CORREct.] As yet uncorrected of most of the Pelagian, Semipelagian and Ar­minian tenents, faulted in the disowned Copy. SOME NOTES.] A just volu­minous Tract, by an unusuall Catachre­sis, stiled, some notes; among w^ch there appears scarce any of any good note. CONCERNING GODS DECREES.] More truly it might have bin said against Gods Decrees. You leave to God all along ma­ny commands, promises, threats, &c. but no Decrees, save what are dependent on, and subsequent to mans wil. The worst kind of Independency, is this. REPROBATION] Rather DAMNATION as you should have said, most solemnly in this your owned, and in your other disow­ned Treatise (and that upon designe) confounded with Praeterition, or Negative REPROBATION, for the private use of a friend, possibly for the use of the man of honour and integrity in your Dedicat. who it seems stood in need of a matter of 600 Copies, which within lesse then two months were almost sold in this very Country, as saith W. C. Test is idoneus. CALUMNY] i. e. truth; for no other matters can I learne you yet to bee slandered with. When writings comming from your faction take not, the usuall Apologie of old, received from your dogmaticall Sires, is, vel inemendata fuisse surrepta (in your English uncorrected Copies) vel om­nino August. de Grat. Christi. cap. 2. & sic fermè Armin. ad artic. sibi objectos. negant sua, or none of theirs; as the former writing in my hands, scil. is either not yours, or was not fine enough to be owned by superlatively fine Mr T. P.

THE necessity which you suggest of publication, was a selfe-created necessity, and yet I am sure no waies opposite to your Liberum Arbitrium, or free will. Else pray good Sir, what made you as it were per saltum, to flie from the faire hopes which your first alarming Let­ter put me into, of having (to use your owne words) a true copy, and such a one, as you would owne not only in the night, but if need be at noon too: Which hopes with much civility and respect, were entertained by me, as may be seen p. 3, 4. in marg. Of this Answer, I say what Epist. prima à me publicata. made you flie so unexpectedlie to the presse, as unto your onely sanctuary, with a Copy, which to my know­ledge had been in some mens hands six moneths be­fore. Unto which, when I perceived you hastning, I was willing enough to will you good speed, and that your beloved presse might but prove as beneficiall to Hieronym. Epist. ad Ctesiphont. Ecclefiae victoria est vos apertè dicere quod sentitis. Idem, semper docent & sem­semper negant. Quicquid vident displicere, non suum, sed alienum esse contendunt. The Carthag. fathers com­plaine to Austin, that, eti­amsi Pelagius Celestius (que) correcti siut vel se ista num­quam sensisse dicunt, & quaecun (que) scripta contra eos prolata fuerint, sua esse negabunt, n [...]c est quemad modum de menda cio convin cantur. you, as the poenitentiall stoole (at which you jeere, Epist. 2.) had been to many a Northern Scotick wild blade; for as some diseases do better when they break out, then when they are kept in; So it hath been more benefi­ciall to the Church ever, for Pelagiam and Arminian er­rors by the Authors of them, to have been published, then for them hatching of them in their bosomes, to communicate them only to their confidentiaries, (a) in cryptis.

I Am too conscious of my owne frailties, which are great and many, then for to cast stones at you for not being infallible. Cic. humanum est errare, labi, decipi. Homo sum, huma­ni nihil a me alienum puta. Horat. Quisque suos pati­tur manes, optimus ille est qui minimis urgetur. In many things we offend all, Jam. 3. 2. or Greek [...], we trip all. And had all your Errata's been only slight ordinary trippings or stumb­lings, or but which used to be said of Cyprians errours, tantum naevi in candido pectore, I trust by Gods grace, I should either not at all have taken notice of them, or at most only have proceeded against them in the Spirit of meeknesse. But many of your faults are of such a com­plexion, as that I am forced to come against you with the rod, 2 Cor. Iniquity is bound up in the heart, even of your Correct Child, Copy I meane, and the rod of cor­rection must drive it far from you, Prov.

1. It is well you will not allow that Abaddon or Apollyon, or accuser of the brethren to bee upon the bench of your Censors, when your cause comes to bee tried. Yet I am, Sir, prettie well assured, that neither in City or Countrey, you shall well find any better af­fected to your cause and way of management of it, then himselfe. He likes of your faire beginnings, I can assure you;

2. I cannot well phancie how you should expect the God of heaven to speak for you, whom upon sup­position of an absolute decree, you are not ashamed, horresco scribens, p. 24, &c. to make an [...], nay, to be worse then the devill himselfe, p. 41. and p. 13. 3. Nor can I well tell how any of the brethren who are faithfull, chosen and true, Rev. should vote on your side; whom as it is well enough known, you seldome use to name, but in the Accusative case. I cannot well tell who you would have to be your Judges, or allow to be of your Jury. 4. As for the cause I maintain against you, [Page 11] were the Ecclesiasticall Lawes and Courts as they have been, ever since the Reformation of the Church of Eng­land from Popery, I durst commit my selfe to be tried by God and my Countrey. Nay, yet still I am content for my writings of all sorts, which upon this occasion I have drawn up against you, to leave my selfe to the judiciall ministeriall censure of any 10. noted Senior Sympres­byters of worth, for learning, piety, constant painfulness in the worke of the Ministrie, and who since the times have been most upon their Tropicks, have been least Tropicall. These of all others I think fittest to determine matters betwixt us, as our proper Judges; if at the time of triall, they will but renounce all Francisco-Clarian glosses upon the 39 Articles of the Church of Eng­land.

FIrst, But that possibly you may think it a huge credit for to be publickly pointed at, as the Autesignanus, and the very Captain General of all the Arminian route (a thing formerlie only known to some of your neere neighbours) most wise men would thinke; and to my knowledge, some who love you very well do thinke, that by thus appearing upon a publick Theater, before you were in that way challenged by an open enemie, hath been so farre from stanching the bleeding of your name, as that it hath but made it bleed more mortallie and dangerouslie then before. Such a wound indeed you have given it, as is not to bee healed againe but by a Recanting tongue or pen of yours; so that now your name saith to you,

2. Unlesse it may be judged fitting, that (whilst you [Page 12] and your partie are sharpening your tongues and pens against Gods soveraigntie, grace, counsels, servants) the Ministers of God, whom the Prophet would not have to be dumbe dogs, should be meer edentuli; there is a necessitie for them not to be toothlesse at their tongues end or pens end, and yet your faction will not have rea­son enough to give out, that they do valere caninâ elo­quentiâ. It is within their commission to be cutting, Tit. 1. 13.

3. I wish not only that you were for a retreat, but also for a serious Retractation, that now would to you be most honourable, even as Austin's was to him. That would to you bee quasi tabula post naufragium, and make some amends, and possiblie gain you some thanks from the Reformed Church of England, yea, from all the Protestant Churches in Christendome, who do in doctrinals, maintain correspondence with her. You ought not so much to stand upon punctilio's of honour, unlesse your arguments which you draw forth into the field, had been more for pugnam, and lesse for pompam, and not long since, been beaten before you brought them forth.

4. As for me, who from your pasquilling Epistles, have a little more reason then other people, to know how stiffe you are in the instep, I much feare, that not­withstanding your profession of a kind of willingnesse to blot out your writing (Oh that there were a deleatur for the whole, under your grave venerable hand!) we shall rather finde you as peremptorie, as he who cried out, quod scripsi scripsi, sed Deus meliora: definam ego ma­lè ominari.

5. Your defensive buckler (as you call it) I am sure, which no buckler should be, is offensive enough, when you make it to fall on those, whom your first papers call the halfe witted rabble of absolute praedestinarians, and these your owned polite ones, absolute reprobatari­ans, p. 13. whom you deale withall, as the persecutors did of old with good Christians, who by them were [Page 13] put into beares skins, and then they set dogs upon them; so you transform the holiest and ablest of your adversa­ries, into modest or immodest blasphemers, who are for the Ligonem, Ligonem of Gods being the author of sin, and then you set the bandogs of your rhetorick upon them. But how sharp soever your shield, I trust the two edged sword of Gods word, will be able to cut it all in pieces, Heb. 4. 12.

AS for your private conference, I had thought that you had not been at all for private divine Conven­ticles, and not having been at it, I cannot guesse much, how much or how little it was for edification: but since the breaking of it up, from the report which here you make of it, and I have otherwise heard of it, me thinks I may gather these notes. 1. That because you thought your first draught conteining the sum of your confe­rence to bee so inconsiderable, as not so much as to vouchsafe it a reading over, before you did part with it out of your hands. You have made it impossible for your selfe with reason, to make such invectives as every where you do against the Transcribers of your scrible; for how can you now tell that some did not honestlie write according to what they found you to have writtē before them, without any of the least adding to, or de­tracting from your first Copy. 2. It is somwhat strange, that you who are a publicke Preacher, and provided of a publick place, to divulge any wholsome sound do­ctrine in which it cannot be gainsaid (and what have you to do with any other?) should yet in a time wherein Liberty enough in all Conscience is given and taken to, and by those, who do but pretend to Liberty of Consci­ence, be so shie to owne what you teach, should in meer points of Religion, be so much for Conjurations of grea­test secrecie (p. 3.) for whispers and murmurs, nay [Page 14] for a readinesse of going with your owne hands to the fire with your papers, rather then to the Light, p. 4. as if your owne conscience did tell you, that they were very fit to be burnt for hereticks. Aliquid (in this sure) latet quod non patet, veritas est temporis filia, & dies di­em docebit See how like the Pela­gians you are in this, apud August. Epist. 104 & 105. Sunt qui occultius penetrant domos & quod in aperto jam clamare metuunt, in se­creto seminare non quies­cunt, &c.. 3. That by what I know and have heard, and could tell further, if need were, you were in the way of gaining close proselytes to you, not so happy in that other Gentleman you mention, as you were in trip­ping up of the heels of the first, whom you felled to the ground, as the report goes by a strange long-winded syllogisme, with which you begin your first papers. If ever you get beyond sea againe, you must not cry victo­ria for gaining all you ever conferred with, unlesse you will doe it with as little veritie, as Dr Weston at St See Dr Featlies Praeface to the Protestant Relati­on. Nostra damus cum ver­ba damus, quia fallere no­strum est. Omars, did glorie that the Bishop of Calcedon, had made the Earle of Warwicke to become a good Romane Ca­tholicke.

1. IF you did not after your wonted fashion, feed us with empty spoons, put us off with meer words, and bare pretensions of your inability to fathome, the [...] of the Apostle, or the Abysse of the Psalmist, you would Calvin. instit. lib. 3. c. 23. 7. not p. 24. so tartly and sarcastically have gibed at Calvin, for calling the decree about the permission of Adams fall, and the consequents of it, horribile decretum, in no other sense as its evident, then because upon the consi­deration of it, it did affect him with some awfull horrour, that would in very deed have well becom­med you, were your head of a thousand times dee­per reach then it is, to have been strucken with a reverentiall and amazing silencing pause, at the mysterious gulfe of divine predestination, seeing both the Apostle, and the Psalmist, and all hum­ble modest Divines with them, and Austin [Page 15] August. ad Laurent, c. 99. ad Rom. 9. Hoc loco quidam stulti putant aposto­lum in responsione defecisse, & inopiâ reddendae rationis repressisse contradictoris au­daciam. Sed magnum habet pondus quod dictum est, O homo tu quis es? Et in tali­bus quaestionibus ad suae ca­pacitatis considerationem re­vocat hominem. Verbo qui­dem brevi, sed reipsâ magna est reddita ratio. Idem eo­dem lib. cap. 98. Nunquid iniquitas apud Deum? ab­sit, iniquum enim videtur ut sine ullis honorum malo­rumve operum meritis u­num Deus diligat, oderit (que) alterum. Qua in re si futura opera vel bona hujus vel mala illius, quae Deus uti­ (que) presciebat vellet intelli­gi, nequaquam diceret, non ex operibus, sed diceret ex futuris operibus; eo (que) modo istam solveret quaestionem, immo nullam quam solvi opus est faceret quaestionem. willinglie confesse themselves to be at a stand about the severall mysterious waies of executing those de­crees, which the ever holie wise God takes, in the course of his providence. 2. But he that runs, if he be but reading of your book in his hand, may easilie perceive, that in your doctrines about this matter, you are but too n [...]er allied to that proud, haughty, and daring gene­ration, I meane now of the Jesuits, Arminians, and Socinians, who think it high scorn, that any thing about this mysterie, should baffle or give check to that which they take to bee the Lydius Lapis for the trying of all doctrines, viz. their Recta Ratio. And pray, according both to you and them, what depth according to meer naturall reason, is there in it, for to allow God the sole assignment of the conditions upon which he wil Elect and Reprobate? 2. Or for to maintain that it was fitting for him to make finall faith or infidelity, the conditions of those decrees, as finall legall obedience or disobedi­ence; and yet this is the ne plus ultra of the deepest Ba­thos of your predestination, by which have you not tur­ned it into a fordable shallow, for any child to wade through? 3. And why, seeing you doe in these trim publick papers of yours, give out faith and infidelity to be the causes of Election and Reprobation, p. 70. doe you so much as seem to denie, p. 56. what you had strenu­ouslie asserted in your uncorrected Copy, p. 11. that when two are equally called, whereof the one converts himselfe, the other miscarries, it is not God but man that puts the difference? August. in Iohan. 6. Quem trahat & quem non trahat, quare illum trahat, & illum non trahat, noli velle judicare, si non vis er­rare. Can you assigne a cause of the cause of Election and Reprobation, and can you assigne none of the Effects and Consequents of the one and the other? In your divinity belike (unlesse it be where in Traditi­onals you doate upon the authoritie of the Mother Church; for then ignorantia est mater devotionis, and your Rationale Ceremoniale, consuetudo sine veritate, est vetust as erroris, Cypr.) You never think, that nihil scire jucundissima vita est, you be the happie knowing men, all wisedome must dye with you, Job 12. 1.

Yet remember, that Plinius for pyring to neer into the causes of the Vesuvian fires, was consumed by the flames thereof; Scrutator Majestatis opprimetur à glo­ria, Aug. 4. As for us poor orthodoxe Ignaro's, wee think it the highest perfection of our sober wisedome, not to be wise above what is written Aug. de correp. & grat. c. 8. Quantum itaque nobis sua judicia manifestare dig­natur, gratias agamus: quan­tum vero abscondere, non ad­versus ejus consilium mur­muremus, sed hoc quoque no­bis saluberrimum esse creda­mus. & so we give no other causes of predestination, then what the Scriptures do, Mat. 11. 25, 26. Rom. 9. 11. Eph. 1. 4, 5. and we judge with Austin Jam si ad illam profun­ditatem scrutandam quis­quam nos coarctet: Cur illi ita suadeatur ut persuadea­tur, illi autem ita, duo solum occurrunt interim, quae re­spondere mihi placeat. Oalti tudo divitiarum! & nun­quid iniquitas apud Deum? Cui responsio ista displicet, quaeret doctiores, sed caveat ne inveniat praesumptiores de spirit. & liter [...], c. 34. Idem alibi. Cur autem illum poti us liberet aut non liberet, scrutetur qui potest judici­orum e [...]us tam magnum pro­fundum, verumtamen cave­at praecipitium. Idem de verbis Apostoli. Serm. 20. O altitudo! Petrus negat, la­ [...]ro credit! O altitudo! Quae­ris rationem, ego expaves­cam altitudinem: Tu ratio [...]i­nare, ego mirer, tu disputa ego credam. Altitudinem vi­deo, ad profunditatem non pervenio. Paulus dicit in­scrutabilia sunt judicia ejus & tu scrutari venisti; hic di­cit, investigabiles sunt viae ejus, & tu investigare veni­sti. Si inscrutabilia scrutari, & investigabilia vestigare venisti, crede jam venisti. that you by your dar [...]ng to the contra­rie, have not avoided a precipice, but split your selfe up­on it; you have not run from the wolfe, but have run just into his mouth; and pray God that ever hereafter in our Church, you become not Lupus in fabula for it. 1. You be too stately an Oratour for to state any old Questions at all, either in a new found way, or in an old, that would but have shackled your luxuriant rhetorick; and therefore as a thing much beneath you (Aquila non captat muscas) you whollie leave al stating of Questions to your lesse elegant, and more rugged neighbors. 2. But if it be as you say, that you do not novam semitam in ve­teri viâ quaerere, state an old Question in a new found way, then belike we may take it for granted, that with­out any further adoe, you be for old Arminianisme, scil. a thing which sure concerned Gods Church much at this time, for to be acquainted with, under your own hand, habemus confitentem reum. 3. Only pretend you what you list to the contrary in what followes next. 1. I am so well acquainted with the altitude of your spirit, & my selfe and others are so well acquainted with your Cassandro-Grotian streine, wherein as you are, so you affect to be accounted eminent, to be indeed Dux ca­put ipse gregis, as that I doubt not but you aspire to a Moderatorship betwixt the contending parties which you mention: And in this kind some others might, have expected some great feats of pe [...]formance from you. 2. But as for my selfe, I find you so whollie wedded to the latter parties against the former, as that I find you [Page 17] to have the hard hap of most modern Reconciliators, So Huge Grotius was early, when he wrote his D [...]fensio Pietatis ordinum Hollandiae, under the pre­tence of a moderator, the known advocate of State, for the Arminians and Vorstians. Vide I. Bogerma­ni notas. His Cassand [...]ian vo [...]um pro pace, ended, as is plaine by his last book, viz. his Discussor, in a down right plea for Popery, vi­de ipsum, pag. penultima & ultima. Et Andraei Riveti Dialysin contra discussorem per totum. The designe of the Cassandro Germane Interimists, ended at last in a bold ex [...]i [...]pation of Protestan: is [...]e, to the ut­termost that was in them. Ioh. Sl [...]idan, An. 1549. page 374 & passim. The Galli­can moderators doe but bla [...]n [...]h over Arminia­nism. Vide D. D Davenan [...]i append [...]cem ad [...]ractat. 2. de reprobat. & sat [...]sfact. Ch [...]i­sti. Sic mu [...]er formosa su­perne D [...]sinit in piscem. who in words fawn sometimes upon two different parties, but indeed fall most fowlie upon, and doe most hostilely pursue that which they are most resolved to hate, and withall their might to beate downe. I should therefore have been extreamly satisfied, if in this your Presse Copy, you had not openly and only appeared for the Remonstrants opinions against those of the Anti-Remonstrants: For not so much the ancient fathers be­fore St Austin (from whom as I hope elsewhere, to shew, Austin differed in no materiall things.) As for Austin Junior against Austin Senior, for Austin the Presbyter, against Austin the Bishop; when as yet the good old Bishop did cry peccavi, and did some kind of honest penance for some of the errata calami, which fel from him by over-lavish expressions, in the commenda­tion of Nature and free will in his younger times: Aug. De perseverant. c. 3. 11, & 12. In prioribus il­lis scrip [...] Augustinus [...]o [...] s [...]r bend [...]. sed sine praejudicio al [...]rum cau [...]a [...]um quas pru­d [...]ntes p [...]ssunt inv [...]stigare, de quorum vetu [...]late frustra ipsi praescribitur quia Laicus quaedam Romae Caep [...], & [...]a A [...]rica Presbyter explica­vit, quo tempore si de rebus istis dub [...]av [...], n [...]mo ut op [...] ­nor est tam in [...]ustus at (que) in­vidus qui cum proficere pro­hiberet, at (que) in hac dubitati­one ipsi remanendum esse judica [...]. Unto which emendations of his, the African, Ephe­sin, Milevitan, Arausican Councils, did all consent; for not so much the Synod of Augusta, (which never that I could learn, or I think you will ever be able to show, did differ from that of Dort, in the matters debated and determined there; unlesse perhaps in some more laxe phrases, wherein, as is used to be said of the Fa­thers, that ante exortum Pelagium, they did securius lo­qui, so those might speake somewhat more broadlie, before Pelagius Junior, alias your beloved Jac. Armi­nius appeared upon the stage) as in a down right way against the Synod of Dort, and so by an inevitable con­sequence against the very orthodox Protestant Church of England (whose very genuine sonne, you would in this very page, have us to take you to be.) Know you not, that by the then Learned Supreme Politicall Gover­nour of the Church of England, Brittish Divines were sent thither with Orders from him, to suppresse Armi­ni [...]nisme? that they had the first vote and suffrage gi­ven them, in that almost oecumenicall Protestant Sy­nod (Cui nunquam similem vel secundam vidit Prote­stantium [Page 18] orbis Christianus.) Have you the forehead, which yet I know to be sometimes sufficiently steeled, to maintaine, that your opinions do not diametrically clash with the determinations of that Synod, and our owne Divines there? were they not the visible lawful Representers of our Mother English Church there? or must we bee so wickedly uncharitable against them, as to looke upon them as upon so many Ignaroes, of what the doctrine of their own Mother Church was? or so wretchedly pharisaicall, as that when a motion did but seem to be made somewhat prejudiciall, to the Hie­rarchick flaunt of the English Church, they would una­nimously enter their Joint Attestation against it; and See the Joint Attestation published by them, Anno 1646. that yet those very venerable Fathers of our Church, would vote downe, concur in anathematizing the very doctrine of our Mother, the Church of England? Par­don me, Sir, for not beleeving them to have been such unnaturall execrable Chams, Gen. 9. 21. I am cordially troubled, for to heare you say, that you are a very ortho­dox Protestant of the Church of England, whilst you doe openly appeare for Arminius his opinions, against those of Mr Perkins: for Bellarmines against those of Twisse: for a forreiners, and at last a fugitive Baro's, and recanting, praevaricating Barrets opinions, against those of learned Whitakers; and at the same time of the whole Universities of Cambridge, as well as of Dr Esti­us, Dr Somes, Tindals, Chattertons, Willets, and a number more; nay, against those of both the then Archbishops, John Whitegift Cantu [...]riensis, Matth. Eborac. the Com­pilers of the 9. Lambeth Articles; of all which things Vide A. Thysi. qui horum opera latinè transtulit & edidit Amstelodami, 1613. Ioh. Vogerman Nota, 107. & 107. in Grotium. I rejoice even forreiners with much content and ho­nour to our Church, to have taken notice, and grieve to see you to be so great a stranger in your own Israel, as not to have seen, yea, to oppose, Quis talia fando, &c. For my owne part in what you set downe here, I can­not tell what most to admire, whether, 1. In so great a Polititian, as I take you to be, your improvident men­tioning of Contra-Remonstrants, Dort, Whitaker, Per­kins, [Page 19] &c. towards the rowsing up of my memorie, and that of other mens, unto the consideration of the grand Heroes of the Protestant Church, opposed by you, you discover who you side withall somewhat of the soo­nest. 2. Or else your disingenuity, if you have but read any of the Remonstrants writings, in that here you mention them so slightingly, who have (as you must needs think, if you have but seen them) deserved so well of you. Ingenuum est agnoscere per quos profeceris. 3. Or else whether or not that supercilious scornfulnesse, upon the confidence, which you have of your own great na­turall wit, in adventuring to maintaine Remonstrant opinions, and yet not vouchsafe to looke so much as up­on any Remonstrant author. But perhaps I commit an errour against the aptnesse of your [...], and the Euphues of the pia mater of your braines, which doth Bishop Carleton against Montague. teach you Arminianisme without book as fast, as once Bishop Montague learned it, and as fast as Bidle of late learned Arrianisme without a Raccovian Catechisme. 4. Or if not at any of these, yet then at what is worse. (pardon sweet Sir, a bugs-word from me) Your bold impudence in making a shew of being no Arminian Remonstrant, when as your book à Capite ad Calcem, abounds with it, as much as any ulcerous body doth with botches. In tanto corpore non est mica salis. 4. Much may be excused, from such prelates as Out all and Dave­nant, &c.] 1. Diminutively spoken of Praelates, by such an admirer of Praelates, and that Qua tales, as your selfe. Is excuse instead of Lawrels of commendation, all that you will allow them, especially Davenant, for their great pains in clearing the controverted points? Perchance it's as much as they doe deserve for their over-masculine opposing of Arminianisme, and so of your great Diana. 2. But how do you prove, that either of these Prelates did onlie moderate betwixt the con­tending parties, the Remonstrants, and Contra-Remon­strants, and their Complices; and that they did not both adhere to the latter, and stoutlie oppose the former. It [Page 20] is well known what side Doctor Davenant took in the Synod, and after it. Bishop Hall and B [...]sh­op Davenant, in their Let­ters annexed to B [...]shop H [...]ls Reconciler, p. 75. 84, 85. averre, that the Ar­minian errors cond [...]mned at Dort, are cont [...]ry to the English Church. Animadversions ag [...]inst Mr H [...]rd his Gods love to mankind, p. 10. And 3. As for Bishop Outall, I shall in as fitting a place, tell you more of him; in the meane while content your selfe with what his fellow Bishop Davenant saith of him, that he did, together with the Church of England, ‘Conjoine the particu­lar absolute decree of God, not depending upon the praeicience of humane faith or will, but upon the pur­pose of Gods will and grace towards those whom God in Christ hath chosen to deliver, with the gene­rall and conditionarie will, or generall promise;’ which every body now may know, is none of the way which you take. 5. Amongst the Clergy and amongst the Laity] This contemning of the Clergy too yo [...] have learned from Pelagius, or at least tooke out the lesson without booke. Aug. l. 2. cont. Iul. c. ver. Quos, inquit, (Clericos) ur­bana exagitatos dica [...]itate, vel potius vanitate contem­nis, quia non possunt secun dum Categories Aristotelis de dogmatibusjudicare, qua­si tu qui maximè qu [...]reris examen vobis & Ep scopate judicium denegari, peripate­ticorum possis invenire con­cilium; ubi de subjecto & de his quae sunt in subjecto contra originale peccatum, dialectica sententia prosera­tur. Aug. l. 2. operis imperfe­cti: hoc dixerim ut ostende­rem quam sis acutus, qui me obtusiore dicis esse pistillo. Indeed, if our Countrie as to the clerical or ministe­riall part of it, did yet abound with such Ministers, as were only fit to supplere locum idiotae, with such poor rats, such lasie Hierarchick, non residentiall, non prea­ching Lubbers, as it hath, by the report of honest know­ing people, abounded with in former times, you might speake thus (after your wonted manner) scornfully and diminutively of your neighbour Clergy men. 2. You sure take your selfe, as a [...], to be one of those hun­dreds fit to speake of these mysteries, when at Daintrey, you came out with that which you have, p. 26. about Gods preparing torments for the Devill and his An­gels, but not for any wicked men. And when at North­ampton (contrary to your promise as some say) you vented that goodly argument, which you set downe, p. 72. about the universalitie of Christs death. 2. For my part I dare not be so uncharitable, but to assure my selfe and others, that not one of the hundred of your despi­sed Presbyterian brethren, but would have handled those matters, even ex tempore, better, i. e. more solidlie and orthodoxlie, then you the trim finicall bean-cleric. of the Countrie, did after all your artificiall preparati­ons. 3. As you, and your Pelagian and Arminian facti­on, by debasing of them, handle these mysteries, who make election to be nothing else, p. 2. but a consequent [Page 21] reward upon persevering in the faith, and well doing, and reprobation to be nothing else, save a punishment to the contrarie. Either every Preacher is fit to divulge these, not operta, but aperta, or he is fit to be no preacher at all. 4. Not one in a thousand of the scorned Laity (if but competentlie instructed and catechised) but would even instruct and teach you, (otherwise a Great Rabbi in our Israel) that vocation, faith, repentance, and all graces, are subsequent genuine fruits of election, and not antecedents to it, as you speake of them, even when you strive in your owne defence, to speak best of them, p. 56, 68, 69. something else therefore, besides what you doe in the next lines so demurely pretend to, which though I can tell what it was, yet for to spare you, I wil not at this time blab out, was the cause of that si­lence, and afterwards secrecie which you talk of in the way of venting of your notions: Which now they be out, are not vera, but placentia, writ just as heedid qui

6. Forced to be more publick] viz. By the fierce impetus of your own [...] and [...], but by no other force that I wot of, whose preparations to the presse, had you not appeared in it, I am much assured, would have been none at all, and that for reasons wherein I can satisfie my selfe, are like to be slow enough. 7. One of the falsest] A thing which you by what you confesse, of not so much as reading over your owne first Copy, have (as has been shewed) made impossible for you to prove. And I am well assured it is but the second, taken from your owne first, I say not best; for neither of them are so much as good. 8. Great leisure] In your second Epistle to me, you seem to call it Lasinesse, whilst you tell me of taking lesse paines with a lesser, then with a greater Congregation; though I blesse God for it, and pray let me crave leave to speake it without boasting; I do by one halfe take with those few who are under [Page 22] me, more paines, then you your selfe do with your more numerous flock. And I am some what confident through Christ who strengtheneth mee, that my Sermons bee more wholsome, though not so handsome as yours. But well it is for me, that this lasinesse, which I think in me was ever like unto Dr Jacksons vigorous rest, is, you your selfe being judge, turned into great leisure. I like it the better, because I am sure you are none of the procurers or promoters of it. Deus, Deus, nobis haec otia fecit; and for that as God will have it at this time to be, it may be of some use unto the Church of God, for me at some lei­sure to observe your Snake-like motions, and to return some answers, to your mischievous poysonous papers. 9. Not from any ambition to be followed] 1. Beleeve that whoso wil & can, that knowes you. For my own part I cofess my faith as to this point, to be at a loss. 2. But good worthy Gentlemen of our Country, for whom the snare in these papers is laid, let me crave the boldnesse to be­seech you to take for once, this Gentleman on his word, satisfie his desire, and do not you follow him. Not only I, who am unknown to the most of you, and who were I better known to you, might not seem to deserve to be heeded by you; but all those Reverend Bishops and Doctors, who have been already mentioned, and those who may yet farther bee mentioned, together with your own sacred mother the Church of England, cry and call with loud voice to you, not to follow him, because he leads you amisse; and who with himselfe may bring you (which God avert) into bogs and praecipices. 10. Humble desire to be rightly understood] 1. The Eng­lish world was never so full of pride, as since it hath abounded with proud actions, and humble phrases. But the best is, I have at last brought my selfe to it, to under­stand these expressions, when they came from meer Complements the clean contrary way. 2. It is little for your credit, or the Churches ease, that now at last shee understands, and that under the hand of T. P. that he is guilty of Pelagianisme and Arminianisme, though hee [Page 23] have the audacity to denie both: Yet vox populi, vox Dei, do you what you can to the contrary, you will henceforward be reputed to be, what reallie you are.

11. An Apology and an Appeale] 1. Apologies should be modest, & be made use of only for wiping off dirt from our selves, but not for the flinging of dirt in the faces of all we meet with, as this of yours doth, as often as in your way, you meet with any Reformers you like not of, or even with the whole Nation of Reformers, in the first Reformation. 2. Yours begins with Calumnies, that men in the world of no small name, do make God the author of sinne, p 8. Goes on with Jirkes and squibs, and ends with Complements. In hac Apologia multum inest turpitudinis. 3. An appeale Either for you we must erect a Court of Cassandro-Grotians, or you had need as Pelagius of old, to ap­peal to an Auditorium Phi­losophicum. Aug. lib. 6. con­tra Iul. c. 20. Ad hoc redacta est haere sis vestra, ut ge­mant sectatores vestri, non inveniri dialecticos judices in Ecclesia, de scholis Peri­pateticorum, sive Stoicorum, à quibus possitis absolvi. to those you scorn to be censured by, as I am confident you would bee by all the present Clergy of the Countrie, clerically to be convened about the matter, or by all the Christian or­thodox Laity in these parts. 12. Such a secret might bee communicated to one] If it had been any part of the mystery of Godlinesse, spoken of, 1 Tim. 3. 16. you had leave enough from God and the Church, to have com­municated it to many; but since the secret is now come forth, and appeares to belong to the depths of Satan, Rev 2. 24. great pity it is, that by so fine and elegant a tongue, it should have been communicated to any one. Poysons sometimes go down glib Ruffinus predecessor to Pelagius did propone his fi [...]st poison in a book, com­posed by Sixtus a Pytha­gorean Philosopher, un­der the name of Siatus a M [...]rtyr, and Bishop of Rome, vide Hieron Epist. ad Ctesiph & in c. 23. Hierem. l. 4. Comment. Hoc enim (saith my author Jansenius for it) ideireo eum s [...]cisse existimandum est, ut venenum aureo martyris po­culo biberetur. when pre­sented in a golden cup, and commended by noted Phy­sitians. 13. Which belonged only to the fire] 1. Sure you may be thought to suspect your papers to be guilty of some heresie, because you would thus with your owne secular arme, have cast them into the fire. 2. And yet in so doing, you would neither have dealt worse with with them, then they deserved. (K. James at the first sight of P. Bertii his book, entituled Apostasia sancto­rum, professed that ob solum Titulum, it was liber dig­nus igne) 3. Nor worse then, as the report goes, your admired G. Vossius, to whom you are much beholding, [Page 24] did to a basket full of his writings, for feare of the ap­proaching Synod of Dort, and that he might stand firm in his Praesidentship in Collegio Belgico D. D. ordinum Hollandiae. It's well for you, that his Historia Pelagia­na, did escape his fierce fingers; for else what would you have done for a Warehouse to fetch quotations out of? 14. So much as a Massilian] That sure you are, as the minimum quod sic, for the opinions of the Molinists. It's plaine, that our own Brittish Divines in their suffrage given in at the Synod of Dort Synod Dordrac. p. 2. p. 256. in 410. Inter Massilien­sium errores, refertur quod n [...]gaverint dari cuiquam ta­lem perseverantiam, à qua non permittitur praevarica­ri. Quem errorē refellit, Au­gust. de bono perseverant. c. 6 relate it out of a let­ter of Hilaries to Austin, that it was reckoned amongst the Massilian tenents, that they did deny there was gi­ven unto any such a perseverance, from which they were not permitted to prevaricate. And 'tis as plaine, that you maintaine many to fall off, and to praevaricate totally and finally from Grace, even the grace of Regeneration and Justification. p. 67. 15. A very orthodox Pro­testant of the Church of England] So indeed you would be reputed to be, yea, even so very a genuine sonne to the Protestant Church of England, as if for many miles about you, our good mother had never such another. And all this in despight of many Articles of the Church in King Edward the 6. his Reign. Of the 17. Article in Queen Elizabeths Reigne. Of the 9. Lambeth Articles towards the latter end of her Reigne. Of the explana­torie Articles of the Church of Ireland, in King James his Reigne. Nor so much as to dare to mention the Confession of faith, Catechismes, &c. of the late West­monasterian Assembly, though highly commended by the Reverend and incomparable Primate of Armagh. For my own part, I have in fidelity, though with much weaknesse served my mother the Church of England, now above these twentie yeares, in the work of the Ministry, and if I bee not able to prove, that the Do­ctrines which I have taught all along, contrary to what you deliver in this booke, are most agreeable to her faith, and that yours are as opposite to it, as heaven and hell, light and darknesse, the Articke is from the An­tarticke [Page 25] pole, I shall be content to be cursed by my mo­ther, even with Anathema Maranatha. But of this more, if need bee, when I shall come to what you say, p. 16. Onlie let all the true Christian sonnes and daughters of the Church of England, tell me what true sons to her at any time she hath found Arminian cle­ricall ceremonialists to bee? The rod and reproofe give wisedome: but a child left to himselfe, bringeth his mo­ther to shame, Prov. 29. 15, 16. Managed discourse, &c. not from the hidden mysteries of Gods secret will, but from the clearest expressions, &c] This trim flim­flam will then Apologize for your methodus proceden­di, when as you shall have proved, that Rom. 9. 11, 13, 16, 18, 21, 22. Eph. 1. 4, 11. Act. 15. Rom. 8. 25, 29. 1 Tim. 2. 19. Rev. 13. 8. 20. 15. and other Scriptures more, which do professedly handle the matter of Pre­destination, and accquaint us with what God hath fully determined shall be, and how he doth (if I may so say) make up his decree, to be no part of his revealed will or word, concerning his secret will conceived in him­selfe, Of which will manife­sted in the word, Dr Whi­taker in his Cygnea Cantio, writes excellently well, conformable to Scrip­tures. And Austin, Rom. 11. O altitudo! ultima illa Apo­stoli exclamatio, hanc sen­tentiam confirmat. Ne (que) enim tantae allitudinis est ut penetrari inequeat, Deum od [...]sse homines propter pec­catum, etiam antequam na­ti sunt, immò rationi conve­nientissimum est, ut Deus serre nequeat, quod est natu­rae suae contrarium. Ibi de­mum infinitum [...] & Abyssus est divinae discreti­ [...]nis, quando sine peccati ra­tione quidam reprobantur, & alii qui nihilo erant amo­re digniores ad vitam & foecilitatem praedest [...]nantur. I [...]iquum videtur (ait Au­gustinus) ut sine ullis bo­norum malorum (que) operum meritis unum Deus diligat, odiat (que) alterum. Deus igi­tur hunc dil [...]git, illum (que) odit sine meri [...]is [...]llis operum aut b [...]norum aut malorum. Hoc videri p [...]ssit al [...]cui iniquum, sed est aequ [...]ssimum, quia sic Deo visum est, ne (que) Augu­stinus affirmare veritus est, eos Apostoli verbum evacua­re qui judicium divinae dis­cretionis ad opera reducunt praevisa aut praeterita, &c. or that those Scriptures are placed in Gods booke, (as a Doctor once openly did deliver it in my hearing, in a sermon at Christs Church, (which had been better delive'rd extraaedem Christi) as the forbid­den tree was in the Garden of Eden, not to be medled with, or that as Adolphus Venator once had it; The Apostle might have found him some other worke, then to have wrote those Scriptures. Till you shall have made some attempts towards the proving of some of these matters, you must pardon us, though we continue beleeving the forementioned Scriptures, to be as true and cleare Scriptures for what we prove out of them for absolute praedestination, as any promises, commands, threats, &c. frequently quoted by you, do signifie what God likes or dislikes, will reward or punish, when belie­ved, done, or left undone. The former signifie, whom, why, how he doth praedestinate (the main things disputed.) The latter, tell after what fashion, and upon whom that [Page 26] praedestination is to be executed, of whom there is no question or difficulty. And would God be pleased, which I pray for in your behalfe, to give you some of the Collyrium, spoken of Rev. 3. you would quickly see this with me too. 17. Of divers interpretations unto the Analogie of faith] 1. Texts I find you, (p. 13, 17, 34, & passim) as it were, to be casting in by dozens, as if Baker-like you were bound to throw in so many fine Manchets into a Buttery hatch: But when by Inter­terpretations you crumble them out, either they fall into your own crude dictates. or else they bee turned into sippets, fit for none but Pelagian, Massilian or Arminian Palats. This if it hath been done knowingly by you, upon reading of their writings, your falshood and impudence is to be detested, who protest against any the least in­clinations unto Pelagianisme, p. 55, 56. But if ignorant­ly, some may thinke the felicity of your symbolizing, jumping wit with them, to be much commendable, who still without conferring notes with any of them, do hit upon the same Texts, Interpretations, Illustrations, &c. As for me, I must needs say that it is natural for you and every body else to be a Pelagian, &c. That is an excellent observation of Jansen. in his Aug lib. 7. Tom. 1. cap 4 That if Austin did not at first avoid Semipelagian, tam proclive est corruptae naturae. (quae velut mortem ipsam horret, omni fiducia libertatis f [...]nditùs exui) in sententiam Semipelagianam labi, tenu [...]ssimasque fibras illius erroris retinere, then can no other look to bee free from it, &c. I cannot but give my vote for it; that whensoever the harmony of the Confessions of their faith, shall be brought together into some one Syntagma, or Corps le Grand, that your first and second Tome, come to shut up the harmony, as being most agreeable to the Analogie of their faith, perfidiousnesse rather, but to no other wholsome, sound forme of Doctrine, that I wot of, as yet entertained by any Catholique Christian, Reformed, Protestant Church. 2. In our Interpretations of Scripture, I beleeve we are not so much to attend what is congruous to safety, (by which I doubt not but you, and many wanton wits more Castallio praefat. ad suos Dialogos de praedesti­natione, electione & libera voluntate vulgus merum (nisi qui sunt à literatis corrupti) melius & sanius sentit quam quidam litera­ti. S [...]quuntur enim illiterati homines rationis & sensuum judiciu [...], quod in his rebus integrum est, quae sub ratio­nem sub (que) sensus cadunt: a [...] (que) utinam hac in parte hominibus relinquer [...]tur na­turae judicium. understand nothing but securitie to your mo­ther wit) which you in your first Comment, (give me leave to be yet so foolish, as not to understand you sine Commentario, or the domestique Interpreter of your meaning) call right reason, as what is congruous to ve­rity, [Page 27] and the series of the Text and Context. Bonus tex­tuarius est bonus Theologus. But this I am sure of, is little heeded by you, or any of your party, who all along rob God of his soveraign determining power, and leave him nothing but a Legislative and Judiciary power, to give out sentence secundum allegata, & probata, of the merits or demerits of men. 18. Who am a babe and an Ideot, &c.] I hungely feare not yet so much as a babe in grace, unlesse it be such a one as you say, p. 67. may fall from it, and out-live their innocence; I know you to be no babe in malice, Malitia supplet aetatem. Certeine it is, you take your selfe to be wiser then Au­stin, whose senior or manlike writings, you confute ever and anon by his more infantile, junior babe-like wri­tings, as to your shame shall be seen when we come to p. 44. of this your second scrible. 2. As babe-like as you would be accounted to be, in your very next words, you like some Archi-Thalassus get to the rudder of Christs Ship, and professe to be a steeres-man of it, to keep it off from fatall shelves, and to guide it thorow, as anon after, the dangerous Archi-Pelago. Truly for this I would not blame you, who by your place and office in Christs Ship, are, though not an Admirall, yet to bee sure some what more in it, then a common Sailer, even a Pilot, a Steers-man. And heartily I can wish, that you would not steer the ship you are one of the guides of, per Archipelagum, through the maine ocean unto Rome againe. Unto this place do most of your doctrines direct us; and it is true, if the present Pope bee but of his last praedecessors mind, you and your wares, your doctrines I meane, would be much more welcome there, as the Bull of the H. Father In­nocentius decimus published, An. 1653. Contra Au­gustinum Cornelii Jansenii doth assure you, then any of ours would do, with the Grand Turke, if according to your charitable wish, p. 35. they should in the next Reformation, be shipt over for Turkey. Sed naviges tu potius Anticyras. My small vessell soundly dashed, [Page 28] and many others much greater shipwrackt] Beleeve it who list, there is belike no safety but in a Semipelagian or Arminian Barque; all the reformed who have fol­lowed Scripture, Austin; Calvin, &c. they all as lead, are sunk into the Gulfe, onely your late modest Je­suits, your cooler Lutherans, in that I am sure, in this no Martin Lutherans, as I shall shew elsewhere, your polite and politick Grotians, (in these Controversies, though no Cassandrians) are the onely men who hold their head above water, and are kept from sinking into the deep. Whereas yet blessed be God in all ages, the Pelagians, Semipelagians of old See this proved at large by Cornel. Iansen. [...]om. 1. l. 6. c. 20, 21 & inde. Arminians of late, witnesse P. Bertius, Tilenus, Slatius, Thomson, and a number more of the Transmarines, together with the profane spawne of the English Arminians, from Montacutius to this day downe ward, have shipwrackt more in few yeares upon the rocks of Atheisme Vide D▪ Nic. Vedelii Ar­can. A [...]minianismi. superstition, Socinianisme, profanenesse, then any of their opposites of any considerable note, have done at any time: And you my good brother consider with your selfe, whether since your sailing off from us in the points of the Absolute Decree, p. 24. and the Resistibi­lity (as you call it) of grace, you have not wel-nigh, if not altogether, made shipwrack of faith and a good con­science. Nolo ego ulterius Camerinam hanc movere. This sea will cast up nothing but mire and dirt; those are most like to be not only dashed, but drowned, who for the liberty of their wills, dispute against Gods praedesti­nation. Aug. de bono perseve­rant. c. 18. Hoc unum scio, neminem contra istam prae­destinationem, quam secun­dum scripturam sanctam defendimus, nisi errando di­sputare posse. And if Abulensis may be believed, no such way to a breake-neck in all Religion, then to erre in the great mysteries of praedestination. Tostat. in G [...]nes. c. 19. In nulla ma [...]ria periculo sius erratur quàm in hac de praedestinatione, Eligerem e­nim mag is contra totius si dei v [...]r [...]tatem perversè sen­tire, & in hac non [...]rrare, quàm in omnibus recte ju­dicando in hac sola de [...]are. [...]. in Thom. p. 1 q. 22 [...] [...] ­ster, non evidentia veritatis inspecta, sed altitudine in­accessibili veritatis occultae. & hoc ingeniolo meo satis rationabile videtur. Minus de Deo sensit, qui hoc tan­tum de illo credit, quod suo ingenio metiri potest. Simili­ter idem in Rom. 9. Quum objicies conjunge haec vera si­mul, viz. infallibilitatem decreti & liberum arbitri­um; respondebo me scire, quod verum vero non est contrarium, sed nescire haec jungere, sicut nescio alia mysteria fidei quae credo. Haec ignorantia quietat in­tellectum meum. 19. Hovered a long time betwixt the absolutenesse of a decree, and the liberty of a will, &c] But 1. How could you be said to hover all that while that you were, as you say, p. 24. for the absolute decree, till Calvins expression about it, frighted you into your wits, p. 24. were you then when you stood, as well as since you have tumbled, a man un­stable in all your waies? 2. If your great wit would not serve you to reconcile the absolutenesse of Gods de­cree [Page 29] with the liberty of mans wil; yet 1. Why would you not thinke them reconcileable by some other, better seen in these secrets then your selfe. 2. Or why would you not with Cardinall Cajetan See the like testimony about Ph. Melancton, produced­by Walaeus de provid. div. cap 3. p. 84 Edit. in 410. be so modest as to acquiesce in your ignorance without disputing against God? 3. Why were you not so pious and so provi­dent; even for the safety of your own soul Aug. Tutiores vivimus, si totum Deo damus: Non au­tem nos illi ex parte commit­timus. Idem lib. de perseve­rant. sanctorum, cap. 11. sanc cum Apostolus dicat, ideo ex fide ut secundum gratiam firma sit prom ssio: Miror homines infirmitati suae se malle committere quam firmitati promissimis Dei▪ sed in [...]r [...]a est mihi, inquit, de me volun as Dei. Quid ergo? Tua nè tibi voluntas de te ipso c [...]rta est n [...]c times? Qui videtur stare, videat ne cadat. Cum igitur utraqve incenta sit, cur non homo firmiori, quam infirmiori fidem suam charitatem (que) commi [...]ti [...]? that when as to you there seemed to be a necessity, that either Gods absolutenesse, or your freedome and absolutenesse; should be aloft, to sit downe your selfe by the losse, then that Gods power, grace, decrees, should bee lo­sers? Have you not heard of a good proverb among the Jewes, that praestat demere de profano & addere ad sacrum, quam è contra? and will you hating sacri­ledge, not think your own will and freedome to bee a profane thing in comparison to Gods will? The Lord deliver you from your miserable [...] This [...] and [...] of yours, makes you so like the Massillians, though you would not be thought any, of whom Prosper. thus Epist. ad Ruffin de lib. arbitr. Ab hac autem confessione gratiae Dei ideo quidam resil [...]nt, ut cum eam talem confessi fuerint, qualis divino cloqui [...] praedicatur, & qualis opere potestatis suae agnoscitur, etiam hoc necesse habeant confiteri, quod ex omni numero hominum per saecula cuncta­natorum certus apud Deum definitusque sit numerus praedestinati in vitam aeler [...]am populi, & secundum propositum Dei vocantis El [...]cti. Quod quidem tam impium est negare, quam ipsi gra­tiae contr [...]ire. love God more, and your selfe lesse. 22. Walking upon a rope] I perceive you bee excellently good at turning from what you were but just now, and will become pre­sently again a Sayler; you are here a funambulo, a rope dancer: And perchance in all the feats of activity which you shew upon your cord, you little thinke that you do but continue walking upon Semi-pelagian or Massili­lian It will be w [...]rth the while for those who have skill and leisure to see how these Massilian cable [...]opes, are drawn out at Length by Cornelius Jansenius, whom as to the matter, no man can commend enough for his incomparable paines; his words are most re­markeable. Aug. Tom. 1. lib. 8 cap. 1. Massilienses tanquam Catholicae fidei sectatores Christum na­turae perditae salvatorem omnibus modis sibi retinendum esse duxerunt, [...]u [...]ndamque [...]gratiam ejus, ut quemadmodum Augustinus dicit, nobiseum pro Catholica side perniciem Pelagiani er­roris impugnarent, lib. de praedestinatione. Sect. cap. 14. Sed cum istud praedestinationis & electi­onis propositum, quo quidam, pro solo Dei beneplacito, nulla prorsus habita consideratione volunta­tis, à perditionis massa quam peccatum f [...]cerat, aliis in eadem causa praetermissis, discerni debere dicebantur, & consequenter omnes voluntatis actus, quibus ex illa massa perditionis eripiuntur, à prima credendi voluntate usque ad ipsam Gloriae coronam accipere, durissimum ipsis esse ac despe­rationis causa videretur, adeo (que) Catholicae veritati & antiquiori patrum sensui repugnare, aliam viam salva Dei gratia & praedestinatione sibi aperiendam esse duxerunt, qua mitigata illa divini propositi fatalitate, unusquis (que) si vellet, per gratiam ab illa perditione posset liberari. Ita (que) scalas quasdam sibi machinati sunt, (let Mr T. P. conceive these ladders to have been made of the rope he speakes of) quibus à naturae bonitate, quae non prorsus peccato deleta fuerat, tanquam pri­ma & initiali quadam gratia ad salva [...]ricem Christi gratiam, quis quis vellet sine ullo Pelagii errore vel gratuitae gratiae laesione conscenderet. Thus Mr T. P. may perceive he is not the only funam­bulo. Sic scilicet itur ad Astra, alias ad inferos. cords, they, as their genuine successors the Je­suites, [Page 30] the Arminians, and your selfe, in the lucky device (as you all think) of scientia media are still devising new Chimaerical shifts, & that under pretēdency of reconci­ling Gods infallible decrees, and mans most fallible free will; but which really set up the rotten dagon, and proud Idoll of mans will, against the certein, never missing de­terminations of God, which are as the brazen moun­taines, spoken of Lev. 6. 1. which are never moved. I should not wonder though the cords of your will, and those too of Antecedent and Consequent, and a number more reckoned up. 27. by which you would (if it were in you) limit and bind the Almighty, breake all together with your selfe, and give you a desperate fall; but as for the counsell of God, that shall stand, Prov. 19. 21. In the Lord is no mutability or shadow of turning. 23. Bold as the Pelagians] This Epithete of boldnesse, you put twice upon the Pelagians, once in your former papers, and now here; and I thinke de industriâ, as a select terme pickt out by you; for that possibly in your more polite Massilian, Semipelagian, and politicke judgement, you take them living among Christians, as they did, to have been too bold and too daring, when sub Christiano nomine (to use Tertullians Tertullian. Apologet. phrase) they did gentes agere, when the first [...], if you will, face of their haeresie, was meerly Ethnick, all See praedestination main­teined against postdestina­tion. [Page 31] the while that by grace they understood nothing else but nature, which they did confound with grace. This I'll beleeve you take too have been somewhat to bold and grosse, and even Pelagius himselfe, dissembled at least to be of this mind before the diospolitan Fathers Vide J. Lai. ex August-Epist. 106. Damnatus exis. set, nisi objecta sibi contra gratiam Dei dicta, quae ob­scurare non potuit, ipse damnasset. Praeter enim illa quae quomodo potuit, ausus est qualicun (que) ratione defen­dere, objecta quaedam sun quae nisi remota omni Ter­giversatione anathematizes­set, ipse anathematizatus esset. 2. You do not any where call their errors haereti­call, unlesse perhaps, p 55, 56. in a mollified sense, (es tu inter Pelagianos molliores) whereas you can finde in your heart to stigmatize the doctrine of speciall re­demption with pestilent haeresie. It is most likely you think Pelagians to have been more bold then false or untrue in their sayings; but their enemies to have been both bold, yea, bloody and false too. 3. When the Pelagians were most bold, (as they were in their first edition, before they met with opposition from their Catholicke adversaries) they were hardly more bold and adventurous then your selfe were in your first pa­pers, where you tell us, p. 1. that that is a praeposterous saying, that God does not elect us, because we choose the good, but we choose the good because he elects us. That p. 14. when two are equally called, whereof the one converts himselfe, the other miscarries, 'tis not God but man that puts the difference August. Epist. 106. Quis te ab illa perditionis massa discernit? Ʋnde Apostolus interrogat dicēs, Quis enim, te discernit? Ʋbi si dixerit homo, fides mea, voluntas mea, bonum opus meum: Re­spōdetur ei, quid enim habes quod non accepisti? si autem & accepisti, quid gloriaris quod non acceper is? &c. nay, then you are in this very Correct Copy of yours, wherein you would faine have us beleeve, that you are multum mu­tatus, from what you were in your first Ʋncorrected Copy: witnesse for this what you have up and downe, chap. [...]. and what you set downe expresly, chap. 4. p. 70. That because such man as are in Christ by faith, are better then such as are out of Christ by infidelity, therefore those are taken, and these are left. An asserti­on as diametrically Antiapostolicall, as any can be, Rom. 9. 11. and (as shall be shewed in its proper place) as purely Pelagian, as ever bold Pelagius uttered any. Sic conveniunt ultima primis. 31. Nor so bloody as the Manichees] 1. We need not be August. lib. ad Bonifac. cap. 18. Hominem Dei opus de­fendimus: nec ex illius po­tentia vel in malum vel in bonum invi [...]um aliquem co­gi. Prosper. ad Ruffin. Ad­jiciunt etiam (accusatores Augustini) duas illum hu­mani generis massas & du­as cred [...] velle naturas, ut scilicet tantae pietatis v [...]o Paganorum & Manichaeo­rum adscribatur imp [...]tas. Et in Epistola ad August. Massilienses; dieunt, sub hoc praedestinationis nomine fa­talem quandam induci ne­c [...]ssi [...]a [...]em, aut diversarum naturarum dici dominum conditorem, si nemo al [...]ud possi [...] esse quam factus s [...]i. troubled at the ob­jection of Manichaeisme, it having been so protrite a stallion, or thred-bare objection of the Pelagians against [Page 32] the Catholickes: and for that many hundred yeares a­go it was, upon the like pretences objected by the Pa­pists, to our old suffering and late bleeding brethren, the Waldenses Philip. Morne's myste­ry of iniquity, progressi­on. 49. & 48. p. 355, 331. edit. Anglic. ad A. p 63. & 64. vide Aug. lib. 1. cont. Jul. c. 1. lib. 2 de nupt. c. 3. & 29. & alibi saepissimè apud August. lib 1. operis imperfecti. Haec semper fuit maximum inter Manichaeos (seu Catholicos) Catholicos­que (id est Pelagianos) dis­crimen, & limes quidam la­tissimus, quo à se mutuo pio­rum & impiorum dogmata separantur, imo magna mo­les, quasi coeli â terra pro­funditate disjungens, quod nos omne peccatum volunta­ti malae, illi vero malo eorū naturae (tribuunt) qui cum diversos errores, sed veluti de capite sontis istius efflu­entes consequenter ad sacri­legia flagitia perveniunt. 2. But da Quintiliane colorem for any such objection, for do any of ours maintain, that there be two paramount uncontroleable, unsubordinate principles; wherof the one is principium boni, the other principium mali? Or do we maintain that the only true & good God, the author of every good gift, James 1. 17. is at all pro­prij nominis author, of that which is sinfully evill, as such? This latter though you be so impudent, as every where to object, or to take for granted that your adver­saries hold, you shall never be able any more to prove against them, then I shall be able to evince against you (who was never so mad as to make any shew of at­tempting it) that you are a wity Epist. or a bare Epist, &c. 25. Robbing God of his efficiency in any one act, which is naturally good] 1. But what if you do not rob God as he is the author of nature & of all naturall good actions, if you doe rob him of all first efficiency, and of every thing which in propriety of speech, may be call'd efficiency, about the great workes of grace and conver­sion (as hath been and Praedestination de­fended against Postdesti­nation, by W. B. against T. P. M. S. shall be abundantly proved) are you for that any thing the smaller thiefe, and not for that very reason so much the more sacrilegious? Rom. 2. 22. Thou who abhorrest Idols, committest thou sacriledge? 2. If your time were but come for the venting of all your Pelagian and Arminian secrets (you being a close Votary to them, though yet loath openly to owne your best friends) you would be found to rob the God of nature, as well as the God of all grace, by maintaining in the point of Gods providence, that God hath no influx upon any voluntary act of the creature, any otherwise then per modum concursus in suppositum, not per modum operationis in voluntatem Dr Twisse against Mr Hoard, p. 25, 26. Arminius will have Gods concourse to an evill act, to be every way as much as his con­course to a good, and that he concurs to the working of a good act, no more then to the working of an evill act, which we utterly deny, &c. Arminians hold, that God works in man [...] velle, modo velit as ab­surd an assertion, as ever any man breathed. Dr Twisse, lib. 2. pr. 1. p. 142. Edit in 4 [...]0. Col. 2. but veri­tas est temporis filia, time will unmaske what you hold in these points. 26. Aspersing his holinesse in any one act, which is morally evill] 1. This, though you have [Page 33] malice enough to charge your adversaries with the holding of (si accusasse suffecerit: quis erit innocens?) Yet they will cleare themselves to hold more then your selfe, that God is no author of sinne, Psal. 5. 4. Hab. 1. 13. nor can be; for that if (I may so speake) the very Augustin passim. esse of sin is meerly privativum, & nullam habet causam efficientem, sed deficientem tantum. 2. But how you will doe to cleare your owne doctrine about free will, which you do all along place as to the very Essence and being of it, and so as it is a creature of Gods making, in a Cylindricall [...], or turne-pin indifferency, not only ad contradictoria sed & ad contraria Vide D. Anton. Walae. cont. Corvin. c. 6. Si libe­rum arbitrium primi homi­nis consistebat in illo aequi­librio affect us & inclinati­onis ad malum & bonum, tum sanè homo ante lapsum, non tantum Dei imaginem, sed quod impium auditu est, etiam sa [...]anae imaginem retul [...]t; Cum Christus con­cupiscentias ad malum, sa­tanae concupiscentias vocet, Joh. 8. 44. Aug. in Adamo voluntas cupiditatem, non voluntatem cupiditas, dux­it Contra est in lapsis homi­nibus. of good as well as evill, and evill as well as good, p. 64. I say how you will cleare your selfe from aspersing God with the unholinesse of all morall actions, flowing from your fountain of free will, so according to you, made by him­selfe, I thinke as great a Master in our Israel as you be, you will never be able to explaine: Turpe est doctori dum culpa redarguit ipsum. Dum vitant stulti vitia, in contraria currunt. Others unhappily kept and fed in a place where superstition and profanenesse makes mat­ches. Vota loquor, And the people who are caused to err by your means. 27. Rock of presumption] 1. This indeed with some colour might bee objected against our do­ctrine, if what you and your Complices, would faine make the world beleeve we hold, you could prove, viz. that we teach men about Election to divide the de­cree about the end, the salvation of mens soules, from the decree of the means, as if these were like German's lips, which are said to have been nine miles asunder. These decrees, which though we are forced because of our weake apprehensions, to distinguish, not to distract, yet we all agree, to make up in the Almighty, who is purus putus actus, but only one single decree of praedesti­nation. And all the Reformed Churches assert the same, which those Divines have in the Synod of Dort, p. 3. p. 44. Adeo ut hoc unico de­creto, quod à justificatione distinguunt, sentiant Deum singularibus illis personis, non tantum gloriam, sed etiam gratiam suam, per quam certo & efficaciter ad gloriam perducantur, desti­nasse ac praeparasse: seu cos non tantum ad finem, qui est vita aeterna, sed simid etiam ad omnia media ad hunc finem consequendum neces­saria, destinasse, eaque suo tempore certo at (que) efficaciter iis administrare. Ac proinde destinationem ad gratiam ae­què late se extendere, at que destinationem ad gloriam & vice versa. Or that wee doe maintaine; that though men of yeares should never believe at all, repent at all, be converted at all, bee holy at all, that their absolute praedestination, without any of these, would bring [Page 34] them to Heaven, contrary to 2 Thess. 2. 13. Things which methinks the very Devill himselfe might even blush to object against our tenents. The most that we teach men to presume upon, is, and this is pia praesump­tio, August lib. 2. cont. Jul. cap. 8. prorsus quantum san­cti de misericordia Dei tan­tum vos de vestra quae nulla est virtute praesumitis. that the same God, who by his grace of election and vocation, according to purpose, Rom. 8. 28. 1 Tim. 9. was the author of their faith and salvation, will by vertue of that very same election, in the use of the very same meanes, by which he did at first regenerate them unto newnesse of life, be also the finisher of their faith and salvation, Heb. 12. 2. 1 Pet. 1. 5. that for this they may presume upon the unvariablenesse of Gods de­crees, 2 Tim. 2. 19. the faithfulnesse of his promises, 1 Thes. 5. 24. 2 Cor. 7. 1. the strength of his manutenen­cy, the never failing successefulnesse of Christs merito­rious intercession, Joh. 11. 42. 2. But you indeed and your party, are the praesumptuous teachers, whilst you cry up I cannot tell what occult quality in mens free will (the very same thing which Austin, as hee con­fesseth of himselfe, when he spake as a child; for after­wards he did most solemnly retract it, cals occultissimū meritum) For when Aug. lib. 83. Quaest. 968. upon Rom. 9 18. he had affirmed much the same which you quote out of him, p. 71. Velut de occultissimis meritis, &c. praecedit ergo aliquid in peccatoribus quo quamvis nondum sint just [...]fi [...]ati, digni eff [...]iantur justificatione, &c. He doth most solemnly retract all such sayings, and gives his reason from 1. Cor. 4. 7. de praedest. sanct. lib. 1. cap. 3. Quo praecipuè testimonio etiam convictus sum, cum similiter errarem, putans fidem quâ in Deum creditur non esse donum Dei, sed à nobis esse in nobis, &c. & lib. retractat. cap. 60. qualifying you not only for your tempo­rall vocation, but even for your eternall election, p. 69. upon which broken reed you teach men to leane, that they might be called, nay chosen. So farre you teach men to presume upon their own wils, as that for Grace and glory, they are more beholding to them then to Gods August. de pec. merit. & remis. lib. 2. cap. 18. Si no­bis l [...]b [...]ra quaedam voluntas ex Deo est, quae adhuc potest esse vel bona vel mala; bona vero voluntas ex nobis sit, melius est id quod à nobis, quam quod ab illo quod non nisi absurd ssime dici potest.. High presumption this sure! But 3. You must still be allowed to Pelagianize Prosper ad August. Hoc propositū vocationis & lap­sus curam risuigendi adime­re & sanctis occasionē tepo­ris afferre. Causam addunt eo quod utra (que) parte super­fluus laber sit, si ne (que) reje­ctus ulla industria possit in- [...]are, ne (que) electus nullâ neg­tigentia possit excidere. Quo­que enim modo se egerint, nō posse aliud erga eos quā De­us definivit accidere, & sub incerta spe cursum non posse esse constantem. Cum si aliud habeat pnaedestinantis ele­ctio, cassa fit annitentis in­tentio. Removeri ita (que) in­dustriam tolli (que) virtutes si Dei constitu [...]io humanas praeveniat voluntates. even whilst you declaime against it, as Arminius is said to have done in his declamation against Pelagianisme, and Semipela­gianisme. 28. Gulph of despaire] 1. Into this indeed would our doctrine sinke men, if wee did teach, that though men did knock never so hard, Heaven gates should never be opened unto them, Mat. 7. though they did seek never so much and so well, they should never find, though they did believe and repent, &c. never so soundly, yet for want of praedestination, they could [Page 35] never be saved. This you'll prove against us ad calendas graecas. 2. But you sure, p. 67. drive some babes of grace to despaire, whilst you tell us, that they may out-live their innocence, so as to be transformed into vessels of wrath. The precious gold of your sanctuary may be­come drosse, or reprobate silver, Lam. Their hopes of glory may make them ashamed, and like that of the hy­pocrites Job 20. 5. last for a moment, and then give up the ghost. They may, to use the words of that eminent and sweet Dr D [...] Reynolds in his late Sermon before the Lord Mayor, p. 21. be as Adams forbidden fruit, seconded by a flaming sword; as B [...]lshazars dainties with an hand-writing against the wall; in the midst of all such joy, the heart is sorrowfull, and the end of that mirth is heavinesse, Prov. 14. 12. Like a flame of stubble, or a flash of gunpowder, claro strepitu, largo fulgore, cito in­cremento: sed enim materia levi, [...]duco incendio, nullis reliquiis. A sodaine and flaming blaze which endeth in smoak and stink. Like the Roman Saturnalia, wherein the servants feasted for two or three daies, and then returned to their low condition againe. Desperate do­ctrine this, unless with J. G. any man be so farre in­chanted, as to beleeve the doctrine of the Saints apo­stacy, to be more comfortable, then that of the Saints perseverance. Miserable mercilesse comforters are you all, Job. 3. But you must be allowed in words to re­nounce Pelagianisme, yet still reason so against us, as if you were spit out of their mouths Against all such kind of Massilian and Pelagian quarrel­lings, taken either from their common Topicks of despaire or praesumption, See Austins solid answer, lib. 2. de bo [...]o persev. cap 15. Sed aiunt, ut scrib [...]tis, n [...] ­minem posse correptionis sti­mulis excuari. Si dicatur in conventu Ecclesiae audienti­bus multis, ita se habet de praedestinatione definita sen­tentia Dei, ut alii ex v [...]bis de infidelitate, accepta obedien­di voluntate v [...]neritis ad fidem, &c. Ista cum dicunt, it a nos à confitenda Dei gra­tia, id est quae non secundum merita nosira datur, sed secundum cam prae [...]estinati­onem sanctorū, non debent deterrere: sicut non deter­remu [...]à confitenda praescien­tia Dei, si quis de illa po­pulo sic loquatur, ut dicat, five nunc rectè vivatis, five non rectè, tales critis, quales vos Deus futuros esse prae­scivit, vel boni si bonos, vel mali si mal [...]s, &c.. 29. Nature of Gods will] Which you do altogether nullifie, whilst you allow him none of a decree properly so called, but only of an externall promise or statute, or if you doe, it is only consequent to mans will, not antecedent to it; for to this upshot comes your distinction of voluntas antecedens and consequens. 30. Condition of mine owne] Which would to God you did know, ever since the fall, to bee lost not indeed as to its essence and nature, but as to its integrity and goodness, Alicubi Aug. Libertas arbitrii vulnerata est, pro­strata est, imo perdita est: but your opinio [...] about the condition of your wil, is just that of the Massili­ans. Aust Epist. Quidam ve­ro horum in tantum à Pela­gianis semitis non declinant ut cùm ad confitendam eam Christi gratiam, quae om­nia praeveniat humana me­rita, cogantur, &c. ad condi­tionem hanc velint uniuscu­jus (que) pertinere▪ &c & quan­tum quisque ad malum, tan­tum habet facultatis ad bo­num, pari (que) momento ani­mum se vel ad vitia vel ad virtutes movere. as that now it is only evill, and that continually desperately evill, Jer. 17. 9. [Page 36] were you convinced of this, you would be as much afraid to name your free will, as once Austin was, yea as Melancthon, Apolog. D. Morto. c. 69. p. 266. Edit. in 80. Aug. Serm. 12. de verbis Apost. Ad hoc idonea est volūtas tua, quae vocatur libera, & male agendo sit damnabilis ancilla you would talke less of your hu­mility, but be more really so, Gal. 6. 3. 31. Confi­dence] Oh that upon good grounds, you were more in God, and less in your selfe, then would your anger expressed in your first papers, cease against your ad­versaries, for maintaining that in the matters of sal­vation, man is not at all to glory in himselfe, but in God Aug. Epist. 106. p. 549. Aug. de grat. & l. arbitr. c. 9. Quan­do subetur, ut operentur, li­berum eorum convenitur arbitrium, sed ideo cum timore & tremore, ne sibi tribuendo quod bene operantur, de bo­nis, tanquam suis, extollan­tur operibus. Idem de cor­rept. grat. c. 9. Innullo glori­antes, quia nostrum nihil: ut qui gloriatur in Domino glo­rietur; idem de praedest. ex Cyprian. lib. 1. c. 3. only, you would not be as another Pyrgo-Polinices, crying out, Quis me audacior homo, quis me confiden­tior? 32. Humility] For my part how much soever you may have of it in your person, (pray God it may be more) I am sure I can finde little or none of it in your doctrine; which storme as much as you will at mee for saying so, I can, shall, and have proved to be stuffed full of Pelagianisme, and Semipelagianisme, those moun­tanous and proud errors The late Belgick Annotations on Rev. 8 8. maintaine Pe­lagianisme to be the moun­tain burning with fire, there spoken of, because that it makes the proud will of man to be mountainously high and lofty. Hinc Aug. lib. 3. ad Bonifa. c. 3. Impu­dentiam Pelagianorum & insanam superbiam vocat, & superbissimam vanitatem lib. 4. c. 7. Hinc Hieronym. Epist ad Ctesiph. Tu per su­perbiā ad astra sustolleris. Et rursum: tu ipse l. 1. Dial. ad Pelag. Tu ipse qui cato­niana nobis inflaris super­bia, & Milonis humeris in­tumescis. Prosper Epist. ad Demetriad. p. 866. Quibus non potuit diabolus persua­dere vitiorum amorem, im­misit laudis cupiditatem, ut inde novissima instrue­retur tentatio, unde nocuit prima deceptio. Nimirum Pelagius haud secus at (que) Adam at (que) diabolus, p. 866. & 875. Non dignabatur di­ves esse nisi propriis: tan­quam hoc haberetsimile Deo, ut bonorum suorum ipse si­bi sit sons, ipse sibi sit copia. Quae superbia, inquit, omni peccato nocentior, omni here­ne et elationis insanior. hatched by one, who of old was stiled the proud devils primogenitus, as like the father as he could look, and who in his words, doctrine, and deeds, was the very emblem and paradeigma of pride, from all which the Lord deliver Mr T. P. 33. Unworthy for him to own] With all the speed that may be, renounce your doctrines divulged in these papers, for most of them are unworthy for him to own, because they will be found too light in the ballance of his san­ctuary. 34. Gods peculiar] Be then content to be ele­cted and determined by Grace, and not to be an electer and determiner of it, as you attempt to be, p. 70. Be a servant that you may not be sacrilegious. 35. Set­tle my judgement upon these two grounds] We I am sure shall not wish for some Sampson to overturn these your two pillars, but we shall rather wish that you had been like some Hiram, to have fastned these in the Temple of God, as Jachin and Boaz were by him in the Temple of Solomon, and then they would have been to me as Hercules Columns, beyond which I would never have attempted to haue stirred; but because you, [Page 37] as well as Dr Jackson before you, who had delivered himself in much the like words, do give us great reason to suspect, that you meane nothing so well as you speak, and that you stand not at all upon the Terra firma, which you would seem to lay down, I must crave leave in reference to these your principles as you call them, p. 7. and as they are set down by you, to tell you, 1. That I & many more with me, cannot tel to what pur­pose you should thus set them downe in the forefront, unlesse it were standerously, to infinuate that any had blamed you for being the patron of these opinions, and that some ill neighbours of yours did maintain the con­trary; or else at least (as doubtlesse you doe) craftily under the shield and shelter of these truths, as they are usually understood, when they are delivered by men of known orthodoxy, to take an occasion to vent your mishapen conceits, which are contrary to them. You play the Graecian under a Trojan harnesse; your voice in these your propositions, is Jacobs voice, but your hand elsewhere, is Esaus hand. Tuta frequens (que) via est sub amici fallere nomen. 2. None of our adversaries, the Remonstrants, untill they grew shameless See this acknowledge­ment in Collat. Hagiensi. and ex­cusserant omnem de fronte ruborem For then though the orthodox in reference to the first proposition, say as wel as you, with A. Rivet. Dissput. secunda, Thes. 13. Absit, ut Deum vocemus in societatem cum diabolo, & peccatum imputemus decre­toriae ipsius voluntati, vel dicamus Deum provocasse diabolum ad seducendum primum hominem aut in terna impulsione cum ad consentiendum permovis­se; yet with the same au­thor they must add, that al those things, imponun­tur nobis à Pelagianis, & semipel [...]gianis novis. did ever so much as accuse us, for denying either of them: And therefore sure you forge your selfe enemies, but find none. 3. The holding of these propositions as they lie in the Letter, will never be able to cleare you, or any body else, from Pelagianizing, Semi-pelagianizing, and Arminianizing, unless you give in up and down such expositions of these Theses, as shall make it clearer to every one, that your heart and your penne go together, and that they do not proceed ex labiis dolosis. It is well known what goodly words to this purpose, we have had from all those three sorts of grace-blasting enemies Of Pelagius. Sic Augustin. lib. 1. contra Julian. Nisi in eorum co [...]spectu (viz. patrum Diaspolitanorum) auditu (que) damnasset cos, quod precatum Adae ip­sum solum laeserit & non genu [...] humanum, & quod i [...]fantes nuper na [...], in eo statu sint quo s [...]t Adam ante peccatum, nullo modo inde nisi damnatus exisset. Idem Pelag. as to your second proposit. Apud August. c. 35. Legant inquit illam Epistolam quam ad sanctum virum Paulinum Episcopum antè duodecim fermè annos scripsimus, quae trecentis fortè versibus nihil aliud quam Dei gratiam, & auxilium confitetur. 2. The Massilians or Semipelagians, were more plaine in both. Prosper Epist. ad Augustin. Haec ipsorum definitio ac professio est, omnem quidem hominem Adam peccante peccasse. Et expressius: sub quo (peccato originali) omnes homines similiter in primi hominis damnatione nascuntur. Iidem fatente Hilario in Epist. ad Augustin. Nec inde quem­quam proprio arbitrio liberari posse consentiunt, sed id conveniens asserunt veritati, vel congruum praedicationi, ut cum prostratis, & nunquam suis viribus surrectur is annuntiatur. Idem Hilarius, caeterum ad nullum opus vel incipiendum, nedum perficiendū quemquam sibi sufficere posse consen­tiunt; & multo inferius; bominari se & damnare testantur, siquis quicquam virium in aliquo re­mansisse, quo ad sanitatem progredi possit, existimet. Imo ipse Augustin, de ill is lib. de hono perse­verant. cap. 16. A Pelagianorum porrò haeretica perversitate tantum isti remoti sunt, ut fateantur quod eorum praeveniat voluntatem quibus datur haec gratia. 3. As for the Arminians, every one who hath but read their third and fourth Articles of their Remonstrance, will not make any the least scruple of this.. Nor do I now repent my self, though once I did very largely else­where, to have cleared this. See my praedestination de­fended against postdestination. 4. You wil never be able [Page 38] to cleare your selfe, contrary to your first proposition, from mainteining God to bee the author of sinne, so long as you place the essence of mans free will, both before the fall and after it, in an [...] (im­porting not only a possibility in Adam to fall, but an in­clination to evill, and so to fall,) unto good or evil as you do, p. 57 That of A. Rivets will prove most unavoidably true. Disp. secunda Thes 2. Qui affirmant inclinatio­nem ad peccandum etiam ante lapsum, in Deum natu­rae authorem consiciunt om­nem peccati culpam, cum in­clmatio talis vitiosa non es­se non potuerit, quae tamen fuerit à Deo necesse est, si de­tur ante lapsum: Imo con­sequetur, hominem fuisse mi­serum, priusquam in pecca­tum laberetur: & Deum ab initio non creasse hominem rectum, qui sine curvitate non esset.. 5. Both these propositions com­ming from so crafty and versatile a head as yours is, may very well without any breach of charity, be su­spected to be stuffed with the usuall Pelagian captions and aequivocations, with which that mystick Of whom S. Hieronym. complained of old. Epist. ad Ctesiph. solam hanc hae resinesse, quae publicè loqui erubesceret quod secretò tra­ [...]red non timeret. Id. Ib. gene­ration have ever been bold to abuse the world. Ex. Gr. In reference to your first: As among the Romanists there is said to have been a Bonaventura, in quo Ada­mus non videretur peccasse, in whom Adam the proto­plast you speak of, may seeme not to have sinned, so what if in your own deluded imagination at least you should ever have been without sinne, or at last by your pious labours, have arrived to a sinnelesse condition here on earth; in what sense then can you maintaine Adam to have been the promoter of your guilt, which either at first was none at all, or is long since ceased in you? For my owne part, I know him to be a foole which be­leeveth every thing, Prov. 14. 15. yet perchance I should [Page 39] be stupid, if I should absolutely disbelieve what at first, was by a Reverend Minister told me alone, and after­wards by the same man, delivered before many more Ministers in my hearing, and as heard by him from your owne mouth, viz. that you beleeve no sinne to be in you, that you were above sinne, that by your own power you could abstaine from all sinne. This testimony I wrote, as the testator of it did dictate it to me. And how much less saith he openly, p. 56 who professeth never to have lain under the least temptation to any degree of Pelagianisme; which all men know all our sinfull natures to bee most inclinable to. 2. I might seem by your terrible threats, of I cannot tell what statute against Libellers to Epist. prima post Edit. 2. have been frighted out of my wits, to use your own phrase, p. 24. or at least to have been braved by you, if I should I say not with you, (for I am sure you cannot beleeve it, by what was this very day assured to me, by an unquestionable witness, who wrote out your first papers out of your owne first Copy) but if I should not beleeve the first papers to have been a true transcript of yours, and in them I am certeine you say, 1. p. 8, 9. that Adams sinne was none of our own, contrary to the Apostle, Rom. 5. 12. In opposition to that, you say that God had distinctly and largely said, that no man shall die for the sinne of another, but every Ezek. 18. one for his owne sinne. 2. That Adams sinne, which all along you confound in that writing with originall sinne, and say, is none of our owne, never alone dam­ned any, for p. 8. none in the world dying infants, are damned. And in this case I think that of Dr Twiss is very considerable, p. 39. against Mr Hoard. If none are lost, but all are saved, is it not a pretty guilt of eternall death, for which not any suffers? And you may guess by this, whether this Authors pretence of naturall corruption (of which our Mr T. P. p. 9. speaks in his first papers) bee not only from the teeth outward. 3. That infants notwithstanding originall sinne, are harmlesse, p. 9. which in this your Correct [Page 40] Copy, you stile babes of grace, p. 67. and for that you had said in your uncorrected Copy, that they have all universal grace, p. 9. because all men in the world were once infants. 4. That the harmelesse infant, as every man hath a free will, cannot continue so, when hee comes to use his will without his will; nor can he cease to be so, viz. harmelesse without his will. Now I cannot tell whether you may not think, that since you came ex Ephebis, you have not used your will so well as not to have sinned, which if so, then you are free from the guilt of the protoplasts sinne, which you mention, and from the filth of it too, which I thinke is not for no­thing omitted by you, but for reasons which I have elsewhere opened in my praedestinat. defence. 2. In this your owned writing, though p. 67. you had just occasion enough to have mentioned originall sin, yet you wave it, and I thinke candidly and ingenuouslie, be­cause you thought it not reasonable to own that in a publick Edition, which was contrarie to your bosome opinion, among your bosome friends, sufficientlie inti­mated to them, in your first most genuine papers, how­ever upon politick reasons disowned now by you, whilst you act your part upon a publick stage. In these respects I think we may, but too justlie, applie to you, what of old was by Austin applied to your dogma­ticall praedecessors, the Pelagians, lib. 2. contra Julian, cap. 8. Initio dolus abundat in ore vestro, sive peccatores vos esse dicatis, & justos credi velitis, five profiteamini perfectionem justitiae quam profecto in vobis non esse senti­tis. Et expressius acriusque paulo post. Ubi enim virtus est & tanta jactantia est, hypocrisis est: & ubi hypocri­sis uti (que) dolus. Prorsus quantum sancti de misericordia, tantum vos de vestra, quae nulla est virtute praesumitis. 3. It would be worth the while for you to bee our Oedipus in unfolding to us, whether you thinke the Protoplast to have been the promoter of our guilt, so far, as by vertue of it, to make us liable to death in the full latitude of it, Rom. 6. 23. or only so far, as to bind [Page 41] us over unto a necessitie of temporall death, conform­able to the notions of the Pelagians, Socinians and Arminians. 4. As to your second principle, it is to me (and many others with whom I have conferred about it) unexplicable in what sense you say that all the good which you doe, comes from speciall grace and favour, unless perhaps appretiativè and comparativè. You put that stile upon something, which you for declining of envy August. cont. Jul. voca­bulo gratiae frangens invi­diam. call grace, when it is compared by you with that which is and is called pure nature; as we say a Bristol Diamond is a rare jewell, when compared with a trifling glasse; for else it is not evident from both your writings See of the first at large praedestinat. defence. 1. That you neither doe, nor can main­taine, any speciall grace, as derived unto you by any speciall, certeine, absolute, gracious decree of your hea­venlie father, as 2 Tim. 2. 9. Against this you doe dis­pute strenuouslie all along, and especially, p. 70. 2. Nor any speciall grace, as particularlie and specially procu­red for you by Christs blood, more then for all the world besides; for this you count, p. 38. a pernicious heresie Just as Faustus Rhegin. Coryphaeus S [...]mipelagiano­rum, lib. 1. de grat. & lib. arbitr. c. 17. Ille vere impius est, qui eam (viz. gratiam) no [...] omnibus ingeri, non om­nibus testatur impendi. Om­nibus eam off [...]rt atque inge­rit ad salutem omnium con­d [...]or & redempior: ad haec illi longe à pictatis tramite rec [...]dentes, (viz. Catholici) respondere praesumunt; non eam salva or omnibus d [...]dit, quia nec pro omnibus mortu­us est.. 3. No speciall grace, as by which any speciall habits of grace, viz of conversion, regeneration, san­ctification, &c. are infused into your soule, as any abi­ding seed of grace, or life of God; for in both your pa­pers you are highly silent as to these matters, though ad phalerandum populum, p. 56. you make some slight mention of grace infused by God, by which (as we shall see when wee come to it, if then and there I can but have leisure for doing it) you cannot understand any habituall grace, but only some light internall Coruscati­ons or Irradiations of it. 4. No reall efficient, insupera­ble, and in that sense irresistible grace, but only of some externall, morall, not physicall worke of grace, p. 57. but only, p 62. strongly and effectually (as you talke incongruouslie enough to your own principles, p. 62.) inclining the will, and that only for a spurt or a season, at such criticall opportunities, and by such con­gruous meanes, as by which the will doth very cer­teinlie and undoubtedlie assent. 5. No speciall antece­dent, [Page 42] determining, absolute, unconditionate grace, in the susception of which your will is meerely passive, but a meere conditionall, consequent grace, which finds your will so busie and active, as to be not only prag­maticall in your temporall vocation, (but lo what an active thing T P's will is) but even in your very electi­on. 1. Papers, p. 11. 2 p. 69. J [...]st like the Massili [...]ns in Epist. ad Augustin. Ta­les a [...]unt perdi (inquit Pro­sper) tales (que) salvari, quales futuros illos in annis majo­ribus, si ad activam ser [...]a rentur aetatem, scientia divi­na praeviderit. 6. No speciall, abiding, lasting, continued grace, according to that, Joh. 13. 1. having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them u [...]to the end, but as it may fall out, a grace which may turne into hatred, for as we have had it al­ready, your babes of grace, p. 67. many of them out-live their innocency, and fall from grace. A goodly speciall grace this sure, which hath all these mischievous qua­lifications; I am sure all the orthodoxe in all ages, have mainteined the contrary, and upon the matter called grace, especiall grace in the same sence, that the Wette­ravicks do in these their ingenious verses Synod Dordrac, 4to, prae. 2. p.

HAD I not been deterred by what I have met with in your praevaricating portals, the fulgid il­lustrious starre of B. Fulgentius shining in the mar­gent of this Section, would have put me in some hopes that you had been resolving in this Correct Copy of yours, to have made a recantation of what you did so­lemnly and openly once deliver at Dayntrie, and which you set downe out of Origen, p. 26. and before that [Page 43] time had cast upon your first papers, and tanquam re bene gestâ doe much more oratorially prosecute now through almost your whole chap. 2. A thing which that very Fulgentius quoted by you, makes his very bu­sinesse to confute; anon after the recitall of the words which you mention, where he largely proves, that though God do not praedestinate men to sinne, yet he doth to their punishment for sinne, of which hee denies not, but asserts God to bee the author Fulgent. lib. 1. ad Mo­nim. P [...]aed [...]st [...]natos affi [...]mat Augustinus, non ad deli­ctum sed ad supplicium; ne­que ad malum quod injustè admittunt, sed ad crucia­tum, quem justissimè patien­tur; & ad tormentum quod illis propria iniquitas malè parit, & aequitas divina be­ne retribuit; nec ad mortem animae primam; sed ad mor­tem secundam quam necesse est patiantur, &c.. So albeit the Church will ever looke upon Fulgentius, as upon a fixed prosperous Starre in the Firmament of it, yet you are like to bee looked on as some of the Planets spoken of, Jude 13. if you repent not the sooner, the rather, because though you would make us believe, that you have taken a great deale of care, even your best care, as you say (sed quid dignum tanto tulit hic promissor hia­tu?) that your conclusions might not differ from your true premises: Yet any of those who have but in the least measure their senses exercised, to discerne betwixt things that differ, Heb. 5. 14. will easily perceive, that

1. You have a great deale of care of pouring out a world of humane rhetoricke, in the very words which mans wisedome teacheth, 1 Cor. 2. 13. but none at all of any spirituall logicke, for you no where exercise any thing of that art, unlesse it were in drawing up a crackt syllogisme of foure termes, as we shall see when wee come to p. 19. and then pinning it upon the Apostle, that mighty spirituall Logician. 2. Any body that is but furnished with halfe a good eye, may easilie discerne, that though with you in these, as well as in your for­mer papers, p. 2. tria sunt omnia, three are all with you, Scripture, Tradition, Right reason (as you and the Soci­nians have learned to stile, carnall mens fond way of reasoning about the deep matters of God:) Yet you frequently relinquish the two former, as shall be shew­ed, for the courting of the latter, which as some of your faction give out, it is even since the fall most incor­rupt, and the most fitting about matters of praedestina­tion, [Page 44] praescience, free will, &c. to be appealed unto, against the judgement of the whole ancient and moderne Church The words of Schast. Castallio, (the fi [...]st cor­rupter, as upon good ground is believed, even of [...]ac. Arminius himselfe) are very remarkable, in the praef. ad D [...]alog [...]s de praedestinat. Illud adjiciunt fidem veram ( [...]b hoc fides vera, I [...] distinguished from the m [...]tters following) de qua h [...]c loquimur v [...]lgo ig­no [...]am esse: s [...]d de tribus primis videlic [...]t praed [...]stina­t [...]on [...], electione, & libera voluntate vulgus hominum (nisi qui sunt à literatis corrupti) melius & sanius sentit quam quidam literati. (And who these quidam are, viz. the anciēt Church and the moderne Church since Austin, Castellio's praefacer ingeniously tels us) Sequuntur enim illiterati homines ratio­nis & sensuum judicium, quod in his rebus integrum est, quae sub rationem sub (que) sensus cadunt: at (que) utinam hac in p [...]rte relinqueretur hominibus natura judicium, nos non laboraremus. Sed quia multum labor ant li [...]rati ut persuadeant hominibus ea non esse, quae sentiuntur, hoc est ut homi­nibus oculos effodiant, nos laboremus in hoc errore r [...]fellendo.. Some wittily unreasonable, as you are pleased to stile those, whom elsewhere you call the rabble of halfe witted praedestinarians, first papers, page 11▪ are not like to complie with you in this; for that with the Prophet, they will bee more ready to say, that such logicians are fooles, and such spirituall, rather carnall men (jangling about spirituall matters) are mad men, Hos. 9. 7. Let the [...] of your reasonings, be more subject unto the Scripture, or else the shallow judgement you talke of, p. 5. which there you comple­mentally say, (and would have us crie up to the height, because you the owner of it, decrie it so low) is the deepest which you have, will be none at all; yea, worse then none, Mat. 6. 23. And if the light which is in thee, be darknesse, how great is that darknesse?

YOU be terrible long before you can get into your Dialecticall trappings or geers Jul. Se [...]lig. Exer. 307. Sect. 20. Rationibus agendum est viro veritatis studioso, n [...]n. Tullianis Platonisque pigmentis. Declimationes e­nim ambitiosorum, opera eti­osorum sibi sunt: naturae di­vinita [...]is (que) negot [...]is impedi­to animo, stud [...]ndum est bre­vitoti: quae res aequ [...]t ver­bi [...]. Marlor. comm [...]n. in pri­or Analyt. cap. 8. vocabula artis religiosissime observan­da sunt, ut semper eodem mo­do explicentur, ut in omnibus propriis vocabulis artium fi­eri debet: Varietas enim obscuram his facit disputa­tionem.. A body would have thought that we had had enough and enough of oratoriall praefaces faces and out▪faces, yet we must be cloied with at least a Section and halfe more of the like stuffe: In this (that I may give in short the summe of the whole) we are served in first with a [...], (to use your own phrase, p. 12) against your not onely seeming, but your reall contradictions; for indeed in this your booke, though you be not at all for Classes, you be much for clashing, your [...] liberi arbitrii, in [Page 45] which you mainteine the creature indifferently as to good or evill, to have been created, p. 64. agrees not with your first pretended principle, p. 6. of Gods not being the author of sinne. Your concession in the be­ginning of chap. 3. that every reprobate is predetermi­ned to eternall punishment, is directlie at daggers draw­ing with your almost whole chap. 2. where you stre­nuouslie dispute, that God determines none to punish­ment. The posterior part of your chap. the 4. from p. 56. to the end, fights directlie with the anterior part of it, as to with your second principle: Mulier for­mosa superne Desinit in piscem; & sic in caeteris, as wee shall see in the progresse; and therefore wise man as you be (and indeed ever, full of courtesie, full of craft) you do prudentlie provide some kinde of salves, for these kinde of sores; but truly none of them will pro­cure any healing for you, not onely is it because your unmercifulnesse in your dealings with the names and writings of others, as we shall see, p. 8. may be like enough to procure some harsh usage of you from o­thers; He that will shew no mercie to others, hath small reason to look for it from others, Jam. 2. 13. He shal have judgement without mercy, who shewes no mercy. 2. But for that secondly, the ingredients, alias the rea­sons which you put into your salve, are not contrary to your sores, when as yet such a Medicaster, as you would be accounted in all your private Epistles to me, know's well enough, that contraria contrariis tantum curantur. 1. Not that of Austins; you know that aliquando bonus Vide Cornel. Jansen. Augustin lib 5. cap. 1, 2 & 3. Tomi primi. dormitat Homerus. Well might Augustine in such mightie and various volumes as he wrote against the contrarie haeresies of the Manichees and the Pelagians, and that many yeares one after another, and when to, that (especially of the Pelagians) did like the moon in Helvidius his late Seleno-graphia appeare in divers shapes; sometimes as hath been shewed, in a meere Ethnick shape, sometimes in a Semy-ethnicke, some­times in a Judaicke, sometimes in an halfe Christian [Page 46] shape. I say Augustine upon these occasions might seem now and then to enterfere with himselfe, and yet bee no excuse to your contradictions, which doe abound in two such whisting pamphlets as your printed and unprinted ones are; wherein (I speak now as to that which appeares upon the stage) so carefull a man as your selfe, used your best care to be a guide in your conveyance, p. 7. 2. Lest that of Bucers, though you say it was the more remarkeable because it was Bu­cers; indeed it would have been more remarkeable then any thing the fingers in your margent, p. 9. point at, if Bucer who is a knowne man against your opini­ons (q) and for the reformation which you dislike, p. Even a supralapsarian, as Dr Whitaker takes him to be in his concione ad cle­rum. Bucerus per massam intelligit primam humani gener is originem ex quâ ho­mo conditus à Deo, & sabri­catus est. 35. should have any thing to say for you. Though I have not the book by me to turne to, I am pretty and confident, that Bucers saying relates to none but to the seeming differences betwixt the more ancient and latter Fathers after the rise of Pelagius (who indeed may as easily be reconciled, as the different expressions of the Fathers before and after Arrius Ʋti enim Hieron. ad Rufinum. Antequam dae­monium Nicidianum Arri­us nasceretur vel simplici­ter erraverunt patres, vel a­liosensu scripserint, vel à li­brariis imperitis eorum pau­latim scripta corrupta sunt. Innocenter quaedam, & mi­nus caut è locuti sunt. So it is as old & true an observa­tion, antequam exoriretur Pelagius, s [...]curiusloqu [...]ban tur patres, who yet are re­conciled to those who came after even by a Bel larmine de grat. & lib. arbit. 1. c. 14.. and such Neotericks as Melancthon and Calvin, who may seeme to differ, when as really they doe not as shall be shewn in due place. 3. Well you might hope, that that man of Moderation, Cassander (as you call him, papers 1. p. 10.) whom you so great a Cassandrite, do so highly magnifie, for reasons of which I have else­where of my first papers given an account, who yet will not serve your turne one whit, as to the matters now in debate, wherein it is most plaine, hee is as deadly an enemy to you, as any that you can have See his Epistle ad Jo­han. a Bauchtim.. And then least of all will that which you quote out of Dr Twisse, be any way subservient to you, who by what you say out of him here, doth neither contradict, nor so much as seem to contradict what he delivers else­where; for do not the words which you rehearse out of him, relate to the decree, not of preterition, but of damnation, not to the moulding and making of it in the intention, but to the temporall execution of it? and [Page 47] doth Dr Twisse any where else denie these latter to have been without the consideration of sinne, and not rather for the consideration of sin A thousand places out of his Latine and English books might be produced for this. Let that remarke­able one serve, p. 8. answer to Mr Hoard, wherein consists this harshnes (viz. of Gods decrees) in inten­tion, depending meerely on Gods will. Is it in this that nothing is the cause of Gods decree? and will nothing temper the harsh­nesse of it, unlesse a thing temporall as sin, be made the cause of God's will which is eternal, and even God himselfe? But let us deale plainly, and tell me in truth, whether the harshnesle doth not con­sist in this, that the meere pleasure of Gods will, seems to be made the cause not of Gods decree onely, but of damnation also, as if God did damn men not for sinne, but of his meer pleasure? And this I confesse is wondrous harsh, & yet no more harsh then it is untrue; though in this jugling world, things are so carried by some, who wil both shuffle and cut, and deale them­selves, as if we made God of meer pleasure to damn men, and not for sin, which is a thing u [...]terly impossi­ble, damnation being such a notion, as hath essentiall reference to sinne. But if God damn no man but for sin, & decreed to damn no man but for sin, what if the meer pleasure of God be cause of this decree, what harshnesse is this?? either then you doe, which I am sure is common enough with you, abuse the admirers of Dr Twisse, or else they admired what they understood not, I suppose they may be of yeares to answer for themselves.

2. In the next place you serve us in with a promise of a recantation, in case the unhappinesse of your pen, or the unsteadinesse of your braine, hath let fall any thing contrary to the two principles just now laid downe. O how well I should like you, if you would but keep touch, stare promissis! that your recantation, either Sermon or Epistle, would be ready, both ad clerum & ad populum, so soon as either my selfe, or some you would like better of, shall have proved, that of ten parts of your booke, nine at least must be revoked, if you will allow nothing to stand in it, that is contrary to the true scripturall, catholike, orthodox sense of your se­cond principle laid down, p 6. How quickly should we like brethren and neighbours shake hands, rather then in a way of writing against each other, be like Ishmael, Gen. 16. 12. Amon it a faxit Deus, that wee may agree, and both in the principles you speake of, p 6.

3. Your third is a franke offer to be restored in the spirit of meeknesse, if you should be overtaken in a fault, Gal. 6. 1. A gallant resolution if it were but seriouslie in you. Errare possum, Hareticus esse nolo, was an excellent saying; but trulie you have given small cause to your fellow brethren Presbyters in these parts, to believe you to be in good earnest. Did you ever impart your doctrinall scruples first of all to the most pious and learned of them, before you vented them among (to say no worse of them) unwary and weake Gentlemen, when you had made a promise, as I am informed, to some of your best friends in the Mi­nistrie about us, that you would in Pulpit at Lectures, vent nothing but what was agreeable to their knowne [Page 48] tenents? Did you keep your promises any better with them at Northampton or Daintrey, then Jac. Arminius did his first at Amsterdam, with the Consistory there, or afterwards with the Curatores Academiae Leidensis G. Van Roggen, lib. Belgic. praefat. ad Syn. Dor­dracenam.? Are you ready to referre matters in debate be­twixt us, to the ministeriall decision of any ten of the gravest incumbents, known, antient, staied, protestant, preaching Presbyters of our Country, who have least been upon their tropicks, in these tropicall times, if so, and that they will vote for your opinions against mine, I'll promise for ever hereafter, as to all writing against you, to become a Siliturnian, nay to cry peccavi. Pray De Siliturnis, vide Fred. Wend. praefat. ad Loc. Commun. you, let it be tried who is most ready to be reclaimed by the Spirit of meeknesse.

4. You conclude your Section with excuses for your dissenting from your want of infallibility, appre­hension, company of thousands of thousands, your invin­cible ignorance, &c. Unto all which in few words, 1. You know none of your brethren Ministers, who doe maintaine, that either conjunctim or divisim, they be infallible, they leave that to the papall Church, unto which you approach much nearer, when p. 10. of your first papers, you cry up Cassander so highly for moderation, and are not ashamed to cry up Hoff­misterus for a choice Protestant, who was a knowne Papist Vide A. Rivet. Dialys cont. discurs. H. Grotii., yet they may infalliblie tell you, that it hath been a proud and malapert error in you, to slight their judgements, piety, and learning, so much as you have done, who every where disswade whom you can from comming into their combinations, and yet without ar­rogance, they think they may tell you, you might from some of them have learned to have mended your po­sitive, polemical, and practick Divinity too, had you not scorned to have been more conversant with them. 2. Your apprehension is well known not to be stupid, but your malice to be very great against those you like not; and that occasions but too much your stupefaction, none you know, is so blinde, as those who will not [Page 49] see Periit omne judicium cum res transit in affectum.. 3. The thousands of thousands you speake of of your side, is feared to bee no other then the croud of carnall Idiots, mentioned lately out of Castalio, or those thousands of thousands, who either wittinglie or unwittinglie, suffer themselves to be befool'd by the polite and politicke sons of the Devill, the Jesuites and their followers, or indeed the Devill and his angels, who truly make a great, but not a creditable company, from all whom good Lord deliver me and you. As for all good Christian, Apostolicall, Ecclesiasti­call companies of all sorts, I doubt not but they will be found of the opposite side to you, and so long we shall not be afraid to glory in it, that there will be more for us then against us, 2 Kin. 6. 16. 4. The Church (I speake now of the true reformed Church) of England, as it hath stood ever since Queen Maries daies, is like to have but an unhappy sonne in you: who whilst as she thinkes, and shall bee further cleared, p. 16. you were in the right, for the absolute decree, p. 24. then you were vincibly knowing, but since you are turned off to the conditionall or respective decree, you are be­come invincibly ignorant. Pray God send your mother more grave and staied sonnes.

HEƲ quantum mutatus ab illo? Are you the man who all along the former Section, were a puling Petitioner, as it were, sub forma pauperis, praying for mercie, moderation, deprecating immoderate criti­cismes, if thorough the unsteadinesse of your braine, or the unhappinesse of your penne, you should bee over­taken with any escapadoes, crying all along as Da­vid, gently, gently with Absolom my sonne my sonne, 2 Sam. 18. 5. And doe you so quicklie in this Section, turne tyrant against the persons, and (say it be so) unwarie lines of other men: Men, the Lord [Page 50] knowes, and the Church knowes by farre your betters Unto whom I may safe­ly enough apply what Rom. B p. Abbot, did once against one who upbrai­ded others with their flight to G [...]neva. Erant illi homines doctissimi quibus il le certe haud satis dignus qui Amanuensis esset. Abbat contra Thom. de intercis­gratiae., with whom you are not like to compare in hast, either for depth of theologicall learning, holinesse of life, or savourie name, and fame in the Church: Against these mens blessed workes and memories, you rage and rampe it, and make slaughters among them; Nimrod, or Nero-like, and that more waies then one. 1. By a palpable Jesuiticall calumnie; (whose maxime you follow in this, calumniare fortiter & aliquid adharebit) I had almost said a loud lye; which harsh phrase I am sure I may more truly use in this matter, then you in the same crie out, that some are, p. 23. for Ligonem, Ligonem; that some as you here call them open, or as there you stile them, modestblasphemers, do put you upon a necessitie of proving your principles to be true, when as yet your conscience could tell you, if you would but consult with it, that all the adversaries that you have cited, doe avowedlie upon all occasions, denie God to be the author of sinne And here againe it is not amisse for you to take out another Episcopal ad­monition, once directed by the same hand to the fore mentioned author, and ex­ceedingly befitting you. Abbot ad eundem Thomson, p. 332. Nulla hic libertino­rum pestis est, sed pestilentis­simus calumniator. Thom­sonus (alias T. P.) qui ad­versariis suis de illorum no­mine invidiam facit, quos li­bertinorum hostes & profli­gatores fuisse novi [...]. and so assert your first princi­ple. And that all the question, indeed the onlie questi­on betwixt you and your opposites, is, Whether it be possible for you to adhere to your second principle, if you doe but resolve to stick to what you stickle for, in your first and second mischievous papers. 2. You re­present them as a companie of (Jude 16) murmurers, or [...], complainers of their hard fates, accor­ding to what you quote out of Pro 19▪ 3. when as it is famouslie knowne to all the [...]hristian world, that that charge belongs to none so properly, as to your selfe and faction; unto whom now you undertake to be a Ringleader, and will needs appeare in the van of: Who when you doe not or will not conceite aright of the counsels and decrees of God, then you fret against the Almighty, and cry out, Fate, Fate You say with Faustus Rhegin Semipelagianorum Coryphaeus. Intra gratiae vo­cabulum absconditur fatale venenum. If praedestination be absolute, Nemo vigilet, nemo sej [...]ne [...], nemo libidi­ni contradicat.. You slander the footsteps of the anointed, and Julian-like, throw up daies against Heaven, as if with him you were resolved to breath out your last with a vicisti Ga­lila [...] in your mouth, see p. 24. the Lord be mercifull to [Page 51] you. 3. Thorough the fine and thinne aulicall com­plementall lawne of your civility, which with a gentle hand, you would seem to lay upon no other then the ever blessed names of reverend Calvin, and my never to be forgotten Dr Twisse; you make your hypocrisie to be very conspicuous: so have I knowne Joab and Judas to have given a kisse, when they meant a stab, as you with good words in your mouth, mean to pierce thorough and thorough those mens workes and books, which have been Left any should think a whit the worse of Calvins institutions, for your be­spattering him and them, I shall think it worth the while to transcribe what I finde in reverend R. B [...]l­ton, quoted out of judici­ous Mr Hooker, as you stile him, p. 14. Instruct. for afflicted consciences, p. 25. For my owne part, I thinke Calvin incompara­bly the wisest man, that ever the French Church did enjoy, since the houre it enjoied him. In his praeface, p. 3. Though thousands were debtors to him as touching divine knowledge; yet he to none but only to God the au­thor of that most blessed fountaine, the booke of life, and of the admirable dexterity of wit, together with the helpes of other learning which were his guides. Ibid. We should be inju­rious to vertue it selfe, if we did derogate from them, whom their industry hath made great. Two things of principall moment there are, which have deservedly procured him honour throughout the world. The one, his exceeding paines in composing the institutions of Chri­stian Religion. The other, his no lesse industrious travels for exposition of holy Scripture. In which two things, who ever they were, that after him bestowed their labours, he gained the advantage of prejudice against them, if they gainsaied, and of glory above them, if they con­sented. Ibid. p. 9. The more learned and holy any Divine is, the more heartily he subscribes to Paulus Thureus, his true censure of his institution. Praeter Apostolicas post Christi tempora chartas, Huic peperere libro saeculanulla parem. No marvell then, that a learned Bishop of London in Queen Elizabeths time, began his speech thus against a lewd fellow which had railed against Calvin. Quod dixisti in virum Dei Calvinum tuo sanguine non potes redimere, &c. I poor Presbyter durst not have let such words have fallen from my penne, lest I should have been suspected by him (as I perceive he is apt to do, Epist. 2. post. publicat,) for a design of taking away his life, or as he there, of burning of him, which was the judgement and pra­ctice of Mr Calvin. And that I may not be wanting neither to my own old friend, and fathers friend, I think I may subjoine the testimony which famous and learned Dr Rivet gives of his writings, unto which I doubt not, but most ingenious Protestants will subscribe. Praef ad Dr Twissum, cont. Armin. & Corvin. De auctore, ejus methodo scholasticâ, disputandi formâ, acu­mine, & accuratione, judicium lectoribus relinquo, quibus praeiverunt doctissimi ex toto orbe Christi­ano viri, etiam ex iis qui in contraria sunt parte fatentes, nihil accuratius, nihil exactius & plenius in hoc argumento hactenus proditum fuisse. Hoc saltem (idem ibid,) omnibus piis placere debit, quod us­ (que) & ubi (que) in bonam causam fuerit intentus, cam (que) si quisquam aliu [...] ab absurdis objectis, & adver­sariorum calumniis ita vindicavit, ut ex illius labore habeant non docti tantum sed etiam minus ex­ercitati quo se possint extricare laqueis adversantium: and will bee valued by learned and good men in the Church, when the memory of yours shall rot, and serve for nothing but wast paper among those, who doe vendere thus & odores. Alas for your civilitie, you doe not so much as name those men, who yet blush not to be named; for they were men of renowne in the congregation, very Masters of the Assembly, and whom up and downe this your last [Page 52] Pamphlet, you do whip and strip, and whom you doe as good as name to any attentive reader when you doe very particularly quote them presentlie, as to booke, Section, page, and almost line; whom to name by their proper and well sounding names, you were inhi­bited not by your courtesie and civility to them, but by some inward secret feare and shame, openlie to fling dirt in the faces of those, whose labours God hath ho­noured, and I doubt not, will honour as long as Sun and Moon shall endure in the firmament, whom (I speak now chiefly of the latter Dr Twisse) I and others have seene and heard, to have acted more, written more, preached more, praied more, against sinne in some few weeks, then I feare you will doe in all your daies. The naming therefore of him, and his like, as those who have told the world out of the Pulpit, and from the Presse, that God is the onely author of sinne, and man onely the instrument: Things which slanderous Armi­nians have endeavoured in terminis, to fasten upon the writings of P [...]scator, Maccovius, Ricardus Acro­nius, &c. But I never met with any before your im­pudent selfe, to bee so fool-hardie, as to fix upon Dr Twisse his writings; I say the naming of him, and their writings for this, would have onely purchased a blacke brand, a marke of infamy for your slurring those most noble workes, which you will never bee able to imitate, and care not to understand, but only now and then by the by looke into, as spiders sucke flowers for to gather poison out of them, and not as profitable B [...]es, to gather honie from them, [...]. 4. You draw up a malitious scattered in­ventory or Catalogue of broken expressions, gathered here and there out of their writings, without any due regard to the scope of the words, or the authors explai­ned meanings; upon which because you doe lay the stresse of all your invectives against them and others, to make them and their doctrines a gratefull sacrifice, to men of weake heads, and carnall minds; I must needs [Page 53] crave some patience from that very reader you appeale to, that as he hath any candor, conscience, piety, and true christianity left him, he would be pleased favorably to heed me whilst I deliver in, 1. Some generall obser­vations relating to your behaviour, in this Section, and elsewhere up and downe. 2. Whilst I cleare all or the most signall obnoxious passages fingered out for such by your notes in the margent, from the horrid crime of blasphemy laid to their charge. 3. Whilst I in a word or two affix something to the oratoriall perora­tion annexed to this Section. 1. For my part I am clearly defeated by you of my expectation: You did promise (Epist. 3.) before you were of any publicke note (so as that with the finger you could be pointed at for some [...]) that I should receive a copy of your Horat. digito monstrarier, & dicier, [...]ic est. Creed in the particulars which I did intimate, and the very worst of what you writ in your former trifling papers from such a Copy as you would own very short­ly from the Presse; but in this I am sure, I and others are made rather to heare what Calvins, Dr Twisse, and others men Creed is, in your distempered head taken to be, then what is your own Creed; your Creed it seems consists rather of Negatives then Affirmatives; would it not have concerned you, and that in the first place, if you would have kept your word with me positively and dogmatically, to have delivered, in what your own opinion concerning Gods voluntary, unconstreined, and in that sense efficacious premission of sin had bin rather then what you think others to hold about it? Facilius est destruere aliena quam astruere sua: You are not then the most valiantest man which I have met with 2. This bespattering of others names, to which you do, most so­lemnly addict your selfe in this Section Just as Massilian Gen­nadius had before bespat­tered Austins writings. Vid. His [...]. concil. Triden. edit. lat. in 4to. Augu. peccatum non effug [...]sse, ac dum errorem illi­us sermone multo contra­ctum, l [...]ctâ hostium exagge­ratum, nec dum Haeresis de­disse quaestionem periculo haeresis Augustinum non cartre manifestè significat., is contrary to that reverence which in the very entrance into your work, p 1. you say you beare to that punctuall Register within you so as not to affront it with a wilful & premedi­tated lie so as to unsheath your pen to wound the reputation of any man living, unles perchāce of the same [...], [Page 54] mentioned in your Dedicat. which cannot be, unlesse you thinke the reputation of no man living concer­ned to uphold the reputation of those, who being dead, yet speake in their workes; and I hope yet live in the hearts of most Christianly disposed people. Must you revere not to wound the reputation of any li­ving man, who hath power at his tongues end or pens end, to answer for himselfe? And must you in your profession, be understood to have at all none to those living-dead men, who yet live with God, and live in the Church, but must de futuro answer for them­selves by other mens tongues and pens, or else their names as well as their bodies, must lie under the clods and dust of infamy, which you cast upon them? 3. Suppose many unjustifiable phrases had dropped ei­ther from Mr Calvins, or Dr Twisses praeproperous pens, whilst they open the obstrule point of Gods efficacious permission of sin; yet how much the nea­rer would that have been towards the determining the dispute, which your conscience cannot but tell you, was raised (as is plaine by your first and most genu­ine papers) betwixt you and the Gentleman spoken of, p. 2. about absolute election and praedestination; might not predestination bee absolute, though Calvin and Twisse should foulely have been mistaken in some of the expressions, which out of them, p. 9, 10. you make a representation of? 2. Or how much the nea­rer should we have been for the Copy of your owne, expected and promised Creed in these matters? For truly, if what you have (p. 14) about an equitable sense, be all that you hold about Gods providence in the or­dering of sinne, it will be easier before the Christian world to convince you of Atheisme, which takes away the very subject of a Deity, then to convince Calvin and Twisse of blasphemy, for maintaining the true God to bee the author of sinne. 4. Had you had but t [...] least dram of that moderation, which you doe so highly every where pretend to, would you not have [Page 55] conformed your selfe to the very first element and rudi­ment of all moderation & pacification? viz. See J. Duraeus, Daven. Morton. &c. de pacif. Evan. Reade Calvins full dis­course against the Liber­tins, especially cōsult him in his Epist. ad Rhotoma­genses, ad versus Fransisca­num illum Libertina illius pestilentiae propugnatorem. Vid. vindic. Gra. & provid­d [...]vin. D. D [...]is Twisse praeci­pue per c. 5. l. 11. p 5. p. 53. & inde in 4to. In this cause you might well have said of Calvin, of Ph. Melanc. of Luther, sciebam horridi­us scripturum Lutherum quam senti [...]. That that only must be taken to be the expresse positive opinion of any which he holds forth every where to be so in the most significant terms he can expresse himself in, when he makes it his business to declare himself, and not that which either a malitious adversary lying upon the catch, wil adventure to prove to follow from his words and expressions of his opinion, nay, nor which a loving adversary doth know and can prove very well to fol­low from his opinion: Every man must be allowed to be the best interpreter of his owne minde. Direct positions must be produced to prove what other mens judge­ments are in any matter: Consequences may onely be produced to shew men the absurdities of their asser­tions: And if this be true, as it is most true, are you so great a stranger in Israel, as not to know that the men you speak of, and all of their way, doe a thousand times over, up and downe in their workes, denie God to be the author of sinne, whilst they repeat it at every turne, that sinne hath no efficient cause How often have you this repeated by Dr Twiss, as if decies repetita place­ret? [...]. Aug. de civitate Dei l. 11.? And must a few broken abrupt expressions, by a man full of gall and spleen against them and their way, torne off from the scope and series of their discourse, be produced against their avowed, full and open declarations every where to the contrary? If you allow of the measuring out of such mea [...]ures unto others, then whensoever Vid. Jo. Videl. arcana Ar­minian. Vede­lius and others shall have proved, that most of the Ar­minian, and so most of your opinions, have an unhap­py tendency, first to a fine spun, and then to a grosse Atheisme; we may (according to the method of your proceedings used here) charge you with the greater and lesser Atheismes, and say not only that your opini­ons tend to it, but that you are absolutely for Atheisme major and minor And at this rate of pro­ceeding it will be easie to abuse any party, Dr Twisse had it well against Bellar­mine whom you imitate in these slanders, l. 2. crim. 3. sect. 1. p. 52. Cum nobis pro­be constitit quâ conscientiâ versatus fue [...]i [...] in superiori­bus consequentiis informan­dis jux [...]a veritatem ipsam praesentem tuam ratiocina­tionem in hunc modum pro­cedere aequum est, quando­quidem ita blasphemum, & Christianis auribus intolle­randum videtur, ut sane vi­deri debet, Deum & peccati esse auctorem & solum ip­sum vere peccare, at (que) istas blasphemias ex adversario­rum dogmatis consequi per qualescu [...] (que) consequ [...]ntias. sed praeter omnem ver ecun­diam confictas demonstravi, quippe qui perinde potuissem easdem blasphemias partim ipsis Jesuiti nostris, vel maxime Dominicanis per consequen [...]ias nihilo minus legitimas exprobare, &c.. 2. When you had met with any harsh sounding expressions in any who (before your eyes were open) had been graced with being parents in Christ to many a Christian soule, would it not have [Page 56] concerned you not Cham-like as you doe, to uncover your fathers nakednesse, but rather dutifully to have gone back into their writings, and out of them to have taken the mantles of their owne interpretations, and have thrown upon it; Synod Dordrac. sessi­on. 132. Examinata fuit concepta rejectionis calum­niarum formula qui adden­dam quoque existimabant non nulli rejectionum duri­orum quarundam & in commodarum loqutionum, quae in non nullis reforma­torum doctorū scriptis repe­rirentur, quae infirmioribus offensionem, adversariis ca­lumniandi ansam praebe­rent. Quem in finem ratio­nes quaedam in utram (que) par­tem à Theolog is magnae Britanniae Hassiacis & Bre­mensibus, aliisque propositae sunt. Quibus utrinque dili­genter expensis, visum fuit potioribus suffragiis reje­ctionem incommodarum lo­cutionum esse omittendam: ne calumniari possent adversarii, etiam doctrinam orthodoxam quam professi essent illi qui in ejus explicatione ejusmodi phrasibus durius, aut imprudentius usi videntur, pariter damnari; cum praesertim manifestum esset non nullos ex iis loquendi modos esse, quibus ipse spiritus sanctus usus esset, nonnullos quo (que) quos sano sensu ipsi Remonstrantes admisissent: longè autem plurimos, qui dextrè, ac commodè, modo charitas adhiberetur, explicari possent. as well then you would have found, first, That you might have taken Ex. gr. these, Isa. 6. 9. Isa. 29. 11. Marke 13. 14. Marke 4. 12. Luke 8. 10. Acts 28. 28. Rom. 11. 8. Jer. 20. 7. 2 Sam. [...]4. 1. compared with 1 Chron. 21. 1. Ezek. 14. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1 King. 22. 22. Acts 2. 23. Rom. 9. 18. 2 Thes. 2. 11, 12. 1 Pet. 2. 8. Jude 4. Rev. 17. 17. and God knowes how many scriptures more, and tragically have cried out against them, that they make God the author of sin, that they made Gods hand weary, your heart tremble, both your eares tingle, (p. 11) For pray if we be allowed to shape our interpretations any thing congruouslie to the words, and what they must signifie, doe they fall any thing short? nay, doe they not goe beyond the highest expressions of your bold or moderate blasphe­mers, as you call them? p. 23. Quis talia fando tempe­ret à lacrymis? 3. That they seldome enter upon the treating of these high arguments of reprobation, deser­tion, &c. punishing of sinne with sinne, or the like, but with some profession of amazement at the height of these mysteries Twisse lib. 2. prae 2. crim. 4. edit. 40. p. 341. Locum hunc de permissione cujus executionem, sibi pro­ponit Arminius (fateor quod res est) non semel à me tentatum gravibus subinde difficultatibus obsitum & circum septum expertus sum, adeo ut ad extremum vix ac ne vix quidem mihi per omnia satisfecerim, &c. Vide & Calvin. lib. 3. cap. 23 sect. 5. and some fearfulness of their being enforced to expresse themselves, in the language they cannot but doe. 4. That when the wiser sort of them, such as Calvin and Twisse, in their expressions rise highest, they seldome rise higher, if so high, as all sorts of parties have done, when they have spoken to these [Page 57] arguments. Witnesse Austin August. in lib. de pre­distinatione & gratia c. 16. Si humanum genus quod creatum primitus constat ex nihilo, non cum debita mortis & peccati origine nasceretur, & tamen ex e [...]s creator omnipotens in aeternum nonnullos damnare vellet interitum, quis omnipotenti creatori diceret, quare fecisti sic? qui enim cum non essent esse donarat, quo sine non essent, habuit potestatem, &c. the Pontificians Similia citantur ex scholasticis, Greg. Armin. in 1 sent. dist. 1. dub. 1 Deum non injustum futurum si pro arbitrio abs (que) peccati interventu B. Virginem addiceret aeternis suppliciis, Gab. B [...]el. in eadem distin. Si justus aliquis sic immeritò esset condemnatus▪ gratias Deo ageret, quod esset objectum divinae justitiae Pet. Alliacens. in 1. 4▪ 12. artic 3. fol. 185. nullam injustitiam & crudelitatem esse, etiamsi aliquam crea­turam Deus aeternitate puniret vel affligeret, sine ullo peccato, Occam in 4. 9 3. ad dub. 2. Deum post opera dilectionis, posse non dare vitam aeternam sine injuria. Holcum de imput. peccati ad 2. priuc. artic. 1. ad 12. Deum sicut posset infigere poenam sine merito poenae si vellet, it a p [...]sse punire pecca­tum poena majore, quam sibi condigna. whether Jesuits Medina in 1, 2. 9. [...]9. a. 2. confitetur Ocham & Ga­briel affirmare, quod Deus in rigore, & in proprietate locutionis est causa peccati. An expression I am sure you shall not finde in any Calvinist of note, unlesse perchance in a book which the As­sembly of Divines judged worthy of the fire (unto which the Parliament did condemn it) whom you would be ready enough to call a rabble of halfe witted Praedestinarians, p. 10. first papers. Catechismus Triden. in explicat. primi articuli symbol. Bellarm. cap. 13. lib. 2. de pecca­to. Deus dicitur per quendam tropum imperare at (que) excitare ad malum, praesidet ipsis voluntati­bus malis, eas (que) regit, gubernat, torquet & flectit. or Dominicans Alvares disp. sect. 7. Deus aeterno suo de­creto, at (que) absoluta & efficaci voluntate, praedeterminavit omnes actus nostros [...]n particu [...]ari, ante corum praevisionem, & independenter ab omni scientiae media liberae creat [...]onis futurae ex Hypothe­si: Haec est sententia Thomae & omnium Thomistarum, Scoti Vegae & sanctorum patrum. De utris­ (que) Jesuitis, v [...]z. & Dominicanis, notentur illa quae habet D. D. Twisse, lib. 2. p. 1. crim. 3. sect. 1. p. 52. Negari non potest Aquinatem jamolim docuisse ipsum actum peccatiesse â Deo, Idem docent hodiè Jesuitae, ex quibus quam facile quaeso fuit viris istis indoctis, quales erant Libertini, colligere Deum auctorem fuisse omnium scelerum, quae ab hominibus perpetrantur: Addunt Dominicani Deum determinare voluntatem creaturae ad omne actumm suum, etiam ad actum peccati: Nunquam tam formaliter & diserte sententiam suam expressisse hactenus reperti sunt Calviniani. the very Batavi­an Remonstrants.

Belike Dr Twisse may not doe what every body else of all parties may doe. 5. It is easie to be dis­cerned why in these your last, and in this respect your worst papers, you have not perchance altered your minde, but I am sure most odiouslie and envi­ouslie you have altered your method. In your first you began with Election, and so with an affirmation; in these you begin with matters belonging to reproba­tion and damnation, and so with a negation before you assert any thing. A way most unscripturall, Rom. 9. 11, 18. unscholasticall, and illogicall a course taken up by none, but by a company of wrangling sophisters, who strive not for truth, but for victory, not so much for the [Page 58] credit of their own opinions, as for the discrediting the opinions of their Antagonists. It is easie to discerne throughout all your papers, you are as fell and fierce upon this way, and that for the very same reasons, as ever the Batavian Remonstrants were in the Synod of Dort, who rather then not to begin at the wrong end, and not to reserve unto themselves a liberty perpetually to nibble at, Calvin's, Beza's, and other reformers ex­pressions, shamefully deserted their owne cause, and were his [...]ed out of the Synod together See Synod. Dodrac [...]n à Session. 25. ad 63. inclusive. like will to like, you be birds of a feather. 6. Whosoever they be that shall denie to use such expressions and interpreta­tions, or their like in sense as Calvin and Twisse have done, they must, as we shall see in the progresse, 1. De­nie most plaine and palpable scriptures. 2. They must exclude God from the rectory of by farre the major part of the actions which are acted in the world, they must turne him (as wee shall see p. 14.) into a meer speculator, and denie his soveraignty and working pro­vidence. Qui tollit providentiam tollit Deum. And thus have I done with the first thing propounded. I proceed to the second, viz. To the wiping off of the aspersion of blasphemy, from Mr Calvin and Dr Twisse (good Lord what kinde of men when compared with this upstart Mr T. P.) their faire names endeavoured to be daw­bed on by the foule fingers of our Gentleman in the margent. And now trulie having spoken so much to this in the first thing proposed, I might wholly decline this second taske, but that I greatly feare, that few of your admirers, who are flattered by you, and for it flatter you againe, either can or will, so much as looke into the severall Sections in Calvin or Twisse, unto which you direct them. They like enough will take all upon your publique faith, and from the shell of their words repre­sented by you, conclude without more adoe, that the kernell of their meaning, is just that which you would faine perswade the world, that it is: pomum erit quic­quid in vasinium conjeceris. I must therefore goe on to [Page 59] say something to this Libell or Decacorde of slanders; (for no better can I take them to be, whilst by the wre­sting of their true words, you wring out a meaning never dreamt of, nay opposed by them, as Doeg against David, Psal. 120. 3. and the false witnesses against Christ.) And here for the first (as well as the second) quoted out of Calvins Institutions, lib. 3. cap. 23. Sect. 6. It is somewhat that by your reverend marginall fingers, they be not marked out as grand delinquents; it seems to you they be modest blasphemies, p. 23. and then in­deed will the assertion which you have in the five first lines of your p. 9. be blasphemie, when as that you shall have confuted the former part of it, by Eph. 6. 11. Isa, 46. 10. and divers other places; and the latter part of it by Rom. 9. 11. or from Pro. 16. 4. the very place pro­duced by Calvin for the proofe of it, and that just be­fore the words which you carp at, which therefore you prudentlie decline to quote, as you doe all along all the proofes, brought by the authors, abused by you for the confirmation of their positions. 2. When con­trary to all Scripture, Eph. 1. 4. and antiquitie Prosper Epi. ad Ruffin. Ab hac confessione gratiae Dei ideo quidam resistunt, ne cum cam talem confessi fue­runt, qualis divino eloquio praedicitur, & qualis opere suae potrstatis agnoscitur, e­tiā hoc necesse habeant con­fiteri, quod ex omni numero hominum per saecula cuncta natorum, certus apud deum definitus (que) sit numerus prae­destinati in vitam aeternam populi, & secundum propositum Dei vocantis electi, quod quidem tàm impium est negare, quam ipsi gratiae contra-ire; & rursum lib. de vocatione gentium, in qua electione quicquid hominum in Christo praecegnitum non est, nulla eidem ratione sociabitur, omnes enim qui in Dei regnum de c [...]j [...]sl [...]bet temporis vocatione v [...]nturi sunt, in ista quae saeculae cuncta praecessit adop­tione signati sunt. Cui accedat Fulgentius adversus semipelag, hujus praedestinationis ita manet aeter­na sirmitas & firma aeternitas, non solum in dispositione operum, sed etiam in numero personarum, ut nec de illius numeri plenitudine quispiam salutis aeternae gratiam perdat, nec extra illius numeri quantitatem ad donum salutis aeternae perventat. Deo enim, qui scit omnia antequam fiant, sic non est incertus praedestinatorum numerus, sicut dispositorum operum dubius apud cum non invenitur effectus. you shall have proved Gods decrees to be temporall and not [...]ternall. That any thing fals out in time, not decreed by God before all time, a thing denied you even by a very brother of yours in divers of your wild opinions, J. Goodw. see Redemption redeemed. 3. When you shall have put it past all question, that there be no per­sonall absolute decrees of election and reprohation, a thing denied you by Jac. Arminius in his fourth de­cree [Page 60] Armin. in declar. sen­tent. Where it is remarkable, that he cals his the three first decrees praecise and absolute, and of the fourth he saith, that by it decrevit singulares & cer­tas quasdam personas salvare & damn [...]re, and all these ibid. he grants to be eternall. And the Remon­strants in the Hague-con­ference, we find quarrel­ling with their adversaries for saying, that they hold Gods decrees not to bee personall, Colla. Hag. p. or to be conditionall. And in their second Remonst. p. 7. An. 1617. p. 2. they appeal to the 16. Article of the Belgicke confession, where there is expresse mention of eternal election and re­probation and by his disciples after him in the Hague-conference. 4. When as it shall be unlawfull for Cal­vin to use much the same expressions, which the very Pontifician Tridentines are forced to take up, when they speak of the decrees of God Catechismus Tridentinus in exposit. primi articuli symboli. Non solum Deus universa quae sunt, providentia sua tuetur & administrat, verumetiam quae moventur & agunt ali­quid, intima virtute ad mo­tum & actionem ita impel­lit: ut quamvis secundarum causarum efficientiam non impediat, praeveniat tamen, cum ejus occullissima vis ad singula pertineat. And I hope all this is somewhat more then prescience, e­ven as much as an expresse order and decree.. 2. Nor is your second volley of shot discharged against Calvin out of his institutions, l. 3. c. 24. like to wound him, untill you shall, Sir, have overthrown those Scriptures, which in that very place, viz. Exod. 4. 21. Eph. 2. 3. and 2. 12. Jer. 1. 10. Isa 6. 9. John 12. 39. Mat. 13. 11. are brought for the backing of it. 3. Untill you shall have cleared it, that Calvin understands not that assertion of Gods judiciall proceeding against unbeleeving obstinate sin­ners, unto whom the word is and will be a killing let­ter, a savour of death to death, and so shall have con­futed his words by his meaning given of them, in the upshot of the Section; what say you (saith he) meanes God to teach them, by whom hee cares not to bee un­derstood? Consider whence the fault is, and thou wilt cease to aske: for whatsoever obscurity bee in the word, there is alwaies light enough in it for the convincing of wicked mens consciences. 4. Untill your demonstra­tions shall have made it past all question, that God never punisheth sinne with sinne, contrary to Rom. 1. 20. 2 Thes. 2. 12, 13. and so among others the wilfull contempt of the word by giving men up to their scorn­full dispositions, Hos. 4. 13. Acts. 13. 41. Rev. 22. 11. they that will be filthy, &c. 5. When as you shall have made it evident, that whilst in anger you did let flie against Calvin, you have not hit Austin Austin de bono perseve­ran. lib. 2. cap. 14. In eadem perditionis massa relicti sunt etiam Judaei, qui non po­tuerunt credere factis in con­spectu suo tam magnis cla­s (que) virtutibus. Cur enim non potuerunt credere, non tacuit Evangelium dicens, Joh. 12. Cum autem tanta signa fecisse [...] coràm eis non crediderunt in eum, ut Ser­mo Isaiae Prophetae imple­retur quem dixit, Isa. 53. Domine quis credidit audi­tui nostro, & brachium Do­mini cui revelatum est? & ideo non poterant credere, quia iterum dixit Isaias, Is. 6. Excaecavit oculos eorum, & induravit cor illorum, nè videant oculis nec intelli­gant corde, & convertantur, & sanem illos. Paulò post, vo­bis inquit, Mat. 13. datum est nosse mysterium regni coelorum, illis autem non est datum. Quorum alterum ad misericordiam, alterum ad judicium per­tinet: & circa finem ejusmodi capitis, exhortamur ergò at (que) praedicamus, sed qui habent aures au­diendi obedienter nos audiunt: audientes videlicet corporis sensu non audiunt cordis assensu, &c.. Thus ever are you besides the marke, p. 15. and misse of your aim. 3. Much less is your third like to pierce any thing deep, though pointed out to the slaughter, by your digit in the margent, you speak by your fingers, Prov. 6. 13. and yet say nothing from cap. 18. sect. 4. for your what truth more protrite, and more readilie of old received in the Christian Church, Austin lib. 2. de gratia & lib. arbitrii, cap. 20. probatur Deum uti cordibus then that God doth often most justly stir up wicked men to acts as acts, which yet to [Page 61] the actors are and will be unjust: God is no more blameable in so doing, then you are when you set spurs to a dull jade, or then the pure Sunne when it draws out noisom evapours out of a nasty impure dunghil; the very simile used by Calvin (and over-lookt by you) for the illustrating of this matter. 2. And how irrefraga­blie doth Calvin in the very Section, under your evill finger, and once under your evil eye, by variety of scrip­ture, and Scripture-cases, prove this, as from 2 Sam. 16. 22. 2 Sam. 16. 10. 1 Kin. 12. 20. Hos. 8. 4. Hos. 13. 11. 1 King. 12. 2 King. 10. 7. But these forsooth, p. 11. are too literally expounded by Calvin etiam malorum ad laudem at (que) adjumentum bonorum. Sic usus est Juda tradente Christum, sic usus est Ju­daeis cruci figentibus Christum, & quanta inde bona praestitit populis credituris, qui & diabolo utitur pessimo, sed optimè ad exercendam & probandam fidem bonorum, non sibi qui omnia scit antequam fiant, sed nobis quibus erat necessarium, ut eo modo ageretur nobiscum: plura in hujus rei probationem vide passim per totum illud caput: and as literally by Sr Austin, throughout cap. 20. and 21. lib de gratia & libero arbitrio, who drawes up the conclusion of those chapters, thus: His & talibus testimoniis divinorum eloquiorum, quae omnia commemorare nimis longum est, satis quantum existimo manifestatur, operum Dei cordibus hominum ad inclinandas corum voluntates quocun (que) voluerit, sive ad mala pro meritis corum, judicio uti (que) suo aliquando aperto, aliquando occulto, semper autem justo.. 4. As for the fourth quoted by you out of cap. 11. 17. sect. 12. which yet I cannot finde there, something to that purpose I find quoted by one who cals himselfe the praedestina­ted thiefe Fur praedest. p. 27. Impii occulta Dei manu & vi sive potentiâ, tanquàm la­queo latente nescientes diriguntur ad scopum ipsis ignotum, &c. (p. 110.) Austin Enchirid. ad Lau­rent. Omnis natura etiam si vitiosa est, in quantum natura est, bona est, in quantum vitiosa est, mala est, mala omninò fine bonis & nisi in bonis esse non possunt, quamvis bona sine malis esse possint. a book I doubt you as much or more de­light in, because it makes you more sport, then that which you commend of Bp Wintons, p. 11. unto which I suppose you found it annexed, and which is under your second digit, it makes something a higher sound, but no harsher sense in any Christian eare or heart, if so be the more rough phrase of a command (as it may seem to bee to dainty eares) bee but dexterouslie ex­pounded, [Page 62] as it is by Calvin, lib. 1. Institut. cap. 18. sect. 1. and cap. 17. Austin lib. de gra. & l. arbitr. cap. 20. Dum disserit de exemplo Shimei unctum Dei improbe male dicentis sis inquit. Quo modo dixerit Dominus huic homini male­dicere David, quis sapiens & intelliget? non enim jubendo dixerit, ubi obedientia lau­daretur: sed quod ejus volun­tatem proprio vit [...]o suo ma­lam in hoc peccatum judicio suo justo & occul [...]o inclina­vit, ideò dictum est dixit ei Dominus. Nam si jubenti ob­temperasset Deo, [...]audandus potius quam puniendus esset, sicut ex hoc peccato postea no­vimus esse punitū, nec cau­sa tacita est, cur ei Dominus isto modo dixerat maledicere David, hoc est cor ejus ma­lum miserit vel dimiserit, ut videat inquit Dominus hu­militatem meam, & retribu­at mihi bona pro maledicto ejus in die isto. Austin and others, not of a command given out by God, for any man to yield obedience to, which would be contrary to Deut. 29. 29. but of that occult law of Gods stupendious workings, even whilst men sinne, which God hath appointed to be the law of his providence, and so of his out-goings, but not of our conversation, Isa. 8. 20 2. And truly, woe, woe, would it be to all Christians, if the Devill and all his Angels, together with all his agents, which are acted by him, even when they are committing the worst feats of their wicked activity, were not ruled and over-ruled; and in this sense, as it were, in a compulsorie bridle, like the Devill in a chain, Jude 6. Rev. 20. 2. So that when as they do cast up the mire and the dirt of their outra­gious sins, Isa. 57. 20.—God all this while should not order them, as well as he doth the wild ocean, when he saith, Job. 38. 11. Hitherto shalt thou come, but no farther; and here shall thy proud waves be staied. Deus est author nullorum, sed ordinator & rector omnium peccatorū, rector omnium peccatorum & peccantium Of whose actings that of Austines is most true, l. de gra. & lib. arbit. cap. 21. Nunquid sine sua voluntate venerunt, aut sic venerunt sua voluntate, ut mendaciter scriptum sit, quod Dominus ad hoc faciendum eorum spi­ritum suscitavit; immo u­trum (que) verum est, quia & sua voluntate venerunt, & tamen spiritum eorum Dominus suscitavit. Agit enim Omnipotens in cordibus hominum etiam motum voluntatis eorum, ut per eos agat quod per eos agere ipse voluerit, qui omnino injustè aliquid velle non novi [...]. Idem. lib. 5. cap. 3. adversus Julian. Pelagian. Haec Deus miris & ineffabilibus modis, qui novit justa judicia sua non solum in corporibus hominum, sed in ipsis cordibus operari, qui non facit voluntates malas, sed utitur eis ut v [...]luerit, cum aliquid iniquè velle non possit, & cap. 12. Quis non ista judicia contremiscat, quibus agit Deus in cordibus ma [...]orum hominum quicquid vult, reddens tamen eis secundum merita eorum.. 5. Your fifth place quoted out of him, from which yet you keep your threatning finger, or marginall fist, lib. 1. cap. 17. sect. 5. is like unto the former, and therefore may be served with the answer which was given in to the last. And trulie it may as trulie be charged with blasphemie by you, as David for calling wicked men Gods sword, Psal. 17. 13. or Isaiah, for calling Ashur the rod of Gods anger B. Fulgent. l. 1. ad Ano­ni [...]ū, Licet Deus author nō sit malarum cogitationū, or­dinator tamen est malarum [...]oluntatum. and the staffe of his indignation, Isa. 10. 5. Item, for stiling Nebuchadnezzar, Jer. 50. 23. the ham­mer of the whole earth, the fierce nation stirred up by [Page 63] God himselfe, to breake downe the whole earth; confute the Prophets, (turn Helvidianus, p. 17. if you dare) when they tell us Isa. 7. 18. of hissing for the flies, of lifting up an ensigne to the nations, Isa. 5. 26. to fall upon Israels spoile, the very workes of God, Isa. 42. 24. or prove that men when they are so stirred up, doe not wickedlie sinne for the most part, or else when in Cal­vin, or such like honest men, you meet with such kind of passages, keep off your censorious fingers from them, 6. Though you were got off from Calvin, by your second assault made towards the foot of page 9. upon Dr Twisse, yet that same wicked Calvin sticks so much in your stomack indigestible, as that twice more you dis­gorge your selfe upon him, p. 10. out of l. 1. c. 18. 5. from which place, or any others of the like stamp, you will only be able to prove that he opposeth such an idle spe­culative permission, as you, and the worst of your asso­ciats plead for, p. 14. (about which I hope we shall ere long come to some sober reckoning together) a permis­sion which makes evill things to fall out, though not without his praescience, yet against his determination, & all kind of will, viz. such as whereby they be suffered to fal out by the sinful wil of the wicked. It is plain (though a man should run, yet he might read it) and therefore turn to your book, and the section of Calvins againe, that he pleads not for Gods agency in sinne, as it is sinne, Calvin in these and such like places, will bee understood as he explains himselfe, l. 2. Institut. c. 4. sect. 2. Proprie agere dicitur Satan in reprobis in quibus regnum suum, hoc est, nequi­tiae exercet, dicitur & Deus suo modo agere, quod Satan ipse (instrumentum cum sit irae ejus) pro ejus nutu ac imperio hùc at (que) illùc se in­flectit ad exequenda ejus judicia justa. Omitto hic u­niversalem Dei motionem, undè creaturae omnes ut su­stinentur, ita efficaciā quid­vis agendi ducunt. De illa speciali actione tantum lo­quor quae in unoquo (que) faci­nore apparet. Idem ergò fa­cinus Deo, Satanae, homini assignari videmus non esse absurdum: sed varietas in fine & modo facit ut illic inculpata Dei justitia relu­ceat, Satana hominis (que) ne­quitia cum suo opprobrio se prodat. which he stoutlie every where opposeth. But for 1. Gods soveraigne judiciary ordering and ruling of sinne, and over it, according to his aeternall wise coun­sels. 2. And so much the very instance of a Judge in his words produced by you, do evidence, that God is the author of the punishing of a sinfull Ahab, by his i. e. Ahabs sinne, but that he, i. e. God, is no author of his sinne. 2. You fall fiercelie upon him, with a passage which you quote out of his book, de providen. c. 5. and 6. & sic citatur, lib. 2. de provid. part. 11. p. 36. And this a­gaine you note with your severe malignant finger; and because in it you shew as much vi [...]ulencie and spleen [Page 64] against Calvin, as his enemies who had quoted it a­gainst him before you, I think it deserves that zealous answer which Calvin upon the place makes to it, and which for the beliefe of the English reader, I translate thus. Calvin de occulta D [...]i provident. p 736. In quinto a [...]ticulo, non sine providentia Dei quam oppugnas factum est, ut locum notares, ill [...]c vi­debunt lectores, quae soleant adversarii o [...]j [...]cere contra meam doctrinam, me v [...]lut in [...]orum persona recitare. Tu mutilum illud dictum arripiens, nonne dignus es in cujus faciem omnes conspu­ant? In sexto tamet si locum non designas, longius prosilit tua impudentia. Egone, qui tàm reverenter ubi (que) praedi­co, quoties peccati fit mentio, procul removendum esse Dei nomen, usquam d [...]xerim ma­leficia non tantum eo volen­te, sed etiam authore perpe­trari? certè ut quidvis con­tra tam pr [...]digiosā blasphe­miam dicatur, libenter pati­ar, modo ne immerito immis­ceatur nomen meum. Quan­tum ad stultos fallendos pro­ficias nescio, sed non timeo, si quis figmenta tua cum scriptis meis conferre volet, ne tua improbitas te execra­bilem, ut dignus es reddat. Whensoever therefore henceforward Mr T. P. or any of his associats, shall charge Calvin, or any hol­ding with him, to main­tain God to be the author of sin, we may with confi­dence enough, appeale to all ingenious readers, as he did of old. Varius Scu­ronensis, M. Aemiliū Scau­rum, regia merce decorrup­tum, imperium prodidisse ait. M. Aemilius Scaurus huic se affinem esse [...]ulpae ne­gat, viri creditis? [In the 5 Article it fell out not without Gods providence, which you oppose, that you did note the places, there the readers will see, that what things the adversaries doe use to object against my doctrine, are recited by me as in their person. Thou snatching that mutilated saying, art thou not worthy in whose face all should spit? In the 6. though thou dost not marke out the place, yet thy impudence leaps out further. Do I, who reverently every where preach, whersoever there is any mention of sinne, that then Gods name must be moved far from it; I say, that I should have said any where, that wicked actions are not only committed, he willing, but he also being the author of them, certeinlie I can willinglie suffer that any thing should bee said a­gainst so prodigious a blasphemie, provided that my name be not undeservedlie intermingled. How much you may prevaile in deceiving of fooles, I know not, but I do not fear, but if any will compare your forgeries with my writings, that your wickednesse will render you, as you do deserve, to be execrable.] Read on good Sir, for your learning, and the shewing in what sense, that some phrases stumbled at by you, are understood by him. 7. Now I am come to answer for what you quote out of my reverend and worthie friend, Dr Twiss, by which Paul (let me so speake now) I had once the happinesse to be beloved as another Timothy; Oh how do I bewaile it that he is not alive to answer for himselfe; verily, I thinke that his very grave, sterne, scholasticall look, would have frighted such a finicall rhetorician as your selfe, out of that parcell of little wit, p. 24. which is left you, out of that shallow judgement, which yet is the deepest that you have, p. 5. and of which I am sure you are sufficiently proud. You the very great [...], and formidable Zan zummim [Page 65] (as you take it) inter fraterculos classiarios Rusticanos, would for feare have betaken your selfe to your heels, I feare mee and have been in Dr Lopes his condition, by reason of breaking, you would have purified your selfe. For my part I am glad you have, as they did de­serve, joined Calvin and Twisse together, as a nobile par fratrum, the rather because the lesse will need to bee said for Twisse, so much having been said for Calvin, upon the like light suggestions, and wild inferences of yours; and for that to Dr Twisse, having been as a ve­ry Eagle for the sublimity of school Divinity, and yet for elegancy well stiled Sam. Rutherford in his Exercitationibus Apologet. pro div. grat. by a learned Scot, flos inge­niorum scholasticorum, and for perspicuity (if a man may so speake, for take this cum grano salis) as another Bonaventure, in quo non videretur Adamus peccasse, certe non multum delirasse. I question not but that I shal prevaile with all ingenious Scholars, to turne to the passages which you do so point at with your marginall fingers, to turne them by perverting his words, out of the way of his candid orthodox meaning. Yet let me sub­joine some few words for my old friend, and fathers friend, the remembrance of whom shall bee precious to me

And first for what you have out of him, lib. 1. part. 1. digress. 10. cap. 1. sect. 4. p. 125. I will only first, beseech the Reader, to heare how he explains himselfe, both in the place alledged by you, and cap. 3. in princip. for (saith he) speaking of the internall decree, or will of God; The mind of his manifesting justice, seems not to proceed from justice: ‘For as it is not from omnipo­tency that he would have a monument of his omnipo­tency, so it is neither of justice that he would afford a document of his justice, and chap. 3. p. 127. As for reprobation, the last act of it remains to be considered, and the will or intention of condemning for sinne: Condemnation it selfe for sinne, is an act of Gods aven­ging justice, and it doth presuppose sinne; but the [Page 66] will of condemning, or the decree by which a man is destined to condemnation for sinne, seems not to be’ (he speaks you heare modestly, yet not fit to be called, p. 23. a modest blasphemer) ‘an act of justice, and without any obscuri [...]ie, it may be demonstrated, that it cannot presuppose sinne.’ How he proves this, consult further on the very place anon after that which is un­der your digit, and is the worse for your thumbing of it, as also in his answer to Mr Hoard, presently upon the stating of the question: How gallantly he illustrates this, see in his answer to D. H. statim à principio. Con­fute him if you can; It is enough for his discharge, that he maintains, 1. No internall or exernall act of Gods soveraignty to be against his justice. 2. Are you so in­toxicated in your passions against Dr Twisse, (a man I am confident who never wronged you in thought, word or deed) as not to see that Gods internall and eternall decrees (if you grant but any such, which I am sure Arminius and the Arminians did, but what you do, I am by your discourses much to seek) cannot, to speak properly, bee acts of justice; (yet they are not against justice.) Acts of justice are ad alterum, and presuppose an object actuall and not potentiall only; predestinatio nihil ponit in objecto, nec egreditur extra se See bef. re p. 108 de Collat. Hag. passi. Dr Twisse lib. digr. 6. 5. 4 c. 3. p. 96. Nihil vulgatius in scholis quam praedistinationem & reprobationem nihil pon [...]re in praedestinato & reprabato quod & evidens ratio con­firmat: sunt enim actus Dei immanentes non transeun tes, omnis autèm paena est ac­tionis transeuntis in creatu­ram effectus, &c.. 2. As for the second place quoted against him, in your line ult. p. 9. out of sect. 12. p. 140 about the distinction of voluntas signi, & bene placiti, which you nibble at here, p. 12 and in divers other places. 1. That I shall else where shew, that you by denying of it, rob God of all soveraignty and deity, and make him to be a meer legislator to appoint what should bee as to duty or to give out orders, not to determine what shall be, as to particular events. 2. It had been more valiant for you, to have confuted the instance, which Dr Twisse brings from Gods willing or commanding, not willing or not determining the offering up of Isaae, Gen. 22. then vainely to cavill at the distinction, which that is brought to prove. 3. Dr Twisse in the very place hath [Page 67] taught mee and you, if you have but a minde to learne with me, (as you say you have, p. 8. if you may but bee taught in the spirit of meeknesse) that these two wils are not contradictorie, as being not ad idem, nor secun­dum idem, as belonging to different objects and diffe­rent waies of working, hee thus concludes the Section, (somewhat otherwise then you translate him, who foist in severall words of your owne, to make him the more odious.) ‘Nor yet is there any contradiction betwixt these two divine wils; for voluntas signi, or the signe of Gods will, is improperlie called will, for it only sig­nifies what men ought to do, or what will please God, if it be done. But voluntas beneplaciti, or the will of liking, is properly and simplie his will, whereby name­ly he hath decreed what shall be, either God effecting it, or God permitting it.’ 3. As for the last and largest passage quoted out of l. 2. part. 1. p. 142, 143, 147, 148. which containes a most elaborate, succinct, learned, and usefull discourse; out of which certaine scraps and bits of his words, are incoherentlie hudled together; I must needs beseech the Reader, who can, so far to gratifie me and himselfe, as to turne to the places quoted, and then I doubt not, but perceiving how egregiously that indefatigably painfull Dr is abused by mis-representing his sense, they will of their owne accord, bee ready a second time, to read over that tart lecture of Calvins to Mr T. P. for abusing so gallant a man as Dr Twisse: In the interim let it bee remembred, that when the Dr saith, that Gods will is no lesse efficacious in the per­mission of evill, then, &c. That the same Dr finds a wide difference betwixt Gods efficient will, and his efficacious will. The first relates to what God will doe himselfe, the latter, to what shall be done by the sinnefull will of others, lib. 1. sect. 10. p. 140. the place quoted by T. P. but just now. We grant saith he, there Dr Twisse disputes a­gainst Jac. Armin. his text. speaking of the latter, even that will to be efficacious, but the last consequence, if by an efficacious will, ergò by an effici­ent, we totally denye as in consequent; and then succeed [Page 68] the words mentioned by you, p. 10. line 21. & inde. In both Gods will is efficacious, but in the one it is only permissive, but in the other effective. 2. As for the prostitution unto sinne required, which you speake of, doubtlesse he speaks of some judiciary acts of God up­on impenitent sinners, as the Prophet Hosea 3. 13, 14. when your daughters, &c. the Apostle 2 Thes. 2. 3. You may as well denie God to put forth any providence in governing of the world, as deny God to administer occasions of sinning unto wicked men Bee content for once, to learne something that is good from your beloved Jac. Armin. Disput. 9. de [...]ffic. prob. Dei in mullo, Thes. 20. propter incitamentorum & occasionum oblationem, directionem & determinationem Dei, permissioni peccati additam, dicitur Deus, quae ab hominibus malis & Satana perpetrantur, mala ipsa facere, quod probat ex Gen. 45. 8. & 37 25. 28. & 4 [...]. 12. 12. & 41. 19. Job 1. & 2. 2 Sam. 12. 13. 12. 2 Sa 15 & 16. Sic Deus fecisse dicitur, quod Absolon fecit: quia potissimae partes, in a­ctionibus isti apotelesmati producendo adhibitis, Dei fuerunt. Accedit huc, quod cum sapientia Dei norit, si per talem incitamentorum, & occasionū oblationem, di­rectionem & determinatio­nem, rem totam administret, certo & infallibiliter [...]xistu­rum, quod à creatura sine scelere perpetrari nequit; & cum voluntas ipsius decer­nat administrationem istam, liquidius patet cur Deo fa­ctum hujusmodi tribuatur. Fidei humanae potest subes­se falsum., and that those occasions (not Gods sinning in offering them, ac­cursed be such a blasphemy) do really affect the ima­ginations, according to all those degrees, whether that of profit or pleasure represented in them. See this largely proved by our good and great Doctor, past all feare of being confuted, in his answer to Mr Hoard, p. 26. & inde. And thus I hope I have in reference to the second thing proposed, set Mr Calvin and Dr Twisse, and all that hold with them, into their proper honourable sta­tions of sound and able Divines againe, by wiping off the aspersion of modest or immodest blasphemy from their names. But I shall bee forced to leave Mr T. P. amongst the accusers of the brethren, and of his owne mothers sons, Psa. 50. 20. were he at least but a genuine son, a member of any true Protestant Church. In this I have been the longer, not only to testifie my respects to two such great luminaries of the Church, but because by so doing, I have quite overturned one great rotten pillar, upon which all this book doth rest, which now as we shall see more briefly in what followes, will bee Psal. 62 3. as a bowing wall, and a tottering fence. And now thirdly, in reference to the third thing proposed for the finishing of this Section, I have but a few words to say to your quaking, trembling, oratoriall per­oration, with which you wind up this Section. 1. I must professe it to be some part of my faith (pray God I may be out in it) to believe that you will rather turn Quaker, and with them get into your trembling and [Page 69] shivering fits, when you are big with no spirit of pro­phecy, then you will not upon any or no occasion gi­ven, take liberty by abusing such as Mr Calvin and Dr Twisse, make the hearts of Gods people sad, whom hee hath not made sad, Ezek. 13. 22. make their very eares to tingle, and hearts to tremble. 2. Now I can upon cer­taine knowledge, tell how little conscience you have used in reading or representing authors; I may justly feare you do rather act the Tragaedian part of a Stage­plaier, for the making your adversaries odious, then that you greatly feare even reall blasphemies; if you did so, you would not upon suppositiō of the absolutenes of Gods decrees (which cannot possibly be otherwise, un­less as I have elsewhere shewed, we resolve to be madly Atheistical) to call in Poets, p. 13. if not Devils, p. 24. to help you to blaspheme. 3. But though, since Mounte­banck like, you have thrust your selfe upon a stage, and finde it necessary for the carrying on of your de­signe, to have in readinesse the very pages and lines of those severall authors whom you designe, (if you can do it) shall be offered up as victimes to the popular Ju­ry of ignavo's, or ill affected persons: And that rather then this shall not be done, you will rif [...]le the well furnisht Cabinet of the Batavian Remonstrant writings, Scripta Synodalia Re­monstrantium. Fur praedesti­natus, tied to the taile of the book quoted by Mr T. P. as to Andrewes his book or not sticke to be beholding to very thieves, viz. such roguish pamphlets, as fur praedestinatus, and others are, rather then you will want materials for invectives against Calvin, Beza, Twisse, &c. Yet pray, Sir, why should you expresse your sense of indignation, against, as you say, too litterall expositions of some Texts of scrip­ture, of those (vid.) or the like enumerated by me, p. 103? Know you not that bonus textuarius est bonus Theologus? and that sensus scripturae est Vide Dr Ames. in Psalm. secundum. tantum unicus, is (que) grammaticus, where the letter is not plain­ly metaphoricall, typicall, or contrary to other more plain places, and the cleare analogy of faith? But belike when all your Socinio-Grotio-Percian glosses and Annotations shall be compiled together, and be publi­shed, [Page 70] for the clearing of the forequoted places and the putting of milkie, mild Socino-Arminian glosses up­on them; the plumbeus cerebrofities of the now Pro­testant reformed world, will be better indoctrinated, and recede further from the words of those Scriptures, but approach nearer to the genuine sense of them. Cre­dat Judaeus Apella, non ego. And thus have I done with this your seventh Section, and I might say too, with all this your first Chapter, wherein I have and shal at eve­ry turn be forced to meet and scuffle with the Don Quixot you mention, Epist. 2. ante publicam edit. and of which you may read in my last abused friend, Dr Twisse, upon the very like occasion writing against Jesuit Bellarmine Dr Twisse lib 2. div. gr. 2. cap. 5. p. 53. quasi vero o­perosa demonstratione opus esset ad illud confirmandum de quo né libertini quidem dubitant, nempe in hac pa­lestra dominab [...]tur Bellar­min (una cum socio suo T. P.) & egregiam laudem re­feret de triumphatis prodi­giosis quibusdam host bus & chimericis, quales for sitan ne Hercules quidem unquam aggressus est, quales etiam unica tantum in terris regio suppeditat, quae dici solet u­topia, quales deni (que) parturit & parit imaginatio [...] Interea for sitan his artibus hoc tandem lucrabitur, ut non pauci talibus insidiis & dolis capti, ad injustā quā Bellarminus ingerere cupit, suspicionem de nobis concipiendam eo facilius inducantur, quasi nos minime puderet, Deum peccati insimulare, adeo (que) omnia flagitia Deo autore fieri palam profitere­mur: sed notētur imprimis sequētia [...] D. T. P. nostro Sed non ipsi Pontificii Bellarmino modesti­ores, quotquot non omnem excusserunt fronte pudorem, haec nobis exprobare, quae solet Bellarminus, unquàm ausi fuerant. Sed contra potius pronobis ab istis criminibus absolvendis pronuntiant. Sic enim nos excusat Gabriel Vasquius, quamvis & ipse Jesuita in 1. disp. 99. cap. 4. Caeterum obser­vandum est, non omnes haereticos nostri temporis docuisse Deum esse autorem peccati, ut peccatum est, sunt enim qui planè dicunt, peccatum ut peccatum, non esse in Deum, ut in causam referendum, sed tantum Deum esse causam operis peccati, eo modo quo supra explicuimus ex mente ipsorum. Ita docet Beza aphorismo illo 33. Calvin l. 3. Instit. cap 23. sect. 9. Zwinglius in Serm. de providentia, cap. 6. Similia producit ex Suarefio, &c. Idem ergo de indiculo à T. P. exarato contra D. Calvinum & Twissum possumus pronuntiare, quod simili occasione protulit D. Prosper contra Augustini ad­versarios. Prosper in Resp. ad objectionem vicent. ‘contexunt, & qualibus possunt sententiis com­prehendūt in aptissimarum quarundam blasphemiarum prodigiosa mendacia, ea (que) ostendenda & in­gerenda multis publice privatimque circumserunt, asserentes talia in nostro esse sensu qualia diabo­lico continentur Indiculo.’ for my life I cannot light upon the faire L. Helena [...] you talke of to me in the same letter, unlesse (as I thinke) to you it be the slurring of all the faire names of all the men of renowne, who have been active in the first or second reformation; p. 35. And the enjoi­ment of this your Helena by you, haud equidem invideo, sed miror magis, how have you dared so publickly to do it, after such great protestations of affection, both to the first & latest reformers. But of this, verbum sapienti [Page 71] sat est; verbum hand amplius addam, (p. 121.)

You have from hence to the end of the first Chap­ter, an excellent cause to maintaine against Sir Nico­las nemo, asserting God to bee the author of sinne, and therefore I could heartily wish your arguments, from Scripture, reason, and authority against him, were somewhat stronger then they be. However I will not shew you the flawes of them, not only lest my book out-swel the printers minde to commit it to the presse, but lest another day you should as well give it out a­gainst me, as you have done against my betters, that you have not the better of the cause, whilst against Sir N. N. you plead God not to be the author of sinne. I'll therefore rather take you off from your dispute with a plaudit, and with an egregiè Dom. magister, haec tibi sufficiunt. Egregia tibi laus, & spolia ampla debentur. By my consent, because omnia leviae tendunt sursum, for your great conquests obteined against that formida­ble Knight, by Scripture, reason, and authority: So soon as ever a new Capitol shall be erected to Jupiter Ham­mon, you shall enter the citadel, tanquàm victor ovans, with the acclamations of the people following you, veni, vidi, vici. But yet I must needs say that Calvin and Twisse, and their copartners, who maintaine God to will sinne, in no other sense then that of Austins Augustin. ad Laurent. cap. 95. Non fit aliquid nisi Omnipotens fieri ve­lit, vel sinendo ut fiat, vel ipse faciendo. Nec dubitandum est Deum facere benè, etiam sinendo fieri quaecunque fiunt malè. that nothing fals out but what God wils shall be, either by his reall effecting of it, or his voluntary permission of it for his own glory; who maintaine this determi­ning of sinne, just after the rate that my most reverend friend Dr Ames unto whose memory I owe much. Thus then hee in his disceptat. scholast, cum Grevencho [...]. edit in 4 to, p. 50, 51. opponis obsoletum de peccati prae­scientia & praedetermina­tione. Cui ego respondebo, parcius multo in scripturis declaratum esse, quid Deus de malo quam quid de bono apud se decrevit, satis igitur esse, si de bonis nobis constet, licet malorum origo intelle­ctum nostrum fugiat: deinde, non est eadem ratio futurorū bonorum & malorum; bona enim sunt ex virtute positi­va, quae semper cum sui [...] ef­fectis ab efficaci Dei volun­tate fluit, sed mala ex defe­ctu sunt oriunda, at (que) adeo qua talia non pendent ab ef­ficaci aliquo decreto: quic­quid habet entis positivi, ab efficaci decreto pendet; quic­quid purae negationis, ex e­jusdem decreti negatione se­quitur; quicquid verò pri­vationis & pravitatis in sese continet, peccatoribus ip­sis debetur in Solidum. Dico igitur ipsa peccata cognosci in decreto Dei, absolute de­finiente illud quod iis inest boni, & ipsius mali permissi­onem. Ipsum etiam pecca­tum, quamvis non quà pec­catum, a Deo praefinitur, in ipsa etiam praefinitione cer­tò videtur, & aliquo modo dici potest decreti illius consequens, effectus autem nullo modo. Vult Deus actus bonos, & quà actus & quà bonos, malos quà actus non quà malos. Sic Augustinus hanc objectionem solvere solebat sem­per. Saepius etiam à Pelagianis eadem occinebatur ipsi cantilena ut videre est contra Julian. 3. 9. & 5. 2 & de lib. arbitr. lib. 2. 19, 20. most pithilie, and yet fully exprest their sense: (whose words I do the rather give in the margent, be­cause that book is not easily to be had, or in many scho­lars [Page 72] hands) I say I must needs believe, that they, and such as they take themselves to be nothing concern'd in any of the Scriptures, reasons, or authorities, which you bring against them; and were they alive, I doubt not but they would denie that which you say, p. 15. that you shot somewhat further then you aimed, (which cer­tainlie was but to calumniate them, and to asperse their writings) though they would be agreed upon the Que­stion, that by many furlongs, you never came neer the question debated between you and them. I may there­fore bee allowed to afford you some orthodoxy (who have elsewhere but little of it) in your flourishing fears against Sir N. N. and shall not find my selfe necessita­ted any further to quarrell at the text of your 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. Sections, then I can discerne a quarrelsome Spirit working in you, against the sound tenents of the Christian orthodox party of the first or second refor­mers, whom you like not as appears, p. 35. and therfore in reference to your Sect. 8. p. 11. give me leave to say, 1. That I like your text better as it lies in your letter, then I like your marginall glosse, either out of your admirable Grotius as you call him, Epist. 2. about the commending of whom, and your designe in it, you will give us a more fitting opportunity to speak else where, in answer to p. 28. of yours, or your Saint-like An­drewes, of which something too must be said, because of of the epithite imposed upon him by you, p. 47. The former speaks indeed, as to the forepart of his saying, conformable to the most usuall phrasiologie of the scripture and the antients, August. Enchirid. In sua quae falli mutari (que) non potest praescientia, opera futura suà disponere, illud omninò nec aliud quicquam est praedesti. nare. which say not much or often, that God doth praedestinate men unto sinne; the phrase of praedestination mostly both in scriptures and the fathers, denotes only such things as God will [Page 73] effect and doe, and that in reference to mans eternall condition, and not such things as God determines to permit: But for the other part of his saying, that God doth not praedestinate or praedetermine men unto punish­ments, is both contrary to manifest Scripture, Rom. 9. 12. Jude 4. &c and to pious antiquitie Augustin. ad Dulcitium, Epist. 61. Deus occulta satis dispositione, sed tantum justâ, nonnullos co­rū poenis praedestinavit ex­tremis &c. & Tract 48. in Joh. Quomodo dixit vos non est is ex ovibus meis? Quiae videbat cos ad sempiternum interitum praedestinatos, Tract. 107 filius perditionis dict us est traditor. and the later Joh. Scot. in Hist. Go [...]teshal­ci. Edit. à D Ʋsserio, p. 128. praedestinatio semper in bo­nis, [...]emper in operibus suis, &c. Sic Synod. Valentina. ib. p. 180. Valentine Councill, who understood the opinions of the antients in this matter, as well as the admirable Grotius; they sticke not to affirme, that God did prae­destinate wicked men to punishments for their sinnes. 2. Your second Saint-like Andrewes is out, when hee will needs have Rom. 11. 33. only applicable to praedesti­on or election, when as by the series of the discourse, unto which the words are a conclusory Epiphonema they are as well applicable to reprobation as to election, if not more, as appeares by ver. 32. to reprobation then to election. 2. None of your opposites quoted by you, had used the phrase of praedestinating unto sinne, nay, in the sense of the Arausican Councill quoted by you, p. 16. condemn it, and therefore you might here very well have forborne your verball criticismes. 3. Your conclusion here, God is no where said to praedestine to sinne, ergò, he doth only in your speculative aequitable sense, p. 14, 15. permit sinne, and not voluntarily decree, that it shall fall out, and that he will have the ordering of it, is as valid a conclusion, and yet thus you must draw your ergò, if you will conclude any thing against Calvin or Twisse, as that Baculus stat in angulo, ergo Sacerdotes non debent nubere, and look you to that for­midable ergò, who are said to be against all second mar­riages of ministers, sect. 12. p. 12, 13. I might as quick­ly glide off from your sect. 9 p. 12. and turne it off as I did the former, as being nihil ad Rombum, because your premises and conclusions, notwithstanding your best care promised, p. 7. that they should be fast twisted together, hang together like ropes of sand, and if I may use your hated Calvins phrase, are desultationes à gallo ad Asi­num Calvinus contra Liber­tinos.. If I may but suspect, that you intended a dis­pute [Page 74] against forsooth your blasphemous catalogue, set downe, p. 10, 11. Meus est quem recitas, (you know, Epist. 3.) ô Fidentine libellus; ‘Ast male dum recitas incipit esse tuus,’ for there against Calvin and Twisse. God every where professeth that he wils not sinne, commands it not, ap­proves it not, punisheth it, expostulates against it, &c. ergò he doth not so much as determine or will, that sinne should by his permission fall out by the voluntary wil­full wils of wicked men, is a conclusion which makes me cry out, utinam me nemore Pelei. 2. I have else­where answered to the scriptures which you produce here out of Psal. 81. 13. Isa. 5. 3, 4. Ezek. 18. 2. 29. when as you brought them forth in your first papers, more stronglie for the carrying on the designe, which there you were upon, and yet so mistooke the Texts, and ex­pounded them worse, then either a Jewish Rabbi Kimchi on Isa. 5. or the Batavian Remonstrants in their Synodick writings, I list not (as much leisure as you may take me to have) eandem serram reciprocare. Those writings may in due time see the light, if it shall be judged sitting. 3. From your 19. line of p. 12. al­most to the end of your 10. sect. p. 13. you set upon such a desperate way of railing, ranting, nay, of diaboli­call blaspheming of the footsteps of the anointed, I mean of the counsels and unknowne footsteps, Rom. 11. 13. Psal. 77. 19. of the high almightie holy one (upon a wil­full mistake and misrepresentation of your adversaries tenents about them) as that you seeme to me, to have taken up a resolution, to blaspheme downe all the rai­l [...]ng Rabshaka's, who some say was an Apostate from the true religion R. D. Kimchi in Isaiah.; and you confesse you were once in Calvins way, p. 24. and so in some sense you be an Apostate, optimi vini pessimum acetum, none likely such stomackfull opposers of Gods truth, as those who have forsaken the way of his righteous word and commande­ments. All the scoffing, Atheisticall Lucians, the wan­ton Satyrists, the furious Bolsers, the wild Rogu [...]sh prae­destinated [Page 75] thiefe Fur praedestinationi [...], s [...] 23. B [...]nae [...]fiae voluntates De [...] in cereb [...]o meo perpetuo mo­luerunt, son [...]n [...] (que) veluti mo­la asinaria. &c. or any whosoever at any time, may, as it were for a fee As one said well, in the Synod of Dort upon the like occasion, that the Re­monstrants did behave them [...]e [...]ves tanquam con­ductitii R [...]proborum patro­ni, so doth T. P. a new ad­vocate to those kinde of Clients. have set their tongues to lale in the behalfe of the Devill, and the reprobates, for the prompting them with arguments (as if of their owne accord they could not finde them fast enough) to dispute against his just, but unconceivable Soveraigntie; unto all which diabolicall rhetorick, I might justlie answer (and the Apostle and other holy and wise men would beare me out in it) with silence Aug. Enchirid. ad Lau­rent. cap. 99. Hoc autem qui eo modo audit ut dicat, quid adhuc conqueritur? Nam voluntati ejus quis resistit, tanquam prop­terea malus non videatur esse culpandus, quia Deus cujus vult miscretur, & quem vult obdurat. Ab­sit ut pudeat nos respondere quod respondisse videmus Apostolum. O homo tu quis es qui responde as Deo? Nunquid dicit figmentum &c. Hoc enim loco quidam stulti putant Apostolum in responsione defecisse & inopia reddendae rationis repressisse contradictoris audaciam, sed magnam habet ratio­nem quod dictum est, O homo tu quis es? & in talibus quaestionibus ad suae capacitatis consideratio­nem revocat hominem, verbo quidem brevi. sed reipsa magna est redditio rationis. Si autem non ca­pit haec, quis est qui respondeat Deo? Si autem capit magis, non inveniet quod respondeat or at least with O homo quis tu [...]es qui responde as Deo? which of all other answers would be the solidest & the fittest G. Voc­tius in respons. Belgica contra Tilem. Ames praefat. ad rescript. scholast. Si cum Diabolo mihi Al­tereandum esse [...] (non auderem ego non ausus est Michael Archangelus ille Jud. 9.) in istoc g [...]nere par pari reponere: Divino praesertim nomini; tam soedos titulos, imaginesve sub quocunque praetex [...]u, vel verbis, obducere, & applicare. Spiritum & reverentiam Jehovae non sapiunt, non o [...]ent haec [...]um pro­phana, quae ne nominari quidem inter nos dibent, sicut decet sanctos: Judicis illius referre videntur mores, qui Deum non timebat, nec hominem reverebatur, Luke 18. 2. And thus according to this staring hairebraine Divinity of yours, the rule of a mans acting must be given him after the act is done, and not before he is to goe about it. scrutator majestatis opprimetur à gloria. Snailes (unto which one well compares these foule blasphemous slimie injections) are better trampled up­on, then leisurelie drawne out of their impure nastie cottages, which they carrie upon their backes: Yet lest you, and the infernall black guard at your heeles, should vapour as if you had champion Goliath-like routed all the host of reformed Israel, by your invincible arguments I thinke it not amisse to return some Answer, howbeit a [...] brieflie as possiblie, I can; And that for fear of defiling my selfe with the pollutions of your execrable lines; he that toucheth pitch; you know can­not [Page 76] but be somewhat bepitched; and ergò, 1. Though you seeme to have a marvellous good minde to denie that God hath a secret wil, as wel as a revealed wil, and therefore here and elsewhere, p. 24. and p. 33. are still nibling, Serpent like, Gen. 3. 15. at the heels of that re­ceived distinction, of voluntas signi, and voluntas bene­placiti; or, as it is by others expressed, voluntas praecepti, & decreti; yet whensoever you shall [...], down-right denie this distinction, as it is by orthodox divines used and applied, I hope as I have done in an­swer to your first papers; so shall I elsewhere, more in answer to these, prove you must fall upon grosse and flat Atheisme. But of this when we come to examine your p. 24. 2. When, where, or how will you, or any of your broken faction, prove that the two wils, you mention, of secret or revealed will, are not only divers and distinct from each other, but contrary to each o­ther about the same acts. Whereas the object of the re­vealed wil (for example) is, that this or that shall be the dutie of the creature to do, or to leave undone by sin, the object of the secret wil, that this or that shal come to pass. What shew of contradiction is here betwixt those two wils? Are the objects of the one or the other the same? or is the manner of Gods acting toward the ful­filling of what he commands to be done, by his grace, gi­ving to will and to do, and that meerly according to his good pleasure, Phil. 2. 12. the same with his manner of working in those who keep not his commandments, & by him are left to walk, not in his, but their own waies? For shame cease to wrangle rather then reasō after this order. 3. But then how much less will you be able to prove that monstrous & hideous assertion of yours, that the positive will of God, viz. that which is so (for of that is the dispute) in Gods counsell and mind, ought to bee done, viz. by way of dutie by the creature? for so you must understand it, or else you object nothing. A thing both 1. Unlawfull for any creature to do, Deut. 29. 29. Isa. 8. 20. 2. And an impossible thing for him to know, [Page 77] but by the event, and that is after it is done: For no other way can he know what Gods secret will is con­cerning future events, unless by an immediate revelati­on given him before hand, or a spirit of prophecy, which I suppose you will grant me, reprobates have not, though you will here needs suppose that reprobates doe cer­tainely know themselves to be so; and that they are so well acquainted with Gods secret will, and so obedi­ent to it, as that they know, and doe the evils which they must doe. Well may enraged Massilians of old Faustus lib. 2. cap. 6. sub pietatis fronte Gentilitatis fatum, & inter gratiae voca­bulum absconditum eri [...] fa­tale decretum. and a wicked, roguish, wild fur praedestinatus, condem­ned to the Gallowes, as is said, reason of late Fur praedestinatus, p. 24. Tutissimum arbitratus sum semper efficacem Dei volun­tatem sequi, ne frustraneum laborem capesserem.. But it becomes not him to reason so, who pretends to have out-witted all the rabble of half-witted praedestinarians, page 10. of your first papers; and by the consideration of Calvins Decretum horribile, p. 24. to be frighted into his once lost wits againe. A frightfull wit of your owne you have. 4. As for the Atheologicall sport you make, and others use to make with the distinction of Gods an­tecedent and consequent will; to that I have spoken somewhat largely elsewhere in my first papers, and may perchance add somewhat more, if need shall bee, when I come to your p. 27. where wee are troubled with it againe, and me thinkes you should not so un­handsomely have forced it in, in this place, unlesse you had been disposed to have cuffed your owne obje­ction, about contrariant wils, which will be found no where to bee so, but in your distinction of Antece­dent and Consequent will. We know and teach Jam. 1. 17. That in God there is no variablenesse or shadow of changing. 5. What therefore is now become of your objecting, either in your first scrible, or your last Gnosticisme, Marcionisme, Manichaisme, or else­where of Stoicisme, and Turcisme, p. 55. unto the reformed. (O how you love them!) when as your owne reasonings here, and elsewhere, are just the ca­vellings of your owne objected Marcionites mentio­ned by your owne Tertullian against the Catholiques, [Page 78] and are nothing else but the expuitions of the Semi-pe­lagian Massilians Canes ait Tertullianus adversus Marcionem, lib. 2. cap. 5. quos foras Apostolus expellit, latrantes Deum ve­ritatis, haec sunt argumenta­tionum [...]ssa, quae obroditis, si Deus bonus & praescius futuri, (And as well may we say, as we shall heare anon out of Austin, praede­terminans futurum) & a­vertendi mali potens, cur ho­minem & quidem imagi­nem & similitudinem suam &c. Passus est labi de obse quio legis in mortem, circum­ventum a Diabolo? Si enim bonus qui evenire tale quid nollet, & potens qui depelle­re valeret, nullo mode evenisset, quod sub his tribus conditionibus divinae majestatis evenire non posset. Quod si evenit, absolutum est è contrario Deum neque bonum credendum, ne (que) praescium, ne (que) potentem (J.) Vinc. Object. 4. apud Prosp. Quod major pars generis humani ad hoc cretur à Deo, ut non Dei, sed Diaboli faciat voluntatem. Object. 5. Quod peccatorum nostrorum autor sit Deus, eo quod malam faciat voluntatem hominum; plasmet substantiam quae naturali motu non possit nisi peccare. Object. 6. Quod Deus tale in hominibus plasm [...]t arbitrium quale est Daemonum, quod proprio motu nihil aliud possit vel velit nisi peccare. cap. 14. Qui Evangelicae praedicationi non credunt, ex Dei praedestinatione non credunt, & quod ita Deus definierit, ut quicun (que) non credunt ex ipsius con­stitutione non credunt. against Austin and his party, which once more you take up, to spit them out upon the Protestants? But I pray you, before you object, as you doe, p. 12, 13. absolute Reprobatarianisme to any, have you so much as any where attempted to state in what sence your Adversaries whom you oppose, p. 9, 10. maintaine absolute Reprobation? As I blesse God I have taken some honest paines about stating the Que­stion about absolute Election, in my first papers, by which this other about reprobation, will bee the more easily determined, and which Dr Rivet, according to the mind of the most, doth very pithily and succinctly set downe In disputationibus 13. It's a sawcy way of reasoning, (yet none of Tertullians, as is plaine by that of your owne in the margent, Quis iste Deus tam bonus ut ab illo malus fiat?) to tattle what is better or worse for God to have done, when once it shall from Scripture be made evident what God wil [...], as it is plaine enough that God wils that sin should fall out.. 2. Is not this a French tricke of yours, learned perchance from your French Massilian Mon­sieurs, who in like sort upbraided the Catholiques with an heresie of their owne forging, which they cal­led absolute praedestinarianisme: As may bee seen in Histor. Gotteshalci. 3. Why sticke you not to the first fine epithite given to your adversaries, whom you call the halfe-witted rabble of absolute praedestinarians, p. 10. of your first papers? 4. Your odious reasoning out of Tertullian à minore ad majus, that it had been better and more reasonable, &c. Will, 1. Bee of some force against us, when you shall have proved, that Gods [Page 79] voluntary decree of permitting sinne to be done, which is terminus diminuens, makes him to be the principle or author of evill; which because that he doth not wil to doe or effect it, but only determine that sinne shall be done, Non facere, sed in bonum finem ut fiat permittere. Quo sensu secundum Au­gustin. & veritatem ipsam, bonum est malum esse. Mag­na opera Dei & exquisita in omnes voluntates ejus, ut miro, & ineffabili modo non fiat praeter ejus voluntatem, quod etiam fit contra e­jus voluntatem, quia non fi [...]ret si non sineret: nec uti (que) nolens sinit, sed volens, nec sineret bonus fieri malè, nisi omnipotens etiam de malo facere posset bene. not as a duty, but as a fact that shall fall out by the sinfull will of the creature, which makes only the sinning creature the sole efficient cause of his sinne (if there can bee an efficient of that, whose very being is consisting in a deficiency) makes God only to bee the cause of its permission and regulation. 5. Of Gods decreeing of punishments without all respect to sinne, and of his necessitating of his creature to sinne, termes of your owne coining, which you would make the world believe, you tooke for the owned currant coine of your Adversaries; we shall be forced to speake to this often enough in the sequel, ad Sect. 10. p. 13. For all the lei­sure which you conceive me to abound with, p. 4. I am sure I am not at leisure in reference to James 1. 13, 14. fully to open in what sence God may some way be said to tempt unto sin, and yet not be the author of sin: He that hath a minde to see that fully and satisfactorilie done, let him consult with Dr Twisse against Mr Hoard, from p. 17. usque ad 28. S [...]c interpreters re­conciling those two places 2 Sam 24. 1. 1 Chron. 21. 2. In transcurs [...], I can run and yet read, that you have a months mind, that Calvin and Twisse should be jumbled together with the modern Ranters; but sooner will you and the moderne Jesuites agree, & in unâ sede morari. 3▪ I cannot con­ceive to what purpose you quote, 1 Cor. 10. 3. Is that promise made at randome to every man, or to the elect and beleevers onely? but I forget, that according to your first and second papers, all are or may be elect? My wonderment is, if this may passe for truth, why any are damned, or bee overcome by temptations. 4. I cannot finde, but your wicked wanton reasonings out of Terence in Eunuch. and upon that account too, of what you have out of Cornel. Agrip. makes full out as much against the praescience of evill, before it fall out, as against the praedetermination of it; and Austin hath [Page 80] been full out as stupid as my selfe in thinking so Augustin. l. 2. de persev. sanctor: cap 15. Ayunt [...] viz. Semipelag [...]ani) neminem posse correptionis stimulis excitari, si dicatur in con ventu Ecclesiae, &c. Ita se habet de praedestinatione, d [...] ­finita sententià voluntatis Dei, &c. ista dum dicunt it [...] nos à confitenda Dei gratia, id est, quae non secundū me­rita nostra dat [...]r, & à confi­tenda secundum eam prae­destinationèm sanctorum, de­terrere non debent. Sicut non deterremur à cōfitenda prae­scientia Dei. S [...] quis de illo populo sit loquatur, ut di [...]at, sive nunc rectè vivatis, sive non rectè, tales vos eritis postea, quales vos Deus fu­turos esse praescivit, vel boni si bonos, vel mali si malos. A notable place confuting many of your perverse wranglings, unlesse you have a minde transilire in Castalii, & Socini Castra.. 5. Whilst per charientismum (as your word is Epist▪ 1. before publicat.) you say you dare not say, and yet you doe say by the m [...]uth of a wanton whisling Yon­ker, whom you bring upon the stage, Quid si haec vo­luit Deus? You give me just occasion to say, that I have reason to believe your mind to be worse in the obje­ction, then the very minde of that lewd Atheisticke lad, whose spokesman you will needs be. It is a thou­sand to one, but that Ethnick lad, for the excusing of himselfe in his frolicks (as he cals them) conceived that he might apologize for himselfe and his debaucheries, from the examples of such gods, whom he was bid to worship, and who yet willed to approve of the worst of sinners, by their owne acting of them: Witnesse Ju­piter, Mars, Vulcan, &c. of whom your owne good au­thor, Terence, explaining himselfe, hath it thus, it's no matter for Englishing such passages; if any reverence of divine Majestie were left in you, you would tremble to make such parallels, Terent▪ in Eunuch. Dum appara­tur virgo, in conclavi sedet suspectans tabulam pictam, ubi inerat pictura haec, Jovem quo pacto Danaem misisse quondam aiunt in gremium imbrem aureum: egomet quoque id spectare caepi, & quia consimilem luserat jam olim ille lusum, impendio magis animus gaudebat mihi, Deum se in hominem convertisse, at (que) per alienas tegulas venisse clanculum per impluvium, fucum factum mulieri. At quem Deum? qui templa caelisumma sonitu concutit. Ego homuncio hoc non facerem? Ego illud verò ita feci ac lubens. Hactenus verba illius in Eunucho. 2. Will not the workings of the very consciences of such sons of Belial, Rom. 2. 15. whom you abett in their sportings against Gods councels and decrees, tell them one day that you are to be abhorred for putting such Sophismes and Paralogismes into their heads, whereas their hearts tell them, that notwithstanding all that Divines have delivered about Gods praedetermining of sinne, they were free and unconstreined enough in committing of [Page 81] it, and in running out to those excesses of riot? 1 Pet. 4. 4. Et tamen illa libertas non tam erat libertas, quam contumacia dicenda. So Austin. Did not those very heathens, who acknowledged fate in a higher degree then ever Christians have, or need to doe Prosp. ad objection [...] pri­mam Gallorum. Praed [...]sti­nationem Dei nullus Catho­l [...]cus negat: [...]atalem au [...]em necessita [...]em multi etiam non Christiani resutant, proinde qui praedestinationis nomi­ne fatum praedicat, tam non est probandu [...], quam qui fa­ti nomine veritatem praede­stinationis infamat: viderit noster, T. P., yet from the convictions of their owne consciences, blame themselves for their sins. Witnesse for this Queen Jo­castas in Sen [...]ca, who anon after she had complained of her hard fates, yet withall professeth, that if God the Creator of all, should make his wrath breake forth against her, and strike her with a thunder-bolt from heaven, yet this were no sufficient punishment for her sinnes.

6. Did not Austin long agoe against his way, meet with such blasphemous, scurrilous waies of reasoning, and reject them with highest indignation and scorn In Psalm. 31. he blames those, who, when they are found in their sinnes, say fatum mihi fecit, stellae ma­lae fec [...]ru [...], but saith hee▪ Quid est fatum, quae [...]u [...] st [...]llae? Certè istae quas [...] Caelo conspicimus, & qui eas f [...]cit? Deus: qu [...]s ea [...] o [...] dinavit? Deus: erg [...] vid [...]s quod volui [...]ti dicere, De [...] fecit ut p [...]ccarem Mars sec [...] homicidam; Venus adui [...]t­rum.. 7. What more mysterious piece of iniquity was there ever committed in the world? or can there possi­bly be committed, then the killing of him who is, and is truly called, the Lord of glory? 1 Cor. 2. 8. and yet saith not the Scripture expresly, Acts 2. 23. that though he was crucified by wicked hands, yet he was delivered up, by the determinate counsell and foreknowledge of God? Acts 4. 27. Herod and Pontius Pilate▪ with the Gentiles and people of Israel, were gathered toge­ther, for to doe whatsoever thy hand and thy counsell determined before to be done August Epist. 48. ad Vincent. & de grat. & l [...]b. arbitr. ad Valent. cap. 20. Quum pater tradider [...]t fili­um, & Christus Corpus su­um & [...]das Dominum, cur in hac tradi [...]one Deus est justus, & ho [...]o reus, [...]isi [...]n re una quam fecerunt, causae non una est [...]b quam fecerunt. But perchance by the helpe of some, not too litterall exposition, of which, p. 11. you will make a shift to get off something more handsomely then ever Arminius did, who is for­ced to grant, that Gods counsell, not withstanding, it might so have fallen out, as that Pontius Pilate and the Jewes, should never have crucified Christ [...]ac, Armin. Respons. ad Artic. 31. Nego ossa Christi resp [...]ct [...] decreti d [...]v [...] con­ [...]ring▪ non potuisse, &c.. 4. As concerning the discomposednesse of your mind, and your fearfulnesse to have so much as repeated these bold [Page 82] expressions, but to good purpose; I shall then have cause to beleeve you, (Siquidem novi ego Simonem & Simon me) when as that good purpose of yours shal not appeare to bee the defaming of those mens names and writings, who will live in the hearts of all Gods peo­ple, when the memory of all your wicked cavillings and scriblings against them shall rot, and your name be written in the dust. 2. When as you shall have pro­ved your selfe to be a more dutifull sonne to your mo­ther the Church of England (whom Spaniell like you fawne upon for your owne ends, and so farre as serves, your own turne) even whilst you oppose the Articles of her faith, as we have seen, and shall see, p. 16. then contrary to her advise in her 17. Article, to put curious and carnall persons, (such as are sure the wan­tons you conjured up to reason against praedestinati­on, p. 13.) ‘upon the continual having before their eies, the sentence of Gods predestination, whereby the De­vil doth thrust them into desperation, or into wretch­lessnesse of unclean living, no lesse perilous then despe­ration.’

FRom Scripture, which had as well left you, as you it, whilst you were slandering of your graver bre­thren, and upon that occasion launching out into depthes to high for you, and lashing of truths which you did not, or would not understand, you come to rea­son (or as I who endeavour after my plaine and blunt fashion, to call things by their proper names Scapham Scapham, & ficum ficum appellare. to Treason) against the Majesty and Soveraignty of the Al­mighty, and his holy workings, not of sinne (to hell let that blasphemie goe, from whence it came) but in, about, and over it, sinne (as used to be said of old) habi­tat in alieno fundo, is (if you will give me leave so to translate it) a very bad tenant to a good Landlord.

In the two next Sections, viz. 11, 12. you doe onely three things, which any way concern me to take no­tice of. 1. You do set downe and explaine, that mon­strous opinion, which you have about Gods providence in the evill of the creatures sinne. 2. You bring in, as to your purpose, an impertinent observation out of Mr Hooker. 3. You are for some pretended concurrence with Beza, a man otherwise as little liked by you, as his colleague, Mr Calvin. About the first which you ad­venture to set downe, p. 14. in these words. You hope to make it appeare, that God almighty is so farre from being accessory to sinne, and doth so many things to hinder it, that hee doth not permit it but in an equitable sence. And then further to explaine and amplifie in these, p. 15, so farre from that, that God Almighty doth not per­mit sinne, as permission signifies connivence or consent; but he permits it, as it signifies not to hinder it by maine force. And p. 15, 16. [In like manner all that is done by God Almighty by way of permission, is his suffering us to live and have that nature of the will, with which he made us. This is all that I am able to apprehend or pro­nounce, that God permits our sinnes in this sence only, and that he disposes and orders them to the best advan­tage.] Now about this full and equitable declaration of yours, give me leave that I may a little keep touch in my promise made with you. 1. Note somethings more gene­rally. 2. Then something more particularly. For the first, Though elsewhere up and downe in your booke, be­cause of your amphibolicall double dealing, I find you to bee [...], a kinde of two souled man, your meaning useth to be somewhat like the Masse, Myste­rious; yet in what you let fall here, you are aper­tus homo, doe openly unbosome your selfe. 2. That in what you say about your aequitable sence, you doe verbatim transcribe out of your first papers, both as to your Position, and your subjoined illustration, p. 15. If I see a man stealing, and say nothing to him, &c. A shrewd Topicall Argument to me tantamount almost to a De­monstration, [Page 84] that the first papers were before your eye, as well as in your memorie, whilst you wrote these se­cond, and yet p. 2 & 3. you will at no hand be known of any such matter. 3. That you will never bee perswa­ded to forbeare an odious representing of your reall ad­versaries opinions, (for by what law am I bound to take notice of any of your chimaericall ones?) as if they made God accessary to sinne, p. 14▪ or a conniver at it, or consenter to it, p. 15. in the usuall acceptance of those phrases (and you know, loquendum cum vulgo) as such expressions implie, a love-liking or approbation of the things permitted Qui silet consentire vi­detur.. Here as much as you, I am sure more cordially then you, they say, Psal. 5. 4. Thou art not a God that hast pleasure in w [...]ckednesse, neither shall evill dwell with thee. Hab. 1. 13. Thou art of purer eyes then to behold evill and canst not looke on iniquity. They conclude as willingly as you, p. 14. though not so thra­sonically against Sir N. N. whom you soundlie cuffe In your [...] or Andabatarum pugna, you talk of, Epist. 3 ante 2 pub­licat. Dan. 9. 7. O Lord righteousness belongeth unto thee, &c. All that they say is, that God doth not [...], volens nolens, but willinglie decree that sin shall be permitted to fall out, and in that sense be acted by the wicked wils of men, for the advancement of the glory of his justice, Pro. [...]6▪ 4. Rom. 9. 22, 23. 2. As for any more particular confutation of your first dear, & cleare, Article of your unchristian Creed, which we had from you, since we have had the unhappinesse to see this your last Pamphlet, amongst understanding Christians, reci­tasse, refutasse est. I have somewhat largely done it else­where, in my first answer to your first scribble, by Scrip­ture, Fathers, Reasons, and even Batavian Remon­strants. Here let it therefore suffice you and the Rea­der, to receive summa capitula rerum, that if this be your All that you allow to God's efficacious pro­vidence in evil (I wil now use no other then Jac. Armi­nius his phrase Jac. Armin. Disp. pub. 9. de justitia & [...]fficaci provi­vid [...]ntiá Dei in malo.. Then 1. You will limit the Almighty in these matters to the same boundaries which he hath set to the children of men, so that if they can, they must [Page 85] to their ultimum posse, hinder sinne, or they be gui [...]tie. Qui non prohibet cum potest jubet. A thing most mon­strouslie erroneous as applied to God, as Aug. lib. 5. adversus Jul. Pelag Nos cert [...] eos in quos nobu potestas est, [...]i an­ [...]e oculos nostros perpetrare sce [...]era permittamus, rei cum ipsis erimus; Quàm verò innumerabilia ille permit­tit fieri [...]nte ocu [...]os suos, quae utique sivoluisset, nulla ratione permitteret, & ta­men justus & bonus est. Austin, reason and experience shew. 2. You take the Al­mighty off from all kind of praedetermination and ru­ling of perchance more then the thousandth part of the actions which are done in the world, which, the whole world lying in sin (1 John 5. 19.) are rather evill then good. You allow him onely an after game, when cursed men have plaied out their play to make the best (you force me now so to speak) of a bad b [...]rgaine; for say you hee disposes and and orders them to the best ad­vantage (viz.) when they are done, as is plaine accor­ding to you, not before they bee done: And then wel­fare Castalianisme Vide Felic [...]s Turpio­nis praef. in Dialog. Sebast. Castellionis, p. 12. edit▪ in 120. Aresdorfi [...]i, An. 1578. and Socinianisme. 3. Then clearelie (which you say you will not doe p. 5.) [...]ourob God of his efficiency in many acts which are naturally good. For then, 1. God in whom we live and move and have our beeing (Acts 17.) who give us [...], is not the sole supreme cause of any of these things, if once by the fault of the creature per accidens, sinne do but cleave to them. 2. God may not nor doth at any time punish sinne with sinne, contrary to Rom. 1. 24. 1. Thes. 2. 9, 10. or doe any of those ma­ny things, which even by Arminius, Arminius and others, I have elsewhere transcri­bed at large, looke after them, Armin. Disp. 9. pub. Tilenus in no lesse then 8 positions in Collat. cum ca­merone. The Remonstrants in script is Synodal [...]bus, who as they do all confute the aequitable sense, so let Austin shut up the reare in proving Gods punishing sinne with sinne, and plea­ding for other acts of Gods providence about sin, lib. 5▪ contra Julian. Pelag. cap. 3. Per totum fer mè caput. Nec tacetur de coecitate Is­rael. Quar [...]? donec plenitudo gentium, inquit Rom. 11. in­traret, nisi sortiter istam poe­nam negabis esse, quam si lucis internae amator▪ esses, non solum aliquam, sed val­de magnam poenam esse cla­mares. A [...] ista caecitas suit judae is grande incredulitatis malū, & grandis causa pec­cati, ut occiderent Christum. Jam istam caecitat [...]m, si poe­na fuisse negaveris, simil [...]m te perpeti etiam non confi­tens indica [...]is. Similia ha­be [...]us passim al [...]bi. Tilenus and o­thers, are granted for the avoiding of Atheisme in the deniall of Gods soveraign providence to belong to him. 4. You would make us beleeve that God hath no other waies of with-holding us from sinne, but by de­stroying us, robbing us of our free will, turning us into stocks, uncreating his creature: Which if so, pray what becommeth 1. Of al Gods diverting waies, by common and speciall providence? 2. Of all his restraining waies by Lawes, inward feares? &c. his waies of conviction by common graces? Heb. 6. Besides, what is done by arts and civilities, didicisse fideliter artes? &c. 4. What of his converting waies of the worst of sinners, when ex nolentibus, he makes them volen [...]es? 5. Of his pre­servatives [Page 86] of the good Angels, who per magis auxili­um, by the super-addition of greater grace preserved in their first station, which surely if it had pleased God, he could have given unto man also for the preventing of his fall? 6. Of his timelie taking men out of the world, or translating them to glory, lest as the antients were used to say our of Ecclesiastic. Malitia mutaret in [...]ellctum ejus? If any of these waies of hindering sin, tend to the destruction of free will, I beseech God demo­lish that Idoll as much in me, as ever Moses did the Golden Calfe, when he beat it to powder, Exod. 32. 20. 2. As for what you in the second place quote out of Mr Hooker, I am sure enough of it, were it not that you were a Platonick lover (you see I borrow a fine phrase from you, p. 24. (rather of his Ecclesiasticall policy, then of his Divinitie, you would not have made him your spokesman, who saith nothing to God's meere specula­tive permission of evill. I think you would rather have snibbed him for his so profuse commendation of Calvin, as you know we have had out of him. 2. All that he saith, hath been most readilie consented unto by men, because in another Classe of Church-policie, lesse liked by you Let one, who hath been long an Advocate fo [...] Protestants, speake in his w [...]y for the rest, D [...] Ames. Re­script. schol. ad Grevinch [...]. cap. 3. D [...]o igitur quod & antea dixi, recte à scholasti­cis haec ita exponi, ut non sit assignanda causa divinae voluntatis ex parte actus vo­lend [...], quamvis potest [...]ssigna­ri ratio ex parte vol [...]torum in quantum scilicet Deus vult esse aliquid propter ali­ud, Th. 1. q 23. a. 5. Quo sen­su rectè etiam dicunt, Deus vult hoc esse propter hoc, sed non propter hoc vult hoc. q. 19. a. 15. illud ordinationem unius rei ut causae ad aliam affectam notat, hoc verò mo­tum ipsius voluntatis divinae ab externo medio, quod jure dixi indignum Deo & [...]: For what saith he in effect but this? 1. That though considering all inferiour causes and things, as they stand in subordination to God, his absolute will is the cause of them; yet as they stand in relation to each other, so they have many other causes and lawes besides God's absolute will. In a word, God's absolute will is the sole cause of the making of his decrees; (and it is Atheisticall to say otherwise, even Arminius himselfe being judge Armin. Disp. publ. 4. Thes. 51. Non movetur a causâ externâ ut velit, non ab [...]fficiente alio, non a fine, qui extra ipsum sit, ne ab ob­jecto quidem quod non sit ip­se Etrectè Augustinus (a­pud Lombard. l. 1. d 45.) Qui causam quaerit volun­tatis divinae, aliquid majus [...]â quaerit, cum nihil eâ ma­jus sit. Et si habeat causam voluntas, est aliquid quod antecedit voluntatem Dei, quod ne [...]as est credere. but there be many causes be­sides of the execution of his decrees. If to this true and undeniable assertion, you would but take in what all your adversaries will as willingly yield unto you; that God in his absolute decrees, the results of his will and wisedome and praescience, doth not only determine all things and actions, but their severall modalities too, as to the manner of their being, whether as necessary, [Page 87] contingent or voluntary, (and so that his decrees are the supreme cause not onely of all necessitie, but of all contingencie and voluntarinesse too (q). I know, you Deus ordinat omnia ut pro­prios motus exercere sinat. August. Tho. Aquin. Ordo praedestinationis est certus, & tamen libertas arbitrii non tollitur ex quâ contin­genter provenit praedestina­tionis effectus. Idem Aqui­nas ad object. ad art. 4. de provident. In hoc est immu­tabilitas & certus divinae providentiae ordo, quod [...]a quae ab ipso providentur cuncta eveniunt eo modo quo ipse providet, sive ne­cessario sive contingenter. out of your Jac. Arm [...]n. would not keep such a pud­der as you doe, about necessity and freedome, as if it were impossible they should proceed out of the womb of one and the same decree, caderent omnes de crinibus hydrae, but of this when I come to your, p. 47, 48. 3. As for what you say, p. 14. that no other reason is knowne to us of Gods works, besides his absolute will, and that hee workes all things according to the counsell of his will. 1. The latter part of this saying is most true, and strenuouslie pleaded for by your ene­mies, especiallie by Calvin Vide Calvinum fusè l. de praedestin. p. 700. & 728. who was not so mad, as all along you would have the Christian world beleeve hee was, as to hold that Gods wils and decrees were absolute from all true and right reason known to God, though from all known to us, or any other creatures be­yond what he is pleased to reveale unto us about them. 2. The former part of your saying too, that no other is knowne to us, is a most rare and precious truth. But as falling from your pen, I may well say,

For it doth directlie overthrow all that you have in all your foure following Chapters, about the conditions (you might as well say causes) of Reprobation, chap. 2. and of election, vocation, &c. Unto which purpose I trust we shall make some good use of your owne con­cession here. 4. That of yours too is reallie true, that if he be pleased to set himselfe a law or rule, not to reprobate any, but upon praescience of sin, that this can be no prejudice to the perfection of his being. But 1. If he no where saith so, but the contrarie rather, Mal. 1. 2. Rom. 9. 11. or if by Reprobation, you doe as you should understand the meere denyall of, or not electing to grace or glory; you must not be so bold, as to say that he hath made such a law Aug. compescat se huma­na temeritas, & id quod est non quaerat, ne id quod est non inveniat. and so give (O horrid!) your Maker the lye, because you phancie such a law [Page 88] would have been most conformable to his goodnesse, from what you imagine fit, to what ab aeterno was concluded by God. I am sure non valet consequentia, 2. Nor is it probable. possible, or by rationall men Ima­ginable, that what no under-soveraignes will doe here on earth (so farre as it is in their power to pre­vent it) the God of Heaven should condescend to doe, viz. to bee on [...] a meere Legislator of con­ditionall decrees, lawes, and statutes, but no abso­lute Determiner in a soveraigne way, and yet with­out sinne, which it is impossible for him to be ca­pable of, of the severall acts of obedience or disobedi­ence in relation to them. God belike did decree what should bee de jure, but not at all determine what should fall out de facto, a vastum & non Chri­stianum postulatum this sure. 3. As for your see­ming concourse and compliance with most reverend Beza, and for what you have any where else up and down your 15. p. take all in short thus. 1. Had your agreement with him, not onelie in that ortho­doxe saying which you quote out of him, but also in other substantiall matters of your Creed been more and more cordiall, you would by much have been the better man, more usefull to the Church, and your name would sound better in all Christian Reformed Churches. 2. You are of the youngest, to say as once Bellarmine of Calvin, utinam Calvi­nus sic semper errasset, as you wish of Beza, that he had never spoke otherwise, unlesse you had invincible arguments to prove, that very often hee hath spoken otherwise and worse. But perchance you have out of him too, as well as out of his honoured Col­legue Mr Calvin, many frightfull sayings quoted to the very page and line 11. of which you may one day in your terrible contentions, make as good use as you have done of the former, out of Cal­vin and Twisse, against your dreadfull enemie, Sir N. N. 3. If Beza (unto whom you may as well add [Page 89] the Synod of Dort All these doe but upon the matter, say what the Synod of Dort in their Ju­dic. c [...]rca 3. & 4. Artic Can. 16. S [...]cuti per lapsum homo [...]on d [...]s [...]t esse homo, intelle­ctu & voluntate praeditus, nec peccatum quod univer­sum genus humanum perva­si [...], naturam generis humani [...]ustulit, sed depravav [...]. & spiritualiter occidit, ita eti­am haec d [...]vina regeneratio­nis gratia, non agit in homi­n [...]bus tanquam truncis & s [...]ipitibus, nec voluntatem ejusque pro [...]rie [...]ates tollit, aut invitum violentex cogit, sed spirituali [...]er vivificat, sanat, corrigit, suaviter [...]i­mu [...] ac poten [...]er sl [...]ctit: ut ubi antea plene [...]ominabatur carnis rebellio & resistentia, nunc regnare incipiat promp­ia ac sincera spiritus obedientia; in quo vera & spiritualis nostra vo [...]untatis instauratio & libertas consistit. And thus before spake our Articles, Edw. 6. Art. 10. Gall [...]c. Art. 1623 Chap 3. 22. Irish of the yeare 1615. Art 28. the Gallican Articles, the Eng­lish and Irish Articles, besides many more of the rest of Reformed Churches) were for no compulsion of the will, no turning it into a wooden Engine, &c. then you deale most unworthily with Beza elsewhere, and with your neighbouring Sympresbyters, who neither have, or are knowne to have any other opinions about these matters, then Beza had, when you compare them to Marcionites, Stoicks, Manichees, Turkes, &c. p 55. 4. In what sense you, first, Hold praedestination to be in Christ, I shall speake when I come to your p. 56. 2. And how impossible it is for you in any true Christi­an sense, to maintain what here you say & approve of, that in our conversion, God of willing makes us willing, I shall then & there (God whling) make plain too. You must find a deleatur for the greatest part of your fourth and fifth Chapters, or betake your selfe to some Pe­lagian or Neophotinian glosses, in the expounding of these phrases Viz. Some such trim one as Pelagius was wont to give when he was hard put to it. Aug. lib. 1. de grat. Christi contra Pelag. c. 7. a. 41. Quam gratiam nos non ut tu putas, in lege tantum modo, sed & in Dei esse adjutorio confitemur. Adjuvat enim nos Deus per doctrinam & Revelationem suam, dum cord [...]s nostri oculos aperit, dum nobis ne proesenti­bus occupemur futura demonstrat, dum Diaboli pandit insidias, dum nos mult [...]formi & ineffab [...]li do­no gratiae coelestis illuminat. Qui haec dicit (and happily T. P. will hardly say so much) gratiam tibi videtur negare. An & liberum hominis arbitrium & Dei gratiam confitetur?. 3. Though the meanes in order to Reprobation (you speak most absurdlie, Condemnation you should say; for Reprobation is an eternall imma­nent act of God, and to speake properlie, hath no means in order to it) are none but evill, as wicked men choose and picke them out, who are said to love death, Prov. 8. 36. yet in the Almightie, the voluntary permission of those meanes to fall out, is not evill, unlesse you will say it is evill in God to give men up to strong delusions, 2 Thes. 2. 11, 12. that they should beleeve a lye, that they all might be damned, who beleeved not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

AFter a mighty conquest obtain'd against your fright­ful chimaericall adversary, the often mentioned Sir Nicolas Nemo, by Scripture & Reason; for not so much as the very Libertines (against whom your rea [...]l adver­sary, Mr Calvin, with much gallant theologicall ani­mosity, made up himselfe in severall books, for main­taining as they did, sinne to consist in a meer nega­tion, not (as indeed it doth) in a privation, and so to have neither (as is impossible) an efficient, but not so much as a deficient cause, the defic [...]ent wicked will of man) did offer to maintaine God to bee the Author of sinne, but that Sir N. N. was the doer of all, you fling your last killing stones at him, from the authorities of Christians, of Jewes, and Gentiles: Oh triumphant Mr T. P. the mighty conquerour! But not to detract any thing from your valiant atchievements against your phantasticke adversary, give a poor suppliant leave to aske so great a conquerour, 1. What reason you had to expresse so much reverence to the Augustan Confession, when as one of the chiefe compilers of it, Ph. Melancthon, of whom you and your partie use to boast much, when you have small reason for it, as we shall see when we come to your, p. 29. acknowledged the imperfection of it? See Contra Remonstran­tia secunda Lugduni Bata­vorum, 1617. p. 20. &c. Et denuo multa huc ref [...]rentia lectu dignissi [...]a, & ad mo­dum rara quae hic i [...]serta fuissent ni marginis angustia prohibuisset a. p. 69. ad 71. All the Latter Lutherans, and you with them, have reason to follow tha [...] good counsell which Reverend Bp Morton gives them. Sentent. D. Morton de pace Evangelica; eos eba [...]xè [...]r [...] precorque (inquit ille) pri­mum ut in hac causâ [...]n gra­tiam redire v [...]lint cum suo Luthero, qui (prout decuit filium gratiae) gratiam D [...] omnimodo gratuitam esse semper arcte ten [...]bat, accu­raté (que) d [...]fendebat D [...]inde ne patiantur se ab ipsis Papistis etiam Jesuit [...]cae sectae do­ctoribus primarii▪ Bellarmi­no, Toleto, Sua [...]zio, Salme rono, Maldonat [...], in gratiae d [...]vinae patrocinio & propug­natione superari, à quibus doctrina d [...] praedestinatione ex praevisione fidei aut ope [...]ū tanquam purus putus Pel [...] gianismus explosa est: post [...]e­mò non ultima prudentiae laus est ex hoste utilitatem capere. Prodiit duobus ab­hinc annis Liber Guil. de Gibiensse Ordinis Oratorii Presb. & doct. Sorb [...]nici ho­dierno Papae Ʋrbano dica­tus: in quo inseruntur verba Clementis octavi de aux iliu gratiae Summa est, [...]otam cam doctrinam ad no [...]mam doct [...]inae sancti Augustini de gratiâ astringi debere, eundem Augustinum du­cem agnoscendum esse atque sequendum. when as not only, the foure Imperiall Cities of Argentorat, Constance, Mem­ming, and Lindow, but the Protestant party in the Kingdome of Bohemia, Moravia, the Marquesdome of Baden, the Earledome of Emden, and East Friezland, did doe the like, and did declare their minde in the Controversall points, to bee just the same with that of the Contra-Remonstrants in Belgia, with whom did joine the Churches of the principalitie of Bipont, the Lantgrave of Hassia, of the Republique of Bremen, and of the Electorate of Brandeburg, and especiallie the Churches under Fredericus Pius, who in the publike Imperiall Diet, held at Augusta in the yeare 1566. did declare that he did indeed continue in the faith of the [Page 91] Augustane confession, but as a fuller and exacter expla­nation of it, did add the Catechisme of Heidelberg. 3. When as the Protestant Churches of Palatinate, in the Newstad Admonition (p 18.) did complaine that it was plaine by the Historie of the Augustane Confession, and by many of Luther and Melancthon's Epistles, that there were many Articles which should have been expressed in that confession, but were o­mitted, because they were accounted odious by some, and might have cast in some impediment to the whole businesse of Religion, amongst which yet verily there bee some, concerning which, it were necessary to have the Churches Declaration, as (viz.) of Providence, of Freewill, of the Politique Domination of Bishops, with the causes of Divine election, &c. And from thence it is evident that the perfection of the Au­gustane Confession, was not so great as some Divines tooke it to be, and that therefore the Church would be ill provided for, if shee were alone to depend upon it, as the sole Rule of all Ecclesiasticall Doctrine. 4. Though your very good friends (whom yet disingenu­ously enough, p. 4. you have no minde to owne) the Low-Country Remonstrants, when they were picking out of that Confession as much for themselves, as pos­sibly they could gather; yet poor men, they bring in but this sorrie crop as making for them, that the Augu­stane Confession did not forsooth in this matter, teach the Contra-Remonstrants opinion Remonstr. secunda Lug. Bat. p 17. Quae (viz Au­gusta [...]a Confessio) in hac materiâ Contra Remonstrā ­tium confessi [...]nem non docer.. And sure enough it is that it taught not the Remonstrants. 5. That whē as your selfe in your first papers, p. 9, 10. upon another occasi­on had commended the Ratisbone Synod, and the Au­gustane Confession, and yet as I have there largely shewed, are forced to recede from them both. See my first Answer, p. 4. But as Mr Hoard, Mr Mason▪ See Dr Twisse against them. p. 87. and give re­verend Bp D [...]venant, in his Animadversions p. 61. leave, gravely to read you a Ca [...]o [...]icall checke for this. If you embrace the Lutherans opinion, and bring within the compasse of the P [...]aedest [...]nary Pesti­lence, the Doctrine of prae­destination, which they dis­allow, you mani [...]estly brand the Church of England with this note of infamy, and might as well charge us with the Sacramentary P [...]stilence, for denying their faigned Consubstantiation, as with the praed [...]stinary pest [...]lence, for denying thei [...] conditi­onall praedestination up [...]n foresight of mens beliefe in Christ. and all of the English Arminian faction before you, had against all good Conscience and Reason, asserted much like the same with you, that the 39 Articles of the English Church, have the greatest regard and con­formity [Page 92] to that Confession, which is so untrue, as that (blessed be God) the Articles of our Church fill up the vacuities of that Confession, in the matters complai­ned of by the Palatines, and were drawne up (as saith Bp Carleton) against Mont. Ex [...]minat. of appeale, ch. 2. à principio. by men adhering in those matters, more to the principles of the first Luthe­rans, then to the principles of the latter: So you in a speciall manner out of love to the Masse of Ceremo­nies, left in the Lutheran Churches (and alas as you cry out now with much adoe, cast out of our Mother English Church!) thought it reasonable out of love to that Ceremonious litter, rather then out of any reall compliance with the doctrines of the first and best Lu­theran Reformers, to expresse your reverentiall consent to the Augustane Confession. 2. As for the greater reverence which I am sure you owe, and here expresse to beare to our owne 39. Articles of the Protestant Re­formed Church of England, I were easily able to prove it (were it not for over-glutting my Reader) that you are no better friend in the points under debate, to the Articles of the Church of England, then once your great but unsuccessfull friends, Barnaveld, your admi­rable Grotius were to the Articles of their Belgicke Confession, who being the politique Leaders of their true followers, the Remonstrant faction, they put them fiercelie upon stickling for a Revision of their Confessi­on and Catechisme, &c. Vide praefationem ad Synod. Dordrac. I say I must needs beseech you, how troublesome soever it might prove to you, to crave your proofs of this your veneratiō of the doctrine of our own English mother Church. Whether hope you to prove this (as certaine it is you may easilie doe it the clean contrary way) by your consent to the Ar­ticles of the Church, published in King Edward the 6. daies, An. 1551? 2. Or by your Approbation of a writing in the fierie bloody daies of Queen Mary, sig­ned by the blessed Martyrs, Bradford, Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer, in opposition to one Henry Heart, who with opinions, the very same with yours now, troubled [Page 93] the consciences of poor imprisoned Martyrs? 3. Or not helping your selfe with any Francisco-Clarian gloss, by giving the true sense of the 39. Articles, published by the Convocation in 1562. Art 9, 10, 13. Art. 17. &c? 4. Or by demonstrating of your allowance of the 9. Ar­ticles of Lambeth, agreed on, November 20. 1595? 5. Your concurrence with the Articles of the Church of Ireland, 1615. especially with their 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. Articles? 6. Or by gliding along with the stream of the Authors of the greatest note and renowne in our Church, opposing Barret and Baro, and since with all the eminent Authors, Bishops, Bp Carletons examina­tion of the Appeale, p. 8, 9. When our Church was disquieted by Barret and Baro (as now by T. P.) the Bishops that then were in our Church, examined the new Doctrine of these men, and utterly disliked and rejected it. And in the point of Predestinati­on confirmed that which they understood to be the Doctrine of the Church of England against Barret & Baro, who oppugned that Doctrine. This was fully declared by both the Arch­bishops, Whitgift of Canter­bury, and Hutton of Yorke, with the other Bishops and Learned men of both Pro­vinces, who repressed Bar­ret and Baro, refuted their Doctrine, and justified the contrary, as appeareth by that booke, which bo [...]h the Archbishops then cō ­piled. Good Mr T. P. read on to the end of that Bi­shops Chapter, upon my honest word it may b [...]e much for your edification; and others, in our Church, appearing against the late Arminian Monta­cutian faction? Truly, Sir, if your book can be by you maintained to agree with all these, (who certeinelie very well understood the doctrine of their owne Church, and bore as great a reverence to it, as your selfe, or any of your party) then eris tu mihi magnus Apollo, I will lay downe the bucklers, with a professi­on too, that when the Commons assembled in Parli­ament, Jan. 29, An. Dom 1628. entred this following Remonstrance into their journall booke, they meant to testifie their agreement with you and your party. ‘We the Commons now in Parliament assembled, doe claime, professe, and avow for true, that sense of the Articles of Religion (which were established by Parliament, in the 13. yeare of the raigne of Queen Elizabeth) which by the publique Acts of the Church of England, and by the generall and current exposition of the Writers of our Church, hath been delivered to us, and doe re­ject the sense of the Jesuites, and Arminians, and all others wherein they differ from us.’ But all this will bee done by you, as soon as an Eagle will swim, or a Dol­phin flie.

Well may you be able to shew your front in the un­dertaking Aug. centra Jul. lib. 1. Mirum si in facie homin [...]s tantum intervallum sit inter frontem & linguam, [...] hac causâ s [...]ns non compr [...] ­ma [...] lingua [...] ▪, but you will shew no force in the Con­quest. 3. I even skip for joy, at your referring your [Page 94] Reader to the citations which follow your first inference, Sect. 18. whereby you sufficientlie intimate, that they are but brought in there as fresh Auxiliaries, com­ing in towards another fierce Battalio, which you wage with your once conquered enemie, Sir, N. N. in this Chapter, from thence all along (though you doe fou­lie asperse your reall enemies, but the Churches, and my reall friends) I may safely conclude, I may forbeare all over-anxious paines about those authors, which the necessitie of the cause by me defended against you, will not require, however something may bee said to stop the mouth of your importunity: You your selfe give me a supersedeas (when here you tell me to what purpose you produce them) from troubling of my selfe much about them, who with them from my sould, de­test your hatred against Sir N. N. assertion, but have no mind to bee imploied in the resolving of the Question, An chimaera bombinans in vacuo comedat secundas in­tentiones?

To chap. 2. and especiallie to the front and reare of the chapt. sect. 14. and 20. p. 17. and 31. with chap. 3. sect. 35. p. 46.

YOU had so valiantlie with Scripture, Reason and Authority, beaten Sir N. N. out of the field, for maintaining God to be the Author of sinne, in your first chapt. as that in this and up and downe in your third, taking spirits to your selfe, after your victorious atchievements, you adventure against God, against the Antients, against Reason, against Arminius, against your very selfe, to start up another proposition, viz. That man himselfe is the sole [...]fficient cause of his eter­nall punishment. This it seems you resolve in the two next following Chapters, to defend contraomnes gentes sive Ethnicas sive Christianas, & that by Scripture, Rea­son, & Authority. In this, certainly Hortensius noster suf­flaminandus est. And ergò that your courage may bee a little cooled, I crave leave before I cleare it, that in this undertaking you fight against God, good men, and even your selfe. 1. To [...]u [...] up your memorie with the old [Page 95] observation, that Qui bene distinguit bene docet, Hee who distinguisheth well, teacheth well, which had you minded, you would not all alongin these two Chapters, have confounded the Efficient, or as I may say, the ma­king cause of all punishment, cujus vi res est, with the meritorious or procuring cause, ob quam res est, of all pu­nishment, whether temporall or eternall, The first is the Almightie himselfe; for that must needs hold true, Amos the 3. 6. shall there be evill in the City and the Lord hath not done it? 2. The second is onelie the sinfull will of man and Devils; for that in another Pro­phet will hold as firmelie, Hos. 13. 5. O Israel, thou hast destroied thy selfe, but in me is thy help. 2. I beg leave to tell you, that p 46. sect. 35. even there where you are giving in the Summa totalis of al your conquests, ob­tained in these two Chapters, your gallant spirit seems to sinke into your heels; for whereas you begin with saying, p. 17. sect. 14. that man himselfe is the sole effi­cieut cause of eternall punishment, you onely conclude, sect. 35. p. 46. Conclus. 2. That sin is properly the cause of its punishment, which may full out as well bee under­stood of a meritorious or procuring cause, as a properlie efficient or working cause. 2. Nay you your selfe in your next Conclus. 3. Ibid. doe seem to allow a man leave so to interpret it, when you say, p. 46. that man is the procurer of his owne misery, which if so, are you not then againe at cuffes with your Chimaericall Sir N. N. And doe not you who complaine, sect 16. p. 20. of odd fashions and modes of speech, speake out of all fashion your selfe, whilst you interpret an efficient cause, by a procuring or meritorious cause? 3. Are you any thing mindfull (O my good friend, and Mr T. P.) of putting (according to your promise, p. 7. sect. 5.) your care, your very best care to it, of connecting your praemises and conclusions aright together? For surelie (to use a phrase of some of your very doctrinall friends) non Remonstrantes in praef. Apol. sapiunt haec demorsus augues. 1. God all along throughout chap. 1. hath been proved not to bee [Page 96] the Author of sinne, ergò, it may be concluded all a­long in this 2 and 3 Chapters, that he is not, or cannot be the author and determiner of punishments for sins. Or 2. p. 46. Man is the procurer of his owne misery, (viz.) in time, for miserable he could not be, nor pro­cure miserie before all time. Non ens nullas habet affe­ctiones veloperationes. Ergò, 2. Reprobation (an in­ternall, eternall, immanent act in God, if you do but allow of any aeternall Reprobation, and if not, speake out, Loquere ut intelligamus) is a conditionall thing be­fore all time. Take you (who begin this Chapter some­thing Mathematicallie, p. 17.) these Ergo's to bee as firme as any Mathematicall demonstrations in Euclide; surely if his bee no more conclusive, scholars will ne­ver give him leave with one for joy to cry out, [...], or with another to boast, Da ubi con­stem & terram movebo Rami praef. in scholas Mathemat.. These observations will be of use to us, to save us a great deale of paines throughout the Chapters, and therefore here I thought fit to premise them. And now I come as brieflie as may be to cleare it, that your assertion as it lies in the head and taile of your second Chapter, p. 17. and 31. and as all along it seems to be explained by you, fights against God, Scripture, &c. 1. Against God. 1. You having dared by the by, and that by vertue of that meere speculative providence, the all which your equi­table sense, p. 14, 15. will allow to God about the evill of sin, to deprive God of his soveraigntie, you doe here like some Orlando Furioso deprive him of his judiciary or justitiary power too. For if hee bee not so much as the efficient cause of mans eternall punishment, which he justlie determines to inflict upon reprobate sinners, how doth he judge the world in righteousnesse? Rom. 3. 6. shall not the judge of all the world doe right? Gen. 18. 25. Quae (to assert) non sani esse hominis, non sanus juret Orestes. 2. Why may you not as well say, that God is not the author of any temporall punishments, of famine, pestilence, or the sword, or wild beasts, &c. [Page 97] as say, that Tophet or hell torments are not prepared by him, or wrought by him? Isa. 30. 33. Rom. 1. 18. and 2. 5. 6. 9. Is he author of the smaller punishments, and not of the greater? 2. Upon Scripture-grounds it fals out most irrationall. 1. To make reprobated, con­demned creatures not onelie meritors of their hell and unexpressible torments, but makers, creators, efficients of them also: If so, sure their very Hell if of their owne making, would be cool enough, nothing so hot as Popish purgatory, which some say, doth onely in Bellarmine. duration differ from hell torments. But we know other­wise, Rom. 2. 9. 2 Thes. 1. 9. 2. Do the Judges of the earth or parents in the world leave it to malefactors or to their children, so much as to chuse, and then less to be the efficients of their gibbets, racks, rods? &c. and must man now be the sole efficient cause of his eternall punishment? This (to speak with an Anticalvinisticall friend of yours, upon that score, deare to you, with whom you jumpe much in your railing rhetoricke, p. 12, 13, 24.) is absurdorum absurdissimum. Albertus Graveru [...] li­bro cui Titulus, Calvino. Turcismus. 3. This is as much against all Authority, both, 1. See this Answer be­fore, in answer to your Sect. 8. and (if you can get him) reverend Mat. Eborac. de electione & re­prob. Histor Gott [...]shal. edit. Ʋsserian. passim. B. Fulgen. ad Monim. lib. 1. After that hee had paraphrased upon that place which you a­buse (p. 21.) out of Wisd. Quod ante Gehennam ma­li pereunt, non est divini o­peris; sed humani, qood au­tem in Gehennâ perituri sunt hoc facit Dei aequita [...], cu [...] nulla placet peccantis iniqui­tas. Non ergo praedest [...]n [...] sunt mali ad hoc, [...] operantur, à [...] sua abstract [...] & [...] sed ad hoc, qu [...]d j [...]s [...]e [...] ­untur inviti. That of the Ancients, as we have seen before from Austin, the Valentinian Councill; unto which, if need were, might be joined multitudes of sayings out of Fulgentius, Pro­sper, and others, all conjunctim & divisim, agreeing God to bee the efficient of no mans sinne, but of every mans punishment for sinne, whether temporall or eternall. 2. So also even of the latter, of your very Arminius, and his good followers, who as I remember some­where, is so franke in the maintaining God to bee the author or the efficient of all punishment, even then when as he punisheth sinne with sinne, as that (which I know you yet wonder at) his good friend and yours, Dr Twisse, is forced somewhat to checke him for his too free offerings. 4. Nay, in this, you who should best understand your selfe (and want not for high con­ceits of your owne quick apprehension) doe not once or twice, but very often, in this and the next Chapter [Page 98] contradict your self, & your own proposition, set down by you, p. 17. 1. Whilst in Terminis you divers times say, that God inflicts eternal punishment, p. 21. Is he who hath the supreme power of life and death, in the inflicting of that punishment, deputy to any? Apage blasphemiā? Doth he inflict that punishment, of which some bodie else was the maker, and he onely the executioner? 2. Whilst by your distinction of antecedent and consequent will, (for which you quote Chrysostome, Theodoret, and Da­mascene, p. 26, 27, 69▪) you grant often, p 20. That God will have every man perish that is impenitent, and will he not doe that of which he is the willer and determi­ner? You then crosse your selfe, who divers times grant God to bee the doer of all that which he wils and determines to bee done (h). 3. Whilst you doe most noblie grant, p. 23. that unto God, Rom. 12. 19. belon­geth vengeance, and he repaies it, gives it wages, which as you say, sinners have dearlie earned; and doth he pay this out of a treasury of his owne making or fil­ling, or out of that which was made to his hand? All these Escapadoes of yours, I can according to your re­quest, be content to put up, and ascribe, p. 8. to the un­happinesse of your pen, or the unsteadinesse of your braine; Siquidem nemo sapit omnibus horis, alwaies pro­vided, you will not thinke it necessarie for me to bee long in the confutation of what you produce from the beginning to the end of the Chapter, towards the sup­port of that wild Thesis of yours, set up in the front of it, p. 17. 2. And if the reader will be but of the same opinion and faith with you; (as truelie he may well be) for why should I bee largely elaborate in the beating down of that which fals by its owne absurditie, so soon as ever it is mentioned, which the very author and fa­ther of it, ownes and disownes, saies and unsaies? As Saturne of old, begetting, and then devouring of his owne children Vide L. Vivem. Aug. de civitate Dei.. I trust then both parties will bee agreed, that I may without any prejudice to my cause, quicklie skip over the rest of the Ecstatick extravagant [Page 99] lines & leaves, which follow in this Chapter. The thing in it to be defended, was, p. 17. that man himselfe is the sole efficient cause of his eternall punishment; but for al his complaining upon another occasion indeed on no occasion of skipping from the first Question to the se­cond, p. 66. instead of fighting for that, he doth so flie, and that praeter casam too, or to use his owne phrase, he shoots, p. 15. so farre beyond what he aims at, that hee loseth his marke quite, and starts up I cannot tell how many impertinent questions besides, about Gods uni­versall will to save all, p. 17. Christs universall will to dye for all, p. 18, 19. Gods not intending to damn any, or actually damning any but for sinne (a thing readilie granted him by the crabbedest among all the rabble of halfe-witted praedestinarians, as he cals them, 1. Papers, p. 10.) See Dr Twisse's An­swer to Mr Hoard, p. 8 & centies alibi per vindicias gratiae, &c..

I for my part, love not, like not, Sectari cor vos testâ luto (que), to follow my gentleman Starter to the utmost bounds of all his roving and wandering vagaries. Yet lest he should give out, that I have handsomely swal­lowed all which he brings in (though praeter proposi­tum) in this Chapter; take all in short thus, to the se­verall Sections of the Chapter, as they follow in order, Respons. ad Sect. 1. p. 17. from p. 17. to 32. and so to the end of the Chapter. 1. It is plaine, that Sect, 1. p. 17. your Greek Ammo­nius, in Joh. 8. neither our English Hooker, 1. 5. Sect. 72. speake any thing for your purpose; for whosoever casts but any carefull eies upon their words in your margent, will quickly see that they will be understood of what men by their ill manners procure for them­selves, as, so a fools back cals for stripes, Magister Sentent. lib. 3. dist. 4. Dicuntur filii Gehen­nae non ex illa nati sed in il­lam praeparati. and not of what they are the efficient of by the workemanship of their owne hands. 2. You speake first impertinently, when you say that the devill onely incites, proposeth ob­jects, and perswades unto sinne; for now the question is, not what he doth about sinne, but what kinde of actour he is in the punishment of sinne. 2. You speak false­ly, when in reference to punishment, you denie the De­vill [Page 100] to bee an efficient, when both his will and hand is in it, as an instrument under God, in inflicting of punish­ment, Heb. 2. 14. Instrumentall causes, as is knowne, use to be reckoned among secondarie efficient causes.

THE Scriptures belike out of Ezek. 33. 11. Ezek. 18. 32. 2 Pet. 3. 9. 1 Tim. 2. 4. 1, 2, 6. Rom. 2. 4, 5. 1. Tim. 4. 10. 2 Cor. 6. 14. 2 Pet. 2. 1. did meet-your pen so quicklie, perchance came so fast tumbling in to you (if I may so speake) as that you hardly considered whence they came, or what you would have them to speake for you: I must therefore needs say, that they say not one word for you, that God is not, or may not be the sole efficient cause of eternall punishment; if by them (as you should doe) you doe understand a sole supreme soveraigne cause, according to whose determi­nation and arbitriment, that punishment is inflicted; for will it follow even amongst men? The judge likes not simplie that men should perish; a father takes no de­light to whip a child. Ergo, The Judge is not the effi­cient cause of the hanging of a malefactor, or the fa­ther is not the efficient of the childs whipping. To small purpose therefore did these Scriptures so quicklie meet your pen, and make their appearance before you. 2. If you would rifle your Concordance and memorie never so much, you, nor any of your Semi-pelagian, or Armi­nian fraternity, are able to bring in stronger for the proving of Gods universall saving love, Christs univer­sall redemption of all mankinde, for which they seeme to say something, but indeed say nothing; and that hath so oftentimes been cleared by an innumerable company of valiant champions of Jesus Christ against [Page 104] Pelagians Pel. g Vult inquit omnes ad agnitionem verita­tis venire: sic citato C. Janse­nio in suo Aug. lib. 19. cap. 15. Tom. secundum Agust. cont. Julianum c. 8. Prosp. Carmin. de ingratis, c. 8. Cum sine delectu, seu lex seu gra­tia Christi omnem hominem servare velit, Domini (que) vo­cantis sic sit propositum, ut nullus non possit ad illud li­bertate proprio (que) vigore ve­nire, sit (que) salus dignis sal­vari ex fonte volendi. Massilians Massilians Prosper in Epi­stola ad Augustin. Deus vult omnes homines sal­vos fieri, &c. Quantum ad Deum pertinet omnibus pa­ratam vitam aeternam. And thus hee explaines their meaning. Carmin de in­gratis, ut cunctos vocet, ille [...]uidem, invitet (que), nec ullum praeteriens studeat commu­nem offe [...]re salutem omnibus & totum peccato absolvere mundum. Arminians, and also somewhat by my selfe, in answer to your first writing, (for most of them use to bee their great fortresses and bulwarks) as that I am even almost ashamed, as well as weary of delivering in the old and sound answers often given to them. Yet 4. Seeing it must needs be to stop the mouth of your importunity, take for answer, a little to each scripture. 1. That out of Ezek. 33. 11. with 18. 32. should not have been produced by you, who oftentimes grant, that God, by his consequent will, wils the eternall punishment of sinners, who stand it out against his antecedent will, as you call it. 2. You ought not so lightlie to preferre the vulgar Translation of the Romish Church, before our better English translation of our owne mother Church, when as the Hebrew word [...] is as indifferent, for being translated by pleasure, as by will. 2. For that in the place, Ezek. 18. 32. [...] is farre better translated by non cupio, then by nolo, by I have no pleasure, then by I will not. For that in the words (and the like is too in those of Ezek. 33. 11.) there seems to bee a manifest comparison, non tam quam, God professing that he doth more delight in the conversion of a sinner, Luke 15. 7. then in the destructi­on of an impenitent. 3. It appeares by the series and scope of both texts, that the utmost that will be wrung out of them, is but what the Belgicke Annotations have excellentlie well upon Ezek. 33. 11. have I any pleasure, as you doe thinke and complaine, that I am inamoured with your death, though you should re­pent your selves of your wickednesse: As if it were all one with me, whether you did repent or no, whatso­ever you doe, whither well or ill, you must however be dispatched, as ungodly murmurers and hypocrites use to speake And as those who de­vised the heresie of the praedestinatians as they cal it, and charged it upon Austins followers. Gene­brard in Chronico sub loc. mihi (inquit ille) dicebant, quod nec pie viventibus pro­sit bonorum operum labor, Si à Deo ad mortem praedesti­nati fuerint: nec impiis obsit quod improbe vivant, si à Deo praedestinati fuerint ad vitam. Quae assertio & bo­nos à bonis avocabat, & ma­los ad mala provocabat.. Compare above Chap. 18. 23. with the Annotation. This true explication of these places, you belike will not downe with; for if you did, what would become of those impious invectives which you [Page 102] put, p. 12, 13. into the mouth of such kind of clients of yours, or of that worse then diabolicall wittilie wic­ked comparison, p. 24. of Gods platonick loving of so excellent a creatures everlasting miserie, of his being an [...], ibid. worse then the very Devill him­selfe, avaunt, avaunt, depart from me O thou satanicall blasphemer, qui diabolum ipsum blasphemando superas, Mat. 16. 23. thou art an offence unto me; for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. 2. Nor makes any thing for the proving that God loves all men alike to salvation, 2 Pet. 3. 9. (for that sure is the businesse which now you are upon, or else neither can I, nor you, neither tell what you are about) when as it is plaine, 1. By the very words of the place, that that speaks of beleevers, of pure minds, ver. 1. of the beloved and elect of God, ver. 8. God is long suffering to such, to usward. 2. And if God did alike will the repentance of all, if that doe but hold true, that Psal. 135. Quicquid voluit fecit, surely he would give them all repentance unto life, Acts 11. 1. 3. Though the Pelagians, Massilians, and Arminians, swagger a great deale more with 1 Tim. 2. 4, 6. urged by you, as well as by them, for the former purpose; yet it doth you no service at all, for that the letter it selfe saith no more, but that God will have all men [...], to bee saved, salvos fieri, which implies the duty which in the use of meanes God would have them to bee imploied about, and which when effected, hee is well pleased with Mat. 10. and Mar. 15. in sacris literis [...] est aeternam salutem conse­qui. not [...], salvos facere, which implies what hee will effect and doe. 2. By the scope of the Apostle and his owne explication, ver. 1. the words are most pertinently expounded of some, of all sorts of men, whether Rulers or Subjects; the rather for that wee know that wee are not without some kinde of limitation, alwaies to pray for all, 2 Tim. 4. 14. Gal. 5. 12. Rev. 6. 10. 1 John 5. 16 3. Your Fryar­like put-off, of this latter exposition, though true enough, [Page 103] and antient enough Qui omnes homines vult salvos fieri, &c. non quod nullus hominum esset quem salvum èsse nollet, sed ut omnes homines, omne genus humanum intelligamus, per quascun (que) differentias di­stributum, Reges, privatos, nobiles, ignobiles, &c. Aug. Enchirid. ad Laurent. c. 3. I am very apt to beleeve you are the more tickled with, for that it is so op­posite to that odious opinion of your adversarie, Calvin, which is as you say (in your first papers, but which as I am sure you will never prove) that all the Caesars are in hell. 4. If it had pleased you, and the Comicall Fryer together, you might as well have con­cluded with Chrysost. ‘That few Kings goe to Hea­ven, because in all there be but few, and of those, but few that know what belongs to their place, or dis­charge a good conscience in it.’ Insomuch, that the same Chrysost. used to say, ‘That all the Kings which are saved, may bee written within the compasse of a ring. But this is harsh doctrine for Aulicall eares;’ that of the Fryer (you speake of) will go down much better. 5. You know, (as appeares by your p. 28.) that of old, there were no lesse then foure Expositions of this place, none of all which fits you, but that, which though Austin seems disputandi causa, to be for, yet concludes against, before hee leaves it. 6. As for the emphasis, which you and others would put upon the [...], v. 6. let no lesse then an Archbishop some hundred years agoe, (for by them more then by any, you love to have your mouth stopped) take off the edge by the true exposition which he makes of it Hist. Gotteschal. Ʋsseri. p. 89. Quod autem Dominum nostrum etiam pro impiis in sua impietate perituris mor­tuum, uno similiter Apostoli testimonio confirmare vide­tur, quo ait, qui dedit semet-ipsū redemptionem pro om­nibus, profectò non recoluit, nec diligenter cōsideravit, ita haec Apostoli verba esse acci­pienda, ut consonent Domini verbis, quibus se in Evan­gelio ad boc venisse dicit, ut animam suam daret redemp­tionem pro multis. Et de pre­tio sui sanguinis similiter ait, Qui pro vobis & pro multis effunditur in remissi­onem peccatorum, &c. Quae porrò confirmantur ex Luc. 22. 20. 1 Tim. 2. 6. Heb. 9. 28. Rom. 5. 18, 19. from Mat. 20. 28. & 26. 28. Heb. 9. 28. Rom. 5. 18. with 19. From Rom. 2. 4, 5. produced p. 18. you can infer no­thing, but that the works of Gods common goodnesse and long-suffering, have in their nature a tendency to provoke men to repentance, [...], and that God will take it well, if they bee made use of to this end. But they say not, that God hath peremp­torily decreed, that all men shall make use of them to that end. You know, alius est finis operis, alius ope­rantis. Here to help you out, if you will make some kinde of use of the Antecedent and consequent will, which you talke of often, neither will I hinder nor force wi­ser men then I A. Rivet. disp. 7. de grat. uni­versali, Thes. 26. Nec tamen distinctionem illam rejici­mus, si verè explicetur, vel ut Deus dicatur id velle vo­luntate antecedente, quod ap­paret per se bonum & expe­tendum secundum suam na­ruram absolutè considera­tam; consequente autem, quod non per se, & secun­dum suam naturam tan­tum, sed & secundum om­nes adjunctas circumstanti­as, objectum bonum & ex­pe [...]endum appareat, at (que) ita omnibus consideratis simpli citer & proprie in divinam voluntatem cadit; vel ut di­catur voluntas Dei antece­dens, ordinatio causae ad ef­fectum aliquem, licet effe­ctus, seu finis non sequatur; consequens autem, cum non solum Deus vult, id est, ordi­nat & probat talia media ad finem consequendum, sed ea etiam vult efficere.. It is prettie, that in the drawing [Page 105] up of these first testimonies, by which you thinke to have proved Gods equall and universall love to all men, you someway slurre and disparage your owne evidences; and yet in the gathering of them together, though you used no concordance, yet that eloquent lear­ned man, Vossius (a man not very stable in the Armi­nian faith, as I shall shew when I come to your p. 25.) who 26. yeares agoe, tied my eares to his most fluent oratoriall tongue, was your concordance, or as you say, Expositor, from the authoritie of the Ancients; but where I cannot tell; sure I am, not as your margent directs, (whether by your owne, or Printers mistake, I will not dispute) lib. 6. Thes. 2. where I finde no such matter; but in lib. 6. Thes. 10. I find he starts up a The­sis out of Austin, about absolute praedestination, and pre­ferring one by his grace, above another, which quite undoes all your chapt. 5. Vossius lib. 6. thes. 10. Caeterùm Augustinus ut fortins premeret Pelagium, communi patrum, & à se jam Episcopo defensae sen­tentiae, appendicem hanc an­nexuit, quod gratia uni prae alio offeratur, in (que) uno ma­gis quam alio efficax sit, id ab absoluto Dei decreto pro­venire. Hoc enim, cum defi­cere non possit, eos omnes ac solos salvari, quibus Deus gratiam conversionis & per­severantiam, absolutâ sal­vandi voluntate destinavit. By 1 Tim. 4. 10. 2 Cor. 5. 14. Rom. 11. 32. 2 Pet. 2. 1. you seeme to be upon confuting of the haeresie (as you are pleased to call it, p. 38.) of Christs dying onely for the elect; yet you never declare, whether you beleeve that Christ dyed equally for the elect and reprobate; nor doe you any where enu­cleate what kind of benefits Christ by his death, hath procured for reprobates, as well as for the elect; (and yet you should know, that the hinge of the controver­sie turnes upon these matters) nor can you without monstrous wronging your owne conscience, and abo­minable slandring of your brethren, put Helvidianisme upon them, as p. 19. for giving the lie to the very words of the Text, as you have a good mind to asperse them with; who honest men and true as they be, would only have you and others, interpret them aright, and not play with the word (All) where ever you meet with it in Scripture; as hee did, who as some where I long since read of, standing on the port, booked down in his Table book, all the ships as his, though not one of them belonged to him. Your first out of 1 Tim. 4. 10. (in which note, that there is not one word of Christs [Page 105] death) belongs not to you, 1. Unlesse you can prove, that the former part of your text, which hath the word [...] in it, will not, as well as the Greek verb [...] in the Septuagint, or the verb [...] in the Hebrew, be un­derstood as it is, Psal. 56. 6. of a common providentiall salvation, by vertue of Christs meer divine power, as God, blessed for ever. In which sence, if you please, you may be allowed to call him a generall Saviour, even of those who are unbeleevers; and for this you may cite Heb. 1. 3. and many more places, rather than of a mediatory salvation, as a daies-man or propitiator Job 9. 33. procured onely for the elect, and his mysticall bo­die, Acts 20. 28. 2. Unlesse you can evince, contra­ry to the streine of other places, Gal. 6. 10. Phil. 4. 11. 1 Tim. 5. 17. and 4. 13. that the Adverb [...] in the latter part of the Text, implies not such a distribution, as carries away all that, which is, proprii nominis salvati­on, purchased by Christ to another sort of people, even beleevers, when as those mentioned before, are to con­tent themselves with a common temporall salvation, common both to men and beasts, the evill and the good, Psal. 36. 6, 7. Mat. 5. 45. 3. Untill you shall have taken into your Creed, with your Copartners the Remonstrants Corvin. cont. Molin. c. 27 pronuntiat ad sect. 4. Se omninò credere futurū fuis­se ut finis mortis Christi con­staret, etiamsi nemo cred. dis­set Exam. censur. p. 59. obje­cerant Professores Letdenses, si hoc tantum meritus [...]st Christus tum nobis non est meritus fid [...]m nec regenera­tionem; respondent Remon­strantes, sanè ita [...]st; nihil in­eptius nihil vanius est quam hoc Christi merito tribuere: Sin, dicatur meritus nobis fidē & regenerationem, tum fides condi [...]io esse non pote­rat, quam à peccatoribus Deus, sub comminatione mortis aeternae exigeret; imò tum patet ex vi meriti istius obligatus fuisse dicatur ne­cesse ad conferendum nobis fidem. and have proved it too, That it was no part of Christs purchase by dying, for to procure as well for his people, faith and repentance from dead workes, by which they are made good or gracious, Tit. 2. 13. as to procure a place for them in heaven, when they shall cease to bee obstinate unbeleevers, or upon condition they will repent & beleeve, as you have it, p. 18 and so consequentlie that it did wholly depend upon mans beleeving or unbeleeving, his will to the one, or the other, whether Christ should not be an head with­out a body, a King without subjects, a Shepherd with­out sheep, &c. Episcop. censur. censurae: Ne (que) vero necesse esse credit (ut ipse loquitur) ad hoc ut Christus Rex sit, & caput maneat in terris, Ec­clesiam al [...]quam veram sem­per esse, cum regnum Christi, non subditorum voluntate, sed regnantis potestate defi­niri debeat; & ea Ecclesia quae necessitate quadam, ec­clesia est Christi, spiritualis ecclesia esse nequeat, quippe quam obedientia sola, quae liberrima esse debeat, consti­tu [...]re potest., For the by-blow which p. 19. you give unto Dr Twisse, (a man whose writings you onely peep into) And so deal with his writings, as some did with Austins, against whom Jansenius inveighs in suo Augustino, Tom. 2. l. 1. That they behave them­selves as Hares insulting over a dead lion. Cujus li­bros nec cum illa sedulitat [...] qua oportebat, scire studue­runt, nec ullo modo corum fundamenta penetrarunt. as it is plaine, for to cavill at, and to snatch if it were possible, at some advantageous pas­sages, [Page 106] who had that Samson been alive, would more ea­silie have broken the strongest Cables of your Argu­ments, than ever Samson did breake the green withs; it hits him not at all, for that 1. He doth not contradict (as is plaine by the following words) Vid [...] R [...]spons ad Armin. praesat. 16. col. a. that which he had said about the difficultie of answering the argu­ments proposed by you, p. 19. l. 1. but he saith, that the argument proposed by him, according to such Armini­an principles as we also doe in part admit of, is easilie answered. 2. Because it would have been most im­proper for him, in an answer to a Praeface of Bertius, to have there forestalled himselfe, in what often in the bo­die of the booke, he makes his worke, as hee doth in all his writings, unto which yet, never so much as an essay hath been made, having so much as the face of a solid answer, returned by any of the great valiant Herculean Leaders of your noble faction. 3. He was not such an Ignaro, as not to have knowne, who as he tels you, in the very place which you quote (after a missha­pen fashion, as you doe almost every thing, which you bring out of him and others) before even Arminius was heard of, had heard that Argument usually brought and answered in the Schools; and who knew well e­nough, that the first thing that every sinner, to whom the Gospell is preached, is bound to beleeve, is not that Christ died for him in particular, but that there is salva­tion in no other, Acts 4. 12. and that Christ is the true Messias, the sonne of the ever living God. He as well as any body else Vide Collat. Hag. edit. Brand. p. 153. could have told how to have re­torted that Argument upon the adversaries; but you must have leave to have a pluck at dead mens beards Dr Twisse his Apology might all along bee the same with Austins against Julian, the Pelag. l. 4 cap. 8. Tu autem vir honestus & verax, abstulisti verba quae dixi, & dixisti quod ipse finxisti, redde verba mea, & vanescet calumnia [...]ua, &c.. Your second Text, 2 Cor. 5. 14. from whence you draw up your formidable Argument, (the onely one in all your booke, unlesse perchance that of p. 69. may be thought to be such another) and which whe­ther you have borrowed from the Coryphaeus, the great leader of the Semipelagians Faustus Regius l. 1. de gra. & lib. a▪ b. c. 16. or from your much honoured D. H. or from the great Universalist, [Page 107] Huberus Hub. Thes. 48. Snecanus de praed. p. 486. 492. 494. c [...]ante D. Willet, de grat. univers. p. 136. Ambros. de vocat. Gent. l. 1. c. 3. populus Dei, suam habet plenitudi­nem & in electis & praesci­tis sua quaedam censetur u­niversitas &c. August. cont. Jul. lib. 6. cap. 12. Dictum est omnes justificari per Chri­stum, non quia omnes justifi­cantur in Christo, sed qui justificantur, non aliter justi­ficantur, quam in Christo. Sicut dicimus omnes homi­nes intrare in domum per unam januam, quia non in­trant nisi per ipsam, vid. Aug. de Nat, & grat. c. 40. I will not stand to discusse. But 1. Sure enough I am, that it is a crackt syllogisme of foure termes, and therefore will not passe in any Logicall, or Theologicall Schoole. For the major of that hy­potheticall syllogisme, both in the sacred canonicall text, (and in your Apocryphall too) must, as it is plain, for these words, one dyed for all, bee understood of an (all) of a certaine kind, as is frequent in Scripture and antiquity, Gen. 7. 14. Joel 2. 29. Mat. 4. 23, 24. and bee expounded by the (All) in the words following: who are dead, not in trespasses and sinnes, but unto sin: who henceforth live not to themselves, but unto him, which dyed for them and rose againe; of such, who ver. 14. are constrained by the love of Christ. The place is well pa­rallel'd with Rom. 6. 6. Heb. 9. 28. And if you otherwise understand the terme (all) in your minor, you must take the impuritie of Helvidius to your selfe; or not allow the Apostle to bee his owne interpreter, in ver. 14, 15. utrum mavis accipe. 3. Nor will the sound of the word (all) doe you any more pleasure, which you think rings well in your eares, Rom. 11. 30, 31, 32. which 1. If either the Apostle interpreting of this place, Gal. 3. 23. onely of beleevers, or of such Jewes and Gentiles, who in after times should through mer­cy, and mercy onely obteine salvation; just so as the beleeving Jewes and Gentiles, who by grace were in part possessed of it already, ver. 30. Eph. 2. Or if Austin In Rom: 11. 32. de Civ. Dei, lib. 21. c. 18. & 24. In­telligitur, de Judaeis & Gentib. praedestinatis: Conclusit Deus omnes in infidelitate, ut omnibus misereatur; non deo dictum est, qued neminem sit damnaturus, sed superius apparet unde sit dictum. Nam quum de Judae is postea credituris, Apostolus loqueretur ad Gentes, ad quas utique jam credentes, conscribebat epistolas, sicut [...]n. vos (inquit) non credidistis Deo, nunc autem misericordiam consecuti estis, in illorum in­credulitate; sic & hi, non crediderunt in vestra misericordia, ut & ipsi. misericordiam consequantur. Deinde subjecit, unde isti sibi errando blandiuntur, at (que) ait, conclusit Deus omnes in infidelitate, &c. Quos omnes, nisi de quibus loquebatur, tanquam dicens, & vos & illos? Deus ergo & Gentiles, & Ju­daeos quos praescivit, & praedestinavit conformes fieri imaginis filii sui, omnes in infidelitate con­clusit, &c. omnium miseretur vasorum, misericordiae: Quid est on nium? & eorum scil. quos ex genti­bus, & corum quos ex Judaeis praedestinavit, vocavit, glorificavit, non omnium hominum, sed istorum omnium, &c. on the place, as well as upon such others, [Page 108] may but passe with you, for a fit Commentator of this text; if this (I say) can be but gained from you, a man may peremptorilie conclude against you, that it is no absurdity to say, that none but the elect and beleevers were so, that is, with that intention concluded under unbeliefe, as to obtaine mercy, as the beleeving Jewes and Gentiles had. These latter, as well as the former, in Gods owne time, should find, that the gifts and cal­ling of God, of which the Apostle there speakes, were without repentance, ver. 29. Neither 4. will 2 Pet. 2. 1. produced by you, p. 18. afford you one crumbe of comfort, unlesse you can prove, that according to an usuall way of speaking, those may not be said to be bought by the Lord, who were so sacramento tenus, as Austin In Psal. 47. p [...]pulus Dei censentur, qui sacramenta ejus portant &c. Joh. 6. 66. multi discipulorum abierunt ret [...]ò, &c. Nunquid non & isti discipuli appellati sunt, loquente Evangelio, & ta­men non [...]rant veri discipu­li, secundum id quod ait, si manseritis in verbo meo, ve ri discipuli mei estis. who had once professed and did themselves beleeve that of themselves, that they were such, and ac­cording to the judgement of the Churches charitie, were taken for such, whilst they did militate under Christs standard.

I will not at this time trouble my selfe at all, with what you assert about the absolutenesse of Gods de­crees, the sufficiency of Christs merits, &c. because I shall have a more opportune place for the first, when I come to your 3. Chapter, and for the 2. when to p. 25. But because, as the fashion of you and all your complices (pray owne your owne phrase, Epist. ult.) is, under very sawcie and course phrases, of Christs be­grudging the extent of his death, to the major part, but of one world, p. 20. Thus odiously representing it as a doctrine illiberall to the merits of Christ, when as we should wonder, that Christ would die so much as for any, rather then grumble that he did not die for all. All those he died for, were his enemies, and uncomfor­table to Christian soules; it is not amisse against the se­cond time of the drudgery you speake of, p. 20. to request that you would resolve us, how much more honourable to Christ, or comfortable to true Christians, these following known propositions of the Arminians [Page 109] are These or the like say­ings in words or sense, are so frequent in the wri­tings of all sorts of Armi­nians, as that I will not a­buse my owne, or readers leasure, by transcribing them.. 1. That Christ by his death hath not purchased actuall salvation for any, but a possibilitie of salvation for all. 2. That he did rather redeem the Father, that it might be possible for him to shew mercie, without vi­olation to his justice, then that actually he intended the redemption of all or any. 3. That hee hath merited by his death, as much for Cain, Judas, and all the dam­ned in hell, as for Paul, Peter, the Virgin Mary, or any glorified Saints. 4. That Christs death notwith­standing the conditions of the old covenant of workes, might have been put upon us. 5. That Christ never merited faith or repentance for us, for the fulfilling of the conditions of the new covenant. 6. That wee are not justified by faith alone in his death, but by Gods accepting of I cannot tell what, Evangelicall righte­ousnesse of faith, wrought by our selves, in stead of le­gall perfect righteousnesse Yea Arminii his liberi orphani novem, assert it to have been the opinion of their father, Epist, quadam dedicat that we are justi­fied by workes, as well as by faith.. 7. That it is disputa­ble, whether any of the Fathers were saved by the death of Christ? 8. And that it is past all dispute, that the Infants of Christians, dying in infancie, are not at all saved by the vertue of Christs merits: for they have not any sin of their own to damn them; originall sinne never damned any. So your first papers, &c. I pray God send you and me other comforts, against the time that we shall most stand in need of them. As for what you quote, p. 20. out of your Saint-like Dr An­drewes, (as you stile him, p. 47. where you may look to heare more from me about him) when you shall have proved him to have been as very a Saint, as every body knowes hee was a learned Dr, I shall then bee more troubled that I find him so much an Arminian. I am not scared at what he dictates, rather then proves, in your margin; for that hee saith nothing but what Faustus the Father of the Semipelagians did Faust. lib 3. de grat. & lib. arbit. c. 7. Quis tam im. memor salutis suae sit, qui attrahentis misericordiam negare praesumat: Sed ille verè impius est, qui eam non omnibus ingeri, non omnibus testatur impendi, &c., and what hath been answered a thousand times, or been warilie expounded. And if any such expression did un­warily fall from Bernard, in a Sermon, knowing what a declining age he lived in, we may well say, Bernardus [Page 110] non vidit omnia; but wonder hee spake so well else­where, Bern. de lib. arbit. & gratia. Quid agit liberum arbitrium? Salvatur. Opus hoc sine duobus effici non po­test, uno à quo sit, altero in quo sit. Deus author est sa­latis, liberum arbitrium tan­tum est ejus capax. p. 20. by which hee hath made amends, for any thing he may have let fall amiss here. In Poperie it used to be said,

As for the Apologie which you make for the less convincing nature of evidences brought by you, for the present, I much wonder, that having perfected even this your perfect Copie, at least a full halfe yeare before the printing of it (which I know by one, in whose hand it was, so long before) I much muse that so neat a di­sputant, as you pretend to be in this your Meridian, (a phrase of your owne in an Epistle to me) Correct, po­lite Copie, should not have amended all imperfections, and in stead of Topicks, have given us demonstrations. As for your threatnings of making all sure, against all common shifts and subterfuges, I wonder not much at them, when I consider the altitude of your spirit; Aquila non captat muscas. You put us in feare, that you will kill all in your next. For my part, I am not yet turn'd Quaker, as over much affrighted at what you denounce; yet I can assure you, if you doe not at your second comming forth, argue much more stronglie a­gainst the common shifts, &c. alias, against the true common sound faith once delivered to the Saints, then as yet you have done, or than your often beaten Associ­ates have done before you, I will here once for all, give it under my hand, that you shall have leave to reckon me free among the dead, you shall glorie if you will, in the head of your partie, that you have quite rowted me, and that I will appeare no more in the field. The coun­sell which in scorne you give me, of slighting your pa­pers whether Correct or Uncorrect (in an Epistle) shall be in good earnest followed by me: I shall once againe retire to my beloved rest, (leisure you call it. p. 4. lazi­ness you could have been content to have call'd it) However I am somewhat to seeke, how this holding [Page 111] up a threatning fist for a second blow, consists with-that modestie you pretend to all along, and the protesta­tion which you make to the man of Honour and Integrity, in the winding up of your Dedicatorie, ‘That the temptation must be greater, and the necessitie more urgent, then I hope it will bee, if you draw at either end of the saw of strife. Totus orbis exercet Historiam.’ And I know you are as good an actor, as ever Sosia in Plautus. I cannot expect you should agree with me, who agree not much with your selfe: Onely before you ap­peare upon the stage againe, let me beseech you to re­member that, which once you had in the close of a let­ter from me out of Cyprian, pingues hostias litat Diabo­lo, qui contristat Ecclesiam. Wound not the Church more by your second, then you have by your first wri­ting; studie to make up, not to make sores.

I Find nothing in all this Section, unto which you have not had enough, and enough alreadie, by way of Reply, if but enough may serve your turne. 1. You have a complaint of Modes and Fashions of speech, and yet yours all along is in the Al [...]a mode de Pelagian, Massilian, Arminian, &c. Indeed modo quo prius, with the not over old Montacutian, late the Francisco-Cla­rian frye. 2. You are constant in nothing, but in the confounding the meritorious cause with that, which you truely call, p. 21. f. the energeticall efficient cause; as appeares by your quoting Hos. 13. 6. with Jam. 1. 15. 3. You are very daring, in charging that with blasphe­mie, which must needs be a very truth, that, Rom. 6. 23. death, so farre forth as under the notion of punish­ment, there is any thing in that privation positive, is from God, as the author of it. In that sense did not he threaten it before it was? Gen. 2. 17. Did he not bring it in, when his threatning was not dreaded? Rom. 5. 12. [Page 112] Are not from him the issues of death? Psal. 68. 20. 4. You would faine prove an Apocryphall opinion, by an Apocryphall text, out of Wisdome 1. 13. &c. (as Joh. Scot, cap. 17. had done before you, Hist. Gottesch.) which yet, good thing as it is, will bee understood of no other then a meritorious cause: And this you have been told alreadie by Fulg, ad Monim. quoted before. I have no more therefore to say to it, save that you leave me in my muses, why you should so solemnlie, in the front in your Epist. Dedicat. in the corps le grand, as here towards the reare, p. 64. quote Apocry­pha, especiallie if these passages should be found tran­scribed out of Cardinall Bellarmine. It may bee to­wards my resolution, you would have me read over the Motto about the tie of the Knights of the Garter, Honi soit qui male pensê; Adde this also, that when at any time the Fathers say, that God made not death or hell, or the like August l. de Gestis Pe­lag. cap. 3., they meane it in opposition to Pelagius, who mainteined that Adam was made mor­tall, whether hee sinned or not, he should have died. Hence the Carthaginian Councill, pronounced an * Can. 1. Placeat omnib. E­piscop. &c. Anathema on such as said, Adam was created mortall; that is, not by the merit of sinne, but necessitie of na­ture. Otherwise (as was said above) it were strange, that he to whom belong the issues of death, who threa­tens it, inflicts it, should not be the author of it, so farre forth, as there is any thing paenall in it.

I Might also as quicklie, for my owne, Christians, and the Printers ease, (now I have in my poore measure, rescued the sacred Scriptures from their ravishments) bowle off from this 17. Section of yours, wherein you turne to Reason. I could never yet find any of the carnall reasonings of Pelagians and Arminians, beare waight in the scales of the Sanctuary, and therefore I might [Page 113] justly neglect them, how much soever they call for a Philosophicall Austin. de quant. Ani­mae. cap. 7. Authoritati cre­dere magnum compendium est, & nullus labor. Nam imperitiores si ratione velint verum comprehendere, simi­litudinib. rationum facilli­mè decipiuntur, &c. rather then a Theologicall School, to have them tried in. But that I may not altogether let you alone in your stumblings, in the forepart of your Section, or in the wicked railings (I speak diminutive­ly of what you have, p. 24.) in the posterne of it, I must crave leave, 1. To put in a few Theses, which will overthrow the Dagon of this Section, and undoe many, most parts of your book besides. 2. To affix very briefly a few Animadversions to the very text of this Section. For the Theses. If you were not ignorant of them, you continue to be hatefullie malitious; if you were (which is hardlie possible, considering how often you quote Calvin and Twisse) you were shamefullie to blame in these Arguments, to set your pen, either to an Uncorrect or Correct Copie. The Theses are these. 1. That all sublapsarians, as well as supralapsarians (may I crave leave without offence to either partie, to use these distinguishing titles, who am a good friend to both, Dr Twisse vindic. lib. 3. digress 1. They all meet in this. Quod homines à Deo in praedestinatione conside­rantur tanquam pares, ante praedestinationem horum, & reprobationem aliorum. which my adversarie is not, when p. 2. of first papers, hee takes up the bucklers against both) are a­greed, that there is no absolute predetermination of sinnes permission, going before that which they use scho­lasticallie to call visionem simplicis intelligentiae, or of the possibilitie of sinnes falling out. 2. That all sub­lapsarians (amongst whom Calvin See the testimony pre­sently cited out of him. must ever be ran­ked as none of the meanest) premise the consideration of originall sinne, indeed of that onely before the Act of praeterition or negative reprobation; And that both these, and the supralapsarians with them, premise the consi­deration of all actuall sinnes, to the decree of positive reprobation; usually called damnation. 3. Indeed they are neither of them so simple as to apprehend these ob­jective considerations, to be at all any causes of Gods decree D. Rivet. disput. 3 Thes. 14. Non solum quaestio haec (de objecto praedestinatio­nis) abstrusa est, ac in peni­tiori Dei sanctuarii adyto condita, sed quia otiosa curi­ositas alenda non est, cujus illa nimis alta speculatio a­lumna est, & nutrix: He addes the other part. Quod ex damnata Adae sobole, De­us quos visum est elegit, quos v [...]t reprobat; quae sicuit ad fidem exercendam longè ap­tior est, ita majore cum fru­ctu tractatur. In hac igitur doctrina, quae humanae na­turae corruptionem & rea­tum in se continet; libentiùs insistit, quia non solum adpi­etatem propius conducit, sed magis etiam, videtur Theo­logica: He had said a lit­tle before: Paulum docuisse Deum ex perdita massa, eli­gere & reprobare quos ipsi visum est. as that in him is an internall, eternall act, though they be the proper causes of his temporall tran­sient acts, and of the execution of those decrees. They be loath to incurre that censure of madnesse from A­quinas, [Page 114] (as above) or so much as to receive a gentle checke from your selfe, when as p. 51. you acknow­ledge that these kinde of considerations must onely be ascribed to Gods will, secundum res volitas, not accor­ding to the act of Gods will, considered in its simplicitie. A better speech then which, you never uttered any in all your booke, and which rightly understood and ap­plied, overthrowes all that you say against absolute prae­destination. 4. That all these considerations of sub or supra, are onely some honest, ingenious, necessary devices, which some therefore well call, ingenii nostri figmenta, for the helping of us poor creatures, crasie mortals, (who cannot approach to that light which inhabiteth eternitie) to understand some little some­thing of all that which Scripture reveales concerning Gods decrees, but that God ab aeterno decreeing, did both will and foresee all things, unico intuitu, unico actu. All things are, as I may say, [...], in the very twinkling of an eie, open and naked before him, Heb. 4. 13. What we distinguish by our signa ra­tionis, and moments of time, hee wils and foresees all at once, end and meanes together. It is therefore ex­treme childish to wrangle overmuch with one ano­ther, about the different conceits, which all we crazie people may have, about the meer ordering or marshal­ling of Gods decrees, according to first, or second; when as the very purblind Jewish Rabbines can assent to it, that in God there is neither first nor last. An unworthy thing then it is, for any praetending to Divinitie, fow­ly to be spatter one another about meere methodicall mistakes. (which I am perswaded the very Angels in Heaven are not exactlie acquainted with) Oh what horrid uncharitablenesse must it argue (in you) upon a meer dislike of Calvins ordering of Gods decrees, to fling and flounce, and to poure out damnable blasphe­mies, and then when you have done, to say, p. 24. that you doe it for edification? 5. That when upon the con­sideration of Gods beeing a free and judicious agent, [Page 115] it is by all Christian mortals agreed, nemine contradi­cente, (unlesse perhaps by one giddie headed Nich. Grevinchovius) Who yet could say, cont. Ames. p. 113. Gradus hosce, seu momenta varia quae fingi solent, in decretis Det, infirmitatem nostram posse sub [...]vare, sed in ipso Deo, unum & idem esse. Yet alibi contra, Nego simpli­citer decretum hoc, esse decretum finis, & medio­orum; medium cum fine in ipso decreto quod ais conjungi, nemo sanus da­bit. that in Gods one decree, we must needs distinguish betwixt the decree of the end, and the decree of the meanes; and that we must needs place the decree of the end, in so wise an agent as God is, before the decree of the means, according to that well grounded Rule, dictated by nature it selfe; that, Quod prius est in intentione, ultimum est in executione; that is last executed, which is first intended; it must needs follow, for all your jerking toyish gybes, p. 2 [...], 23. that of punishment (for example) be last executed after sinne, as all the world knowes it is; and if that may be looked upon in any consideration, as an end intended by God, as Prov. 16. 4. seemes to make for it, then as to our manner of apprehending things, it must needs be most evident, that punishment must be decreed before the permission of sinne; or else sinne in execution must be punished eternally, before it bee permitted or acted; which if you cannot like of, you will easilie perceive to whom the [...] in Divinity, (with which, p. 23. you make your selfe so merty) will of right belong. 6. But seeing the supreme ultimate or sole end of God, (as Calvin and all the orthodox agree Calvin. de praedest. p. 728. &c. was not, is not, nor ever will be, the meer destruction or tormen­ting of his creature, animi gratia, as Nero set Rome on fire, or as you against your conscience, would have us to hold, for recreation to cut up animals alive, like the Spanish Prince: (most odious and for ever to be Ana­nathematiz'd comparisons) but the just tormenting of him, for the just manifestation of the glory of his ju­stice, Rom. 9. 22. 2 Thes. 1. 6. after much long-suffe­ring and patience. Dr Twisse Epist. dedic. ad Reg. Bo­hem. Ego verò sic instituo, Deum neminem destinasse ad damnationem nisi prop­ter peccatum. Nec ullo vel naturae momento priorem esse judico destinationem ad damnationem, quam sit consideratio peccati, secun­dum quam fiat ista praedesti­natio, &c. hath nobly and irre­fragablie, strongly proved an hundred times over in all his writings, That because mans destruction and torment is not an end of it selfe intended, but onely a means tending to a further end, and not willed for its owne sake, but propter aliud, and that in Gods [Page 116] decrees, all meanes are to be coordinated, not subordi­nated▪ none are before or after another in divine con­sideration, as not in order of nature or time to him, he makes it evident, that your suggestion, That God inten­ded the eternall destruction and miserie of his so noble and excellent a creature, before hee intended to per­mit his sinne, the onely true meritorious cause of all his miserie, is so farre from being true, that never any rationall creature, noble or ignoble, did ever in time, suffer so much, as to the cutting of his finger, but for his sinne. Nor did God ever entertaine any thoughts that he should suffer for any thing else. 2. By what hath been said, I trust you will say your selfe (I am pretty confident that every honest body, will say, not wilfully prepossessed and blinded by the dust of your flaunting rhetoricke) that I have an easie taske in the second thing proposed, viz. Animadversions upon the text of this Section: Take therefore brieflie this. 1. That you are at your hot fierce scuffle with your old over van­quished Adversarie, Sir N. N. whilst you doe so tedi­ouslie plead for that, which no honest body will deny you, viz. That God did not make hell, p. 24 by an ab­solute purpose, meerely because hee would that some should suffer it, and not in a previous intuition of their sinne. But there-hence it followes not, that sinne is the cause of Gods decree, but onely of the execution of it. Belike you will not beleeve that you have killed your Adversary, till with the coward in Sir Philip Sydneys Arcadia, you look upon him twenty times dead at your feet. Can you beleeve that what you say in this, either 1. Makes for Gods not being the author, and that ab aterno too, as to intention of mans eternall punish­ment for sinne, the thing offered to proofe, p. 17. Sect. 14? 2. Or to what you fell upon afterwards, Gods equall love to mankind, or Christs equall redemption of al mankind, Sect. 15. 2. If you wil needs have it granted you, which you plead for next, (as I see no great absur­ditie in it, why it should not be yielded you) that sinne [Page 117] and punishment are relata secundum esse, & simul natu­ra; I cannot conceive how this makes for you, but rather against you: For if Relata qua talia, are simul na­tura, then sinne and punishment, according to what I have pleaded for, at least in Gods decree, are not one after another, but rather together. But I would not wish you hence to infer, as you seem to doe, (your dis­course here and every where else seems to have a wish­lie look that way) 1. That God did not at all from eter­nity, for sin intend to damn any men, but took up that resolution in time, when men have actually merited it by their sinnes. 2. Or to think that Gods intention to kill men for sinne, before they were born, makes him (a man might tremble againe, to write it over) an [...], p. 24▪ to slay men before they were borne; when as you should know, that praedestinatio ab aeterno non egreditur extra se, and so is no more a reall punish­ment, then Gods resolving to create us rich and noble, makes us actually so. And this Dr Twisse, if you bee but willing to learne any thing from him, will fully in­struct you in Vindic. l. 1. c. 3. in 4 [...]0 col. 1. Nil Vulgatius in scho­lis quam praedestinationem & reprobationem, nihil po­nere in praedistinato, &c. Quod & evidens ratio con­firmat: Sunt enim actus Dei immanentes, non transcun­tes: omnis autem poena est actionis transeuntis in crea­turam effectus.. 3. Or to beleeve that you had just cause in both your margins, p. 22, 23. to bring Calvin againe to your whipping post, (nay, upon that occasion, p. 24. to breake out (as you wretchedly speake, for edification sake) into horrid blasphemies against the Almighty himselfe) for saying nothing, but what first, he proves by Scripture, reason, and authority, out of Austin, which you doe not so much as offer to put away; for saying nothing but what multitudes of Schoolmen, some hundred of yeares before Calvin was born, had said, with a most unanimous consent, Scot. l. 1. dist. 41. & l. 3. dist. 19. Suarez in 3. disp. 5. p. 103. Probabiliorem exi­stimo communem sententiam Theologorum, asserentium electionem hominum praede­stinatorum, antecessisse per­missionem originalis peccati. Contra-Remonstr. secunda p. 90. Agnoscimus & doce­mus Deum non decrevisse quenquam damnare, nisi [...]ustissime propter sua ipsius peccata: atque hoc respectu decretum hoc non posse it a absolutum vocari, ut Deus sine ullo peccatorum respectu decreverit quenquam dam­nare, &c. viz. Scotus with the whole Army of Scotists, and which all the supralapsarians in the Church of Rome doe say, which Suarez himselfe being witnesse, are by farre the greater number. Yea, for saying nothing but what Bel­larmine himselfe is forced to beare him witnesse, hee hath Austin for: Nay, for saying nothing, but what (as we shal have occasion against your 3. Chapter to prove) [Page 118] must be granted, if we have no mind to turn Atheists. As for what you have out of him concerning the hor­ribile decretum, p. 24. which as you say did fright you into your wits, and upon that occasion belch out of your mouth slanders against heaven, oftentimes confuted, as fast and as full, as the Apocalypticall Red Dragon, Rev. 12. against the woman to drowne her. 1. That is by Calvin upon the place, understood no otherwise, then as that decree is of such a nature, as that it cannot but incutere ho [...]ror [...]m, as it did make the Apostle cry out, O the depth, Rom. 11. 33. Not that it is to bee abominated, as you doe now; for which, the Lord, if it be his blessed pleasure, give you repentance. 2. Your former little wit (now much better as you think, since you have left Calvins horri­bile decretum) is neither much for the prior or poste­rior part of it, to be heeded, unlesse you had grace to make better use of it, than here you doe; who use it in this place, just so as that Wilding in Prov. 26. 18. who easts firebrands, arrowes, and death, and saith, am I not in sport? Belike this way you will have it veri­fied of you, that nullum magnum Ingenium est sine mixtura dementiae. 3. The true and just cause (give me leave to speake plainlie what I think, In repub. libera, liberas oportet habere linguas) is not so much your amazement at any thing Calvin delivers, about the absolute decree, as the extreme pride of your own heart, and the deep love you are fallen into, with your over-gallant parts. (which I beseech God, they may not doe your pretious soule as deadly a displeasure, as ever Absolons brave haire did to his body) What of old made many a man a Massilian Prosp. Epist. ad Ruffin. Ab hac confessione Gratiae Dei, ideo quidam resiliunt ne cum eam talem confessi fuerint, qualis divino elo­quio praed [...]catur, & qualis opere suae potestalis agnosci­tur, etiam hoc necesse habe­ant confiteri, quod ex omni numero hominum per saecu­la cuncta natorum, certus a­pud Deum, definitus (que) nu­merus sit, praedestinati in vi­tam aeternam populi, secun­dum propositum Dei vocan­tis, electi. Quod quidem tam impium est negare, quam ipsi gratiae contraire. hath made you an Arminian: Good brother returne, returne, whilst there is or may be any hopes of you. As for your gird­ing at the excuses, which you say, though falsely, wee make to excuse God. 1. We were never so wicked as to attempt that; we praise God we need not doe it, who know him to be holinesse it selfe, holy, harmless, [Page 119] separate from sinne and sinners, Heb. 7. 26. Jer. 12. 1. Hab. 1. 13. even when he willingly permits them. Only we are forced often to stop such wranglers mouths, as yours are here, when they be wide open against truth, which they do not or will not understand. 2. If you will needs have it so now, we excuse God no otherwise, by the distinction you so scornfully jeer at, then Jac. Ar­min. himselfe, your great Master had taught Dr Twisse, as may be seen in that very place Textus Arminii citatus [...]à D. Twisse, sect. 13. Tertia distinctio qua Deus dicitur velle peccatum, non qua pec­catum est, sed qua est medi­um illustrandae gloriae ipsiu [...] &c. Caeterum ut istam di­stinctionem rectè usurpe­mus, ut aliquis sanè aliquis est usus; dicendum est, Deum permittere peccatum, non qua tale, sed ea de causa quia novit & potest illud facere medium. Imo potiùs uti tanquam medio ad glo­riam suam illustrandam: Ita ut peccati ratio qua ta­le objiciatur permissioni Dei; causante interim permissio­nem ipsam, tum considera­tione, quod istud peccatum medium esse potest gloriae divinae illustrandae, tum or­dinatione ut peccatum per­missum medium sit, reipsa, illustrandae gloriae ejusdem., for the repeating of which, you so fiercely oppose him. I say, notwith­standing those salt stinging jeeres, and the hast you pre­tend to be in, to gain some refreshment from your next 18. Section; You will find one day, that it would have been much better, that leaving your [...] to Ho­mer, you had orderlie put your bridle upon your horse, and with it rid upon a slow pace, ad Garamantas us (que) & Indos, then thus to play the Lucian, and elsewhere the Carpocratian, p. 42. against Heaven; lest (which God avert) you with Achi [...]ophel, one day saddle your Asse, and speed no better then he did. If you judge me now (as once you did, Epist. 2. upon a slight occasion) to be in a high phrensie, you must pardon me: Your rage against Heaven, hath put me out of all patience with you. Severum medicum intemperans aeger facit: And now it is fallen to my turne, at least to endeavour to be your Physitian, who have been long a physicking of me to no purpose.

AND now we are come to this Section, I am glad I shall have some refreshment as well as your self, p. 24. Eja age, tripudiemus: Arcum non semper ten­dit Apollo. You have gladded me much by what you have told me you aimed at, in the drawing up of this [Page 120] Catalogue, p. 16. sect. 13. what p. 17. sect. 14. you tell me, they must say for you, viz. as to the first, That God is not the author of sinne, let that same wicked Sir N. N. errant villaine as he is, looke to that: As to the second, That God is not the efficient cause of eternall punishment, most of them will be testes muti, as to that, and those who speake any thing, speake the quite contrary way; as Basil, p. 26. Chrysost. ibid. Damascen. p. 27. Oh how much more propitious is this list to me, then that of your 7. Section? p. 10, 11. But lest you should vapour among your associates, that I bring in a nihil dicit, to what they seem to speake, for Gods ae­quall love to all mankind; Christs as aequally diffusive Redemption, your much beloved Helena [...], (in one of your Epistles) you doe still so valiantlie ap­peare for, I must say something. 1. To the Praeface prefixed to the second Catalogue, or Jurie (if you will) impannelled for your selfe, as your first was, p. 10, 11. drawne up in terrorem Calvinistarum. 2. Some­thing in generall, and but in generall I have to say to the Authors you would have to bring in verdict for you, For the first, I hope before I have done with you, if there bee any front left in you to blush, to make you change colour, for abusing of Austins almost sacred name, as if he had any thing to say on your side, who doth so perfectlie appeare against you every where: Yet if hee and all the Greeke and Latine Fathers to boot, before Pelagius, or upon Pelagius his first ap­pearing to the world, in a meer Ethnick garbe Vid. Cornel. Jansen. Augustinum tom. 1. l. 5. c. 1. p. 130. Hunc statum haere­sis ista, in ipsis suis habuit incunabulis, quando primò à Pelagio proferri & praedicari caepit. Tunc [...]n puram putam­ (que) naturam, sicut à Deo con­ditur, & ex utero matris prodit, nullo externo sive sci­entiae, sive potentiae praesi­dio, sed solo liberae volunta­tis arbitrio, & naturali illa possibilitate ad omnia omni­no quae ad bonam beatam (que) vitam magna facilitate con­sequendam pertinent, abun­dè sufficere docuerint., as a denier of all Grace, and a meer champion of Na­ture, should seem some way to plead for you, (when as a diminutive grace mainteined by them, was enough to overthrow the first [...] wherein Pelagianisme ap­peared) it would bee very little for your credit, onely thus farre to concurre with the former Fathe [...]s, or St Austin himselfe, and then afterwards to leave Austin, when the necessitie of the cause against Pelagius, drew him out to a more ample declaration and vindi­cation [Page 121] of grace. This will at least argue, (which yet you denie, p. 4.) that you stick in Massilianisme; that you are willing to begin, but not to end with St Austin. 2. You here and every where confounding the decree of Reprobation negative, with that of positive condem­nation, I know not one, either of the antient, or mo­derne orthodoxe Writers, who will not readilie yield, That God did not absolutely decree the reprobation (po­sitive) of any creature, but upon praescience and sup­position of wilfull rebellion and impenitence. You must still be allowed to skirmish with your implacable ene­mie, Sir N. N. You have small reason to be over-con­fident of your great Collector, Vossius. 1. For that before the Synod of Dort, he was knowne meerly to be of the Arminian party, for which too, he was put by his Regency of the Belgick Colledge in Leyden, and therefore is at best but testis ex sin [...]. 2. For that he was not over-stedfast in his faith, who upon all occa­sions of turnings, discovered much levitie, and by fa­cing about, recovered some kinde of station among the orthodoxe at Leyden, as Historiarum professor there. 3. He may well be suspected, not to deale so candidly in other matters, as were to be wished, when as he is not afraid against the credit of all the ortho­doxe, to ranke Faustus Rheginensis, and Lucidus the Pelagian, who were the known Leaders of Pelagi­ans and Semipelagians See Dr Twisse against Mr Hoard, p 56. where hee quotes a saying out of Isi­dore, de viris illustribus Would you but compare Vossii Hist. Pelag. with the collections of Reverend Jac. Armach. in his pri­mord. Eccles. Britan; or with those of that stupen­dious Jansen. in his August. or of L [...]tii comm [...]n [...]. l. 2. de P [...]l [...]g &c. you would be lesse enamoured with Vossius; or with your ad­mirable Grotius. among Catholiques. 4. He hath utterlie spoiled your market, whilst from him you learned it (and I wish hee had never taught you a worse lesson) to apply the distincton of voluntas ante­cedens & consequens, not to actum volendi in Deo, but to res volitas, p. 51. which application alone, over­throwes all what you say about Gods conditionall or respective decrees; and declares, that with your Scriptures, Reasons, and Fathers, you still fight against Sir N. N. or your selfe, but against no other wise bo­dy. 5. You have not yet perswaded me, that [...], is to you [...], whereas without any [Page 122] other necessitie, save what you have created, of bespat­tering of Mr Calvin, Twisse, &c. you have made your former lesse than three sheets of paper, to swell up into eleven almost in this your Correct Copy; yet have not retracted any one errour, but rather committed more. 2. As for what need to bee said to the particular Au­thors brought in your Muster-role, from p. 25. to 32. besides what hath been said alreadie, give me leave to vent my selfe in some few generall propositions. And here first, Because I affect to bee somewhat Classicall, I shall tanke all the Authors quoted by you into three Clastes. 1. Of the Ancients before any Pelagian que­stions were started up. 2. If you will but give me leave to coine a word, the Augustinian Classis, during Pelagius his time, or anon after. 3. The Modern Classis, either of Pontificians, or of Protestants, forraine, or of our own Church. I say first in generall, in reference to Position 1. all those, unlesse it were Origen, p. 26. I finde they speak nothing, if they be candidlie interpreted, which makes for Gods equall universall love to all mankinde, the onely end for which you bring them, or else they are brought in for no end, and are disquieted in vain. 2. More particularly, all those of the first Position 2. Classis, whether Greek or Latine, which you bring, might all very well have been spared. 1. because they cannot bee presumed to bee, fit determiners of those controverses, which did arise in the Church, af­ter they were dead and gone You have surely heard, that Ante exortum Pelagi­um, securius loquebantur pa­tres. August. de praedest. sanct. c. 14. & cont. Jul. l. 1. c. 2. Disputantes in Catho­lica Ecclesia, non se aliter in­relligi arbitrabantur; tali quaestione nullus pulsabatur, &c.. 2. We cannot but allow such, (especially in Sermons, Epistles, popular Catechismes, discourses against known hereticks of another straine then the Pelagians) a greater neglect of their stile and phrase, then it were any way fit should be yielded them, when known hereticks risen, watch the advantages of all unwary expressions. 3. Most of the Graecians, especiallie those who came from the Philosophick schools, to bee Doctors in the Christian, brought so much of their Philosophy with them, into the Church, as that Divinitie was farre the worse for them Corn. Jan. in Aug. [...]. 2. proem. Inter graecos, &c. Theologicae doctrinae princeps olim Origenes, post illum Chrysostomus fuit, unde sua derivarunt Theo­doretus, Oecumenius, Theo­phylactus ac Damasce­nus, sed ita, &c.. 4. Yet none of them all was such an [Page 123] Erra pater in Divinitie, as Origen, who abounds al­most with as many errors as lines; and who, as our re­verend Bishop Hall said of him wittilie, desinebat esse vir, (for he would need understand that place, Mat. 19. 12. about castration, literallie) sed non malus inter­pres. This very man, who also hath learnedly been proved, many yeares before Pelagius was born, to have laid the grossest foundations of Pelagianisme Jansen. August. Tom. ult. p. 1136. Origenes in Epistolam ad Rom. & in li­bris p [...]riarch. errorem d [...] praedestinatione secundum praescientiam, omnes (que) caete­ros Pelagianorum, & Massi­liensium, tanta copiâ & ac­curatione praecudit, ut post Pelagii aetatem vixisse vide­atur. vid. & lib. 6. c. 13, 14, 15, &c.. He I say, and he alone is brought by you contrary to scrip­ture, Rom. 9. 22. Jude 4. and some of that very antiqui­tie appearing in your Catalogue, (as any body may see, who will but overlook it) for to father a notion for you, which also you had the boldnesse to communi­cate to your auditors, in a Lecture at Daintrey, viz. That God made hell onely for wicked Devils, but not for wic­ked men, full out as bad as Devils. 5. Not only learned orthodox Protestants See at large for this, Dr Whitaker, de peccato origin, l. 2. c. 2. D. Morton Apolog. 1. part. p. 267. Bogerman cont. An­notat. H. Grotii but even the learneder sort of Papists Cont. Discuss. H. Grotii. have warned us against the overlavish ex­pressions of Theophylact, Euthimius, Chrysost. Oecume­nius, Macarius, &c. which yet are in very great state produced by you, as in this your list, so up and down your booke, without taking notice of any such Advi­soes given in: But it will not be amisse to remember, that abundans cautela non nocet. 6. Most, if not all these Authors, were, before ever Vossius booked them downe, collected to his hand, by your admirable H. Grotius, in his ordinum Hollandiae, &c. Westfrisiae pie­tas, who also had borrowed them out of severall parts of Bellarmines writings Bogerm. ubi supra parte secunda., and that same unconquera­ble Grotius of yours, hath from Joh. Bogermans, recei­ved a particular answer to most of them, where you shall doe well to fetch yours also. 7. Damascene, though of much later standing, than the former of the first Classis, yet he as a Graecian, may be ranked among them, as living in the Graecian Churches, nothing neer so much pestered with Pelagianisme as the La­tine. As for the distinction of Gods Antecedent and Con­sequent will alledged by you and others, sometimes [Page 124] out of him, and out of Chrysost. (as indeed as yet, sub judice lis est, who was the father of that invention) I have already in this writing of mine, shewed, that possibly there may bee some good use of it, if wise men may but have the management of it; and I have elsewhere (in my first writing) made it evident, that ever since the first minting of it, it hath been a very apple of contention in the Church, especially among the Schoolmen; none of all which, if we may beleeve a great Schoolman, Dr Twisse, one only excepted That is Gregor. Arimi­nens. D. Twisse vindic. l. 2. digr. 8. p. 455. Sciendum quod quaecunque Deus vult nobis, aut facit in nobis, vel habent in nobis causam me­ritoriam, & talia dicit Da­masc. Deum velle conse­quenter, sicut poenam quam­libet, quam propterea vul [...] nobis, quia peccamus; ita quod peccatum est causa me­ritoria poenae quam nobis in­fligit. Aut non habent in no­bis talem causam meritori­am, saltem primam, sed ex sua gratia, & sua voluntate, illa nobis concedit, & talia sunt omnia bona quae habe­mus; & hoc dicit ip sum Deum velle nobis voluntate antecedente, quoniam nulla in nobis causa an­tecedit, nec propter aliud in nobis, vel ex nobis vult prim [...] aliqua bona nob is, sed ex sua bonitate pri­mo; unde & merita nostra dona sunt ejus, ut August. 13. de Trin. Non ergo talis-voluntas consequi­tur causaliter vel meritoriè aliquid in nobis; & ideo non excausa nostra, sicut voluntas punitionis, sed ex seipso, Et ideo vocat illam consequentem, hanc antecedentem; & hanc manifestè patet, intu­enti diligenter, esse intentionem ejus, &c. had e­ver the happinesse to explaine it any thing handsome­ly. 3. Damascene the great pretended Author of it, 1. Seems not to be constant to himselfe; for here as you quote him, p. 27. out of lib. 2. c. 29. orthod. fidei, whilst he distinguisheth in God, his antecedent from his consequent will, hee must needs (at least as the words sound) ascribe deliberation properly so called, in counsell and mutations, of counsell also to God, which else where he doth deny; for saith he, ib. c. 22. 29. [...], [...]. To advise, or to take counsell, is an argument of ignorance. 2. In this his device, he seems but to jump with much such another, as before him was taken up by the Massilians for the same end and purpose Quia non omnes salvos fieri certum est, hinc illud propositum generale, non absolutum, sed ineffieax & quasi conditionatum statuunt, viz. Si homines ipsi velint, & consentiant. Dilucidis verbis eorum sensum Prosp. ad Aug. promit. Itaque quantum ad Deum pertinet omnib. paratam vitam aeternam, quantum autem ad arbitrii libertatem, ab his eam apprehendi, qui Deo sponte crediderunt, & quxilium gratiae merito credulitatis acceperint. And this to be your meaning, the same with theirs and their Leaders, Faust. Rheg. l. 1. de grat. & lib. arb. is plaine throughout your book, but especially by what you have out of Dr Andrews p. 20. and out of Hilar. p. 260. and Anselme, p. 27. And yet you would make us beleeve you are much for Prosper.. 4. The Armini­ans, [Page 125] (and yet it seems to be most proper Lettice for their lips, the very Helena they are enamoured with­all) could never yet, by it commend or divend any of their Arminian wares, any thing the better, for that at no hand they agree in opening the mysticall meaning of it. And you amongst all the rest of that generati­on, are the most unhappy in the management of it, for that you are, not only as your great Vossius, and your domestique Dr Jackson (to whom you are much beholden for abusing the world with your two first principles, p. 6. which you took from him, and which you understand full out as equivocally as he) driven to confesse, p. 51. that you understand this distinction not in respect of Gods will simply, in which there can be neither prius nor posterius, but in respect of the things which are the objects of his will, but also because, p. 40. you doe, it seems, even in proprietie of speech, ascribe such velleities, would bees, yea, such an [...] to the Almighty, as is most contrary to his na­ture. In the first way of explaining the distinction, you are unhappy, however it be foelix infortunium to the Church, in that with your own hands, you overthrow most part of your book; to be sure all your third Chap­ter, as I shall shew when I come to it. In the latter, if you doe but stand to it, you will become Atheisti­call And say with Vorstiu [...] de Deo, p. 195. Non satis circumspectè loquuntur, qui Deum ut essentia, sic volun­tate prorsus immutabilem esse affirmant. Voluntas Dei ad extra, non minus in Deo, quam in Angelis & homi­nib. ad opposita vertibilis. Id p. 371. Nihil absurdi in­de sequitur, quod Deus in tempore quaedam praecise velle, vel nolle dicatur, quae fortasse non antea it a prae­cise voluit vel noluit, p. 486. poenitentia Deo rectè con­venit, quatenus ipse opera sua propter supervenientem aliquam causam, inspera­tam verè improbat, deseri [...], aut mutat.. And this for the Authors of the first Classis. 2. As for the Authors of the second Classis, Austin and his genuine followers, I make not the least doubt of it, but you would as gladly have them all unclassed, as you could wish that Calvin and Beza, had never at Geneva, appeared for Classes & Synodi; a thing which I am sure you are as angry at, as the fellow that wrote the Clerico-classicum of late. And this I gather, 1. In that in the matters debated, bordering upon Pelagia­nisme, (against which, if in any thing he was his crafts­master) you would have Austin turn'd off from the Bench of your Jury, p. 28. and that upon some sha­dow of reason, which one, and but one Grotius de­livers [Page 126] in, in a book of his, wherein (beyond Cassander) the Text which he was to defend, he carrries on his cruell Popish designe against all Protestants, Riv. Dyalis. in Discuss, Grot [...]i, p. 595 &c. The dis­cussor being the last book that ever Grotius wrote. Grotium nobis benè volu isse, nec suisse quantum po­tu [...]t, in nostrus, persecutio­num incentorem & incendi­arium, nemo credet sanus; qui postrema ejus scripta le­gerit, in qu bus, omnibus pa­cem offert, ut nobis solis bel­lum indicatur, &c. And what the goodly designe was, which Grotius before his death travelled with, he thus tels us himselfe, in the last leafe save one of that his last book, p. 255. as if hee were making of his last Will and Testa­ment. Restitutionem christi­anorum in unum idem (que) cor­pus, semper optatum à Gro­tio sciunt, qui ipsum nô­runt. Existimavit autem ali­quando incipi posse à prote­stantium inter se conjuncti­one. Postea vidit id plane fieri nequire, quia praeter­quam Calvinistarum ingenia fermè omnium, ab omni pa­ce sunt alienissima, Prote­stantes nullo inter se com­muni Ecclesiastico Regimine sociantur. Quae causa est, cur partes aliae, & aliae sint exsurrecturae. Quare nunc planè ita sentit Grotius, & multi cum eo, non posse protestantes inter se jungi, nisi simul jungantur cum iis, qui sedi Romanae (N. B.) cohaerent, sine qua nullum sperari potest, in Ecclesia commune Regimen. but especially against all Calvinists; and wherein, as to Pelagianisme, hee outstrides the most of the very Je­suites in his compliance with it. Questionlesse it is monstrous, that any man pretending to learning (up­on the bare authority of such a prodigiouslie Erastio-Arminio-Socino-Pontificio-politick head-piece, as those who know him at all in his writings, and in his designs, know him to be) should contrary to the judgement of all Catholick Doctors, who were his contemporals, of whole Councils, who did transcribe his writings, ver­batim, and turne them into Church-Canons As it is famously known, of the Ephesine, Carthaginian, Milevitan, Arausican, yea, Roman Councils. Vid. Jansenium, Aug. cap. 14, 15, 16. And in slighting Austin, you comply with Gennad. Hist. Concil. Trident. who used to say of him, what Solomon hath of bablers, Pro. 10. 19. Hist. Gotesch. p. 20. Nay with far worse men, not onely all the old Massilians, but with the worst of Jesuites, Molina, [...]essius, Vasquez, &c. vid. Jans. Aug. T. 2. lib. proem. c. 16., of se­verall Roman Pontifes, (who upon another score, were desperately angry with him, as with all the Afri­can Fathers) be so far infatuated, as upon any reason, to believe him to be an unfit judge, who was the fittest (so far forth as any man may be looked upon, as a fit ministeriall judge of controversies) to judge of any question bordering on Pelagianisme, as sure the questi­on is, Whether God antecedently love all alike? whe­ther Christ died for all alike? If one reason from Gro­tius, can weigh downe so much reason from his and your betters, I know you care not for Austin, save that you must scaenae inservire. 2. I collect this from the supercilious pif, which you somewhere make at the modern orthodox, having only one Austin alone, by whom they would be tried, p. 31. which were it so, (as it is most false) yet 1. It were much more ratio­nall, next to Scripture, to stick to one Austin, who for [Page 127] twenty yeares together Prosp. lib. cont. Collat. Viginti amplius annis, con­tra inimicos gratiae Dei, Ca­tholica acies, hujus viri du­ctu, pugnat & vincit. De quo idem suaviter carmi­ne de ingratis sic canit. Nam quocunque gradum conver­tit calidus hostis, qua (que) per ambages anceps iter egit o­pertus; hujus ab occursu est praeventus &c most studied these contro­versies, and successefully contended about them, as Graces Champion, against Pelagian nature, and Massili­an diminutive grace, then to heed others, who per­chance never studied these matters so many houres, as he did years. 2. That one Austin to the worlds end, will by all the learned gracious world of Christians, be thought to weigh down a thousand such as Molina, Lessius, &c. or Arminius his second H. Grotius, with myriads of such as Episcopius, Tilenus, Corvinus, Berti­us, Grevinchovius; yea, even though T. P. should bring up the reare D. Ward Conc. ad Cler. degra. discri­mine ad finem. Illud etiam verè adj [...]cere possum plus uni Augustino tam vete­rano, & in ista causa versa­tissimo tribuendum, quam centum Grotiis, Corvinis, Vorstiis, Bertiis, & id ge­nus recentiorib. dogmatistis. Accedit & illud coronidis loco, Augustino semper ad­haesisse hac ex parte, ecclesi­am universalem, ab ejus temporibus, Ecclesiam item Anglicanam, ab initio Refor­mationis, & celeberrimam hanc nostram Academiam, &c.. 3. This is easily concluded, from your intolerable abusing of Austin, when you quote him, as if you did almost as much hate him, as Calvin and Beza, Dr Twisse and the rest of the first or second Reformation, p. 52. witnesse for a tast (for fowler matters we shall have, when we be arrived to your p. 44.) that in this place, p. 28. what you quote out of his lib. de sp. & litera ad Marcell. cap. 33. you produce somthing from his dispute, where he ventilates matters pro & con, against his expresse conclusion and determination of the question The question proposed to Austin, you rightly propose as he doth, in the beginning of cap. 33. but before the resolution which Austin stands to, comes in, which is not till cap. 34. you snatch something for you from his dispute, which is continued throughout the whole c. 33. and not ended in the beginning of the 34. chap. as is plaine by these words, Haec disputatio, si quaestioni illi solvenaae sufficiat, sufficiat; but then fals to dispute againe, and concludes quite contrary to what you represent, thus: Attendat & videat, non ideo tantum, istam voluntatem divino muneri tribuendam, quia ex libero arbitrio est, quod nobis naturaliter concreatum est, verum-etiam, quod visionum suasionib. agit Deus ut velimus, & ut credamus: And then comming to the criticall point; Si ad illam profunditatem scrutan­dam, quisaquam nos coercet, cur illi ita suadetur, ut persuadeatur, &c. He shuts up all with an, O altitudo divitiarum, &c. and a check to such as Mr T. P. Cui responsio isia displicet, quaerat do­ctiores, sed caveat, ne inveniat presumptiores., both in that place, and in other writings of his. It had therefore been honester and safer for you with Arminius, to have cry­ed out, non stamus Augustino; or with your Oracle H. Grotius, out of the very book which you cite, to say, multa retractavit Augustinus, sed in pejus. And [Page 128] dealing thus with the Master, we need not wonder if you use his scholer Prosper no better, in what by pieces snatched from severall parts of his works, you huddle altogether, p. 29. Indeed I see nothing but what with a prosperous glosse of Prospers owne making, in severall other parts of his writings, will downe with me very well; so that I shall not need to flie to that, aliquando bonus dormitat Homerus, that Prosper might Massilia­nize a little, as being tired with the perpetuall calum­nies of Massilians and Semipelagians Yet so Bogerm. a man who deserves no small commendation out of Pa­raeus disp. de lib arb. p. 253. Apparet (inquit) de Mossi­liensium faecibus eum (Pro­sperum) aliquid hausisse, & p. scq. Inter defersores liberi arbitrii, & praedicatores gra­tiae, mediatorem se profite­tur, in quaestione quomodo Deus velit omnes homines salvari. And yet he con­cludes against T. P. that he doth not, illicò facere cum parte altera, &c. Nec decet frustulis hinc inde cor­rasis, sententiam authoris, aliàs publicè notam elevare, quemadmodum hodiè scrip­tis non tantum veterum, sed & recentiorum, Calvini, Musculi, &c. in rem suam abuti solent Novatores; qui­bus interim in votis est, ut sententia Prosperi, Calvi­ni, &c. Passim quam ut im­piam & blasphemam, tradu­cunt, evertatur, & extermi­netur.. Yet I have reason enough to suspect, that you value not Prospers judgement, more then Austins, and make not here so faire a representation of it, as you might do, as shall be somewhat more cleared in my next position.

3. As for the Authors of the third or lowest Classis, we should be agreed in it, that they are no farther to be valued, than as they agree with Scripture, pure an­tiquity, and the harmony of the Protestant Confessions. (as indeed, no meer humane authorities, are to be set up higher, Isa. 8. 20.) You quote but one Anselme, p. 27. who yet, 1. Saith nothing of Gods intention equally to save all, but rather the contrary, in the very words cited by you: His words must needs be under­stood de voluntate signi, of what his dispensations im­port, and not de voluntate [...], of what he hath de­creed to bring to passe. 2. It is famously knowne, that Anselme, as wel as a number of Pontificians more, are against you, in the matter of praedestination Anselm. de Con­cord. cap. 2. Necesse est fieri quae praesciuntur, & quae praedestinantur., and also in their magnifying of the distinction of the suffi­ciency of Christs death in reference to Reprobates Ansel. in Elucidario, Innocent 3. l. 2. de officio missae, c. 4. san­guis Christi pro solis praede­stinatis effusus est, quantum ad efficientiam; sed procun­ctis hominibus quantum [...]d sufficientiam. Sic. Th. Aquin. super Rev. 5. De passione loqui est duplici­ter, aut secundum sufficientiam, & sic passio redemit omnes; omnibus n. redimendis & salvandis sufficiens est, etiamsi plures essent mundi, ut dicit Anselm. lib. 2. Cur Deus homo, cap. 14. Aut secun­dum efficientiam, & sic non omnes redempti sunt, per passionem: Sic Stapulens. ad Rom. 5. Tapper Artic. 6. Sonnius lib. 3. Relig. Christianae. cap. 19. and of the efficiency of it onely to the Elect. The Pro­testants you call on your side, 1. Phil. Melancth. p. 29. [Page 129] but quote nothing out of him advantageous to you; if by reprobation, hee meane but positive reprobation or damnation; the meritorious cause whereof, no man de­nies to bee sinne. Melancthon was a man, who be­cause he ever had a name in the Church, and that deser­vedly, for depth of learning, for calmnesse, prudence, and moderation, your vapouring party use much to glory in, upon a pretence that he is one of theirs; when as the contrary is most evident. 1. From his intin acie, which to the last he maintained with Calvin; who also dedicated his booke against Pighius (such another wrangler as your selfe) unto him, as to a Patron and chief Vindex of the doctrine conteined therein. 2. From a testimonie under Melancthons own hand, and that towards the time of his death, Anno 1543. that hee Calvin Epist 48. agreed with Calvin in the doctrine of praedestination, free will, &c. save that Calvins way was the more profound, but that his waies were (to use his owne words) simpliciora, & [...], & usui accommoda­tiora. 3. Indeed his scholer Christoph. Pezelius See Pezelius, & Joh. Bogerm. contra Grotium, a. p. 160. ad 179. and con­cludes with a strong syllo­gisme, p. 179. thus. Qui sententiam Lutheri & Cal­vini in quibusdam scriptis [...]radidit plenè & aperte à priori, in nonnullis prolixe cam inculcat à posteriori; is, &c. who was to Melancthon, what Timothy to Paul, or Prosper to Austin, hath so abundantly made it evident, that there was no other difference betwixt their do­ctrine of praedestination, save in the manner of delive­ring; Melancth. beginning à posteriori, from vocation wrought in the heart, &c. Calvin speaking of it often à priori, as conceived in the bosome of the Almighty; as that to all the Arminian party, who boast of Me­lancthon, hee hath left nothing but falsehood joined with impudence, as often as they make him of their par­tie. 2. Next you produce P. Moulin, a man in all the five Articles controverted, in that very Anatome by you cited, against you, and your great Dr Arminius, that a man would wonder what was become of your forehead, when you call for help from him. For what though in some one odd notion of yours, about the object of reprobation, he may seem to be yours, should that embolden you to produce him as if hee were [Page 130] compleatly yours? If you had the spirit of valour in you, you should take up the bucklers for him against Dr Twisse, who hath made it evident in the point you quote him for, that Non tenetur Magister sententiarum in hoc Articulo. 3. The last man you quote for you, with a superlative encomium given him, p. 29 &c. is our own Dr Overall. (though some As they who subjoin'd it to his dissert. de praedest. & repr. ascribe that treatise to Dr Davenant) As for him, 1. If hee will in the laxe generall phra [...]es, bee no otherwise under­stood, then as Dr Davenant expounds them, of a suffici­ency in the death of Christ for all, together with an in­tention, that Christs death should be a generall remedy, not actuallie to bee applied to all, but applicable to all upon condition of faith and repentance Though re­verend B [...]sh [...]p Davenant in his dissert. seem to g [...]e a way by himselfe, yet the summe of all hee would have, himself being judge, p. 23. is but this, Non est al [...] ­enum à divina sapientia, statuere & ordinare media ad finem aliquem appl [...]ca­bil [...]a, licet intelligat, inter­veniente aliquo obstac [...]lo, quod ipse removere non d [...] ­crevit, ipsam application [...]m fieri impediendam. Huc of ferri potest illud Aquinatis de vest. disp. de praed [...]st. ubi discrimen ponit, inter provi­dentiam communit [...]r sump­tam & praedestinationem, quae est specialis pars provi­dentiae: providentia (inquit) ordinem & finem respicit tantum, praed [...]stinatio respi­cit exitum vel eventum or­dinis Quae per providentiam illam communiorem ad si nem ordinantur non semper finem consequuntur; at quae per praedestinationem singu­larem ordinantur, semper consequuntur, &c.. When I shall understand this to be all which you plead for in this point, I shall be willing that whatsoever difference about this may remaine betwixt us, may be determined in a coole conference. 2. I doubt not but therefore Dr Overall is so high in your favour, not so much be­cause he symbolizeth with you in opinion, as because you are tickled at the very heart, that he as well as you, plaies upon Calvin, as elsewhere he doth traduce the Puritans also (who have been cleared of the crimes, by as wise, learned, and more moderate a Bishop Ʋsher in his Ser­mon before the Commons 1620. Bishop Carleton a­gainst Montague, quo su­pra, &c. Bishop then himselfe) for heterodoxie about praedestination; yet what both you and he bring out of Calvin, doth you not the least service. For 1. If in both places Calvin, as he doth understand the (all) for all of a certaine sort, viz. for all so belonging to Christ mysticall, their spiri­tuall head, as all without exception do belong to Adam their naturall head: Calvin upon the place hath it wel, waving the very question, which you would have him determine for you, De nihilo agitaretur illa quaestio, quia non disputat Apostolus quàm paucis, vel quàm mul­tis prosit mors Christi, sed intelligit simpliciter, aliis, non sibi mortuum esse. 2. What though he say and truly, that men are hindered from being saved by their own incre­dulity, doth he any where say, 1. That God by the [Page 131] virtue of the death of Christ, hath resolved to take a­way that incredulitie from every body? 2. Or doth he say any where, that God intended Christs death should save all, whether they did beleeve or not? But you cannot forbeare lashing of Calvin, no otherwise then as if you were afraid that his severe ghost, per [...] might arise one day in England, to scourge you soundly with some Presbyterian rods, for your Inte­rimisticall-Cassandrio-Arminio-Grotian designes: But feare not my good brother, old Cynick Calvin is dead, and some Erastian Polititians of the times, wil it seems, have a pious care of you, that you shall never smart under any such discipline. Oh happy time for Mr T. P! Though none were so full of Helvidianisme, (as you have a mind to upbraid some, p. 19.) as to deny any ge­nerall words of the Scripture, which they would have rightlie interpreted, not expunged; yet it is most plaine, that the Church in all ages, hath been for speciall Re­demption, against generall Redemption of all at ran­dome. And this appeares, 1. By the four severall in­terpretations of 1 Tim. 2. 4. which your selfe acknow­ledge; all which carried it off from the generall Re­demption, which you mainteine of all, both Elect and Reprobate H [...]st, Gotesch. p [...]ssim.. 2. By the frequent objections of the Pelagians, and Semipelagians, where with they upbrai­ded the Catholiques Faust. l. 1. de gra & l. arb. Dominium Nostrum Je­sum a [...]unt humanam car­nem, non pro omnium salute sumpsisse, nec pro omn [...]bus mort [...]um esse. Hoc omnimo­dis Ca [...]hol [...]ca detestatur Ec­cl [...]si [...]. H [...]l [...]r. Epist. ad Au­gustinum. Inde est, quod [...] ­lius sententiae expositionem, inquiunt M [...]ssilienses, non cam quae arte deprompta [...]st, suspiciant, id est, ut non nisi omnes homines salvos fieri vult, & non eos tantum, qui ad sanctorum numerum per­tin [...]bant, sed omnes omni [...]ò, ut nullus habeatur exceptus., for denying that universalitie of Redemption, which they, and they onely did main­teine. 3. By the expresse, full, and distinct confessi­ons of the first Primitive Churches, delivered by the Church of Smyrna Euseb. lib. 4, cap. 15. in Epist. de Polycarpo, [...].. Which tels us, that Christ did suffer for the world of those who are to be saved, con­formable to the expression, Rev. 21. 24. delivered in by Ambrose Ambr. de vocat Gent. l. 2. c. 3. In [...]le­ctis & praescitis & ab omni generalitate discretis, specia­lis quaedam censetur uni­versitas, ut de toto mundo, totus mūdus liberatus [...]st, & de omnib. hominib. omnes ho­mines videantur redempti. In eundem sensum, quem po­stea expressit Augustin. in Joh. 15. mundus redemptio­nis, unus, ex perditionis al [...]e­ro electus, qui & Epist. 102. asserit non pe [...]isse u [...]um ex illis, pro quibus Christus mortuus est., who tels us, that out of the whole world, the whole world was delivered; and out of all men, all men, viz. all the speciall universalitie, who were ele­cted and foreknowne, and dissevered from all generali­ty. 4. As for the second Primitive Churches though you, and your Grotius, p. 28. thinke none so unfit to [Page 132] speak as Austin; yet I hope every body else will think none so fit to be heard as he (ut supra). And both he and the Valentinian Councill after him, speak out as distinctly, what the judgement of the Church was in this point, as if you were to have it from Geneva or Dort. Nor should any be so foolishlie suspitious, as to surmise, that Austin brought a new opinion into the Church, the contrarie whereunto, he himselfe from all sorts of Authors, proves at large against the quarrelsome Pelagiant, whilst he doth demonstrativelie ad oculum cleare it August. l. 1. c. 2. con [...]ra Julian. & Respons. ad Ar­tic sibi impos. art. 1. Quod ad magnitudinem & poten­tiam pr [...]tii, & quod ad u­nam pertinet causam gene­ris humani, sanguis Chr [...]. redemptio est totius mundi. sed qui hoc saeculum sine si­de Christ [...], & sine r [...]genera tionis sacramento p [...]rt [...]anse­unt, redemptionis alien [...] sunt. Cum ito (que), per unam omnium naturam, omnium causam à Domino nost [...]o in veritate susceptam, [...]edempti omnes rectè dicantur, non tamen omnes captivitat [...] sunt eruti, redemptionis proprietas, haud dubium, penes illos est, de quibus princeps bujus mundi, missus est foràs, & j am non vasa Dia boli, sed membra sunt Chri­sti: Cujus mors non impen­sa est humano generi, ut ad redemptionem ejus, etiam qui regenerandi non erant, perti­nerent: Sed ita qa [...]d per unicum exemplum gestum est pro universis, per singulare sacramentum celebra [...]tur in singulis. Poculum quippe immortalitatis, quod conse­ctum est de infirmitate no­stra, & virtute divina, habet quidem in se, ut omnibus profit, sed si non bibitur, non proficit., that in the foundation of all hee wrote a­bout Redemption, or efficacious grace, hee was one with all the Greek and Latine Fathers, and his truth in this, is witnessed, even by a Bellarmine. And in truth, it is monstrous to conceive Austins opinions to have been so new, as the Pelagians and Massilians of old, and our Arminian Neopelagians would have a foolish credulous world, now to beleeve: For it can hardlie sinke into any sound mans head, that all the Affrican and Westerne Churches and Councils, should bee so fondlie enamoured with one Austin of Hippo, as to adhaere to him novellizing, and to turne his writings into Canons, against their Catholique received tene [...]s. And then much lesse is it credible, that the Church of Rome, who in her Pontifes, begun to take unreasonable state upon her, and held Austin and the Africans under an excommunication Phil. Morn. myst. iniqu. progr. 9. &c. upon another account, who watched for advantage of Appeales; and upon that score, was long before shee assented to the condemna­tion of Pelagius and his followers; I say it is no way credible, that the Roman Church, should against her owne interest, have suffered her selfe to bee swaied by poor African Austin. 5. All this is most evident from the black brand of infamy, where­with Austin stigmatizeth the Pelagians, for main­teining, as now the Arminians doe, That men are redeemed, but not delivered from the power of the [Page 133] Devill Aust. lib 3. cont. Julian. cap. 3. redimuntur, sed non liberantur, lavantur, sed non abluuntur; Haec sunt senten­tiarum portenta vestrarum. Haec paradoxa Pelagiano­rum Haereticorum &c. Cae­terum rogo te, quomodo po­test intelligi ista redemptio, nisi à malo redimente illo, qui redimit Israel ab omnib. iniquitatibus suis: Ʋbi enim redemptio sonat, intelligitur & pretium; & quod est hoc, nisi pretiosus sanguis agni imm [...]culati Jesu Christi? De hoc autem pretio quare sit fusum respondeat ipseredemptor, ipse mer­cator, Hic est (inquit) sanguis meus qui pro multis effunditur. in remissionem peccatorum. Pergite adhuc, pergite, & ficut dicitis, in sacramento salvatoris baptizantur, sed non salvantur, redimun­tur, sed non liber antur, &c. Mirasunt quae dicitis; nova, falsa sunt quae dicitis; mira stupemus, nova cavemus, falsa convincimus.. These opinions he cals portentous, new, Pelagian, Haereticall paradoxes, more wonderfull than those of the Stoicall Philosophers: And though it be true (as the late Bishop of Salisbury hath learnedly ob­served) that that place in the letter, speakes onely of children; yet who sees not, that by just analogie, it may bee extended to others? And elsewhere the Church is as peremptorie in censuring those, who mainteined, that Christ died as well, and as much for unbeleeving impenitents, as for beleeving penitents Concil. Valent. celebratum Anno 855. cap. 4. Quidam sunt, qui sanguinem Christi, etiam pro illis impiis, qui à mundi exordio, us (que) ad passionem Domini, in sua impietate, & aeterna damnatione puniti sunt, effusum definiunt, contra illud Propheticum, ero mors tua, O mors, &c. Illud nobis simpliciter & fideliter tenendum, ac docendum placet, juxta Apostolicam & evangelicam veritatem, quod pro illis, hoc datum pretium teneamus, de quibus ipse Dominus noster dicit: Sicut Moses exaltavit in deserto, &c. & Apostolus, Christus semel oblatus est, ad multorum exhaurienda peccata. Add to this the sharp censure of the Church of Lyons, at large set downe in Hist. Ga [...]teshalci, p. 79, 8 [...], 81.. By all that hath been said, I doubt not, but every ingenuous Reader will easilie grant me, that you have small reason to brag of your Gettings, either in your Latine, p. 29. or your English Summarie, p. 31. That you are most ridiculous, in making so much of your no­tion out of Origen, p. 26. about everlasting fire not be­ing prepared for wicked men, but for the Devill and his Angels, as to repeat it againe, p. 29. I confesse somewhat faintlie, whilst now, as it were upon second thoughts, you shuffle in the terme (especially) and not by a peremptory irrespective decree: But still by your eagernesse to defend Origen, you 1. Leave some kind of suspicion behind you, as if in processe of time, you would goe on with him, to mainteine redemption from hell it selfe, yea, salvation of Devils. 2. You quite forget your owne reasoning, p. 21. where against [Page 134] Gods being the author of mans death, you say, if death be that monster, of which sinne is the dam that brings it forth, how foul a thing must be the Sire? ‘And can there be any greater blasphemy, then to bring Gods provi­dence into the pedegree of death? And is it lesse blas­phemous to make God the author of preparing eternal torments, for those who were once the Lords more noble creatures, Angels, though now Devils, then to prepare the like torments for as great, if not greater sinners, wicked men, and that for the punishment of their sinnes?’ But I will leave you at your leasure to unriddle this, and take my leave of you at this time, from this your second Chapter. I will presume, my Reader will much thank me, if I shall affect more brevity in the Replies which I make upon the three following Chapters; which therefore I will most so­lemnly promise him to doe, and for that purpose re­solve to give in mostly my marginall quotations in more short references, and not at large, as hitherto I have done. I will in the beginning of each Chapter, de­liver in such generals, as shall quite overthrow all his wild Asiatick discourses, in the severall Sections, and then content my selfe with some briefe Strictura's upon his niblings at sound doctrine; and give him leave to please himselfe and foolish people, with his gawdy rhetoricke. I may the rather take this course, for that, what followes, hath been much confuted in what hath been said; his whole design opened; and because with not many materiall variations, unlesse in what he hath out of Roetius, and in his distinctions, about necessity and contingency. I find that from this chap. 3. p. 32. even unto the very end, his booke is almost verbatim the same, with his first renounced papers; unto which I hope every body will say, I have answered enough, if not too much. These papers may one day see the light, if the Church be any way pleased with any of my poore endeavours, in the defence of her truth and grace.

THE method of your proceedings in these three Chapters, seems to me somewhat mysticall; In the first you plead strangely against Sir N. N. (whom because, as you would have us beleeve, p. 10, 11. your affrighted fancy mistakes to be a Calvinist, you lay the harder at) That God is not the author of sinne. In the second and this third, That he is not so much as the author of punishment, whether temporall or eternall; and yet (whether soberly or no, as you talke of Calvin, p. 30. I know not, but surely enough) you begin this Chapter, p. 32. with a palpable contradiction to your selfe, when you say, That every reprobate is praedeter­mined to eternall punishment, sure then, God is the au­thor or efficient cause of that punishment; unlesse he be not the author of all that he determines to doe or in­flicts; the conditionality or absolutenesse of it, alters not the case. It had been somewhat hard for me to have divined, what you aimed at in these eccentrick Chapters and Sections, unlesse you had indoctrinated my plumbeous cerebrofity, by a kind dilucidary, which you set downe, p. 46. [...]in foure severall propositions; whereof the first is, without more ado, allowed you; and if you please, you may understand it of the sole effi­cient, or rather deficient cause. The 2. and 3. are easily granted you, if by cause you will but understand the sole meritorious cause, not the sole efficient cause; nay, that you may perceive how kind hearted I am, now I am on the giving hand, I will grant you the fourth also, which is the great thing you doe strenuouslie fight for, tanquam pro aris & focis: Provided alwaies, that 1. By reprobation, you understand (as no where you seeme to doe otherwise) positive poenall repro­bation, or praedamnation; which none of your fiercest adversaries maintaine to be decreed or infli­cted [Page 136] but for sinne So Dr Twisse often, Calvin in 2 Thes. 2. Reprobi suo delicto morti devoti sunt, non pereunt, nisi qui digni sunt. Zanc. de nat. Dei. l. 5. p. 712. peccatum non est causa rejectionis, sed est causa damnationis.. 2. That by condition, you doe not understand the condition of Gods eternall, inter­nall, immanent act of willing, but of the thing willed, or the damnation to bee inflicted D▪ Riv. de reprob. 12. Decrevit eos quos reprobavit, propter peccatum damnare; ne (que) ta­men propterea sequitur, pec­catum esse causam decreti, quam [...]is est causa rei de­cretae: quia potuisset Deus, etiam considerato peccati merito, homines illos revoca­re ad meliorem viam, quod aliis accidit, qui non minus in se habebāt causam dam­nationis. Sed tamen non de­crevit Deus absolutè eis infligere poenam, sine con­ditione peccati, et si conditio­ne posita, potuisset non infli­gore.. 3. That by condition you doe not understand such a causall condi­tion, as was in no sort arbitrary unto God, to have ta­ken, or not have taken the advantage of; for if so, we must all have been damned; for God saw sin enough in all. And now we seem to have made up the compo­sition you put in for, p. 47. I might allow my selfe an holy day with my Mr T. P's good leave, as finding little worke for mee to doe about this Chapter: But that you may know, how much better I like to keep at my worke, then to play, I will adventure to doe two things. 1. Without all craft and deceit, (as much of it lurks in generals) to put in some generals, which to any in­telligent attentive Reader, shall quite overthrow all or most of the particulars of this Chapter, untill, p. 47. 2 Out of my free heartednesse towards you, I shall af­fixe some Animadversions to your text, where you are jeering, railing at, or nibling at doctrine, that cannot, must not be gainsaid. In reference to the first, I have (as briefly as the matter will beare) these foure things to say. 1. In what sense our Divines say or say not, that Gods decree of election or reprobation is absolute. 2. That in the sense to be opened, that of irrefragable Archbishop Bradwardine, must needs be true, that all Gods decrees or wils are absolute. 3. That reve­rend Mr T. P. in this very Chapter, saith as much in effect. 4. I shall shew what be Mr T. P's chiefe mi­stakes and grand sophismes, throughout the body of this Chapter. As to the first, I might justly referre to the very first thing, which I have done in my first pa­pers, wherein I have at large handled this, the rather, because I may hope, that that which relates to the sta­ting of the questions belonging to these 3, 4, 5. Chap­ters, may come to light not long after this. Yet lest [Page 137] any disaster should fall out, take the very abstract of all, thus. 1. As for the termes, absolute, necessary, irre­spective, fatall, irresistible, &c. they are not chosen by us Bp Carletons Exam. p. 14. Wee use not these termes; we reject them, we need them not, we have e­nough in Scripture to maintaine this doctrine., who have others more scripturall (as these are not) to expresse our meaning, about Gods decrees; but rather imposed upon us by our adversaries; who al­so in that imposition, usually understand them not in that sense, which wee sometimes have when wee are forced to make use of some of them; but in the sense they are pleased to give them, for the making of us and our doctrine odious. But as for the termes of irre­spective, conditionall, incomplete, indefinite, not peremp­torie, they are termes of our adversaries owne coi­ning, though farre lesse scripturall than most of the former, and therefore ought not by them to bee dis­owned. When we say then (e. gr.) at any time, That Gods decree is absolute, we meane not that it is, 1. Ir­rationall, that were an abhorred blasphemy against the God of all reason: As he can doe no unrighteous thing, so, nor irrationall; how little soever men or Angels may be able to give a reason of that justice See Calvin at large before, citing Scripture, & Austin for his de praedest. 700. & 728. voluntati ejus quis resistit, nunquid respon­sum est ab Apostolo, O homo, falsum est quod dixisti. Non; sed responsum est, O homo, quis tu es, qui responsas Deo?. 2. Or that it is devoid of, and hath no respect to an effi­cient, materiall, formall, or finall cause, ab interno mo­vens, moving from within; though we denie all cause moving from without, causam procatarcticam, and all distinctive conditions formall, in or from an externall object Riv. disp. 5 Thes. 3 & 4 D▪ Dav. in prolegom. de Rep. moving from without. It will be an aeter­nall truth, that praedestinatio non egreditur extra se. 3. Or that it is without all science or praescience of what shall be, or shall not be future, as to different conditions and qualifications in the object, (this were horribile di­ctu, to throw dust in the Almighties eies V [...]de Walaeum cap. 3. de provid. cont. Corvin. p. 71. Licet verum sit quod decre­tum ejus antecedat scienti­am visionis; quia alioqui [...], aut temeraria ex­istentia induceretur; tamen & boc verum est, scientiam & sapientiam Dei hic esse divinae voluntatis quasi nor­ma, & [...].,) though we say not, dare not say, cannot prove it when we have said it, that God doth from aeternity discerne this or that upon the praescience of, or for the sake of those different qualifications. 4. Lesse, by an absolute de­cree, doe we understand (as Mr T. P. and all the Je­suiticall, Anticalvinisticall, &c. associates with him, [Page 138] would faine make the world beleeve, that we hold) such a decree, which for salvation or damnation, was intended to be executed, without all consideration of the different wils and behaviours of men That would bee decre­tum horribile indeed, even a very cyclopick one; mon­strum horrendum, &c. Vide Apol. Remonstr., so as that, though men had beleeved or repented never so much from their whole heart, yet by vertue of an absolute de­cree, they should bee designed to eternall torments, and dragged to them; and others againe (whom Epis­copius, in scorn, speaking of the Elect, cals albae gallinae filios) by vertue of their election, should bee as cer­taine for heaven, whatever their lives and faiths had been; As that fur praedestinatus (a booke which ex­tremely all the Batavian and English Arminian partie, are taken with, nota loquor) would have the world be­leeve, that upon our principles, he was after his hor­rid debaucheries, and his impenitence in them all See fur praedest. ad finem, when he comes to his Te Deum, p. 64, 65, &c. where hee doth most wic­kedly misrepresent and misapply some undenia­ble truths. These wild phancies are no other then the slanderous expuitions of malicious inveterate enemies of us and the Church; for the venting of which pray God for­give them, and make the Church as really to shunne them, as the woman upon Eagles wings, did flye from the red Dragon, when hee cast a flood of water after her, &c. Rev. 12. 15. All that we meane, when we say that Gods decrees are absolute, is, that, 1. They be soveraigne, free, unforced, Eph. 1. 11. not depen­dent, praedestinatio non est in potestate praedestinati, sed praedestinantis Anselm. Si vis omnium, quae fecit Christus & passus est, scire necessitatem; scito, quia ipse voluit.. 2. Eternall, not temporall. 3. Un­changeable, not alterable. 4. Infallible, certaine, by vertue of Gods counsell (not doubtfull) and in this sense necessarie. 5. Definite and personall: not generall and indefinite, relating rather to generall conditions, then having respect to particular persons, or events. 6. Praeconstituent, and in time effecting every thing any way conducing to salvation, in the way of causes, meanes, qualifications, &c. So that every thing which is accompanying salvation, is a proper fruit of the de­cree of election; onely permissive, and governing of every sinfull thing, which tends to the chambers of [Page 139] death In malis est antecessio or­dinis, non causalitatis., which are not fruits of reprobation, but meerly consequents; yet all punishments, whether temporall or eternall, are prepared by God. In a word (for many more things might be profitably added) even whatsoever this Author, and the lesse profligate sort of Batavian Remonstrants would seem to ascribe to prae­science, wee doe as much ascribe to praedetermination, the ground of al that which they cal scientiam visionis: And by so doing, we do as little introduce Manichism, Stojcism, &c. as themselves See Dr Davenants Ani­madversions, p 36, 37.. Now 2. That all de­crees in God, properly so called, in the sense decla­red, must needs be absolute, I prove especially, 1. By Bradwardines Argument, as Dr Twisse relates it Dr Twisse, Synod of Dort, and Arles, p. 68., unto which he subjoines another of his owne. 2. By the direct tendency, which the contrary opinion hath to Atheisme it selfe, and that the grossest also. For the first, He first proves out of Bradwardine, that if we yield not to the absolutenesse of Gods decree, we must like wicked men, ambulare in circulo, walke the rounds till our heads runne round. His argument is thus: If there be any conditionall will in God, (I meane this quoad actum volentis, or decernentis) the condition of that will of God, is either willed by God, or not: If not willed by him, then that must bee ac­knowledged to come to passe in the world, without the will of God, which hee holds to be a great absurdity: But if that condition be also in some sort willed by God, then either absolutely or conditionally: If absolutely, then also the thing conditionated, shall be absolutely wil­led by God. But if it be said, that the condition spo­ken of, is willed conditionally, then a way is open to a progresse in infinitum, which all disclaime; for it would make us all runne round, runne round,

That which hee subjoines of his owne, is no lesse strong, and therefore he hath challenged all the Armi­nians in the world to answer it, many yeares agoe, yet no Reply is made. That Achillean Argument of his [Page 140] in the same place, he sets down thus. If any will of God be not absolute, but conditionall, then surely the de­crees of damnation and salvation are conditionall, even to the very Acts of Gods decrees: But (saith he) I will evidently demonstrate, that in Christian reason, this can­not be: For if any thing be a condition of the decree of salvation, then either by the necessity of Nature, or by the constitution of God; Not by the necessitie of Nature, as is evident of it selfe, and all confesse; but neither by the constitution of God; for then God did constitute, that is, ordeine, that upon the position of such a conditi­on, to wit, faith, &c. he would ordeine man to salvati­on. Marke, I pray, the notorious absurdity hereof, God did ordeine, that he would ordeine, or God did decree, that he would decree; where the eternall acts of Gods de­cree and ordination, is made the object of his decree or ordination; whereas it is well knowne, that the objects of Gods decrees are onely things temporall, and not eter­nall. Thus farre he, whom we may stile our English Austin, or our Bradwardinus redivivus; who, as I have heard him say often, when hee was but a young scholler in New Colledge, transcribed all Bradwar­dine with his owne hand. A man more fit to be heard in these matters, then Grotius the Great. 2. As for the direct tendency of the contrary opinion about the respectivenesse and conditionality of Gods decrees, to grosse Atheism; to say nothing of the great In his Arcan. Armini­anism. lib. 2. in octa. & eorum defensio in 410. under­takings of D. Nich. Vedelius, (a man, as I am well assured, my good friend Mr T. P. can no way brook, as little I think as he can answer him) I prove by these following arguments, which I shall presently set down, Dr Twisse had some reason to ask Against Mr Mason, p. 37. why it should not be possible for an Infidell to turn Manichee, and an Ar­minian to turne Atheist, if he be not one already. And possibly, that author of whom the same Doctor speaks, and who in his time, was a knowne oracle to all the English Arminian party, had some sense of this, who because (as the late B. of Salisbury observed against [Page 141] Vorstius Animadvers. p. 520. he was loath to admit of such a praedesti­nation as agreeth with Gods nature, hee shaped out a nature for God, sutable to that praedestination which he dreamed of, when hee was not ashamed to pro­test, That he thought it lesse dishonourable to the bles­sed Trinity, to say with the Atheist, there is no God, then to feign such a God, as the decree maintained by the Contra-Remonstrants maketh him to be.

Now the chiefe Arguments to prove the tendency of the respective conditionall decree to Atheisme, are these which I shall now give in short, but which I shall, God giving me life, health, and opportunity, bee willing to draw out more largely, whensoever I shall be called forth thereunto, or dared out by any of the great Grandees of the contrary faction.

1. Respectiveness in Gods decrees ab aeterno, as to the internall act of willing in himself, introduceth a chiefe cause before the chiefe and first cause; and by this meanes nullifieth a Deity, as even Arminius himselfe confesseth Armin. disput. de Deo Thes. 51. Austin de Genes. contra Manich. l. 1. c. 2. vo­luntas Dei, omnium quae sunt, ipsa est causa: Sin. ha­bet causam voluntas Dei, est aliquid. quod antecedit voluntasem Dei, quod nefas est credere. Vide Walaeum contra Corvin. cap. 3. de pro­vid. p. 98, 99.. And truly what more essentiall to God, as such, then to be the first and chiefe of all things, which are or shall be? This once denied, overturnes all Deitie, and so I think introduceth a worse mischiefe then the most hurtfull evill, which even the praedomi­nancie of splendida bilis in Mr T. P. durst object against us, when p. 55. he chargeth us with Manichisme, which as cursed as it is, is some what better then Athe­isme, by how much better it is to have one God too much, then none at all.

2. It introduceth a most fatall fatality, worse then any of the Stoicks feigning, with which also, in the same place hee doth upbraid us, viz. such a fate as doth not onely bind the creatures, according to the decree and appointment of the great God, but which doth bind the supremum numen it selfe, according to the vertible cylindricall will of a vaine creature, turning upon his tropicks, contrary to the will and determina­tion of God.

[Page 142] 3. It introduceth an eternall futurtion of all contin­gent voluntary things before any decree, either of God, or of man, hath passed upon them. No decree of God, say our great patrons every where, hath passed upon them; for that would bring in praedetermination, before praescience, a thing which to their soule, is more hate­full, then the lame and the blind were to Davids, 2 Sam. 5. 6. No decree of man could, who certainly ab aeterno, could not determine himselfe, this or the other way; Non ens non habet affectiones.

4. It divorceth, yea, nullifieth aeternall praescience in God, and it was Austins saying many hundred yeares agoe, Qui tollit praescientiam, tollit Deum. It divorceth praescience from praedetermination; for accor­ding to our Mr T. P. and the rest of the upholders of the respective decree, all future contingent things are only foreknowne, but not determined; See Mr T. P. throughout all his Boethian discourse, à. p. 48. to the end of the Chapter. And thus we have an absolute praescience, & but a conditionall praedetermination; so that whereas in men, it is yet an undetermined question in the schools Dr Riv. Synops purior. Theolog. & disp. de lib. arb. cap. 8. Thes. 5., whether mans rationall judgement, and his ratio­nall will, make two distinct faculties really, rather then notionally onely, distinct; in God, praescience and prae­determination, must be both in nature, and in time di­stinct; nay it nullifieth all eternall praescience; for never yet have the Arminians, though provoked by their ad­versaries to doe it a thousand times, been able or wil­ling to shew, how all meer contingent things, (as for example) in themselves, as the foreseen faith of Paul Austin. de bon. perseve­rant. Haec dona Dei quae dantur electis, secundum Dei propositum, quibus da­tum est, & incipere credere, & in fide us (que) ad vitae hujus terminum perseverare, sicut tanta rationum at (que) autho­ritatum contestatione pro­bavimus; haec inquam, Dei dona, si nulla est praedestina­tio quam defendimus, non praesciuntur à Deo, praesci­untur autem. Haec est igitur praedestinatio quam defen­dimus. Ʋnde aliquando ea­dem praedestinatio significa­tur etiam nomine praescien­tiae., and the infidelity of Judas, should from eternity passe from the condition of meer possibility or contin­gency, into a condition to be certainly foreseen as fu­ture, before all divine praedetermination. He that a­mong the Arminians can unriddle this, erit mihi mag­nus Apollo; which because the wisest of them could never doe, therefore Episcopius leaves it questionable, whether there be any such matter Episcop. Thes. privat., and the rest, though otherwise vocall enough, are Mutes about it, throughout their Synodalia Scripta.

[Page 143] 5. It is most praejudiciall to Gods wisdome and power, as well as to divers other attributes, which I will not now mention. 1. To his wisdome; God and Nature we use to say, make nothing in vaine; But according to the opinion (if a man may so speak in imi­tation of our Mr T. P. p. 13.) of the conditionall praede­stinarians and reprobatarians, God hath made all ratio­nall creatures, men & Angels, in vain, contrary to Prov. 16. 14. before hee could foretell, or had determined their temporall or eternall conditions, what should become of them, for good or evill. 2. To his power, in bringing to passe whatsoever he will, in heaven, or in earth, Psal. 135. 6. Aust. Enchirid. cap. 90. Nisi hoc credamus, periclita­tur ipsum confessionis initi­um, quia in Deum patrem omnipotentem credere confi­temur, ne (que) enim ob aliud veraciter omnipotens dicere­tur, nisi quia quicquid vult, potest, nec voluntate cujus­quam creaturae voluntatis omnipotentis impeditur ef­fectus. What man is there, who if it lay in his power, would not make all his purposes absolute? and shall not this be in the power of God, yea effected by him?

6. According to this Divinity, we are not to pray, Mat. 6. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven, but contrà, Thy will be done in heaven, as men shall con­clude upon it on earth.

7. It introduceth a number of uncerteine velleities, and wouldbees, in the Almighty, in propriety of speech, an [...], the which belike our Mr T. P. p. 40. is not affraid to ascribe to him, though his Arminius Armin. disput. 4. de Deo. thinke, and that truly, that it is most un­becomming the divine Majesty. By these, and I can­not tell how many myriads more of absurdities, it is easie to see, whither conditionall decrees would car­ry us, even to put it into our creed,

3. (For that was the third thing proposed by me) Reverend Mr T. P. himselfe, our ipse dixit himselfe, (for I am sure we have in this Pamphlet, a world of dictates, rather then Arguments from him) is forced to yield to the substance of all that hath been said, for the absolutenesse of Gods decrees, in the sense declared, when he tels us, p. 51. That the distinction of volun­tas antecedens & consequens, (and he explaines the [Page 144] Antecedent will of God, by conditionall upon the place) is not made in respect of Gods will simply (in which there cannot be either prius or posterius) but in respect of the things which are the objects of his will. And good Sir, ought you not to have knowne, that all the dispute betwixt you and your adversaries, is about the internall simple act of Gods will, and not about the externall ob­ject, or thing willed by him? Doe you not then per­ceive, as yet, how handsomely and soberly by this con­cession, you doe quite and clean overthrow all that you labour to build up, throughout your whole book, and especially this Chapter? Truly as the wisest are obser­ved, not to be wise at all times, nemo sapit omnibus ho­ris: So neither are the wildest alwaies out, they have their dilucida intervalla; est & olitor aliquando oppor­tuna loquutus. In the odnesse of the looke and meane of your booke (to phrasifie a little with you) you are all for the conditionality of Gods decrees, and staringly against all absolutenesse; but here all upon a sodaine in this your saying, you are as much for an absolute decree, as any of your Calvinisticall Adversaries would have you. You belike are one of the modern Polititians, you doe loqui cum vulgo, but sentire cum sapientibus. If so, Sir, let wise men have more of your meaning and fools more of your gaping. But if yet you doe not understand, how fairely by this grant, you have broken the back of your finically fine Corrected Copy, learn it from Doctor Twisse, for once, whom you have so often wrested and abused; who though hee never thought of you when he wrote it, yet now speaks very pertinently to you thus Dr Twisse against Mr Hoard, p. 49.. ‘I would not have any think, that I reject any of those ancient Fathers, that seem to bee most opposite to Austins opinion, in the point of praedesti­nation. I think they may be fairely and scholastically reconciled, without acknowledging of so much dif­ference betwixt them, as Vossias maketh, and tha [...] by such an interpretation, as sometimes is admitted by Vossius himselfe of his owne phrase, of his owne di­stinction, [Page 145] though hee dreams not of the applicable nature of the same to the will of God, in praedestina­tion Hist. Pelag. lib. 7.. His distinction is, of voluntas Dei antece­dens & consequens, and this he makes aequivalent to that other distinction of the will of God, absolute and conditionall. Now this conditionall will of God, he interprets, not quoad actum volentis, but quoad res volitas. Like as Dr Jackson professeth in expresse termes, that the former distinction of voluntas antecedens & consequens, is to be inter­preted, namely, quoad res volitas, and not quoad actum volentis. Now according to this constructi­on, there is no difference between them and Austin, nor the least impediment to the making of the will of God, both in praedestination and reprobation, to be most absolute. For though sinne be acknowledged to be the cause of the will of God in reprobation, quoad res volitas, in respect of the punishment willed thereby, this hinders not the absolutenesse of repro­bation, quoad actum reprobantis. And unlesse we un­derstand the Fathers thus, we must necessarily charge them with such an opinion, whereof Aquinas Aquinas affirmat, nem nem esse, tam insanae mentis, ut diceret, merita esse causas praedestinationis, ex parte actus praedestinantis, lib. 1. q. 23. a. 5. is bold to profess, that never any man was so mad as to affirme; to wit, That any merits should bee the cause of praedestination, quoad actum praedestinantis. And why so? because praedestination is the act of Gods will, and there can be no cause of Gods will, quoad actum volentis. Now, who seeth not, that by the same reason, there can be no cause of divine repro­bation, quoad actum reprobantis; for even reprobati­on is the act of Gods will, as well as praedestination; and every way it must be as mad a thing to devise a cause of reprobation, quod actum reprobantis.’ Thus farre that learned Dr, all which if it be true, quite overthrowes your book; and if not, pray confute it, and your own grant too. 4. As for the grand sophisms, and numerous mistakes, they be especially these, rela­ting to this Chapter, as to what for arguments sake, [Page 146] must be reduced to it, out of others. 1. Wee have a parcell of wild consequences, so extremely remote from the premises, as if at the same time you had sent a bill of divorce to Calvinisme, p. 24, and 48. You had with it also manumitted all naturall and artificiall Lo­gick, ex. gr. p. 33. God hath a true will, which is usu­ally called voluntas signi, a commanding, threatning, promising wil; ergo, That is all the will he hath; he hath no other above it or besides it; for no body mainteins he hath any contrary to it. 2. Upon the perpetuall confusion of election and salvation, as if they were one and the same, throughout Chapter 3. and 5. Salvation is actually bestowed upon none (viz. of yeares, for o­ther wise it is false) but upon faith and repentance, and perseverance in it. p. 69. None were elected to them, but upon foresight of them: they be the conditions of election, as well as of salvation. 3. Upon a like mi­stake, that there is the same reason for the making of Gods decree, that there is in the intended execution thereof, p. 39. The falshood where­of Doctor Ames Rescrip. scholast. ad. N. Grevinch cap. 5. and Doctor Twiss also, have confuted by ma­ny instances. In his an­swer to Mr Hoard, p. [...]89. The decree of shewing mercy in pardoning of sin doth no more pre [...]uppose sinne, then the decree of shewing the power of balm, in curing a green wound, doth presuppose the wound: or the decree of shewing the power of a cordiall against poison, doth presuppose the poiso­ning of a mans body; or the decree of advancing a subject by way of reward, doth presuppose his service; or the decree of a pa­tron to preferre his son to a benefice, doth presup­pose his fitnesse for it; or the decree of Solomon to bring Shimei his gray haires to the grave in blood, did presuppose the offence for which this was brought to passe; but ra­ther from these decrees and intentions, each au­thor in his kind, procee­deth to bring to passe eve­ry thing that is required to the accomplishment of the end which he intends, &c. You conclude with a sure, but not surely; that which is the reason of their condemnation, was the condition upon which they were determined to be damned. If you dispute concerning the cause of Gods internall will, quoad actum volentis, as you must, or else you pinch no body with it, but Sir N. N. 4. Promises of rewards, threatnings of punishment; some covenants evangelicall, are proposed and published with conditions; p. 33. A blessing if yee obey, and a curse if yee obey not, &c. ergo, God takes up his eternall de­crees concerning events and persons, upon the same conditions. And in this latter way of arguing, you do so please your selfe, (as your brother Arminian Mr Hoard, had done before you) as that from p. 33. to 36. you make 4. or 5. Arguments of one, (and that a very lame and inconsequent one) as if the punish­ments, rewards, promises, threats, exhortations, &c. would afford you different mediums, for different argu­ments. Just as we might conceive, that that Herauld, [Page 147] who by command of his Master, in opposition to the long catalogue of Kingdomes, enumerated in the ti­tle of the King of Spaine, cryed out, The King of France, the King of France, had reckoned up severall Kingdomes belonging to the King of France. How well you may be satisfied with such sequels, I cannot tel, but most acquainted with the waies of arguing, wil feare, that neither Scripture, nor your best care (which you promised to use, p. 7.) were your best guides in the conveyance of them. 2. As for pure Theologicall Sphalmata, I cannot tell how many they be; but I am sure, these be some of the chiefe of them. 1. Though I cannot tell in what good fit upon him (sure hee was in some good mood when he did it) he grants, that there can be no prius nor posterius, and so no conditio­nality in Gods will simply, p. 51. Yet he doth all along throughout the Chapter, most simply shall I say, nay, most confidently plead for a conditionall decree, and for a conditionall decree onely of election and reproba­tion. Whereas the very Remonstrants were once angry with their adversaries, laying it to their charge, that they did in Terminis maintaine, Gods decrees to bee conditionall Collat. Hag. in Statu. con­trov. ad cap. 1. p. 124. Nos nusquam diximus electio­nem esse conditionalem.. Its a wanton creature which over­turnes the vessell, into which it had poured forth good milk. 2. He overturns all Gods decrees properly so called, and instead thereof, p. 33, 34. &c. substitutes meer mandates, promises, exhortations, statutes about personall qualifications, &c. These with him and all his party, are the decrees of praedestination. As if when Princes put forth Proclamations, Statutes, Orders, &c. for ship-mony, taxes, excise, &c. they did praedestinate us to the paiment of them. 3. Clearly instead of a scripturall praedestination going before a praedetermi­nation of mans will, he introduceth a post-destination of Gods will, as his owne phrase is, p. 53. dependent upon mans will. And here indeed we find the [...] hee talkes of, p. 23. of putting the child before the parent, &c. There we have the hypallage of the horse upon [Page 148] the bridle. 4. As pleasing a man, as hee would bee thought to be, yet in this Chapter, and throughout all the forefront of his book, contrary to the more ratio­nall and Theologicall way which hee had taken in his first papers, he loves to be dealing chiefly, in the more harsh and lesse explicable or comfortable point of re­probation, than in that more comfortable, and in the Scriptures oftner mentioned point of election Ames Rescript. ad Gre­vinch. cap. 5. he hath his answer. Calumniandi ani­mum ab iis prodi, qui ab electione ad reprobationem, à gratia ad peccatum, i [...] dis­putationibus hisce tam avi­dè solent, & praecipitanter ferri. 2. Ʋt sui dogmatis consectariis omnibus urge­antur ipsi, non iniquum esse; quippe qui consilii divini, totiusque decreti quod ele­ctionem attingit, rationem se reddere posse dicunt: à no­bis verò non aequè requiri posse, ut consequentias omnes calumniosè colligatas cui (que) praestemus, qui mysteriū hoc, mortalem omnem superare mentem u [...] credimus, sic & ubi (que) docemus. 3. Non eam esse reprobationis rationem, quae est electionis, id est, ut scitissimè dixit Augusti­nus, nec ita reprobationem esse causam mali, ut praede­stinatio, est causa boni: Nec obdurationem ita facere ho­minem malum, ut misericor­dia facit bonum. 4. Hanc eandem dicam, & Augusti­no Pelagianos & Apostolo Paulo veritatis hujus hostes impegisse, quam ipsi cum pa­pistis, nobis nunc impingunt.; For which I can assigne no other good reason, but that ha­ving taken in a liberall Dosis of Arminian Divinity, he thought it as requisite for the making of his adversa­ries odious, to adhaere as well to their method, as to their matter. 5. Yea, as little compliance as hee would seem to have with his good friends, the Armi­nians, p. 4 and 5. hee doth in this Chapter all along, out-stride them. They at least at first (as may bee seen in stating the Question in the Hague-Confe­rence) would be thought onely to presuppose faiths praevision before election unto life; whereas our Mr T. P. most valiantly presupposeth not onely faith, but all sorts of good workes and perseverance in them to the last gaspe before election, p. 36. as the performance of faith and obedience, is that important condition, with­out which, as the former will not be had, so the latter, viz. reprobation or damnation, be avoided, so p. 69. 6. In the way of objections against orthodox protestant do­ctrines, wee have nothing, but what many hundred yeares agoe, was against Austin and his followers, spit out of Pelagian and Massilian mouths; we have no­thing but their old crambe, as I had thought at large in the particulars, to have represented in my margin, but shall be forced to doe it in short references. All those foure things which I promised, being now fully dis­patched, I scarce know any child but might runne and read, and then censure all which you have in your se­verall sections, untill p. 47. where you put in for some Articles of composition. But because all are not of a like quicknesse, for the use of very babes in Christ, I [Page 149] will, as I promised above, in the second place, affix some few short animadversions to the words of your text, where any the least need shal seem to require. And here the most that will need to be said, will be to your 22. Section, p. 33, 34. where first you seem to have a months mind to maintaine, that God hath no other then a revealed will, that is, such a one as is made known by commandements, promises, threats, exhortations; for you say, that we must guesse at his secret will, by what we know of his revealed will; and yet more plainly, ‘We must only judge of his aeternall and impervesti­gable decrees, by what we find in his word, concer­ning his promises and his threats; all which is no­thing but a remonstranticall petitio principii:’ For the question betwixt you and your adversaries, is not, whether yea or no, God hath made such decrees, as you represent; viz. That every beleeving soule shall be saved, and every finall impenitent one be damned; but whether these bee all the decrees which God hath made, or whether to speak properly, this be any decree of praedestination at all, wherein no body is either praedestinated or reprobated See what Dr Dave­nant hath in his animadv. even out of your much va­lued Dr Overall, p. 10. and 256.? 2. It doth seem to hold forth, that you be as well able from Scripture to open to us what be the conditions, upon which God doth elect or reprobate, as you can shew the conditi­ons upon which God either saves or damns men Ibid. p. 6. Hee should have shew'd us, with whom God conditioned, upon what terms, and where the conditions stand upon record: and p. 38. condi­tionall decrees of salvati­on and damnation have been published in the Go­spell, and are acknowled­ged by all Divines, but conditionall decrees of eternall praedestination and praeterition, are not found in Scripture, nor allowed of by the Church of England. Every man knowes where to finde these conditional decrees. If any man beleeve and repent hee shall be saved, & contra, but it will bee hard for any Remonstrant to shew those other, If any man beleeve he shall bee praedestinated; if not, hee shall be reprobated.: And this you will doe when the Greek Calends come in. 3. You would insinuate, that you and your com­plices (your own phrase to me in an Epist.) are the on­ly meeke, modest, lamb-like people, who confesse, that you were not of Gods counsell, and therefore dare not forsooth prie into the secrets of Gods counsell; but that your adversaries are as bold as ever Pliny was, when hee would bee peering into Mount Vesuvius; whereas it is all the Christian world over, most fa­mously knowne, that one of the grand questions be­twixt you and your adversaries, upon the hinge of which all the rest doe turne, is, Whether there can be [Page 150] any reason by men assigned, why God would praedesti­nate some men to life, and leave others? which you adversaries hold in the negative, but you in the affir­mative. Foelix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas: Onely the mischiefe is, you put non causam pro causa. it is as famously knowne by this time, as your worke is any where famous or infamous, that upon a praesump­tion which particular persons may have, that they be absolutely reprobated, you would according to our principles, have them conclude, p. 41. ‘That it is a reprobates duty to be damned; that it is a duty in the greatest part of men, to go industriously to hell: That when a reprobate saies his Pater-noster, hee vehe­mently praies for his owne damnation.’ In none of all which grand mysteries of iniquity, doe any Calvi­nists that I know, understand themselves from any principles of their Creed to be instructed in, any more then those ignorant Papists understand their Creed, who, as Dr White tels me (o) in some parts of Lanca­shire, Way to the Church. use to say their creed thus,

Creezum tuum patrem onitentem, creatorem, ejus ami­cum chrixus fixus poncho pilati; and besides, for vitam aeternam, Amen, say, Bitehum & turnehum againe.

But you belike, quick witted man, as you be, under­stand better what followes from Calvinisticall princi­ples, then the most quicksented men among them­selves; Laurea tu dignus! But if it may bee possible for the rectifying of your selfe, at least for the antido­ting of docible Readers, it will not be amisse in few words, to shew, 1. What we meane by asecret will. 2. In what sense we call it secret. 3. That God hath such a one. 4. That it is no way clashing with his revealed will. For the first, by a secret will, we un­derstand nothing but the will of Gods counsels, concer­ning persons, and the event of all things from all aeter­nity, knowne perfectly onely to himselfe, and so locked up in scrinio pectoris omnipotentis, Eph. 1. 9. 2. We call this will secret, not as if at all, neither in his [Page 151] word or works, he had made so much as in generall, any discovery that he hath such a will; for that were contrary to many places of Scripture, Deut. 29. 29. Psal. 135. 6. Prov. 16. 4. Isa. 46. 10. Rom. 9. 11. Acts 15. and Acts 21. 14. 2 Tim. 2. 19. but because hee hath only revealed it in generall, and not in particular; what it is before it is acted, in reference to Titius or Sem­pronius, &c. 2. Because he no where gives any mor­tals Prosp. l. 1. de vocat. Gent. Latet discretionis isti­us ratio, sed non latet ipsa discretio. Upon this score, th [...]t the doctrine of prae­destination was altogether secret, as the Massilians supposed, they would have it wholly rejected, as Mr T. P. doth. Idem Prosp. in Epist. ad August. Eò postre­mò pervicacia tota discen­dit, ut fidem nostram aedifi­cationi audientium contrari­am esse definiant, ac si etiam vera sit, tacendam; quia & perniciosè non recipienda traduntur, ut & nullo peri­culo quae intelligi nequeant, reticcantur. any particular account, why and upon what reasons he would take up such a will, otherwise then that by so doing, he would glorifie himself in time, Pro. 16. 4. Rom. 9. 22. 3. That God hath such a will some way distinct, and above that of his praecepts, which is usually called voluntas signi, is most cleare, 1. From many Scriptures oftentimes quoted already; unto which we may add, Psal. 115. 3. Mat. 26. 42. Rom. 9. 19. Eph. 1. 11, &c. 2. From multitudes of Prophesies of all sorts, concerning things divine and humane, in their owne nature meerly contingent and free, foretold many hundreds of years before they came to passe, and therefore were not onely foreseen, but praedetermined, before all humane praevision, and praedeterminations: For surely, hee that shall say, that these things were not absolutely willed by God (in the sense often explai­ned) but with Dr Jackson, shall acknowledge no de­cree of God, concerning humane actions, good or bad, no not of those which God promised to effect, concer­ning his mercy in Christ and Christians, or concerning his judgements to be effected by the wicked, but onely disjunctivè▪ that is, by his owne instances, Part. 2. Sect. 2. cap. 17, &c. Aut erit, aut non erit, either it shall raine all day to morrow, or be faire all day, (in which example of a false disjunction, he may seem to teach, that Gods decrees may also be false See Praef. of Dr Ames, (for that to be his, I know from his owne mouth, be­fore Dr Twisse his booke, called the discove [...]y of Dr Jacksons vanities..) The sunne will either shine or not shine this day at twelve of the clock: I say, he that shall say so, had need, not onely (as Dr Jackson hath the phrase, Epist. Dedic. to the Earle of Pemb.) be in an errour or ignorant; but I dare say, [Page 152] he had need to turne Atheist, and beleeve the Scripture no more, then he would the Sibylline Oracles,

3: From the dayly and hourely events, which fall out, many whereof are far enough from being agreea­ble to Gods commands. 4. That this no way clash­eth with Gods revealed or praeceptive will (so as to make two really contrary wils in God, though they may seem so to us) hath been in part shewed before, unto which I referre; and doe but add that knowne Maxime, that subordinata non pugnant, that pars non opponitur toti. That part of Gods will which is mani­fested in his praecepts, threats, promises, exhortations, &c. is not contradictory to the other part of his will of decrees, or secret will; neither as it relates to the elect or reprobate: Not, to be sure, as it relates to the elect, for so Gods voluntas signi, is also voluntas beneplaciti; God not onely thereby declaring what is the duty of the elect to performe, if they will be saved, but what he, who makes them his workemanship, created unto all manner of good works, Eph. 2. 10. intends first or last to worke in them: so that in reference to them, there is neither contradiction, nor so much as a shew of it, be­twixt these two wils: nor are they contradictory, in reference to the reprobates; for they onely in the let­ter of them, and divulgation of them, declare what is every bodies duty to performe; what is in it selfe, holy, just and good, Phil. 4. 8. & è contra, and so pleasing or displeasing unto God, what, when performed or neglected, hee will reward or punish, which certainely hee wils, and shall bee; and therefore, that which saith nothing of Gods secret will (o­therwise then what by just consequence is infer­red from other places, and relates to the elect, as I said just now) that can contradict nothing of Gods secret will: Qui nihil dicit, nihil opponit. If about this reconciliation of the secret and revealed will of God, you would be pleased to consult learned [Page 153] Zanchius Zanch. de Natur. Dei, l. 3. cap. 4 & 10. Voluntas ar­cana & revelata, non duae sunt voluntates, ne (que) un­quam contrariae, sed una eadem (que), semper (que) secum consentiens Dei voluntas. Voluntas enim revelata, cum impletur (quod cer [...]è tandem efficitur in omnibus electis) eadem si, necesse est cum arcana; quia ea tantum fiunt, quae dominus vult, ar­c [...]na voluntate sieri, Lege au­tem sua, Deus non solum do­cet nos electos quid nostri sit officii, & illud, ut praestemus mandat, sed etiam significat & revelat quid omninò de­creverit, & simpliciter at (que) absolutè velit à nobis fieri; imò potiùs quid ipse velit in nobis operari. Quum ve­ro non impletur, totum hoc non est illa Dei voluntas, quae propriè voluntas appellatur. Ʋt in Abrahami & Phara­onis exemplis manifestum est: & est tamen mandatum declarans quid Deus probat, or peruse the 5. Chapter of succinct and acute Amesius, in his scholasticall Rescript. sent to Nich. Grevinch. I dare promise you, if you mind it but attentively, it will by Gods blessing, doe you much more good, then not onely the 5. book, with which you swagger so much, p. 48. &c. of your much com­mended Boethius, but than indeed all his 5. de consola­tione Philosophiae; in all which I can hardly pick up five crumbs of true Christian Comfort. These things thus premised, which are of use against the whole Chapter, I can bee content you rhetoricate it, along from p. 33. to the beginning of p. 35. to as small pur­pose, as to any advantage to your cause, as if with some Sir Don Quixot, (mentioned Epist. 2.) you were strenu­ously beating the air, about some fair chimaericall Lady [...], which you would have, or die for her: Onely in your winding out of this Sect, p. 35. you seem afresh to set up another ranting note against the Calvi­nists, when you say, ‘That no man is infinitely pu­nisht for an unavoidable necessity, but for not doing his duty, &c.’ As if any orthodoxe body had ever said or wrote otherwise. I am sure, those whom you will account to be fierce Calvinists, the Contra Remon­strants in the Hague-conference, do as peremptorily affirme this, as your selfe So Calvin himselfe, de occult. Dei provid. Resp. ad 1. Totum illud, de nudo pu­roque Dei arb [...]trio, ex mali­tiae [...]fficina productum est. Sic cont. Remonst. passim per totum Colloq.. Good Sir, what wrong hath that same sawcy fellow, Sir N. N. done you, that if my life lay on it, I cannot get you to forbeare quar­relling with him? Could I but guesse what hurt hee had done to my good Mr T. P. I would joine my for­ces with yours, and labour to be as certeinly the death of him, as that same King in our English story, who with his Ponyard, swore he would stab all the French­men. Impossibility (say you) is not a sinne, and therefore no man is punished, &c. True, where the thing com­manded, is, and was ever impossible August. l. 3. de lib. arb. cap. 16. Ex [...]o quod non ac­cepit (Adam) nullus reus est; ex eo verò quod non facit quod debet, justè reus est: Debet autem, si accepit vo­luntatem liberam, & suffici­entissimam facultatem., and where the impossibility is absolute, as in a brute or a stone, to beleeve and repent; not where men since the fall, and by their voluntary fall, have made it impossible to [Page 154] themselves Aquin. p. 1. q. 23▪ art. 3. Cum dicitur quod repro [...]atus non potest gratiam adi­pisci, non est hoc intelligen­dum secundum imp [...]ssi [...]ili­tatem absolutam, sed condi­tionatam, quae non toll it li­bertatem., for else, 1. Naturall men, who live and dye in the state of nature, should not sinne in violating the covenant of works, under which they are, nor be justly damned for it, because it is impossible for them to keep that covenant. 2. It would bee no sinne in the obdurate to continue impenitent, though Armini­us himselfe▪ Disp. publ. say as well as the Scripture, that it is impossible for such to repent, Heb. 6. 4. 3. It would be no sinne in the regenerate children of God, not to love God with all their heart, power, strength, &c. because in statu viatorum, it is impossible for them to doe so. 2▪ This objection of Impossibility comes out of the Pelagian school, among whom for the destroying of originall sinne, there was none so great a maxime, as one which they snatched out of Au­stin Julian apud August. l. [...]. oper. imperf. cont. Julian. Nihil esse pec­cati in homine, si nihi [...] est propriae voluntatis, vel as­sentionis, hoc mi [...]i hominum genus, quod vel leviter sapit, sine dubitatione consentit. Idem. ibid. Nec semper fuit maximum inter Manichaeos catholicos (que) discrimen, & li­mes quidem latissimus, quo à se mutuò pi [...]rum, & impio­rum dogmata separantur: [...]mò magna moles, [...]uasi c [...]li & terrae pro [...]unditate dis­jungens. q [...]od nos omne pec­catum voluntati, illi verò malae [...]orum▪ naturae tribuunt Qui cum diversos s [...]qu [...]n­tur errores, sed veluti de ca­pite fon [...]is istius eff [...]uentes, consequenter, ad sacrilegia [...]lagi [...]ia (que) perveniunt. Aug. lib. de vera Relig. us (que) adeo peccatum est voluntarium malum, ut nullo modo sit peccatum, si non sit volunta­rium., That all sinne is voluntary: With whom, how much our good friend Mr T. P. (a great hater of Pelagianisme, as he saith)▪ in making the same use of it, concurs, I have shewed elsewhere (in first papers) and possibly may againe, when I come to p. 65▪ It was the cruelty of Adonibezek to cut off mens thumbs, &c. a greater in Pharoah, to require bricks, and deny straw. 1. This would pinch hard, if you could prove, God did forcibly bind mens hands from working, and then re­quire worke; that men were very willing to perform the uttermost of that little which they can doe, since the fall, but God would not suffer them: that he re­quires any thing from them, more then what once they were able to performe, Eccl. 7. 29. and ceaseth not yet to be due: that his fatall decree of reprobation (as you use to stile it) deprives them of any naturall or morall powers to worke, which are left in them since the fall Prosp. ad object. resp. 15. Nemini D [...]us corre­ctionis adimit viam, n [...] quē ­quam boni possibilitate dis­poliat. Non est autem co [...]se­quens, sicut putant, qui talia objiciunt, Deus quibus poeni­tentiam non dederit, res [...]pis­centiam ab [...]ulerit; & quos non levaverit, alliserit. Cum [...]liud [...]it insontem in cri­men egisse, quod alien [...] est à Deo, aliud criminoso veniam non dedisse, quod de peccato­ris est merito: & August. Deo reprobante non irrogatur aliquid quo homo [...]it deteri­or, sed tantum non irrogatur quo fiat melior. 2. You should rather say, that men by sinning cut off their owne thumbs, and scatter their owne straw, make away all their own powers, like wicked prodi­gals, and that therefore they are justly punished for not working, though they have disinabled themselves from doing any thing that is savingly good. 3. How [Page 155] many painted words, and pargited speeches soever you give us, p. 56. (as you are excellently good at laying on paint upon rotten posts, witnesse the Praefacers paint, in the Dialogue betwixt the two Ladies, mentioned be­fore,) by which you would engender in us a conceit, that you much under value the power of nature, and magnify the power of Christs speciall grace; yet by what you say here and elsewhere its plain, that you feed us there, upon designe, with empty spoones, whereas your bosome opinion is clearly, ‘That a meer naturall man with­out the speciall grace of Christ, hath a morall possi­bility in him to be without sinne; yea, to fulfill all the law of God, by which he may avoid all punishment:’ For else if man have not this power, God is as cruell as Adonibezek, as Pharoah, if he require any worke at his hands. And if this be not Pelagianisme, nothing ever was. 4. You doe not or will not see, that all these objections, of injustice, cru [...]lty, &c. which you do so much joy to cast up, fall as foule upon divine praes [...]t­ence, as divine praedeterminati [...]n; as even a Jesuiticall Molina is forced in effect to grant B. Davenants Animad. p. 386. cites his words, de conc. p. 368. Punctum ve [...]ò praedestinationis, & abys [...]us inscrut [...]bilis d [...]vini con [...]i [...]ii, in eo sunt posita, quod cum Deus infinitas alias provi­dendi non praed [...]stinatis ra­tion [...]s nov [...]rit, qu [...]bus pro [...]a­dem ipsorum libertate, in vi­tam d [...]v [...]niss [...]nt aeternam, fui [...]ent (que) proinde pr [...]d [...]sti­nati: [...]em (que) infinitas alias noverit rat [...]nes providendi praed [...]stinatis, quibus sua libertate bea [...]i udinem amit­terent, fu [...]ssent (que) reprobi, pro sua tantum libertate▪ & n [...] pro qualitate usus liberi ar­bitr [...] praevisi, ne ut conditio­ne quidem sin [...] qua non, [...]um providendi modum▪ utris (que) elegeri [...], p [...]r qu [...]m p [...]aevidit ill [...] sin vitam [...]nam, pro s [...] libertate [...] perve [...]u [...] ▪. But we goe on with what you say more: ‘An opinion, brought a­mong other merchandize out of Turkie into Chri­stendome, and would be rooted out in the next refor­mation.’ 1. I am not so well skilled in Turcisme, (as never having read the Turkish Alcoran) as exactly to know what their opinion is concerning absolute praedestination; but I am so competently versed in Po­pery, and so well acquainted with your affections, both to first and second Reformation, p. 5. who will never like of any but a Cassandrian, Interimisticall, Gro­tian Reformation, as that you will (as I have told you heretofore) sooner put in for Rome, than we for Con­stantinople, or you for Geneva; there, as neither in other Protestant well reformed Coasts, your wa [...]es of conditionall election and reprobation, are not like to goe off at all; though they will at Rome, where they will be good chaffer, as Pope Innocent the tenth, and [Page 156] last Pope save one, assures you in his Bull published, 1653. against Jansenius. 2. My wonder is, that living in a climate as you doe, where you know there hath no small stirre been made of late abou [...] Reforma­tion; and whereas you know, the very life, breath, and being of all your liberty, must come under God, from those who are deeply enough engaged to defend Christs Religion, and the Religion of their own Coun­try, which in the point controverted (as hath been pro­ved) is d [...]ametrically opposite to yours, you should dare to be so bold, as to object Turcisme to it. But this ob­jection of Turcisme is but a stale one of the Batavian Remonstrants Vide cont. Remonst. 2. p. 57 Remonstrantes existimâ­runt se populum & membra Ecclesiarum à nob [...] ave [...] su­ros, & ad suas partes pertra­cturos esse, si doctrinam no­stram odiosè proponerent: esse illam horrendam, blas­phemam, Stoicam, Manichae­am. & Turcicam, &c. nos do­cere Deum esse authorem peccati, &c..

BY the Independency, or incoherence of your Er­go's upon your premises, you seem to me to be an huge Independent. Your Deca [...]chorde of Arguments drawn out at length, and not in figures, hangs all upon the cord which I have broken before, viz. That there is the same reason for the conceiving of a decree, that there is for the executing of it, which is never true in Gods decrees, and not very often true so much as in mans. 2. And then by your so frequent repeating of one and the same argument, taken from punishments, commands, &c. as if appearing in severall shapes, it were divers; and by frequent rowling over, it did mul­tiply: You▪ to me look like some Pharisaicall Battalo­gi [...]t; who because he hath many the same words, con­cludes, he doth as often vary his matter, as he doth his expressions. There will then be a necessity, to give in a more particular and elaborate answer, to what you h [...]ddle together here in these severall Sections; when you shall have proved. 1. That you have not mista­ken your selfe, in stating of the question about ab­solute election and reprobation, and so shoot all your [Page 157] Arguments at Rovers. 2. That what you bring hath not abundantly been answered already. 3. That you, who no more then your Master D. H. will be counted a Socinian, (Epist. ult.) have many answers in readi­nesse against Socinians, objecting most of the same, to be sure, very like arguments against eternall praescience Vid. Socini praelect. c. 8, 9, 10, &c. & Castal. Dialog., which you would make us beleeve, p. 48. &c. You yet hold, which here you bring forth against eter­nall and absolute praedestination. Yet lest you should crow and strut like a Peacock, that I decline to answer you, because it is not possible to be done, let me in few words say something to what you bring. And here to that, Sect. 23. from punishment, which you repeat againe, Sect. 26. Reas. 4. For what are greater de­grees of damnation, but punishments? And againe, Reas. 5. From death, which what is it but a punishment, whereby men are deprived of life? Sect. 27. p. 38. Reas. 10. From hell, Sect. 31. unto which Dives, p. 41. was sent, which what was it but a place of tor­ment, or punishment? Unto all which I shall not need to say any more (if I doe it will be a worke of super­erogation, and I ought to merit something by it at your hands,) then than first, You ought to bee punished (though I confesse, not burnt) as you are angry Serve­tus was, (as you say by Mr Calvin. Epist. ult.) for re­peating one argument so often, which I have answered already, against what you have, p. 24. and will not punish my selfe or the Reader, with repeating of it. 2. That you will never prove out of Calvin, or any good author, that God ever doth, or intended to punish any one with temporall, and then lesse with eternall death, but for sinne. To what you have about the Bear, the Peacocke, the Fox, and the Tower of Siloam Its grounded upon the most unscholasticall mi­stake, That all praedeter­mination of the first cause, takes away all causality in the second; whereas è contra; Rectius Cumel, quiae Deus concurrit cum causis secundis juxta naturam & exigentiam ipsarum, et si con­curs [...] praevio, ideo dici solet influxum causae primae mo­dificari in secunda, & ex se­cunda, Et Gregor. de Va­lent. Quia Deus concurrit cum causa secunda, sic aut sic disposita, ideo libertas per hunc concursum non tolli­tur; modo addatur (ut probè mo [...]t. D Walaeus) in actio­nib. bonis, hanc dispositionem non esse à voluntate, sed à gratia praeveniente, aut aux­ilio speciali.. 1. I have answered largely elsewhere, by way of re­turne to your first papers, where you have verbatim, the very same words, as here, p. 35. And truly mee thinks in your first papers, I had all along to deale with the Peacocke, Beare, &c. or the strongest arguments [Page 158] which you have to produce for your cause; and in these your second, I have onely to deale with the faire plumes of the Peacock, and the long taile of the Fox, and some­times with the raging of the Beare, in his cruelty a­gainst Mr Calvin. 2. You will then prove these in­stances, to have been pertinently produced by you, when you shall from any of our principles, as understood and explained by us, have cleared it, 1. That the weaknesse and wickednesse of lapsed mans will, an­nuls the will, or the freedome of it August. de grat. & lib. arbit. Semper est voluntas li­bera, sed non semper est bo­na. Aut enim à justitia libe­ra est, quando servil peccato, & tunc est mala; aut contra, &c., though indeed it annuls the goodnesse of it. 2. That a wicked man sinnes not much more freely, deliberately, ex consilio, (wherein the liberty of the will consists) then, I doe not say a Peacock is proud, or a Beare is cruell, &c. but then a very regenerate man, set free by the son of man, John 8. 36. in the day of Christs power upon him, Psal. 110. 3. performes in this world any one act of grace or devotion, Rom. 7. 21. Gal. 5. 17. 3. That the liber­ty of mans will since the fal, is not preserved by a liber­ty of a contrariety, as they call it, which is to a velle or nolle, a willing or nilling, quoad exercitium, unlesse over and above we grant him still to have a liberty as they call it, of contradiction to good, as well as evill alike; to gracious, as to ungracious works It is remarkeable what Jansen in his August, hath about this distinction, lib. de grat. primi homin. c. 6. Tom. 2. p. 101. Ad rationem libertatis, illam indifferenti­am, & quasi ab utro (que) ex­tremo undependentiam po­stulant, ut viz. semper agere possi [...], & benè, & malè, vel certe agere & non agere, Sed qui secundum istud, ad rati­onem libertatis postulant, fortè tolerandi sunt; qui pri­mū, (ut passim T. P. facit) in ipsam impingunt Catholi­cam fidem., the great Diana the Pelagians so much contended for. 4. That the reason of the morall impotency of man to any thing which is spiritually good, to be performed after a spi­rituall manner, is not as much, if not more, to be taken from his will, than from any thing else: He wils not, because he cannot; he cannot because he will not. I say, untill such time, as you shall have demonstratively pro­ved all these matters, well I may beleeve, that you have the cruelty of a Beare, against Calvin, and those who hold with him. But I shall not thinke you doe in this Section argue like an Animal rationale: Well you may have the Theevery of the Fox, when out of Fur Praedestinatus, and such like pleasing authors, you filch out matters against Calvin; but I shall hardly beleeve, [Page 159] that you have so much as the subtilty of a Fox left to you, in your arguments Fur praedest. & Castal. Dial. reasons like you, that according to our doctrine Homo ex Dei creatione ac praedestinatione, habet ad malum propensionem, sieut lupus ad homicidium, &c. forgetting as well as you, that we out of Austin, say, l 7. de Civ. Dei. Deus it a or­dinat omnia, ut ipse proprios motus exercere sinat. vid. conses. Remonstr. cap. 9, 10, 11..

2. To your second reason, taken from the nature of a covenant, which ever implies a condition, as you say S. 24. p. 36. 1. You and the Arminian Remonstrants, do rightly jump together, whilst you change the cove­ant of grace, into a covenant of works; whilst you make faith and obedience important necessary conditions, not only for the obteining of salvation, or eternall life, but for the obteining of eternall election: For this argument is brought in by you, for the proving of conditionall ele­ction, as wel as conditional salvation. I do now the lesse wonder at the Liberi orphani novem; in Epist. Dedicat. ad c. 7. ad Ro­manos. Orphans of Arminius, who speaking their fathers minde, say, that we are justified by works as well as faith; at Poppius, or Grevinchov for saying, eadem est electionis & justificationis ratio; or at your selfe for recommending to me your admirable Grotius, de justi­fic. peccatoris ad vitam; who as Dr Rivet tels me, (for I never saw any book of Grotius with that title) maintains in it, that it is most absurd to grant, that there is any such thing, as imputativa justitia, imputed righteous­nesse. 2. You should know, that God enters not in­to an everlasting covenant with his people for the ele­cting of them, but because he hath elected them to the obteinment of faith and obedience, Gen. 15. 1. Deut. 15. 11. 2 Thes. 2. 13. 3. That the covenant of grace, is first and chiefly made with Christ, as the Head and Mediatour of the Church, Isa. 53. 10, 11. 2 Cor. 1. 20. Gal. 3. 16. before it is made with Christs people, and in him it is more absolute then conditionall; or belike, as Austin observed of old against the Pelagians Aug. l. de praedest. Sanct. c. 10. Promiserat quod ipse facturus est, non quod homi­nes: quia et si faciunt homines bona, quae pertinent ad co­lendum Deum, ipse facit, ut illi faciant quae praecepit, non illi faciunt, ut ipse faciat quod promisit. Alioquin ut Dei promissa compleantur, non in Dei, sed in hominum est potestate; & quod à Do­mino promissum est, ab ipsis redditur, &c. Idem lib. de gra & lib. arb. c. 16 Magnum al [...]quid Pelagiani se scire putant, quando dicunt, non juberet Deus quod sciret ab homine fieri non posse. Quis hoc nesciat? Certum est nos velle cum volumus, sed ille facit ut velimus, de quo di­ctum est; quod praeparatur voluntas à Domino., it depends more upon men then God, that the Lords promises are fulfilled or that Christ hath any flock at all. 4. If all covenants divine, as well as humane, are con­ditionall, you nullifie all the absolute promises, which in scriptures are made to the elect of giving them Christ, of giving them vocation the circumcision of the heart, faith, illumination, repentance, &c. which sure [Page 160] are absolute promises, or else assign you us the conditi­on of them, without falling into absolute Pelagianisme, and stumbling upon the first stone of the most hatefull point of it, That the grace of Christ is given according to the works of nature. 5. If the Covenant of grace be as in­indifferently made with all mankinde, in the second Adam, Jesus Christ, (the great thing which for the introducing of universall grace, the Pelagians did most stoutly plead for Aug. lib. de gest. Pelag. Gratiam Dei, secundum me­rita nostra dari. Prosp. epist. ad Aug. Quantum ad Deum pertinet, omnib. paratum esse vitam aetarnā, &c. Armin. Resp. ad Art. 31. Art. 13. 19. Deus universum genus hu­manum, in reconciliationis gratiam assumpsit, & cum Adamo omnibus (que) ejus po­steris in eo foedus gratiae in­ivit, &c.,) as the first covenant of works, was in the first Adam before his fall; then, 1. All the Rakehels in the earth, nay in hell, are as truly Christs confederates and members of his body, as any of the elect of God, given to him of the father, or any of the Saints in Heaven. 2. Then, if God in Christ hath made a covenant of grace promiscuously with all, hee would not certainely divulge it to so few in all ages, Psal. 147. 19. 6. If the covenant of grace bee still as conditional, as that of works made with Adam, was, which runs thus; Doe this and thou shalt live, and that still this is all the covenant which God under the Go­spell hath made with his people; Beleeve and obey, and thou shalt be saved, then, under the Gospell mans yoke is not made lighter, but heavier. Christ is not as one that takes off the yoke, Hos. 11. 4. but as one who ties it on faster. 1. By how much two conditions are harder then one. 2. By how much lesse any light of nature suggests any thing tending towards the beliefe of that great mystery of Godlinesse, recommended to us in the Gospell, 1 Tim. 3. 16. then it doth towards the beleeving that God as our chiefe good, is to be loved with all our hearts, &c. Mat. 22. 37. and that we are to be justified by an inherent righteousnesse of our owne, rather then an imputed one, of a crucified Saviour. 7. As for your criticisme about the [...], in the Title of our Gospel, al know, that there it only signifies the books of the New Testament: but if we attend the Apostles explication of the Hebrew word [...], and the Greek [...], Heb. 9. 15, 16, 17. we must take the Go­spell [Page 161] covenant of grace, to bee rather a Testament then a covenant strictly so called, which on both sides is condi­tionall. By vertue of the former, our Testator procures grace for us, for the fulfilling of the conditions of the covenant, which therefore is said to be established up­on better promises, Heb. 8. 6. and 9, 10, 11. By vertue of the latter, both parties are left to their liberty, upon non-performance of conditions: As for your third, taken from the unlimited generality of promises and threats, &c. 1. None of them all are proposed, that we might obteine election, or avoid reprobation, but that by them, our salvation might be promoted, and our condemnati­on avoided. 2. Even these are not so much as di­vulged (at least not ordinarily) unto all, but onely to such, as some way or other are in the Church. 3. Ac­cording to this Divinity, election unto life is made as common, as the proposall of promises, exhortations, &c. 4. The sequell of it, is all along but this; preaching would be vaine, exhortations deceitfull, &c. Vaine towards the elect. 1. Though by them, as by externall meanes, God intends to bring such to salvation, Rom. 1. 16. 2. Though he intend to work with them and in them, what he exhorts them to Aug. l. de gra. & lib. arb. cap. 15. Facite vobis cor no­vum, &c. Qui dicit, dabo vobis cor novum, Quomo­do ergo dicit facite vobis? [...]ur jubet, si ipse est daturus? Quare dat, si homo facturus est, nisi quia dat quod jubet, & adjuvat ut faciat, cui ju­bet. Vid. plura. l. de persev. 2. c. 14. Dominus ipse homi­nibus praecepit, ut crederent, nec tamen, ideo falsa est sen­tentia nec vana definitio, ubi ait, nemo venit ad me, nisi datum fuerit à patre meo.. 3. Though they, as well as any, stand in need to bee acquainted with their duties, and to be excited to the performance of them. Deceitfull words to the reprobate. 1. Though by them they come to be acquainted with their duties, which though without speciall grace, they cannot per­form, yet they doe not cease to owe to God. 2. All fig-leaves of excuse are taken away from them, because it is their course to brag, as Austin observed of old, that if they might but have known Gods will, they would have done it. 3. They are oftentimes by heeding of them, made much better by attaining to some com­mon graces, shunning some sinnes, procuring an easier hell, ut mitiùs puniantur, was Austins phrase. 4. If they had heeded them, as they should have done, they would certainely have been saved; they refused them [Page 162] not without their wils. 5. This objection is nothing but an old Pelagian, Massilian, Arminian, protrite Stallion, answered in the Christian Church a thousand times over. 6. If these promises, exhortations, &c. were not in the Church, promiscuously proposed to all, they could not come at all to the eares of the elect of God, for whose benefit they be primarily intended 1 Cor. 12. 28. Aug. lib. de dono. persev. & de corrept. & gra. cap. 15. Nescientes enim quis perti­neat ad praedestinatorum numerum, quis non, sic offi [...]i debemus charitatis aff [...]ctu, ut omnes velimus salvos fi­eri. Vide & lib. 22. de Civ. Dei, cap. 2..

Your 4. reason, Sect. 26. p. 36, 37. is nothing but your old crambe, with which you doe both cram and torment your readers. Magis & minus, non variant speciem. I hope you will think your selfe to have been punished enough, by what hath been said to you about punishments, against your poenall arguments. I pray God what hath been said, may rather heale you, then hurt you. Me thinks I find by this and many other of your ar­guments, that when your power of hurting your adver­saries by hard arguments failes you, that then you call in your never failing rhetorick, to the hurting your own soule. As in this Section your behaviour against Gods decrees, and against Gods servant, Mr Calvin defending them, is much like that of the persecutors of old, who first did put Christians into Beares skins, and then [...]et dogs upon them; As you first misshape Gods decrees and servants, unto your misguided phancy, and then you let out your bandog of your Oratorie upon them; and by so doing, you rather wrong your own soule and name, than those you fight against. For good brother, assure your selfe, that you may play and sport, but [...]; play with any thing rather then with such edged tools. For what you quote out of Mat. 10. 15. I have heard it often quoted by the Batavian Armini­ans, to prove the third Article of the fifth Article con­troverted, about the way of Gods working upon the soule, per solam suasionem, and to prove their Jesuiticall scientia media, but before you, I never saw any bring it to prove, that God hath not absolutely resolved to damn men for sinnes. You bring it, and divers other [Page 163] Scriptures with it, in your margin, as so many cyphers, signifying nothing. 2. For what you say, Mat. 11. 20. that it was not impossible for the Cities to have re­pented, whom our Saviour upbraids with impenitence. We say so too in a sober sense, who know of no decree of reprobation, necessitating impenitence in any, unto which it is a meer Antecedent, but no positive cause. God makes not repentance by his decree, impossible to men Aquin. Quaest, de vo­lunt. Dei ar. 5. Divina vo­luntas in contingentibus non tollit potentiam ad opposi­tum voluntatis sed actum: & part 1. Quaest. 23. à. 3. ad 2. Aliter se habet reprobatin in causando quam praedesti­natio. Reprobatio non est causa ejus, quod est in prae­senti, scil, culpae, &c. Est ta­men causa ejus quod reddi­t [...]r in sutu [...]o, scil. poenae ae­lernae: Sed culpa provenit exlib arbit [...]jus qui reproba­tur, & à gratia deseritur., but they make it so by their owne hard and impenitent hearts, Rom. 28. which cannot yield. All men even naturally, have potentiam remotam resipis­cendi; As Adam when hee stood had potentiam re­motam, for posse est naturae; but no men have potenti­am proximam resipiscendi, without the speciall grace of Christ, John 15. 5, for velle est gratiae. 3 For what you (immoderately given to your jests and jeers, ra­ther then to any serious matters) scumme up, as so much miro and dirt, Isa. 57. 20. about jeering a poor creature, most incongruous to our Savi [...]urs pitifull na­ture, about a salt sarcasme, or bitter jest. Answ. 1. It is no other stuffe for substance, then what hath been answered often, and what your heart is full of, and out of the fulnesse of your heart, your mouth speaks; every vessell will empty it selfe. 2. If any ingenuous front had been left you, (vales certè ingenio (& cadendi indul­ges genio) sed non vales ingenuitate) you would never have upbraided us with this. For 1. Those are onely properly j [...]ered and gulled, who are put in hopes of such things by promises, &c. which they doe not onely want, but which with all their hearts and soules, they would most willingly have, by any possible means if they might be put into a way, how to come by them That jeere of yours, come to are and I will lift thee up, is an old Pelagian ro [...]ten objection, H [...]ron. ad C [...]esiph [...]nt. So [...]eti [...] & hoc decere; aut possib [...]l [...] esse mandata, & recte à Deo data, aut impossi [...]ia & non in his esse culpam, qui acce­pêre m [...]ndata. sed in eo qui dedit impossib [...]lia.. And will you, or dare you say, this is the case of reprobates, who most willingly refuse the of­fers of grace, as having no mind to them. 2. By what revelation can you cleare it, that all those whom our Saviour spake of, Mat. 11. 20. were reprebates; and that some of them by his upbraiding of them, might [Page 164] not be brought unto repentance, never to be repented of, 2 Cor. 7. 10. as well as that lwed son I have heard the story of, who was never wrought upon, till a most tender compassionate mother, had most earnestly and fiercely denounced an Anathema against him? 3. Would not the jeering and sarcasme from Christ, (hor­resco referens) have been reall, if your Arminian do­ctrine (the very basis upon which your sarcasms rest) about universall grace, had been true? for then Christ should not onely have invited them to beliefe, have called upon them for their dutie, have upbraided them with their willing and wilfull neglect of it, but also have told them, That by a generall grace, he did really designe to bring them to heaven, though by vertue of it alone, never any had, or ever should come thither. 4. How are those jeered, who never use to complaine of that, which you call jeeringly, their fatall or naturall infirmity? for then they would seek after a Physitian to heale them, who then would be welcome to them: but who feel the stirrings of a wicked will in them, in the opposing of all the offers of grace, made in the meanes of grace. 5. How are those jeered (I speak now of them, whom the text, Mat. 11. 20. speaks of) who have means externall, abundantly sufficient, in the way of such means, & which in Gods children are effi­cient, upon whom God often bestowes as much grace, as before conversion he bestowes upon any, and more then Christ is bound to bestow upon any, and as much as your Arminian principles, will allow God to bestow upon any at all, of the elect of God, towards their con­version? I say, how are such jeered by Christ or any of his Ministers? 6. Are not you the onely sarcastick merry blade, who would faine make the world and Church beleeve, in this very page, that you at no hand like it, that any should shelter themselves under the haere sie of Pelagius, by denying originall sinne, and mans naturall impotency, and in that sense, impossibility to any saving good without Gods grace, and yet in this very [Page 165] place flout at it, under the notion of a naturall and fa­tall infirmity, with which God made him, as really as he makes a stammerer or a blind man? Whereas I think you cannot but know, that 1. Both against the Jesu­ites and you too, as I conceive, we all maintaine, that man at first was created in true righteousnesse and holi­nesse, Eccl. 7. 29. Eph. 4. 24. 2. That then he needed not so much as the golden bridle of originall righteous­nesse, which your Camerades the Jesuites, so much speak of, for the repressing of his naturall concupiscence. 3. That it may be lawfull to upbraid those, with their im­potencies, who have lamed or blinded themselves, or bound their owne feet; to such we may say out of our just indignation, come hither to me, and I will lift thee up, as well as the Lord did play upon Adam, presently after his fall, Gen. 3. 22. or as hee did long after upon the Israelites when they had forsaken him, Judg. 10. 14. Will you say, that God cannot be in good earnest with such, unlesse he set their feet at liberty, though he never did tie them, nor is bound to loose them, nor they in the case they are in, doe care to have them loosed, yea, would think it the only bondage to be freed from their sinnes? If we do this, doe you think your selfe able to avoid that Pelagianisme Let any wise man tell me, how much your opi­nion about free wils con­junction with grace, set down c. 4. differs from that of Pelagius. in his Epist, ad Innocent. Quum liberi arbi­trii potestatem dioimus in omnibus esse generaliter, &c. in omnibus est liberum arb. aequaliter per naturam, sed in solis Christianis adjuva­tur gratia, &c. illi ideo judi­candi & damnandi sunt, quia cum habeant liber. arb. per quod ad fidem venire possent, &c. male utuntur libertate concessa, &c. which you would faine fasten upon Calvin, p. 37. and which will stick upon him as a dart in a rock, but cleaves as fast to your opinions as your skinne to your selfe? To shew what great affections you have to protestantisme, you do once more enter your protest against a great Leader of Pro­testants. The first you take out of lib. 3. institut. c. 23. 7. You have been told divers times, how these ex­pressions of his and others, must be taken, viz. of a will of efficacious permission or ordering of the fall, (and say you, if you dare, that when Adam fell, and all mankind in him, God stood by as a meer speculator, or gazer on) not of reall effection, or working of it, by any force or violence. 2. How harsh soever in this place his words may sound in your delicate tender eares, yet 1. When [Page 166] on the place he quotes Austin for what he saies, out of his Enchirid. ad Laurent. 2. When as elsewhere he declaimes most strenuously against those, who are for Gods absolute power or will, as it is separated from his justice Calvin de divin. prae­dest. p. 7. 28. Sorbonicum illud d [...]gma, in quo sibi plaudunt papales theolegast [...]i, detestor, quod potentiam absolutam Deo affingit, &c., and makes lapsed man only, the object of reprobation Inde constanter exordi­endum esse semper docui, a [...] (que) hodie doceo jure in mor­le relinqui omnes reprobos, qui in Adamo, mortui sunt a [...] (que) damnati, de aeter. Dei praedest., when as he saith nothing but what the Schoolmen of old were wont to say, without any controle Vid D Dav. animadver. p. 245. &c.. All these things might have abated your rage against poor Calvin. 3. You belike have a world of other just reasons, besides the just will of God (for if it be once proved to be Gods will, it must needs be just, he can neither doe nor will any unrighteous thing Carthus. in 4 dis. 46. a [...]. 1. Totus ordo justuiae o [...]ig [...] ­nallter, ad div [...]nam volun­tatem reducitur, &c. to bring in why God would permit the fall of Adam: Yet Arminius himselfe, a wiser and warier man then you▪ would ever confess this point too hot for his fin­gers Vid. Cameron cap. d [...]fens. sent. 2. The next place against Calvin you take out of Ezek. 18. 23. with which text you say he was pinched; but how [...]a [...]d he was pinched, I will not now deter­mine, because I have not the book by me; onely let me say, 1. As to the glosse which you make upon his words, That God wils wicked mens conversion, so as to command it, but he does not will it so, as to leave it possible, that is, hee wils it in shew, but not in reality. You have been often told, that wicked mens conver­sion would bee possible enough, if their own wicked wils did not make it impossible Austin. de Gen. ad lit. 11, 12. Posset Deus horum voluntates convi [...]c [...]re, quo­niam omnipotens est. Cur er­go non secit? quia noluit. Cur noluerit p [...]nes ipsum est.. And yet that no mans conversion shall ever bee actuall without Gods speciall grace, giving him repentance, Acts 15. Yea, that God really would like or approve the conversion of any sinner, though he neither here, nor any where else say, that he will effect, or work all men to repen­tance. 2. As to the inference which you make, of the impossibility of Calvins avoiding ugly sequels, I suppose you meane the ugly sequels of jeering, or opposing the secret will These two may well stand together. Ruiz. d [...] volunt. Disp. 20. p. 215. &c. Deus vult ut omnes credant & salvi siant. Deus vult & d [...]crevit permittere, ut qui dam increduli maneant, & pertant volunt are absolu [...]a. to the revealea, (or else I cannot tell what you meane by sequels) unlesse he will fall upon the haeresie of Pelagius, in maintaining that a sinner may repent by the strength and force of nature. I suppose not [Page 167] any the least child but can see, how to cleare Calvin from the accusation of Pelagianisme, by saying, that it is in God by his speciall grace to remove any mans im­penitencie when he pleaseth, (as was said afore) but I fear, the most Epidaurian Lyncian eies of the Aust. Epist. ad Sixtum. 105. Cum àb istis quaeritur quam gratiam cogitarent si­ne ullis praecedentib. merit is dari, respondent, sine ull is praecedentib meritis gratiam ipsam esse humanam natu­ram, in qua conditi sumus. wisest men who see best, will never bee able to discern how Mr T. P. can be freed from this charge, who maintains no other grace, for the touching of a mans heart, (as we have seen, and shall see more, p. 55, 56.) but what is the very same with the much cried up Pelagian univer­sall grace, the same indeed with proud nature. Turpe est doctori, &c. Solomon indeed, was wise enough, when he set downe, Prov. 1. 26, 27. but he is no wiser then sapientum octavus, who shall bring it in, as clashing with any thing, which Mr Calvin or any solid Divine saies.

IT appears by your fifth reason, taken from the nature of death, as that doth signifie privation, and as priva­tion supposes a former habite, that you have more poison in your pa [...]e, to poison or choake, if it were possible, all your adversaries, the propheticall Calvinists, (as you may be apt enough to call them) and yet they will be most ready to take all that you propine in this Section, down at a draught, and never feare dying Aug. l. de nat. & gra. c. 51. Si iste, inquit, qui hunc librum scripsit, de ill a homi­nis natura loqueretur, quae primò, in culpata condita est, utcunque acceptaretur hoc dictum., were you but pleased to understand this privation of grace, you talke of, of what Adam once had, and we all in him, in the state of our integrity; but seeing it may be very strongly suspected, that you understand it, of man, even since the fall, that by universall grace given to him in the second Adam, he hath some seeds of that which the Apostle, Eph. 4. 18. cals the l [...]fe of God, remaining in him, they are so [...]ry that you should so often deny your selfe to be a Pelagian, when as yet, by what you say here, it doth most manifestly appeare, that accor­ding [Page 168] to your divinity, not onely Semipelagismus, (as once Arminius said) might bee verus Christianismus, but the highest degree of Pelagianisme, when it first set forth, and did deny all originall sinne, and hurt to any, but to Adam himselfe, by the fall, must needs be most orthodox divinity Aust. l. 2. de peccat. orig. cont. Caelestinum. Quod pec­catum Adae ipsum solum laeserit, & non genus huma­num.. So that now you may do well to joine in with Molina the Jesuite, in stomacking at Austin for keeping such a foule coile against the Pe­lagians Molina's words as I find them cited by Jansen. in August. l. 8. cap 9. because they be very remarkable, I thought worth the while to transcribe. Quae si data explanata (que) fuissent, fortè ne (que) Pelagiana haeresis fuis­set exorta, ne (que) Lutherani tam impudenter arbitrii no­stri libertatem fuissent au­si negare, obtendentes, cum divina gratia, praescientia, & praedestinatione cohaerere non posse; ne (que) ex Augustini opinione, concertationibus (que) cum Pelagianis tot fideles fuissent turbati, &c.. You for any thing I know, say more then ever he durst say, That a man may bee dead born, but he cannot possibly be dead begotten; deprived of life he cannot be, in the very act of his conception, understan­ding this of a spirituall death in sinne, since the fall, as for any thing I can find to the contrary you doe; you doe nullifie all originall sinne, and contradict the Psal­mist to the very mouth, Psal. 51. 5. Behold I was sha­pen in iniquity, (and that sure is in a spirituall death, 1 Tim. 5. 6.) and in sinne did my mother conceive me, or as the word is in the Hebrew, make me warme. 2. As to the sequell; If yet perchance (which I think not) you understand it in the first and orthodox sense, it is none at all, God once made all men upright, ergo, none were absolutely reprobated, or appointed to bee left to the sinne and misery which they should bring up­on themselves; and yet this is the goodly argument à fine operis ad finem operantis & internam ejus intntio­nem, in which Castallio first p. 265. S. Castalion Dialogi., and all the Arminians his followers, have ever since so triumphed.

There is nothing in your sixth Reason, or 28. Section, p. 38. which hath not had its full, if not overflowing an­swer. Therefore here I resolve upon nothing, but 1. To observe your pelagianizing, 1. In what you have in this, as wel as your first papers, when you oppose Adams sin to ours, as if in different respects, that which was Adams, was not ours also Halensis, part. 2. q. 105. memb. 1. p. 296. Secundum Augustinum concedimus quod non punitur parvulus pro culpa patris, sed pro cul­pa sua propriè loquendo A­damo cadente à justitia ori­ginale cecidit etiam quaelibet voluntas posterorum. Sic Cajetan, Bellarmine, Mal­derus.. 2. In quoting and triumphing in John 1. 9. as if it would prove univer­sall redemption hand over head, whereas it will only prove, that Christ as God in a common way, enlightens [Page 169] every body. The Pelagians and Massilians of old, would have had it prove more, but invitâ Minervâ. 3. Your intolerable impudence and uncharitablenesse, in bran­ding not onely most, if not all your neighbour Mini­sters, but also all the Churches formerly mentioned, if not the whole Catholique Church, whilst you belie the whole stream of fathers, p. 39. with the brand of heresie, even pernicious heresie, as you would have it thought, by wresting 2 Pet. 2. 1. to that purpose It seems with you good mā, this heresy is a heresy [...], but Pelagi­anisme is the milder he­resie, p 55. simil [...]s labra la­ctucas, like will to like, I must bee a little quick with you, in causis haereseos neminem oportet esse patien­tem. Hieronym.. A likely matter, that by the Church, (Epiphanius, Austin, or any body else in its behalfe, giving in an inventory of he­resie, in their severall Catalogues) that should passe for one, that Christ died for any but whom he at last saves, who is a Saviour [...], heb. to the ut­most, who deny him to have laid out his blood upon those, unto whom he denied his praiers, John 17. 9. who were not his friends, John 15. 13. not of his body, Acts 20. 28. who many of them were obdurate, perse­cuting, sinning against the Holy Ghost, and for so sin­ning to be packed to hell afterwards. I grant indeed, that many a gallant, noble Divine, (amongst whom I hope ever to reckon, Bishop Davenant, Dr Ward, and many more) extend the phrase of Christs dying for all, and such like phrases as you quote out of the third Article (which ought in al reason to be explain'd by the 17.) unto singula generum, as well as genera singulorum; but then when they came to explaine themselves, they first peremptorilie denie that Christ by his death brought all into a state of peace & reconciliation. 2. They maintaine the proprietie of Christs redemption, as to the [...], Rom. 11. 29. to be onelie peculiar to the elect. 3. They have so many handsome ortho­doxe put-offs, of all Arminian glosses, as that I will sue out a writ of melius inquirendum, before I passe any damnatory censure upon them, who I am sure, make not for your purpose, who hint not the least discrimi­nation in Christs dying for the elect, or the reprobate; but who reject the distinction of the sufficiency and [Page 170] efficiency of Christs death, which the Authors mentio­ned plead so much for, and doe most amply explaine, that which you quote out of 2 John 2. 2. helps you no­thing at all, though wee should allow your glosse of Christs dying for infidels and impenitents to be true; for so he might doe, and yet those infidels and impenitents be no other then such, who for the present were so, but were not to continue so, and that by vertue of Christs death. No question, Christ died for all people, tongues, and languages, Rev. 5. 9. who either actually did, or for after times, should beleeve in his name, John 17. 20. And you my good friend, who are so tender as you say, p 72. as that you dare not tell your people, that any crucifying wretches, (though Paul, for any thing is known to the contrary, and other elect vessels of God, were at that time among them, Acts 19. 15. who after­wards were brought to the faith) were precious vessels of election. Yet here you dare say, without the least li­mitation, that Christ died for all sorts of infidels and impenitents: your hardnesse and tendernesse goes by the placet of your interest, as kissing useth to goe by fa­vour, Sect. 29. You are a most deadly man; for here a fourth or fifth time, we must be all struck dead, be­come Ala-mort, by your seventh deadly reason taken from the condition of temporall death, and other tem­porall punishments; and this will kill just as many as your former, p. 24 and up and downe elsewhere, did even all those who against all rationall warning, with you, are weakely or wilfully resolved to confound the absolute eternall decree, with the temporall condi­tionall execution of it. And pray you, what wise body ever yet denied the execution of Gods absolute decrees to bee conditionall, and the causes of that execution, though not of the decree it selfe? I will not be so adventurous, as to say to your followers,

But I would charitably by this time hope, that they perceive how your immoderate eagernesse to get in to [Page 171] your beloved veine of rhetoricating with a matter of twelve quibling interrogations (which need to be an­swered by no body, but by your deadly enemy, Sr N. N) betraies you to the forgetting of all sound distinctions in divinity, and well couched forms of logicall argu­mentation, for what you have about Hezekiah and Ni­neveh, 1. I have elsewhere given a large returne to it, in answer to your first papers, where you bring in these instances, almost in the same words for the same purpose. 2. Gods decrees in both these cases, might be absolute and peremptorie enough in themselves, and in him, and yet he not at first dash reveale all his mind to his Prophets, concerning what he had resol­ved on, that Hezekiah and Nineveh might bee put upon praiers, not to reverse his decrees, but the absolute seeming damnation of them, when as they were onely to be understood conditionally, as the event did de­clare afterwards Jac. Crucius in Bevero­vicia, in vitae [...]ermino, p 10. explaine, it well thus. Sub hoc nuntio tacitam contineti conditionem, ut in ill a conci­ene Jonae, ad Ninivitas e [...] ­cidio perituros nisi resipue­rint: Sic moriturum Regem, nisi seria poenitudine so ad Deum convertat, &c.. Deus saepe sententiam mutat, concilium nunquam. Sic Gregor. N. You should not take upon you to teach the Almightie, how for the tri­all of his people, to propose his denuntiations; Neither should you comment upon them otherwise, then God himselfe doth by his after-works: But I had forgot, that you love not (Epist. 2. ante publicat.) sapere cum commentario, which makes you so unhappie in those which you make upon his decrees. 3. As for your saying, that Gods decrees are conditionall, if you under­stand them as they be in God, (or else you say nothing to the purpose) it both opposeth what you grant, p. 5. in Gods will simply considered, there can be neither prius nor posterius, and doth induce such uncertaine vellei­tios, and depending wils, and wouldbees, as that the very popish Schoolmen doe chide you for them Ruiz. de vol. disp. 10. Sect. 1 Velitiones purè con­ditionales sunt alienae à sa­pientia & prudentia Dei. V [...]sques, disp. 83 p. 511. Voluntas Dei conditionat [...] dici potest, non quia actu fe­ratur in objectum sub condi­tione, sed quia ex ill [...] volu [...] ­tate quae praesens est, &c. 2. As to what you say concerning Rom. 9. and the quae­ties you put about it, p. 40. 1. I cannot but smile to see how cowardly you come to it, even tanquam canis ad Nilum lambit & abit, Indeed it hath put all your valiant party so terribly to their shifts, for the warding [Page 172] of the blowes which it gives to your cause, as that I cannot greatlie wonder, though in this your publike theatricall corrected piece, you doe seem to me labora­re [...] to tremble at the very mention of it, yet in your uncorrected as you call it, indeed your truly domestique and genuine first-born, you had spent no less then one, by farre the longest Sections in whiffling of it off, as you could. But alas, as I trust I have made it in my answer copiously evident, that place doth and ever will sticke in the heart of your cause,

I have there shewed, 1. I hat how troublesome so­ever the matter of the Chapter is, to obstreperous flesh and blood, especially in carnal men, yet it speaks out its mind as fully and clearlie, as words can deliver it, both in Thesi, Rom. 9, 11, 18. 2. and in Antithesi, v. 19. 2. That it is a most shamefull ridiculous subterfuge to interpret texts, speaking plainly concerning what God hath de­creed to doe, or shall be done, by texts from promises, commands, exhortations, &c. declaring what ought to be done, believed, or avoided. 3. That to speake properlie and theologically, no one text hath any more then one sense Vide Dr Am [...]s in Psa. 2 though the parts of that one sense, may be made up of severall ingredients. 4. That the two senses, which like some Janus bifrons, looking [...], which you in your first papers, and your complices in theirs, give of it, are too plaine and easie to be true, and leave us no [...] to wonder at, about the whole matter of praedestination, unlesse it were at your daring impudency, who every where cry up your superlative affections to christianity, and yet seem resolved upon it, to beleeve nothing but what you can fathom with your braines, and mother wit, ma­king indeed your brains your Bible August. de verb. Apost. serm. 20. Quis Deus est, & quis tu sis attende, ille Deus est, tu homo, &c. Tu homo à me expectas responsum; & ego sum homo; ita (que) ambo audiamus dicentem, O homo tu quis es? melior est fidelis ignorantia, quam temeraria scientia, &c.. 3. For what you say about Ahab, p. 40. that God did not absolutely damn him before the foundations of the world were laid, nor doth any bodie say so, as you have been often told by Dr Twisse, and others, but none so deafe, as those [Page 173] who will not heare. But say you, and prove you if you can, that Gods decree about Ahabs damnation, (which actuallie could not be, may I with feare and reverence to divine Majestie so speake, so much as by divine power, before Ahabs reall and actuall existence) was not eternall, and that he did not absolutelie resolve to denie him grace and glorie, or to number him among the elect. 4. For what you and the Arminians use to scrape together out of Lament. 3. 33. Hos. 11. 8, 9. Exod. 32. 14. Plaier-like for the exciting of peoples passions, when you should by strong arguments, bee in­forming of their judgements, as young as you professe your selfe to be, p. 5. yet, 1. You have gone long enough to schoole, to have learned that symbolicall di­vinitie, is not argumentative, unlesse reduced to proper expressions, that those things, which as the very Rab­bins have it, [...] or [...], after the manner R. David Kimchi. R. Maymon, &c. of men are ascribed unto God, (as these expressiōs are) must be interpreted [...], so as is most sutable to the Majestie of God, in whom there is no mutability nor shadow of turning, no parts nor passions, which Deo conveniunt non secundum affectus sed effectus. Miseri­cordia in Deo, &c. & sic analogicè in caeteris est actio sublevantis, non passio condolentis. Then may God be said to be stirred with Passions, when these things are done by him, which nor men or Angels can do with­out passions and commotion. 2. If you yield not to this, you are lesse ingenuous then the fiercest Armini­ans in their Synodall writings Acta Synod. Remonstrant artic. 3. & 4. De expe­ctatione fatendum est, eodem planè modo Deo spem tribui non posse, quo homines dicun­tur à se mutuò aliquid ex­pectare, sed analogicè tantū.. By what you belch out in your eighth and tenth reasons, Sect. 30. p. 41. and Sect. 31. p. 42, 43. taken from the little flock which belongs to God, and that numerous herd, which be­longs to Beliall, and the absurdities which must follow, if Gods decrees be absolute. You do not I blesse God, shake me one whit in my faith, about absolute election or reprobation; but you do almost absolutelie perswade me, that when you blurr'd that paper with such diabo­licall stuffe, you were almost in the mood, that that de­sperado [Page 174] was in, when he cried out,

Rather then want arguments against Gods absolute decrees, and against Calvinisme, you will rake hel for them, and perswade the world, that by our principles, we make for the profaner sort of reprobates, a new de­calogue, p. 42. and for the demurer sort of them, a new diabolicall Pater noster, p. 43. I professe unto you, Sir, and that in the presence of God, whom I serve in the ministry of the Gospell, I much feare, that no man could write thus, but one well-nigh in the same condition with Simon Magus, who was in the gall of bitterness, and bond of iniquity; I for my part can beseech you as a Minister of God, to repent, and pray God the thoughts of your heart be forgiven you; for if this bee not open blaspheming against plaine Scripture, I know not what is; For is it not as plaine as Scripture can speake any thing, that Christs flock is [...], a little flockling, that many are called, but few are chosen, that the elect onely obtaine, when the rest are hardened, Rom. 11. 7. that the elect onely enter into the Kingdom prepared for them, when the rest goe unto their owne proper place, Acts 1. unto which they are designed, and before appointed, [...], written downe in Jude? Those things which can as well be gainsai­ed, as the Bible be overturned, and looked on as a [...], and a [...], because they are not digestible with profane wanton wits, must they there­fore be flouted at? will it become you, who, as you say, p. 33. meekly confesse, that you were none of Gods counsel, to call Gods wisdome in question, for not choosing more, which in your fine, filthy-language rather, is to yield the major part unto his Rivall Rebell, the black Prince of darknesse, that the major part of men go to hell, though condemned thither for their sins? will you say that it was by meer fortune, or by mans meer procure­ment, without any eternall decree of God? Doe you thinke the Devill plucked them out of Gods hands, [Page 175] whether hee would or no? For a conditionall decree depending on mans will, is rather mans will and decree, not Gods at all. If God content himselfe with a little flock, why should you grumble that it is no bigger? was it not free for him, absolutelie to resolve in whom he would glorifie the riches of his grace? may he not do with his owne what seemeth him good? must your eye be evill because his is good, in a speciall way of good­nesse to some, and not to all? was it not in him to re­solve what attributes he would be most glorified in? the less diffusive and extensive his speciall mercies are, are they not the more miraculousie intensive to those who are freelie made pertakers of them? since the fall for originall sinne alone, might it not have been just with God to have sent us all to hell when wee were but children of a span long? Vid. Austin ad Lau­rent, cap. 27. Et fiquidem in melius hominum Reformati­onem nullam prorsus esse voluisset. Sicut impiorum nulla est Angelorum, nonne meritò fieret? In a word, if our Divinitie hold about absolute election and reprobation, God is absolutely certeine to have a flock, though but a little one, whereas if yours, which is conditionall, should hold, it might fall out, that the Devil might have all; and God none; for it might more easilie fall out, that none should believe, than that any should, mans nature being so opposite to Christian faith, and universall grace alone, having never brought any to heaven. 2. God is as truly and really glorified in the way of his ju­stice vindicative, in those that perish, Rom. 9. 22. Prov, 16. 4. as he is in the way of his mercy, mixt with justice in those who are saved, nor tends it all to the honour of the Rivall Rebell, or black Prince as you call him, that he hath so many under him By this passage it ap­peares, that though you object Manichaisme, p. 51. to others, here is none so Manichaicall as your self, who doe maintaine the Prince of darkness to have obteined his principalities (such as it is) God not so much as decreeing to suffer it, i. c. invito Deo, which what is it but to set up (oh most hor [...]ible) the power of the Devill above Gods, & this is something worse then Manichaisme it selfe., not as under a Prince, but as under a base generall executioner, Heb. 4. 14. or tormentor, who also for the honour of God, and not his, is kept under chaines of darknesse, untill the judgement of the great day, and in the meane while he is tormented as well as a tormentour, for the Devils believe and trem­ble, Jam. 2. 19. 2. As for that which you put into a Parenthesis, * about the sufficiency of every drop of Christs blood for ten thousand worlds, I thinke will not [Page 176] easilie be proved, nor do such assertions so much tend to the magnifying of the precious nature of Christs suffe­rings, of w^ch there can never be too much said, as they might tend to the disparagement of the wisdome and love of God, & lover of his blessed only innocent Son, in being so prodigall of so much blood, as his Sonne shed, for the bringing Heb. 2. 10. of many sonnes onely unto glory, who were taken out but of one world Joh. Sleid. Ep. 21. lib. ult. post. edit.. I find none of note to speake so, unlesse P. Clement, when he makes it a foundation for indulgences, unto that which Mr T. P. hath, p. 41. about the sufficiency of one drop of blood, for purchasing redemption of ten thousand Adams, and ten thousand worlds of his posterity; and I find no orthodox Divine of note, to speak after this lavish and adventurous rate: onely I find in Joh. Sley­dan, Commentar. lib. 1. de statu Relig. fol. 12. that when Cardinall Cajetan thought to choak Luther with a Popes Bull, he quotes against him for a foundation of indulgencies these words out of one of P. Clements ex­travagants. Belike even in the Church of Rome, these expressions are placed inter Extravagantes. Ibi Clemens Pontifex tempus illud, uti vocant Jubilaeae cen­tesimo quó que anno praefinitum à Bonifacio octavo, redi­git ad quinquage simum, & de Christi servatoris benefi­cio locutus, una guttula sanguinis ipsius liberari potuisse genus humanum demonstrat: quum vero tantum san­guinis copiam profuderit, ut toto corpore, nihil esset in eo sani, nihil aspectu miserabilius, omne illud quod super flu­um fuit, maxime thesauri loco reliquisse dicit, in usum Ecclesiae: ac Divo Petro, qui fit caeli claviger, ut eum thesaurum in homines vere paenitentes atqūe peccata sua confessos diffundant, & tanquam Oeconomi distri­buant, &c. In your ninth reason, set downe, p. 41. though you love not to be counted a Dictator, you doe nothing but dictate, when as you say, 1. That the reprobation of Angels was not irrespective, contra­ry to the credit of the most part of the School-men [Page 177] Jansen. lib. 8. de Haeresi Pelag. cap. 10. V [...]d River. ex Aquin. disp. 3. sect. 3. And how this doubtfull point was even to eagle-eyed Austin, may be seen by his doubtfull discourses about it, in severall parts of his workes, Aug. de Civit. Dei, lib. 12 cap 9 & lib. 11. cap. 13. lib de correp. & grat. cap. 1 [...]. where all along he di­sputes, that some Angels [...]ad more grace fre [...]ly gi­ven them, then others, who afterwards fell, because some knew that they should never fall from their happine [...]se, others did not.. If by reprobation you understand Gods decree of permitting them to fall, or of not bestowing the grace of confirmation upon them, by which the good Angels were preserved from falling. 2. When you say that the sublapsarians, who place the object of prae­destination in massa corruptâ, must needs grant, &c. the Scriptures being more vocall about mans reprobati­on, and lesse about Angels. And so, they be much more busie in directing how men may get out of the misery into which wicked Angels have helpt to bring them, then sub quo signo formali, Angels were considered in their reprobation. 3. Like a stout Champion for the sublapsarians and your selfe, who are gone beyond Massa corrupta, as touching originall sinne onely, (the way of the otherwise orthodox sublapsarians) to the presupposing of perseverance in all sorts of actuall sins to the last gasp, before all peremptorie reprobation; you should have tried your strength in answering the two arguments, with which Dr Twisse shuts up the Chap­ter which you quote, and by which he proves, that it is both impossible and absurd, that the praevision of Apostacie in the Angels, should be the cause of their reprobation, the very pillar of your argument, which you prove not but beg: But had you attempted this, you would have found how much easier it is for you to laugh at, or nibble at Dr Twisse, then in plaine field to have put him to the foile. Your tenth reason from ab­surdity, p. 41, 42. Sect. 31. hath nothing in it from the instance of Dives, which I have not else where answe­red fully in my first papers, yea, in these, and without prejudice to any thing I doe or have mainteined; your whole Argument about Dives might be granted, and yet you be never the nearer to the proofe of conditio­nall reprobation; for what you say about Gods end in damnation, you have been told that Gods end is not the creatures damnation, but his own glory in his just condemnation: As for your diabolicall and unhallowed inference, with which you are so perverse, the best an­swer [Page 178] would be silence August. d [...] bono perseve­ranti [...], lib. 2. cap. 14. Tu quis es homo qui responde [...] Deo. Nunquid ideo negand [...]m est, quod ape [...]tum est, & quia comprchendi non potest quod o [...]culium est, nunquid in­quam dicturi su [...]us quod ita esse perspiciamus, non ita esse quoniam cur ita sit non possumus invenire, cui sub­ [...]ectere placet instar commentarii in locum illum Augustin. D. D. Rivet. disp. 5 de reprobat. Thes. 29. Cum in scripturis certum habea­mus discrimen electorum & reprobatorum ab ipso Deo ab aeterno d [...]spositum, si nihil aliud adversus blasphemas hasce, [...]ōs [...]quentias nobis sup­peteret, quod repom remus nec solvi illa possent quae sunt obscura, non p [...]opterea ne­ganda sunt, quia sunt perspi­cua, sed Deo judiciis suis re­lictis quae adversus obtrectatores omnes suo tempore facile [...] d [...]f [...]nsurus est. Suffic [...] ­et nobis illud, Rom. 9. Sic Castalio Dialog. lib. 1. or that of the Apostle, O man, who art thou who repliest against God; yet the answer will be easie enough, 1 When you shall have produ­ced your dispensation, for waving the rule of obedi­ence set by God himselfe, Deut. 29. 29. which su [...]e is by a practitioner to be known, not after his work is done, but before he goes about it, Isa. 8. 20. 2 When you shall bee able to shew how any one particular person can know himselfe without all doubt to be a reprobate. 3. When you shall have cleared it, that it is no sinne in the Devils and the very damned in hell, who certain­ly know that they bee absolutely reprobated, to curse God and their King and to look upwards, Isa▪ 8. 21. un­till this time, I think you have a thousand times more need to repent, for your Atheisticall Lucianizing, and Castalionizing, (unto whom you are beholding for these flowers of your rhetorick) then we so much as to thinke what answer for to returne to your sporting with Carpocrates against us. Every thing may well enough be absolutely ordeined by God, (in the sense often explained) and yet not effected by him, forasmuch as sinne hath only a privative not a positive entity, and so hath a deficient, and not an efficient cause. God can or­daine nothing but good, and ergo, it is good in God to permit sinne, though it is not good for any sinner to commit it Aug. Ench [...]rid. ad Lau­rent. cap. 27. Melius judi­cavit de malis b [...]n [...]facere, quam mala nulla esse per­mittere., sinne and hell must bee exceeding good. Sin and hell are exceeding ill coupled together by you. It is good Judges should set up Gallowses for thieves, and in that sense gibbets and halters are good Your own Boethius tea­cheth you this, lib. 4. Ha­bent impii, cum pumuntur, boni aliquid annexum paenae., but felonie in a thief is naught, by which those good things are procured for him. To your second, p. 43 you have been shewed before, that there is no contradiction be­twixt Gods revealed will that all should repent, it be­longs to them in duty to do so, and his secret will, that very few shall, i. e. that as faith and repentance are not performed by all, so it was not Gods will or determi­nate counsell to give it to all, but onely to his Israel re­pentance unto life, Acts 5. 31. Rom. 9. 18. The inference [Page 179] which you make, that then, p. 43. It is his will, that his will should not be done, is no such great absurditie in the judgement of a far more learned▪ wise, holy man, then your selfe, even St Austin Enchirid. 95. Non aliquid fit nisi omnipotens siert ve­lit, vel sincado ut fiat, vel ip­se saciendo, your own Boeth. lib. 4. p. [...]15. edit. 8., if it bee but warilie ex­plained, viz. of a voluntary permissive will, that his commandements be neglected, which is contrary to his preceptive will, though not contrary to his permis­sive will, which God never made the rule of any mans actings. And if your spirit and stomack serve you to de­nie this, then deny too, that our blessed Saviour, Acts 2. 23. was delivered up to death, by the determinate counsell and foreknowledge of God, and yet that those hands were wicked hands which did crucifie and slay him. Say that Shimei's tongue was no wicked tongue, when he cursed the Lords annointed; or that David did tell a lie to shew his humilitie under the crosse, when he had said, the Lord did bid him curse David: And though much of what hath been said, may take off what you say next, that then God hath one will which is the same with Devils, (for which diabolicall argu­ment, you are much beholding to your Sebast. Castalio, whose smooth Latine with some inversion, you have turned into smoother English S. Cast. Dialog. primo., or if not so, one and the same malus genius did dictate one and the same thing to you both) and yet would the Devill be not a whit the lesse excusable, any more then that wicked sonne, (qui ante diem patrios inquirit in annos, Ovid:) is commendable, for desiring of the Fathers death, just at the same time when it fals out, and when God wil­led it Psal. 31. 15. Job 14. 5. 2. With all the wit and craft which you have, you will never be able to prove Gods will, and the Devils (according to us) to be one and the same, when as our Divines can easilie assigne many differences betwixt them in the matter willed, in the end of the will, in the manner of executing that will, unto all which particulars, I thought to have set downe something, but am forced to delay it till some other time. Augustin, ad Laurent. cap. 10 [...]. Fieri potest, [Page 180] ut hoc velit homo voluntate mala, quod Deus vult bona: velut si malus filius velit mori patrem, velit hoc etiam Deus, tantum inter est quid velle homini quid Deo con­gruat, & ad quem finem quis (que) referat voluntatem. And so by these wild▪ and mad diabolicall consequences, you bring me to that, which authore & presidente diabolo, you will mainteine to follow from our opinions, and it is taken from the Devils Pater noster, p. 43. that when a reprobate saies his Pater noster (thy will be done) he ve­hemently praies for his owne damnation. Wherein I shal beseech the Reader to observe, that this is but the very same objection, which was objected against the doctrine of Austin, and therefore may be contented with the same answer which Prosper gives to it, viz. that those who are not to doe the will of God, and yet pray that they may doe the will of God, are heard in that which is to be done by the will of God, that the imitators of the Devill may be judged with the Devill, for those who have despised his inviting will, shall feel his reven­ging will P [...]o [...]per ad [...]bject. Vin­cent. 16. p 345. [...] L [...]van. in oct U [...]to what I have engl [...]shed, mark that to the L [...]tine, which ushers it in. Illud (n 8) con [...]a se pe­tunt quod divinae v [...]u [...]at [...]s esse n [...]n dubium est, u [...] sci­lic [...]t cum ven [...]rit sil [...]us ho­minis in m [...]jesta [...] s [...] & s [...]derit super thronum glo­riae suae, corgregentur [...]nt [...] cum omnes gentes, & s [...]p [...] ­ret eos ab invicem, abos ad d [...]xtram, alios sta [...]ens ad s [...]nist [...]am, & audiant eu [...] dextri dicentem, venite [...]en [...]d [...]c [...]i; patr [...]s mei, p [...]ssi dete regnum vobis paratum à constitutione mundi, audi­entes sinistri. d [...]sced [...]e à me maledicti in ignem aeur­num, &c.. 2. You are a marvellous ignaro in the opinions of your adversaries, if you beleeve that they can thinke any other prayers would be well pleasing to God, then such as are agreeable to his word, then such as are put up in faith by the spirit, &c. If you think otherwise, you will as soon prove it from their wri­tings, as Dr Jackson shall, from any true Philosophie, prove his vigorous rest, or Dr Hammond the great, that [...], or superstition in scripture, is taken in a good sense. 3. Whether, if according to our prin­ciples, any individuall person here in this life, could be certaine that hee were an absolute reprobate by Gods praedeterminati [...]n, or according to you, absolutely fore­knowne by God to be a reprobate? (unlesse you maintein Gods p [...]aescience to be as well conditionall, as his prae­determination) he were bound to say the Lords praier, or no, I will not dispute; but I may say that Austin some where hath it, that if the Church were but as cer­taine who are reprobate, as it is certeine that Judas is [Page 181] gone to his owne place, Act. tam pro illis non oraret, quam non pro Juda vel damnat is ipsis. 4. You tell me newes, that when reprobates say their Pater noster, they pray vehemently; I would hope that those whom you do commend unto me for the power of Godlinesse, without any affected forme, say their Pater noster I believe indeed, in them it i [...] a formless thing, even rudis indigesta (que) mo­les, Jam 5. 16. after another guess-fashion. Sure I know, that true ve­hemency or zeale of spirit, is a fruit of faith, and of the Spirit, and so not belonging to reprobates, Tit. 1. 1. 5. How falsely and wickedly soever you object the Devils Pater noster, whereby a man is bound to pray for his owne damnation, I am sure that Austin of old against the Pelagians, who denied the speciall grace of God, by which it is given the elect to doe, and to will according to Gods own will and pleasure, tels them that they doe but flout God in their praiers, when they pray to God to bestow that upon them, which is in their own power to bestow upon themselves Augustinum de natura & grat. cap. 18. Quid stulti­us quam orare ut facias quod in potestate habeas? I­dem ad Vitalem, Epist. 17. 107. P [...]orsus non oramus Deum; sed orare nos fingi­mus, si nos ipsos non illum credimus facere quod ora­mus. Rursus Labia dolosa si in hominum quibuscun (que) sermo [...]ibus sunt, saltem in orationibus non sunt; Absit, ut quod facere Deum roga­mus, oribus & vocibus no­stris, eum facere negamus cordibus nostris, & quod est gravius ad al vs etiam de­cipiendos non laceamus, di­sputationibus nostris & dum volumus apud homines de­fendere liberum arbitrium, apud Deum perdamus orati­onis auxilium.. And the like may be said of your praiers, though as one of your first Uncorrected Copies tels me, you say them in a Chappell, p. 11. And I doubt not, but you judge too, the prayers to be the holier for the Chappels sake, or else you hold not with your St Andrewes, commended for such, by your p. 41. A man so deeply in love with templ [...]ry Rela­tive holinesse of materiall Churches, even in the d [...]ies of the Gospell, as that Reverend Mr Meed told me above 20. yeares since, that the sight of the Chappels of Bp Andrewes [...]nd his devotion about them, put him first upon the study of the holinesse of Churches, which afterwards little to the cred [...]t of his other opinions, he wrote so much for., for there is nothing so ma­nifest, as that by what you there say, p. 11. about mans concurrence in his first conversion, (for about that you should know, that the dispute lies betwixt you and your adversaries, the Anti-arminians) and by the bright si­mile, by which in this Correct Copy taken from the e [...]e­lid, p. 63. where with you illustrate your assertion, that you must hold, that it is more from man then God, that any is illuminated or converted; this then forceth me to conclude with that excellent Poet, Buchanan.