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THE

Arminian Magazine,

For JULY 1783.

The CALVINIST-CABINET UNLOCKED: in an APOLOGY for TILENUS, against a VINDICATION of the Synod of Dort.

[Continued from page 284.]

R. Baxter fays, "They do not only refpe&t Infidelity,

MR.

and other fins, as the caufe of damnation, but as the ftate in which God findeth many, when he denieth them the grace of Faith. You speak not a word of Impenitency. It is clearly granted by you all, that That was not looked upon in the act of Preterition. But for its companion, Infidelity, God had respect to that, as the state wherein he found many. I pray how many are they? and which? Infants, or adults only? 2. Is there not a fallacy in those words, "When he denieth them the grace of Faith ?" He denies it to the Reprobates for ever; and therefore if you underftand it of his denial of this grace in the laft ftage of their lives, be muft needs find them then in a ftate of Infidelity. Or, 3. Do you

VOL. VI.

* The Synod.
Tt

mean

mean the Heathens, by these many? What ftate can they poffibly be found in elfe, when God denies them the grace of Faith? But 4. Did God find any, really in the state of Infidelity, when he denied them the grace of Faith, according to the doctrine of the Synod? Do not they and you conclude, that Preterition is the denial of this grace? It is proved already that they do fo. And you know, fome of them are of opinion (and that opinion, not rejected by the reft) that in his Preterition God confidered mankind, only as having a poffibility of being. Did God find any then in a flate of Infidelity? They that bring the decree of Reprobation down lowest affirm, that it was paffed in confideration of the fall of Adam. To this purpose I might produce a cloud of witneses were it not needlefs, feeing we find fo much in confirmation of it amongst the very decrees of the Synod, to which all those Divines fubfcribed. But Mr. Baxter proceeds, and tells us of the Synod further, that

"Of all the Non-elect they determine that God leaves them only in that mifery, into which, by their own fault, they precipitate themselves: and that he leaves them by his just judgment to the malice and hardness of their own hearts." It is most certain, when ever God leaves men, he doth it by his moft just judgment: but that he fhould leave them to the malice and hardness of their own hearts, before this malice. and hardness be found in them, were very strange. And unlefs Adam's fin, or original fin, upon which the decree of Reprobation paffed against them, be malice and hardness of heart, I fee no truth in that affertion, that God leaves them (then) to the malice and hardness of their own hearts. This is indeed a mifery, into which men by their own personal faults, precipitate themselves: fuch is not that which you and the Synod speak of; neither by omiffion, nor by commiffion, nor by confent. How then? It is the fault of their nature, which they are made guilty of only by imputation, faith

Calvin.

Calvin. To which I will add that of Lubbertus: "Our carnal generation from Adam, fallen and guilty, neither is, neither can be, the cause of that original guilt, which we derive from him; but the imputation of fin committed by him, &c." And if it be thus, then you cannot fay, they are only left in that mifery, into which by their own (personal) fault, they precipitate themselves. Neither is it true, that they are only left in this mifery; for according to the nature of the means, defigned by this very decree, and fubordinated to the execution of it, they are fubjected inevitably to a far greater mifery; first, of fin; and fecondly, of condemnation and punishment. To proceed.

You fay, "Though they deny Election to proceed upon foreseen Faith, (becaufe God decrees to give that Faith, before we can be foreseen to have it) yet they purpofely pafs by the queftion, Whether forefeen Infidelity be in any the qualifi cation of the object of Reprobation or Preterition: they took foreseen malice, hard-heartedness, men's own fin, and their own ways, to be the qualification of that object."

Answer 1. What? men's own fin, and their own ways too, did they take these to be the qualification of the object? It seems the Reprobates learn to go alone betimes. But I fuppose they had not gone very far in those ways, whatever speed they made; for the Synod determine that this act of Reprobation or Preterition, paffed against them upon the fall of Adam; and how many leagues had Cain travelled upon his own legs at that time? and yet he was the first of the travellers that were left in that fall. But if you have not mistaken them, the Synod have mifled you, in these, their own ways; for whereas they fay, "The Non-elect are thofe, whom God hath decreed to leave in the common mifery, and not to bestow faving Faith upon them, but leaving them in their own ways, &c." Here is a defcription of Reprobation, with the effects of it. It is a reliction of men in the common fate of mifery, accompanied with the denial of faving Faith;

and here is their first fetting forth in their progress of actual fins, till, having accomplished that unhappy voyage, at laft they arrive at condemnation and juft punishment, as the Synod reports it. Here then, if you confider the decree of Reprobation paffed upon the account of Adam's fall, men's own actual fin, and their own ways are not a previous qualifi cation for it, but a neceflary confequent of it.

2. Unless malice and hard-heartedness be common titles for original fin, (and if they be, they are very abfurd ones) you are as much out of the flory as before. And fo for Infidelity; for, Infidelity of this kind, as a fin, there can be none, till Chrift, the object of faving Faith be propounded, He could not be propounded till after Adam's fall; but before that proposal, the aft of Reprobation flept in, and prevented all the Non-elect of his faving benefits!

3. If God found many of these Non-elect, in a state of Infidelity (as you affirmed a little above,) why that should not be acknowledged as fit a qualification for Reprobation, as Adam's fall, or any other of their own fins, I cannot underfland. But the truth is, though they purposely pass by the question, yet haying fixt their decree of Reprobation upon the fall, to speak confonantly to that doctrine, they could make no question of it,

One thing more I must take notice of; you fay, "God decrees to give Faith before we can be forefeen to have it.” I would fain know, whether God's forefight hath no other perfpective glafs or way of difcovery but his decree? For if he decrees to effect every thing in us, before we can be foreseen to have them; then it inevitably follows, that forefeen Infidelity, Malice, hard-heartedness, men's own fins, and their own ways are put upon the account of God's decree, and laid at the door of his efficiency. And then, whether to punish men for thefe, (if they be the effects of his own decree,) .be juftice in him or no, you go on and tell us of the Synod, "That they make Preterition an act of justice

in God." But Sir; I have fhewed you before, that a whole Affembly, (that at Westminster) make it not an act of justice, but of fovereignty. And may not this be the very fenfe of the Synod, by an equivocal use of the word justice ?.

"

For Gomarus faith, "Though God doth create men to deftruction, he cannot be accused of injuftice, in regard of a double right; 1. that of abfolute dominion; 2. that of judgment, fubordinate and relative to fin." So, faith he, "here appears a double juftice. One is the juftice of an abfolute Sovereign, who is fuppofed to do no injustice whatfoever he doth, being under no law." In this fenfe the Supralapfarians call Preterition an Aft of Juftice. (Jure Dominii:) Or, 2. the justice of a Governor or a Judge, who paffeth no fentence of condemnation, but upon intuition of fin; and in this fenfe the Supralapfarians will not, but the Sublapfarians do acknowledge Preterition to be an act of Juftice.

[To be continued.]

SER M ON XVI.

On ISAIAH ik. 11.

The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the fea.

1.

IN

'N what a condition is the world at prefent? How does darkness, intellectual darkness, ignorance, with vice and mifery attendant upon it, cover the face of the earth! From the accurate enquiry made with indefatigable pains by our ingenious countryman, Mr. Brerewood, (who travelled himself over a great part of the known world, in order to form the more exact judgment,) fuppofing the world to be divided into thirty parts, nineteen of them are profeffed Heathens, altogether as ignorant of Chrift, as if he had never come into

the