I perceive Penn hath read some old authors' books that have judged this heresy also; but he that leaneth upon their judgments that condemned the truth of God for heresy, will surely perish to eternity; for they would have said as much by Christ himself had they lived in his time. Jon de bas o add to outs on it wodeal dob stilists aid es lisile ed i to omit dilaidai seabaliw bottimmos died Jaatetube ingai voi bisee widow i molt ob finds modTei 36 CHAP. XXVIII. wai sd wollol,ei roby times to alude would juste det hus som om SIXTHLY and lastly, That God hath elected some men to eters nal salvation, and hath predestinated other some to eternal damnation, without any other inducement than his own will and pleasure! Ji ni vil vise lis e oil eit noch unmati Penn saith this principle is accursed by Scripture, I prove his first proof is Ezek. xviii. 21. The words are these: The soul that sinneth, it shall die, the son shall not bear the iniquity

of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son, the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him. Ver 22. But if the wicked will turn from all his sins which he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. Penn's argument drawn from this Scripture; saith he, If righteousness or wickedness be the ground of God's rewarding or punishing souls of men, then, saith he, there is no predestination without consideration had to their works; and saith, therefore such decrees are denied and disowned. Secondly, Penn saith, If man may turn from his righteousness and wickedness; and saith, But men may turn from either, and accordingly they will be rewarded; and also saith, Therefore, no such predestinated damnation or salvation.

Answer. That this place of Scripture doth no ways relate to election and reprobation concerning eternal life and eternal death in the least, but altogether to the contrary, as will appear thus: mind the scope of the words: the soul that sinneth, it shall die; the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the the son but if either the father or the son do commit wickedness, it shall be punished with natural death before nature's course is run; and if either the father or the son doth work righte ousness, he shall have the reward of his righteousness he hath wrought, that is, he shall have the benefit of the legal law, and shall not be cut off from the land of the living, as long as his natural life doth last; likewise, if the father or the son hath committed wickedness in his life-time, yet if he shall turn from this wickedness, and keep God's legal statutes, that is, follow the law written in his heart, that is, Thou shalt do no murder, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not commit adultery, nor bear false witness, and the like, and do that which is right between man and man; which righteousness is but the righteousness of the legal law written in man's hearts; as if a man doth this he shall surely live in it all his days, and shall not die before nature's course be run; likewise the son shall not suffer death for his father's sin, nor the father! shall not die for the son's sin, but he that sinneth shall die for

his own sin, and if the father be righteous, it shall not save
the son from death' and if the son be righteous and the
father wicked, the son's righteousness shall not delivery the
father from death before the course of nature is run, but he
shall be punished with death for his own iniquity of disab
For this is to be minded by the reader, that God said in
the commandment, He would visit the sins of the fathers upon
the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that
hated him: therefore it was a proverb among the people of
the Jews, that if children that had fathers that were wicked,
the children of those fathers were heartless to work righte
ousness themselves, seeing the sins of their fathers must be
visited upon them to the third and fourth generation: they
thought it was a vain thing to serve God themselves, seeing
their fathers' sins must be charged upon them, therefore it
te
was God took off the murmuring of the people, and doth
promise that every one that sinneth, let it be the father or
the son, he shall die for his own iniquity or if either father
or son doth work righteousness, it shall be rewarded upon
his own head according to his righteousness; and if either
father or son that hath committed wickedness doth return
and repent of it, and do that which is right between man
and man, he shall be forgiven that wickedness he committed
before, and shall not die for his former iniquity, seeds mont

So that this Scripture doth relate only to a legal righteousness, and to a legal punishment, and being put to death by legal plagues and punishments for sin, and hath no relation not in the least to election or reprobation, or to eternal salvation or damnation, for the keeping of that law or commandment could not give life, neither did God intend to visit the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation to eternity. Penn might say that were unutterable cruelty in God, indeed, to punish a child eternally for his father's sin, but that punishment God threatened to visit upon the children to the third and fourth generation, it was temporal and not eternal, as famine, sword, pestilence, and natural death, as is exprest abundantly in the Old Testament; so that God's rewarding of man's legal righteousness, it was and is with temporal blessings of this life, and his punishing

Y

men for committing wickedness, and breaking that legal law written in man's heart as aforesaid, he punisheth them with temporal punishments, even in this life, with death itself: as for examples is not there many a man for stealing put to death for that very act, before he hath lived out half his days. And are not many murderers cut off by the legal law before his days be half expired? And is not the adulterer and adultress many times destroyed by that foul disease the pox in the midst of their days? And these sins of the fathers are many times visited upon the children, to the third and fourth generation, by shame and disgrace to the children among men, besides diseased bodies, poverty, and beggary sticketh close to the children of wicked fathers, but the punishment of eternal damnation God doth not inflict upon any man for the sin of his father, but for his own sin only. This is the true interpretation and meaning of this Scripture, and that this place doth no ways relate to election and reprobation to eternity in the least,iupini wo eid tot eib Hede eduỏa edi nogo bobiswer ed Ileda ti nerodot drow drobnoa 10 16 Secondly, Penn quotes 1 Tim. ii. 3. 4. The words are these: For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour Ver. 4. Who will have all men to be saved, and to Pour come unto the knowledge of the truth. Penn's argument drawn from these words; saith he, If the Apostle writ by the Spirit of God that gives to know the mind of God; then it was the good-will of God that all men, not excluding any upon a predestination, should come to the knowledge of the truth and be saved and consequently, saith he, there is no predestinated restraint upon men's understanding from knowing the truth, nor fore-appointed from their enjoying the end of such true knowledge, even the salvation of their souls.

Answer. That this place of Scripture hath no relation at all to election and reprobation; for Paul doth plead more for God's prerogative power, in electing and reprobating men by his own prerogative will and pleasure, without any relation to good or evil actions, than any man whatsoever, as I shall prove hereafter; and if Paul should deny election and reprobation in this place, as Penn doth infer, then he would

grossly contradict his own writing, Rom. ix. 11, which he so strongly disputeth and argueth for; but I perceive Penn is blind and ignorant, and hath not been well read in the Scriptures, his mind hath been exercised at the University, more upon old histories, and studying to find out the thoughts of men's souls when their bodies were opened and dead, but when their bodies were alive, he never knew what thoughts, purposes, nor intents they had in their hearts, not by their words and actions; but when they were cut up, he thought to find their thoughts, to find the inside of man, but that their souls were slipt out before they were opened. This is only a word by the way to show that Penn is grossly ignorant of the Scripture, that did not read Paul's mighty strong arguments for election and reprobation; and quote these words of Paul to overthrow all that Paul had written before; because Paul saith, This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, who will have all men to be saved, and come unto the knowledge of the truth.

This doth not disprove God's election; but Paul speaketh these words only to encourage men to believe in Jesus Christ, inasmuch as we apostles are ministers of Christ to preach life and salvation by believing in him, we are willing that all men that hear us should come to the knowledge of the truth and be saved, for we not knowing who is God's elect, and who is not, but by their belief or unbelief of our doctrine a and it is our desire that all that hear us might believe us, as well as some, and be saved, and in this sense the Apos tle might say it would be acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, who will have all men to be saved, and come unto the knowledge of the truth; but when Paul saw that some men did believe his doctrine, and some men did not believe, but doctrine, he knew then them to be elected to salvation that r doctrine, f and those to be reprobated to damnation that did reject despise, and persecute his doctrine, which made him wish himself occursed from Christ for his friends and kindred in the flesh; he was so sensible that his kindred in theflesh were of the reprobate seed, and pre-ordained of God to be blinded and hardened, to oppose the truth, that they

persecuted his received.