A Second Parallel, Part 1 · Comparison 13
ARMINIANS.
HAge Cōference, Article 5. If those that are regenerate cannot fall away totally, nor finally; hence it would follow that no q children of the faithfull could be damned, because by Baptisme they are put into the state of Grace, and regenerated.
Bertius pag. 79. The seuenth absurdity which followes vponupon the Aduersaries doctrine, is, that Baptisme doth not certainly seale in all the children of the faithfull the grace of God.
Bertius pag. 35. The fifth demonstration is drawne from the causes of Apostasie: whereof the first is the committing of sin r against conscience, 1 Tim. 1. 19. &c.
Hage Conference, Article 5. Those that are truly faithfull may commit murther, adultery, and the like hainous sins, therefore lose faith and Gods fauour; for which things the wrath of God falleth vponupon the children of disobedience, Coloss. 3. 6.
APPEALER.
APPEALE, pag. 36. Let this be acknowledged to be the Doctrine of our Church, that children duly q baptised, are put into the state of Grace and saluation: (which you see you cannot, you must not deny) and both our and my experience will shew, that many so baptised children, when they come to age, by a wicked and lewd life do fall away from God, and from that state of Grace and Saluation, wherein hee had set them to a worse state: wherein they shall neuer be saued. If you grant not this, you must hold, that all men that are baptised are saued; which I know you will neuer doe.
Answer to Gag, pag. 161. 162. Againe, Faith must needs be lost where it cannot consist. It cannot consist where God wil not abide. God will not abide where he is disobeyed: he is disobeyed, where mortall r sinne is committed; the most righteous man liuing vponupon the face of the earth, continually doth or may in this sort transgresse: who can tell how oft he offendeth? Cleanse thy seruant from presumptuous sins. Thou wilt hauehave no fellowship at al with the deceitful; Nor shall any euill dwell with thee.
q To the reason drawne from the Baptisme of Children, … l. 10. de Grat ca. …. Hag. Conf…r. …. part. 2. pag. 10. A… … Theologo Aug…o. Ar…ic. 5. Prideaux. Lect. 6. p. 123.we answer: First, that it is of all other most weak & childish; for it doth not at all touch the state of the question, as is obserued by Suarez, the German Diuines at the Hage Conference, the English Diuines present at the Synod of Dort, his Maiesties publique Professor of Diuinity in Oxford. The question is of those, who are iustified by the Act of faith, conceiued by the preaching of the Gospell, who fall into actuall sins wounding their conscience, whether such thereby lose the habit of Grace, and totally and finally fall away from the state of iustification? Now infants hauehave not the actuall vse of reason, neither doth their faith, if so they hauehave infused faith, actually apprehend and apply the promises of the Gospell: neither can they be supposed to commit those crying actuall sins, which the Appealer calls mortall, (I hope not in the Popish sense) which cannot stand with the Grace of iustification, as is pretended by the Arminians, and Appealer. Secondly, we answer: That although in a good sense a child may be said to be put into the state of Grace and Saluation, because thereby the infant is admitted into the Church, and participateth of the meanes of saluation; yet, if wee speake properly and precisely, the Sacraments seale, and not conferre grace; or, as the Church of England speaketh by her learned Apologist, Iud Artic. … diuis. 13. … 27.doe not begin, but rather continue and confirme our incorporation, by Christ. The Sacrament is a seale of the Couenant, the conditions are supposed to be drawn and assented vntounto before the seale be put to the instrument. The Seale without the Couenant is not auaileable; the Couenant may be without the Seale: we are tyed to Gods Ordinances, God is not. The contempt of Baptisme is damnable, the defect in the children of the Elect and seed of the faithfull, comprised in the Couenant with their fathers, is not so: if all possible meanes hauehave beene vsed by the Parents and Minister to procure them Baptisme before God call them away, there is no danger to the Parents, much lesse to the Children. For the ineuitable defect of Baptisme may be supplyed either by a desire of Baptisme, as in Valentinian; or by profession of faith, as in the Theefe vponupon the Crosse; or by the bloud of Martyrdome, as in the Innocents put to death by Herod. Thirdly, we answer, All that are regenerate Sacramentally are not necessarily and infallibly regenerated spiritually: A man may be baptised with water, and yet not with the holy Ghost. Ismael was circumcised as well as Isaak, Esau as well as Iacob, Simon Magus was baptised as well as Simon Peter. Our Church in Charitie, Booke of Common Prayer, Bur… all of the ….as it supposeth all children baptised to be regenerate by the holy Ghost, so also in the forme of buriall it supposeth, all that liue in the bosome of our Church to die in the Lord, and to depart in the true faith of Gods holy name. Yet vndoubtedly our Church attributeth no more vertue to the Sacraments than the Ancient Church did. Theoderets obseruation is well knowne, Gratia Sacramentum aliquando praecedit, aliquando sequitur, aliquando nec sequitur: Grace sometimes goes before the sacrament, somtimes follows it, somtimes it follows it not at all. Saint Augustines resolution is peremptory Omnes eundem potum spiritualem biberunt, sed non in omnibus beneplacitum est Deo: & cùm essent omnia communia Sacramenta, non communis erat omnibus gratia, qu… Sacramentorum virtus est. Sicut & nunc iam reuelatâ fide quae tunc velabatur, omnibus in nomine Patris, & Filij, & Spiritus sancti baptiz atis commune est lauacrum regenerationis, sed ipsa gratia, cuius sunt Sacramenta, quâ membra corporis Christi cum suo capite regenerata sunt, non communis est omnibus. The lauer of regeneration is co… mon to all that are baptised in the name of the Father, Son, and holy Ghost, but the Grace, whereof these are Sacraments, whereby the members of the body of Christ are regenerate with their Head, is not common to all. And againe Saint Augustine, August. lib. 5. contra Do… tis cap. 24.Christ is put on sometimes, vsqu… ad Sacramenti perceptionem, as far as to the receiuing of the Sacrament, sometimes also vntounto sanctification of life; At que illud primum bonis & malis potest esse commune, …oc alterum proprium est bonorum & piorum, The first is common to good and bad, the other is proper to the good and godly. Saint Austines hands are supported by Chrysostome and Ierome, as Moses were by Aaron and Hur. Saint Chrysostome, Chrysost. in Mirtth. ho…. 5.Many are baptized with water, which are not baptised with the holy Ghost; they seeme to be the sons of God in regard of their Baptisme, but indeed they are not the sonnes of God, because they are not baptised with the holy Ghost. Ierom …. in epist ad Gal. cap. 3.Saint Ierome, Si quis hoc corporeum, quod oculis carnis aspicitur, aquae tantum accipit lauacrum, non est indutus dominum Iesum. Nam & Simon ille Magus acceperat lauacrum aquae, verum quia Spiritum sanctum non habebat, indutus non erat Christum. Et haeretici vel hypocritae, & hi qui sordidè victitant, videntur quidem accipere baptismum, sed nescio an Christi habeant indumentum. If any man receiue only the visible lauer of water, he hath not put on Christ, &c. From these and many other the like testimonies of the Ancient Fathers, I infer, that the foundation of this argument is sandy and sinking; Although the inward grace ordinarily accompany the outward signe, and we ought to beleeue by the iudgement of Charity, that all who are baptised are truly regenerate: …yet iudicio veritatis, as Iunius distinguisheth, that is, by the iudgement of precise and infallible truth all are not so, as the Fathers speake roundly and plainly. Now as in the iudgement of Charity we are to beleeue, that all that are baptised are regenerate, so by the same iudgement we are to beleeue, that, though they fall into grieuous sinne, and sometime come to a fearefull outward end, God notwithstanding giueth them grace to repent at the last gaspe, and consequently they fall not away finally. Inter sacrum & saxum, inter pontem & fontem misericordia. Lastly, this Obiection may be retorted against the Aduersarie thus.
If Baptisme may not be reiterated, then the grace of regeneration cannot be totally lost.
But Baptisme may not be ** As the Church … of Se…i…ure against all Ana…aptist….reiterated. Therefore the grace of regeneration cannot be totally lost.
The consequence of the maior is thus made euident. A man that hath lost the grace of regeneration totally, is as if he neuer had been regenerated, and therefore must be borne again: if borne againe, againe baptised: because the signe and the thing signified, or, as they make it, the cause and proper effect cannot be seuered; if then the effect, to wit, regeneration be lost, and must be reproduced, the proper cause, as they say, the necessary condition and seale, as we say, must be againe put. If regeneration may bee had the second time without Baptisme, why not at first? which the Aduersaries absolutely deny, Iohn 3. 5.pressing farre that text, Vnlesse a man be borne againe of water, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdome of heauen. It is a thing vnconceiueable, that the shadow should be more permanent than the substance; the Baptisme of water, than that of the holy Ghost. If then a regenerate man lose totally his regeneration, and be as if he had neuer beene regenerate, he is as if he had neuer beene baptised. This reason may be further confirmed; when this question is propounded, why Baptisme is but once to be administred, and the Lords Supper often? It is most vsually answered, because a man is borne but once, but is fed often. The edge of this argument cannot be turned by the Aduersarie, vnlesse he can shew more Regenerations in Scripture then Baptismes, or any new Regeneration without a new lauer, any new Couenant without an authenticall instrument and new seale.
r To the reason drawne from mortall sinne in the regenerate, we answer: First, if mortall sinne be taken for such sinne as deserueth of it selfe eternall death, all sinne is mortall: if by mortall sinne such sinne for which a man is bound ouer by God, and sentenced to eternall death, no sinne in the Elect is mortall: for how grieuous soeuer they sinne, the seed of God remaines in them, which in time will bring forth repentance, and repentance saluation. In the interìm betweene their sinne and the renued act of their repentance, God suspendeth, but he reuoketh not his pardon of their sinnes: he is angrie with them, and they indeed hauehave forfeited their estate in his grace and fauour, and title to the Kingdome of Heauen, but God will not take the forfeit; they lose the sense and present fruit, but not the state of iustification. Habituall repentance they hauehave alwayes, and shall hauehave the Act, if the sinne be such for which habituall repentance, and the continuall asking of a generall pardon for all sinne will not suffice. A tender hearted father though his sonne prouoke him very farre, so that hee chastise him with many stripes, yet will hee hardly be brought to disinherite him; Rom. …. 17. foreignyet if a father could, God will not; for if euer sonnes, then heires, if euer iustified, then glorified. The Apostle will make good the Consequence, if the Spirit in our heart make good the Antecedent. Lastly, this Obiection may be retorted thus.
N… Ordinarie and small sinnes doe put the regenerate out of the state of grace;
All ordinarie and small sinnes are in their owne nature mortall;
Therefore some sinnes in their owne nature mortall, doe not put the regenerate out of the state of grace.
Or thus:
Peter committed a most grieuous and hainous sinne;
** See hereof Sebast. Benefield Praelect. de Perseuerantia sanct… rum, cap. 15. & 16. a pag. 97. ad 143.Peter was not thereby vtterly excluded from the grace of God:
Therefore a man may commit some most grieuous and hainous sinne, and not be vtterly excluded from the grace of God.
The like may be said ** See hereof Sebast. Benefield Praelect. de Perseuerantia sanct… rum, cap. 15. & 16. a pag. 97. ad 143.of Dauid, of which aboue. The first proposition is in the Gospell; the second is in the Homily of Repentance. Sir Thomas Moore hauing tracked Gallus in the Ancient Poets, from whom he secretly had borrowed many verses, and bragged much of the genius and spirit of Ancient Poësie, wittily thus plaieth vponupon him in the Epigram, saying, Thou Gallus hast the very spirit of the Ancient Poëts, for thou makest the selfe-same verses that they made before.
Vatibus idem, animus que , & verè spiritus idem,
Qui fuit antiquis, est modo, Galle, tibi.
Carminanam que eadem, versus que frequenter eosdem
Quos fecêre illi, tu quo que , Galle, facis.
Doubtlesse if the Appealer neuer read Arminius or Bertius, as he seemeth deeply to professe; I may say truly of him, as he did of Gallus, that he hath the very spirit and soule of Arminius and Bertius, for he deliuereth not only the same …enents, but he vseth the selfesame Authorities, Scriptures, Fathers, and Reasons, and for the most part in the same words: All which Arguments, common to them both, hauehave beene examined, and proued like the stone that Achilles flung at a dead skull, which rebounded back and strucke out the … eye:
—redijt lapis vltor ab osse
Actoris que sui frontem, oculos que petit.
We … doe nothing against the truth, but for the truth. 2. Cor. 13. 8.
An Aduertisement to the Reader.
THe Errors of the Appealer are of three sorts, Popish, Arminian, and of a third kinde, multi-formiter deformes. Of the first sort I hauehave giuen thee a taste: Of the second thou shalt hauehave a Synopsis in the Tablet ensuing: The third thou shalt finde in the Writ of Errour. In all kindes I hauehave pretermitted some, Non amore erroris, sed errore amoris: Not for any louelove I beare to his errors, but through an error of louelove. Partly because I hope they are rather slips in his pen, than downfalls in his iudgement: partly also because they are discouered by others; whose writings had I seene before my papers were ingaged in the Presse: Aiax hic meus in spongiam incubuisset.