A choice dialogue between John Faustus a conjurer, and Jack Tory his friend. Occasioned by some choice dialogues lately published, concerning predestination and election. : Together with animadversions upon the preface to the Choice dialogues. : And an appendix concerning the true doctrine of predestination, as held by the Church of England, and the absurdities and inconsistency of the Choice dialogues. / By a young strippling.

A choice dialogue between John Faustus a conjurer, and Jack Tory his friend. Occasioned by some choice dialogues lately published, concerning predestination and election. : Together with animadversions upon the preface to the Choice dialogues. : And an appendix concerning the true doctrine of predestination, as held by the Church of England, and the absurdities and inconsistency of the Choice dialogues. / By a young strippling.

Table of contents

Title page

A PREFACE

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A Choice Dialogue Between JOHN FAUSTUS AND JACK TORY.

APPENDIX.

THE Author having never Corrected any part, but the first half Sheet of this Work, the Remainder has been very full of Errata, which the Reader may Correct. ERRATA.

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[Page]

A Choice Dialogue Between JOHN FAUSTUS AND JACK TORY.

John Faustus

YOU Namesake, prithee step hither; I have something to say to ye.

Jack Tory.

Dear Namesake; if you could but convey your lucky Sir-name to me too; but what is it you have to say?

J. Faust.

Our Master, Satan, has divers things to tell you. He expects e're long to se [...] you in Person; but this he desers to the time appointed, when he who hath set you to work will pay you your Wages. He would have had himself a Dialog ue with you, if he could have had the famous Danson present; but he being long since gone to a better place, it may do, if an old fellow-servant of yours (one old enough to be your great Grand-father, and one who has been [Page]much ab ove twice thirty years, a faithful, and painful Labourer for him) now bring you a few Messages, he has to send you.

J. Tory.

It becomes a Servant readily to hear, what his Master has to say to him; and that I have served him faithfully and painfully, Troth, he knows it very well; but whether my Time won't be out before twice thirty Years come to a period, perhaps he knows no more than 1. For I scorn Praedestination even from the Mouth of my Master. But what then, friend Faustus, I am uneasie, Dear Namesake, till you tell me.

J. Faust.

Why then, friend John, I'll tell thee what; first, thy M [...]ster thinks, he has Thanks to Con thee for the Honour and Service you have so faithfully endeavoured for him, in maintaining, that the Dutch and Scotch Presbyterians, and all the Churches of New England, and all their Pastors worship the Devil. The Devil's [...] old Blasphemer; Blasphemies he loves [...] his Life, they are Melodies to him. The very first Leaf of your Choice Dialogues repeats these Choice Blasphemies. That is in plain Terms, if Men worship a GOD, who [...]as fore-ondained whatsoever comes [...] pass; and if in their Prayers Men own that without the help of Special Grace from him, they shall never convert unto him; you say, they Worship the Devil under the Name of God. I confess it four as [Page]a little hideous to me, as bad as People take me to be. But you had a Mind it may be, Jack, to have something more of the Hero in you, than your great Brother She phard himself.

Your Master has given Demonstration enough of his affecting the Throne of the most high God. But really, friend John, you have done something even beyond his Expectation, to claim it for him. Formerly he used to value himself upon being the Object of all Worship from the Japanese, the Hottentots, and American Salvages. He never imagined that all the Calvinists in the World, which amount to several Millions, and a very distinguished and superior part of Mankind, are also his Worshippers. I protest John, I am so well acquainted with our Master, that I know he trembles before the God, whom the Calvinists pray to.

But avast! I remember now King William was a Calvinist. But sure, it is not upon his account that you so horribly blaspheme the God he prayed to? For I remember, you never much liked him. O hungry and hardly bestead, that you can't content your self with cursing the King, whose immortal Memory, you and our Master abominate; but you must look upward and curse his God too!

Look you, John, hitherto your Master [Page]pleased himself with being the God of this World. But there is a Sett of People Called out of this World, who are continually lifting up their Cries to the God of all Grace, that he would quicken them to repent and believe; and who ascribe to Sovereign Grace, the whole Glory of every good Thing performed by them in a Way of Living unto God. Now, John, these were the People of all the World, which your Master and mine gave over as lost; he has hue-in-cried them as Runaways, and has taken all Opportunities to blacken them with such Pens as your's (that writes all his Advertisements for him) for Brutes and Brute-Makers; But it seems by you, that these also are they, who fall down and worship him. This is beyond what your Master himself ever imagined. He was in you, John, all the time you were a Scribling for him, tho' perhaps you were not aware of it. But how comes it, John, you're gone beyond his Inspiration? You have pleased him wonderfully; For tho' he be a Spirit full of Envy, yet he is not so envious, as to be displeased when he sees himself out-done in Devilism. You must not wonder at it, that when you say, the God of the Calvinists is more cruel than the Devil, the Devil should applaud himself, for having a Man John, who bids so hopefully to out-do his Master.

[Page]J. Tory.

What then does Master think, I have out Devil'd the De'll himself! I hope then, tho' the Stripplings, in which the Churches of N. E. forsooth, think themselves highly favoured, are a parcel of little senseless Creatures; yet the Countrey may be able to show one Jacobite Strippling, that can do something to the Purpose. Ay, a Strippling that in his Blasphemies against God, can (Oh dear!) say even what he pleases.

J. Eaust.

And yet, John, that thou mayst not be too vain upon this glorious Performance. I may tell thee, thy Master complains of thee.

J. Tory.

I am surprized at that! pray why so!

John Faust.

Why, I'll tell you. He says, he is more unhappy in Servants, than any other Master in the World. All of them serve him willingly; many serve him industriously, and some serve him very successfully. But still he says, they are generally block heads, and the Rascals do him as much Mischief, as they do him Service; They spoil many a good cause by such a blockedly Management, as would vex the heart of any Master in the lower Regions to look upon.

Jack Tory.

— O alas, I hope I have not mismanaged a Cause, which my heart was so set upon, that all my friends by all their [Page]Perswasions [...] not divert me from Scrib [...] bling. Satan, knows I had the same Distemper with the Dutch; (that confounded Itch of Scribbling, and Lust of Writing) and it was all purely out of Good Will to Master and his Cause. But I was so cunning—I told them, I had a Commission from God, and I must obey God rather than Man. I know my friends foretold (according to a good old Proverb more than twice thirty years old,) that I must needs go, &c.

John Faust.

Yes, but you have mismanaged most confoundedly I will show you several Points before I part with you. For I can't tarry all Night with you, to shew you them all. But I protest, I will have the Patience to tell you a few of them—Why then, what a folly, what a Madness was it in you to begin your Leslean Transcripts with such a shocking Blasphemy, which I my self don't care to repeat, as bad as People take me to be, I have more Grace then that comes to. O, alas, that a man should ever be such a Numbskull! could it ever enter into your addle Pate, that your Pamphlet could ever find the least Reception in the Country; when one of the first Things they meet with is your more than Diabolical Censure of them as Worshippers of the Devil. That the God they pray to is the Devil; yea, more cruel than the Devil. Troth Jack, [Page] [...] very first Page, to represent a Congregation of Dissenters, as a Congregation of Devils. But, I profess, you set me a trembling, when you make their God a Devil too; and represent him as the great Belzebub, the chief of all the rest of the Congregation. Horresco referens! I tell you, this over Devilish Passage has quite ruined your whole Design. Every Body will treat you and your Pamphlet with abhorrence, & wonder a Christian Government has not condemned it to be thrown into the Flames, &c. (John Faustus bids you beware of such a Doom your self) which without the least Infringement upon Liberty of Conscience, might be justly ordered for it. Methinks I hear the People, before they have read out the first Leaf of your fine Rhapsody, exclaiming,—Lord, what is it this fellow means? Does the Fool think to perswade the good People of the Country, that the God whom their pious Fathers prayed to, was the Devil, and that they are by Consequence gone to him? Does he perswade us, that all the Prayers offered up in the Churches, and in the Houses throughout the Country, are but so many Invocations of the Prince of Darkness! Let me tell thee friend Jack, he that would proselite the People of New-England unto the Pelagian Opinions must go more soberly to work. You have managed the Cause like a Tinker. You [Page] [...], in Mending one. Look ye, thy fondness for this Blasphemy has undone thy Dialogues, and rendered them utterly ineffectual to all Intents and Purposes. I have been thought a Conjurer (tho' I dare protest thou art none;) But without any Conjuring for it, I can foretell, that if any People receive any Impressions from thy Pamphlet, they must be only such as have not so much Brains as a Mouse-Squirrel in them. Jack, thou knowest what a Rattle Snake is; and thou knowest he carries his Rattle in his Tail, & gives Men warning to Stand clear; but thou carriest thine in thy head; how unhappy art thou, that all this Blasphemy might not come in at the Tail of thy Dialogues. Thy very first Leaf must be the Seat of the Curiosity. Why, the very Tobacconists will be afraid of your Pamphlets to use them as waste Paper, for fear the strong scent of Brimstone (for they know from whence it came) worse then Mandungus, should corrupt the Tobacco.

Jack Tory.

Did I say the Dissenters worshipped the Devil? and does Master fault me for over-doing?

John Faustus.

Ay, you say they worship the Devil, or one more cruel than the Devil. And your Master is very angry at it. I will say this for thee, Jack, thou hast been a very diligent Slave of his, and hast laid [Page]thy self out with all thy Might and Craft to debauch the Young Stripplings of New-England in their Principles, and bring them to forsake the God and Hope of their Fathers; but thy Game is now over. This rash & amazing Salley of thine has quite confounded it. But I forbear to chew any more upon this Apple of Sodom, for fear of being choaked with the Devils-Bit in it.

Jack Tory.

But stop, Friend Faustus; It was not I, but the famous Lesley, the Jacobite Irish man, that was the Author of my Choice Dialogues.

John Faustus.

Oh! And so you think to come off with the sham in your Title-Page of a Reverend who—knows—who, and one who has been for above twice thirty years a Labourer. Every Body knows what Reverence is due to you. What have you been so long a Labourer? It was pretty cunning, I profess under such a Disguise to draw on the Readers of the Title Page, to peruse your unmannerly Preface and Mungril Dialogues, begotten by a juggle between thee & Lesley. It has caused undiscerning People, upon an apprehension that it was written by a certain Aged Gentleman in New-England, whom you and our Master hate to give it the honour of a Perusal. I profess, Jack, I am ashamed of such a little mean Artifice. But to return, you have so blended your own Stuff with Lesley's, that scarce any Body can tell which is which: [Page]But a man that can see but an Inch may be sure of this, that it appears like an old Garment patched with New Cloth, and the Rents and Tatters appear horrid and rueful. Nay, more than this, you have hurt poor Lesley too, if it be possible. Were he here he'd flogg you; while he applied that of the Poet to you. —Male dum recitas, incipit esse tuum. For indeed your Way of Recitation has made it yours. And you have the honour of it. Good Jack, who will believe, think ye, that the Aged and Laborious Lesley ever troubled his head with the Stripplings in the Churches of New-England; and are there not an hundred Things in the latter part of your Dialogues, referring to things never known to him, and never transacted till since his Writing. Dear Jack, couldest thou call thy self a Reverend and Laborious Pastor; or doest thou claim the latter part of the Character, viz. One who has been for twice thirty years, a faithful and painful Labourer in the Vineyard. The double [By] in thy Title Page very handsomly insinuates two Authors of thy Pamphlet. Thou claimest at least one of these two Encomiums for thy self Say in a Minuete, Spark, which of them. Speak!

Jack Tory.

O hone, O hone! But prithee Dear Joy, what if I should after all find no honour in it at all?

John Faustus.

What! have you learnt Irish of your God Father? However, Child, [Page]don't be too much discouraged neither; for I can tell you of several Things still, which your Master does very much commend you for.

Jack Tory.

Ay, what! Prithee tell me! The Truth is, if he don't commend me, I don't know who will. For really to my great Grief, I find sober People of my own Church do very much dislike and despise my Performance.

John Faust.

Your Master commends you for the Pains you have been at, to release People from Prayers to God, for the quickening Influences of his Grace, to turn them from Darkness to Light, and from the Power of Satan unto God. And by Consequence from all Praises to him for his Grace, if they have received it. Tho' to disswade the Effectually Called from the Praises of God for Converting them to himself, will be an impossible Undertaking. For let me tell thee, Child, no Body will be such a Numb skull as to think the Grace of God never did any more for Peter, than for our Brother Judas; it is a much easier Thing to disswade the ungodly from serious Prayers to God for their Conversion. Now, what Occasion for Prayers, if the Sinner has it entirely in his own Power to turn himself. What would his Petitions be in this Case but empty, needless, useless Complements to Almighty God, if he can do it without him. [Page]He can come out of the Burning Prison, whereof you make such a Plausible Simile, without any Special Help of him that calls him out. What need he beg, Lord, bring my Soul out of Prison. This Contempt which you would have People to cast upon the Aids of Grace, is a notable Way to forfeit them, and Sin them away, and confirm our Fellow-Slaves in their Servitude.

Jack Tory.

Nay, I don't say so.

John Faust.

But our Master hopes you mean so. For if you allow Special Grace to be wholly needless, and that there is nothing needs to be superadded to that Common Grace, which you suppose to be an universal Bequest from God, extending to the whole Race of fallen Adam; you must grant also, that it is entirely unnecessary to ask for any such thing of God. You would not ask for what you can do well enough without.

Jack Tory.

But what, have not I allowed for it, and owned that the Special Help of Grace is needful, according to one of the Articles of the Church, of which I pretend to be a Member, [Article 10.] The Condition of Man, after the Fall of Adam, is such, that he cannot turn and prepare himself by his own natural Strength, and good Works to Faith, and Calling upon God: Wherefore we have no Power to do good Works, pleasant and acceptable to God, without the [Page]Grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we may have a good Will, and working with us when we have that good Will.

John Faust.

But here, my poor Child, thou involvest thy self in irreconcileable Contradictions. If you once own, that none do turn to God, without the Special Help of his Grace; you must also say, that there is a Special Knowledge (and so a Special Purpose) which he has of them to whom he gives it. And then you spoil all your Talk. Only say, that we need Special Grace, and you spoil all.

Jack Tory.

I should be loth to do that.

John Faust.

And yet, thou hast done so, by owning that we have no Power of ourselves to help our selves; and that the Assistence of the Grace of Christ is, that, Without which we can neither do a good Deed, nor think a good Thought. No Calvinist upon Earth ever said more.

Jack Tory.

Well, but I say there, that in vain do the wicked plead their own Want of Strength as an Excuse, while they resist that Grace, which is offered them for an Help.

John Faust.

Prithee, Noddy, thy Brain is whirled into a Disorder by thy Circular Argumentations; Why I tell you again, this is what every Calvinist is always insisting upon. But your Motion from one Point of the Circle to another is so exceeding quick and rapid, (poor Man) that you can't help being [Page]giddy. You have whirled your self out of Arminianism and Pelagianism, into the Faith of John Calvin. Stand still a Minute or two, until your Giddiness is over! You are a Calvinist, and don't know it! Well, how do you feel? What do you think of your self!

Jack Tory.

Think of my self! Why, this is very fine inded! I did not know my self to be a Calvanist before.

John Faust.

And I question whether our Master knows what you are Only this we all know, that you are an Enemy to every Thing that the Country is happy in. And so far your Good Will to our Kingdom of Darkness may excuse to your Master the Blunders you commit in your Endeavours to serve it. But up with your Head! I am further to tell you, that your Master is extreamly taken with your scoffs at Regeneration, in your Preface. He entertains great Hopes concerning you, when he finds you have out-done Nicodemus before his Conversion, in his Ignorance of this great Mystery. [Read John 3.] And hopes that your Eyes will never be opened to understand such Mysterious Tractates, which if you felt the power of what they teach, he would for ever despair of having any more of your assistance, in advancing his Interest. He says, it is a very proper Preface to a Book, which all along tends to indispose the Readers for that New-birth, without which [...] the Kingdoms of God.

[Page]Jack Tory.

But I am very much afraid, that the Books written by Dissenters, which fills this Country, and our Nation, will be of great Influence (by the Blessing of Heaven) towards the regenerating more than we could wish for.

John Faust.

And here again I must tell you, that our Master is intollerably vexed at you, for another of your Absurdities. You say, that there is scarce one in Twenty of the Books written by the Dissenters, that have common sense in them. Now because you must be unfortunate in every Thing you go upon, there is hardly one Word of Common. Sense in your Choice Dialogues, but what you have Stole from the Dissenter's Writings. The most sensible Passage in them, is in the Fifteenth Page, where [whip scratch ye] you have such a pious Qualm comes upon you, as compels you to say, I have the Promise of Christ, &c. Except what is in these few Lines, there is hardly one Word worth a straw in all your Dialogues, in the Esteem of wise and good Men. Yes, now I think on't, there is one Word more in your Eleventh Page. The Covenant God has made with us in CHRIST, is impossible to be frustrated. How unhappy you are, Friend Jack! that one Word overthrows all your Dialogues. Now, where did you get all this Divinity? It's a Heap of Calvinistical Stuff. You either Stole these Passages from [Page]the Books of Dissenters, or from the Divines of the Established Church, who so favour them, as to be abhorred by you as much as the Dissenters themselves. Your Master will claw you off, for this confounded Inconsistence in establishing Calvinism, while you are prttending to confute it. He is much disturbed at your Treachery.

Jack Tory.

I hope in the Merits of the Venom, I have expressed against the Calvinists on all Oacasions.

John Faust.

I confess, in this Jack, thou art meritorious enough. But you have charged the Calvinists with asserting that, which you & all the World knows they for ever abhor and disclaim; You know they for ever maintain, that the Glorious God is not the Author of Sin, nor can be the Author of Sin. And that his Decrees are all righteous, and holy. And that that Sin is to be wholly charged upon the Sinner; his own proper Fault, proceeding from the vitiosity of his own Will. If you had not foreswore reading of them (under a pretence there is scarce common sense in any one of them) you might have seen their Books abound with such like Assertions. You were very fit, upon my word, to manage a Controversie with Calvinists, when you your self never read what their Tenets are. Ay, never read! What, are not your Brains settled yet! Sometimes thro' your want of Reading, and of a true Knowledge [Page]of what a Dissenter and a Calvinist is, you turn Calvinist your self, and don't know of it; then you tack about, and protest they assert what they never held in the World. I am amazed at it; why, you neither know what is Calvinism, nor what is not.

Did you never read or hear of a famous English Parliament of Calvinists, who when a certain Writer [one Mr. Archer] had written a Book, that seemed a little to approach toward making God the Author of Sin, ordered the Book to be burnt (if you will allow the Expression of your Friend Faustus) as a Sacrifice to the Scotch and Dutch Presbyterians, whom you so much hate.

Jack Tory.

I don't know; I talk as my Ireland Tutor tells me. But I beg Pardon for my Inadvertencies: but especially for them you were aware of, and I was not, that I am my self tainted with this confounded Calvinism. I profess, I can hardly endure my self, I am so poisoned. I doubt there's something in the Air of the Country. You can tell, for you are a Conjurer.

John Faust.

Air of the Country! Nay, you are gone beyond any Calvinist in the World, you have suckt in a larger Draught of the Infection, than any of them. You have out-done them in the Stoicism you falsely charge upon them. You assert not meerly the Decree to be alterable, but the Things [Page]decreed to be unavoidable, and a fatal necessity to be upon all Events.

Jack Tory.

Why, you scare me! Or [...] to preserve the Stile of my Dialogues, Now I am frighted to think it!

John Faust.

Yes, People used to be frighted with John Faustus. But I'll shew thee thy Transgressions. You find, that if God infallibly foreknow all Events, then he does infallibly decree all Events. No Lestey, nor Armini [...]n, nor Jesuite in the World, can stand before so self evident a Proposition. Fore-knowledge necessarily argues Fore-ordaining. For a bare Fore-knowledge without Fore-ordaining, is the Right Doctrine of the Stoics. For what is Fate (I pray) in the true Stoical sense of the Word, but a necessary Chain and Succession of Events, which Jupiter himself had no Hand in ordaining them. Jupiter himself may by Inspection of the Book of Fate know what shall come to pass hereafter, but he never ordain'd the Events; Fate is something above and beside him. Ʋnless then, you'll be a Stoic too, you must allow Fore-knowledge to be the same with Fore-ordaining. Now, you'll find it impossible to get clear of this Encumbrance upon you; but by absolutely denying any Fore-knowledge in God at all; tho' the Scripture does so often in express Terms assign it unto him. Here [Page]you fall into unmerciful Blunders, which a New-England Strippling would be asha [...]med of, and scorn to be guilty of. You have [...] upon a learned Invention, which possitively you ought to have a Patter for. It is a Wonder, that you did no like the great Mathematician in old Tim run out with a Sacrifice upon the Invention. Jack, thou hast found it, thou ha [...] found it! Do but leave out the Praeposition, that Calvinistical Praeposition [FORE] and the Business is done Well-hinted, profess! Alas, who would have imagined that such a poor, little, sorry Praeposition could have done so much Mischief in th [...] World! All the prodigious Mischiefs o [...] Calvinism are owing to it. Come then let us get [FORE] out of the Way, & [to pawn thee, Jack] let us throw it behind us. You say, All Things are present with God; and he has not fore-ordained but ordained what comes to pass. Now profound Sir, see what you have brought it to! Every Thing must be as it is in the Divine Mind. Unless you'll suppose a possibility of Error in the Divine Mind You say, it is present with God; you say it cannot be otherwise than he ordains You say, he ordains, but not fore-ordains as if a present Ordaining would not as much affect the Free-Will of Man, as an Ordaining for numberless Ages before the [Page]Thing is actually accomplished. You are so far from doing any Hurt unto our Enemies the Calvinists, that you only make Sport for them.

Jack Tory.

Why, What would you have me do? I was in confounded Perplexities; and I must say something.

John Faust.

Must say something! No, you had better a minded your Shop than have took upon you to be an Author. They are not only Dissenters, who think so, but some of your own Church, or rather the Church you pretend to be of. You must say something, tho' indeed nothing to the Purpose. Had you advised with me, I could have put you into a much better Way.

Jack Tory.

Ay, What, I pray!

John Faust.

Why, you are cruelly oppressed with the Epistles of one Paul, a famous Writer with the Calvinists. They learnt their Calvinism from his Epistles. Until these Epistles are gone, there will be no Extirpating Calvinism. Now with what an Air of Pride, and with the Strutt of a Coxcomb. Do you brag in your Preface, that your Dialogues will instruct People concerning some things in Paul's Epistles, which Peter says are hard to be understood. [And why not St. Paul and St. Peter, you unmannerly Presbyterian, you? You can say, St. Ignatius!] What, have they encouraged Calvinism so much as to unsaint them? [Page]But then in your Tenth Page of your Dialogues (Ay, friend Tory, the Tenth Page) you say expresly in so many Words, There it nothing hard to be understood in it. This Circular Way of Arguing has made you confounded Giddy. Now in the Pauline Epistles, there are such cruel Passages, and so directly establishing of Calvinism, that your Dialogues are all but so many plain Contradictions to the inspired Oracles of God, except you can by any means and methods, disencumber your selves of these unhappy Epistles. And there is but one Way for you to do it; the Way taken by a brave Pelagian Gentleman, who being pressed with some of those Passages; replied unto Colonel Norton: Indeed St. Paul was, I confess, much of a Gentleman, and I am very much his humble Servant; but begging his Pardon, I must say, I think he had much better have spared those Passages. You should have said so, or have said, as lately some of your Tribe have begun to say, The Christian Religion is not to be taken out of Paul's Epistles.

Jack Tory.

But I doubt the Calvinists might meet with some Countenance from some other Parts of the Bible. There is the Sixth Chapter of John, is an hard Chapter for us. But what d'ye think Friend Faustus? Will any of the Calvinist's answer my Choice Dialogues?

John Faust.

Answer ye? Truly, I am afraid the Twenty Sixth of the Proverbs, and [Page]the Fourth did not stand in the Way. It is enough to them, that there is a full answer already published, written by a famous Author, and one whom you admire above all the Men in the World.

Jack Tory.

Who's that, I beseech you?

John Faust.

One John Toyman, alias Jack Tory.

Jack Tory.

Good now, explain your self.

John Faust.

You, even you, your own dear sweet wise self. You have answered your self in one Word, in the twenty-fourth Page of your Dialogues, We teach the Concurrence, and even the NECESSITY of GRACE to enable us to bring forth Fruit unto God. Now this one Word is a full answer unto all that you and your Father Teague have in your Choice Dialogues bless'd the World withal. All that any Answerer has now to do, is to show that one whose proper Business is to sell small Wares, rather than to write Books, is an inconsistent Creature, and sins condemn'd of himself, and understands not what he says, nor whereof he affirms. And the Young Stripplings must be full of Chanity to the Paper-Mills in Holland, if they should be at the Cost of the coarsest Paper, to write you an Answer.

Jeck Tory.

But if any of them do write a Word against my Choice Dialogues, I'll say, they write against the established Church; and there I'll shelter my self.

[Page]John Faust.

Now again, you make me mad. I think you must give me leave to call you rather a Bastard, than a true Son of the Church of England. You take a course, that the Church will never see any more Proselytes among the sober People. You and your Club are but a spurious Crew. Your Mother will never own you; your Choice Dialogues are as directly contrary to the Articles and Homiles of the Church of England, as Darkness to Light. Let us but recite the Words of them, in a few Instances.

Article 17. Predestination to Life, is the Everlasting Purpose of God, whereby (before the Foundation of the World were laid) He hath constantly Decreed by his Counsel, Secret to us, to deliver from Curse and Dimnation, those whom He hath Chosen in Christ, out of Mankind, and to bring them by Christ to Everlasting Salvation, as Vessels made unto Honour.

They that are endued with so Excellent a Benefit of God. [as Predestination to Life; are Called according to God's Purpose, by His Spirit, working in due Season; & th [...] Grace Obey the Calling: They are Justified frely, and are made the Sons of God by Adoption, and made like the Image of His only begotten Son Jesus Christ; They walk Religiously in Good Works, and at length by God's Mercy, they attain to Everlasting Felicity.

[Page] Article 10. The Condition of Man after the Fall of Adam is such, that he cannot Turn and Prepare himself, by his own Natural Strength and Good Works, to Faith and Calling upon God: Wherefore, We have no Power to do Good Works, Pleasant and Acceptable to God, without the Grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we may have a Good Will, and Working with us, when we have that Good Will.

Your Whiston, who professes his abhorrence of Calvinism, yet confesses, that the Articles of the Church are entirely Calvinistical; and that the People of your Perswasion, who call themselves, The Church, and subcribe those Articles, are guilty of a grose Prevarication.

Jack Tory.

What do you tell me of Whiston for? He is an Arian.

John Faust.

But then what a shameless Wretch art thou, Jack, to exclaim against the Disent [...]rs for the Faults of thy own Church-Men. What you say, That many of the Disenting [...] have publickly professed themselves [...], This a notorious Falshood. If any few of them have lately Avianized, we are beholding to your Whiston and Clark for it; Men, that are no Dissenters. And the Dissenters have been as Zealous, and [...] [...] of them, [...] [...]ny they have [...] withal.

[Page]Jack Tory.

Well, but in my Preface, I show, that if People dont mind my Heart-enlightning Dialogues, they will hearken to the Delusions of the great Whore, the Scarlet Whore, the Whore of Babylon, that great Antichrist.

John Faust.

Ha, Ha, Ha! When every one knows, that the Jesuites and the worst Sects of the Roman Catholics are the most earnest Abettors, and Propagators of the Palagian Principles, which your muddy Dialogues design to infect the Young People of the Country with. I'll quote you two Passages, which I find in two Writers of the Church of England, and so for the present I'll have done with you. The one is from Dr Edwards (whom when thou, Jack, encountrest withal, methinks it looks like a little Frog leaping in the Face of a Lion.) He says in his Pre [...]cher. Part. II. Page. 177.

HOW can we blame the Dissenters for disgusting, the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, when we our selves disrelish its Articles? Yea, when we know that they outdo many of us in Purity of Doctrine, and that they are very careful in Asserting and Maintaining it. Let it seem strange that a Member and a Minister of the Church of England, calls upon you to take Notice of the Good Hand of God and His Wife Providence in this very Matter. If we would open our Eyes, we should see that we are beholding to the Sober and Moderate Dissenters for the Continuance of a Considerable [Page]Part of our Theological Principles among us, even those which the Church of England and her Reformers had left us. If there had been none of that Party, the Church of England had been long since ruin'd; for if the High Church-men had had no Check, they would have brought in Popery before this Time, by a Side-wind of Arminianism, and by their over valuing of Ceremony and Pomp in Divine Worship.

The other is from the Author of Reflections on Mahometanism, & Socinianism. ‘The most Formidable Stuff to Orthodoxy, & that upon which most People have made Shipwreck, is Pelagianism, an Error so natural to corrupt Man, that tho' there is none more powerfully withstood and opposed in Scripture, yet it has been commonly the most universal of all Heresies. By this the first Advances are made, that lead directly to the Doctrine of the Ʋnitarians. So soon as Man is enamoured with himself, and puts himself in the Place of God, he perverts all the Truths of Christianity.’

Jack Tory.

These are odd Passages. I will not be of the Church that owns them. I'll go on to do my Part in gathering a Church of Jacobites, of pure Jacobites, and we'll be the only true Church of England.

John Faust.

Well, go on, Jack, and prosper! I told you, for the present I [Page]have done with you. Only I must ask your Pardon for one Word, I let fall just now, when I said our Master was in you. Look ye, Jack, it makes me think of the Story of a Quaker, who pretended to be sent by the Lord. An unlucky Boy replied, Nay, that can't be; for thou hast spoken Things contrary to what we have in the known Word of the Lord. But the Strippling went on, Yet, I profess, (says he) it puzzles one to think, who should send thee. For I can't but think, the Devil would have more wit than to have sent such a Tinker as thou, art upon his Messages. And so I must leave you in the Limbo of Purgatory, which is between Heaven and Hell, for your Commission. You have been very much of a Quaker, in following the Impulses, which pushed forth your Dialogues. All that I can conclude from your [Thou] and [Thee,] must be, either that you f [...]ll a Praying to your Clergy-Man (who I suppose you don't intend for the God of the Calvinists; for you have Converted your Country-Man, who makes a notable Figure in your Dialogues, from Calvinism, as easie a Convert as ever I saw in my Life!) or else your [Thou] and [Thee] to him looks as if [Thou] were growing a little Quakerish, Friend John, and the Spirit of Quakerism were beginning some of its Breezes upon Thee. [Page]But I admire at it, that when this Spirit has been in you, by an uninterrupted Inspiration, he has at last left you to bring so much Confusion upon our Cause, by your self-Destroying Dialogues.

But, perhaps, the Style of Prayer, in which your Country-man addresses [...]our Clergy man (Ten times more like a Prayer, that the Dedication of the Bible to King James, which was re [...]d by a poor Savlor in a Storm for such) is used the better to keep touch with a Passage in your pretended Epis [...]e to the Magnesians, immediately following it, (whereof Dr. Stillingfleet hath said enough to prove it an Imposture) which directs the People to yield all Reverence unto the Bishop (who was not more than the Pastor of a Congregational Church; yea, and but a Strippling too! the latter part of which Character is evident from the third Paragraph in the Epistle) I say, which directs the People to yield all Reverence unto the Bishop, according to the POWER OF GOD the FATHER.

But I have done with thee, Jack, I doubt I shall be chid for staying so long. But one word more before we part; I hear thou art under invincible Difficulties about taking the Oaths of Allegiance to King George. Jack, it came pa [...]t into my Mind about your Burning Pit, which flames and scorches so in your Dialogues: Methinks you are so in the [Page] Limbo's, environed about with such a terrible Prison, the Court standing without calling thee to come out of the Fire, and that upon more rational Considerations than you suppose the God of the Calvinists treats with his important Devotees. You can come out, exercise, Jack, your Free-Will, (Pray, O Liberum arbitrium, miserere mei! leap forth from the Flames. To use the Words of your Dialogues, Page 27, 28. The Application is this, the Condemnation lies wholly at thy own Door, because thou wouldest not accept of Liberty; something is left to the Prisoner to do, viz. to chuse whether he would come out or stay in. The Court will not Save you against your Will. This is no Burlesqueing of the Deity, though his Name be there found, but in these passages of the burning Prison, thou hast blasphemed the plain Oracles of God.

And so now all I have to say to Thee, Friend Jack, is in our own Quaker Dialect [...] Fare thee well, my Friend; I wish thee we [...]; and hope that thee will write something more to the Purpose next Time.

Jack Tory.

Actually, I'll try for it, now am I such a Coward as to give out for one [...] bad Bout. The next Touch shall be a Vindication of Jacobus Tertius et Octavus, together with the Adjustment of the Monarchies of Europe, a Resurrection of the King of Sweden, and a formal Invitation of the Czar of Muscovy, to [Page]make a Visit to the British Dominions; an Essay to put the King of Spain upon his Legs again, and either Rout or Drown the Dutch. These are great and noble Subjects much upon my heart; I have been broken of many a Nights Rest by uneasie Thoughts of this Nature. Nay, I'll invite Lesly over to New-England; and send out an hue-in-Cry after Marr, Oxford, Ormond and Bullingbroke, and we'll set the World to Rights. Until when fare thee well, John Faustus, and pray give my Duty to my Master, and make my Services as acceptable to him as you can.

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A Choice Dialogue Between JOHN FAUSTUS A Conjurer, AND JACK TORY His Friend.

Occasioned by some Choice Dialogues lately Published, concerning Praedestination and Election.

Together with Animadversions upon the Praeface to the Choice Dialogues. And an Appendix concerning the true Doctrine of Praedestination, as held by the Church of England, and the Absurdities and Inconsistency of the Choice Dialogues.

By a Young Strippling.

Boston, Printed for N. Boone, at the Sign of the Bible in Cornhill: B. Gray, and J. Edwards at their Shops in King-street. 1720.

A PREFACE

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[Page]

Containing some Animadversions upon the Praeface to the Choice Dialogues.

I Was the other Day very much surprized to meet with a small Pamphlet, wearing this specious and very promising Title; Choice Dialogues, between a Godly Minister, and an honest Countrey-Man, concerning Election and Predestination, &c. Both the Sublimity of the Subject, no less than the Secret and Eternal Decrees of the Deity, a very abstruse Theme; as also the Choiceness of the promised Dialogues, raised my Expectations to a very great Pitch. But upon the Perusal of them; I soon found the Author laid himself open to the Censures which Horace tells us they are liable to fall under, who promise more than they can perform, and fill the Reader up with vain Hopes, only to tantalize and baulk him in his Expectations.

Amphora caepit [Page] Institui; currente Rota, cur Urceus exit? Quid dignum tanto seret hicPromissor Hiatu? Parturiunt Montes, nascetur ridiculus Mus.

Which suffer me to English after this manner.

Since you began with so much Pomp and Show

How is it, Man, the End's so vile and low?

Prithee, what wilt thou bring worth all this Rout and Touse?

The Mountain groans in Travail, and brings forth a Mouse.

In the first place, as is natural to every Reader, who desires to be informed of the Occasion, Design, and Scope of any Work, I dipped into the Preface to the Reader, hoping there to find some special and weighty Reasons, which urged the Editor to publish these Controversial and Li [...]igious Dialogues. Editor, I say; for it is hard to know whether he, or his Aged Divine wrote them, or rather by a Juggle they brought forth the Mungril between them. He says, it was written by a Reverend and Laborious Pastor in Christ's Flock, by one who has been for almost twice thirty years, a faithful and painful Labourer in Christ's Vineyard. I believe I know the Reverend and Laborious Pastor he means, viz. a certain Jacobite Clergy-man, who, I dare vouch [Page]has Served the Pretender ten years, where he has the Flock of Christ one.

But to return, I could not for my Life find any weighty Reason for his Publishing these Choice Dialogues. I began to think, It might be, that some of the Young Stripplings had roared Predestination out of the Pulpits; but with all my inquisitive Searches could not find it so. I then began to recollect my self, and as my Young Logic taught me, began to compare, compound and divide Ideas, but could not with all my Wits see the Connection of the Ideas of [Young Stripling] and [Predestination] or imagine how a Discourse upon the awful and secret Decrees of God naturally led a Man to rail at a Young Presbyterian. And really I never met with such an Oddity and Inconsistency, as to fill a Book with Calumnies and Reproaches, which is written out of Charity to the Souls of Men. Full of Charity, brim full of it! and yet throughout the whole Book transgressing the Rules of that excellent Grace, which the Apostle says, 1 Cor. 13.4, 5, 6, 7. Charity suffereth long, and is kind; Charity envieth not; Charity vaunteth not it self, is not puffed up; doth not behave it self unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoyceth not in Iniquity, but rejoyceth in the Truth; beareth all things, believeth all[Page]Things, hopeth all Things, endureth all Things. But his high-flying bitter Spirit savours of too much Rancor, to let the World think, that Love to Soul [...], and not Hatred to the Churches of New-England was the Spring and Motive of his undertaking this scurrilous Work.

As for the Dialogues themselves, says he, they contain a rich and precious store of Spiritual Knowledge, and Godly Comfort. So the Prefacer thinks. But others are not of his Mind. Why are you angry, Sir? Won't you suffer us conscientiously to dissent from you?

Nay, but stop Young Stripling! they speak to the Hearts of Men in a very easie and familiar Manner, so that the meanest Plough-man, the very meanest of God's People may understand them. Right, my Friend, no Body disputes but the meanest Plough-man may dive to the profound Bottom of them The Dialogues we give in the amplest Testimony you can desire, they are plain enough; but is the Subject you write of made as plain? No Body despairs that ever I heard of, of penetrating into your deepest Recesses, by a single Glance. That ever the Man should be afraid, the World will deny reading his Book, for fear it should be too deep for them! No, Sir, your Dialogues are easie and [...]hallow enough; but Predestination is as great [Page]a Mystery as ever: and I never thought that which the great Doctor of the Gentiles, the Apostle Paul, adores as unsearchable, could be brought down level with the Capacity of a Plough man; or that a Plough-Man can so easily comprehend and understand the Decrees, and ascend in a few Hours, those eternal Mountains of Brass, which have always been inaccessible by the most towring and exalted Genius's. To hear Paul with an [O Altitudo] in his Mouth; and a Plough-Man calling out, here St. Paul, I'll let you into the Mystery; there is no Difficulty in the Matter. Lesly shall explain it you in a Minute. Paul! Lesley will set you to rights, and bring you to understand your own Mysterious Writings.

They treat of that deep, but comfortable Doctrine, I mean the Doctrine of Election and Predestination. But then the Author limits his Meaning in a long Parenthesis, (that Soul-piercing Doctrine to the Wicked and Unregenerate, but Soul-refreshing, & Heart-comforting Doctrine to the Saints, to all righteous and godly Folk.) Then it seems, it is a Soul-piercing Doctrine to the wicked and unregenerate. It would be too Satyrical and hard to argue the Author's Spiritual State and Character, from its being such a Soul-piercing Doctrire to him, that he cannot so much as endure the Sound of Fore-ordaining, Fore-kowledge, Pre-destination; [Page]must have substituted in the Room of these Heart-piercing Words, Destination, Knowledge, Ordaining. O what a killing syllable is [Pre] A Man had much better be destined to Hell, than predestined, & had rather be known of God an Heir of Damnation, than be foreknown to be so.

Now as to the Occasion of the Publication of these Dialogue [...]; Alas, Christian! I fear there is too too great Occasion for [...]em. The many pernicious (and I fear al [...]s!) Soul destroying Books, &c. Here I must ask the Author's Pardon, when I said I could not find any Reason of his for the Publication of these Dialogues. No, here's a Reason, our Author perceives there are pernicious and Soul-destroying Books handed up and down the Country. But he mentions none of them, either by their Titles or in a way of Quotation; nor do I think any Number of Tractates of Predestination (which is what the Author must mean when he calls them pernicious and Soul-destroying Books) have been handed up and down. Ʋpon all the Enquiries I have purposely made even since these CHOICE Dialogues came out, I can hear of no such Thing. Which makes me believe, the Prefacer had a mind to rail, and could find no way to introduce himself upon the Stage, but raking up an old Story of Predestination. I am sure, I never found but the Country was as silent, and as disengaged from any such Talk, as they are of the Millennium, or the next [Page] blazing Star, that is to appear. And I am so much the more confirmed in my Opinion, in that the Prefacer without any Distinction, falls foul of the Presbyterian Clergy, especially the younger Sort, charging them home with Calumny and Slander. Instead of intreating and inviting us to the Truth; what vile Reproaches and malicious Invectives is his Preface filled with against those, who never did him any wrong in the World. Ʋnder the Ʋmbrage of Predestination, he takes Liberty to be as unmannerly and reproachful as he pleases, till at lengeth one is almost stunned with the Noise and Din of his clamorous, ungenteel and scurrilous Rhapsodies.

But it were endless as well as needless to take Notice of all his Cant and Jargon. He says, these Dialogues will rightly instruct Men concerning the true Scripture Doctrines of Election and Predestination. So the Author thinks, because tis done ad Captum; else it might be too laborious a Research for us. But we'll leave him in a good Conceit of his Piece, until we have gotten to the End of his learned Preface.

Yes, but they are Heart-enlightning Dialogues. How is the Bible then the Best of Books, since these Dialogues may lay claim to that incommunicable Character of that Blessed Book, viz. Heart-enlightning? See Psalm 19.7, 8. Psalm 119.50. What is the Difference between a converting, quickening, &c. and an Heart-enlightening Dialogue? Strange [Page] Dialogues! that above all Objective Illumination of the Ʋnderstanding, have a Power to reach the very Heart. A very powerful Word indeed: — But I forbear to fix any Consequences upon the Author, which he it may be never intended himself, when he asserted these Dialogues to be Heart-enlightening; and shall only observe he is more charmed with them than others are, to think them so Divine, when humane Frailty betrays it self throughout almost the whole Composure. But should I fix such Consequences upon him, it would never equal his Impudence in insinuating that we worship the Devil. Vid. Pag. 2. Dial.

Our Praefacer launches still further and deeper into the Elogies and Praises of these Heartenlightening Dialogues; says he, They will shew thee, what was the Opinion of the holy Martyrs of the Church in the first and purest Ages of Christianity, concerning these Doctrines. And O I am sure we ought to follow them, them, I say, who were taught the Faith of Christ from the Mouths of the Apostles or Apostolick Men, &c. rather than hearken to—that great Antichrist, &c. Were these brave Men he talks of Martyrs for opposing Calvin's Doctrine of Praedestination [...] Was the Doctrine contained in his Choice Dialogues, the Truths for which they Dyed Martyrs, and Sealed with their Blood? Nay can he prove that these Ancient Fathers were of other Sentiment; [Page]than we upon the Head of Election? I am sure the Dialogues don't prove it. No, Mr. Lesly says, this is the ancient Apostolic Doctrine, but not one ancient Father quoted to his Purpose. But since our Praefacer has none of their Proofs on his side, we will by and by give him a few.

These great and glorious Martyrs, the Quintessence of whose Faith in the Article of Election, our Author supposes couched in his Choice Dialogues, were (if we may believe our Praefacer) taught the Faith of Christ from the Mouths of the Apostles or Apostolick Men. Now, Gentlemen, we are come to the Rectilineal, and Uninterrupted Succession of Episcopacy, from the Apostles. Ay, and this Doctrine of the Choice Dialogues has been in the same uninterrupted Manner, by oral Tradition handed down by the Clergy to this Day. By Oral Tradition, I say, for this our Author, quotes none of the Writings of these Apostolick Men, or their Successors. But why need our Praefacer run us up to the Doctrine which he supposes these ancient Fathers received from the Apostles, and Apostolick Men? Does he think what Paul and Peter, &c. told to Ignatius, Hermas the Pastor, &c. more true, or more intelligible, than what for the Benefit of the Church in all Ages, he left in Writing? Does he think Paul, or Peter, &c. could speak their Minds better to those Men, than [Page]they could Write in their Epistles? We have Paul by us, the sure Word of Prophesy, which is enough to inform us what he thought, when he met with a Mystery, and when he did not. We know Paul wrote to the Romans Things unsearchable and past finding out by any Mortal, not what is level with the Capacity of every Plough-Man; I mean as to this Doctrine of Praedestination. And here let me tell our Author, Paul's Writings are as valuable with me, nay more, since I am sure he wrote under the Conduct and Inspiration of the Holy Spirit, than a personal Interview with him. But I wish nevertheless, the Praefacer would Publish to the World what these brave Men were taught from the Mouths of the Apostles, relating to Praedestination. The World will own in their thankful Acknowledgements their Obligations unto him.

As for the Uninterrupted Succession of the Clergy from the Apostles, I mean of Bishops Diocesan, I never could see the Catalogue of them yet. It has hitherto been much such a Secret in Ecclesiastick State as is the Philosophers Stone in the Kingdom of Nature; of which it is often asserted there is such a Thing in Rerum Natura; but we never can be certain any Body has been so sagacious and sharp as to find it. But I drop the Chimera, and let it vanish among the Shades.

But who is the Whore of Babylon, and the great Antichrist, &c. It can't be the Church of Rome, for that spoils the uninterrupted[Page]Succession in Part, and I know it is the Mind of the Praefacer, that Rome is a great Arm of the Catholick Church. Who is Antichrist then which he means? Why, they are Presbyterians, whom our Author joyns wth the Quakers, who are a small Body, which I know the Praefacer thinks to be mainly intended in the Apocaypse. And yet in a few Lines after he calls us Fellow-Christians. They are Fellow-Christians, and yet have they followed blindly, for some scores of Years, blind Guides; nay, as in Conversation he will not scruple to call them false Brethren, and aver that they are no more Ministers of Christ, than every Carter and Dray-man that passeth the Street. How then can the Flocks of such false Brethren, be any other than false Churches, and degenerate Wolves; and are they then his Fellow Christians?

But it would tire Job to recount all the Contradictions, and Absurdities in his Praeface. I shall therefore animadvert but upon some of the Multitude. Let us follow the Example of the Primitive Church, and give Ear to those pious and godly Fathers of the Church, who will teach us the Truth in Sincerity. To omit so small a Criticism as that, what is the Difference between [Pious] and [Godly,] as he stiles the Fathers of the Church? for I always was such a Novice, as to understand the same Thing b [...] Piety and Godliness: I say, to omit that, let [Page]me observe how industrious the Praefacer is, t [...] pin his Faith upon the Church, which h [...] seems to suppose infallible. Why could be no [...] lead us as well to the Fountain of all, the holy Scriptures? Especially, when he will not [...] us know the Names of these pious and godly Fathers. The Epistle to the Romans may serve our Turn as well.

Now the Praefacer puts on an Air of Gravity, and takes up a Lamentation. Here I cannot but take Notice of the sad and deplorable Degeneracy of Mankind, &c. Our Praefacer is not at all guilty of this, when in the next Page, he insinuates there is scarce a Book written by the Dissenters, which has common Sense in it, and they are not worth a Reading. And if wise Men refuse to cast their Eyes upon his Choice Dialogues, he may conclude it is upon the same Suspicion, that they deny them the Honour of a Perusal.

Indeed, says the Praefacer, I have heard People say, that there is scarce one in Twenty of the Books written by Dissenters, that have common Sense in them. He has heard so, but who told him? And what then? I have heard likewise many People say, that he writes like a Quaker. But whether this be true or not, let the World judge. Only cast your Eye, Reader, upon his Dialogue (I call [...] his, for he must father the Bratt, since his own Stuff is blended so much with (Lesleys) that no one can tell which is which) Look, I [Page] [...]ay upon Five of his first Lines in the Dialogue; where the Minister answers Friend. Countrey-Man, in these words. ‘I thank Thee honest Countrey Man; a good Morning to Thee likewise, and I pray God bless Thee: But I would know what has brought Thee to my house so early.’ And now, good Reader, what doest Thee think of it? Thee must think he is quakerishly inclined.

There is another Sentence in his Praeface, which is so well Worded, I dare not attack it. It is a Specimen of the true Sublime, I shall only transcribe it, and leave it with the Reader as a considerable Piece of Rhetoric, and the Stile of one, who has read Longinus. It is this. Be it true or not true, this I am sure is a true saying, viz. Wisdom is justified of her Children. Here is Truth upon Truth!

Our Praefacer goes on to give Reasons why the Writings of Nonconformists of all Denominations be not quite so polite as the Works of some others. It is, says he, Because they write so much. Here, Reader, not the Presbyterians only, but Nonconformists of all Denominations are attacked. What then, all the famous Writings of Learned Men abroad, who are Presbyterians, are not Polite, that because the Writers of them are such as Bayle, Witsius, Voet, Basnage, &c. Nay, and of some, what were Owen, Bates, Charnock, Gale, Clarkson, &c. and among the more Modern, what are Calamy, Watts, &c, aye and Pierce too; for allowing him to [Page]be an Heretick, he can't be called a Clumsy Writer. I might mention many more, but I forbear. I only add, were not Stillingfleet, Tillotson, Bishop Hopkins, Burnet, and others Polite, until they conformed to the Church; and then (I warrant you) as it were by the Touch of the Lapis Aurificus of Episcopacy, all of a sudden they were turned into Gold.

Is Writing so much the Cause of our unpolisned Way of Writing; let our learned Prefacer take Care of himself, who sets up for an Author of two or three Books, while in his Non-age. And to set the World a Gig after his Rhapsodies, is forced to insinuate stily that he is an aged Labourer in Christ's Vineyard. Ay, and in the End of his Preface, helps the Gentlemen (viz. Junior Presbyterian Clergy-Men) to an Argument against Praedestination, because they are but Young

As for what follows of Giddiness arising from [...] circular Method of Reasoning, and a Mo [...]on exceeding quick and rapid; I leave the Reader to apply it to the Author himself, who has fairly revolved thro' the Circle of Arminianism, Pelagianism, and Calvinism; and has so slipt from one Inconsistency to another, that to use an old Latin Scrap, I learn't at School, citius Anguillam Canda teneas.

Now stand clear, the Prefacer has took a Voyage over to Holland. Huzzah! The Dutch are routed! Jack has broke down their [Page]Dikes, and drowned them. The Water has ruined all their Paper. What a Pity it is, our General Court did not apprise our Agent in England of it, to inform the Dutch our Christian Brethren, what Danger their States were in from a very potent American Invasion.

But was our Prefacer ever in Holland, that he has taken the Distemper, the Learned Call, Lust of Writing? Happy, that he has made trial of our Charity, which forces us to buy up his painful and laborious Searches and Researches after the true Meaning of Praedestination and Foreknowledge, viz. to throw aside those two dire Particles [Prae] and [Fore]

Recumbency and Regeneration are Mysterious Tractates all! So thought Nicodemus before his Conversion. Let the Prefacer read Joh. 3.— But that ever a man should have so little Grace as to laugh at, and banter that wondrous Change wrought in the Soul of a Man, by the supernatural Operations of the Holy Spirit of Grace, of such absolute necessity in order to our Entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven! Read 2 Cor. 2.14.

This Regeneration is something more than Episcopal Baptism, let him think what he pleases, notwithstanding his great Dodwell attributes to the Efficacy thereof, the Immortality of the Soul.

[Page] But where is the Impropriety of the Word Recumbency? Bishop Beveridge uses as had an one, when he tells us of Rolling our selves on the Mercy of God. And why does not that Word very aptly express our Reliance upon the Great Saviour Jesus Christ by faith. Did you never read, Psal. 55 2. Cast thy Burden upon the Lord. And Cant. 8.5. Who is this that cometh up from the Wilderness leaning upon her Beloved? which is meant of the Church in their Faith and Reliance in the Messiah.

As for his Ridicules upon Extempory Prayer, a man is very apt (as the Fox in the Fable) to call it sowre stuff, because it is out of his Reach. So we find such Men, as the Prefacer, are of the Mind, that by the Gift, and Spirit of Prayer, together with the holy Ghost's helping our Infirmities, &c. is meant no more than an ability to read over half a dozen Forms. The Apostle says, We know not WHAT to Pray for, and the Spirit helpeth our INFIRMITIES. I warrant you the Meaning of the Apostle was; Your Form tells you what to Pray for, and the Spirit helps you to recite. But I don't design a Controversy upon this Matter. Let every Christian use what his Conscience tells him is best. Nor have I the arrogance to attack the Church of England; but I hope it is no Arrogance to attack our Prefacer; for I know wise and [Page]good Men of his own Communion are ashamed of his Performance. And this the Prefacer seems to be well aware of, when he says afterwards, I expect there will be many things objected against the following Papers, for there are many who call themselves Church of England Men, who won't like what these Papers contain. And so I believe; a Man need not to have been a Conjurer to have foretold that, (or to leave out [fore] have told that.

As for three Sermons a day, I have nothing to answer to the Heinous Charge, but a Passags out of Dr. Wild's Poems, entituled, The Loyal Non-Conformist.

That Peter was a Prelate they aver;

But I'll not swear't when all is said & done:

But I dare swear, & I hope I shall not err,

He preach'd an Hundred Sermons to their One.

Or else what a Clergy-Man once said, who was very busy always at Court, and never had Leisure to exercise his Gifts in Preaching, or never much inclined that Way, viz. that a Preaching Bishop was a Preaching Coxcomb.

Our Praefacer proceeds to banter the Young Stripplings, upon a Passage which a celebrated Writer at a certain Ordination (if he'll allow the Expression) made use of to the Commendation of the Younger Clergy in New-England. [Page]Well, Sir, and so they are able to understand the Learned Languages. And, Sir, in the Name of my Young Brethren, I do my self challenge you to write in any of them, and your own Clergy Men shall be judges between us. Not so fast, Friend, Learning is a Commodity which su [...]fers no Monopoly. It is [...] the Sun in the Firmament, shining upon all [...]; one Man receives nothing less of his [...] and Light, and Influences, because ano [...] lies ba [...]king in his Rays. No, no, P [...]aebus has not confined his Bounty to so narrow Limits, as your Learned Head.

Let me (I beseech ye) advise Gainsayers to take heed how they oppose them, for here is nothing but convince and confound; Stand clear, here is no Quarter to be given. And I pray, why not convince, and confound, as well as prove to a Demonstration, as you pretend your terrible Syllogism over-leaf amounts unto. Demonstration, a favourite Word among you, as every Body observes, and you scorn to measure your Syllogisms with any [...] Gauge. Demonstration! Were [...]E [...]lid alive he would run mad, to see what [...] so sacred to him, and the Prerogative of the Geometricians so prostituted. Indeed our P [...]acer had need sacrifice every year an Hecatomb of his Choice Dialogues to his Manes, to appease the angry Ghost. But if the Profacer calls the Dialogues Demonstration, My Word for it we'll allow him [Page]the Effects [convince] and [confound.] And then let him hang out his Sign, inscribed, Within are to be had Demonstrations of all sorts and sizes; stand clear.—

What a strong Foundation are the Dialogues [...] upon? Two absolute Contradictions can't be true at once. How terrifying must this be to the Reader, when he thinks that to hold Predestination, is to offer Vio [...]ce to his Ʋnderstanding equal to the Assertion of the Existence and Non-existenceof a Thing at the same time. O the amazing Power and Force of Logic! And yet whole Churches have been so sotrish as to acquiesce in so absurd a Tenet. What a [...] thing is it to be born in the Ends of the World, when Things formerly disputable, and much controversed, are now proved to a Demonstration; and now to persist in our former Doctrine, is equally absurd as the Denial of that eternal incontestible Maxim of the Metaphysicians, Res non potest Esse et non Esse eodem Tempore.— I am crop sick of Demonstrations. Depend upon it, Demonstrations will soon grow out of Credit, and be but a Drugg in the Market of Literature, if his Choice Dialogues may be enrolled among the Apodictices of the Age.

[Page] But now the mighty Syllogism! Stand clear here's no Quarter! Here's nothing [...]ut Demonstration!

Two absolute Contradictions, &c.

Now our Champion is taking leave of us in his Praeface, but yet with the Civility of begging upon his Knees; it is to beg to give a little advice to those Persons into whose Hands his Papers shall fall, that they would not, if they happen to find [...]y thing displeasing to them, immediately throw them out of their Hands. This Aged Gentleman who had just now been sup [...]lying some Young Men with an Argument; has no better Advice left to give to all Old or Young, but to read diligently his Dialogues. What Nonsense is this, if they scorn the Dialogues themselves, his Advice will not succeed a whit better. If the Work won't recommend it self; his Advice, as Old as he is, will never move any to a Perusal of it.

But why would he have us read them? Why, he says, they will rightly instruct [...]s concerning some of those Things in Paul's Epistles, which Peter says, are hard [...]o be understood, which the unlearned and unstable wrest to their own Destruction.[Page]Hard to be understood, and yet as he says to be apprehended by the meanest Plough-man! But whether it be so or not, that they do so rarely instruct us, I leave, until we come to the Dialogues themselves.

I cannot take leave of the Reader, without observing the religious Benediction and Doxology, and the [Amen] at the End of it, with which he concludes his uncharitable and unmannerly Preface. I add only this, Can Blessing and Cursing proceed from the same Mouth!

I am the Reade'rs Humble Servant, Christopher Whigg.

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THere is now in the Press, and will shortly be Published, a Book Entituled, An Hue and Cry after Conscience: Or, The Pilgrims Progress by Candle-light, in search after Honesty and Plain-Dealing. Represented under the Similitude of a DREAM. Where. in is discovered the pritty manner of his Setting out. His Pleasant Humours on his Journey. The Disappointment he met with after all his search. Together with his flight at last into another Countrey, where he is still on his Rambles. Written by John Dunton Author of the Pilgrims Guide, from the Cradle to his Death-bed. Sold by Nicholas Boone, at the Sign of the Bible in Cornhill. 1720.

APPENDIX.

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BEfore I conclude this small Book, I flatter my self, it will not be disagreeable, nor unprofitable to such Readers, who have not Time and Leisure to enquire into the Merits of the Cause in this Controversy of Predestination, if I finish my Answer to the Choice Dialogues, with the Consideration of the following Heads.

I. That the primitive Doctrine of the Church of England, relating to the Article of Predestination was Calvinistical; and in this sense of the Calvinists, the first English Reformers held that Article. I am not at present about to prove the Truth, & the agreeableness of these Articles to the holy Scriptures; but only in Opposition to our Dialogist, to shew that he either does not know, or else falsifies, the true Tenets of the Church of England. The Church of England, (I say) for it matters not what the Church at present holds, but what the first Reformers, and Founders thereof declared to be their Faith. That is the true Doctrine of the Church of England, which was first maintained, and not at all the less [Page]for their having in a great Measure fallen from it. And here I might have made the World believe (as my Antagonist has done) that my own laborious Research [...] had helped me to what I am going to set down as the Doctrine of the Church of England. And it had been indeed no hard Task; but I chuse rather to transcribe a Part of a Letter of Mr. Francis Mackemie, in a Pastoral Letter to the Reformed Protestants in Barbadoes, as a Vindication of the Dissenters. It is in the Postcript to his Letter. The Words are as follow.

I must confess I have oft heard, how some upon all occasions, have bitterly run at the Doctrine of Predestination, as if none maintained such a Doctrine but we; And a Minister of your Island, called it, A damnable Doctrine: and I now justly wonder to receive such a Character of Predestination from some, that it is contrary to the Word of God, and a great discouragement to Piety. Therefore I am now to produce the received and approved Doctrine of the Church of England, concerning Predestination, since the Reformation to this Day; and shall begin with the 35 Articles agreed upon in a Convocation held at London 1552. in the Reign of Edw. 6. and frequently renewed and ratifyed in the following Reigns, and continued the established Doctrine of the Church to this day, which Dissenters with some [...] lowed [Page]exceptions subscribe as their own Doctrine, as a legal qu [...]lification for our Liberty. I wish you would read and consider again the 17th Article. Viz. ‘Predestination to life is the everlasting purpose of God, whereby before the foundations of the World were laid, he hath constantly decreed by his Counsel, secret to us, to deliver from curse and damnation, those, whom he hath chosen in Christ Jesus out of mankind, and to bring them by Christ to everlasting Salvation, as vessels made to honour; wherefore they that be endued with so Excellent a benefit of God, be called according to Gods purpose, by his Spirit working in due season, they thro' Grace obey the calling, they be Justifyed freely, they be made Sons of God by Adoption, they be made like the Image of his only begotten Son Jesus Christ, they walk religiously in good works, and at length by Gods mercy they attain to everlasting felicity. As the Godly consideration of Predestination, and our Electiin Christ, is full of sweet, pleasant and unspeakable comfort to Godly persons, & such as feel in themselves the workings of the Spirit of Christ, mortifying the works of the flesh, and their earthly members, and drawing up their mind to high & heavenly things, as well because it doth establish & confirm their Faith of eternal Salvation, to [Page]be enjoyed through Christ, as because it doth frequently kindle their Love towards God, so for curious and carnal persons, lacking the Spirit of Christ, to have continually before their eyes, the sentence of Gods Predestination, is a most dangerous downfall, whereby the Devil doth thrust them either to desperation, or into wretchlessness of most unclean living, no less perilous than desperation. Furthermore we must receive Gods promises in such wise, as they be generally set forth to us in the holy Scriptures, and in our doing that will of God is to be followed, which we have expres [...] declared to us in the Word of God.’ And as to the sense of this Article, take it from the Learned of the Church of England, Dr. Whitaker, in his Cygnia Cantio, page 16, 17. (Dr. Bridges stiles this, The chiefest Article of the Church in Doctrine.) Mr. Thomas Rogers in his Analysis, bound up formerly with the Articles. Dr. Toysins in his Commentary on Lambeth Articles, fully explain this Article, and raise conclusions from it. 1 That there is a Predestination of certain, men to eternal Life; a preterition, predestination, or Reprobation of certain men unto Death. 2. That this Predestination is no manifest, no open Decree, into the grounds and causes of which every mean capacity may dive, but a hidden purpose, counsel or decree of God, which [Page]is kept secret from us. 3. That this Predestination to life is from Eternity. 4. That is altogether immutable and unchangeable as God himself This is the established Doctrine which all the Clergy of the Church of England, subscribe or assent unto at Ordination.

The next demonstration and discovery of the Church in this point, is from the Lambeth Articles, agreed upon at Lambeth House, by John Arch-bishop of Canterbury, Richard Bishop of Bangor, Dr. Tindall Dean of Elie, Dr. Whitaker, professor of Divinity at Cambridge, with several learned Divines of the Church; with the approbation of Matthew, Arch-bishop of York, composed at first in Latin, and sent to the University at Cambridge, to prevent and crush some Arminian Controversies that were beginning to be raised there; yet I shall give you in English Four of Nine, that relate to Predestination, never yet impeached or rejected by the Church, as inconsistent with the 39 Articles, but inserted in the Ireland Articles, & allowed of in the conference at Hampton Court. 1. God from Eternity hath Predestinated certain men unto Life, certain men he hath Predestinated, or reprobated unto Death: 2. Th [...] moving and efficient cause of Predestination unto Life, is not the fore-sight of Faith or Perseverance, or good works, or of any thing in the persons Predestinated, [Page] but only in the good will and pleasure of God. 3. There is a Predestinate number of Predestinate, which can neither be augmented nor diminished. 4. Those who are not Predestinated unto Salvation are necessarily damned for their Sins. This is more plain and particular, than any thing I have heard taught by Presbyterians, and yet it is the Doctrine of the Church of England.

The next Testimony from that Church for Predestination, is the Articles of Ireland, agreed upon by the Arch-bishops, Bishops, and the Clergy of that Kingdom, in a Convocation held at Dublin, 1615. And seeing they were English Divines, and a part of the English Church, under one King, they were received, approved and licensed by the Government, as agreeable to the 39 Articles, and also those of Lambeth; therefore I shall record out of them what concerns Predestination, or the Decrees of God.

Art. 11. God from all eternity, did by his unchangeable Counsel, ordain whatsoever in time should come to pass, yet so as thereby no violence is offered to the wills of the reasonable Creatures, and neither the Liberty nor Contingency of Second causes is taken away, but established rather.

Art. 12. By the same eternal Counsel, God hath Predestinated some unto Life, and Reprobated some unto Death, of both which there is a certain number known only to [Page]God, which can neither be encreased nor diminished.

13. Predestination unto Life, is the everlasting purpose of God, whereby before the foundations of the World were laid, he hath constantly decreed in his Secret Counsel, to deliver from curse and damnation, those whom he hath chosen in Christ, out of mankind, and to bring them by Christ, to everlasting Salvation, as vessels made unto honour.

14. The cause moving God to Predestinate, is not the fore-seeing of Faith, or Perseverance, or Good Works, or of any thing in the persons Predestinated, but only the good pleasure of God himself, for all things being ordained for the manifestation of his Glory, and his Glory being to appear, both in the works of his Mercy and Justice, it seemed good unto his heavenly wisdom, to choose out a certain number toward whom he would extend his undeserved Mercy, leaving the rest to be Spectacles of his Justice.

15. Such as are Predestinated unto Life, be called according to Gods purpose, his Spirit working in due season, and thro' Grace they obey the calling, they be Justified freely, they be made Sons of God by Adoption, they be made like the Image of his only begotten Son Jesus Christ, they walk religiously in good Works, and at length by God's Mercy they attain to everlasting felicity; but such as[Page]are not Predestinated to Salvation, shall finally be condemned for their Sins.

16. ‘The Godly consideration of Predestination, and our Election in Christ, [...] full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable comfort to Godly persons, and such a [...] feel in themselves the workings of the Spirit of Christ, mortifying the works of the flesh, and their earthly members, and drawing up their minds to high & heavenly things, as well because it doth greatly confirm and establish their faith, of eternal Salvation, to be enjoyed thro' Christ, as because it doth fervently kindle their Love towards God; and on the contrary side for curious and carnal persons, lacking the Spirit of Christ, to have continually before their Eyes, the Sentence of Gods Predestination, is very dangerous.’ This is the Doctrine of the Church of Ireland, and so exactly agreeable to the 39 Articles, and those of Lambeth, that I need say no more of them.

Another discovery of the Doctrine of Predestination, is from the Suffrages of the five Representatives of the Church of England, at the Synod of Dort, Dr. Carleton Bishop of Chichester, Dr. Samuel Ward, publick Divinity professor at Cambridge, Dr. Davenant Bishop of Salisbury, Dr. Balcanquel Dean of Rochester, and Dr. Thomas Goad, who were called and assembled to [Page]nip Arminianism in the bud: and they being Commissionated and sent by the Supream Authority in the Nation; their Suffrages as recorded in the publick Acts of that Synod, and by Dr. Ward, in his Suffragium Britannorum, are to be found, and were then received and approved, as the Doctrine of the Church of England. And should it not appear a wonder, and be a surprize to the hearers, tho' the Preachers cannot be Ignorant of it, that the Common Prayer Book, the ordinary and universal Book of their Devotion should give its Suffrage, and bear its testimony for Predestination, or Election, which upon a more strict observation all shall find? In the Collect for All Saints Day, it begins, Almighty God, who hast knit together thine Elect in one communion, and fellowship in the mystical Body of Christ Jesus our Lord. If God has an Elected people, there must some be left out, and passed by, otherwise there can be no Election, or Choice. In the Catechism generally taught unto Children, in Answer to Q 6. It is replied in the third place, In God the Holy Ghost, who Sanctifyed me, and all the Elect, people of God; which plainly instructs us, that God chooseth to Sanctification, and holiness as well as to Salvation, and that all Elect ones shall be Sanctifyed, and consequently Saved. In the burial of the Dead, in the first prayer after the Lords Prayer; Beseeching[Page]thee, that it may please thee of thy gracious Goodness, shortly to accomplish the number of thine Elect. Here is not only an Elect, but a definite and certain Number determined with God, which are not yet accomplished, and the number of such as are left out and passed by, is also certain and determined. In a Godly prayer at all times, which is added to some old Bibles, there is this passage; In that it hath pleased thee freely, and of thine own accord, to Elect and choose us to Salvation before the beginning of the World. This is plain language, and in the Books of Devotion, and even those who little thought Common Prayer favoured Predestination, which they oft called a Damnable Doctrine, and is so particular, for a Doctrine some of your Neighbours have asserted, contrary to the Word of God, and a great discouragement to Piety; so that I wonder how the Oxford Oath of Assent and Consent shall relish for the future, wherein men Swear, That nothing is contained in the Book of Cannons, Ordination of Bishops, and Common Prayer, contrary to the word of God, seeing Predestination is found in one of them.

We call in also to witness for us, the Homilies of the Church, which appear to be principally the established Doctrine thereof, for the most part composed by the Arch-bishop Cranmer, who sealed among many more, this and other truths, with his Blood. [Page]It were too tedious to transcribe all here, but I shall give a passage or two, to engage Readers to be more attentive and observant for the future. Therefore in the 2d part about p. 160. ‘God of his mercy, and special favour, towards them whom he hath appointed to everlasting Salvation, hath so offered his Grace especially, and they have so received it fruitfully, that altho, by reason of their sinful living outwardly, they seemed before to have been the children of wrath and perdition, yet now the Spirit of God mightily working in them unto the obedience of Gods will, that they are the undoubted Children of God, appointed unto everlasting Life: for the Good fruit is not the cause the tree is good: for the tree must first be made good, before it can bring forth good fruit.’ This and much more may be found in both parts for confirmation of this Doctrine of Predestination.

I refer you also to a Church of England Catechism, enjoyned by King Edw. 6. to all School-masters, for instruction of Children throughout the Kingdom, wherein it is asserted, ‘That the faithful were sore chosen, Predestinated, and appointed to everlasting life, before the World was made, and that the cause of our Justification, and Salvation, is the goodness and love of God, whereby he chose us, before he made the World.’

[Page] I cannot omit certain Questions and Answers concerning Predestination, published by Robert Parker, and continued to be bound [...] with your Bibles, until the Year 1615. I shall give you a hint thereof, in two or three Questions, relating to Predestination. Q. ‘Are not all ordained to Eternal Life. A. Some are Vessels of Wrath, ordained to Destruction, as others are Vessels of Mercy, prepared for Glory.’ Q. How standeth it with God's Justice, that some are appointed to Damnation? A. Very well, because all men have in themselves Sin, which deserveth no less, and therefore the mercy of God is wonderful, in that he Vouched to save some of that sinful race, and to bring them to the knowledge of the Truth. Q. But how shall I know I am ordained to Eternal Life?

A. By the motions of Spiritual Life, which belongeth only to the Children of God. I might enlarge with varieties of Testimonies in favour of this Doctrine, from the Learned & Godly in all the past Reigns, from the Reformation downward; and shall conclude with that honourable, and venerable Suffrage of Primate Ʋsher, in his Sum and Substance of Christian Religion, which for the Satisfaction of all, I shall deliver in his own words. Q. What are the parts of Predestination? A. Election and Reprobation. Q. What is Election? A. 'Tis the everlasting Predestination, or fore-appointment [Page]of certain Angels and men unto everlasting life and blessedness, for the praise of Gods glorious Grace and Goodness Q. What is Reprobation? A. It is the eternal fore-appointment of certain Angels and men unto everlasting Dishonour and Destruction, God of his own free-will determining to pass them by, refuse and cast them off, and for sin condemn and punish them, with eternal Death. And to these you may add most Church of England Books common among us; as also that common Book almost in every Family, The Practice of Piety. So it is to be hoped you will not adventure to say, the Church of Scotland holds any other Predestination, than what is the Doctrine of the Church of England; or that it is contrary to the Word of God, and a great discouragement to Piety.

Now who will believe him, when he tells us, with all the assurance in the World, that his Gant and Gibberish is the true Doctrine of the Church?

2 Declare the Sentiments of the ancient Fathers in this Matter, and give a short History of the Propagation of this Doctrine. To show the Ignorance of the Author, in Voting it out for a Noval Doctrine. And here again, I shall freely own my self beholden to Monsieur Pictet, Professor of Divinity in the Academy of Geneva (if our [Page]Author can bear the Mention of that hated Republick.) For the short History of Predestination, which I now present to the Reader, as also for many of the Quotations from Ancient Writers, which I take from him, except some which I collected from the Writers themselves.—Says Monsieur Pictet.

‘C'est fort bien, remarque que dans les Disputes touchant la Grace, la Election, and la Predestination, &c.’ Which I shall for the Benefit of English Readers translate.

‘We must note, that less Regard is to be paid to the Ancient Fathers, who preceeded Austin, and lived before the Time of the Rise of the Heresy of Pelagius; I say, less Regard is to be paid to them in our Disputes of Predestination, and Free Grace, than to those who lived afterwards; because that these latter have searched the Matter with more Care and Exactness. Every new Sect of Hereticks (saith St. Austin) which spring up in the Church, by the Disputes, which they are the unhappy Instruments of raising in the Church, have given Occasion to others to illustrate and confirm, with a greater particularity, those Truths of Scripture, which they find thus attacked The Fathers, when they had it in Hand to dispute with the Manichees, were too apt in Opposition to them, to extol the Powers of Free-Will; nevertheless, most of them favoured the Truths which we defend; [Page]and they have said many Things in opposition to the Error which we oppose.’

But without being at the pains to consult the Sentiments of the Fathers, who lived before Pelagius; we shall make a search after that which the Church held and maintained, when that Heretick first arose to infest the Churches, and what was the Belief of those who followed them.

It appears from the Works of St. Austin, that there were three distinct Systems of Predestination, in the Time of that ancient Doctor of the Church.

The first was that of St. Austin and the Church, which gives all to God. The Second is that of Pelagius, who attributes all to Man. The Third is that of the Semi-Pelagians, who divided it between God & Man, attributing Part to God, and Part to Man; but attributing more to Man than to God. The Pelagians founded the Predestination, or rather the Election of God upon the Fore-sight of the Merit of Man. The Semi-Pelagians, upon the Consideration that Grace is necessary to all the actions of Piety, they attributed it to the Free-Will of Man, only the beginning and first Essays toward Faith; and they believed that Predestination was founded upon the Fore-sight of this first Beginning of Faith, which according to them appertained only to Man; yea, they even asserted, that Children[Page]dying in their Infancy, were Predestinated according as God had fore-seen they would have lived, in Case they had lived a longer Time in the World.

‘They distinguished also the Decrees of God into two sorts, the one a general and conditional Decree of Saving all men; the other a particular and absolute Decree, of Saving those whose Faith he fore-saw from Eternity. But St. Austin with the Church not admitting any good Disposition in Man which is not the Gift of God, even from the least beginning of Faith to the End of our Perseverance, and a Gift purely gratuitous, or of meer Grace, because it is not done with a view to any Merit; but on the contrary 'tis a Gift to Sinners who are unworthy thereof, held that Predestination is wholly of Grace.’

The Church highly approved the Doctrine of St. Austin, and thundered her Anathema's against Pelagius, and the Semi-Pelagians in many of their Councils, and particularly those which were held at Carthage and at Milevi. Anno 416, 417, 418. against Pelagius and Celestius.

The Popes Celestinus and Innocent declared themselves against these Hereticks, and maintained the Doctrine of St. Austin.

St. Prosper largely defended the same amongst the Gauls.

No less strenuous was Pope Leo in the [Page]Defence hereof, as may be seen by one of his Letters; and he authorized all that had been said and done against the Pelagians, by the African Councils and others; and he made choice of St. Prosper himself for his Secretary in this Affair.

Pope Gelasius signalized himself in the Defence of this Doctor of the Church, and made evident how much he esteemed the Book of the Call of the Gentiles, placing all the Works of Cassian and Faustus among the Apocryphal. Books, viz. those which were not received by the Church.

In the sixth Century, Pope Hormisda fell into the same Sentiments, and the Doctrine of St. Austin was defended by John Maxentius, a Monk and Priest of Antioch, by St. Fulgentius, by the Bishop of Arles, by Primasius a Bishop, by Ferrandus, Deacon at Carthage, by the illustrious Bishops and Confessors, banished for their Faith into Sardinia, by the second Synod at Orange, held in Anno 529, and by Cassidorus, by Gregory the Great, &c.

In the ninth Century, there were many who maintained the Doctrine of St. Austin; & among others, the famous Godeschal, who suffered greatly by the Persecutions of Hincmarus.

Ra [...]ram a Monk taught the Doctrine of the Predestination of the Elect from free Grace, in those two Books of the Predestination[Page]of God, dedicated to the Emperour Charles, sirnamed Calvus.

St. Prudentius, Bishop of Troye, defended the same Truth, and declared in his Letter to Hincmarus, and Pardulius, that none of the ancient Doctors had studied with more Exactness and Accuracy than had St. Austin, the most hidden Secrets and Mysteries of the Scripture, nor that had examined into them with so much Application, nor had more happily litt upon the Truth, nor had explained them with more Sincerity, nor had more nicely disentangled the Doctrine of Predestination of its Difficulties; nor that had set himself to unfold them with more Fidelity than he, nor that had defended them with greater strength and force of Reasoning, &c.

This same Prelate not being in a Capacity to attend himself at the Ordination of Encas, chosen Bishop of Paris, dispatched away one of his Priests as a Delegate to represent him, with a Letter importing his Consent unto the Ordination of that Bishop; but upon Condition that he should declare by his Subscription, that he held entirely to the Doctrine of the holy Fathers touching Grace; and to that of the Four Chapters (as they are called) and in one of these Four Chapters, we have these remarkable Words; ‘That we believe & acknowledge, that by a deep and unsearchable Counsel of [Page]Almighty God, there are some who are predestined unto Life before all Time by the entirely free Mercy of God; and that there are others, who by an incomprehensible Justice, are predestinated to Torments.’

Lupus Abbot at Ferrara in the Diocess of Seus writing to Hincmarus Archbishop of Rheims, speaks thus ‘The Opinion which seems most conformable to the Truth is this; Namely, that with respect to the Good, Predestination is nothing else, according to the Mind of the most learned Austin, than the Preparation of Grace; and with Regard to the Wicked, Predestination, as well as I can conceive and judge of it, is the substraction of Grace. It is from these last Principles, that this Author very solidly explains the Matter thus;’ God does not afford the succours of his Grace, to those to whom he is not pleased to grant them, according to his Decree of Predestination; but yet in such sort, that the Equity of the Creator appears equally in his Conduct towards either, while he gives to some his Grace out of meer Mercy, and does not give it to others, by a Judgment as righteous as it is hidden. As then we are all equally fallen into a State of Condemnation; God shews Mercy to whom of us he pleases, and he hardneth also whom he pleases; that is, he leaves them under the Power of their own native hardness. It is thro' infinite Goodness[Page]that he shews Mercy; but it is without any Ʋnrighteousness, that he reprobates and hardens any, viz. that he denies them his Special Grace.

Lupus Servatus, Priest at Mentz, composed a Work upon the three famous Questions, where he teaches the same Doctrine touching Predestination by Free Grace.

Florus, Deacon of the Church at Lyons, maintained the same Truth in a Book of his. And so did the Archishop of the same Place defend it with a great deal of Courage and Light.

The Council of Valentia assembled, Anno 855. by Order of the Emperor Lotharius, clearly established it. We confess, says he, without Hesitation or Doubt, the Predestination of the Elect to Life, and the Predestination of the Ungodly to Death; always acknowledging and allowing, that in the Election of those that are to be Saved, the Mercy of God precedes all Good Merit; and that on the contrary in the Damnation of those that perish, their Evil Demerit does precede the just Judgment of God; that God has not by his eternal Predestination determined with himself to do any Thing, which is not the Effect either of meer gratuitous Mercy, or most righteous Judgment.

Another Council held at Langres, Anno 859. in the Presence of King Charles, the younger Brother of Lotharius, confirmed [Page]the Canons of the Council of Valentia. Fifteen Days afterwards they were read over again, and confirmed in a Third Council, held at another Place.

Pope Nicholas the first, confirmed these Canons, as Prudentius Bishop of Troye informs us in his Annals.

Hincmarus himself in his Work of Predestination, approves that of St. Augustin; upon the same Point; and does not blame Godeschalcus, only that he supposes, Hincmarus had departed therefrom.

In the Eleventh Century Anselm, Arch. Bi [...]ho [...] of Canterbury was a great Disciple of St. Austin; as also Ildebert, Arch Bishop of Tours.

St. Bernard above all that have been mentioned in the XII Centu [...], made it appear, that he entirely fell in with the Sentiments of that famous Bishop of Hippo; and the Abbot Gilbert the Disciple of St. Bernard, maintained the same Opinions.

An Abbot in Great Britain, defended the Doctrine of Predestination, by meer free Grace, in a Work of his, entituled, The Mirror of Charity; and makes it appear, that it is a particular especial Love, that God had from Eternity for some which he had not for others which makes that Difference between them. They are all equally condemned; but he has abandoned the greatest Number of them unto his Justice; and [Page]it hath pleased him to show Favour to others; and no one can find Fault with his Will, and accuse it of Injustice.

Thomas Aquinas, the great Angelick Doctor of the Roman Church, in the Thirteenth Century, signalized himself in the Defence of this Doctrine. In his Commentary upon the Epistle to the Romans he speaks after this manner. ‘As to the Order of Prescience and Predestination, there are some who say that the Fore-sight of Good and Bad Works, or Merits is the Reason and Cause of Predestination, and Reprobation; In such sort, that we are to conceive and think that God has Predestinated some because he foresaw they would do good Works, and would believe in Carist; and according to that Opinion, the sense of Text of the Apostle is this; Those whom God foresaw were to be conformed to the Image of his Son, they were the Persons whom he Predestinated. And it would be reasonable so to phrase it, if Predestination had regard to nothing else but to Life Eternal bestowed upon us as the Reward of our Works. But Predestination involves and implies in it all those Gifts and Benefits which are profitable in order to Salvation, which God has prepared for Men from all Eternity. Wherefore all that Grace which he distributes to Men, as preparatives to eternal Glory, in Time, he had prepared [Page]for them from Eternity. To establish them, and presuppose upon our Part any Merit, the Fore-knowledge of which is the Cause and Foundation of Predestination, is the same thing as to say, that Grace is given to us for the sake of our Merits; and that the Principle of our good Works is from our selves, and only the consummating and perfecting of our Grace is from God.’

His whole Commentary upon the Eighth, Ninth and Tenth Chapters of the Epistle to the Romans, is full of such Reflections.

Nay further, take the Words of Cardinal Bellarmin himself, in his Book of Grace and Free-Will.

‘Not only says he, have the holy and enlightened Fathers of the Church established this Doctrine, but the most ancient and learned among them assure us, that it was a part of the Faith of the Catholick Church, and rejected the contrary Opinion, as b [...] ing the Sentiments of the Pelagians. To this says he, we must add the publick approbation of the Church. Lastly adds he, it is no [...] once nor twice, nor three times only, that the holy Apostolick Chair has pronounced its Judgment in Favour of the Defenders of Grace and Predestination against the rest of the Pelagians; so that the Opinions of St Augustin cannot any more be s [...]iled the Opinion of some Doctors, but the Faith of the Catholick Church.’

[Page] In fine, after the Council of Trent, which would not decide that Question, there were great Contests between the Cordeliers or Franciscans, and the Dominicans These latter maintain the Cause of St. Austin; & had Dominicus a Soto for their Head. The others maintained the contrary Sentiment, & had for their Head Andreas Vega. The Jesuites strook in of the Franciscan side; but not all of them; for Bellarmine, Pererius, &c. defended St. Austin and Thomas Aquinas; Jansenius too maintained strongly the same Truths, which St. Austin had taught.

Thus much may suffice to show, that these Doctrines of Election, Grace, &c. are no Noveltias; and our Author proves himself a bold Novice to assert such a Thing with so much Confidence, and so little Reason and Proof. He is not enough acquainted either with the Fathers or Church History to know what is Ancient, and what is Novel. I shall therefore for his Information, set down what the learned Dr. Edwards says upon this Head in his Veritas Redux, which I am to suspect our Friend had never seen, when he published his Choice Dialogues. It is very common to such vast Literators as he is, to read Answers to and Censures upon Au [...]hors, and pass their wise Judgment, before they have seen the Authors themselves.

Says Dr. Edwards, [Veritas Redux.] Page 499. to 506.

[Page] But still further to stifle this Calumny, (viz. Of the pretended Novelty of this Doctrine) & utterly to coufound it, I will more particularly and professedly consider that part of the Cavil which respects the, Ancient Fathers & Writers of the Church & which represents them as of a different Judgment from the Followers of Calvin in those Doctrins that we have insisted upon. As to what those Ancients say concerning these Points, I will give the Reader satisfaction in these Two Propositions,

1. Many of the Fathers are not to be relied upon when they speak of these Doctrines.

2. Several of them, who are the most competent Judges of these Points, do plainly assert and defend them.

First, I will make it evident, That many of the Fathers are not to be relied upon in what they deliver concerning these Articles of Religion. For, First, It is difficult to know their true Sense and Judgment when they speak of these Matters: And again, when we have found it out, and know what their designed meaning is, we can't rest and confide in it. The former of these is very clear, because in the Times of those who were the most [Page]Ancient Fathers of the Church, these Controversies were scarcely started, much less purposely handled, at least but by a few, and so they had not occasion to deliver their Judgments fully concerning these Points. They did not so take them into Consideration as to treat of them distinctly and exactly. They did not discourse of them with an Intention to settle Mens Judgments about them. How then can it be expected that they should speak home to the Point, when they speak only by the Bye, and as it were Accidentally, and did not make it their Design and Business to treat of those Things? It is observable, that before some of the chief Heresies arose, these Writers were not so express and punctual about those Articles of Religion as they were afterwards. St. Jerom confesses that before Arius's Time the Fathers delivered some Things unadvisedly, and with little heed to what they said; yea, they said such things as can hardly escape the Cavils of perverse M [...]n. And what was thus observed by this learned Father concerning the Arian Controversie, is observed likewise concerning the Pelagian, by ather [Page]Father of the same Character, and particularly he remarks concerning Chrysostom, That before Pelagius appeared, he was negligent and careless in his Words, when he discoursed of Free-Will and Grace. And what he saith of this Father, may be said of the rest, they did not speak so warily and heedfully as afterwards; and accordingly several Points were in those Times unsettled, and not fully determined such as those that I have been handling, and therefore to quote the generality of the Fathers upon this occasion is impossible, and to expect it to be done is idle and impertinent.

There are other Reasons why we should not look upon some of the Fathers as good Judges here. For it was usual with them to set down other Mens Sayings and Opinions as their own. Jerom observes of Origen, Eusebius, and others, that they sometimes write not their own Sentiments, but speak what others had delivered. Yea, somtimes they said not what they thought, but what the present Occasion compelled them to say, with respect to the diversity of Times or Persons they had to do with. With regard to [Page]which latter, they deliver'd not the same Notions and Sentiments to the Vulgar and to the Learned. Sometimes the Fathers rhetoricate and declame, and then we must not expect that things will be spoken exactly according to Truth. Jerom acknowledges concerning himself, that in some parts of his Writings he speaks only Probably, and like a Retorician or Orator, for Argument sake; and at other times he is Dogmatical and Serious, and close to the purpose. But it is hard to tell when he delivers things one way, and when the other. Basil saith of Gregory of Neocaesarea, that he spake sometimes not dogmatically, but as in the heat of Dispute. It is usual with some of the Fathers, especially Chrysostom and his Imitator Theophylact, to assert such and such an Opinion, to give such an Interpretation of a Text in Scripture, and then in another place to forget what they had said, and to assert and Interpret in an other way, yea, sometimes a quite contrary one. So that it is difficult to know what is the Sense of the Fathers.

And when we know it, we cannot rely on it. For some of the Ancient Writers of the Church were Novices, and being [Page]but lately admitted into the Christian Communion, were but meanly instructed in the Principles of it. Others of them, tho' of longer standing, were sometimes very extravagant in their expounding of Scripture. They strain and wrest the Text, and venture to add to the Words, or to conceal part of them, to prove the business they have undertaken, and to back the Opinions they have espoused So that no impartial Searcher of Truth will swallow there groundless Interpretations. Nor is it to be forgot that some of the Fathers had been professed Philosophers, and thence bro't into Divinity several undue Notions & Principles. Thus tis known that they we [...]re grea [...] Patrons of Free-Will, which they call [...], and [...], & other Names are given it by the Writers of the Church, the same which the Gentile Mora [...]ists make use of. Some of them intend only that Freedom of Will which I have asserted, that is a voluntary acting without Co-action. And of this parhaps Justin Martyr is to be understood in his Apology to Antonius Pius, where he asserts Free-will against Fa [...]e, and uses several Arguments for it. And so doth Irenaeus [Page]in his Fourth Book against Herisies, Chapters 71, 72, 76, 77. Eusebius in his 6th Book of the Evengelical Preparation, proves from sundry Topicks, that Man is a Free-Agent, and argues against Fatal Necessity. And sometimes the Christian Fathers speak of Free-Will as to common Acts of the Mind, and natural Results of Religion, which no man of Reason will deny. And it is likely that sometimes they understand it of a Free-Will to Good only. But it is too apparent, that some of them assert, that all Persons have an ability to will either good or ill in Spirituals: They hold, that there is a Natural Power in every Man to will and to do what is acceptable to God. Therefore it is observed by the Centuriators of Magdeburg, that no Point of Doctrine began so soon to be obscured and corrupted, as this of the Nature of Free-Will; and they quote some of the Fathers of the Second Century as chargeable with this. So it is acknowledged by Calvin, that the Greek Fathers are not of his side in this Point; for they generally held, that all Men by Nature have a Free-Will to choose Good in Spiritual and Divine Things. [Page]And we may certainly gather this from a passage in Irenaeus, viz. That it was part of the Heresie of Saturninus, that some Persons are born without freedom to do Good; and this Writer argues against it, unless we shall say (as was suggested before) that he speaks of Free-Will only, as it denotes acting without compulsion.

In short, we cannot depend upon the Fathers, for they have err'd in many things, and it is endless to particularize. I have done something toward his in an other place. So that if we should grant (as perhaps we safely may) that most of the Greek Fathers had other Notions of God's Decrees, Free-Will, Grace, &c. than I have offered, yet this is no Rule to us, unless we could prove that their Writings are void of Mistakes and Errors. This cannot be done, and no Wise Man expects it. Yea, we know that many Points in Religion have been taught heretofore by the Fathers, and generally received and applauded, which after-Ages tho't it no immodesty to lay aside and condemn. Wherefore let not the Fathers [Page]and Antiquity be pleaded in defence of the Doctrines which I have rejected.

My Second Proposition, is this, That these Points which I have been treating of, are plainly asserted and defended by several of the Fathers, even by those of them who were the most competent Judges of them. The Absolute Predestination of a cortain number of Persons, which is tho't by some to be a novel Doctrine, was asserted and defended by St. Augustine. Yea, he tells us, that some of the Fathers before him, as well as some that were contemporary with him held the same (tho' they had not occasion to speak of it so directly and plainly) and he quotes Passages out of Cyprian, Ambrose, Na [...]ianzen, for this. Election without the foresight of good Works, is asserted by St. Jerom. And as for Prosper, Fulgenrius, Isidore of Sevil, Gregory the Great, learned Writers in the succeeding Centuries, it is well known that they went this way: Particularly Prosper reckons it as the Doctrine of the favourers of Pelagius, that Election was upon foreseen Faith. And in the same place he mentions it as another Error of theirs, that they held [Page]the number of the Elect to be uncertain and undetermin'd. And Isidore expresly asserts a twofold Predestination, of the Elect unto Rest, of the Reprobate unto Death.

So the Opinion of several of the Fathers concerning Man's Free-Will & God's Grace, is the very same that I have maintain'd. St. Basil in many places of his Writings doth clearly and plainly assert, the absolute Necessity of the Grace of the holy Spirit, in order to the performance of good Works, acceptable to God, and he depresses the power of Free-Will. Gregory Nazianzen doth in some part imitate him in one of his Poems, the 58th. And as these were the only Men of the Greek Fathers; so Cyprian is the first of all the Latin ones, that speaks out concerning the Degeneracy and Infirmity of Man, and the Necessity of Divine and Supernatural Grace. Lactantius is the next that plainly owns these, and St. Augustine is the next after him, who fully and largely insists upon these Points, and taught others afterwards to do so.

This learned Prelate was as much for Free-Will as any Father, as his Books against[Page]the Manichees testifie; for these Hereticks denying all freedom of humane Actions, and holding that all Sin was by Necessity, this good Father, who wrote against them, professedly asserts and defends the liberty of the Will, and perhaps somewhat too immoderately in some places, particularly in his Book De Ecclesiacticis Dogmatibus. But when he wrote against the Pelagians, part of whose Here fie was, that the Free-Will of Man, is not impair'd by the Fall, but is as sound and perfect as in Innocency, he judiciously settled the Controversie about the Will of Man, maintaining that there is in the Regenerate a Free-Will to Good, and this is supernaturally given them; and in the wicked there is a Free-Will to Evil, and this is naturally in them. He frequently proves and inculcates, that this Faculty in every Man is by nature weak, disabled and enslaved, and that it can't be healed, strengthned, and freed, but by Divine Grace. What good can lost Man do, saith he, but only so far as he is delivered from his Perdition? Again, The Will of Man so far free, as it is Freed. Those words of his in another place contain [Page]a great part of what he saith on this Head in the rest of his Works, The Catholick Faith neither denies Free-Will, nor ascribes so much to it, that it can do any thing without the Grace of God. But the summ of all is comprised in these words of the same Author, The Free-Will of Man, as it is now corrupted and captivated, hath power only to Sin; but when it is set at liberty by God, and assisted by Divine Grace, it hath ability to execute acts of Righteousness. It is true, (and hath been observed already) that this Father hath in some parts of his Writings, some Passages that favour the contrary Doctrine; but he chang'd his judgment, when he had better considered of the matter, and in his riper years he was resolute and peremptory on the other side, as his Book of Retractations plainly shews And it is probable that most of the Fathers, who too much favour'd Free-Will, would have delivered their minds differently from what they did, if they had writ their Retractations.

Not only St. Augustine, but St. Jerom, was a great and hearty Opposer of the Doctrine of Free-Will, as it imports a [Page]natural Ability in all Men to choose good, without the assistance of supernatural Grace In many places of his Writings, he lowers the Repute, he depresses the Power o [...] Free-Will, and magnifies the Power o [...] God in the converting of Sinners. H [...] contends that Man is a free Agent, bu [...] denies that any thing is done to purpose in Religion, without the special Assistance of the Spirit. On those words of Christ, No man can come unto me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him; he thus Comments, [When he thus speaks, he breaks and destroys the proud Liberty of Man's Will; which if it would go to Christ, it desires it in vain, and endeavours it to no purpose, unless that be done which follows, except my heavenly Father draw him. And here likewise this is to be taken notice of That he who is drawn doth not run of his own accord, but is brought on with reluctancy, and is slow and unwilling] Thus he.

Prosper of Aquitain, who writ of Grace and Free-Will, tho' he owns the latter, yet requires the former, as absolutely necessary to the producing of any good Work. [...] Fathers, but great [Page]numbers of them, assembled in Councils and Synods (on purpose to condemn the Pelagian Errors) assert the natural Impotency of all Mankind, and the Necessity of Supernatural Grace; and hold, that we can't by the Power of Free-Will do aany good. The substance of all that was said in those Assemblies on this Head, is summ'd up in the second Council of Milevi in Africa, wherein the Bishops heartily concurr'd against the whole Body of Pelagianism, having now an opportunity to declare their Judgments. Whence we may partly guess, that even before Pelagius, the Fathers were against the Doctrine maintain'd by him, tho' they had not occasion to shew their Sentiments.

Thus have we shown what is the True Doctrine of the Church of England respecting Predestination. Let Calvin's System be true or false, we are not disputing that Point at present with our Choice Dialogist; but only we assert and prove, that Calvin's Doctrine is the true ancient and primitive Doctrine of the Church of England. Mr. Whiston is therefore much more sincere (tho' an Heretic) then are many of the Church of England, when he condemns the Articles of Predestination, &c. as Heterodox and would have the Church put in others [Page]in their Room; while others of that Church damn the Opinions of John Calvin, and yet subcribe to them in their own Articles. I will venture to say, that no Articles can be more Calvinistical than some of the Thirtynine. They are expressed in strong, good, and clear Language, without the least Shadow of an Equivocation; and are pure Calvinism. They cannot have any other Construction put upon them without affixing new Ideas to the Words in which they are set down, different from the received Signification of them amongst all Englishmen. If they are not Calvinistical, let us throw our Language aside, and agree upon new Words and Syllables! Nay, I dare affirm it, had it happened that those Aricles had been otherwise worded; and had it happened that John Calvin had let drop the Expressions of their Tenth, Thirteenth, and Seventeenth Articles, as they now stand, they would have voted them a gross Heterodoxy. For observe, these Men do notoriously abuse the 17th Article of Predestination. The Article says plainly, Predestination to Life is the eternal Purpose, whereby (before the Foundations of the World) he hath constantly decreed by his Counsel, secret to [...] to deliver from Curse and Damnation, these whom he hath chosen in Christ out of Mankind. Oberve here (1) The Deccree is Eternal. (2) It is immutable, and impossibly of a Fruitration. He hath [constantly] [...] [Page] by his Counsel. That is, not only are the Blessings laid up in the Decree of Election, but the Persons who are chosen to this Blessedness, are constantly and immutably designed and set apart in the Decree. No, but say they, God has elected the whole Race of Adam, the whole Species. I answer to this, if it be so, then the Saints are not elected from the Number of Mankind, if all Mankind be elected; But Men are said to be elected with respect to the Apostate Angels; That is, out of all Rational & Intelligent Beings God elected the blessed Angels, and the whole Species of Mankind and passed by or reprobated the Devil's. But this is not so; the Articles says plain (3) he has constantly decreed by his Counsel, secreet to us, to deliver from Curse and Damnation, those whom he hath chosen in Christ OUT OF MANKIND. They are from all Eternity elected out of Mankind. Which plainly intimates a certain definite Number of Persons, and not the whole Race of Adam. To say, that God chose all Mankind out of Mankind, is Nonsense. Again (4) They are chose in Christ. Now if all the Race of Adam were chose in Christ, in & by whom they are to be saved according to the constant Counsel of God, then all Men must be saved. Else [...] Decre [...] is fruitr [...]ted, and some that are [...] Christ, may fall from their Election [Page]in Christ. viz. God chose them in Christ, and yet they are in the Event damned out of Christ.

We may now pass to enumerate some of the many Absurdities and Inconsistances in the Choice Dialogues. And here it were a Task too great for an Hercules to cleanse this more then Augean Stable, of the Rubbish of Nonsense. Inconsistent Absurdities, and foul Mistakes. But a few may suffice, and we will conclude this Appendix.

First. The Author is not at all acquainted with the true Doctrine of the Stoics concerning Fate, when he calls the Calvinisticl Doctrine of Predestination, a Stoical and Fatal Scheme. The Divine Pre-ordinaion of all Events from the beginning to the End of Time, is entirely inconsistent with Stoical Fate. Yea the very notions of Divine Pre-ordination is one of its principal Differences from Fate. And will appear, if we consider what is Fate. Now altho', according to Cicero in his Book [De Fato] and according to Justus Lipsius in his [Physiologia Stoicorum] and according to Monsieur Danet in his [Dictionary of the Greek and Roman Antiquities, compiled for the use of the Dauphin] and others do mention several different Opinions of the Stoics as to the true Doctrine of Fate, yet the most received Notion thereof was to this Purpose; viz Fate is a certain blind and inevitable, inviolable and necessary Chain of Causes and[Page]effects whereby all Things and Events of Necessity come to pass, and which Jupiter himself the great God of all cannot alter. So that Jupiter himself did not fore-ordain all Things and Events. It is a blind Fate, consisting in the Eternal Necessity of the Things themselves; and not dependent upon the Will of Jove. Jupiter indeed may foreknow all Events, but then it is by Reason of his Knowledge in examining and inspecting those Eternal Rolls of Destiny. The Fates are sure and firm, & determinate antecedent to any Preordination of Jupiter. For there is a Difference between a bare Theorical Science, or Prescience, & a Pre-ordination. Thus I know there will be a Day of Judgment; but it will not arrive any whit the more for my knowing of it. Thus Jove foreknows all Events (according to the Stoics) but has not appointed them. Jove foreknows all Events because they will come to pass; but they do not come to pass because he foreknows them. For had there been no Jupiter the Fates, which are founded upon the Necessity of the Things in their various necessary Combinations, would have been, and Events have followed. I shall quote a few Authorities and dismiss the Subject. Herodotus says, [...], &c. Destinatam sortem nee D [...]o effugere fas est. Philemon the Poet, [...], Sunt Reg [...]bus Servi, Rex Servus est Deo, Deus N [...]cessitati. And that Jupiter is [Page]not the Ordainer of the Fates appears from these Words of Ovid in his Metamorphosis Lib. 15.

Invenies illic incisa Adamante perenni Fata tui Generis: Legi ipse animoque notavi.

Jupiter is there introduced speaking to Venus telling her it is to no Purpose to attempt to break the Decrees of the Three Parcae. And then he adds, I have observed and read their Decrees. Jupiter had no Hand in Ordaining them, but comes to the Knowledge of them by Inspection into the Rolls of Destiny.

But I conclude this with a Passage out of that great Poet our English Virgil, Mr. John Dryden. It is in his Dedication, of the Eneis to the Marquess of Normandy, who was also a great Poet. Speaking of Jupiter's Power to defer the Blow, that is to defer the Death of those, for whose Continuance in Life he had received strong Petitions, and ardent Supplications, He says, ‘I once occasionally discoursed with that Excellent Person Sr. Robert Howard, who is better conversant than any Man I know, in the Doctrine of the Stoics, and he set me right, from this concurrent Testimony of Phylosophers & Poets, that Jupiter could not retard the Effects of Fate, even for a Moment. For when I cited Virgil, as favouring the Contrary Opinion in that Verse, Tolle fuga Turnum atque instantibus cripe Fatis. [Page]He replyed, and I think with exact Judgment, that when Jupiter gave Juno leave to withdraw Turnus from the present Danger, it was because he foreknew, that his Fatal Hour was not come; That it was in Destiny, for Juno at that Time to save him; And that Himself, viz. Juptter, obeyed Destiny, in giving her, tha leave.’

Thus we see that Blind Fate, and Calvinnistical Predestination are intirely opposite; inasmuch as the former is not subject to God himself; but this latter supposes an holy, and righteous, wise, and Powerful Providence of God, who did himself ordain these Events. So much for Fate.

Another Blunder of the Dialogist is, that uis Notion of the Presentiation of all Things in the Divine Mind, destroys and overthrows all the rest of his Talk. For [...] all Things, which shall be done to the End of all Time, are present in Idea with God, no Fate can be surer and more necessary. Every Motion of Man, and every act of Volition, and every Sin, and every good Act is now present in the Divine Mind. And might not we reply a greeable to his Answers to Calvin [...] [...] what I will, I do no more than is already present with God; My Will is [...] sitated[Page]to this or that Thing, for it is all with God, as much as if I had already done it.

Once more, he blunders prodigiously in confounding the Ideas of Things decreed in the Divine Mind, with the Things themselves in their actual or eventual Existence. All Things are present with God, there is no Fore and After with God. We all acknowledge, that God Exists in the most perfect and incomprehensible Manner, he is Being it self [I am, that I am] and so endures no succession properly speaking, viz. no Succession which implies any Thing of Frailty or Change, which is to us inconceivable. Tho' Dr. Tillotson professes he cannot understand the meaning of an Eternal Nunc Stans, (as the School-men phrase it.) But we allow all Things present with God; yet we know they are successive with us. And how does this knock off the Fetters of Necessity from Free will? If they be all present with God, and he beholds them with one intuitive View, what help is that to me? What God knows of me will prove true in the Event. And tho' all Things are present with God, they are so only in Idea. For what I shall do on the morrow, God knows; but God does not know (to speak with humble Reverence) what I shall do to morrow under the [Page]Notion of a Thing actually accomplished. God therefore knows, this and that will be; but he does not know it as Matter of Fact, until it be done. I am sure, the Actions to be performed by John or James next Week, are not as yet performed. Unless you'll break thro' your own gloririous Maxim, a Thing can't he, and not be at the same Time. God did not in, or from Eternity, know all Mankind actually born, but he knew they should be born. Thus we see this acute Metaphysician is so clumsy as to confound the Idea's of Things Decreed with the Things themselves, actually Existing.

But I must not Tire the Reader to observe all the Inconsistences, of one, who is himself giddy, by reason of a rapid Motion of his Brains; and is sometimes an Arminian, sometimes a Pelagian, and sometimes a Calvinist. His Motion is very much like that of the Planets, sometimes Direct, and then Retrograde; and sometimes, I profess he is Stationary. And this last is, when he speaks nothing of Predestination at all, as may be observed in some Paragraphs of his Dralogues.

I shall conclude with these two Remarks.

First, He accurately and nicely observes, [Page]that the Church of England mentions not a word of Reprobation in all the 17th Article of Predestination, nothing of God's having Fore-decreed any to Misery, but it speaks only of those, whom he has Elected to Salvation. What an unmerciful Piece of Nonsense is this! The Article says plainly, as we remarked before, that there are some Chosen out of Mankind. And so our Author would argue, there are none, which are not Chosen.

Poor Friend, should I tell thee, there are Twenty Men now before me, and I choose Ten of them to Work for me; it follows (does it not?) that all the Twenty labour for me, because I make no Mention of the Ten, I pass by in my Election, whom I don't choose for the Employ. Election and Reprobation are Relative Terms; if a Person chooses out of any Number of Things, he likewise refuses some of that Number.

Secondly. He is extreamly ignorant of the Calvinistical Tenets. Says he, Election is with them a Secret Decree, without any Respect to our Works. Do but observe either the Ignorance, or the Fallacy of our Dialogist. He would insinuate, that we throw our selves upon the Decree of God, and let what will come of Good Works. No, [Page]Sir, Election is without any Prevision, or antecedent Respect to Good Works; yet no Man shall be S [...]ved without good Works. For he that ordained us to Life, ordained us to all the Preparatives hereof, one of which a continuance in the Way of Well doing. In the Decree of God we must not separate the End from the Means. Both are equally parts of the Decree. God did not choose us because he foresaw we should be holy, but chose us that we might be holy. Holiness is not the procuring Cause, but the Effect of the Decree. Ephes. 1.4. According as he hath chosen us in him; before the Foundation of the World, that we should be holy and without Blame before him. So that Election is not as he says, a Secret Decree without any Respect to our Works, if we have respect to what we are Elected, even to holiness, as well as in the End to Eternal Life. And now I may tell Friend Casuist, what the Apostle means when he bids us make our Calling and Election sure. Says Friend with an haughty Air. What! Is not the Decree of God sure without us! Yes, Sir, it is. But perhaps, I are felicitou [...] to know, If I am in this Decree. The Apostle gives [...]s the Chain of Salvation, Whom he foreknew, them he predestinated, whom he predestinated, them he also called; whom he called, [...] also [...]e justified, & whom he justified, [...] also glorified. If a man can by self- [...] mination [Page]of his own Heart, and Life, charitably judge himself a Faithful Servant of God, called out of the World, he may conclude he is of the Election of Grace. He may search and try himself, according to the Apostles Advice. And there are the Things which do accompany Salvation, as the Apostle tells us in another place. We don't therefore in our Examinations begin with the Decree of God; but we begin with our own Souls. We know the Decree of God is sure; but we are allowed to try our own Case; yea, commanded in Scripture hereunto, and hereupon conclude of our Spiritual Estate. If we make our Calling sure (that is, if we by Examination find the Kingdom of Grace is established in our Souls, & that we are effectually called into the Fold of Jesus Christ) our Election is sure. For whom he predestinates, them he also calls. Not but that many make a very bad use of God's Decrees, and neglect their Salvation; and of this the 17 Article makes mention, and well cautions against such a Destructive Practice. For tho' God has decreed us to Holiness, yet we are to observe his revealed Will, which strictly enjoins Holiness & Obedience, to strive after it. We are not Brutes or Machines, what God has ordained us to, we shall by his Grace savingly incline thereunto. And no Man perishes miserably meerly because of his Impotence to good; [Page]but his natural Aversation and Enmity to good. There is no Unconverted Sinner but what hates a Life of Religion, let him in Words profess what he will. He chuses the Path of the Destroyer, and tho' he may do some good Works, yet secretly wishes he had a License to Sin, and yet might be Saved. So suppose an Impotence to good only, and not this Enmity to God and Holiness, is to beg the Question. For to snppose an impotent Penitent crying out, Lord, I bebelieve, help my Ʋnbelief! and God refusing his Grace to him, is more than any Calvinist will affirm. Christ will not break the bruised Reed, nor quench the smoaking Flax, but will bring forth Judgment to Victory. But then this sincere and truly Spiritual Desire, is the blessed Effect of Special Grace upon the Soul of the Sinner. Which Special Influences, that our Dialogist may be favoured with large Eff [...]sions of them from the God of all Grace, is heartily wished, by him that wrote this Appendix.

FINIS.

THE Author having never Corrected any part, but the first half Sheet of this Work, the Remainder has been very full of Errata, which the Reader may Correct.
ERRATA.

[Page]

PReface page 11. line 8. for Apocaypse read Apocalypse. l. 12. for a [...] read as. p. 13. l. 27, 28, 29, 30. for, are not polite, that because the Writers of them are such as Bayle, Witsius, Voet, Basnage, and nay of some, what were Owen, &c. read, are not polite, and that because the Writers of them are Presbyterians, such as Bayle, Witsius, Voet, Basnage, &c. nay, and some of our own Nation, what were Owen, &c. p. 14. l. 29 f. Canda read Cauda. p. 17. l. 14. r. Passage. l. 18. d [...] le [I] before [hope] p. 19. l. penult. read Apodictics.

In the Dialogue. p. 3. l. 7. read affecting. l. 12. r. Japonese. p. 4. l. 14. read write. p. 7. line 2 for, very first, read Thirty-first, page 9. line 28. read Perusal. page 10. line 27. read Minute. page 11. line 13. read quickening, page 15. line 21. let the Reader be pleased to read over page fifteenth of L [...]sly's Choice Dialogues, the Quotation being here omitted. [Page]page 16. line 20. dele that. page 17. line ult. read unalterable. page 19. line 19. read punn. page 20. line 2. after far read from. line 9. after better read have. line 26. after Coxcomb, dele [.] page 21. line 12. for selves read self. page 23. line 10. r. Homilies p. 24. l. 17. read gross. p. 25. l. 9 r. Pelagian. p. 26. l. 11. after of write the. p. 28. l. 9. for that r. than. line penult. for Pit read Prison. p. 29. l. 6. for important Devoters, r. impotent Devotees. r. 30. l. 3. after either, r. to.

Appendix. p. 32. l. 9, 10. dele the Words [in a Pastoral Letter] p 34. l. 19. for Cygnia, read Cygnea. line 20. read Article. line 22. read explains. page 49. line 7. for Seus. read Sens. page 53 line 2. for them r. then. page 54 line 24. after am read apt. page 59 line 26 read Antoninus. line 12. for there read their. line 24. read perhaps. page 60. line 1 read Heresies. line 3 read Evangelical.

§

§

[Page]

THere is now in the Press, and will shortly be Published a Book, Intituled, Awakening Soul Saving Truths, Plainly Delivered, in Several Sermons.

In which is shewed,

1. That many are Called, who are not Effectually Called.

2. That Men may be of the Visible Church, and yet not be the Lords Chosen.

3. That the Chosen of God are Comparatively few.

By INCREASE M.A THER. D. D.

To be Sold by Benjamin Gray and John Edwards, in Kingstreet BOSTON.

Information about this book

Title statement

A choice dialogue between John Faustus a conjurer, and Jack Tory his friend. Occasioned by some choice dialogues lately published, concerning predestination and election. : Together with animadversions upon the preface to the Choice dialogues. : And an appendix concerning the true doctrine of predestination, as held by the Church of England, and the absurdities and inconsistency of the Choice dialogues. / By a young strippling.

Walter, Thomas, 1696-1725.

Publication

Publisher

Text Creation Partnership,

Place of publication

Ann Arbor, MI :

Date

2009-10.

ID [DLPS]

N01852

ID [TCP]

N01852

ID [STC]

Evans 2194

ID [NOTIS]

APY3218

ID [IMAGE-SET]

2194

ID [EVANS-CITATION]

99030323

Availability

This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal. The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.

Series

Early American Imprints, 1639-1800 ; no. 2194.

Notes

(Evans-TCP ; no. N01852)

Transcribed from: (Readex Archive of Americana ; Early American Imprints, series I ; image set 2194)

Images scanned from Readex microprint and microform: (Early American imprints. First series ; no. 2194)

Source

— A choice dialogue between John Faustus a conjurer, and Jack Tory his friend. Occasioned by some choice dialogues lately published, concerning predestination and election. : Together with animadversions upon the preface to the Choice dialogues. : And an appendix concerning the true doctrine of predestination, as held by the Church of England, and the absurdities and inconsistency of the Choice dialogues. / By a young strippling., Walter, Thomas, 1696-1725..

Extent

[2], xxi, [1], 79, [3] p. ; 14 cm.

Printed for N. Boone, at the Sign of the Bible in Cornhill: B. Gray, and J. Edwards, at their shops in King-Street.,. Boston, :: 1720.. (Attributed to Thomas Walter by Evans.) ("A preface containing some animadversions upon the praeface to the Choice dialogues,"--xxi p.; signed: Christopher Wigg. The Choice dialogues were written by John Checkley.) (Booksellers' prospectuses, p. [xxii] and [82].) ("Errata."--p. [80-81].)

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