you run into a manifest absurdity, maintaining, "that the object of faith, or the thing proposed to be believed, doth receive its TRUTH from the act of the believer, and depend upon his consent;" whose faith and approbation can no more make true that which in itself is false, than make false by his unbelief that which in itself is true. Well may the infidel deprive himself of the fruit of Christ's death; but he cannot bring to pass, by his unbelief, that Christ hath not suffered it as a proof of his love to mankind. On the other side, the believer may receive benefit from the death of Christ; but his act of faith doth not effect, but necessarily suppose that death as suffered for him, before it can be exercised about it or lay hold upon it. Nay, my believing is so far from procuring Christ's death. for me, that, on the contrary, our great Divines do maintain, quod nemo unquam fidem habeat, nisi morte et meritis Christi procuratam, "that I cannot have faith, unless it be procured for me by the merits and death of Christ." And because I cannot find this faith in me, I may conclude, He hath not procured it for me, and consequently that He hath not died for me, neither: And this, you know, is the ground of all my trouble.

DR. DUBIUS.-Sir, I wish you to take heed of that "evil heart of unbelief," as the Apostle calls it; (Heb. iii.) and to that end remember the words of our Saviour, "He that believeth on the Son, hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." (John iii, 36.)

TIL. TENT.-Sir, instead of lending me a clue to guide me out of that maze of difficulties into which the prodigious divinity of the Synod hath led me, you entangle me much more in it. For whereas the Apostle saith, that "God sends strong delusions to such as will not receive the love of the truth, that they may be saved," (2 Thes. ii,) you, governing your discourse by those principles, would first persuade men to believe a false proposition, when you exhort every man to believe that Christ died for him, which is false according to that doctrine; and then, having believed this falsehood, they are punished by the spirit of error to believe a lie! I beseech which you, would you have me turn myself, to get out of these perplexities?; having instructed me to believe a doctrine, that turns my obedience into punishment, and makes my following the truth (according to that calculation) the sure way to aggravate my damnation.

way

For if the Synod saith true, and Christ be not dead for them that believe not in him, how do they deserve to be punished for not believing that which is false? And those that do obey the commandment and believe in his death, (though but for a time,) why suffer they the punishment due only to the refractory and incredulous, which is to believe a lie?

KNOWLITTLE.-Sir, you must not think to beguile us with your "vain philosophy." We are too well established in these saving truths, to be perverted by such sophistry.

TIL.-If you have no better cordials for afflicted consciences, nor firmer props to support the necessity of your ministry, than what the doctrines of the Synod will afford you, I am afraid the most vulgar capacities will find logic enough to conclude, from the premises, that your office is altogether useless and impertinent. Laying aside therefore the person of the Infidel, Carnal, Tepid, and Afflicted, whose parts I have hitherto acted, to make a practical trial of the efficacy of your ministry upon them, according to the tenor and consequence of those doctrines, I beseech you sadly to reflect upon what hath already passed betwixt us; and consider further what a vertiginous spirit presided in that Synod, that led those Divines (maugre all the reason to the contrary,) to deny some things which the scripture expressly doth affirm, and to affirm other things which the Scripture doth as expressly deny.-They deny the universality of the merits of Christ's death, which the Scripture abundantly proclaimeth; and yet they do exhort and enjoin all men, upon peril of damnation, to believe in him, as if the Author of all truth did not only allow, but also command, some men to believe falsehood.-They exhort and command every one to believe "that he is elected to salvation,” (though indeed he be a very reprobate,) and "that he cannot lose faith and grace once received," which the Scripture in express terms denieth. And as the denial of Christ's universal redemption takes away all the solid ground of comfort, so the asserting [of the Saints' indefectibility overthrows the necessity of exhortation, with the usefulness of promises and threatenings to enforce it. For who will value such admonitions, when he is instructed to believe, that he can never be so far wanting to the grace of God, nor harden his heart, nor fall from his standing, so far as

* Harden not your hearts, take heed lest ye fall, receive not the grace of God in vain.

to endanger his salvation? And who will deny himself (upon the assault of a gallant temptation especially,) the present satisfaction of his lusts and passions, for the reversion of a kingdom, who is persuaded "there are several decrees past in heaven as well to necessitate, as secure him in the succedaneous enjoyment of them both?" And who will be frighted from the pleasures of sin with the threatened danger of damnation, (unless a fit of Melancholy transports him into that folly,) which, he believes, it is no more possible to happen to him, than for God to lie, or his immutable decrees to be rescinded? In brief, when we consider the consequences of that doctrine, "that the absolute decrees of heaven do not only over-rule, but also predetermine every individual action of mankind," (so that it is impossible for the endeavours and wit of man to make any one of them happen at any other time or after any other manner than they do,) may we not (as far as that doctrine can warrant us,) conclude, that it is God's only fault that so many men prove infidels and profane, lukewarm and desperate?, because it is He that doth withhold that grace which is absolutely necessary to work an effectual alteration and change in them. And may we not] resolve, that it were therefore fit, that all preachers (forbearing to importune the weak creature to attempt any of those mere impossibilities to which he hath, at most, but a passive power,) should direct their admonitions to God alone, that he would perform, what is his own work only, in the hearts of men,—that is, to convert, correct, provoke, and comfort them, by such an invincible arm of efficiency as cannot be resisted?

The benefit of the word preached being thus totally evacuated by these doctrines, we shall find no more use or comfort in the sacraments, but so far forth as we can observe the very same ministers, in the very administration of them, to overthrow their own unhappy doctrine. For to every one [whom they baptize, they apply the promises of the covenant of grace, contrary to their own tenet,-which is, "that they belong nothing at all to the Reprobates." Likewise the Lord's Supper is given to all, with the assurance, Christ died for all them that receive it, -though their own tenet is, "that he no way died for them who receive it unworthily and to their condemnation," whose number is not small among our Reformed congregations, even by their own confession.-What more? The very exercises of

prayer, wherein the pastor and the flock are joint petitioners, shall be found of no use or comfort unto either, since they all be either Flect or Reprobate: For the Elect obtain no new thing by this means, if "God hath written them," as the Synod says, "from all eternity in the Book of Life, without any relation to, or consideration of, their faith and prayers; and that it is impossible they should be blotted out of it." And the Reprobates can never cause themselves to be inrolled therein by any exercises of faith or prayers, no more than they are able to disannul the immutable decree of God.

Gentlemen, I beg your pardon, and shall trouble you no further, but only to desire you to ponder those many prejudices that lie against such a religion, as is rather repugnant than operative to the conversion of an infidel and the correction of the carnal, to the quickening of the careless and the consolation of the afflicted: And if the doctrine maintained and delivered by the divines of that Synod, and their adherents, doth frustrate and nullify the preaching of the word, the use of the Sacraments, and the exercise of prayer; if it overthrow the sacred function of the ministry, (which consists in the faithful administration of wholesome doctrine and good discipline,) and if it give such a total defeat to the whole design of the Divine ordinances, I hope you will, out of your great piety and prudence, not think it reasonable to make the profession of such faith or doctrine, your Kpinpiov, or Shibboleth to discern your examinats, and pass them in the account of the godly ministers.

DR. ABSOLUTE.
MR. FATALITY.

MR. FRY-BABE.

Withdraw, withdraw, withdraw!

DR. ABSOLUTE.-Brethren, what think you of this man, now you have heard him discover himself so fully?

FATALITY.--The man hath a competent measure of your ordinary unsanctified learning: But you may see he hath studied the ancient Fathers,-more than our modern Divines, such as Mr. Calvin and Mr. Perkins. And, alas! they [the ancient Fathers threw away their enjoyments (and their lives too, some of them,) for they knew not what. They understood little or nothing of the Divine decrees, or the power of grace

* Judges xii, 6.

and godliness: This great light was reserved for the honour of after-ages, to be held forth and displayed in.

EFFICAX. He may be an honest moral man; but I cannot perceive that he hath been much acquainted with sin, nor very sensible of the nature of repentance. I confess for my own part, I was never much taken with these Obadiahs, that cry, "I thy servant fear the Lord from my youth :" (1 Kings xviii, 12.) Give me your experimental Divines. The burnt child will dread the fire; and, as Jude adviseth, "will have compassion" upon their brethren, (having been tempted themselves,) and will "save them with fear," using a holy violence to "pluck them out of the burning." I remember Mr. Calvin confesseth, in an Epistle to Bucer, "that he had a great conflict with that wild beast of impatience that raged in him, and that it was not yet tamed." He would frequently reproach his brethren (especially if they dissented from him in the matter of predestination, &c.) by the name of " Knave," "Dog," and "Satan." And he so vexed the spirit of Bucer, that he provoked the good mild man to write thus to him: Judicas prout amas, vel odisti: amas autem vel odisti, prout libet. "That his judgment was governed by his passions of love and hatred, and these by his lust." And for his bitter speeches, Bucer gave him the title of "a fratricide."-Reverend Mr. Beza confesseth also of himself, per quindecim annorum spatium, quo alios docuit justitiæ viam, nec sobrium se factum, nec liberalem, nec veracem, sed hærere in luto: "That for the space of fifteen years together, wherein he taught others the way of righteousness, himself trod neither in the way of truth, nor bounty, nor sobriety: but stuck fast in the mire" (of sin.) Men that have had trial of the powerful workings of sin and grace, and have been brought upon their knees, like the great Apostle, with a bitter complaint, O me miserum! “O wretched man that I am!;" these are your none-such Divines, of which, methinks, our Saviour gave an intimation, in that passage to Peter, et tu aliquando conversus confirma fratres tuos.* (Luke xxii, 32.)

NARROWGRACE.-He attributeth so much to the ministry of the gospel, that he seems to be superstitiously addicted to it, and turns it into an idol. Whereas, we know, of itself it is but a dead letter; and therefore Maccovius handling that question,

"And when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren."