THE NEW GODDESS CONTINGENCY, ADVANCING THEMSELVES INTO THE THRONE OF THE GOD OF HEAVEN, TO THE PREJUDICE OF HIS GRACE, PROVIDENCE, AND SUPREME DOMINION OVER THE CHILDREN OF MEN: WHEREIN THE MAIN ERRORS BY WHICH THEY ARE FALLEN OFF FROM THE RECEIVED DOCTRINE OF ALL THE REFORMED CHURCHES, WITH THEIR OPPOSITION IN DIVERS PARTICULARS TO THE DOCTRINE ESTABLISHED IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, ARE DISCOVERED AND LAID OPEN OUT OF THEIR OWN WRITINGS AND CONFESSIONS, AND CONFUTED BY THE WORD of God. Produce your cause, saith the Lord: bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob. ISAIAH xli. 21. Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherds strive with the potsherds of the earth. CHAP. xlv. 9. «Θές, ὦ Ακεσίλαε, κλίμακα καὶ μόνος ἀνάβηθι εἰς τὸν οὐρανόν. Constant. apud Socrat. lib. 1. cap. 10. 2. MARTII, ANNO DOMINI. 1642. It is this day ordered by the Committee of the House of Commons in Parliament, for the regulating of Printing and Publishing of Books, that this Book entitled, A Display of Arminianism, be printed. JOHN WHITE. ΤΟ THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE LORDS AND GENTLEMEN OF THE COMMITTEE FOR RELIGION. THE many ample testimonies of zealous reverence to the providence of God, as well as affectionate care for the privileges of men, which have been given by this honourable assembly of parliament, encourage the adorers of the one, no less than the lovers of the other, to vindicate that also, from the encroachments of men. And as it was not, doubtless, without divine disposition, that those should be the chiefest agents in robbing men of their privileges, who had nefariously attempted to spoil God of his providence; so we hope, the same all-ruling hand hath disposed of them, to be glorious instruments of re-advancing his right and supreme dominion over the hearts of men, whose hearts he hath prepared with courage and constancy to establish men in their inviolated rights; by reducing a sweet harmony between awful sovereignty and a well moderated liberty. Now the first of these being demandated to your particular care, I come unto you, with a bill of complaint, against no small number in this kingdom; who have wickedly violated our interest in the providence of God, and have attempted to bring in the foreign power of an old idol, to the great prejudice of all the true subjects and servants of the Most High. My accusation I make good by the evidence of the fact, joined with their own confessions. And because, to wave the imputation of violent intrusion into the do minion of another, they lay some claim and pretend some title unto it, I shall briefly shew how it is contrary to the express terms of the great charter of heaven, to have any such power introduced amongst men. Your known love to truth, and the gospel of Christ, makes it altogether needless for me to stir you up by any motives, to hearken to this just complaint, and provide a timely remedy for this growing evil: especially since experience, hath so clearly taught us here in England, that not only eternal, but temporal happiness also dependeth on the flourishing of the truth of Christ's gospel. Justice and religion were always conceived as the main columns and upholders of any state, or commonwealth; like two pillars in a building, whereof the one cannot stand without the other; nor the whole fabric without them both. As the philosopher spake of logic and rhetoric, they are arts avriorpopai, mutually aiding each other, and both aiming at the same end, though in different manners: so they, without repugnancy, concur and sweetly fall in, one with another, for the reiglement and direction of every person in a commonwealth, to make the whole happy and blessed : and where they are both thus united, there and only there, is the blessing, in assurance whereof Hezekiah rejoiced truth and peace. An agreement without truth is no peace, but a covenant with death, a league with hell, a conspiracy against the kingdom of Christ, a stout rebellion against the God of heaven; and without justice, great commonwealths are but great troops of robbers: now the result of the one of these is civil peace, of the other ecclesiastical, betwixt which two there is a great sympathy, a strict connexion; having on each other a mutual dependance. Is there any disturbance of the state? it is usually attended with schisms and factions in the church, and the divisions |