who ask it, are themselves compelled to grant as much freedom of will as we desire to plead for.

For, 1. The Assembly of Divines, in their Confession of Faith, c. 9, do expressly say, "God hath endowed the will of man with that natural liberty, that is neither forced, nor by any absolute necessity determined to do good or evil." 2. Mr. Baxter, in the preface of his Call to the Unconverted, says, that Calvin as well as Arminius held free-will, and that "no man of brains denieth, that man hath a will that is naturally free; it is free from violence, it is a self-determining principle." Sure here is as much said for free-will, as any man need to say, and perhaps more. For,

The difference between us, is this. They say, Man hath a will which is naturally free. We say, Man hath this freedom of will, not naturally, but by grace.

We believe, that in the moment Adam fell, he had no freedom of will left; but that God, when of his own free-grace he gave the promise of a Saviour to him and his posterity, graciously re-. stored to mankind a liberty and power to accept of proffered salvation. And, in all this, man's boasting is excluded; the whole of that which is good in him, even from the first motion of his will, being of grace and not of nature. And now we come directly to the question, Whether all men may be saved if they will?

28. To those who have considered what has been premised, I answer, 1. What should hinder them if they be willing? For, 2. God is not willing that any should perish; yea, 3. He is willing that all men should be saved. And Christ is willing; for he came not to judge the world, but to save the world. And how did he weep over Jerusalem! How often would he have gathered them together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but they would not! And now, what hinders man's salvation, but that same, They would not?

29. They would not, they will not come at Christ's call, and hearken to his reproof, and wait for his counsels, and receive power from on high to live to him who died for them, walking in all his commandments and ordinances blameless, and following him whithersoever he goeth. This way is so narrow that few care to walk therein; and, therefore, they are not saved, even because they reject the counsel of God against themselves. They choose death; therefore they perish everlastingly.

A DIALOGUE

BETWEEN A

PREDESTINARIAN AND HIS FRIEND.

Out of thine own Mouth ↑

TO ALL PREDESTINARIANS.

1. I AM informed some of you have said that the following quotations are false; that these words were not spoken by these authors: others, that they were not spoken in this sense: and others, that neither you yourself, nor any true Predestinarian ever did, or ever would speak so.

2. My friends, the authors here quoted are well known, in whom you may read the words with your own eyes. And you who have read them know in your own consciences, they were spoken in this sense, and no other; nay, that this sense of them is professedly defended, throughout the whole treatises from whence they are taken.

3. But be this as it may, do you indeed say, No true Predestinarian ever did or would speak so? Why every true Predestinarian must speak so, and so must yourself too, if you dare speak out, unless they and you renounce your fundamental principle.

4. Your fundamental principle is this, God from eternity ordained whatsoever should come to pass. But from this single position undeniably follows every assertion hereafter mentioned. It remains therefore only that you choose which you please, (for one you must choose,) of these three things, either 1. To equivocate, evade the question, and to prevaricate without end: or, 2. To swallow all these assertions together, and honestly to avow them: or, 3. To renounce them altogether, and believe in Christ, the Saviour of all.

DIALOGUE, &c.

Friend. SIR, I have heard that you make God the author of all sin, and the destroyer of the greater part of mankind without mercy.

Pred. I deny it; I only say, "God did from all eternity unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass."

Assembly's Catechism, Chap. 3.

Friend. Do you make no exception?

Pred. No surely; For "Nothing is more absurd than to think any thing at all is done but by the ordination of God."

Friend. Do you extend this to the actions of men?

Pred. Without doubt: "Every action and motion of every creature is so governed by the hidden counsel of God, that nothing can come to pass, but what was ordained by him."

Friend. But what then becomes of the wills of men?

Pred. "The wills of men are so governed by the will of God, that they are carried on straight to the mark which he has fore-ordained."

Friend. I suppose you mean the permissive will of God?

Pred. No, I mean, "All things come to pass, by the efficacious and irresistible will of God."

Friend. Why then all men must do just what they do.

Pred. True, "It is impossible that any thing should ever be done, but that to which God impels the will of man."

Friend. But does not this imply the necessity of all events?

Pred. "I will not scruple to own that the will of God lays a necessity on all things, and that every thing that he wills, necessarily comes to pass."

Friend. Does sin then necessarily come to pass ?

Pred. Undoubtedly. For **"The almighty power of God ex tends itself to the first fall, and all other sins of angels and men." Friend. I grant God foresaw the first man would fall.

Pred. Nay, tt "God not only foresaw that Adam would fall, but also ordained that he should."

Friend. I know God permitted Adam's fall.

Pred. I tell you, ‡‡ "He fell not only by the permission, but also by the appointment of God. He sinned because God so ordained, because the Lord saw good."

Friend. But do not those who differ from you, raise many objections against you as to this point?

Pred. Yes. "Those poisonous dogs vomit out many things against God. ¶¶ They deny that the Scripture says, God decreed Adam's fall. They say, He might have chose either to fall or not, and that God fore-ordained only to treat him.according to his desert. As if God created the noblest of all his creatures, without fore-ordaining what should become of him!"

Friend. Did God then make Adam on purpose that he might fall? Pred. Undoubtedly. *** "God made Adam and Eve to this very purpose that they might be tempted and led into sin. And by force of his decree, it could not otherwise be but they must sin."

Ibid. sect.

* Calvin's Institutes, Book 1. Chap. 16, sect. 8. † Ibid. sect. 3. 8. Dr. Twiss, Vindicia Gratiæ Protestatis et Providentiæ Dei. Editio Jensoniana, Pars III. p. 19. § Dr. Twiss, Vindicia. Pars III. p. 19. I Calvin's Inst. b. 3. c. 24. sect. 8. ** Assembly's Catechism, c. 5. tt Calvin's nst. b. 3. 11 Calvin Responsio ad Calumnias Nebulonis cujusdam ad ArtiH Calv. Inst. b. 3. c. 24. sect. 8. §§ Ibid. b. 3. c. 23. sect. 2. ***Piscator Disput. Prædest, præf. p. 6.

c. 23. sect. 7.

culum primum.

79 Ibid. sect. 7.

Friend. But do not you ground God's decree on God's fore-knowledge rather than his will?

Pred. No. "God foresees nothing but what he has decreed, and his decree precedes his knowledge."

Friend. Well, this may be truly termed A horrible decree.

Pred. "I confess it is a horrible decree: yet no one can deny, but God foreknew Adam's fall, and therefore knew it, because he had ordained it so by his own decree."

Friend. Do you believe then that God has by his own positive decree, not only elected some men to life, but also reprobated all the rest?

Pred. Most surely, if I believe one I believe the other. "Many indeed (thinking to excuse God) own election, and yet deny reprobation but this is quite silly and childish. For without reprobation, election itself cannot stand; whom God passes by, those he reprobates."

Friend. Pray explain what you mean by election and reprobation. Pred. With all my heart. §"All men are not created for the same end; but some are fore-ordained to eternal life; others to eternal damnation. So according as every man was created for the one end or the other, we say he was elected or predestinated to life, or reprobated, i. e. predestinated to destruction."

Friend. Pray repeat your meaning.

Pred. "God hath once for all appointed by an eternal and unchangeable decree, to whom he would give salvation, and whom he would devote to destruction."

Friend. Did God make any man on purpose that he might be damned?

Pred. Did I not tell you before?¶ "God's first constitution was, that some should be destined to eternal ruin; and to this end their sins were ordained, and denial of grace in order to their sins."

Friend. But is not God's predestinating men to life or death grounded on his fore-knowledge?

Pred. **So the vulgar think; that God as he foresees every man will deserve, elects them to life, or devotes them to death and damnation."

Friend. And do not, you think that reprobation, at least, is groundred on God's fore-knowing men's sins?

Pred. No indeed. tt "God of his own good pleasure ordains that many should be born, who are from the womb devoted to inevitable damnation. If any man pretend that God's fore-knowledge lays them under no necessity of being damned, but rather that he decreed their damnation, because he foreknew their wickedness; I grant that God's fore-knowledge alone lays no necessity on the creature; but eternal life and death depend on the will rather than the foreknowledge of God. If God only fore-knew all things that relate to all

*Piscat. Disput. Prædest.

. Ibid. c. 21. sect. 1.

Ibid. sect. 1.

↑ Calv. Inst. b. 3. c. 23. sect. 7. Ibid. sect. 7. ¶ Zanchius de Natura Dei. p. 553, 554. ** Calvin Inst. b. 3. c. 22. sect. 1. tt Ibid. c. 23, sect. 6.

men, and did not decree and ordain them also, then it might be inquired whether or not his fore-knowledge necessitates the thing foreknown. But seeing he therefore fore-knows all things that will come to pass, because he has decreed they shall come to pass, it is vain to contend about fore-knowledge, since it is plain all things come to pass by God's positive decree."

Friend. But if God has positively decreed to damn the greater part of mankind, why does he call upon them to repent and be saved?

Pred. "As God has his effectual call, whereby he gives the elect the salvation to which he ordained them; so he has his judgments towards the reprobates, whereby he executes his decree concerning them. As many, therefore, as he created to live miserably, and then perish everlastingly; these, that they may be brought to the end for which they were created, he sometimes deprives of the possibility of hearing the word, and at other times, by the preaching thereof, blinds and stupifies them the more."

Friend. How is this? I say, if God has created them for neverending death, why does he call to them to turn and live?

Pred. "He calls to them, that they may be more deaf; he kindles a light, that they may be the more blind: he brings his doctrine to them, that they may be more ignorant; and applies the remedy to them, that they may not be healed."

Friend. Enough, enough. Yet you do not make God the author of sin ?

Pred. No, certainly. "God cannot be termed the author of sin, though he is the cause of those actions which are sins."

Friend. How is he the cause of them then?

Pred. Two ways; first, by his eternal, unchangeable decree: secondly, by his present, irresistible power.

Friend. Did God then fore-ordain the sins of any man?"

Pred. "Both the reprobates and the elect were fore-ordained to Sin, as Sin, that the glory of God might be declared thereby. The reprobates, more especially, who were predestinated to damnation, and the causes of damnation, and created to that end that they might live wickedly, and be vessels full of the dregs of sin."

Friend. But surely the sins of the elect were not fore-ordained? Pred. Yes, but they were. "For we neither can do more good than we do, nor less evil than we do; because God from eternity has precisely decreed that both the good and the evil should be so done."

Friend. I understand you, as to God's decreeing sin. But how is his irresistible power now concerned in the sins of men?

Pred. **"God is the author of that action, which is sinful, by his irresistible will !"

Friend. How do you mean?

* Calvin Inst. b. 3. c. 24. sect. 12. † Ibid. c. 24. sect. 13. † Petri Martyris Vermili Com. in Roman. p. 413. § Zachius de Nat. Dei. p. 555. || Piscator contra Tauffium. p. 47. ¶ Piscatoris Responsio ad amicam duplicationem Conradi Vorstii, p. 176. ** Dr. Twiss. pars III. p. 21.

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