A treatise of Mr. Cottons clearing certain doubts concerning predestination together with an examination…A treatise of Mr. Cottons clearing certaine doubts concerning predestination together with an examination…

2 That the doctrine of our Church, from which you swerve, doth not offer, as well as yours, to carnal Christians a serious exhortation to seek after Christ whilst he may be found: Or that it doth not, as earnestly as yours, press upon them those hearty and quickening expostulations of the Prophets: Why will ye die, O house of Israel? Or, What could I have done more for my vineyard that I have not done? Turn ye, turn ye, ⟨p. 141⟩that iniquity may not be your destruction, you do not so much as go about to prove. But I have something more to except against this use of yours. The description here given by you of a carnal Christian; to wit, That he sins of ignorance and humane frailty, and not of profane and wilful contempt of the means of grace; I had thought it had been proper to the regenerate, and not at all belonging to the carnal Christians, whom, I think, you make no better than natural men, to whom the things of God are foolishness; and in whom [Greek or Hebrew] is enmity unto God, in such sort, that they are not subject unto the law of God, nor can be. But, I presume, you speak this of civill and moral Christians, conforming to the means of grace, and not giving any outward evidence of contemning them. But, herehence it followeth not, that God who seeth their hearts, finds not profaneness in them, or vile estimation of the means of grace. But howsoever, whether they are profane or formal, we exhort all, we press the same expostulations upon all: and dare you say, that never any profane or wilful contemner of the means of grace is converted? Though that these expostulations do quicken any, it is merely of the spirit of God, who bloweth where he listeth. But, whereas you seem to imply (though you are not willing to deal plainly, and express so much) that a carnal Christian, such as here you have shaped him, hath power to yield to these exhortations, and quickening expostulations; a point that we dare not take hold of, without much explication: For, to yield unto them in a gracious manner, I conceive, to be utterly out of the sphere of a natural man, or a carnal Christians activity: And, I presume, you will affirm as much;

2 That the doctrine of our Church, from which you swerve, doth not offer, as well as yours, to carnall Christians a serious exhortation to seeke after Christ whilst he may be found: Or that it doth not, as earnestly as yours, presse upon them those heartie and quickning expostulations of the Prophets: Why will yee die, O house of Israel? Or, What could I have done more for my vineyard that I have not done? Turne yee, turne yee,