knowes not in the World, how rationally, to put off that known, and allowed maxime of Doctor Twisse, that Quod primum est, in intentione est ultimum Chap. 3. p. 67. in executione, What is first in intention, is last in execution, then he tells us, by way of jear, that had he used that Maxime in such an ignorant manner, when he was a raw Soph [...]ster, he had been h [...]ssed out of the Schools; yea, when the end of his Jour­ney is France, he first intends to take Ship at Dover, befo [...]e he think upon France.

OBSERV. 9. If any were so simple as to be ruled by him, he would put a necessity upon his Adversary, to make a large Volume in the interpreting of, and vin [...]icating from bla [...]phemy, the expressions of most of the eminentest Refor­mers [Page 6] in the Church, such as Calvin, Dr. Twisse, Piscator, Beza, and a World more, Philanth. à p. 132. ad 139 [...] per to [...]um, Caput Quar­tum. when as for the most part, those very Authours in other parts of their Writings; nay, often a little before, or after the words quoted by him, clear themselves; and when (as we shall see more, wh [...]n we come to them) their known opinions are quite contrary to what he would wring out of their words.

OBSERV. 10. As in his Correct Copy before Corrept. Correct. p. 172., so in this his Philanthropy now when he should quote Scrip­tures, for Gods Praedestination, he still brings those which only speak of his Promises, Commands, &c. and wholly de­clines, to work upon the 9th to the Romans, or at least slub­bers over Chap. 4. p. 39. Correct Copy p. 40. when as yet he cannot be ignorant, that we never take our selves to be bea­ten by Scripture, till by dint of Arguments, we shall be for­ced out of that our strong hold.

I have done with the first, and now come to the second thing promised.

§. 2.

Showing the Illogicalness of the main Arguments belong­ing to his 4. Chapters.

It in my Correptory Correction▪ I took care of any thing▪ it was this, that the Book might be fully correspondent to the Tit [...]e-page. And this I believe, for any thing that as yet hath been said against it, to have been so fully done, as that I will not so far question the slipperiness of the memory of any atten­tive Readers, or obtund his attention, or doubt of his very eye-sight, as before such an one, once to question, whether both in Text, and in broad Margins, Pelagian [...]sme, Massili­anisme, Arminianisme, Contradiction to Scripture, and to the Church of England, hath not been fully proved against mine Adversary. I am sure in this his Philanthropy, he hath not as yet answered to at least the fortieth part of the particulars, which have made it evident, that most of his Arguments, and man­ner of allegations of Texts, are Pelagion, Massilian, Armi­nian, &c.

And Ergo, if there be any concluding Ergo, in all this vast Chapter, which runs o [...]t into no lesse then 36. Pages, it must be drawn from these, or some such like praemises.

He who stoutly flourisheth against a Title Page, without dispro [...]ing any of the main particulars, bro [...]ght for the proo [...] thereof in the Book, he overthrowes the who [...]e Book.

But that doth Mr. T. P. throughout this whole first Chapter, from p. 1. to 36.

Ergo, Mr. Barlee his Book is beaten.

Secondly, Througho [...]t all his second Chapter, he carries on another grand Argument against me, full out as inconse­quential as the former. First he drawes up a formidable Cata­logue, of all my high, and possibly, here and there, over-hasty expressions against him. Philanthr. from p. 47. to 43. 2. At pleasure, without any further proof, he is p [...]eased to call them all Scurrilous, Ca­lumniating, or, blasphemous. 3. He playes very fierce­ly upon my style and temper, which yet he represents to be no worse then that of Mr. Calvins, Philanth. p. 120. p. 126. and of my dear Au­thours and Masters, as he calls them, and whom he exposeth to open shame in his Catalogue, from p. 133. to 139. As many of them as I have seen and read under Christ, I will be content to acknowledge to have been my Masters. Ingenuum est ag­noscere, per quos profeceris. I will only except against mon­strous Leviathan Hobbs; and the Book which he calls, Comfort for Believers, a Book ordered by the late Par­liament to be burned Phil. p. 136.: these I di own from ever having been my Masters. And whosoever will be ruled by me, they shall as soon own the Devil to be their Masters, as any of those Books: and I wish my adversary would but undertake to pro­mise as much in the behalf of some of his Proselytes, who are but too great approvers of Hobs his Lev [...]athan.

2. And then after this Game, he draws up his five Con­clusibles, from p. 44. to 50. as conclusible as this Argument is, from whence they be all to be inferred.

Mr. Barlees style is not so elegant, as M. P. would have it, nor his temper any thing so mild as that of Cassandrus, or Ed. Phil. 126. mild Grotius his is: Ergo, he answers not my Book, or at least my five Conclusibles held against him; but the first is true: Ergo.

3. That which must needs be the force of the great Wheel, or Argument, which gives motion to all the third Chapter, and runs through all the Sections of it, from p. 54. to 152. must needs be one like unto this. Though I do suppose, ra­ther then prove Mr. B. Calumnies and falsifications to be his third way of his Confutations; yet by so doing, I overthrow his Book. But the former I do suppose, and that very stout­ly, as the Answers to the particulars have, and shall yet make it further evident, Ergo.

4. And so for the fourth Chapter, the chief part of which is spent in torturing and racking some speeches of Calvin, Twisse, Zwinglius, for the proving them against their ex­press Protestations to the contrary, to maintain God to be the Authour of sin, the utmost of what can ever be concluded out of them, will come but to this upshot at long run.

The expressions of Mr. Calvin, Doctor Twisse, Zwinglius, &c. about Gods Efficacious permission of sin, may possibly in some things, be too high, in some things not so well apprehended, or interpreted by Mr. Barlee, who could not reach to the meaning of the Authors so wel as themselves, or who thought not fit to spend too much time, in clearing the sense of such places, which the Authours themselves do abundantly clear in o­ther places of their Writings. Ergo, Mr. T. P. hath proved it against them, that they are the Authours of blasphemy, or that there is no such thing, as absolute reprobation, &c.

But the first is true, Ergo.

§. 3.

3ly, I come now to those particular Argumentative mat­ters which are of any moment throughout the severall parcels of his book: and here, in his Epist. Dedicat. first he begins with Philosophicall matter, P. 11. lin. 9. 10. What use do you make of your Philosophy, and that Government of the will which we are wont to talke of, p. 4. We may learn so much Christianity among the Stoicks, as not to make our selves unhappy by our not being Master of another mans Tongue.

Answ. 1. Boeth [...]an Philosophy made this man turne first from Calvinisme, as hee'l needs call it, from Christianity, as in­deed it is, unto Armin [...]anisme CoRRect Copy, p. 48.; and ever since as it ap­peares by his publick writings it is humane and moral Philo­sophy whi [...]h he feeds upon and is nourished with See the first and chiefest part of his sin­ner Impleaded 2. hum­b [...]e and mortified Christians use to have many sad and mourn­full discourses with their like, about the unrulinesse of their wills, their Impotency, yea Impossibility, to governe those un­ruly things at all, without the speciall powerfull operation of Christs grace Ioh. 15. 5. but proud spirited people use to boast of their powers to govern their wills as Austin of old ob [...]erved Dicere solet humana superbia, Dicere solet humana Super­bia si scissem fecissem, ideo non seci, quia nescivi. de grat, & ar­bitr. c. 2. &c: My good friend was resolved not to heed what Lecture I had formerly read him out of Austin CoRRept. CoRRect. p. 35. 36. in Marg.. 3ly. Athough I will not deny but that much good use may be made of humane Philosophy, as to the snibbing for a while, rat [...]er then the mortifying of some boysterous passions, yet in their next Philosophicall Dialogue, I would fain have them to determine; first whether any Chri­stianity properly so called, can be learned from those who had none at all of it, as the Stoicks had never a deale of it. 2ly. Whether those without some limitation can so much as be called vertuous, who could only be so as to the dull matter of virtues, but knew nothing of any right principles of vir­tues, of any right ends, of any right manner of performing of them, when as yet Austin according to Scripture hath long since well determined, that non officiis sed finibus sunt metien­dae virtutes, Virtues must be described by their ends, not by their Offices. 3ly. whether that the more Heathens Philosophers [Page 10] did place their happinesse in moral vertues, they were not the more proud, and the further off from Christ, and the nearer to the deifying of themselves, to whom they did use to ascribe their own virtues; propter unicam ambitionem, caete­ras omnes colebant virtutes, Omne etenim probitatis opus, nisi semine vitae Exoritur fidei, peccatum est, inque erratum, Vertitur, et Sterilis cumulat sibi gloria poenam. Ambition and selfe-admiration, made them to follow all other virtues Prosper Carmen. de in­gratis. Cicero was used to boast that he did thank God for his riches and honours, but not for his vir­tues. Senec. Ep. [...]7. Bonam men­ [...]em stultum est optare, cum possis à [...]e impe [...]rare Austin. Lib. 5. de Civ. dei c. 20. Eorum virtus, si tamen ulla est, alio modo quodam humanae subdi­tur laudi; ne­que enim qui sibi placet homo nonest, &c: idem in Psal. 121. ut non superbi­at, in virtuti­bus proficiendo, quid debet fa­cere? levet ocu­los suos ad illum qui habitat in coelo, non se attendat; sed qui sibi placei, stulto homini placet, quia ipse stultus est, qui sibi placet, solus securus placet qui Deo placet.. Had these things in their conferences been throughly scanned, possibly the first thing in this book to have been recommended unto us, would not have been Stoical Philosophy; and else-where we should not have been told that these Stoicks aemulated St. Paul in his writings about the combate betwixt the Flesh and the Spirit, with which never mere Heathen or mere naturall man was ever in Pauls sense acquainted Sinner impleaded, p. 38. A [...]i [...]n writes as if be had transcribed out of the seaventh Chapter to the Romans. Austin contra, Lib. 1. Retract, Cap. 23. ex opere posthumo, Lib. 1. contra Julian. Quis non videat Judaei Apostolum induxisse personam, nondum sub Christi gratia instituti, dicentis, Miser ego homo, &c: Itane vero Judaeus est, nondum (que) Christianus est, qui dicit, Dei gratia me liberavit per Jesum Christum Dominum nostrum▪ Et pau [...]o post. Postremò cor delectatur lege Dei secundum interiorem ho­minem, &c: et tu contra clarissimam veritatem oculos claudis, gemitum (que) ejus exponis, non ut omni­bus patet, sed ut tibi placet, &c..

2ly. He saith ibid, p. 5. lin, 2, 3, 4▪ 5, 6, and in Margin. that he is no more a Herotick, for being said by Mr. Barlee to lay snares for the worthy Gentlemen of the Country, whereby to bring them into boggs and precipices, than God himselfe is a seducer for being said by Mr. Barlee to tempt men unto sin, p. 79. he saith he is not at leasure fully to open in what sense, &c. He saith, that God doth stirr up wicked men to acts, as acts which to the actors are and will be unjust. As if God could stirr up David to pollute Bathsheba without stirring him up to his adultery; or else, that Adultery becomes no sin.

Answ. 1. As to what may seeme weighty and material in this objection, enough (by Gods blessing) is like to be spoken [Page 11] to it, when I shall come professedly to speak about Gods effica­c [...]ous permission of sin: In the interim, it will suffice to ob­serve, first that to my best remembrance, I never called him Heretick: if he have a mind to call himselfe so, I will not gain­say it; for indeed I think him guilty of much hereticall pravity.

2ly. I could never so-fashion think the Almighty to draw men into the Snares of sin, as I believe Mr. T. P. doth: he doth it by his perswasive Oratory, by his guilded fine poysoned Letters and Papers, by his mis-representing of their Orthodox guides; but the holy one of Israel perswades not to sin; yea by his Lawes, Promises, Threats, judgments disswades from it, non infundit ma­litiam sed non impertit gratiam, Rom. 9. 10. He gives grace to whom the will, and hardens whom he pleaseth, by denying them grace, and giving them up to their own hearts lusts, Rom. 1. 20.

3ly. Any one who reads me and heeds me in any of the places which he directs them unto in the Text or Margin of my Correptory, will easily see how for the clearing of God, from have any efficiency in sin, as such, I do every where care­fully distinguish these three things. 1. The materiale sub­stratum peccati, the material part of sinne (as I may so say) which is either the doing, or the leaving undone some positive natural or Moral act. 2ly. The formal part of sinne, which gives it its being, such as it hath, and that is it which the Scrip­ture calls [...], Ier. 3. 4. 3ly. The Governing, Ruling and overruling the sinne and the sinner; the first and the last I make God to be the Soveraigne Author of, in whom we live move and having our being, Act. 17. and who bringeth light out of darknesse, good out of evill Apolog. Lib 1. c. 25. Dr. Morton. Episcop. Du­nelmens. fusé à pag. 90. ad 97 edit. Lon­don in 8.. But as for the second which alone is properly sinne, I every where deny God to have any other hand in it, then that of a voluntary, unconstrained per­m [...]ssion, which so long as the world stands, can never in the Lord be proved to be sinfull. Hugo de S. Vic. Lib. 1. de Sacrament, cap. 12. part 4. Deus cum faci [...] bonum & per­mittit malum, apparet volun­tas ejus quo­niam esse vult quod facit, & quod permittit est dei voluntas operatio ejus, & permissio e­jus. 4ly. If as I say Corrept. p. 79. that I was not at leasure in reference to Iames 1. 13. 14. fully to open in what sense God may some way seem, I speak Cautelously, and yet not be, the Author of sinne, &c: he should not have been so uncharitable or so irrational as to insi­nuate, as here he doth, that I would have done it in a way which would have aspersed the Almighty with mans sin: that [Page 12] might be done as some of the ancient and moderne Enchi-rid. ad Laur. cap. 13. & 14. Omnis natura, etiamsi vitiosa est, in quantum natura est, bona est, in quantum vitiosa est, mala est & rursum ma la omnino sine bonis, & nisi in bonis esse non possunt qu im­vis bona sine ma lis esse possint. Valentianus ini Aquin, q 9. 19. p. 43. E [...] ­titatem pravae actionis omnes fatemur cadere in voluntatem divinam cum fit; & esse à Deo tanquam à causa universali, concurrente cum voluntate humana. inter­preters both Pont fician and Protestant have done, and yet neither the text be really contradicted, nor God be made a Seducer. 2ly. He should not have been so su­perstitious as to have overlooked that which p. 79. upon this occasion I directed him unto, out of Dr. Twisse. 3ly. He should not have such an overweening conceipt of himselfe, and of his Authority in the Church, as to have thought that his bare Repetition of severall sayings of mine, without any the least show of confutation, when as yet they be wary enough, and commonly enough received, would be a sufficient demon­stration that they prove me to maintaine God to be a seducer, or the Author of sin, contrary to my expresse words and mean­ing, as the Lord knows and will judge who is the Judge of all, and the searcher of all mens hearts and trier of all mens reines. 5ly. He that cannot or will not tell how God may be said to excite men to the Act of Adultery, which to the Adulterer so excited is sin though not to God, neither will he tell how God without sin doth stirr up men to the Act of lying with their lawfull Wives (for it is adutrum (que) but ejusdem generis excitatio, & concursus) unlesse he makes himselfe guilty of something of sinfull concupiscence which alwaies more or lesse since the Fall cleaves to the Act. Would he peruse Austin his writings de nuptiis & concupiscentia, they would informe him better Austin divers times instanceth in Gods making stolen Corn to grow..

§. 1.

2ly. To what he hath in the book it selfe, in any material Secti­on of his, and here first to the charge of Post-destination. chap. 1. §. 2. from p. 4. to 7th, he hopes to acquit himselfe of this by saying first, that it is another cast of my invention. And yet (An­swer. 1) I beleive I am not the first by a hundred, who in op­position to Pelagian and Arminian Spirits, have used this ex­pression [Page 13] Instead of a great many m [...] who might ea­sily be produced see B [...]shop Da­venant Ani­madvers. p. Ames. Anti­synd p. 25. in Coronide Ar­tic. p. 4. Edit. Londinens. p. 4. Rivet▪ disp. 4. Thes. 6. 2. Yea seeing by what he pleads for in these pages it is evident that God concluded upon nothing con­cerning mans Aeternall condition, before he did at least in sig­norationis foresee all that man would do or leave undone from his first to his last breath, I might with a venerable Author Dr. Ames Autisynod, p. 25. with much more reason have styled him a submortuarian, and because he allowes of finall falling away from g [...]ace in some elected to it, have called him an Apostatarian: (for that according to him the object of Election may be an Apostate Phil. Chap. 4. p. 18.) than he with any colour, by way of distinction from their brethren, have termed others Sublapsarians. 2ly. He saith that a decree before the Creation of the World is as mu [...]h and as purely a Praedestination, although conditional, as his absolute de­cree can be supposed to be, and that the word praescience doth sufficiently inforce.

Answ. 1. The impossibility of this I have already largely proved in my corrept Correct CORREPT, Cor­rect from p. 139. to 143. &c. unto which he makes not any the least shadow of a reply. 2ly. It is against all common sense to averre that that is as purely a praedestination which putteth praedestination into the power of the praedestinated as that which puts it only in the power of the praedestinating. The former, as is evident, is his Heterodoxal opinion, the latter is only ours. 3ly. It is as senselesse to say that praescience (especially as he discourseth of it in his Boethian discourse, Correct Co­py p. 48. 49.) doth inferr a praedestination; when as praescience of a thing future must needs praesuppose a praedestination or a prae­determination of it.

3ly. He saith that my terme of Post-destination, will fall foul upon all my venerable Masters of the Sublapsarian wayes; which doth inferr a decree, not altogether irrespective, &c: Answ. 1. The transferring of a Crime to others is no ablation of it from himselfe. 2ly. There is nothing so manifest but that in this business there is a wide difference, even a [...] & Imma­ne quantum, betwixt those whom he termes Sublapsarians and himselfe, First I know none of them all, who stand much upon these Termes of sub, Supra or Con, when they come to speak about the ordering of Gods decrees, Dav. Ani­madversions, p. 24 17. 58. & 27. &c, passim. A. Rivet. disp. 3. Thes. 12. Ames Antisynod, cap. 1. p. 5. Dr. Twisse in omnibus Scriptis saepe. nay they pro­fesse [Page 14] them to be of no great moment, yea to be but mere Lo­gicall or Metaphysicall speculations. They hold with Tho. of Aquin, that, as in reference to the dealbation, it is not a ma­terial businesse whether, that which is whitened, were, before black, pale, or red: so, as to the reason of praedestinat [...]on, they think not material, whether a man be predestinated to life eternal, from a state of misery, or no: Part 1. qu. 23. Art. 1. Motus non ac­cipit speciem à termino à quo, sed à ter­mino ad quem: nihil enim re­fert quantum ad rationem dealbationis utrum ille qui dealbatur sue­rit niger [...]ut pallidus, aut rubeus; & similiter nihil resert ad ratio­nem praedesti­nationis, utrum aliquis praedesti­netur in vitam aeternam, à statu miscriae vel non.. 3ly, They object, All persons predestinated, to the Almighty predestinating to be in an Aequal condition, not as differenced by any qualifications of Worse or Better, Rom. 9. 11.

4ly, They utterly deny all formal objects Ames An­ti-synod, p. 5. Tem [...]rè vel do­lose sit mentio objecti forma­lis. Tale objec­tum non agnos­cimus. (though they grant mere material ones) they deny all external motive meri­torious causes of Election or Reprobation, which is not the case of my Adversary.

5ly. There is none of them all who grant not the Decrees of Creation and Permission of sin, to precede the praevision of Cre­ation and Sinne: whether as belonging to the decrees of more Common Providence, or unto the decree of praedestination in spe­ciall, is not a materiall dispute, whilst they be both granted to be aeternall, Dr. Twisse, Lib. 1. p. 87. Ed [...]t. in 4^o.

6ly, There is nothing so cleare, but if that were but yield­ed unto, the mere sublapsarians, wherein as I have largely showed in my Corrept Correct, p. 137. 138. &c: p. 184, the substance of the controversy is consisting betwixt them and their Adversaries, (and unto which as to any Replies my Mr. T. P. is altogether mute when it most concerned him to have been Vocal) they would not as they say siccum interduere care of a bulrush what became of the businesse of sub or Supralapsa­rianism. It is well known that the ablest amongst them, as Fr. Junius, Piscator, and others, think that if the various acts be­longing to praedestination be distinguished, there may be place both for the men of the upper way and for men of the lower way, Francisc. Junius d [...]sputat. 10.

7ly. He should not so Ir [...]nically have spoken of my venera­ble Masters (as he termes them) the Sublapsarians, unlesse with all he had intended to have derided his venerable Master Arminius, whom he styles the famous professor of Divinity in the University of Leyden, Philan. p. 14. Chap. 1. for he is of­ten [Page 15] but too ambi [...]ions to be accounted a Sublapsarian Doctor Twisse, Lib. 1. cap. 55. Arm [...] ­nius ipse inter­dum acriter pugnat pro massa Corrupta tanquam re [...]robationi praestruenda, atqu [...] in [...]o speciem facit, tanquam cum quibusdam ex nostris Theologis Consentientis, &c., and would to God he had never been worse.

8ly. I think he graceth me very much in calling many of those my venerable Masters, whom he styles Sublapsarians; yet he must give me leave to take the same liberty in differing now and then from my Masters, which he thinks reasonable to take to himself. My great and sole absolute Master, Iesus, Christ, bears me witness in the Testimony of a good Conscience, though my Adversary suspects the contrary of me, most un­charitably, Chap. 1. p. 14. that nullius juravi ego in verba magi­stri, si ille excipiatur, I am not sworn to the words of any of my Masters but my Lord Christ's: and full easie it would have been for my Adversary, to have known both from my close fol­lowing of D. Twisse & from what I say expresly, Corrept. Correct. p. 177. my words are, The way of the otherwise Orthodox, Sublapsarians, that if I must needs be differenced from o­thers, I must rather be styled a Supra-lapsarian, then a Sub-lap­sarian, I am clearly in my judgement for the Coordination of the Decrees of Creation of the permission of original and actual sins, &c. in reference to Gods supreme ends of Prae­destination, rather than for the subordinating and dividing of them. And indeed, if I may but be allowed to speak my mind freely, though I acknowledge the ends of the Reverend men of the lower way to have been very pious, viz.

• 1. To avoid curiosity.
• 2. To facilitate matters to our weak intellects
  Rivet. dis­putat. 3 Thes. 14. ex Calvino Non Solum quaestio haec ab­strusa est, ac in penitiore Dei Sanctuarii adyto condita, sed quia otiosa Curiositas alenda non est, cujus illa nimis alta speculatio alumna & nutrix est, ergo in illo primo proposito haerendum esse non censet. Addit ergo alteram partem, quod ex damnata Adae S [...]bole, Deus quos visum est, elegit; quos vult reprobat, quae inquit sicut ad fidem alendam longe aptior est, ita majore cum fructu tractatur: in hac igitur Doctrina, quae humanae naturae corruptionem & reatum in se contin [...], libentius se insistere, sicuti non solum ad pietatem potius conducit; sed magis etiam videtur Theologica.
  .
• 3. To allay the tum [...]tuous spirits of their Antagonists;

[Page 16] yet Salva [...] pace tantorum virorum, they have not in any of these been succesful; especially, not in the last of all, as ap­peares by the restlesness of our common Adversaries. My Court­like Neighbour doth therefore behave himself p. 5. but very rudely against me, whilst he conjureth up a rustick, labouring at the Plough, to puzzle me with his Demands about things, which according to my Tenents, no way concern me to an­swer; for if, as I think, in reference to Praedestination, the decrees of permitting original and all actual sins be Co-ordi­nate, and make but one Decree, not divers de mediis, there is at all no place for the Ploughmans Question, who may do well to apply himself to his Plough again, and leave these high matters of Divinity to some body else; and yet if this Learned Corydon, and the subtle Sophister, his Prompter, can but have patience a while, they shall find, that their Question is not irresolvable.

8. Both the Supra, and Sublapsarians, can be content to allow of respective decrees; Doctor Twisse Lib. 2. p. 24. Col. 2. Certe omnis voluntas est respect [...]va sicut & scientia: nam ut scien­tia est, Scibilis scientia; ita etiam voluntas, est rei volibilis, vo­luntas. Dicitur autem absoluta, &c. for so all the decrees of God, which are inward acts relating to objects, and ad alterum, must needs be, yet they utterly deny all conditional Decrees, properly so calle [...] Ruiz. de volunt disp. 20. Sect. 1. Volitioues purè Conditionales sunt ali nae à Sapientia & prudentia Dei. A. Rivet disp. 4. Thes. 4. lo­quens de abso­luto De cre [...]o, Quod non in­telligendum, quatenus absolutum distinguitur Contra respectivum: de eo enim non Controver­titur, neque de absoluto à subjecto, &c. ne (que) de absoluto à mediis in sua executione: sed de absoluto, quod vocant, à causa., which are not grounded on absolute or unconditionate ones.

Fourthly, He growes insolent, as if he had carried all, clear before him, when he asks p. 5. Where then lies the diffe­rence betwixt them of the Consistory, and us, who are of the Church? God (say they) decreed to reprobate the greatest part of Mankind, in consideration of no other then original sin. But say we of the Church of England, (and the famous Moulin of France) it was in consideration of all the sins that were future; not only of original, but actual also.

Answ. 1. If this Authour, after the Arminian fashion, would not constantly confound the Decree of Preterition, or negative Reprobation, (which in God is an Act of his absolute Soveraign will) with the Decree of positive Condemnation, which is an Act of his judicial power, and vindicative justice; neither Sublapsarians, nor Supralapsarians, would contradict him, in saying, that God Reprobates no man, nor adjudgeth no man of years to Hell, for meere original sin.

2. A very great part of my Corrept. Correct. in answer to this Dechachorde of Arguments, ev [...]n from p. 136. to 182. (unto which, as yet, there hath appeared no answer) spending it self in confutation of all that which he produceth for the proving of his opinion, in the sense wherein he takes it, it might seem very superfluous labour in me, to oppose any thing more against this over-confident assertion set down there. But because he establisheth this as a main Column, or Jacin, upon which this his 2d work is to rest, and that he is not afraid to quote his Mother the Church of England for it, as well as Monsieur Moulin of France it may not be amisse to all that I have said before, to add these few things, by way of answer to both those particulars. And first, to the first of the Church of England.

Answ. 1. The opinion here set down, and as he sets it down, may possibly have been the opinion of the late Court, or Consistory of England; (for Consistories we had, as well as they at Geneva, though of another make) but it was never the judgement of our Mother the Church of England, in any of her Authorized Articles. If we may judge of her opinion, ei­ther 1. By her awful, and I believe, studied silence in the seventeenth Article about Predestination: where was the proper place for her to have [...]poke her mind out. 2. If from what she saith there, about Pred [...]sti­nation, or Election, we may by just proportion or Analogy, guess what her meaning must needs be, about the contrary Decree of Reprobation viz. that as the former is the everlasting purpose of God to prepare Grace and Glory for his People, whom he hath chosen in Christ out of Mankind: so the opposite De­cree of Reprobation, is nothing else but a Decree of denying those saving Graces prepared for the Elect, unto those who are [Page 18] left in the state of Curse and Damnation. And if so (as is most likely) our good Mothers opinion, is directly opposite to that of Mr. T. P. and his late Arminian, broken, Consistory of Eng­land.

3. Or if the best of the most venerable Fathers in the Church, who before our Authour was born, and who did a thousand times better understand what the Doctrine of their Mother-Church was, then our [...], when compared to them, may be heard speak for our common Mother, they will give in their verdict against him. I have formerly named ma­ny of them to him, and might name many more, viz. Corrept. Correct. p. 194. Matthew Eborac, Jacob Armach, John White­gift Cantuar, Robert Abbots, Jos. Exon, Tho. Dunelm, &c. but for the present, let it suffice to set down the judgement of them all, from under the hand of that most judicious Divine, Dr. Davenant, late Bishop of Salisbury, who hath wrote a who [...]e Book against this opinion, in which he speaks thus. Dav. Animadvers. p. 6, 7. & 55. &c.

The wisdom of our Church of England, in the 17th Article, layeth down the Doctrine of Predestination, and doth not so much as in one word, meddle with the point of Reprobation; leaving men to conceive▪ that the one is the bare negation, or denial of that spe­cial favour and benefit which is freely intended, and mercifully bestowed in the other. Would to God the Children of this Church, (let Mr. T. P. if he be but a Member of the Church of England heed this) had imitated the wisdom of their Mother, and had not taken a quite contrary course, balking the Doctrine of Predestina­tion, and breaking in abruptly upon the Doctrine of Reproba­tion.

2. And truly it will not sink into my head, how the Church of England who for matters purely Doctrinal, may, ever since her first Reformation compare with, if not out [...]y any Chri­stian Protestant Church in the World, should light upon such an opinion as is 1. Most Antiscriptural, Rom. 9. 11. 18. 20. 21. turning, as I have shewed else-where, Corrept. Correct. p. 28. the Apostles [...], or Abysse, into a most easie fordable shallow.

2. It is both indeed, and in Term [...]nis Pelagian, and Semi-Pelagian, who founded the decrees, both of Election and Re­probation, upon good or bad works Aug. de praedestinat. Sanct. L. 1. c. 18 Praesc [...]bat er­go a [...] P [...]lagius qui futuri essent sancti, & et id [...]o eos an­te mundi consti­tutionem in ip­sa sua prae sci­entia [...] à tales futuros esse praescivit, ele­git. Prosper▪ in Epist. ad Aug. Pene omnium par invenitur & una senten­tia, quae propo­situm & prae­destina [...]ionem Dei secundum praescientiam receperunt.

3. It is most Illogical, and absurd. 1. It is against Mr. T. P's. own Logick, when he saith Philanth, Chap. 3. p. 64. that he had never so little Logick▪ as to say, that any thing in man (which is the Object) could be the cause of Gods decree; and yet here he makes God himself in Reprobation, egredi extra se, to fetch from mans Original and Actual sins, which were fore­seen to fall out in time, the Cause, and, as he holds it, the very meritorious Cause, for such is that which he pleads for, all along Philanthr. Chap. 3. p. 66, 67. p. 111, 112, 113. inducing the Almighty to take up his decree of Reprobation, or eternal praeterition.

2. Ac [...]ording to this Divinity, permission of sin, for which men are damned, ex [...]aecation and obduration, and final perse­verance in sin, are not according to the common Tenent both of Pontifician Penottus saith the learned Bishop of Salisbury, would fain [...] d [...]ny nega­tive Reprobation, yet is drive [...] to confesse, L [...]b. 7. cap. 17. that, Doctors commuite [...] admit­tunt reprobationem negativam, doc [...]n [...] (que) communiter ob [...]u [...]at [...]onem s [...]u [...]rmisionem manendi in peccato us (que) ad mortem, [...]ffectum ess [...] h [...]us R [...]p [...]ba [...]onis. And the definition from Tho: Aquinas by none contradicted, evinceth as much. Est autem Reprobatio dec [...]etum permi [...]endi pec­catum & damnationem inferendi pro peccato, Suarez de Auxiliis, c. 2. c. 5. p. 17 [...]. Si [...]ermo sit de non electione, verum est, causam illius esse solam Dei voluntatem, nulla expecta [...]a causâ exparte hominis. and Protenant Divines, to be look [...]d up­on as con [...]equent results of Reprobation (I do not say, they be proper Effects, or Fruits of it) but as Antecedent Causes, and procurers of that Decree.

3ly. If sin original or actual foreseen, be the cause of the de­cree of Reprobation (for the only question is about the Aeter­nall immanent act of God Reprobating) then because God could not but from all Aeternity foresee that if the elect did but live to yeares, they would be guilty of Originall and actual sin, and Ergo according to him all men should have been Reprobated, for there is not a man that l [...]ves and sins not, 1 King. 8. 46. Out of an unclean who can give that which is cleane. Iob. 14. 4.

4ly. Without any the least reason assigned for it, God Re­probares Angels one way, and men another way; for there is nothing so plain as that the foresight of the Angels Originall or actuall sins did not praecede their Reprobation. But the Scripture speaks alike of both, Jude 4, 6.

5ly. It is a doctrine Loathsome to the wiser and best sort of Divines, in the very Church of Rome, as Mr. Perkins hath proved at large out of many School Doctors Citante D. Twisse, Lib. 2. p. 18. 19. in quarto Greg. Armini. Petrus de Alli­aco. Marsilius Franciscus Major Bannes, Ferrarensis. And instead of all take this argument. unto which more might be added Out of Bonaventure, in parteprima distinct, 41. quastione 1. Omne meritum antecedit illud cujus est meritum: sed Praedestinatio & Rep [...]obatio praecedunt nostrum esse, Ergo non cadunt sub nost [...]o merito. Item, omne meritum aliquomodo est causa ejus quod meretur, sed pr [...]destinatio & Repro­batio sunt aeterna, merita vero sunt temporalia. Ergo temporale est causa De [...]reti, quod est im­pos [...]ibile. and observeable it is that even of late Iunsenius hath wrote no lesse then two whole books a­gainst it, viz. Lib. 9. & 10. Tom. 3.: And hath the Church of England for such a doctrine as this is a wider swallow then that of the Chuch of Rome?

1. And let this serve for Answer to what he saith about the Church of England. 2. As for the next thing which he hath about Mr. Moulin of France, first he might have rested satisfied with what I told him about this. Corrept correct, p. 129. 130. 3ly. I much wonder at it, how so great a Presbyterian and Anti-Arminian as for the main Mr. P. Moulin was known to be should be so high, in Mr. T. P's. favour? I perceive when it may serve his turne, a man of the consistory shall be looked upon as a good Church-man with him. 3ly. If he be so much taken with Mr. Moulin his discourses about Reprobation, why is he not as much taken with his Anti-Arminian discourses in the point of Election? Loves he rather to patronize Reprobate then Elect persons. 4ly. Why doth not he, or his party, answer Dr. Twisse his answer to Mr. Moulins arguments about Reprobation, before he commend his performances so high?

5ly. Out of the mouth of a Clown he studies to pose me with a very long-tailed question, which takes up the better part [Page 21] of two pages, p. 5. 6. and yet he is upon it again, p. 66. taken from Gods Eternal omniscience, praescience, o [...]n potence, &c: unto which becaus [...] I have already shewed, that the Question lies not upon me to answer, let him content himself with this brief re­solution.

Answ. 1. He showes himself to be guilty of a fowle Anti­scriptural Rom. 5. 12., and Pelagian Valensis part a. q. 105. memb. 1. p. 296. secundum Augustinum concedimus quod non puni­tur parvulus pro culpa patris, sed pro culpa sua propriè loquendo. Non enim dicit Apostolus quod solum Adam peccavit, sed dicit quod omnes peccaverunt in Adam. Erat enim in Adamo non solum voluntas u­nius singularis personae, sed voluntas universalis naturae. Adamo cadente ò justitia o [...]igina­li, [...]idit etiam quaelibet voluntas posterorum. Ca et enim voluntas cujuslibet illa recti tudine quam habuiss [...]t, si Adam stetisset. Vide in eandem sententiam ipsum Mald [...]rum, in gra. 2. qu. 8 [...]. art. 1. pag. 260. error, when he saith, That mans original sin was actually committed by none but Adam and Eve, before Reprobates were born: which if so, I think he cannot tell that original sin should be at all our own, if in no sense it have been committed by any other persons then Adam and Eve.

The ground of his error is, because all along he takes ori­ginal sin, to be nothing else but the Imputation of Adams first transgression, and never considers it; either as our act in Adams loines, so as Levi is said to pay Tithes in Abrahams Loins, Heb. 7. 9. or as it is a propagation of personal filth from thence, cleaving to our natures, Job 14. 4. Psal. 51. 5. Heb.

2. But as for the thing it self, wherein he would charge us with the denying Gods omniscience and praevision for a while at least, let him know, first, that neither Supra lapsarians, nor Sublapsarians, as he calls them, do question, but that God did from all eternity, know and fore-know, and that unico intuitu, by one individual act, all his own works, and all mens works too, Act. 15. 18. without all moments, and (if I may so say) jumps of succession from one to another, from the first to the second, &c.

2ly. But as for us poor crazie mortals, if we have no mind to continue in puris tenebris ignorantiae, to be wholly left in the Clowds of darkness, we for the helping of our Childish Intel­lects, must needs distinguish of all things so known by God, and we must needs think of some order amongst that infinite [Page 22] number of things which all are at once the objects of Gods Omniscience and Praescience.

3ly. The best distinction, which we can possibly light upon, is, whereby we distinguish all things eternally, fore-known, either as merely possible to be, or as such things as shall have an actual being, or futurition: and then next, whereby we distinguish moral good things, from moral bad and evill things.

4. We say in Congruity hereunto, that all things merely pos­sible to be, are foreknown by the Lords Omniscience of his own Omn potence, if he would be pleased to set it on work: and Scientia sim­plicis Intelli­gentia. thus the Lord knows thousands of things more, then ever shall have any actuall being, & which he knows can have no being beyond a mere possible one, unless he determine them to be. But as for the things▪ which the Lord knowes, and foreknows will have a certain futurition, he foreknows them all, by ver­tue of his own will and Counsel, whereby from all eternity he Scientia vi­sionis. determines their futurition, and without which, he could not know that they should certainly be, unless we should be so frantick and so wicked, as to maintain, that Creatures from all eternity before their being were foreseen, to determine both; what their beings would be, and what their actions.

5ly. As for future morall good things, especially such as accompany Salvation such as are effectual vocation, justificati­on, sanctification, &c. he eternally foresaw they would be in his Own, because he did from eternity, resolve or decree to be­stow them graciously upon his own, 1 Tim. 3. 9. But as for fu­ture moral evil things, whether original or actual sins, God foreknew them all in the same moment of eternity, because even then he did by his permissive and ordinative will, deter­mine, that they should fall out, Act. 2. 23. & 4. 28. Carthus. Lib. 1. disc. 40. qu. 3. p. 580. q. 3. p. 580. vide Aquin. Part. 1. qu. 23. Art. 3. Bonum subjacet providentiae divinae tanquam ordinatum & causatum ab eâ; ideò praedestinatio est causa Gratiae & Gloriae: sed quoniam malum culpae non subjacet providentiae Divinae ut inten­tum & causatum, sed solum tanquam praescitum & ordinatum, hinc reprobatio est.

The sum then is, we do not first in any moment of time, de­ny Gods Omniscience and Praescience, only we make them not as to the determinate futurition of any thing (as we conceive matters) antecedent to Gods Decrees; but either Concomitant, or at most in the same moments of time and nature subor­dinate.

2ly. We do not, as the learned Bishop of Salisbury well ob­serves, deny praescience in the matter of Praedestination, of either good or bad actions, only we deny an Arminian prae­science, Solum prae­scientia culpae non paenae. Da­vant p. 25. 45. sed praecipue. p. 153. of such actions foreseen in men, as caused or prece­ded the different decrees of God, in electing some men mercifully unto salvation, and leaving others through their own default, to plunge themselves into eternal damnation.

We grant, it is not only untrue, but unpossible, that God should decree the salvation of any man, without the foresight of those acts, viz. of faith, perseverance, &c. We deny not the foresight of faith and perseverance in the Catholick sense (and the like sure in point of Reprobation, may be said of per­severing in infidelity), that is, of effects and Consequents of divine Praedestination or Election; but in the Arminian sense, that is, as of antecedent motives, reasons, causes, or conditi­ons foreseen in men, and drawing after them the Decree of Predestination.

Whether this determination of his long Question will please him, yea or no, I know not: if he like it not, as learned e­nough, let him take heed, lest he meet not with one which is more rash, but not so so [...]nd Consilium Dei velle nosse multorum est, nosse autem vel paucis [...]imo­rum hominum vel omnino nullorum. A [...] ­gust. lib. 2. opier. Imp. Contra Jut. f. 346.. I may justly fear how much soever as yet he will seem to be for an eternal Praescience of all things; yet if he do but go on to hugg his beloved, S. Episco­pius, (f) as he hath begun to do, Mr. T. P. his principles will quickly prompt him much better to like of that which Episcopius sets down Episcopius disp. 4. Thes. 10. Et si non negemus Deo sci­entiam futurorum attribui posse, imprimis quia eam Scriptura Deo tribuere passim videtur, ta­men an necessarium sc [...]u sit, ad hoc ut Deus colatur ejusmodi scientiam D [...]o competere exami­nari permi [...]imus. An cognoscat Deus possibilia, an infinita, absolu [...]e necessarium scitu non credimus.. Though we do not deny but that [Page 24] the Science of future contingent things may be attributed to God, especially, because the Scripture doth up and down, seem to ascribe it to God, yet whether it be necessary to be known, for this end, that God may be worshipped, that such a knowledge doth belong to God, we permit it to be exami­ned, Whether God know possible things, infinite things, we do not believe to be absolutely necessary to be known.

6th. He saith, p. 6. That I do betray a third fort of weak­ness, &c. for that, as he saith, I know that he doth as much as any, assert eternal Praedestination, only I prove it against him, to be respective of final impenitence in all that shall be damned.

Answ. 1. How I could so much as divine, that he should assert eternal Praedestination, I cannot tell, when as the face and true Genius of his opinion, looks quite another way, and when but once (if once) he had in his Correct Copy so much as mentioned the word Eternall, and that only in the matter of praescience, and not in the matter of Predestination, or Predetermination, which are acts of Gods will, as the former is of his knowledge.

2. It is not to him, or to any man in the World, conceive­able or explicable, how an eternal immanent Act of Gods Coun­sel should be founded upon the temporal Act of the free will of a versatile Creature; and yet such is the Act of final impe­nitence, elicited by the wicked free will of a Reprobate, or of him that shall be damned.

3dly, He expresseth himself, that he may the more easily deceive unwary souls, in too mild a manner, when he saith, that the Decree of Reprobation, hath respect unto finall impeni­tence, as if by that terme, in shew harmless, he did only under­stand, that it were nudum antecedens wh [...]reas it is plain by all the Discourses elsewhere, against the distinction of positive and Negative Reprobation, he understands by respect, a merito­rious Cause such as abaeterno moves the will of God to make his Decree of Reprobation: And the like fallacy, lurks in the same word Respective, which he by and by applyeth to the Decree [Page 25] of Election, and which requires Faith Repentance, and Perseve­rance to the end, in all of ripe age, which some where Sinner im­pleaded. he calls the Important Conditions of Election, and by which, as one of his beloved Remonstrants Vic. Gre­vin chov. Contra Ames. p. 24., (whom he hath reason as much, to hugg as he doth his Associate S. Episcopius Philanthr. Chap. 4. p. 14., well expresseth Mr. T. P. his true sense, Voluntas judicis à condi­tione postulata et praestita movetur ad praemium àneglectâ aut repudiat [...] ad poen [...]us idque contendit conveniens esse naturae legum ac conditionum praescriptarum i. e. by which the will of the judge is moved to confer a Reward, or infer a punishment by vertue of a Condition required and performed, and that in congruity to the nature of Lawes and Conditions prescrib­ed.

4ly. Why should I have any the least reason to suspect that Mr. T P. by virtue of any of his principles, which are all but borrowed from Arminius, or from men of that stamp should be any better able to maintaine Eternal Reprobation, and then not eternal Election neither, and then not sure Eternal predest [...]nation, than his Reverend Father Arminius himselfe, who professeth it J. Armin. in Examin. Perkin [...] de [...] ­lectione Sect. 14. Certum autem est ho­minem actu reprobum dici non posse, in quo Deus De­cretum Repro­bationis nullo adhuc interno actu coepit ex­equi. Ibid. Primus actu [...] externus in ho­minem vel circa hominem re ipsa jam existentem facit illum actu reprobum. to be certain that a man cannot be said to be actually reprobated, on whom God did not by any internal act beginne to execute the decree of Reprobation, which sure he did not, or could not execute but in time: for it implies a manifest contradiction.

5ly. Yet if it were any way possible for to found the Eter­nal decrees of God upon the foreseen acts of the Creature, yet could he by virtue of this his praedestination grounded on and de­pendent on Praescience gaine nothing, according to his own manner of reasoning in all his Decachorde of Reasons produced in his CORRECT Copy p. 34. ad 42. for the avoiding of all those foul absurdities and blasphemies which he labours to asperse Gods [Page 26] Absolute Eternal decrees with, as they are maintained by us, but they will all, if his arguments be of any force against Eter­nall praedestination grounded on deliberate praedeterm [...]nation, rise up as much against Eternall pred [...]stination grounded on prae­science: they introduce a like infall [...]b [...]l [...]ty in both, a like coaction (as they call it) on the will, and like frustration of Admonitions, Exhortations Aug. de dono perseve­ran [...]. Lib. 2. c. 15. Ajunt (viz Semipe­lag [...]ani) nemi­nem [...]osse Cor­rept [...]onis stimu­lis excitar, si d [...]catur in conventu Ecclesiae, Itase habet de praedestinatione definita sententia voluntatis D [...], &c: Ista dum dicunt, ita nos à confitenda Dei gratia, id est, quae non secundum merita nostra datur & à confitenda secundum eam praedestinatione Sanctorum deterrere non debet sicut non deterremur [...] confit [...]nda praescientia Dei, si quis de illo populo sic loquatur, ut dicat sive nunc recte vivatis sive non, tales vos eritis quales vos Deus fu [...]uros esse praescivit..

And therefore I doubt not but if he would but seri­ously in any sense preach Eternall praedestination, he would lose most of his customers, his forsooth tender Proselytes who with his learned P. Bertius P. Bertius praefat. dedicat. ad Examen. I. Arminii con­tra Pe [...]kins. unum quem­que nost [...]um invariabilem vitae at (que) mortis Aeternae [...] unà cum ipso ortu in lucem hanc nobiscum adferre, at (que) adeò ad hoc nasci, hanc (que) diversitatem aliquomodo ad universi perfectionem facere. are offended at nothing so much as that God from eternity should have predetermined mens everlasting conditions, for Aeternal life or death, and not have left it in utramque partem to mans free will, to be fabros fortunae suae, to be Carvers of their own fortunes.

Seventhly and lastly he saith of the decree of Election, p. 7. that it is Respective of Faith and Repentance, and perseverance to the end, in all of ripe age who shall be saved: and for such as die infants before they can actually Beleive or Repent, Gods Eternall predestination or purpose of Electing them unto bl [...]sse, was also re­spective of the [...]r being in Christ: and this he tells us the Church of England hath taught us out of the Scriptures.

Answ. So much having been spoken against what he brought about Reprobation, little need to be said about what we have here concerning Election, the rather because he re­turnes at all no Answer to what I produce against it in my CORREPT. Correct, p. 228. and where I dispute against his St. Andrean way of ordering of Gods decrees p. 206. ad [Page 27] 209. Only let me say first that I cannot tell whether his for­mer opinion about Reprobation were more destructive to Gods Soveraignity, than this is most portentously A. Rvet saith well disp. 4. Thes. 6. according to this opinion, In dubio haeret Deus, donec ex ipso effectu videat qui­nam fint in illa side perseve­raturi, sub cu­ [...]us nomine poe­niten [...]iam & bona opera comprehendunt (uti facit Dr. T. P.) Quod atheismi rudimentum à Socino haustum, multi nunc pleno poculo, populis bibendum propinant, quo nescimus, an aliquid à Christianismi incunabulis ad haec usque tempora, perniciosum magis suggestum sit; in quo, praeter impietatem in Deum, tota [...] Justificationis gratuitae rationem, cum impurioribus Scholasticis convellunt. and after a Soc [...]nian [...]ashion destructive to the nature, power, efficacy and peculiarity of Gods grace; for, say he what he will in words to the contrary, that he believes Faith and Repentance to be the gifts of God, that Gods grace makes us to differ, Philanth. &c: whi [...]st this opinion of his standeth and is mainteined by him they are but delusory words to catch the simple withall, for first it is impossible that Faith or any other saving grace should be the fruites of Election, when as here they be made to be the Ante­cedents to it, and the important conditions of it (his own Phrase). We cannot be chosen unto Faith, &c: in which sense faith is said to be the faith of Gods elect, Tit. 1. 1. if we be cho [...]en in respect unto it, or for it, 1 Cor. 7. 25.

2ly, We do rather, yea altogether choose our selves, rather then that God can be said to choose us: he only chooseth upon what condition we shall be Elected; but we upon choos­ing of his conditions proposed unto us, determine him to choose or Elect us, and that interpretativé is all one as to choos our selves.

3ly. How shy soever elsewhere he will seem to be of the word merit in the cause of Election, yet if faith may but be al­lowed to be a good work, which sure is one of the best, espe­cially w [...]en as here he proposeth it as accompanied with Repen­tance from dead works▪ & attended with perseverance to the end, w [...]ich comprehends all good works imaginable to be perform­ed by any Christian; I say, if this may but be granted he doth di­rectly maintaine Elect [...]on according to the praev [...]sion of works [Page 28] expressely against the holy Scripture Rom. 9. & 8. 30. & Act. 13. 48. Ephes. 1. 11. &. 3. 4. 1 Thess. 1. 3. 2 Tim. 1. 9 2 Thess. 2. 13. &c. pious Antiquity Augustin, de praedestinat. Sanctor. cap. 17. Haec est immobilis veritas praede­stinationis & gratiae. Nam quid est quod ait Apostolus, Sicut elegit nos in ipso, ante mundi consti­tutionem, quod prof [...]ro si propterea d [...]ctum est, quia praescivit deus credituros, non quia, facturus erat ipse credentes, contra istam praescientiam loquitur Filius dicens. Non vos me elegistis, sed ego [...]legi vos: Electi sunt it aque ante mundi constitutionem ea praed [...]stinatione, in qua Deus sua futura opera praescivit. who by merits understood nothing else but good works: and thus he is a down right Pelagian, in the very first and chiefe point of it, Quod gratia (imò ipse sons gratiae qualis est electio) con­feratur ex operibusbonis..

4ly. It overthrowes all assurance of our Salvation or of our perseverance, whi [...]h according to this divinity no man can be sure of, untill he have in Fa [...]th and Repentance persevered un­to the End, i. e. when we are saved and have persevered to the end, then we be sure of them. Poore Christian consolation this! and yet, Phil. chap. 3. Mr. T. P. talkes of a special grace of perseverance to every one that continues & abideth to the end.

2ly. This opinion is so farr from being the opinion of the Church of England, as that the bare reading of her 17th Ar­ticle, is a sufficient confutation of it. Nay in the defence of it he is not only forsaken of all Transmarine Reformed Authors such as his famous Monsieur Moulin of France, (P. Moulin ana [...]om. Armi­nian, cap. 1 [...], 20, 21, &c:) but of his own Dr. Overall, if we may believe Dr. Davenant Who, ani­madvers. p. 10. quots his words thus. Nostra Ecclesia con­jungit particu­lare decretum absolutum, non ex praescientia humanae fid [...]i aut voluntatis dependens, sed ex proposito divinae voluntatis & gratiae de hi [...] quos deus elegit in Christo liberan­dis, cum general [...] & conditionatâ voluntate, seu generale promissione, &c. and I am pretty confident he will not be able to produce any one considerable good known Author of the Church of England, who will or can speak any thing for him.

3ly. As for what he hath about Infants

Answ. 1. He doth without all colour of reason maintaine two different wayes of Election; one for Children or Infants; another for men of ripe age: where as Austin very often proves by the arguments of baptized Infants election, that no mans Election is ex fide praevisa, of faith foreseen.

2ly. If that be true, which elsewhere he maintaines, that no Children are damned for Originall sinne alone, Sinner im­pleaded, p. 147 148. then he [Page 29] must needs holds that there is at all no Election of Children. An universall assumption of them all to glory there may be, but if none be left, there can be at all no Election of them.

4ly. As for what he saith that the Artic. Eccles. Angl. 2. 7. 15. 31. proves that no Children have forfeited their interest in the propitiation of Christ for the sins of the whole world, as well originall as actual sins, and for all sins of all men as well Actual as Originall.

Answ. 1. As to the businesse of Infants, I hope elsewhere to come to a full reckoning with him.

2ly. The second and seventh Articles spending them­selves about quite other matters cannot possibly speak any thing to serve his turne: the 15. and 31. using only the ge­nerall Scripture phrase of Christs being a propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, which may be very fairly explain­ed by that which follows in the 31. Article, that there is no other satisfaction for sin, but that alone, viz: that of Christs alone they rather make against him then for him: and as soon shall Dr. Taylour, Answer to a Letter of the L. Bishop of Rochester. a man I feare me but too much for his novell opinions in our Authors book, prove Artic. 9th. to make nothing against Originall sin, nay to prove that there is no such sin, as he shall be able to prove any thing against the Orthodox, out of those Articles.

§. 2. To any considerable matters which he hath about Pela­gianisme Massilianisme, Arminianisme, the sense of antiquity (Austins wri­tings p. 74. ad 78.) about speciall grace, upon all which he inlargeth himselfe, cap. 1. §. 3. p. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. ad 17. §. 5. à pag. 25. ad 31. §. 20. p. 80. 84. 85.

Answ. That neither reverend Dr. Reynolds (at all times and particularly at this most excellently imployed) nor any body else may by an unseasonable and unreasonable de­clamator and challenger of them, p. 11. Phil. be in­terrupted in th [...]ir more serious studies. I shall think it reasonable for the stopping up, (if it may be) for ever of his clamorous mouth, (though I have done it already up and down my Corrept. Correct.) to draw up a Parallel betwixt the opinions of the Pelagians, and Massilians, or Sem [...]pelagi­ans and those of Mr. T. P's. A taske I confesse not necessary [Page 30] to be undertaken in respect of the more eminently learned, who upon the sleightest pe [...]usall of his books, or others cannot but know him to be extremely guilty; but very useful, ad Oculum, to the very eye, to be demonstrated for the behoof of younger Scholars, and the more vulgar Readers. This be­ing once fully cleared, viz. that (against all his frontless deni­alls) he is both a Pelagian and a Massilian, no body will que­stion whether he be an Arminian or no, or think it reasonable, that I should inlarge my selfe, to answer what he hath about the sense of Antiquity, about Austins Writings, about special grace: the true sen [...]e of which, he is so confident, that he hath obtained, when he saith of it▪ Chap. 3. p. 83. §. 22. that it is properly special because it serves (ad speciales actus & ha­b [...]tus) to every habit, or act, or thought of good, that is done by man, or required of him, (which yet may be had true of any special habit, not properly gracious, viz. that of morall vertue) as it was in Gallio, Julius, or other Heathens, that of Bezaliel, and Hiram, for their special Temple-works, that of the spirit of Kingship in Saul, of fortitude in Sampson, &c.

I say, he is so confident, this to be the true notion, and this only to be the true notion of special Grace, as that he doth most insolently triumph over me, as if, Philanthr. Chap. 3. p. 84. my notion of special Grace, were more the Child of my ignorance, then others were; that I have not probably yet learnt what is the genuine acception of special grace. And yet I take it, (as any body may see, who reads my Book) in no other sen [...]e then the Apostle did▪ and St. Austin did, who call that Grace special, which is first a fruit of Election and Predesti­nation unto life, Rom. 8. 28. 30 Aug. de Corrept. & grat. c. 9. Qui­cunque in Dei providentissima dispositione praesciti, praedestinati, vocati, Justificati, Glorificati sunt, non dico etiam nondum renati, sed etian nondum nati, filii D [...]i sunt..

2. By vertue of which, such Graces are conferred upon them, as God never repents the bestowing of on them, Rom. 11. 29. 2 Cor. 7. 10.

3. That whereby they are discriminated from all others, unto whom the like Grace is not conferred. 1 Cor. 4. 7. Aug. Epis [...] 105. ad Sex [...]. Presbyt. N [...]c. omnium est fi­des qui audi­unt verba, sed quibus Deus partitur men­suram fidei, sicut nec om­nia germinant, quae plantantur, aut rigantur, sed quibus D [...]us dat incrementum: Cur autem ille credat, ille non cred [...]t, cum ambo idem andiunt, & si mir [...]c [...]lum in eorum conspectum fi [...]t ambo idem vident, altitudo est divitia [...]um sapientiae & scientia Dei, cujus insc [...]utabilia judicia, & apud quem non est iniquitas. Let me but once for all (which I am sure i [...], viz. easie for me to do) prove him a Pelagian and a M [...]ssilian, every under­standing body will then presently conc [...]ude, that his sense of Antiquity can never be right, that he can have no good opi­nion of Austins Writings, that it will be ( [...]ay he what he will to the contrary) impossible for him to maintain special grace in any true Christian Catholique sense.

§. 1. Then in this extreme short Parallel (which were most easie to be inlarged) I prove his down-right Pelagianisme in the chiefest and most considerable head-points thereof.

First, See my Cor­rept. Correct. p. 154. in mar­gine. The Pelagians denyed the sin of our natures, commonly called original sin, to be any sin at all, and that be­cause it was involuntary. And what can he in truth maintain otherwise, who first in all his Writings, confounds Adams first sin with our Original.

Secondly, Who every where di [...]tinguisheth that sin, from our sin, as being in no sense committed by our wills Corrept. Correct. Ibid. p. 154..

Third [...]y, Philanthrop. p. 8. He will by no means allow me to profess that saying of Austins, that there is no sin but what is voluntary, to have been abu [...]ed by the Pelagians, to the de­nyal of original sin, when as Austin himself tells us, that it was an Objection which the Pelagians used against him August. contra Julian Pelag. Lib. 2. Lib. 1. operis Imper [...]ect. f 37 and which he doth therefore so explain, as that it may do them no service, or him no hurt Lib. 1. Re­tract. Cap. 13. Potest videri falsa haec definitio: sed si diligenter excutiatur invenietur esse verissima. Peccatum quippe illud intelligendum est, quod tantum modo peccatum est, non quod est poena peccati. &c. Illud quod in parvulis dic [...]ur O [...]iginale peccatum, cum adhuc non ut an [...] Libero arbitrio voluntatis, non absurdè vocatur etiam voluntarium, quia ex prima hominis mal [...] voluntate contractum, factum est quodammodo haereditarium..

2. The Pelagians maintained all Infants dying in their In­fancy to be saved Aug. in Libris de pec­cat. merit. & Remissione. Sa­lutem vitam (que) aeternam habi­turi sunt infan­tes, quontam nulltus peccati v [...]ncul [...] ob­stricti sunt. so doth Mr. T. P. strenuously in his Sin­ner Impleaded p. 147. Chap. 3. No truth shines clearer to me than this, that no man ever hath, or ever shall suffer eternal death, for no other sin than that of Adam, it being actually his sin, and but originally ours. To the same purpose in two several Chapters.

3. They held all Infants to be innocent, to be harmless, and without sin Aug. Lib. 1. operis imper­fect. contra Ju­lian. f. 61. Parvulus infu­cata primaevi­tate felicior bonum simpli­citatis suae vi­tare non potuit, lib. de nat. & grat. c. 21. Sani sunt propter quos medicum quaeritis.: so doth Mr. T. P. who having in his Correct Copy, called them all Babes of Grace, p. 67. is in his Philan­throp. Chap. 1. p. 7. and Chap. 4. 25, 26, 27. &c. extreme sharp with me for maintaining them to be sinful, and guilty before God, which his Conscience told him well enough, that I could not understand of any other than of original filth, who was never so mad, as not to believe Infants to be free from actual sin, and comparatively to be innocent, when compared with such as himself, or my self.

4. They introduced concupiscence and inclinations unto sin into Paradise, and that before the Fall, without which, they think the Protoplasts could not have fallen Aug. Lib. 6. Contr. Jul. c. 18. Con­cupiscentia ma­la qualitas non est, &c. This opinion of theirs, Austin doth largely confute in di­vers parts of his works. Enchirid. Cap. 13. de Genesi ad literam Lib. 2. De Civitate Dei Lib. 13. Cap. 10. And maintains an assertion quite contrary to it, viz. Concupiscentia carnis & peccatum est, quia in [...]st illi [...]n [...]b [...]dientia contra domina [...]um mentis; & poena peccati est, quia red­dita est meritis inobedientis; & causa peccati est, defectione consentientis, vel contagione nas­centis. Contra Julian Lib. 5 Cap 3.: And even just so doth Mr. T. P. and that for the very same Reasons; see him at large, Philanth. Chap. 4. p. 24, 25.

5. They placed the wills liberty, even after the fall, in an absolute indifferency unto good or evil: without which, they maintained the Essence of mans liberty to be lost Lib. 1. operis impersect. Julian. definit. Libertas, in ad­mittendi peccati, & abst [...]ne [...]di à p [...]ccato possibilitate consistere ut liberum habeat alterutrum vel­le & in suopte jure, utram sug [...]ere [...]tiae partem sequeretur id est; vel ardua aspera (que) virtutum, vel d [...]mersa & pal [...]stria vol [...]ptatun [...]., and so doth Mr. T. P. in his Correct Copy p. 64, 65. insomuch, as he saith, that he dares be no more inquisitive, why God made man with such a freedom of willing, or nilling, than, why he made the hand with those two muscles, whereof the one doth move to the tak [...]ng of a thing and the other to the throwing of it away.

6. They (at least at first) maintained Grace to be given ac­cording to works Prosper ad Demetriad. G [...]atiam conten­debant secun­dum merita ho­minum dari. p. 134.: they allowed of no other Grace, than a meer Doctrinal or minis [...]erial one Aug. de grat. Christi C. 41. loquens ex Pelagia­norum senten­tiae, Adjuvat (inquiunt) nos per Doctrinam et revelati­onem suam; dum cord [...]s nostri oculos aperit, dum nobis, ne praesentibus occupemur, fu­tura demon­strat, dunt Dia­boli pandit in­sidias, dum nos multiformi & in [...]ffabili dono Gratiae coelestis illuminat. And it is ex­tremely to be observed, that when our Mr. T. P. had longer hetor [...]cated about the forces of such kind of external Auxiliaries of grace, then at length concludeth his long winded D [...]scourse, with this saying, Sinner im­pleaded. p. 366. This is the utmost of what is meant by Gods drawing, or constraining any man to obedience.: they liked of no praeve­nient Grace, which did infallibly determine the will, volunta­tem secum rapere, as one speaks, before the will hath determi­ned it selfe. That Mr. T. P. doth, and must by vertue of his principles, maintain all these opinions, I shall have occasion to shew elsewhere; for whosoever is necessitated to defend the first, which is the worst of them, he will never be able to forsake the rest, but so long as he upholds his opinion of E­lection, ex fide praevisâ, and that for the support of it, he maintains Correct Copy, p. 69. that God executes his Decrees in the same way that he decreed them: and therefore as faith and perseverance were the conditions of Election, which yet is the Fountain of all grace, before all time, then certainly, vo­cation and faith, and other graces, cannot be given without some Conditions in time, and what can they be, but for some good works of ours? And doth he not boldly enough express in very many places of his Sinner impleaded especially, where he saith, p. Without our willingness to be drawn, all Gods draw­ing will do no good.

7. Heathen Philosophers and their performances, were highly magnified by them See about this, Jansenii Lib. Quart. Tom, Secundi per totum: Of these Pelagius used to say, that Solis Libertatis ingenitae virtutibus & misericordes crebrò & suo­b [...]ii inveniuntur; & licet à fide alieni, abundant virtutibus. Aug. Lib. 4. adver. S. Julian.; even as they are by Mr. T. P. who books down Socrates for a substantial Christian. Sinner im­pleaded. p. 12. who tells us, how admirable his Arrian, and others (as if they had been imitators of St. Paul) write about the Conflict betwixt the flesh and the Spirit, Ibid. p. 38.

These things considered, a mere stranger to him, would wonder he should dare to write it over the second time, af­ter some just Correptory Correction given him for it Corrept. Cor­rect. p. 39. that he never had any temptation to Pelagianism, [Page 34] of which he hath a great deal the more, for the good conceit which he hath of his natural Antipathy against Pelagian sin, which, of any other in the World, is most suitable to corrupt and proud nature.

But no man in his right wits will wonder, first, either that Chap. 1. p. 9. Phil. he should tell us, that Pelagius was Ortho­dox for the main, he meanes for the Articles of the Apostles Creed, though by a very just consequence somewhere, Austin proves it against him, that he denies the very first Article of a Christians Creed, whereby he believes God to be the Maker of Heaven and Earth; and therein, to do whatsoever is pleasing to him.

And secondly, (as I have shewed elsewhere) as little will he wonder, that seeing as yet Mr. T. P. lives among Christians (as well as his Dogmatical Grandsires the Pelagians did) that with them, and with as much heat and vehemency as they, he do now and th [...]n give some such excellent words to grace, Besides what I have already set down. Corrept. Correct. p. It is most ob­servable what Austin hath, de grat. Contr. Pelag. & Caelest cap. 7. multi­formem & in­effabilem gra­tiae illumina­tionem agnos­cit: & cap. 2. admodum spe­ciosè pronunci­at Anathema qui sentit, vel docet, gratiam Deo, qua Christus venit in hunc mundum peccatores salvos facere, non esse necessariam, & qui hanc conantur auferre poenas sortiuntur aeternas. which would be sufficient to end the Controversie, if their mouthes and their hearts would but keep pace together. And thus to his grosse and downright Pelagianism. Now as to his finer-spun Semipelagianism, or

§. 2. Massilianism.

I write it again, and I will bide by what I said, that to any intelligent Reader, it is as plain, that he is guilty of it, as that his nose is in his face. And I shall prove him deeply drenched with it.

• 1. By the Identity of his and their chief opinions, about the matters controverted.
• 2. By the Identity of both their Objections against the Orthodox.
• 3. By the ridiculous shifts which he useth for the clear­ing of himself from Pelagianism, Massilianism, or Arminianism.

§. 1. For the first: First, the Massilians did believe Predesti­nation, or Election, to be founded on foreseen Faith and Works, Pelag. in c. 9. ad Roman. Quos praevidi [...] conformes fu­turos in vi­ta, voluit ut conformes fie­rent in Gloria. Et apud Aug. dilucidis ver­bis asserunt Pe­lagiani Lib. de praedestinat. Sanctor. c. 18. praesciebat ergo Deus, qui fu­turi essent Sancti, & ideò eos ante mundi constitutionem in sua prae­scientia elegit &c. and this is an Article of Mr. T. P's. Creed, Phil. 7. They be both agreed in that which is the Foundation-stone of all Pela­gianisme Pelag. in c. 9. ad Roman. Quos praevidi [...] conformes fu­turos in vi­ta, voluit ut conformes fie­rent in Gloria. Et apud Aug. dilucidis ver­bis asserunt Pe­lagiani Lib. de praedestinat. Sanctor. c. 18. praesciebat ergo Deus, qui fu­turi essent Sancti, & ideò eos ante mundi constitutionem in sua prae­scientia elegit &c.; and the very Trojan-Horse, from whence all their other mischievous opinions do sally out.

2. They both believe there must be something in the par­ties Elected, to difference them from parties not E­lected The very error which Austin was in, before he retracted it. Lib. 1. Retract. in c. 23. and which Mr. T. P. espouseth after Retractation, Correct. Copy. p. 70. & 71..

3. Both parties in the matter of Predestination, are only for Conditional Decrees against all absolute.

4. They be both for a general and an universal desire and will in God, to save all men quantum [...]n se. So the Massilians Prosper. in Epist. ad Au­gustin. Quantum ad D [...]um pertinet, omnious esse paratam vi [...]am aeternam. so Mr. T. P. Correct Copy, p. 20. Philanthr. Chap. 1. p. 21.

5. They plead both strenuously for Universal Redemption, They maintained, that it followed out of Austins principles, O [...]ject. 9. Gallorum & prima Vincentiana. Quod Dominus Noster Jesus Christus non pro omnium hominum salute & Redemptione sit passus. that a man may well wonder what was become of our Authours wits, memory or Conscience, when he is not ashamed to tell the Christian World. Phil. Chap. p. 9. that it was a part of Pelagius his Heresie to deny universal Redemption; and for this he quotes Aug. Epist. 106. whereas yet there is nothing so plain as that 1. the Pelagians and Semi-Pelagians, or Mas­silians, did most peremptorily maintain Universal Redemption in the full latitude of it.

2. They did most stifly reject Austins Interpretations of 1 Tim. 2. 4. & other places which they did use to produce for Ʋniversal Redemption Hilar. ad Augustin. [...]nd [...] est, quod illius sententiae expositionem, non eam quae à [...]e est d [...] ­prompta suscipiant, [...]d est, ut non omnes homines salvos fieri velit, & non eos tantum qui ad Sanctorum numerum pertinchunt, sed omnes omnino, ut nullus habeatur exceptus ut ait Prosper Carmin. de ingratis..

3. I dare be bold to say, that in all the Epistle 106. of Austin, there is nothing which looks this way; but that rather Pela­g [...]us in the Council of Palestine, was forced to renounce some­thing [Page 36] that is quite contrary to Ʋniversal Redemption, as viz. first, that Adams sin did not hurt him alone, but all Mankind Eam Gra­tiae formam in­ducunt, quâ Cunctos vocet illa quidem, invitet (que) nec ullum praeteri­ens, studeat communem as­ser [...] salutem omnibus, & totum peccato absolvere mun­dum. Massilien­ses, apud Pro­sper. in Epist. ad Augustin. Dei auxilium com­mendantes sive per naturalem, sive per scrip­tam legem, &c. homines uni­versaliter vo­cari statuunt..

2. That some Infants dying in their Infancy, were damned, even (as then the Tenent of the Church was) all Infants dy­ing before Baptisme.

6. Both parties do grant Grace sufficient to all; to those with­out the Church, as well as to those within the Church: inso­much as that our good Authour tells us Sinner Impleaded, 273. that the damned in Hell might have kept themselves out of Hell, by that assistance of grace which God had given them.

7. They be both against all efficaciously working and praede­terminating Grace, which is not lyable to be accepted of or re­fused at the pleasure of mans versatile free will Hilar. ad Augustin. Tam fortem homini à peccato relictam esse voluntatem, quâ vel contemnere quis valeat, vel obedire. Et inserius dicunt; Caeterum quicquid libet donatum sit praedestina is, id posse & amittere & reti­nere propriâ voluntate. Cassian. Col. 13. Mane [...] in homine liberum semper Arbitrium, quod Gratiam Dei possit vel negligere, vel amare. Vital [...]s apud. August Epist. 107. Quo si velimus [...]i­at opus; si autem nolimus, nihil in nobis operationem Dei valere f [...]ciamus.. And there­fore they do both devise: First, a certain kind of Congruous grace which at certain Critical times and seasons, (to use the phrase of our Correct Copy) is adopted to insinuate it self into the will, when the will is in a fit posture for the recei [...]ing of it. Se­condly, A grace (whatever in words they may sometimes for the declining of envy say to the contrary) which is attendant on the will, rather then preventing the motions of it; not sub­duing, or conquering the wil by effectual praedetermination to it self but rather being subject to the will, & by the will made use of, for special purposes, as our Authour talks, Phil. Chap. 1. p. 83.

Thirdly, No other grace for sub [...]ance, than what was granted to Adam in innocency before his fall. Thus from A­dams fall from the Grace which he had Mr. T. P. argues for the total and final fall of S [...]ints since the first fall. Correct Co­py, p. 65. who yet by Christ have received a grace of another nature, then e [...]er Adam had before his fall, as I have shewed, Corrept. Correct. p. 220.

Fourthly. They by consequence, must needs both over­turn all special or discriminating grace, as plainly as ever Mr. T. P. did, when he uttered those words, which out of a true [Page 37] Manuscript of his, I transcribed in my Corrept. Correct. p. 31. that when two are equally called, Which words he never borrowed from famous P. Moulin of France, but which possibly, he may have borrowed from Molina, the Jesuite, or from Lessius Lib. de grat. [...]fficat. Quod ex duebus si­militer vocatis alter oblatam Gratiam ac­c [...]ptet, alter re­spuat, rectè di­ci potest, ex So­la liber ate pro­venite: non quod is qui ac­ceptat sold li­bertate suâ ac­ceptet sed quia ex sola liberta­te illud dis­crimen oritur. Ex Lib. de praedest & Repr [...]bat. [...]uod hic sequatur & perseveret, Causa vera ac propria est liber as arbitri [...] au [...]ilio div [...]no inst [...]uct [...]. whereof the one converts himself, the other miscarries, 'tis not God, but man that puts the difference. Now that Mr. T. P. is as deeply guilty as e [...]er any Massilian was of su [...]pending all the operations of grace upon the mot [...]ons and Elect [...]ons of mans free w [...]ll, let no [...] my Collections but his own Signal words scattered up and down in his Sin­ner impleaded, determine p. 250. God indeed doth perswade us to what is good (and that very strongly) but so as to leave it to our election p. 257. When we are working according to Gods Impul­sions, we have the liberty to work against them, p. 296. he doth most clearly teach us what the force is of that praeven [...]ent sub­sequent exciting special Grace, which in words he doth to extoll, p. 83. when as he tells us, that by the first helps of Grace, we can desire him if we will. By vertue of the second▪ we can obey him if we will. And by vertue of the third, if we will we can persevere in him. And what jumps just with that of the Pelagians, whose Maxim it was, Aug. L [...]b. 5. Contra Pelag. Cap. ultim, Hominem sufficere ingenitis sibi motibus da­re leges. 297. All the Courtesie (if I may so call it) which God requires at our hands, is that we w [...]ll open, when he knocks, &c. 297. § 7. Our vertue is almost as natural to us as our passion. 298. Our task is no harder then to chuse the good. And goodness (we know) is the proper object of our Appe­tite, p. 364. Though it is wholly from him, that we are able to go to him, yet he expects we should be willing that he should make us kind So the M [...]ssilians H [...]la [...]. Epist. ad Aug. Ad hoc tantum libe [...]a [...] ass [...]ebant voluntatem ut vellet aut noll [...]t admittere medicinam. Qui in Ara [...] sic [...]ná Synodo Anath mate percussi sunt Conc. Arausic. c. 4. Si quis ut à peccato purgemur, voluntatem no­stram D [...]um expectare contendit, & resist [...]t ipsi Spiritui sancto. The true Grace of J [...]sus Christ is quite of another strain. Prosper Carmen. deing atis., p. 365. And to wind up all in his own words, This is just such a Grace as C. J [...]se­nius obbraids the worst of J [...]suites, which C. Jans [...]n. Tom. 3. p. 108. negare non possant cam esse talem, juxta sententiam suam, quam Deus relinquat in libero voluntatis arb [...]r [...]o: quam per liber [...]m arb [...]trium deferere possit: esse adjutorium, quod ille [...]ui datur deserat cum v [...]l [...]t, & in [...]o permane [...]t si v [...]l [...]t: quo sit ut habeat homo justitiam si velit, sed si velit etiam deser [...]t [...]r qu [...]d pos­sit perman [...]re si velit &c.

[Page 38] Ibid. p. 365. Gods love constraineth us indeed (as S. Paul speaks) but with so easie a violence, that without our willingness to draw, all his drawing will do no good. He doth not physically, but only morally constrain us, so as to leave us the use of all our facult [...]es; and more especially, of our wills. I may then, I think, be safely allowed to conclude, that there is an Identity of Opinions be­twixt Mr. T. P. and the Massilians: and withall, it will be most fitting, that Christian Readers should learn from C. Jan­senius, that stupendious defender of true Christian Grace, (un­to whom my self, nay the whole Christian World, I believe even so long as there will be a World, will be beholding for the greatest and stateliest Monument that ever was written against Pelagianism) how pernicious Massilian Doctrine is; for then, as he infers well, Si arbitri­um hominis post lapsum ita liberum est, ut cum primi ho­minis et Ange­lorum stantium Auxilio sine quo non posset adhuc Credere, sperare, facere mandata, et per­s [...]verare, si velit & non Deus in ipso per Auxi­lium quo ope­retur ut velit in quascun (que) sese facies verterit, L [...]ssius, Nolina, Vasquez, & quotquot ista opinione praeoccupati sunt, nunquam efficient quin invictè Augustinus illaturus sit, Ergo Liberi arbitrii vires integrae sunt; Ergo contra Arausicanum Liberum arbitrium non est amissum; ergo pec­catum originale non violavit Libertatem; Ergo non est peccatum originale, quia per illud solum natura humana universim labefactata est; ergo Christus gratis mortuus est, quia per naturam est est Justitia: Ergo non est mortuus, ergo non est incarnatus. Ecce quò nos ducat Catena illa per­ditionis, ex quocun que Dogmate Pelagiano, vel extremâ [...]c tenui fibrâ dogmatis religetur. C. Jansen. in suo Pa [...]allelo Tom. 3. p. 1111. Liberty of will is not lost, Ergo, Original sin hath not violated Liberty: Ergo, there is no origi­nall sin; for by that alone, humane nature is universally debilita­ted; Ergo, Christ died in vain, for righteousness is by nature: Ergo, he died not; Ergo, he is not inearnated. Behold, whither the Chain of perd [...]tion, by what small fiber soever of any kind of Pelagian Doctrine it be but tied, drawes! And as Doctor Taylor, man may suspect but too high in Mr. T. P's. Books) hath al­ready swallowed most of the former sequels in his Book a­gainst Original sin; even so I may fear, that at last they may both swallow the latter sequel too. The Lord be merciful unto them.

§. 3. The same Objections.

As for the Identity of the same Objections against the Or­thodox, Reverend, and Learned Doctor Reynolds, hath in his [Page 39] Learned Letter said very much to this (unto which I remit him): this also hath been abundantly cleared by my self, as up and down my whole Corrept. So by way of answer to his Deca­chorde of Arguments, Corrept. [...]rom p. 156. & inde. So that it will not be needful to draw over the same Saw again: for else it would be most easie to prove▪ that his object [...]ng of Sto­ical fate, Faustus Rheg. Lib. 1. Inter gratiae vocabulum ab­sconditum est fa [...]ale decre­tum. of Man [...]chaisme, Prosper ad Ruffin. Tantae pietatis viro (viz. Augu­stino) pagano­rum & Mani­chaeorum ad­scribitur impietas. Coaction, or insorcing of the will Faustus Augustinum in­teremptorem Liberi Arbitrii, quia in alterutram partem omnia ex praedestinatione statuta & de­finita esse pronuntiat. Lib. 1. c. 4., making God the Authour of sin Quod haec sit volunt as Dei quod magna pars Christiano­rum Salva esse nec velit nec possit, object. 12. Gallor. Quod velit Deus, ut magna pars Christiano­rum à fide apostaret., maintain­ing, that he makes men only to damn them Object. Vincent. apud Prosperum Quod Deus Majorem partem generis humani ad hoc creet, ut illam perdat in aeternum. ▪ of blunting the edge of all Ministerial Christian Exhortations and Cor­rept. August. Lib. de dono persev. c. 15. Ne­minem inquiunt posse correptionis stimulis excitari, si dicatur, Ita se habet de praedestinatione de­finita sententia. of making men listless in the practise of holy duties, Removeri industriam, tollique virtutes, si Dei consti ut [...]o humanas prae­veniat voluntates, Prosper ad Aug. of driving men either to despair or p [...]aesumption Faust. Lib. 1. c. 11. Illustres vi [...]i per quietem, & so­cordiam coronantur., of ob­jecting Fathers, whether Latin or Greek who lived before Au­stin Faust. Lib 1. de Lib. Arbitrio. Quis non d [...]speret q [...]e [...] prasini [...]io violenta damnavit, obstinationem suam vetustate d [...]fendunt. Prosper. ad Aug., and so before the Controversies were up: I say, but for the avoiding of needless Repetitions, it were easie volu­minously to prove, that all his Objections against us, are fetched out of Massilian Armouries, before Mr. T. P. was a­ble to say any thing, for, or against Praedestination.

This being thus dispatched, I trust he will not put me up­on any task, of proving his Arminianism, which any body who having read Mr. T. P's. Book, and who hath but heard any thing of the Quinq-Articularian Controversie, will easily do with­out my help, and be able to tell him, that by the like scornful Jeare, by which he labours to lessen his Arminian Guilt, Chap. 1. p. 12. when he saith, The vulgar sort do take Arminius to have been some foul Monster, though they never yet learnt whether that Monster were fish or flesh, or front what part of Africa the thing was brought, any man might be inabled to [Page 40] put off the foulest Crimes which they can be convinced of. The vulgar have as little acquaintance with Ebjon, Cerinthus, Arrius, or with Socinus Vorstius, of late, as with Arminius, and ergo belike it may be lawful for any proud wanton wits, to vent their Doctrines among them.

§. 3. His ridiculous shifts.

3ly. I proceed to the third thing mentioned, to his ridicu­lous shifts, for avoiding of the charge of Pelagianism, and Massilianism, Arminianism. Ridiculous shifts did I say? I said true, but I mean to his crafty Insinuations, to his more Intelli­gent Proselytes, of what he most cordially likes and evidenceth by his so idle a dislike, which he testifies in his seeming leav­ing of them.

First, pro forma, (for the avoiding of clamours which might disturb his Cryptick Interest) he powres forth some hug-words, some very hard words against them, when p. 8. he saith, I might as well have called him (a Presbyterian, or a Qua­ker, an Anabaptist, or a Witch) as either a whole, or a half Pela­gian. Quid verba audiam facta cum videam? It is hard by words to sence off deeds.

Secondly, p. 10. he gives us a large account of the Anti­dotes which he took against Pelagianism, &c. errors as he saith, which he never had so much as any inclination to, nor so much perchance as his fore-father Adam had without sin, and before sin, unto all sin, Phil. Chap. 4. 24. out of the Canons of the great Council of Carthage, Prosper ad Demetraden, the Arau­s [...]can Canons which if any body will but be pleased to peruse after him, especially those of the Arausican Synod, as they are verbatim set down by J. Latius. Lib. 2. de Semi-Pelagianis. Cap. 12. it will be easie for him to perceive how much Mr. T. P. did read without heeding, and how sick the man is still of Pe­lagianism and Semi-Pelagianism, notwithstanding all the brags of his Sanity.

Thirdly, He highly commends all the three parties which he forsooth recedes from I. Pelagius, p. 9. for being Orthodox as to the main, he meanes as to the Articles of the Apostles Creed; And yet if Pelagius his Doctrines may but be judged of, by [Page 41] those fragments and Transcripts of his Writings which are re­presented to us by Hieronym. or by Austin, never was Mr. T. P's. dear Saint Socrates, St. Hierocles, and a number more (whom he may do well to remember, he defended once a­gainst me and some others at Dayntree, at dinner, to be Sainted in Heaven) more substantial Heathens then Pelagius was, in the first [...] (if he will allow me so to English it) the first face and publick representation of his Doctrine De his, vi­de fuse, J. Lat. lib. de Pelag..

2. The Semi-Pelagians, or Massilians he commends, p. 9. Ibid. for being men of admirable life, and of such Authority in the Church, for their sanctity of life, that very few durst contradict them. And who I trow will be so simple, as to think that Mr. T. P. in the repute of many so like them, will in any material matters, recede from them? It were not fit we should be so uncharitable.

3. J [...]cobus Arminius is counted fit to be preferred above Mr. Calvin, for admiring of soft Melanchthon: he is to him the famous professor of Divinity in the University of Leyden, in nothing culpable but for being (as he thinks) a Presbyterian in the matter of D [...]sc [...]pline, but else so farr excelling the Divines of that Sect, in exactness of Learning as well as life, that we may say, he became Melancthon's Convert.

Belike all the lustre of Learning and true sanctity in L. Da­naeus, in both the Trelcatio's, in Fr. Junius, Gomarus, his prede­cessors in that Chair, were all but mere [...]immerical darkness, when compared with the superexcellent rad [...]ancy of I. Arminius Cui par est nihil, est nih [...]l secundum. Dii immortales (ait ille) homo homini quid interest?

Thir [...]ly, He spends full nine pages, from p. 8. to 17. to prove me to be with him like some Simeon or Levi, guilty of Pelagianism, Massilianism, Arminianism.

Answ. And yet first in none of all his many trim Arguments doth he prove any thing against me, or any that hold with me, that looks that way; only he huddles up together a great many common things which I may seem to hold in common with them, which no wise man ever accounted to be Pelagi­an, Massilian, or Arminian; were the things which I did, and have since objected against him, no neerer to Pelagianism, &c. Let him believe that some folks have eyes to distinguish be­twixt things that differ.

3. Suppose he had proved me never so guilty, well might that have evinced me to have been an unfit person to object these Crimes to him.

Turpe est Doctori, &c. but how would my concurrence with him in these evils, have proved him an innocent, unless he would Poe [...]ically have concluded it by a Solamen miseris socios habuisse fideles.

4. But if any yet will after all his Arguments, think me a whit the more accessory to Pelagianism▪ &c. I will promise that man, that I will pray for him; but he shall have my ho­nest word for it, that I will never dispute against him.

5. Because among 16. Arguments from p. 12. to 17. he posts up two in the fore-front, as prety ones as any are in all his pack, it is not amisse to bestow a little Corrept. Correct. up­on them, and then to give the ingenuous Reader leave to be­stow as much more upon all the rest of their like, as they do deserve, p. 12. then he saith, First, That J. Arminius, was plainly a Presbyterian, and so is Mr. Barlee so am not I.

Answ. 1. Arminius was so very a Presbyterian, over the left shoulder, as they say, as that principally by his means, not only many Presbyters were put down, but even Presbyte­rion ipsum, the Presbytery it self was for many years together clapped under hatches, and by Proclamation of his great ru­ling hoogh mogend [...], it was become at least scandalum magna­tum, so much as to mention the names of the Deputies of Sy­nod, Classes, or Consistories About this, see at large, praefat. ad Synod. Dordracen..

2. Unless with a wild fry of a Company of frantick Secta­ries, he will conclude Presbyterians and Pontificians to be Bre­thren; it is well known, that among his Disciples, with [Page 43] whom he durst be bold, he would call Belg: de Paus syne broeder, the Pope his Brother Guil. vam. Roggen in Libr. Belgico., and I never yet heard of Presbyterian, who cryed Brother Pope; bu [...] I know more of them, who cry out upon the Pope. Ibid. p. 12. Next he taught and believed▪ that the [...] doth justifie, so I suppose doth Mr. Barlee, so do not I.

Answ. 1. He might have supposed the quite contrary of me, i [...] he would but have read my words, which I set down to the contrary, Corrept. Correct. p. 20.

2. He is not so Orthodox as Arminius ordinarily was thought to be; for M [...]. T. P. requires works, as we [...]l as faith, to Justification Sinner im­pleaded, p. 332, 333, &c..

Fourthly, Whilest for declining of Envy, he would ever and anon [...]eem highly to value St. Austins W [...]itings; yet to any intelligent Reader, he doth as manifes [...]ly deba [...]e them, as almost any Pelagian, or Massilian could do, and that more waye [...] then one.

First, W [...]i [...]est as I have shewed at large already, Corrept. Correct. p. 126. Correct. Copy. p. 28. 127. & [...]. he would have some shadow of Reason from his H. Grotius, to be preferred above the Judgement of several Oecumenical Councils the former judg­ing him most unfit to umpire in the Pelag [...]an Controversies: the other judging him, among mere men, [...]ince the Apostles, most fitting.

Secondly, Whilest trumpeting out the same Grotius his prayses, p. 28. calling him the wonder of this age; hi [...] magnum ingenium indeed hath p [...]oved a Prod [...]g [...]um to the Church. Uti ol [...]m Origenis ingenium fuit Ecclesiae Sacramentum. Much more of the next for his profoundness of Judgement as well as Learn­ing, he tells us, that Austins Writings a [...]e not reconc [...]leable to himself: and yet Mr. T. P. may by this time know, that that stupendiously indust [...]ious, C. Jansenius Ep [...]sc. Sprensis hath so fully done that in no lesse then thr [...]e great Volumes; but es­pecially in his second and third, as that no body need, or will henceforward question the facility of this, but obstinate Je­suitical Re [...]ractories.

Thirdly, there is nothing so familiar with Mr. T. P. as to retract Austins Retractations, and to maintain, that his first [Page 44] Writings are to be preferred above his latter, that about the matters in debate betwixt him and the Pelagians, he and they must be judged by the Fathers before him, who all, as I have told him, say little or nothing, and could say as little as may be in these matters Pbil. 76. 78. &c. p. 10. &c. alibi.. Ante Pelagium exortum seourius loque­bantur Patres.

Fourthly, To an Objection of mine set down in my Cor­rept. Correct. p. 186. of his mistaking of Pelagius his words, which he had set down instead of Austins, Correct Copy, p. 44. and against which saying, Austin disputes in no lesse then a whole Chapter, and beyond it, he Answers not a wise word, but passeth it wholly over in silence.

Fifthly, Phil. p. 8. he delivers it peremptorily, that St. Austin was a Bishop, when he wrote to Simplician.

Answ. 1. Bellarmine, as great an Antiquary as Mr. T. P. deli­vers the contrary, viz. that he wrote to him whilest he was a Novice, Lib. 2. de grat. & Lib. Arbitr [...]o Cap. 15. S. August. cum scripsit Libros ad Simplicianum adhuc juvenis erat neque multa invenerat in hac difficillima quaestione, quae postea majori diligen­tia investigavit.

2. Austin speaking of this Writing himself, saith indeed, that it was wrote initio Episcopatus sui; but withall, he saith, that it was done, antequam Pelagiana haeresis appareret; indeed in the beginning of his Ep [...]scopacy, but before the apparition of the Pelagian Heresie August. de bono persever. Cap. 21..

3. Let it have been wrote when it will, there is nothing so manifest, but that as I have proved Corrept. Correct. p. 186. and could do, if need were, by many more proofs, Austin hath re­tracted several places of what he wrote, ad Simplicianum. But so much the fitter for Mr. T. P's. palate, who learns out of Austin, ordine retrogrado, by going backwards.

§. 4.

After all this, is any body likely to be moved by what he sets down, Chap. 3. Phil. 83? where he sets the best legg for­ward, in commendation of special Grace: A trick, which for any thing I know to the contrary, he may have learned from the often-named Dogmatical Predecessors of his, whose way it was ever to give Grace good words, when they were any thing hard put to it by t [...]eir adversaries; See Cor­rept. Correct. p. 38. Hil. ad August se a­bominari & damnari te­stabantur Mas­silienses, si quis quic­quam virium in aliquo remansisse, quoad sanitatem progredi posset, existimaret. for else, who that hath read any of his other Writings, or what he hath up and down in this, p. 19. p. 22. &c. especially p. 19. & 22. can without infatuation believe, that there is any more agreement betwixt the s [...]eming good words which he gives here, and the real bad meanings which he doth express else­where, then there is betwixt Harp and Harrow?

First, Here we have Jesus Christ, and all other Graces in Him, all given by God, by a certain, absolute gracious Decree: all if we may believe him, and can understand things not to be understood, sallying out of the Conditional Decree of Predesti­nation, founded upon praescience of what we should believe, or disbelieve, pract [...]se or leave unpractised; but this is nothing, but to peak Daggers, and desperate Contradictions. The true opening of this grand Mystery any way looking towards a re­conciliation of these otherwise irreconcileables, is that he must say with his Brethren the J. Armin. Exposit. on Rom. 9. Acta Synod. Remonstrant. Artic. 1. Deus constitu­ere voluit Mediatorem, qui pro peccatoribus omnibus moreretur & sic Jus acquireret ad salutem & vitam c [...]rta lege isdem conferrendi. Decrevit Deus; ut omnes illi qui in illum Redemptorem crederent, & credentes ad finem perseverarent, servarentur; alii veró damnarentur. Arminians, either first, that Gods decree of giving Jesus Christ, and all other graces in him was absolute, because it was by vertue of his Counsel and Will a­lone, upon what Conditions, whether of legall obedience, or of Evangelical faith and obedience, he would bestow all Graces. [Page 46] Or 2ly, rather, as Mr. T. P. in a true genuine manuscript of his expresseth himself, Gods Decree is absolute, because p. 6. of the Ms. He chose us to be all visible members of his Church, by an absolute Election, he absolutely and of free Grace, called us to the means of salvation. I will leave it to any good Christian Conscience to judge, whether that deserve to be called an ab­solute certain gracious Decree, whereby the means of Grace are indeed made certain, &c. but the Grace to be obtained by those means is left uncertain; for so he saith in the very next words of that M. S. he chose few of those visible members to be mystical members of his Church by conditional Election.

Secondly, Here we have (as he saith) pleading for special Grace, properly Grace, because gratu [...]tous and free, &c. where­as elsewhere, as, we have abundantly seen,

First, all is suspended upon the motions of mans free will. That must be the Concausa, the social cause with [...]race, if not as in true reckoning it will be found to be at last, the Primum mobile, the first mover, p. 19. It is the liberty of the Will, and the Cooperation of Grace, as the Sword of God and Gideon.

2. Elsewhere, as at large he di [...]putes it out Sinner im­pleaded p. 251. &c. If it did not lie in the believers power to live like an Infidel, (wh [...]ch we find by daily and sad expe­rience) and in the power of an Infidel (by the assistance of Grace) to turn bel [...]ever; the f [...]rmer could not be punished for Apost [...]cy, nor the latter for obduration., and as by his quoting here of Math. 13. 12. habenti dabitur, according to his and the Arminian way of understanding that noted Scripture; all this free special Grace depends upon m [...]ns good husbanding of his Talent, which all [...]en have received, by re­c [...]iving of their natures; for so do both they, and the Mas­silians explain this matter Prosper excerpt. à Gensen. Ideo ipsos fidem ad Deum retulisse, quia ab ipsa sit creata natura, cui rationabilem inserui [...] voluntatem, per quam unusquisque & credere & non credere in sua habeat potestate. Sic Massil. in Epist. Hi­lar. ad August. Nec de hac fide posse dici: quid habes quod non accepisti! Cum in eadem natura remanserit licet vitiata, quae prius sana ac perfecta donata sit. Et in alio ibid. Loco: Conse­quens put ant exhibendam ab co fidem, cujus natura id voluntate Conditoris conc [...]ssum est.. It is with them for [...]ooth, spe­ciall Grace, gratuitous &c. for the first, God freely bestowes a power on nature, to obtain Grace when it will Prosper excerpt. à Gensen. Ideo ipsos fidem ad Deum retulisse, quia ab ipsa sit creata natura, cui rationabilem inserui [...] voluntatem, per quam unusquisque & credere & non credere in sua habeat potestate. Sic Massil. in Epist. Hi­lar. ad August. Nec de hac fide posse dici: quid habes quod non accepisti! Cum in eadem natura remanserit licet vitiata, quae prius sana ac perfecta donata sit. Et in alio ibid. Loco: Conse­quens put ant exhibendam ab co fidem, cujus natura id voluntate Conditoris conc [...]ssum est..

2. For that God since the fall, did either leave in, or put i [...]to all mens natures, certain powers of complying with grace, when that should but gently mo [...]e, stir up, and breathe upon those powers Prosper excerpt. à Gensen. Ideo ipsos fidem ad Deum retulisse, quia ab ipsa sit creata natura, cui rationabilem inserui [...] voluntatem, per quam unusquisque & credere & non credere in sua habeat potestate. Sic Massil. in Epist. Hi­lar. ad August. Nec de hac fide posse dici: quid habes quod non accepisti! Cum in eadem natura remanserit licet vitiata, quae prius sana ac perfecta donata sit. Et in alio ibid. Loco: Conse­quens put ant exhibendam ab co fidem, cujus natura id voluntate Conditoris conc [...]ssum est..

§. 2. He must not think to evade these palpable crossing shins, which himself, either first by saying, that it is God that makes the difference, as well as God that chooseth, and this he re­peats often; for 1. Besides that it is unintelligible, and unex­plicable how that Decree should give us our difference of being in Christ, &c. which supposeth the difference of being in Christ, persevering in Faith, and all Grace to the end, &c. be ore the Decree of Election be made, Phil. p. 7. Correct. Copy. p. 69.

2. He in Congruity to his principles hitherto held out, will not be able to understand it, but that God makes the difference, not by vertue of Gods giving that gift of grace, but by vertue of our receiving of it. And then it is not he, but we, that make the difference, though by some power given un­to us by him.

Or else secondly, by speaking against me, something more chubbidly, that it doth argue a strange shortness of discourse, if Mr. B. doth mean, that because Mr. T. P. doth maintain an u­niversality of Grace, that therefore he doth maintain an Equality: whereas he should know, that gradus non variat speciem, More or lesse, will never be able to alter the kind of Grace. If the Elect for kind and substance receive no other Grace, than the Reprobates, (as C. Jansen. In paral­lelo ad Tom. 3. Pulsâ istâ gratiá quan­tumcunque magna in voluntate, nunquam in aeternum sequetur actio voluntatis, nisi voluntas ultrò ei det manus, atque ad agendum se determinando velit. Ips [...] igitur non gratia est illa causa quae facit. facere, &c. Sed quae potentiam voluntatis ex actu primo in secundum extrahendo, ex non agente agentem facit. Gratia vero instar habitus accomodando sese nutui voluntatis, instar pedissequae, sine quâ non fieret, imperatricem suam sequitur. Itaque quemad modum si qui [...] calamo aureo scribat nequaquam auro vel calamo; sed scriptoris voluntati scriptio attribui debet: ita, si quis per talem Gratiam credit sperat aut diligit, non tali Gratiae, sed voluntatis nutui tribui debent, &c. plura saepe alibi in eandem sententiam. had well observed) let the degrees thereof, have as vast a di [...]proportion, as one hath to a thou­sand, yet it will never appear to be the special discriminating Grace of Christ.

§. 3. And all this before he is well aware of it, Mr. T. P. upon the place, or very near it, doth unwarily grant us, Ita sorex prodit se proprio indicio.

First, Whilest that speaking of perseverance, a special Grace indeed, if he had but the right notion of it, he saith of it, that it is a special Grace of perseverance to every one that doth continue and abide to the end; which is most true, but nothing to the purpose of special Grace, because it will hold true of a­ny body as well as of the Elect, if he do but persevere.

Secondly, Whilest p. 48. §. 23. he saith, that he cannot in­dure to be of their leven, who do arrogate a Saviour wholly, and only to themselves, no body advised him to that degree of supercilious arrogance; but if he would but acknowledge, that by vertue of a peculiar gracious Decree, and by vertue of the Collation of some peculiar Graces, which can only be had from the sufferings of Christ for the Elect alone, they did re­ceive such Graces, as none besides themselves do, or can do by vertue of their free wills; all that dispute about special Grace would be at an end, which else doth, and must remain. And to shut up all this Discourse is it possible for any body to be­lieve, that if Mr. T. P's. notions of special Grace, were any thing Orthodox, and sound he could or would so wholly op­pose those who do agree in the same notions vvith him, and who do as much as himself oppose all force and Coact [...]on of the will properly so called, as working on it as upon a block, or a brute Engine? as I am sure that my self do, and all my vene­rable Masters, with whom he upbraids me.

§. 3.

§. 3. To what he hath for the proving of himself to be a genuine Son of the Church of England, in his Sect. 4. from p. 17. to 21.

Answ. for the proving of this, he holds on in his wonted course; for first, to all that which I had produced from the Articles of the Church of England, to the current received Expo­sitions of her chief Doctors, &c. Set down by me Corrept. Correct. p. 18. & 93, 94, &c. he returns nothing but a [Page 49] jeere, viz. p. 10. l. 7, 8. that I am emboldened with the suffrage of such as are of my opinions, (or rather, of such whose opinions I am of.) Well! let him take it which way he will, I am sure, 1. They were no mean, or obscure names in the Reformed Church of England, no uncertain [...] but men of the greatest Eccles. 12. 11. renown in the Congregation, very Masters of the Assembly. 2. By whom, when I gather suffrages for my opinion, should I be emboldened, but by men who are of my opinion? should I prove it by men who are against me? p. 17, 18, 20. He be­spatters, al [...]às slanders his own Mothers Sons, his Brethren; yea many of them old enough, and wise enough to be his Fathers; for their being no members of the Church of Eng­land: and that because forsooth, they have turned from the Rituals of our Mother Church, and that just at such a time, when as by men of renown, when a storm was up, they were justly thrown over-board, as Commodities, which ever since the Reformation were by some of her severer Sons Travers, Cart wright, Brightman, Parker, Ames, &c., yea Fa­thers too, Bishop El­mar, Bishop Cowper, Arch-B [...]shop Grindal, Dr. Hum­phrey, &c. as I could show, (if need) were accounted pro­prio nomine noxiae, and by most of her wise and mildest ones, were at best but reputed to be tolerabiles ineptias, All the men of Mr. Sprints Cassan­drian way. See his Eng­lish Cassander. Dr. Burges his Plea for Cere­monies, &c. tolerable fopperies, to use Calvin's Epistold quadam ad Ducem Sommer set. Protect. Regis Edvardi 6. (f) phrase about them.

Thirdly, He huddles up a Company of Authorities, p. 19. taken from the Catechism, publick Liturgy, and several Arti­cles, among the 39. Articles of the Church, &c. but he showeth not how they make for him, but leaves it only for every man to collect it as he can; and this he doth only upon the credit of one, and but one Dr. Overall (who before in the chief point, upon which all turns hath been proved to make against him) and of one Mr. Playfer his Analysis of the seventeenth Article, and of an odd kind of writing, which Chap. 3. 96, 97. he calls an Hist. Narration of the judgment of the most learned and godly English Bishops, holy Martyrs, and others.

Unto all which it may serve turn in short, to say, first, that the 4. Articles, the 2d, 7th, 15th, and 31. which he produ­ceth for Universal Redemption, speak nothing at all for it, in the sense wherein he maintains it. The phrase of Christs dy­ing for all the sins of the whole world, which is dropped once and but once, Artic. 31. will never evince this, as hath been shewed already (f) and shall be shewed more hereafter.

2. The 10th Article which he quotes for the Liberty of the wills Co-operation with Grace, he understanding it, as we have heard out of him, as he doth, of the wills Co-operation with Grace, before the Grace of Regeneration received, it makes as much for him, as that which is directly against him. The Ar­ticle saith, We have no power to do good works, pleasant and ac­ceptable to God, without the Grace of God preventing us, that we may have a good will, and working with us, when N. 6. not before we have this good will. The 16th Article being, as it is plain, made against the old Novatians, or Catharists, and the then Anabaptists, who revived their errors, which was, that a Child of God after Grace received, could not fall into any enormous sin, it makes nothing at all for that final and totall Apostacy of Saints, which he maintains Phil. Chap. 4. p. 13.; for the Article as it is for the falls of Saints, so it pleads too in the next words for their rising again, by the Grace of God, we may rise again, and amend our lives.

2. If he would have a more elaborate and particular An­swer to these trifling Objections, he may do well to fetch it from Reverend Dr. Twisse in his Confutation of Dr. Jacksons vani­ties, who there doth it profoundly and soundly, as well as very merrily and facetiously Discovery of Dr. Jacksons Vanities, p. 507. per totum ferme Cap. 15..

Horat. Omne pulit punctum qui miscuit utile dulci.

3. If Mr. Playfer by his accura [...]e Analysis should attempt out of the 17th Article to extract Mr. T. Ps. conditional E­lection, founded on praescience of faith and perseverance, which by that Article, are plain enough made gracious conse­quents and fruits of Election, and not antecedent conditions to it, I should dare (and so will many more with me) to call that his Analysis not an accurate Analysis or Resolution of the 17th Article, but rather a professed Dialysis or dissolution and dissipation of that Article.

4. As for the Historical Narration which he talks of;

1. If my memory fail not many years agoe, I remember to have read an Arminian piece under that Title.

But 2. By what Mr. T. P. relates out of him, p. 97. about Pe­lagius his Opinion, it seems to have been drawn up by some sorry Goose-qu [...]l, who was altogether a stranger to Pelagius his [Page 51] opinions, which in the point of Ʋniversal Redemption, was just the same with his own, and of that of Mr. T. P's. as hath already been proved in this Book, and else-where Corrept. Correct. p. 131. in margin. ex Fausto Rhegin. Lib. 1. de grat. & Lib. arbitrio..

4. But once at last to put it past all doubt, that he belongs to any Church, rather then to the Church of England, I shall once for all leave it to the free debates, and Resolutions of all true hearted Protestants, whether Fathers or Sons in the Church of England, or of any other true Reformed Protestant Catholique in all Christendom, in the [...]ear of God, to determine to what Church he belongs? who first professeth to dislike the Doctrines of Martin Lu­ther, Zuinglius, p. 19. & p. 13. John Calvin, &c. when as no sort of Protestants oppose them all three: and when as it is well known, they were all three with great applause, magni­fied by all the Arch Bishops, which ever our English Church had Vide Cran­meri Epistolas ad Calvin. Ed­mundi Grin­dalliad Bezam. Jac. Lectii de­dicat. operum Dist. Sadeclis Archiepisc. Whitegifto, &c., unless it were by the very last of all; nay, when for the very Doctrines which T. P. opposeth, they gained a great Testimony from those without, I mean from the better sort of the Church of Rome, in the very Councel of Trent, though these Doctrines of theirs were much opposed by the sordid flattering Claw backs of the Court of Rome Histor. Concil. Trident. Lat. Edit. Fran­cofurt. Anno 1621. agens de praedestinati­one absolutâ ex sententia Zuingliano­rum. Prior certè sententia (viz. in Praede­stinatione & Reprobatione nullas esse partes hominis sed, solius divinae voluntatis) magnum com­plexa Mysterium & arcanum, mentem hominis humiliabat, atque hinc, deformitatem peccati, illinc gratiae Divinae excellentiam intuentem, abjectâ protinus sui fiduciâ in Deò planè defige­bat. Altera vero magis plausibilis, popularis, speciosa, & augendo mentis humanae fastui accom­modatior, hocipso & gratior erat fratribus artem potiu [...] praedicandi, quam accuratam Theologiae professionem semper professis; & Aulicis (N. 6.) probabilior videbatur, quippe consentanea rati­onibus politici [...]; habuit quoque Episcopos Bito [...]inensem & Salpensem satis acres propugnatores. Ac profectò, qui eam p [...]opugnabant, quod rationibus merè humanis niterentur, aliàs plus pote­rant: ubi vero ad Scripturae Testimonia ventum, causâ facile cadebant.

2. Who inveighs against Protestants, Papist-like vide D. Morton. nostrum Episc. Dunelmens. Antidoto advers. Eccles. Rom, de merito proprie dicto p. cap. 20. p. 206. 207. & p. 211, compared with Sinner Impleaded, p. 332. &c., un­der the name of Solifidians, for maintaining Justification by faith in Christ alone, though withall he knowes, that they main­tain faith justifying not to be a dead, but a living faith.

3. Who (as we have seen) slights the Articles of Lambeth, the Articles of the Church of Ireland, which both were drawn up, by as known, and as able Fathers of the Church of England, as since the Reformation it was ever yet graced with.

4. Who goes about, whensoever he hath any occasion to mention the Articles of his pretended Mother-Church,

1. To put this notorious Gull and Cheat upon the Church, that in despite of all her publick Monuments to the contrary, well gathered together by the singular industry of learned Mr. Pryn, in his Anti-Arminianisme, she must (as we have seen) declare her self Pelagian, Massilian, and somewhat worse then Arminian, or she must be no longer a foster Mother to Mr. T. P.

2. He every where puts such senses upon her Articles, as none but a more than half Popish Montacute, or a full Popish D. Davenport, alias Francisc. de S. Clara, in his Glosses upon the 39. Articles, durst ever put upon them.

5. Who so behaves himself against his Brethren, who only differ from the old rites, which the Church not long since had, as from his wicked branding of them, to deserve himself to be branded, and marked with a very black Coal; and that by those who otherwise liked the Hierarchy, and the rites be­longing to it marvelously well, I might transcribe many of them, but at this time, I shall content my self, to cite only one noted one, who shall tell Mr. T. P. of his faults in La­t [...]ne, (a Language which he understands I am sure, marvelous well, though he will not allow me to do so, Phil. Chap. 3. p. 106.) I will not English these passages, because it may not be so proper, for all the people to see how Mr. T. P. is whipped, by Learned Rev. and witty Dr. Featly.

Sed non libenter audio Bolsecas quosdam Reformatos, Levar­dentios Anglicanos Spiritu Ignatiano debacchantes in Sacros Calvini manes, qui in hoc unico argumento facundi, neque concio­nari, [Page 53] nec dicture, nec scribere, nec jocari (Joculariter plerunque hac praestant omnia) aut quicquam possunt, nisi Calvinum lan­cinent, aut essingant sibi puritanum. Obsoletae jampridem sunt ista Jesuitarum naeniae & mimi apud eos exauctorati: vos autem locu­starum hoc virus lingere, & in Ecclesiam Dei evomere, prodire in templum, domum Dei vivi, tanquam in scenam, & Histrionum more scurram agere Jesuitam, sub personâ Ministri Dei, O Dementiam! O piaculum! Nemo sit apud nos aut tam in­eptus, ut in omnia Calvini verba jurare velit, neque tam ingra­tus ut dicere pudeat, quibus Magistris in Christo profecerit.

2. In his Pedo-Pastorali, seu Concione habita ad clerum Ox­oniae, 8th Aprilis, 1615.

§. 4. Fortiter & alacriter occurrite, ne ad horam quidem ce­dite, nulli liceat impunè per Calvini aut Bezae aut Anglo-gene­vensium, aut quorumcunque aliorum later a religionem quam profi­temur vulnerare, ne sit integrum cuiquam dente Theonino optimè Erasm. Adag. de Ecclesiâ & Academiâ meritorum famam arrodere: Coplas con­jungite, animos consociate, bonorum praesid a mun te, malorum sive infectorum sive suspectorum, sive profligatorum, & perd [...]to­rum conatus reprimite, cuniculos detegite, &c.

Idem Ibid.

Siccine res habet qui ex subrancidis Pontificiorum, aut Lutheranorum adversariis centonem possunt in Calvinum, Bezam, P. Martyrem, Piscatorem, aliosque Orthodoxos con­texere, ij soli Ambrosia alendi sunt; reliquos vero ex Aca­demia sive Doctores sive Pastores, suo in genere suspiciendos faenum esse oportet?

Idem Ibidem.

Postremum (malorum pastorum) genus est eorum qui oves Chri­sti pascunt, sed ci [...]o insalubri, quo magis in ficiantur quam refici­untur Christi oves agnique, corum d [...]co qui floribus & fructibus pa­radisi [Page 54] aut noxias Herbas admiscent, aut floribus Adonidis asper­gunt; Cujusmodi sunt ista dogmata, vires Liberi arbitrii ab A­dami lapsu ad bonum spirituale fractas ac debilitatas, non peni­tus profligatas, & amissas: labem originis nemini unquam frau­di fuisse; unumquemque enim scelus luere proprium, Gratiam novo faedere promissam, omnibus expositam esse, nec cuiquam un­quam defuisse nisi qui ei defuerit: imputatam Christi Justitiam absque inhaerente, non plus prodesse quam indusium candidum Ae­thiopi superinductum: Fiduciam salutis propriae à praesumptione parum aut nihil differre: Genevates & Presbyterianos infestiores Ecclesiae hostes [esse] quàm Pontificios.

And now let any say to what Church Mr. T. P. belongs.

§. 4.

§. 4. To what he hath up and down his §. 5. from p. 21. to 27. against my abusing of Scripture, for the proving of God to be the Fountain, or Cause of sin;

§. 1 Although I know my self throughout this his whole Book, no where to be more wretchedly and unconscionably, (against his own soul and Conscience) abused by him than within the compasse of the Pages cited within this Paragraph, which are as contrary to what I wrote, as any Reader may know (and as he should have known) who will but peruse what I wrote, Corrept. Correct. from p. 44. to 82.) as light is to darkness, and Heaven to Hell; yet because I must else-where throughly handle this matter, & I hope prove that whilest he doth oppo [...]e my pretended blasphemies, he doth fall upon most desperate real ones, which are next door to down-right A­theisme, I must beseech the Reader in this place, and for this time, to content himself, which observing these few things, which most wise men would go nigh to think to be enough to overthrow the Major part by farr, of all the rest of the things which upon this score he objects against me Phil. Cap. 3. & 4. and my Ma­sters and Oracles, as in scorn he calls them.

First, I no where say, either in express termes, or in any equipollent; hat God (as in his Margin, p. 21. he blusheth not to tell the World, my opinion to be) is the Fountain or Cause of sin: my opinion is so contrary to it, that I wish Miriades of [Page 55] Anathematisms to light upon him who holds it, be he who he will be, if he repent not the sooner.

Secondly, The only colourable ground of his not weak but wilful misrepresentation of me in this malicious fashion is, be­cause against my clear meaning and express words very often, he will needs believe, that I understand all those Scriptures, (which I quote Corrept. Correct. p. 56. and divers more, which D. Reynolds had quored in his Epistle, p. 5. in a meer literal sense: when as yet first in my Corrept. Correct. p. 69. 70. I had expresly told him, that that saying of mine, out of D. Ames, Sensus Scrip­turae est tantum unicus is (que) Grammaticus holds not alwayes, but only then, when the Letter is not plainly metaphorical, typi­cal, or contrary to other more plain places, and the clear A­nalogy of faith? And sure I take it to be against the two latter for to maintain God to be the Authour of sin, or (as he most maliciously and hatefully expresseth me) the Fountain or cause of sin.

2. It is plain to any who doth but list to take notice, how I explain the places formerly mentioned, whensoever I touch upon them, that I do not take the most of them in a mere Grammatical and literal sense; but in a figurative: for where­as God according to the Letter of many of those Texts, seems to be made a moral cause of sin as sin, I do every where make it eviden [...], that I do only believe God to be a natural Cause of the mere act of sin, Dominicus à Soto de Nat. & Grat. lib. 1. cap. 18. Quam­vis permulti sint quibus non sit explicatu facile, quo mo­do in odio Dei, quod internam habet & indivisam malignitatem, posset Deus causam esse enti­tatis, culpae vero non item, non tamen est ita intellectu difficile. In moralibus inquit ille pror­sus est verò, judicaturque, causa qui lege, ope, consilio, favore, vel persuasu movet quempiam, si­ve ad bonum sive ad malum: At que his modis & rationibus universos Deus movet ad bonum & honestum, neminem autem ad malum. without which it is impossible, that any sin can be committed) but that he is only a mere accidental Cause of the obliquity of the act of sin, wherein alone the for­mality of sin is consisting, and from whence alone sin's deno­mination ought to be taken.

Thirdly, I had just reason for bestowing some sound Cor­reptory Correction on him, and by many Arguments from Corrept. Correct. p. 84. to 86. [Page 56] to correct him for his receding too far from the li­teral sense of the fore-quoted Scriptures, whilest, as may be seen in his 14, 15, & 16. pages of his Correct Copy, and set down out of it, by me Corrept. Correct. p. 83. (unto all which he is as mute as a Fish) he will not have them to allow of God's so much as permitting sin, but in an equitable sense, and that is as it signifies, not to hinder by main force, and that he dis­poses and orders them to the best advantage. And yet never first, will he, or any body else, by the help of his Melancthon, and I cannot tell who besides, whom he mentions p. 26. be ever able to prove, that the Scripture-phrases of hardning of mens hearts, of giving them over to their own hearts lusts, of blinding their eyes, &c. as they are paenal acts of the Almighty, can by so soft interpretations be put off.

Secondly, Nothing hath been so usual to the men of his way, I mean the Arminians, as under colour of receding a little from the Letter of several Texts, which in Rom. 9. 11. 18. Phil. 2. 13. Heb. 8. 10. & 10. 16. and elsewhere, make a­gainst them, to overthrow all at once, both the Letter, and the true meaning of the Scriptures. And some reason I had, to be jealous of Mr. T. P. this way.

Fourthly, Though I have in many places of my Correptory already shewed (and shall be forced again else-where to do) in what sense I maintain God efficaciously to permit sin, viz. only in such a sense as renders God free from all guilt of sin, is no way destructive to sinful mans Liberty, when he sins, and so makes him the only Delinquent; yet I shall think it fitting, once for all in the margin, Thes. Sal­vian. de pro­videntiâ Dei in mal. pag. 186. Praeter nudam permissionem esse aliquam Dei efficaciam in perpetratione mali, contendunt alii, alii ne­gant acerrimè: Illine quid Divinâ providentiá subtrahant, aut eam in rerum humanarum procu­ratione negligentius versari dicant, quàm admirabilem Dei sapientiam decet; hinc Deo labem aliquam aspergant quasi esset auctor peccati: utrique metuentes ne in scopulum aliquem incur­rant. Certè uti natura Dei à peccato abhorret summoperè alienos nos esse ab eá sententia quae Deum peccati causam statuit, juxta oportet. Verum haud facilè quicquam Deo indignius dici potest, quàm ut vel conniventibus oculis omnia temerè ferri patiatur vel omnia inspectare dica­tur quidem, veruntamen brachiis quasi complicatis otiose torpere putetur, quasi eo sese abdicâ­rit imperio, quod in Crea­turarum rati­one praeditarum facultates obtinet à naturâ. Neque enim consentaneum est, ut imperium illud peccato Diaboli & hominum perdiderit, neque ut id amplius exercere non possit immunis à labe. Equidem non negaverim aliquibus in locis Scripturae Sacrae verba quae efficientiam Deo tribuere in eo genere videntur sic esse interpretanda, ut facere dicatur quod non impedit, quia solus id im­pedire potest; veluti cum indurare hominum cerda dicitur quia non emollit; ut Hebraicè vivifica­re dicitur is, qui non occidit: Quae est alicubi Augustini sententia. At ut taceamus negationem illam actionis, quâ sola indurationem impedire valuit, esse ab aliquo Justo Judicio, plurima loca sunt in quibus Scriptura magis emphaticè loquitur, quàm ut ad solam permissionem revo­cari possint. Scilicet cum Deus magnopere Iratus Davidi, fore denunciat, ut quod flagitium clanculum admisit, id in apertâ luce, adeoque in conspectu Solis, vindicet, putandumne est eum nihil aliud sibi velle, quàm ut Absalomi nesarios co [...]atus non reprimat, sinat (que) furere in­temperante [...] ▪ Aut cum Joseph negat alius quàm Dei ipsius operâ factum esse ut in Aegyptum de­scenderet, nihil ne significat, praeterquam, quod non impedivit quominus venderetur? Sonant sane illa verba aliquid amplius. Istud verò quod nihil neque Judaei neque Judas in proditione & crucifixione Christi f [...]cerunt, quam quod Dei confilium atque manus factum iri decreverat, non nisi admodum frigide & dilutè (& sic tamen T. P. p. 9. & alibi passim) de nuda permissione explicari potest. Aug. Lib. de praedestinat: & Gratiâ cap. 4. 2 Sam. 12. 11. Gen. 45. 8. Act. 4. 28. Huc accedit quod si Deus in eo genere efficit, vitari quidem non possit quin mala perpetrentur: haud enim aliter Creatura corrupta in peccatum ruit, quàm ut aqua sponte naturá fluit at (que) dilabitur. At nihil necesse erit hoc malum potius quàm illud acci­dere ubi nulla causa superior ac potentior erit, quae vel Diaboli vel ingenii humani motus na­turâ suâ vagos ad hoc vel illud inflectat: sic neque Deus quod ab aeterno decrevit certo dare poterit effectum, neque adeo rerum eventus satis certò prospicere, ut qui pendeant ex rebus quas non habeat in potestate. Quod natura Dei & Scripturae adversatur docenti Deum omnia [...]. Quorum verborum ea vis est modò ut significent, omnia quae Deus facit, fieri secundum propositum ipsius. Essetne hoc dignum quod ab Apostolo diceretur tanto conatu? sed etiam omnia quae fiunt fieri ab eo secundum idem propositum. Quod de consilio mere permissivo dici non potest. Ephes. 1. 11. Efficacitas tamen illa cujus modi sit à nemine mortalium vel plenè comprehenditur, vel verbis explicatur. Nec si quis in eo Argumento paulò durius aut inconsideratius locutus est dum modo non aliter de Deo quam de unico omnis boni authore & acerrimo mali vindice sentiat calumniandus est aut trahendus in invidiam. Itaque qui scimus quàm sit homo [...], facilè condonamus Bellarmino aliis (que) quòd dicunt Deum non torquere hominum men [...]es ad malum, incitare ad peccatum, aliaque ejusmodi: Qua aequitate si omnes uterentur uti par est, clari [...]viri non proscinderentur à plerisque ut solent illiberalibus convitiis, quasi Deus auctorem peccati fa­cerent, à quo scelere abhorruerunt, ut qui maximè. Bellar. citat. grat. l. 2. c. 3. to set down my sense in Dr. A­myrald his Latine, which my Adversary hath the more reason to value, because he quotes him, as if he were one of his party, [Page 57] Phil. p. 15. The sum of what he saith, is, that 2 Sam. 12. 11. Gen. 45. 8. Act. 4. 28. and Scriptures like to them, cannot be understood of a bare permission, that it is most Atheistical to make God a mere speculator of mens sins, and an involuntary p [...]rmission; to bespatter men with maintaining God to be the Authour of sin, because they cannot fully clear it to carnal reason, how God without sin, can voluntarily decree the per­mission and being of sin.

§. 2 p. 22.

§. 1. My sense is plainly this, that God sincerely doth de­sire the health and welfare of all Mankind, I mean their obe­dience, Repentance, renovation of life, perseverance in well doing in this present World, and glorification in the World to come; that he hateth nothing which he hath made; no­thing but sin which he hath not made, that when he com­mands he is sincerely willing to be obeyed, and therefore giveth a passive power to receive his grace, and by that an active power to perform such obedience as he will mercifully accept; but he forceth no man, necessitateth no man, by grace irresistible, to be eternally happy, do what he can to the con­trary, any more then he forceth, or necessitateth any man, by any irrespective unconditional Decree, to be eternally misera­ble, do what he can to be otherwise.

Answ. 3. Elsewhere, as viz. Correct Copy p. 6. 55, 56. Phi­lanthrop. 85. &c. Our Mr. T. P. walks in a Cloud all the while that he talks much of Grace, even of special Grace, and the workings thereof, by which good words and phrases, I fear he hath deceived not a few, haudaliter, as if he had kept very close Correspondence with the fellow, who said Modern Policy taken from Ma­chiavel, &c. (and proba­bly not without reason in that sense, that that wag speaks it) O the rich income and glorious result of Hypocrisie! This, this must be diligently studied and practised,

But now at last, all upon a sudden, (and I think truly, [...]here is a great and good providence in it) our good Authour speaks his sense plainly? and therefore I think there is all the rea­son in the World, we should very attentively give heed to what he saith. As for me, I think without the least wronging of him, I may make these following, 1. General, and then 2. Particular notes upon his fair and plain Text.

§. 2.

For the first, as all the Phrases which he produceth concer­ning Christs Redemption, must, according to him, be under­stood of all, and every rational humane Creature, that ever was, or shall be, nemine excepto, (Mr. T. P. in this case, at no hand likes of any exception) Nunquid, inquit Augustinus, per haec dona quae omnibus communia sunt hominibus, discernuntur ho­minos ab hominibus? minimè gentium. De praedest Sanctor. Lib. 5. Chap. 3. p. 84.) even so must all be here, of what he talks con­cerning Gods sincere desire of the health and welfare of all Mankind, as of their Repentance, obedience, &c. None must be excepted out of this All, and what is now become of his special Grace?

Secondly, It may not want some mystery, as plain as he would be thought there to be, which I suppose, may be un­folded by him, when he is disposed to be somewhat plainer than as yet he is, why he makes at all no mention of Gods willing mens Faith, as well as he doth of his willing their Obedience, Repentance, Renovation, &c. Is it because with the Socinians and others, he thinks there is no difference be­twixt faith, and the obedience thereof, so that they are very fit to be confounded together (b)?

Thirdly, If God sincerely will, or doth desire the obedience, (a) Confess. Remon­strant. Cap. 10. Thes. 1. & passim per tota ca­pitae. §. 12. &c. Repentance, glorification, &c. i. e. in a word, Grace and Glory, and all good things to all, I pray, what hath the Lord himself more to will, or more to give, by vertue of the special Grace, he speaks of p. 83. unto his Elect, and peculiar people? Can he wish them any more, or better things then Grace and Glo­ry? 1 Pet. 1. 3, 4, 5, &c. 2 Pet. 1. 4. 8, 10, 11.

Fourthly, If God doth desire all these good and great things sincerely to all promiscuously, doth he desire, that they should be bestowed upon them absolutely or conditionally? If absolutely, how comes all do not obey, repent, all be not renova­ted, or glorified; for who hath, or ever shall resist Gods will, or desire, Rom. 9. 19. Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he in Heaven and in Earth, in the Seas, and all deep places, Psal. 135. 6. [Page 60] and yet as neither fides est, omnium Faith belongs not to all; 2 Thes. 3. 2. so neither Obedience, Repentance, Renovation▪ &c. If only con­ditionally, 'pray, without the foulest Pelagian [...]sme, that e [...]er was spoken, upon what condition do we receive the first grace of Faith, Repentance, Renovation? Is it upon condition, that we believe, obey, repent, or improve our good talents, and possibili­ties well Corvinus contra Tibern. p. 442. Inter­num hoc auxi­lium tale est, ut sufficiens sit ad fidem & con­versionem in iis quibus Evan­gelium cl [...]rè p [...]aedicatur, nisi sibi ipsis desint, reipsa ef­ficiendam.?

Fifthly, Is not all the Grace and Glory that God wills to men here, made subject to the passive powers, and active powers, promiscuously given to all men, which are by no means, or in any sense irresistible, rather than that any grace of God in his Elect, doth subdue the will to it self, by subdu­ing all proud thoughts, and wicked Imaginations, which might lift up themselves against the obedience of Christ? 2 Cor. 10. 4.

§. 2. But a little more particularly, to paraphrase upon these words, which to use his own phrase just before them, are as full of mental Reservations, and other tricks, as they can hold, notwithstanding the profession which he makes of speaking of his plain sense, and as plain as his sense is to all discerning people Plaut. in Captivis. Doli­non doli sunt nisi astu colas. Sed malum maximum si id palam pervenit..

First, Then it is true, that God doth sincerely desire the health and welfare, &c. of all those of mankind, to whom he proposeth the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour, if by sincere de­sire it were enough for him to understand that God, without any the least fraud and caption, (which he and his party of­ten object against us) doth will, i. e. injoyn or command, that all to whom the Gospel is preached, should ex officio, believe, repent, be renovated, &c. that the preaching of the Gospel, is the only external apt means, for to bring men to Faith, Re­pentance, &c. Rom. 10. 17.

Secondly, That if they do so, they shall certainly be glo­rified, be they who they will be; and that God doth sincerely will i. e. approve, or like of this, when it is done, then God after a sort, may be said to desire, or will what he speaks of: But if by these phrases, he will needs understand no lesse, then what he must do, (if he will oppose the sense of his Adversa­ries) [Page 61] that God doth sincerely desire, i. e. that God hath really purposed or decreed, to work these Graces in all men, to the utmost that is in his power for to do, let him get some strong Pelagians with him to believe it See Corrept. Correct. Deus vult quantum est in se.: we poor Orthodox peop [...]e, hope never to give any credit to it: who cannot pos­sibly, understand, how God can be said sincerely to desire i. e. to decree, or appoint the Obedience, Repentance, &c. of all, or of any of those, unto whom he doth not so much as in a mini­sterial way, reveal the mysteries of salvation, spoken of 1 Tim. 3. 16. which yet now are absolutely necessary distinctly to be believed, Psal. 19. & 147.

2. To such as Pharaoh, whose heart he hardened, 3. To such as totally and finally be delivers up to believe lies, that they may be damned, 2 Thes. 2. 10. 11. 4. To all such as he leaves only to the use of their free wills, under sufficient meanes of grace and salvation, without giving them that efficacious grace which he and his Arminians with him, do sometimes talk of, under the notion of Congruous grace, working at critical times and seasons; and without which, God knowes, that not a man of them shall ever be saved, or converted Dr. Twiss. may well ask him Lib. 1. vindic. p. 210. Quo Colore offirmari potest, Deum habere desiderium aliquod ejus salvandi, cui se non daturum Gratiam efficacem quâ crederet, ab aeterno decrevit?.

2. It is as true in some sense, what he saith next, That God hateth nothing which he hath made, nothing but sin which he hath not made, if he would understand it only so, that God hareth nothing of what he made for that very reason, becaus he made it, or as he made it; for so all things were very good, Gen. 1. 26. Eccles. 7. 29. but if his meaning be, that God doth not hate some of the persons which he hath made, viz. so far as never to have resolved to bestow saving grace, or glory up­on them, which he resolved to bestow upon some others: he first, contradicts the Apostle Paul, as directly as any man can, Rom. 9. 13. 18.

Secondly, If that would but hold true, which afterwards he doth strenuously plead for, that sin, as sin, hath not only a deficient, but also Philan. 1 Chap. 3. p. 112, 113; &c. an efficient cause, and so must needs be some positive entity, then either God must needs hate some­thing of what he made, or else there must be a world of positive entities, i. e. of true Creatures, which God never was the Crea­tor, or maker of.

Thirdly, He saith, That God giveth a passive power to receive his Grace, and by that an active power, to perform such obedience as he will mercifully accept.

First, By this he cannot mean such a remote passive power, (which none of his Adversaries deny) by which every reaso­nable humane Creature, even since the fall, is eo nomine, be­cause it is reasonable capable of Grace and Glory, so long as he is a viator upon Earth, if God of his rich and free mercy be pleased to bestow them upon him, Prosper ad object. 6. Vincent. Hoc inter malos homines distat & daemones, quod hominibus etiam valdè malis super sit, si Deus misereatur, reconciliatio; daemonibus autem nulla est in aeternum servata conversio, this would imply no contradiction at all, but by what he saith of the active power, to perform such obedience, as God will accept, it is plain, as well as from divers places of his other works mentioned before, that he doth understand such a Proclivity, to the accep­ting of grace, to be put into every mans nature; by vertue whereof, he is inabled, whensoever he wills, and listeth, and whensoever he is but by common Ministerial Grace, or the like, excited thereunto, to perform acceptable obedience, and so to procure special Grace for himself.

Secondly, If he were but ripe for the expressing of his mind fully to the World, by acceptable obedience, he would tell us, that he doth not at all understand any imputed obedi­ence, or righteousness of Jesus Christ, but only a certain Evan­gelical inhaerent, though lame righteousness of our own Corrept. Correct. p. 159.; and this may fairly be collected from his scoffs against Solifi­dians.

Fourthly, For what he closeth his opinion with, against compulsion, necessitation, irresistible Grace.

First, He keeps but in the beaten old Road of his Masters Sinner Im­pleaded, 332. 333. the Pelagians, and Semi-pelagians Aug. Lib. 1. ad Bonif. c. 18. Hominem Dei opus defendi­mus; de se lo­quuntur Pela­giani nec ex illius potentia vel in malum vel in bonum invitum ali­quem cogi: sed prepria voluntate aut bonum facere aut malum. Has ipsas Querelas, de labe­factata per tractum Dei Libertate Pelagiani ingeminant, quando sub adversantium nomine sibi dicit Augustin. Tract. 29. in Johan Quid hic dicimus fratres? Si trahimur ad Christum, ergo inviti credimus; ergo violentia adhibetur, non voluntas excitatur, &c. Idem Lib. 2. ad Boni­fac. c. 5. sub nomine Gratiae ita fatum asserunt Catholici ut dicant, quia nisi invito & re­luctanti homini inspir averit boni & ipsius imperfecti cupiditatem, nec à malo declinare nec bo­num posset accipere., to whom nothing was so usual, as to fill their mouthes with such Objections as these, against the Orthodox.

Secondly, By the Phrases of compelling, inforcing, &c. it is manifest, that he understands all those efficacious Victo­rious all Conquering works of Grace, by which the will is in respect of Gods gracious Decree, Certainly, and in that sense necessarily, determinated to will, and to do according to Gods good will and pleasure, Phil. 2. 13. 1 Tim. 1. Corrept. Correct. p. 215, 216, 217, &c.

§. 6. p. 23.

When God revealeth his great unwillingness that men should sin, they say it is but a sign that men ought not to sin, whereas his se­cret will (which alone is properly his will, is, saith Dr. Twisse) that men should sin of necessity, do what they can to the contrary, which is as much as to say, (that voluntas signi, is but signum vo­luntatis, non voluntas ex parte rei, nay worse,) that voluntas sig­ni, is but the will of not willing what he willeth, and of willing what he willeth not with his secret will.

Answ. 1. All this wild discourse, which he repeats, I can­not tell how often, is but built upon that notorious and long since exploded false principle, that nothing can be necessary, in respect of Gods Decree, and yet be contingent, and vo [...]unta [...]y too, in respect of mans will, and of his way of acting what he doth, be it good or evill. The falsehood of which apprehensi­on, [Page 64] both Scripture P. 164. Mat. 18. 7. Luk. 17. 1. 1 Cor. 11. 19. and his Melancthon (whom he so high­ly magnifies Phil. Chap. 1. p. 14. Chy­traeus refert. Lib. de vit. ae­terna. Tit. de corpore Christi Glorioso. Phi­lippum Me­lanchthonem saepe retulisse haec verba, De­mus Deum ali­quid posse, quod nos fateamur, investigar non posse, sicut de inextricabili Quaestione fati & contingen­tiae, Praecepto­rem nostrum Philippum Me­lanchthonem memini saepe sui Praecepto­ris Francisci Stadiani Doc­toris Philoso­phiaein Scholâ Tabingensi sermonem recitare, qui utrum (que) se scire dixerat Deum omnia praesci­re & determinare, & tamen esse contingentiam; sed quomodo haec concilianda essent, ut cuili­bet contentioso satisfaceret, non pror sus prospicere might easily have convinced him of.

2. I wonder what Gods great unwillingness that men ought not to sin, when expressed in a vehement prohibition of sin, should signifie any more than that it is mens duty not to sin, or that they ought not to sin? If he can tell me what a bare pro­hibition is apt to signifie more, or is ordinarily appointed to signifie more

Thirdly, I wil most willingly leave to any judicious Christian soul, to determine then, that when the will of Gods Decree, which refers to what shall, de facto, fall out, or come to passe, is compared with the will of Gods Praecept or Proh [...]bition, which refers to what men de Jure, of right and ex officio, of duty ought to do, or to leave undone, whether the first will of God, in this Comparative sense, and in this only, be not much more properly to be called his will, then the latter is A thing which even that great Armi­nian Arn. Corvinus was forced to grant. Anton. Walaeus contra Corvin. Cap. 4. P. 140. De­cretum Dei vocari [...] voluntatem Dei, legem vero minus proprie ipsè quoque certo respectu concedis: nempè quia decretum est ipsissima voluntatis Dei interna & ultima determinatio, Lex vero ejus potius effectus & documentum, &c.; for else I am sure, Dr. Twisse is no where against calling Gods praeceptive will his will, and that in a proper sense, though not in so full a sense, as the will of Gods Decree is to be reputed, and called, his will. Let him be heard speaking for himself in plain English, in his Book against Dr. Tilenus Synod of Dort and Arles, p. 54.

We say, even Gods Commandement notes the will of God also in proper speech, to wit, what shall be our duty to do; for undoubtedly, whatsoever God commands us, it is his will in [Page 65] proper speech, that it shall be our duty to do it. But by the will of God in distinction from that will which is signified by his Commandement, we understand his purpose to have this, or that, to be brought to passe, &c.

Fourthly, none but a man of so crackt a Conscience, as he in all his Writings, but especially in this his last Book, hath discovered himself to be, would or durst have said, that according to Dr. Twisse, men should sin of necessity, do what they can to the contrary: when as all who have but (to use his own Phrase) tipped into any of Dr. Twisse his Writings, can tell with me, that perchance five hundred times over, in several parts of his Books, he teacheth us, that as Gods will is to all things, which fall out necessarily, the Fountain and Ori­ginal of all that necessity; so that very same will and Decree of God is in like sort, the Fountain and Original of all conti­gency, voluntariness, or liberty in things which are acted by the free will of the Creature, Dr. Twisse Lib. 2. p. 40. Col. 2. Saepissimè has profert Sententias. Damus Deum esse causam particularem uniusucujus (que) actû; Damus esse agens libe­rum, etiam om­nis Libertatis fontem, quippe quòd non modo necessaria fi [...]nt necessariò, sed & contingentia omnia contingenter eveniant, ejus voluntatis efficaciae tribuen dum censemus cum Aquinate. how often saith he, that voluntas non potest cogi, ne à Deo quidem ipso, that the will neither is, nor can be compelled to good or evill, no not by God himself, and that because such compulsion would imply a contra­diction?

Fifthly, As hard a Catachresis as in his tender and delicate eares, it may be for Dr. Twisse to say, that voluntas signi is not properly Gods will, yet it is nothing near so hard a Catachresis, as that is of Arminius (d), of himself, and all his faction, or to maintain, Phil. Chap. 1. 21. that God really and sincerely de­sires the eternal welfare of all sinners, and yet intends to deny to a world of them, that efficacious Grace without which the Lord knowes it to be impossible, that any should be converted or saved Let him in many places learn this from Dr. Twisse. Lib. 1. P. 224. &c. Passim. A [...]minius ipse fatetur, Deum statuisse certo decreto quibusdam fidem & paenitentiam non dare, quos ta­men negare non potest à Deo per praedicationem Evangelicam ad fidem & resipiscentiam instigari, quare Deus insimulandius erit hypocrise [...]s, ex ipsius sententia aeque atque ex nostra. Idem Ibid Quare quanquam Gratiam credendi efficacem tribuere recuset Deus, tamen speciem d [...]sideran­tis habet, ut crederent homines sine omni simula [...]ione, juxta Arminium..

Sixthly, If he would have been any thing valiant, he should not so often like an Adder in the way, Gen. 49. 17. be nibling at the heels of this useful distinction of voluntas signi, praecepti, &c. and of voluntas Decreti, beneplaciti, &c. but he should, if he could have done it, have broken the head of it, which yet it still lifts up, in Dr. Twisse his Writings, in Mr. Whitefields Epist. p. 2. 3, 4, &c. Corrept. Cor­rect. p. 76. p. 151, 152, 153, &c., and in divers places of the Corrept. Cor­rect. Si quis corripit ne pereat, cur non orripiat nec plùs pereat▪ Aug. de Corrept. & grat..

Seventhly and lastly, unless any man whilest he is upon the face of the Earth, could for certain be able to say, and make it good, that he were absolutely reprobated, I wonder, with what sense he can be able to say, that Gods preceptive will, or his voluntas signi, is but Gods will of his not willing, when as yet suppose a man could be certain of his Reprobation, as a Child of God may be of his Election; yet even to such a one, Gods praeceptive will would signifie these things;

First, That it is his duty to believe and repent.

Secondly, That God would like of his so doing, if he do it.

Thirdly, That if he do but Gods will in some measure, whilest he is here, his torments even in Hell shall be the fewer.

§. 2. As for the rest which followes in this Chap. 4. a­bout my abuse of Scripture, it first hath, as to any thing that may seem difficult in it, been answered already.

Secondly, He might well have cryed out upon me, for abu­sing of Scripture, if I should have so fowly and absurdly misin­terpreted any Scriptures, as he doth two most noted ones, that of Act. 2. 2. with 4. 27, 28. that other of 2 Sam. 12. 7. 8. Of the former he is not ashamed to say Sinner Impleaded, p. 258, 259. that God determined the thing (viz. the crucifying of Christ) should be done, but not that they should do it: whereas first the words of the Text are [Page 67] expresly, that they by wicked hands did crucifie and slay Christ, according to the determinate Counsel and foreknow­ledge of God; And if we would know who those they were, who so did take and kill, and crucifie Christ? The Text, Acts 4. 27, 28. answers as punctually as any thing can be. Of a truth, against thy holy Child Jesus, both 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

Secondly, His interpretation is directly against that of St. Austins Judas electus est ad fundendum sanguinem Christi. August. Lib. des Corrept. & Grat. Illos debe­mus electos intelligere per misericor­diam, illum per judicium.

Thirdly, Were it true, it could not at all serve his turn for the clearing of God from being the Authour of sin; for if that which is notoriously false, but which he every where supposed to be true, were indeed so, that God cannot in any sense be said to decree, or to will sin, but he becomes the Au­thour of sin, the Lord (according to his way of reasoning) would become so by whomsoever, or whensoever God should have determined the Crucifixion of Christ to be effected by the naughty wills of men; for good they could not be, who would offer to slay the Prince of life. About the second, he is bold to say, Philanth. p. 48. Chap. 4. that it were much better to think, that David erred in his Conjecture, then to speak irreverently, or indecently of God Almighty. As if first he had proved, that David, who at that time, was in as meek, sound, and calm a temter, as ever he was in, in all his life, had spoken irreverently, or indecently, in what he said, or at that time of God Almighty.

Secondly, as if David in cold blood, would afterwards have injoyned his Son Solomon, to way-lay Shimeis life, and that only for delivering an unpleasing Message to David which, he had as much warrant for, as Samuel (they be his own words) had done before him.

Thirdly, As if his sapless senseless subitane Comments on this Scripture, were to be preferred above St. Austins, and above the stream of all sorts of Interpreters. Mr. T. P's. [...] had not yet obtained that credit in the Church.

§. 7. A short Answer to his whole Chapter 2. from p. 37. to 53.

To all this Master-rowl, or Catalogue of Scurrilities, or Calumnies, as he ad libitum, termes my expressions Phil. 4 5., which he scrapes together from several parts of my Book, more need not to be said, but what hath been said already, only beyond what is exactly needful, ex super abundanti, it may not be amisse.

First, To entreat the ingenuous Reader, that he would but be pleased to turn to my Correptory Correct, according to the direction which Mr. T. P. affords him, and then with me he will be easily able to observe, that divers of the expressions which here he represents, and Tragically exagitates, are,

• 1. Either not by me spoken at all, but forged by himself to make me odious.
• 2. Or not so spoken, as he makes shew of.
• 3. Or as fitly spoken, as any thing could well be, against such an adversary as he is.
• 4. Or allayed with Reasons, discovering the necessity of the harshest expressions.
• 5. Or at utmost requiring but few Grains of allowance, to make them passable. It was Ergo, not fulness of matter, but want of it, which makes him raise all the dust he doth in this Chapter.

Secondly, It may not be amisse to request, even himself seriously to consider, what his expressions against me have bin both in his Letters, and in this latter signal publique writing; and then if at least he hath any thing of front or Candor left him, he will acknowledge, that if in the ebullitions of my Passions and Expressions suitable unto them, I have any where exceeded against him, he hath quit scores with me, and return­ed me like for like, may he say, so as to say,

Nay, He should acknowledge, that he hath so far out­stripped me as the most artificial and Elegant scold ever did the most pewling Smatterer in a Tongue-Combate. Laureâ tu dignus!

§. 8. An Answer to any thing that is Dogmatically material in his 3d Chapter to his Sect. 6. p. 61.

§. 1. THat I make God to be worse than the Devil himself, p. 10. quoting my 24. page, where he knowes as well as I, that there are no such words in all my page.

2. That what I say of Gods being [...] is only infer­red from that Doctrine which I resist, and he defendeth.

Answ. 1. I do not say absolutely, that he saith so, but that upon supposition of an absolute Decree, (which elsewhere, I prove, must needs be so Correp [...]. Correct. 139, 140, 141., he is not ashamed so to speak, both in his p. 24. and in his p. 41. & 13. Correct Copy: and that he thus speaks by way of inference, he dares not here deny.

Second [...]y, He takes no notice of what I have divers times told him P. 64. 70. p. 72. 182. &c., that whilest he makes no proofs, that either in Terminis, his Adversaries do speak thus, or that by any lawful Consequences, they must speak thus, These blasphemous speeches are rather his, who utters them, than his Adversaries, who ab­horr the thoughts of them more than he doth.

1. In what a lamentable case is my Declamator, if he be now observed to say, p. 115. That punishment must needs be decreed before the permission of sin. And p. 87, That God is the determi­ner, not only of all things and actions, but of their several modali­ties too, &c.

Answ. 1. If any body will but be pleased to turn to the words of my Corrept. p. 115. 116. He will there find that, with Dr. Twisse, I do conclude the Decrees of Gods per­mitting of sin, and of his damning for sin, not to be subordinate, but coordinate, insomuch, as that I say, no rational Creature, either noble, or ignoble, did ever in time suffer so much, as to the cutting of his finger, but for sin; nor did God ever entertain any thoughts that he should suffer for any thing else.

Secondly, it may be in the same place as plainly seen that what I speak of punishments, being decreed before the permission of sin, is only spoken by way of opposition to the [...] in Divinity, with which, p. 23. of his Correct Copy, he had made himself so merry, and upon the supposition of some that dam­nation of the Creature, is the supreme end of Gods intention, which upon the place I dispute against.

3. If any body will but yield to what I say, p. 86. & 87. (and if he yield not to it, & to the Authority by which I back it in the Margin, he is worse than distracted) that God 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, then he will not shew himself a lamentable Declamator (it were pitty so egregious an Orator, as himself is known to be, should so sowly stumble) but, which is worse, he will prove himself to be a most woful Calumniator, whilest he would in­sinuate, that by holding this principle, I must needs maintain God to be the Author of sin, whereas any learned and sober Reader will easily conclude, that I must needs maintain the contrary, viz. that if God determined modalities, as well as things, that then he did determine, that sin should be by him permitted to fall out by the contingent voluntary sinful will of the Creature, but not at all by the sinful will of the Creator.

§. 9. To his §. 2. p. 56. which I had almost forgotten.

That I allow no other will to God, then a Hypothetical one, p. 4. yet he knowes on the contrary, that he neither doth, nor can show any one passage in my notes, where I deny, that God Almighty hath as well an absolute, as a conditional will.

Answ. First, I spake that only by the by in that place, and therefore no great matter should have been made of it.

2. By any understanding man, I must needs be understood to speak it in reference to the Decrees of Election and Reproba­tion, which every body knowes, that ever hath read him, he maintains only to be conditional, and not at all to be absolute, so that if here, or as again he doth Chap. 4. p. 2. he should talk of never so many absolute Decrees of God, yet every body would see that he doth vagari extra oleas, speak nothing to the main purpose.

3. It is most observable, that where he speaks most distinct­ly, about Gods absolute Decrees, as he doth Philanth. Chap. 4. p. 2. he sets not down any one absolute Decree, by which the Lord determined to give Faith or Repentance unto any; but that he is absolute in this that he will proceed by the Rule of rewarding, if we will obey, and of punishing if we will not.

4. By what he doth, even in this Section, refer us unto in Correct Copy, p. 49. & p. 52. and by what he disputes up and down about Gods antecedent and consequent will, there is no­thing so plain, but that Gods absolute will, which he and his Ar­minians with him call his Consequent will, is grounded upon his Hypothetical; and, so if a man could tell how to be­lieve it, his will is but hypothetically absolute.

5. Chap. 4. p. 2. He grants Gods Decree of Creation to have been absolute; but he will no where grant, God, when he de­creed to create Man to have resolved, for what end he would make him. God and Nature use to make nothing in vain; but according to this mans goodly Divinity, God de­creed to make one of the chiefest of his Creatures, before he had resolved upon the Cui bone. He is ex­tremely angry with Calvin, Correct Copy, p. 24. for having said, that God foreknew, what end man should have, before he made him, [Page 72] and d [...]d therefore foreknow it, because by his decree he had so ordained it. The words which Mr. T. P. finds fault with, are these, Lib. 3. Instit. Cap. 23. §. 7. Decretum quidem horribile fateor, infieiari tamen nemo potest, quin praesciverit Deus quem exitum esset habiturus homo, antequam ipsum conderet; & ideo praesciverat, quia De­creto suo sic ordinaverat.

§. 10. To his 9th Section, p. 62, 63.

§. 1. That (in my seventy page) I give out Faith and Infide­lity to be the causes of Election and Reprobation, p. 15. Still my amazement growes more and more, that any man, even in print, should speak so clearly against his knowledge, and con­tradict his own eyes, and the eyes of as many, as ever have or shall read me; for there is not any such word in all that page, which he citeth, or in any other which he citeth not. In the page which he citeth, I say, that Christ is the means, the me­ritorious cause, and head of our Election, &c.

Answ. Doubtless, our Authour is frequently disposed to pretend amazement at my doings, and yet, without all perad­venture, when he never shakes, or shivers at all.

He doth it without once changing colour; for else 1. when I did but say, that he gives out Faith, and I might rather have said, good works of all sorts, to be the cause of Election (for them in all his writings, he rather delights to name than Faith) he could have had no reason of complaining. I specified not what kind of causes he took them to be, I only said, he took them to be causes. And I trow, he will grant me, that Causa sine qua non, or conditio sine qua non, which even, p. 39. whilest he disputes against me, he grants Faith and good works, to be of Election; are in their kind to be reputed Causes.

2. Whilest in the very next lines to the words, which I have transcribed, he doth out of §. 55. of his Correct Copy, quote it, that good works are required as a necessary condition, though very unworthy to be the cause of our Election.

3. I will leave it to understanding Readers to judge, whe­ther this necessary condition which here he talks of, amount not to somewhat more then a bare antecedent, or a mere Cau­sa sine qua non? The rather, because in other places, he calls it the important co [...]tion, without which, Election can­not be had. Nay, that which p. 70. of his Correct Copy, (the very page which I had quoted against him) makes the diffe­rence betwixt the Elect and Reprobate, and that because (as there he speaks, as well as elsewhere) those, who are in Christ by faith, are better then those, who are out of Christ by infidelity, who therefore are chosen, when as others are left: yea, that, without which it would be unjust for God to elect any man, Correct Copy, p. 71. Justification precedeth Election, because no man is elected, unless he differ from him that is rejected. p. 69. Correct Copy, whatsoever is justly decreed, may be justly executed, as it is decreed. If he decreed to save any without regard, or respect of their being such, he might actually save them without respect to their being such So that [...]e needed not so thrasonically to have boasted of his logical skill against me, (whom he looks upon, and represents p. 63. as a meer ignaro in these matters) to distinguish p. 63. betwixt the Cause propter quam res est, for which a thing is; and the necessary condition, (sine quâ non est) without which it is not; whilest in his own mentioned ex­pressions, he doth sufficiently confound them.

3. Though he do very often times gull us, as p. 70. Correct Copy, Philanthrop. Chap. p. 80. with good words, that God makes the difference, and crowns his own gifts in us, &c. yet how will it be possible for him to put any good sense upon these words, who every where teacheth, that these previous dis­positions are precedent to Election, that we are not cho [...]en to Faith and good works, and perseverance in them, but that we are by Gods choosing, foreseen to have them? He likewise main­tains Correct Copy, p. 69. That God no otherwise executes his Decrees, then he made them: and ergo, if in our first and eter­nal Election there were respect had to our faith, good works, [Page 74] and perseverance in them, then su [...]e, when in time he doth call us effectually, Rom. 8. 28. (which most Divines use to call our temporal Election, from 1 Cor. 1. 26, 27.) he doth in like sort chu [...]e us for our Faith, good works, perseverance, &c. and all this sure will make them to be somewhat more then Causa sine qua non, or conditio sine qua non, even such things as being performed according to what the Judge requires, do move his will to bestow Election as a reward upon us, as I have told him, that one of his dear Remonstrants speaks Nic. Gre­vinchov. contra Ames p. 24. Contendo natu­rae legum ac conditionum praescriptarum omninó conveniens esse, ut voluntas Judicis à conditione postulatâ & praestitâ moveatur ad praemium. Just as the Massilians of old, Prosper in Resp. ad 8. du­bium Genuens. Ipsa Electorum Praedestinatio non est nisi retributio. Et evidenter, Faustus. Lib. 2. Cap. 3. Praescientia gerenda praenoscit, post modum praedestinatio retribuenda praescribit. Illa praevidet merita; haec praeordinat praemia: praescientia ad potentiam, praedestinatio ad ju­stitiam pertinet. Philanthr. p. 66. Reprobation is said to be an act of Justice, and good works, &c. are the important condition, without which Election will not be had..

4ly. Who that observes how often in the Correct Copy, and elsewhere, Mr. T. P. doth consound the Decree of Election, with the Decree of Salvation, will believe that Mr. T. P. makes Faith and obedience, &c. only to be necessary pr [...]cedents unto life and Salvation, and that he doth not also take them to be Causes of Salvation, if not directly meritorious; yet in some more then ordinary way, procuring and causing Salvation? Mind the drift of his Discourse, against the Solifidians, Sinner Impleaded, from p. 332. to 337.

5ly. If he will maintain, that there is any the least Analogy betwixt his Doctrines of Election and Reprobation, then as eve­ry where he maintains sin to be the meritorious Cause of Re­probation, what reason hath he to deny that Faith and obedience are the meritorious Causes of Election, which is opposite to Reprobation?

6ly. Who can believe, that all in haste Mr. T. P. will in heart differ, whatsoever in words he may seem to do, from what he doth (after his fashion) most solemnly quote out of Prosper, Austin, Melancthon Phil. Chap. 3. p. 77 Saints whom for his own turn [Page 75] he will elsewhere, be thought to adore, who (as he saith) did all agree, That Gods Predestination was accord [...]ng to foreknow­ledge, so as he made some Vessels of honour, and some of dishonour, even for this cause, because he foresaw their several ends, of what wills they would be, and what would be their actions, under the assistance and help of grace? Mark, that Prosper in these words, speaks neither his own, or Austins sense, but that of the Massilians, or Semi-Pelagians. Is there any thing in the genius of any of Mr. T. P's. singular Doctrines, which should move him to enter a dissent from these say­ings?

§. 2. As for what he adds of Christs being the means, and the meritorious cause of our Election.

Answ. There might be some reason to take some more then ordinary notice of it,

1. If he had made it his business, as well to have proved it, as after Arminius and others, to have dictated it.

2. If he would have thought it worth the while, to have confuted any of Dr. Twisse his large Discourses against it, unto which I had about it, referred him in my Corrept. Correct. p. 227. D. Twiss vindic. Lib. de electione. Digress. 1. & 2da &c. à p. 151. ad 178.

3. If it were not apparently absurd to talk of means of E­lection, Election being by vertue of one entire absolute eter­nal Decree of God, which comprehends in it, both end and meanes.

4. Were it not so, that Jesus Christ himself, considered as Mediator, were not himself predestinated, and elected to be the head of the Elect, and so no Elector, or means of Election, Rom. 3. 25.

§. 3. p. 64. 1. 11, 12. I had never so little Logick as to say, that any thing in man (which is the Object) could be the cause of Gods Decree, but that man is the cause of his sin, and of his punish­ment.

Answ. 1. Why then hath he hitherto every where so fiercely pleaded for conditional Decrees of Reprobation, grounded on, or at least occasioned by sin, as the conditio sine qua non, the ne­cessary, [Page 76] the important condition, which in this case is tantamount' with a cause of the Decree.

2. Why did he but just now tell us, p. 63. That Christ is the meritorious cause of Election, and what is Election, but Gods eternal, internal immanent Decree, appointing some to obtain grace and glory.

3. Doth he not know, that if he were candid in this ac­knowledgement, that then all Disputes betwixt him and the men he contends against, would be ended? who none of them all doubt; but sin is the cause of the Execution of the Decree of Reprobation though it be not the cause of the Decree it self? that Man is the cause of his sin, and of his punishment too, as here he himself doth speak? That though Christ be not the meritorious cause of Election, yet he is the meritorious cause of Salvation, and of all those spiritual blessings which we are chosen, or elected to? Dr. Ames no Arminian sure, cites this out of Bellar­mine, with approbation, save that he saith, Tollantur merita, & nihil erit reprehensione dignum in hac distinctione prout à Bell usurpatur. Ames Anti-Synod. Dordrac. Cap. 1. p. 15. Bellarmin's distinction in de Grat. et Lib. Arbitr. Lib. 2. Cap. 14. Electio aeterna duobus modis considerari potest, uno modo ut est intentio dandi gloriam, alie modo ut est dispositio executionis, & quasi exequutio in mente divina. Nam priori modo, Electio est mere gratuita, & nullam praerequirit praevisionem operum bonorum: Posteriori modo, praeexigit praevisionem meritorum. Non enim vitam aeternam sub ratione praemii, Deus dare disposuit, nisi eis quos bene operaturos esse praevidit. Gloria in genere causae finalis prior est bouis operibus, in genere autem causae effisientis, priora sunt bona Opera quàm Gloria.

4. Need he once more be shewed how that by this saying, he hath given his Correct Copy, and now this pretty Philanthropy of his, a fair fall upon their backs, Corrept. Correct. p. 144 145. The force of truth is often such, as that it wrings a Confession from its otherwise most stubborn opposers.

§. 8. 64.

§. 3. In his p. 121. he saith, he knowes not any one, either of the ancient or modern Orthodox Writers, who will not readily yield, that God did not absolutely decree the Repro­bation positive [Page 77] of any Creature; but upon praescience, and supposition of wilful Rebellion, and impenitence, I will now take him at his word he is as perfect an Arminian, as I have e­ver heard speak, or else he confesseth he is not Orthodox. In these few words, he hath ruined himself and his cause, for ever, unless he will say, that he is my Convert, and the best of his Book a long impertinence, he cannot escape by any service, &c. Mr. T. P. goes on tryumphing over me, more or lesse, to p. 68.

Answ. 1. It hath used to be said, that Lapsus linguae non est error mentis; the trip of a mans tongue is no error of his mind. Claudius that dull and lasie Emperor, catched not more at flies, then this Gentleman doth at unwary syllables; yet he hath not so much as discovered, wherein the stumbles or trip­pings of my Phrases lye. By what I do in that very, p. 121. op­po [...]e in him▪ which did confound Reprobation and damnation, and much more, by what Corrept. Correct. p. 113. and else­where, I had distinctly set down my meaning, was sufficiently expressed, viz. that considering two things in Gods De­crees,

First, actum volentis Dei, the act of Gods Decree, or the intention in it self considered.

Secondly, rem decretam, the thing decreed, or the will to execute that Decree, that the former is not grounded upon Praescience of any wilful Rebellion, but that the latter is, of which alone, as is plain, I speak in my Text, p. 121. and my meaning is much the same with that which, but just now, I ex­pressed out of Ames, and Bellarmine.

2. If the saying of this can make me as very an Arminian, as ever he heard speak, I dare be bold to say, that as great Anti­Arminians as ever I heard of, or ever set pen to paper, have spoken as much. I shall not need at large, to quote Doctor Davenant, Dr. Walaeus, Dr. Rivet, Dr. Walaeus Contra Corvin. in Quarto, p. 30. & 152. Bishop Davn. Animadvers. p. 42, 43, & 111. imò pas­sim. A. Rivet Disputat. quintâ de Reprobatione Thes. 8, 9. &c. Paulus Ferius a professed Supra­lapsarian. Schol Orth. Cap. 28. Voluit quidem Deus non bealificare Judam, sine ullo respectu peccati, tamen non habuit voluntatem infligendi poenam, nisi propter peccata, quae in eo prae­vidit. nay, all the Sublapsari­ans, [Page 78] who speak full out as high as this comes to, and yet never commenced Arminian Doctors; but let me only, in the Mar­gin, refer him to multitudes of places, out of Dr. Twisse Doctor Twisse. vin­d [...]c. Lib. 1. p. 100. Cer­tissimum est nobis Deum decrevisse, ut non nisi nolentes, atque impii perderentur: verum & hoc subjungimus, hinc tantum sequi impietatem causam esse perditionis, non autem decreti sive constitu­tionis divinae. In eandem sententiam saepissime, p. 332. Col. 2. Lib. 2. p. 11. col. 2. Epist. Dedic. ad Reg. Bohem. p. 4. Lib. 1. 83. 99. and I dare be bold to say, in a 100. places more, &c., and for the behoof of the English Reader, I shall transcribe some few signal passages out of Dr. Twisse, in his Answer to the Synod of Dort and Arles, reduced to practise: And very hard it will be for Mr. T. P. to prove Dr. Twisse to be an Armi­nian; and yet to his sayings, he must consent, if he will not prove himself to say, that any thing in man which is the Object, can be the cause of Gods Decree, p. 64.

Dr. Twisse Synod of Dort and Arles, p. 10, 11.

God did decree to damn no man, but for sin, is the unani­mous consent of all our Divines, &c. And accordingly, Tile­nus himself, when he was on our side, took exception against Arminius, his stating the Decree of Predestination and Re­probation, according to our Opinion, to proceed, citra omnem considerationem resipiscentiae & sidei in illis, ant impentitentiae & in­fidelitatis in hisce, i. e. without all consideration of Repentance and Faith in those, or of impenitence and infidelity in these. And this, that Rev. Dr. further proves, p. 11. out of Piscator, and out of the Contra-Remonstrants, in the Conference at the Hague, &c. So opposing his Adversary, p. 38. and 39. he had these words.

Secondly, He aggravates it by the circumstance of the least consideration of sin, which we are said to deny to have place in Reprobation; whereas Divine consideration hath no degrees at all, whereby it may be capable of greater or lesse, (a fair an­swer to what Mr. T. P. hath, p. 6.) Sin hath degrees in man, but Divine consideration hath no degrees at all.

To come nearer to the point, & to discover their jugling, in stating our Tenet most calumniously. Consider, I pray do any of our Divines maintain, that God did ordain to dimn any man but for sin? (and by positive Reprobation in my p. 121. I meant nothing, or could mean nothing but damnation). It is apparent, they do not; all acknowledging, that like as God doth damn no man but for sin, so doth he ordain to damn no man but for sin. And a little after, to add one thing more, not for their sin which they sinnedin Adam only, but for those ve­ry actual sins and transgressions which they are guilty of. And if any thing can be spoken yet more plainly in the same Book, p. 40, 41. having spoken of Election, he speaks thus about the decree of Reprobation. The like distinction is considerable on the part of Reprobation, which also is the will of God in a certain kind; I say, we must distinguish in this Decree, the act of Gods decreeing, and the things decreed by him. And these things are of a different nature, and so different, that look what alone is the cause of the act, that alone is the cause of one thing decreed by it, but not so of the other. As for ex­ample, the things denyed by Reprobation are,

1. The denyal of Grace.

2. The denyal of glory, together, with the inflicting of dam­nation. As touching the first of these, look what is the cause of Reprobation, as touching the act of God reprobating, that and that alone is the cause of the denyal of Grace, viz. that of Faith and Repentance, to wit, the mere pleasure of God: But as touching the denyal of glory, and inflicting of damnation. God doth not proceed according to the mere pleasure of his will, but according to a Law, which is this, whosoever believeth not shall be damned. And albeit, God made that Law accor­ding to the mere pleasure of his will, yet no wise man will say, that God denies glory, and inflicteth damnation on men, according to the mere pleasure of his will; the case being clear, that God denies the one, and inflicts the other merely for their sins, who are thus dealt withall.

Thus far that great Arminian Maule, Dr. Twisse, unto all which as a signal conclusion, let that noted place be added, Vind c. Lib. 2. p. 75. Nunquam mihi contigit incidere in quem­piam è nostris asserentem, impios Creatos esse ad gloriam Divinae Justitiae in eorum suppliciis demonstrandam ob dcretum Dei, sed signanter, hoc fieri passim profitentur ob peccata ipsorum impiorum non quod peccata impiorum dicant esse causam creatio­nis, sed quod peccata hominum, tam in executione quàm in inten­tione Dei constituant causam damnationis ipsorum, &c.

§. 4. As for what he subjoynes next p. 65. against the di­stinction betwixt Reprobation, Positive and Negative, there is no real difference betwixt not choosing and refusing, or be­twixt not saving, and damning, in Gods Decree▪ &c.

Answ. 1. I trust Mr. T. P. notwithstanding all the many Proselytes, which he glories his Correct Copy to have gained him, Phil. Chap. 3. p. 55. is not become so absolute a Dictator in the Church, as to be able by some few scrats of his pen to overthrow a di­stinction, so solemnly, and so long received, as I could show, if need were, at large, this to have bin by Austin, by multitudes of Schoolmen, one of which is not afraid to question any mans prudence, who shall deny so plain a thing Pennot. Lib. 7. §. 10. Quis tam imprudens qui dicat vo­luntatem excludendi efficaciter a­liquem à fi­ne, & volun­tatem per­mittendi il­lum pro sua libertate de­ficere à fine non esse vo­luntates di­stinctas? by his be­loved Arminius himself, or by all sorts of Neotericks.

Secondly, Though in Gods decrees, who is purus putus actus, there be no multiplicity of acts, one succeeding the other, as in men; yet ex parte rei, and to us poor mortalls, there must needs, as to the matter, be conceived as great a distinction be­twixt these two, as there would be betwixt an Earthly Judges, leaving a Prisoner in Goal, or not preferring of him at Court, and his adjudging of him to the Gallowes for his fello­nie.

§. 5. As for the tedious Dilemma with which in the same page 65. he would fain gravel me upon occasion of what I had wrote, p. 197. in defence of Calvin.

A. 1. Any wise body will easily perceive, that none but a very absurd man would have put it, seeing in that place, I have no [Page 81] occasion at all, nor do not make any the least use of the di­stinction betwixt Reprobation positive, and Reprobation negative, only I have occasion to distinguish Gods eternal Reprobation, from the first Adams and the Angels temporal Apostacy. And of the first, I say with Calvin, that Gods secret will was the sole cause; but of the latter, that Adam and the Angels sinful wil [...]s were the cause. See Calvin, de praedest. p. 711.

2. Any body, if he will but turn to what I wrote, Corrept. Correct. p. 195, 196. in defence of Calvin, will easily discover Mr. T. P's. unreasonable thriftiness, in sparing to give any An­swer to no lesse then four of my Replies against what he had said against Calvin, and in nibling only a little at the fifth, by the intrusion of a most unseasonable Dilemma; for the making whereof here, there was no other occasion given him, then what he was pleased to take from his own working wormish fancy.

3. Seeing Mr. Calvin, whensoever he hath occasion to speak of Gods Decree of leaving Angels, or the first Adam to them­selves, so as not to have decreed them that efficacious Grace, by which they would certainly have preserved themselves from falling, and did only afford them that sufficient Grace, by which they might have stood, if they had so willed; the Lord gave them only posse stare vel non peccare si vellent, he gave them ability to have stood▪ if they would, but he did not give them voluntatem standi quod potuerunt, a will to stand, accor­ding to what they were able; I say, Calvin never speaks of these matters, but with serious profession See him in and about the place quoted, Cor­rect Copy, p. 50. out of his 4th Sect of the 23. Chapter of his Institu­tions; but es­pecially, let that Signal passage be marked, which he sets down, Lib. de aeterna Dei praedestina­tione, p. 711. Edit. Genev, 1612. Quo­modo Dei praescientia, & Decreto statutum fuerit quod de homine futu­rum erat: neque tamen in Culpae societatem trahendus sit Deus, quasi trans­gressionis vel author sit, vel approbator: quam longè altius humanae mentis, per­spicaciâ esse palam sit, ne ignorantiam nostram fateri pudeat. Imo, ne quem ex fidelibus fateri nescire pigeat, quod Dominus Lucis sua inaccessae fulgore ab­forbet. Primum, nihil aliis, nisi ex animi mei sensu, praescribo. Testis enim mihi erit Dominus, cui conscientia mea subscribit, sic me hae [...] stupenda ejus judicia quotidie meditari, ut nulla plus aliquid sciendi curiositas sollicitet, nul­la mihi de incomparabisi ejus Justitia obrepat sinistra suspicio, &c., that he is ama­zed [Page 82] at the depths of Gods Counsels and proceedings, and therefore it would have been no wonder, if my self defen­ding him, should have put forth something not so satisfactory to humane reason.

§. 9. Answer.

To his intolerably long talkative Sect. 23. set down by him from p. 84. to p. 98. in defence of Universal Redemption, and against the error of Christs dying for the Elect only.

Answ. But for my good Neighbor's saying, Chap. 1. p. 15. that with the Opinion of Ʋniversal Grace and Redemption, all o­thers in debate must stand or fall, which he repeats a second time, p. 93. of this very sect when he saith, that it is the main hinge, upon which all turns, and doth depend, I for my part would most closly have adhered to my promise of avowed silence, set down most solemnly, Corrept. Correct. p. 110. for I am sure he brings nothing new upon this Argument; nay, takes a most provident course of answering little or nothing to all, or most of the Scriptures which he had formerly ob­jected against me, and with which he flourisheth once more, p. 85, 86. and which I had distinctly given Answers to, in Cor­rept. Correct. from p. 100. to 108. over and above what I had said against his various mistakes upon this point, p. 130, 131. 160. &c. passim alibi: yet, lest any body should justly be dis­contented, I shall subjoyn some general Observations, in op­position to this whole Section. Its no way fitting, that General Grace and Redemption, here pleaded for, should be graced with too many special, or particular Answers.

First then, p. 84. our Gentleman yet still against what I had said, pretends, that he maintains Special Grace, when as by what we have oftentimes heard formerly this special Grace flowes from a Conditional general Decree, and as in this Section we are told at large from an Ʋniversal Redemption, which he alone pleads for; having never as yet, nor any way be­ing able by the Genius of his Tenents, to show us what special [Page 83] Graces, Christ by his death hath deserved more for the Elect than for the Reprobates, and all that are or shall be damned in Hel. He cannot p. 84. be of their eleaven, who do arrogate a Sa­viour wholly and only to themselves; and yet he full well knowes, that none are [...]o presumptuous, as not to allow Christ as well to be the Saviour of all the Elect of God, who ever were, or shall be existent upon Earth, as of themselves.

Secondly, What Answers to his formerly alledged Scrip­tures, and here again r [...]peated, p. 85, 86, he did wholly de­spair to overthrow by d [...]nt of Argument, he attempts to do by intollerable Clamours, Facile est Augu­stinum vin­cere, non ve­ritate sed clamore. and as impudent assertions, as ever dropped from the pen of the most profl [...]gate Writer. To in­stance, first he saith, p. 85. that the limitations and restr [...]ctions wh [...]ch I put upon some General Scriptures quoted formerly by him, are as contrary to Scripture, as any thing could be invented by the wit of Julian or Helvidius.

Answ. And thus besides his making of Helvidius as great an Antiscripturist, as was Apostate Julian, whereas his Here­sie was only to be an Anti-Marita, L. Da­naeus de hae­resibus▪ p. 151 cum p. 303. he ranks with his own certain knowledge, (for I had formerly alleadged them) Au­stin, Prosper, (my Corrept. saith falsely, Ambrose, p. 131. Corrept. Correct. p. 131, 132. But more di­stinctly. see Austin Enchirid: ad Laurent: Cap. 103. de Corrept. & Grat. Cap. 14. see fuller and larger Testimonies of the Church of Lions, set down by C. Jansen. Tom. 3. Lib. 3. p. 384. in Libro de tenend. Script. veritat. in aucta­rio biblioth. S. S. Patrum. Tom. 3. Cyrill. Alexandr. when against special Re­demption, which he had pleaded for, he had objected that place, 1 Joh. 2. 2. the very place in which Mr. T. P. p. 86. & Correct Copy, p. 38. placeth his chief confidence, he answers Lib. 11. cap. 8. p. 967. hujus objectionis Solutio, non est explicatu difficili. Quia enim B. Johannes Judaeus erat, & ex Judaeis, ne qui forsan existimarent Dominum pro Israel ▪tis tantum Advocatum esse apud Pa­trem, pro aliis verò gentibus, quae per orbem un [...]versum sparsae sunt non item, quamvis fide erga ipsum conspicuae futurae essent, & brevi ad agnitionem Sa­lutis per Christum vocandae, necessario dicit non pro s [...]lis Israelitis. the Church of Smyrna, the Church of Lions, unto which, let me [Page 84] now add Cyrillus Alexandrinus, and others (as the Valentine Councel, Cap. 4. Propter nimium errorem qui de hac causa ex­ortus est, ita ut quidam sicut illorum scripta indicant, etiam pro illis impiis, qui à mundi exordio usque ad passionem Domini in sua impietate mortui, & aeterna damnatione puniti sunt, effusum defi­niant; illud nobis simpliciter & fideliter tenendum ac docendum pla­cet, juxta Evangelicam & Apostolicam veritatem, quod pro illis hoc datum precium teneamus, quibus ipse Dominus noster dixit: Sicut Moyses exaltavit serpentem in deserto, ita exaltari oportet fi­lium hominis, ut omnis qui credit in ipso, non pereat sed habeat vi­tam aeternam,) amongst pernicious Hereticks as bad as Ju­lian, or Helvidius: other Restrictions did I put none upon these Scriptures, then what they do, and prove out of the Scriptures.

Secondly, He dares vent it p. 86. that if we will not take the mentioned Scriptures in that vast Latitude which he pleads for we might as well deny an Ʋniversal Creation of all things, which is not asserted to us, by so great a variety of plain expressions, as an Ʋniversal Redemption is found to be.

Answ. 1. There might be some place for this bold asper­sion.

1. When as any good Christian shall think it as necessary to put it to the Question, whether God must not needs be granted to be the Creator of all things, visible, and invisible, because that in him, we live, and move, and have our being, Act. 17. 28. and for that it would imply a manifest contradiction, if it should be otherwise, (nay, introduce Atheisme) as he would question whether there be the like necessity of asse [...]ting Christ to be the Redeemer of all, whether Elect or Reprobate, believers or unbelievers?

2. What if the syllabical expressions in the word All, the whole world, &c. be as loud sounding in the matter of Redemp­tion, as in the matter of Creation, will it follow, that in refe­rence to the former, for the matters sake, far different from that of Creation, no use must be made of that Rule of Austins, that Scripture Phrases must be interpreted, according to the [Page 85] nature of the matter which is expressed by them August Epist. 59. Scripturae mos est ita loqui de par­te, tanquam de toto: quam Divi­nae Scripturae consuetudinem per omne Corpus Literarum ejus creberrimè sparsam, quisquis diligenter adverterit, multa dissolvit qua inter se videntur contraria.? Doth not himself acknowledge that of 2 Tim. 2. 4. one of his main Scriptures, there were no lesse then 4. several Interpretations, Correct Copy, p. Of which not one of them, I am well assu­red, makes one whit for his extravagant Ʋniversality See the several Interpretations fully set down by C. Jansen, Tom. 3. Lib. 3 Cap. 20, 21.. But did he ever hear of any one Christian, so far distracted, as to contract Ʋniversal Phrases in the matter of Creation.

Thirdly, Ought not the Comments of no lesse than two Angels from Heaven, Math. 1. 21. Rev. 5. 9. sway with us in this matter, for the contraction of the sense of some Phrases which seem to speak for an All, and every individuall of that all, taken in the utmost Latitude imaginable, for a sme of all sorts and kinds, whether Jewes or Gentiles, high or low, rich or poor, one with another: Especially, when as first there be no lesse, nay, far more Scriptures, which handling the matter of Redemption, purposely confine it to some in special, not to all at random, without the least discrimination.

1. As for example, when it is said, that Christs blood was shed for many, Math. 26. 28. That he was [...], a ran­som for many, Mark 10. 45. Isa. 53. 12. viz. for those whom the Father had given him, Joh. 17. 9. 19. for his Sheep. Joh. 10. 15. Heb. 13. 20. for his People, Heb. 2. 17. for the Children of God, Joh. 11. 51, 52. for the Church, Act. 20. 28. for his Body, Ephes. 5. 23. for Gods Israel, or Jacob, Rom. 11. 26. and all this in conclusion, is but for the Elect of God, Rom. 8. 33, 34. his friends, Joh. 15. 13. And for the avoiding of these, and many more such Scriptures, will he say either,

1. That the Scriptures interfere with themselves?

2. Or that in these last mentioned, the word, the exceptive particle only, is wanting? If he say the first, he is the Helvi­dian Antiscripturist [Page 86] he told us of, Phil. Chap. 3. 85.

3. If the latter, his plea is just as good as that of the Papists denying justification by faith alone, though the word only be not found in Rom. 3. 28. Or it is just as good as that of a pro­fane mans would be, who being exhorted to love his Wife only with a conjugal love, should reply, that the word only was no where annexed to the command of loving of his Wife.

Secondly, When as very frequently in the Scriptures upon other and smaller occasions, the words All, the World, all the World, (with the empty sound of which p. 86. he keeps such a coyl) are as much confined to an All Determinate, as to the indeterminate All, he pleads for: peru [...]e Iohn 21. 25. 1 Iohn 5. 19. [...]. Rev. 13. 3. [...]. All the Earth▪ as we have it, Act. 19. 28. Act. 11. 28. Act. 4. 21. & 10. 12. & 19. 10. Ioh. 12. 32. Phil. 2. 21. Math. 9. 35. & 3. 5. Isa. 40. 5. Ioel 2. 28. Rev. 14. 6. nor can I tel in how many places more. And when [...]oever he shall be able to produce as many restrictive Phrases in the matter of Creation, then it will be time enough for to believe Universal Redemption, as maintained by him.

Thirdly, He pleads p. 86, 87. that if his broad sense of the forementioned Scriptures be not yielded to, then the plainest Scriptures would become the hardest, then God would be char­ged with mental Reservations, and then we should tell the people, that he doth not speak as he meanes, but that his meaning is con­trary to what he speaks.

Answ. For this there might be some sense.

1. If some metaphorical and tropical expressions, were not by rational men, as apt to be understood as more proper ones.

2. If, all, the World, a World full, even in common and vul­gar expressions, did not very ordinarily signifie a great many things, or men, or some of all sorts, as well as they signifie all and every individual thing, without the least exception.

3. If it were not proper enough for the Holy Ghost, in any matter, to use what phrases he liked best, for the exercising of our industry, I take those to be intolerably bold, who would teach their Maker to speak plainly, because they be resolved to be lazie.

[Page 87] 4. If a World of Divines, both Ancient and modern, as well as my poor self, Corrept. Correct. 161, 162, 163. had not re­jected it, that in the general proposal of the Gospel to every Creature, Mark 16. 15. there is not, or cannot possibly lurk any mental Reservation, or insincerity, how particular soever Gods Decrees, or special Redemption may be.

Tertio principaliter. Thirdly, In reference to this whole Section, after all the pudder he makes, with his Ʋniversal Re­demption, and the fair hopes that some men might be put into, that all men should be saved by it, or have their sins pardoned by it, it doth at least but shrink into Christs salvation for all, Phi. p. 85. Marg: into a passive power, or bare possibility of being sa­ved, or a capability of being saved by Christs merits. Angry, full angry he is with us, that we will not so much as allow of this.

Answ. Yet it would have becomne him very well, to have known,

First, That none of his Adversaries do deny the offer of Christ, unto all, unto whom the Gospel is, and by Commissi­on ought to be preached, Math. 28. 19.

Secondly, They do not only say, that it is possible, by ver­tue of Christs merits, for all men to be saved, in case of true Faith and Repentance Dav. A­nimadvers. 257. imo D. Twisse. Lib. 2. vindic. p. 2. De utilitate mortis Christi, ex Decreto Dei redundante homi­nibus ad gloriam sive salutem sic statuimus: nempe decrev [...]sse Deum, ut Chri­sti mortis beneficium nemini, nisi crediderit, rursus, modo crediderint, universis & singulis cederet in adeptionem salutis. An aliter instituunt A [...]m [...]niani? prorsus non solent. De utilitate verò mortis Christi, ex Decreto Dei redun­dante hominibus ad gratiam, hoc est, ad fidem & resipiscentiam, sic censemus. Non decrevit Deus ut Christi▪ mortis utilitas cederet omnibus in adeptionem Gratiae efficacis, qua Crederent & Resipiscerent. At non omnium est fides, &c.; but that in that case, they shall cer­tainly be saved, by vertue of Christs death.

Thirdly, It will never be possible for him, or the stoutest of his party, to prove Christ to be only a Potential, and not an actual Saviour, unles they will undertake to prove and make it good.

1. That it was not within the compasse of Gods absolute power, if he had been pleased to make use of it, to have provi­ded for mans Salvation, some other wayes, than by the satis­faction of Christ.

Secondly, That Christ potentially procuring mans Salvati­on and Redemption, by which alone, no man was ever yet, or e­ver shall be saved, but man actually and efficaciously procuring his own; Man, of the two, doth much more for himself, in point of Salvation or Redemption, then Christ, (who to all his, is a Saviour, [...], Heb. 7. 25. unto the very utmost doth for him.

Fourthly, It is a most insufferable injury done to Christs merits, to suspend the efficacy of them, upon mans free will, so as not to be ashamed to assert, p. 87. that it is Christs intention to save them all without exception, if by the wickedness of their wills, they did not frustrate his intention, as the greater part of men do, by not accepting his offer, and not performing the cond [...]tions on which his offer is made.

Answ. 1. Belike now, (if he speak of Christ the Sons in­tention as Mediator, as I am confident he doth and must, as before, Phil. Chap. 1. p. 22. he had done of God the Fathers) Christ, notwithstanding all his extreme sufferings must be be­holding to mans weak, slippery uncertain free will, whether he shall see the Travel of his soul, have a seed to serve him, have a body, a spouse, a purchased Inheritance, &c. All this is frustra­ble if man so please.

2. Belike its now no more a part of Christs sufferings by his merits, to procure us a will not to frustrate his merciful intentions to us, and so to make us partakers of the blessed fruits of his sufferings.

Thirdly, All upon a sudden, the Lord blessed for ever must be made Impotent, Lib. 1. Contra Ju­lian. operis Imperf. f. 133. Absit ut impediatur ab homine omnipotentis & cuncta scientis intentio. Parum de ne tanta cogitant vel ei excogitandae non sufficiunt, qui putant Deum omnipotentem aliquid velle, & homine infirmo impediente, non posse. In Enchiride. c. 5. Tunc in clarissima luce videbitur, quàm certa & immutabilis voluntas Dei, quam multa possit & non velit, ni­hil autem velit & non possit, quamque sit verum quod in Psalmo canitur: De­us noster in coelo & in terra quicquid voluit fecit. Quod ut [...]que non est verum, si aliquid voluit, & non fecit; &, quod est indignius, ideo non fecit, quoniam ne fieret quod volebat omnipotens, voluntas hominis impedivit. unhappy, changeable, seriously to will, i. e. to purpose, or properly to decree to effect that which alasse he knowes will never be; but wherein he must be frustrated by mans will, stronger then his, and which therefore, he will not will, when man for not willing on Earth, what God once willed, shall be sent to Hell, and when no good man shall so much as will damned mens salvation A. Rivet Disp. 7. Thes. 25. Si talis volunt as propriè, &, ut loquuntur formaliter esset in Deo, ut perpetua foret, esset necessarium, proinde Deum semper velle hominum sa­lutem: id autem fieri non potest, cum ne p [...]i quidem homines post hanc vitam sint eam volituri, propter status sui perfectionem, cum Angelis communem, quâ etiam fit ut nec pro reprobis orent, nec super damnatis ulla commiseratione mo­veantur, sed purè & perfectè in eorum punitione laudent Dei Justitiam, &c. Austin Enchirid, Cap. 103. Quomodocunque vero illo aut alio modo hi aut simi­les loci (1 Tim. 2.) intelligi possint; ita tamen intelligantur, ut credere non co­gamur aliquid omnipotent em Deum fieri voluisse, factum (que) non esse, qui sine ullis ambiguitatibus, si in caelo & in terra, sicut & veritas cantat, omnia quae voluit fecit, profecto facere noluit quodcunque non fecit..

Thirdly, If such be Christs intention, even as here he ac­know [...]edgeth to the greater part of perishing men, then that abominable absurdity which most ridiculously p. 88. he would fain put upon us, that Christ is the Saviour only of Reprobates, will by just consequence fall only upon himself; for we, who from the place which there he quotes, 1 Joh. 2. 2. taking the word All, and the whole World, for all sorts of men, whether [Page 90] Jewes or Gentiles, dispersed in the World, who ever have, do, or shall believe, by vertue of their Election, we grant the word to signifie, not only the major part of such, but even every such an individual one; whereas he pleading, that Christ dyed for all, without any the least exception; and whereas he doth grant to that, by far the major part of such do perish, and shall be damned for ever; it will invincibly follow, that if Christ di­ed not only for Reprobates, he died for far more Reprobates then Elect; yea, all his sufferings notwithstanding, he might only have died for Reprobates.

Fourthly, Though here as before, p. 22. he would make us believe, that God hath an intention to save all that perish, yet how this should be possible, no man can imagine, when as,

1. God in the meanes of Grace, doth not so much as make an offer of Salvation to all, Psal. 147. 19, 20. Act. 14. 16. & 17. 30.

2. When as his Rev. Father Arminius could have taught him, and Mr. T. P. Sinner Impleaded, in the Table means of sal­vation, no man living can say he wants, p. 295. 296, 297. seems to have learned his Lesson pret­ty well from him, God affords only suff [...]cient Grace to those who perish, but not efficient. Either then men may be saved, without the meanes of Grace, the annuntiation of the Gospel, or (which must needs be their opinion) men by their free will may turn sufficient grace into effectual grace, when they list, or God without palpable absurdity, cannot be said to intend sal­vation to them all Mr. T. P. may do well to see a large discourse about this in Dr. Amirald, the very man he boasteth to be of his side, Defens. Calvin. de Reprobat. p. 198, 199. & inde. † Innocentius tertius, Sanguis Christi pro Solis praedesti natis effusus est, quantum ad efficientiam, sed pro cunctis hominibus effusus est quantum ad sufficientiam. Thom. Aquin. super 5. Caput Apocalypseos. De passione Domini, inquit, loqui est dupliciter: aut secundum sufficientiam, & sic passio redemit omnes. Omnibus enim red men­dis & salvandis sufficiens est, etiamsi plures essent mundi, ut dicit Anselmus Lib. 2. Cap. 14..

Fifthly, All his tedious discourse which he begins, p. 93. and at length concludes thus, p. 94. from all this together, it is as clear as noon-day, that they who deny him to be the Saviour of all the World intentionally, cannot say with any reason that he is so much as sufficiently the Saviour of them, whom he eternally de­creed he would not save, &c.

Answ. 1. I say, all this Discourse is grounded upon a mistake of the usual di [...]tinction received in the Schools, and which in his Margin p. 93. he relates well out of Dr. Overal, viz. of Christs death, either as sufficient for all, or efficacious only for some: the first member of this distinction about the suffi­ciency of Christs death, is not by the Authours of it († Innocen­tius tertius Sanguis Christi, &c.) as it is known, opposed to In­tentionaliter, as he reports it, but to efficaciter as they use it.

2. Both he and his Dr. Overal with him, p. 93. are out, if they suppose them, who do mannage this distinction best, See Mr. Perkins. Dr. Twisse, and others, di­stinctly open­ing the sense of this di­stinction, D. Twisse Lib. 1. §. 21. 22. p. 252. 254. Hujus pre­tii soluti virtus & efficacia (inquit Rev. Perkins) tum quoad meritum & quoad operationem, infinita est, & tamen distingui debet: est enim vel potentialis vel actualis. Efficacia potentialis est, qua [...], in se sufficiat pro redimendis Sin­gulorum, abs (que) exceptione, peccatis▪ etiamsi essent mille mundi hominum▪ ve­rum si spectemus efficaciam illam actualem, [...] illud quoad consilium Dei, & quoad eventum, pro Electis tantum & praedestinatis est solutum. Dr. Twisse I­bid. p. 254. Christum mortuum esse pro omnibus non est idem, quod Christi mor­tem sufficientem esse pro omnibus▪ Illud enim negaret Perkinsius, & nos unà negaremus; hoc affirmaret, & nos unà secum affirmantes haberet: idque nulla sub conditione, ne voluntatis quidem Divinae, licet contrarium Perkinsio, sed sine omni candore imputat Arminius, &c. to take the ground of the sufficiency of Christs merits, to arise from his Hypothetical will of saving all without any difference, whereas they take the sufficiency of his death for all, even of a thousand Worlds, if there could be so many, and without which it could be sufficient for none, to arise from the Digni­ty of Christs person, as he is God and man: so that t [...]ey main­tain the death of Christ to be absolutely sufficient for all, and not only to be so upon supposition.

In a word, they say not, when they deliver their mind ac­curately, that Christs death, as a price sufficient, was actually offered up to the Father for all; but that his death is in its own nature of such worth, as to be able to save all, and that it will efficaciously save all, who are by Faith made partakers of it.

Thirdly, Christs Eternal Decree, (which to make the matter the more odious to carnal undiscerning people, some few lines before, he calls his irreversible Decree, whereby he was not able to resist himself) is at all no barre to the sufficiency of Christs merits for saving all: it is only a voluntary Barre of his own making, which renders him not unable, but for Reasons best known to himself, not willing i. e. not decreeing to save all.

Fourthly, If P. Bertius, Shield-bearer to Arminius him­self, may be believed, we need not much contend for the di­stinction of Sufficienter and Efficaciter, because it is not pro­perly of Divine, but humane Tradition, which was the reason why Arminius would not prosecute it Exam. Armin. Per­kins. praedest. p. 99..

Sixthly, and lastly, from what hath been said in my Cor­rept. Correct. as well as in this writing, to other Scriptures, pa­rallel to that of 2 Cor. 5. 14. it will be easie to discover what must be said to all that extravagant Discourse, upon which Mr. T. P. spends no lesse then 4. whole pages, Chap. 4. from p. 28. to 32. for after all said, and all done, pro or con, it will be most clear to any attentive Reader, who will either seriously mind that Text with its context, or consult with the best In­terpreters;

1. That the Apostle in his proposition 2 Cor. 5. 14. speaks of an all such as himself, who were constrained by the love of Christ, (and sure such are not, the all Mr. T. P. pleads for) and therefore that the all in the Minor, v. 15. must needs be taken as it was in the Major.

2. That the death the Apostle speaks of, v. 14. is not a natural death, as Mr. T. P. would have it, p. 30. but it is a moral death, viz. such a one, by which in Christ our head, we did as it were all die, no otherwise then as if we had died and sa­tisfied for our selves, and procured for our selves a vertue to [Page 93] dye unto sin, and no more: as the Apostle speaks, v. 15. to live not unto our selves, but unto him which died for us, &c.

3. He will find that v. 14, 15, 17. the Apostle makes a tacit Antithesis, which elsewhere he had done most explicitly, Rom. 5. 11, 12, 13, 14, 15. &c. 1 Cor. 15. 21, 22. betwixt the first and second Adam, who are by him made to be two different Roots, whereof the first after his fall, derives nothing else but death and sin, to his natural Off▪spring; but the second de­rives to his spiritual Off-spring, life and righteousness Vide J. Camer. De Ecclesia, p. 105. 107. Ut Adamus Auctor ge­neris nostri est secundū carnem, ho­mo terrenus terrenorum: ita Christus auctor gene­ris nostri est secundum spiritum, ho­mo Coelestis Coelestium. Attamen diversâ ratione. Fusiûs idem p. 127. ejusd. Libri. Quam sit haec nostri cum Christo un [...] efficax, vel inde facile colligi potest, quod quae Christus in nostrî Gratiam pertulerit, ea eodem apud deum loco sint, ac si nobis tam gravis poena incubuisset. Hoc verò est quòd Apostolus significavit disertis verbis, 2 Cor. 5. Si unus, inquit, pro omnibus mortuus est, omnes mortui sumus. Ita Christus dum poená quae fuit maledicta defungitur, to­tum ChristiCorpus ea poenâ defunctum est, &c. vide etiam in hanc sententiam. D. Augustin. De pec. & merit. Lib. 1. Cap. 8.. This being most plain, it would be s [...]perfluous labor, to spend more time and paper in giving more particular Answers to his Lux­uriant Discourses: the rather, because most, if not all the par­ticulars have upon some occasion or other been sufficiently crushed already. And thus I am at last come to an end of that, with which if he say true, p. 15. all other Opinions in de­bate, must stand or fall, and upon which, the h [...]nge of all doth turn, p. 93. Habemus confitentem reum, according to his own Confession: then if what I have said against him, will hold water, as I trust in God it will, all the rest of his Book is turned off the hinges, and is truncus iners, et terrae inutile pondus. I shall therefore with all the brevity that I can, dispatch what remains.

§. 10. To his §. 27. about Scripture, Tradition, Right Reason, from p. 103. to 107.

Ans. §. 1. But that we have met with an Orator, who de quolibet Themate, if need be, can out-wit, and out-speak too, Ovid versifying upon a flea; Dan. Heinsius rhetoricating in Commendation of a Lowse, before a Lowsie Senate; Erasmus Ovid. de [...]lice; Orat. Dan. Hein­siis, de pe­diculo; ad mendicorum Patres Con­scriptos. Erasmi En­comium Moriae. his applauding of Folly; and a learned, but a known Armi­nian, P. Cunaeus his not jocularly but seriously crying up an A­postate Julian, P. Cu­naus, praef. in Divi Caesaris (ut Ethnice vocat) Juliani laudem. ad Syndic. Leidensium. we should not have had the expenseful waste of almost four pages upon that so slight a mention of Tria sunt omnia, in my Corrept. Correct. p. 43. 44. which yet was not done upon a slight occasion; but because he had said, p. 2. of his uncorrect Copy, (as he is pleased to style it) that unto the Authority of the Fathers, we owe the Canon of the Scriptures, and our belief of three subsistences, in one substance, much the same to what he saith, Philanth. p. 104.

§. 2. Unto all this long Discourse, then, he ought to satis­fie himself with this concise Answer,

1. That every one who is but in any tolerable mea­sure acquainted with the old Pelagian, or the late Arminian Divinity, are full well acquainted, that it bottoms far more upon that, which men falsely call Right Reason, then either up­on Scripture or Tradition, which made Pelagius of old, appeal from Divines, and Poscere Auditorium Philosophicum, as preten­ding at first, what afterwards his Proselytes did, (as witnesseth [Page 95] Bradwardine Tho: Bradward. Praefat. Si­cut Antiqui Pelagiani ventoso nomine, scientiarum saecularium inflati consistorium, Theolo­gicum contemnentes, Philosophicum flagitabant: ita & moderni. Audivi nam­que quosdam Advocatos Pelagii, licet multum provectos, in sacris apicibus, af­firmantes Pelagium nusquam potuisse convinci per naturalem & Philosophi­cam rationem, sed vix arguebatur utcunque per quasdam auctoritates Theolo­gicas satis nudas, maximè autem per authoritatem Ecclesiae, quae satrapis non placebat. that they were beaten by some Authorities of seeming Scriptures and Tradition, but could never be beaten by reason.

And as for that of Tradition, it is well known, that Austin confutes the summe of Pelagius; and consequently, of Armi­nius, and T. P. their Divinity, which is, that salvation is de­rived to men ex fonte volendi, flowes from the Fountain of their free wills, by that which was commonly received a­mong the Antients, that Quem vult Deus Religiosum facit, that is, in the Apostles Phrase, God gives Grace to whom he wills, Rom. 9. 18. I hope Mr. T. P. will not fault my Translation, un­less he will say, that a man may become Religious without Gods efficacious wonder-working Grace.

2. That Mr. T. P. by his frequent wresting of good Scrip­tures, his slighting of old Austin, his producing of a Decachord of sorry Reasons, by his Philosophical Boethian Discourse, no way grounded upon ancient Scriptures or Tradition, had given a substantial Specimen, a full proof, not of placing p. 104. Right Reason before Scripture, as to point of order in his Book, (a thing which I was never so simple as to charge him with) but which is far worse, of setting up that thing which he calls Right Reason higher in his heart; and therein, as Hereticks of old, making their brains their Bible Tertul­lian. Tolle haereticis quae cum Ethni­cis sapiunt ut de solis Scripturis quaestiones suas sistant, & stare non poterunt..

3. As for what he quotes, or rather mis-quotes out of Rev. Ball his Pulpit-Patron, Part. 2. p. 197. §. 7. (by the Printers I suppose, rather than his own mistake) and which he saith, seem­eth to him, to be one of the very best Arguments in all that Book.

Answ. 1. It is somewhat a wonder to me, that his famous professor of Divinity, Jacob Arminius, in the Ʋniversity of Ley­d [...]n, Philan. p. 14. should about such kind of expressions, as Mr. Ball useth in the place quoted, differ so really from his, other­wise most Genuine Son Mr. T. P. J. Ar­minius Ex­am. praedest. Perkin. in octavo. p. 8. Vitio tibi verti non potest quod antiquorum Theologorum sententias adducis, praesertim istâ, quam ponis, cautione observatâ. Nam et ipsi Patres diversis Interpretationibus obnoxii sunt, & quidem tanto magis quàm Scriptores [...], quanto minore minus (que) perspicuâ veritatis cognitione praediti fue­runt, & minus accuratè & commodè sensa mentis suae enuntiare potuerunt. Quod dum cogito, nescio an consuluerint Ecclesiae, qui hoc seculo Patrum sen­tentias in negotio Religionis sibi usurpandas auctoritatis causâ putaverunt.. He had divers times said upon occasion of the debated Controversies, non stamus Augustino, and a very slight estimate he sets upon the Concur­rent Testimonies of the Fathers.

2. Mr. Ball, as its plain by the words of that place, as well as by the Argument of the whole Book, speaking about Ec­clesiastical Affairs, not in reference to the Docenda in Ecclesia, to Doctrinal Church matters, but in reference to Disciplinary and Practical, the saying makes nothing for his turn. And sure I am, were he in the points debated betwixt us, but of that Authours Judgement, a speedy end would quickly be set to all the Controversies betwixt me and my unkind Neigh­bour.

3. As for the facetious sport which he makes, Phil. 105, 106. with what in the Margin of Corrept. Correct. p. 44. was quo­ted out of Castalio, and his Prefacer, or an Alter Ca­stalio.

Answ. 1. There is nothing so plain to him, who hath but a mind to see, that whilest both of them say, according to what I represent, p. 44. that in the matters debated about Predestination, Election, Free will, the common man doth judge better by his reason, (which in that place can be no other then his natural Mother-wit) and his senses, viz. his five senses, [Page 97] than some literate men, meaning, as Mr. T. P. interprets the matter, p. 106. than Calvin, and all who hold with him: in so saying, they must both of them needs oppose, both the ancient and modern Church, who ever thought these matters too high for natural reason, or the five senses.

2. That the Plerique, or the most, in Felic. Turp. his Text should, even whilest he is a reproving me, not to understand the Latine Tongue, p. 106. be translated by only a few, I do not conceive, proceeds in him from want of Latin, but either out of inadvertency, or it may be, for any thing I know to the contrary, from want of honesty.

5ly. and lastly, Although neither my self, nor any opini­ated as I am in the debateable matters need, we are confident, to be afraid of any thing which can be produced against out cause, from any valuable Tradition, or truly so called Right Reason; yet would to God Mr. T. P. would perswade him­self and his faction, seriously to peruse what John Dallaeus, quo­ted, as making for him by himself, p. 15. hath wrote about the use of Fathers, in reference to the Controversies of our times: and if they would but mind John Vedeli [...], his Rationale Theologicum, and so keep within the bounds of truly Right Reason, I make no question, but these following, and divers other Scriptures, Rom. 8. 30, 31. & 9. 6. 11. Act. 15. 18. 2 Tim. 2. 19. Ephes. 2. 10. Isa. 59. 21. Joh. 13. 1. & 17. 9. Heb. 13. 21. Phil. 2. 13. 2 Cor. 3. 5. Phil. 1. 6. Ephes. 2. 8. 2 Thes. 2. 13. and just consequences drawn from them, would quickly determine the main matters in debate betwixt us: If there­fore he, or any of his confident and most daring bragging party, will needs be appearing again, let them not fetch such terri­ble Cirquedroes (as they do), from the Antient Fathers, before Austin, and all after the Canonical Writers, and from some crasie Reasons, which they urge against plain Scriptures, which serve for little, but for the tyring of Writers, Readers and Printers, and I durst give them my word for it, they shall meet with Answers to any thing they can say, out of Holy Divine Writ, though I should resolve to string up my pen, & verbum non amplius addere. Let them try their valour, and pelt us with no stones, but what are taken from the Vallies of the Sanctuary, [Page 98] and we will not by Gods Grace, turn tayl to the stoutest of our Antagonists, or fear that the head of our cause, will ever be broken by them.

§. 11.

To his voluminous but monstrous §. 28. About the Eternal Cause of punishment, sins positive entity, its having an Efficient Cause, &c. on which later, he expounds himself from p. 110. to 121. but Contracts himself Chap. 4. p. 20, 21. 33.

§. 1.

Answ. 1. As to the Title stuck up in the front of this §. 28. p. 108, 109. and again, in the Reare of it, from p. 118. to 121. our quarrel about it, would quickly be at an end, if by eternal punishment he would understand damnation of a finally sinful Creature, and by the sole cause of it, he would likewise with the Divines, Bishop Hall, and Bishop Davenant, which he quotes p. 107. understand the sole meritorious Cause of its execution; but if, as may be justly suspected, he do by the cause of punishment, eternal, understand the cause of Gods internal and eternal Decree of punishing men for their sins: then first, he speaks monstrously, and absurdly, whilest he would make Sin, which sure is no older then man, nay not so old, and so not existing but in time, to be the cause of Gods eternal De­cree. August. Nihil majus voluntate Dei; non ergo causa ejus quaerenda est. Ench. ad Laur. c. 96.

2. He would make sin eternally foreseen, but only potentially then existing to be more efficacious and causal, then when it actually exists in time; for this latter can only be the cause of Gods executing his decree of damnation; but the former is the cause of his purposing or intend [...]ng of it. A greater thing it is, to be the cause of Gods purpose, then to be the cause of the execution of that purpose.

3. He spills all that Logick, p. 64. which he doth pretend to, when he saith, that he had never so little Logick, as to say, That any thing in man could be the cause of Gods Decree.

4. He must conclude, That it was necessary for all us mortalls to be damned, because from eternity the Lord could not but foresee, that we should all be either Originally, or actually sinful.

§. 2. Though p. 107. he do stoutly deny, that his Chap. 3. wherein he grants, that every Reprobate is praedetermined to eter­nall punishment, is at any Daggers drawing, with his almost whole Chap. 2. where he strenuously disputes, that God deter­mines none to punishment; yet 1. the thing is most evident; for in his p. 17. Chap. 2. of his Correct Copy, he saith expresly, with­out any the least colour of limitation of that his saying, that man himself is the sole efficient cause of his eternal punishment; and again, p. 21. that there can be no greater blasphemy, then to bring Gods providence into the pedegree of death.

Secondly, As for the only Salve which he hath for this sore, Phil. p. 107. viz. that I leave out the terme respectively, which he brings in lagging Correct Copy, p. 32.

First, He should have brought it in sooner, if he would have had me to have taken some more than ordinary notice of it, and not have been so impudent, as to write, that he never said in his life, that God determines none to punishment, there ma­k [...]ng a stop, as M. B. doth; when as in his Chap. 2. he saith no­thing else without any stop.

2. He should upon provocation, have showed which I put him upon, p. 135. of my Corrept. Correct, how the conditionali­ty, or absoluteness of it, alters the case; especially, as to sin's being the condition of Gods eternal Decree, when as neither that, or any other Conditions, could ever be without Gods ei­ther decreeing to effect them in time, or voluntary permitting that in time they should be wrought by others.

§. 3. As for his vilifying of my Logick, which he spends full two pages more upon, p. 108, 109. and ushers in with this lowd sounding, I might almost say, lowd lying expression, that I will be tampering in matters, to which in all likelihood and appearance, I was never trained up.

First, Possibly since my training up in that Art, I may have lost more learning, then yet it appeares that ever he had, or was master of.

Secondly, That forsooth our great Logician may appear a very great School-man too, p. 108. he quotes out of Biel, Son­cinas, Scot, Gabriel, what any fresh man of a moneths stan­ding in either University, would and could as judiciously have quoted out of his greasie Jack-Seton, Ramus, Schibler, Crucius, Elementa Burgersdicii, or any the most vulgar Logician.

3. If it be an Adaequate definition of a Cause in general, that it is that cujus vi res est, then sure it cannot be very inadaequate to the efficient cause, which hath as much, if not more of cau­sality in it, in reference to the effect, than any other cause can have, which all derive their causality from the first efficient Cause.

4. It savours of no great Logick or Metaphysicks either, that in all his whole Discourse, he seems not yet to have learned, that there is a vast difference betwixt a Physical real working cause of any thing, which I did therefore [...], by way of eminency, call the Efficient Cause, and a morally metapho­rical working, or Efficient Cause, which in distinction from the former, I did therefore call the meritorious Cause of pun­ishment. I never denyed man to be the meritorious efficient Cause of his punishment; but I maintained God to be the chief Authour of his punishment as the Decreer of it, & the inflicter of it, which his Chap. 2. Correct Copy plainly denies.

5. Dr. Twisse sure may be allowed to have bin trained up to some Logick and Metaphysicks, and not to have been the meanest Proficient in either: yet there be upon several occa­sions divers places, wherein he commits as great Solacisms in Logick as my self, when he distinguisheth betwixt the Ef­ficient and meritorious Cause. But perchance, I ought to re­member, that the greater Logician and Metaphysician, Mr. T. P. owes the Doctor a reckoning, for using a Logical Maxim, Philan. Chap. 3. p. 67. after so ignorant a manner, as if [Page 101] he (learned Mr. T. P. Aquila non Captat muscas!) Doctor Twisse. Lib. Vindic. p. 273. Sit remissio pe­catorum, e­tiam Sancti Spiritus ef­fectio, sed in genere causae efficientis, quod tamen nihil obstat, quominus sta­tuatur remissionem peccatorum esse propriam mortis Christi effectionem in ge­nere causae meritoriae. Sit Paulo post &c. Quemadmod. in eandem fermè senten­tiam Lib. 1. p. 26. Irrogatio paenarum pendet à Deo tanquam à causa efficiente Physica; sed quis dubitat pendere etiam à peccatis creaturarum, tanquam à causis efficientibus moralibus; alioqui neque Salus nostra pendere dicetur à Christo, quaterus est causa ejus meritoria. Lib. 2. p. 62. de hoc ipso argumento. Licet peccatum quà peccatum duntaxat à creatura sit, hoc tamen nihil impe­dit quó minus Deus concurrat ad actum peccati, idque determinando Creaturae voluntatem ad agendum &c. Ruina exitii & paenae ex Creatura est tanquam à causa meritoria, à Deo veró tanquam à causa efficiente. had but so used it, when he was but a raw Sophister he had been his­sed out of the Schools, and no doubt the Doctor shall be well payed the next time, Mr. T. P. comes from France, unto which belike he did at first go as his Journies end, before his thoughts did so much as run upon that Country, till he took shipping at Dover.