Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	absolute_a	according_a	acknowledge_v	19	3	7.0077	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A78160	Prædestination, as before privately, so now at last openly defended against post-destination. In a correptorie correction, given in by way of answer to, a (so called) correct copy of some notes concerning Gods decrees, especially of reprobation; published the last summer, by Mr. T.P. in which correct copy of his, he left so much of pelagianisme, massilianisme, arminianisme uncorrected, as Scripture, antiquity, the Church of England, schoolmen, and all orthodox neotericks will exclaime against to his shame, as is manifestly evinced, / by William Barlee, rector of Brock-hole in Northamptonshire. To which are prefixed the epistles of Dr. Edward Reynolds, and Mr. Daniel Cawdrey.	Barlee, William.; Reynolds, Edward, 1599-1676.; Cawdrey, Daniel, 1588-1664.	1657 (1657)	Wing B819; Thomason E904_1; ESTC R19533	287,178	284

not to be wise at all times nemo sapit omnibus horis So neither are the wildest alwaies out they have their dilucida intervalla est olitor aliquando opportuna loquutus In the odnesse of the looke and meane of your booke to phrasifie a little with you you are all for the conditionality of Gods decrees and staringly against all absolutenesse but here all upon a sodaine in this your saying you are as much for an absolute decree as any of your Calvinisticall Adversaries would have you You belike are one of the modern Polititians you doe loqui cum vulgo but sentire cum sapientibus If so Sir let wise men have more of your meaning and fools more of your gaping But if yet you doe not understand how fairely by this grant you have broken the back of your finically fine Corrected Copy learn it from Doctor Twisse for once whom you have so often wrested and abused who though hee never thought of you when he wrote it yet now speaks very pertinently to you thus (g) Dr Twisse against Mr Hoard p. 49. I would not have any think that I reject any of those ancient Fathers that seem to bee most opposite to Austins opinion in the point of praedestination I think they may be fairely and scholastically reconciled without acknowledging of so much difference betwixt them as Vossias maketh and tha● by such an interpretation as sometimes is admitted by Vossius himselfe of his owne phrase of his owne distinction though hee dreams not of the applicable nature of the same to the will of God in praedestination (h) Hist Pelag. lib. 7. His distinction is of voluntas Dei antecedens consequens and this he makes aequivalent to that other distinction of the will of God absolute and conditionall Now this conditionall will of God he interprets not quoad actum volentis but quoad res volitas Like as Dr Jackson professeth in expresse termes that the former distinction of voluntas antecedens consequens is to be interpreted namely quoad res volitas and not quoad actum volentis Now according to this construction there is no difference between them and Austin nor the least impediment to the making of the will of God both in praedestination and reprobation to be most absolute For though sinne be acknowledged to be the cause of the will of God in reprobation quoad res volitas in respect of the punishment willed thereby this hinders not the absolutenesse of reprobation quoad actum reprobantis And unlesse we understand the Fathers thus we must necessarily charge them with such an opinion whereof Aquinas (i) Aquinas affirmat nem nem esse tam insanae mentis ut diceret merita esse causas praedestinationis ex parte actus praedestinantis lib. 1. q. 23. a. 5. is bold to profess that never any man was so mad as to affirme to wit That any merits should bee the cause of praedestination quoad actum praedestinantis And why so because praedestination is the act of Gods will and there can be no cause of Gods will quoad actum volentis Now who seeth not that by the same reason there can be no cause of divine reprobation quoad actum reprobantis for even reprobation is the act of Gods will as well as praedestination and every way it must be as mad a thing to devise a cause of reprobation quod actum reprobantis Thus farre that learned Dr all which if it be true quite overthrowes your book and if not pray confute it and your own grant too 4. As for the grand sophisms and numerous mistakes they be especially these relating to this Chapter as to what for arguments sake must be reduced to it out of others 1. Wee have a parcell of wild consequences so extremely remote from the premises as if at the same time you had sent a bill of divorce to Calvinisme p. 24 and 48. You had with it also manumitted all naturall and artificiall Logick ex gr p. 33. God hath a true will which is usually called voluntas signi a commanding threatning promising wil ergo That is all the will he hath he hath no other above it or besides it for no body mainteins he hath any contrary to it 2. Upon the perpetuall confusion of election and salvation as if they were one and the same throughout Chapter 3. and 5. Salvation is actually bestowed upon none viz. of yeares for other wise it is false but upon faith and repentance and perseverance in it p. 69. None were elected to them but upon foresight of them they be the conditions of election as well as of salvation 3. Upon a like mistake that there is the same reason for the making of Gods decree that there is in the intended execution thereof p. 39. (k) The falshood whereof Doctor Ames Rescrip scholast ad N. Grevinch cap. 5. and Doctor Twiss also have confuted by many instances In his answer to Mr Hoard p. ●89 The decree of shewing mercy in pardoning of sin doth no more pre●uppose sinne then the decree of shewing the power of balm in curing a green wound doth presuppose the wound or the decree of shewing the power of a cordiall against poison doth presuppose the poisoning of a mans body or the decree of advancing a subject by way of reward doth presuppose his service or the decree of a patron to preferre his son to a benefice doth presuppose his fitnesse for it or the decree of Solomon to bring Shimei his gray haires to the grave in blood did presuppose the offence for which this was brought to passe but rather from these decrees and intentions each author in his kind proceedeth to bring to passe every thing that is required to the accomplishment of the end which he intends c. You conclude with a sure but not surely that which is the reason of their condemnation was the condition upon which they were determined to be damned If you dispute concerning the cause of Gods internall will quoad actum volentis as you must or else you pinch no body with it but Sir N. N. 4. Promises of rewards threatnings of punishment some covenants evangelicall are proposed and published with conditions p. 33. A blessing if yee obey and a curse if yee obey not c. ergo God takes up his eternall decrees concerning events and persons upon the same conditions And in this latter way of arguing you do so please your selfe as your brother Arminian Mr Hoard had done before you as that from p. 33. to 36. you make 4. or 5. Arguments of one and that a very lame and inconsequent one as if the punishments rewards promises threats exhortations c. would afford you different mediums for different arguments Just as we might conceive that that Herauld who by command of his Master in opposition to the long catalogue of Kingdomes enumerated in the title of the King of Spaine cryed out The King of France the King

own will therefore he did ab aeterno decree to permit it for otherwise he could by confirming grace have hindered and prevented the committing of it as well in all Angels as in some as well in Adam as in Angels and that without any violence offered to their nature at all Gen. 20. 5. Gen. 31. 7. 1 Cor. 10. 13. neither can there be given any cause out of God himselfe and the counsell of his owne will leading and inducing him rather to permit then hinder it He did decree to permit it in order to his own glory which is the supreme end and therefore by him absolutely willed because the being thereof by his unsearchable wisdome and power was ordinable thereunto He may out of that common and equall masse wherein he did decree to permit it decree in some in whom he did permit it to pardon it and on them to shew free mercy in others to punish it and in them to shew due and deserved justice the one having nothing to boast of because the grace which saves them was Gods the other nothing to complaine of because the sinne which ruines them is their owne He may by this huge discrimination of persons who were in their lump and mass equall and in themselves indiscriminated shew the absolute soveraignty which he hath over them as the Potter over his clay He may by his most sweet and yet most powerfull efficacie work the graces of faith repentance new obedience and perseverance in the wils and hearts of those on whom he will shew mercy giving them efficaciously both to will and to doe of his own good pleasure and leave others to their own pride and stubburnness his grace being his own to do what he will withall And I say once againe in all this there is neither modest nor immodest blasphemy 1. Gods glory is dearer to him then all the things in the world besides are or can be 2. Every attribute of God is infinitely and absolutely glorious and the glory of every one of them infinitely deare unto him 3. Whatever is infinitely and absolutely glorious in God he may by an absolute will and purpose decree to shew forth the glory thereof in his works without fetching an antecedent Reason ab extra from without himselfe leading and inducing him to make such a decree 4. The subject on which God is absolutely pleased to manifest the glory of his mercy and justice as to mankinde is massa perdita 5. Out of this mass of lost or lapsed mankinde he hath ex mero beneplacito chosen some unto glory and salvation for the manifestation of his free and undeserved mercy and passed by others leaving them under deserved wrath for the manifestation of his justice 6. That such and such particular persons out of the same equally corrupted mass are chosen and others are rejected belongeth unto the deep and hidden counsell of God whose judgements are unsearchable and his waies past finding out to whose soveraignty it appertaineth to forme out of the same lump one vessell unto honour and another unto dishonour to shew mercy on whom hee will shew mercy and to pass by whom he will pass by 7. God doth so absolutely will and decree ab aeterno the manifestation of the glory of his attributes in his works as that withall he purposeth that the temporary execution of those eternall and absolute decrees shall finally be in materia apta disposita for such a manifestation 8. All those intermediate dispositions between the decree and the execution thereof whereby the subject is fitted for such manifestation of Gods glory if they be gracious they are by Gods eternall will decreed to be wrought and accordingly are in time effectually wrought by himselfe and his grace in and with the will of the creature If they be evill and sinfull they are in his eternall purpose permitted to bee wrought and are in time actually wrought by the deficient and corrupt will of the creature and being so wrought are powerfully ordered by the wise and holy will of the Creator to his glory 1. So then God did ab aeterno most absolutely wil and decree his owne glory as the supreme end of all consulting therein the counsell of his owne will and not the wils of any of his creatures 2. In order unto that supreme end he did freely elect some Angels and some lapsed men unto blessednesse for he might do with his own gifts what hee would himselfe 3. In order to the same supreme end he did leave some Angels and some lapsed men to themselves to their own mutability and corruption not being a debtor unto any of them 4. But he did not ordaine any creature to absolute damnation but to damniaton for sin into which they fal as they themselves know by their own wils whereof they are themselves the alone causes and authors Gods work about sinne being only a willing permission and a wise powerfull and holy Gubernation but no actuall efficiency unto the formall being and obliquity thereof I am sorry I am led on by mine own thoughts thus farre into your proper work But here I stop I was glad to see two Orthodox and sound Axioms stand before the book of your Author as the basis of his superstructure Two men of quite different judgements in these very arguments I finde to have done so Prosper cont Collat. c. 14. before The one Cassianus the Collator of whom Prosper hath these words Catholicarum tibi aurium judicia conciliare voluisti quibus de praemissae professionis fronte securis facile sequentia irreperent si prima Liv. decad 3. lib. 8. placuissent Which words of his bring into my mind a saying of the Historian fraus fidem in parvis sibi praestruit Ang de grat Chr●sti cap. 39. ut cum operae pretium sit cum magna mercede fallat and the censure of Austin upon Pelagius Gratiae Vid. Savilii praefat ad lectorem Andr. Rivet Grotian discuss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sect. 8. Sect. 11. Voss Hist Pelag lib. 1. cap. 26. vocabulo frangit invidiam offensionem declinat The other the famous Arch-Bishop Bradwardine whom learned and good men will honour notwithstanding the hard censure passed by Hugo Grotius upon him who premiseth two Hypotheses as the ground of that profound work of his de causa Dei I will have so faire and just an opinion of your Author as to beleeve that he did this in candor and integrity following therein rather the learned example of Bradwardin then if Prospers censure may be taken the artifice and cunning of Cassianus yet because this is a course which may by the credit of true principles draw the lesse cautelous and circumspect Readers to consent to deductions not naturally consequent upon them It is requisite as for writers as Pliny adviseth saepius respicere titulum so for Readers to follow the Apostles counsell to prove all things and hold fast that which is

habit or gracious quality which God infuseth into mans soule whereby the naturall motion of mans will is changed though the l●berty of it be not taken away but onely some externum auxilium by precepts promises threatnings c. whereby the naturall power that is in it to good is excited and stirred up His similitude of the bladders plainly intimate so much which can yield no help to a dead man but to one that hath a principle within to set them on worke 2. Hee takes no notice of that usuall distinction of voluntas decreti and voluntas praecepti For from that saying that God wils not the death of a sinner he concludes that God decrees not the death of a sinner nor the salvation of a beleever but conditionally for saith he Gods will and decree are both one whereas the will of his decree and the will of his praecept are really distinct for 1. The will of his decree cannot be resisted who hath resisted his will but the will of his command is daily resisted by wicked men 2. The will of his decree is eternall being actus ad intra but his commands are given forth in time one after another 3. The will of his decree is immutable being all one with himselfe the will of his command is mutable as in Abrahams case 4. The will of his decree is alwaies fulfilled he doth what soever he will the will of his command is seldome fulfilled by wicked men and not alwaies by good men 5. The will of his decree is within himselfe the will of his command is that which he puts forth from himselfe and therefore as much differing as the creature and the Creator 3. He takes no notice betwixt an absolute and a conditionall necessity or which is the same a causall and consequentiall necessity The first of these arising from the necessary connexion of causes and their effects the other from Gods decree Hence he infers that if God hath decreed a man should do good then he doth it not freely but forcedly against his will which is altogether false For Gods decree doth not infringe the liberty of the second causes but rather establish it 1. That it doth not infringe it appears 1. Because Christs death was decreed yet hee dyed voluntarily and freely otherwise it had not been meritorious 2. The Angels in Heaven obey freely and voluntarily yet is this decreed for they are called elect Angels 3. When the faithfull beleeve they doe it freely yet they are elected to doe this 2 Thes 2. 18. 4. If all our free actions and motions are not determined we shall exclude God from a great part of that his providence which he exerciseth in governing the world 2. The decrees of God d ee stablish the liberty of the creatures because he hath decreed not only rem ipsam which comes to passe but modum rei the manner of them Why doe some things come to passe necessarily but because God hath decreed they shall come to passe by necessary causes Why doe other things come to passe contingenuly but because he hath decreed they shall so come to passe by contingent causes and the certainty of his knowledge doth as much hinder the liberty of the creature as the certainety of his decree For as he cannot be frustrated in his purpose and decree so he cannot be deceived in his knowledge therefore what he knowes must necessarily come to passe by this consequentiall necessity yet none will say this takes away the liberty of the creature Had this Objector been pleased to take notice of these distinctions and throughly digested them he might easily have seen that they would have utterly enervated those his paralogismes which he cals demonstrations and holds forth with such confidence He grants afterwards that God foreknowes all things and that his certaine foreknowledge doth not hinder the liberty of mans will And upon the same ground he must grant it of his decree also for they are both actus ad intra of which the rule is that they do nihil ponere in objecto The decree of God being an act within himself whiles he puts it forth in some outward act tending to execution works nothing upon the creature Now let him shew if he can in what outward acts upon the creature tending to the execution of his decree he doth any way necessitate mans will For outwardly he works upon him onely by morall suasion and inwardly by infusing gracious habits which sweetly incline and dispose him freely to choose what is good in good actions In evill actions he works not inwardly at all by infusion of any ill quality or principles but onely by leaving him to the liberty and free motion of his wicked will which he is not bound to restraine and outwardly by propounding such outward objects as are in themselves good By which it is apparent that Gods decree doth not at all necessitate mans will Yet upon this false foundation that the will is necessitated by Gods decree he goes on usque ad nauseam to inferre most absurdly irrationally and contrary to all Logicall principles that if the end be certaine the meanes are needlesse If mans salvation be certainely determined then no need of faith and repentance obedience and the like then all praecepts threatnings c. are to no purpose Whereas he cannot be ignorant that media sunt propter finem and that finis intentionis est causa mediorum and media sunt causae executionis And whereas the Apostle useth this as an argument to make us carefull to be sober and to put on the breast plate of faith and love and the helmet of hope 1 Thes 5. 8. is parts of that spirituall armour whereby we must mainte●ne the spirituall combat because God hath not appoi●ted us unto wrath but to obtain salvation by Jesus Christ ver 9. He argues the quite contrary way that if we be appointed to salvation these things are needlesse And whereas the Apostle saith that we are chosen to alvation through the sanctification of the spirit and beliefe of the truth 2 Thes 2. 15. and so makes sanctification and faith as certeine and necessary as salvation it selfe we being chosen to both by one act of Gods decree which is both eternall and unchangeable he saith no if wee bee chosen to salvation by any unchangeable decree then neither sanctification nor faith are needfull and so severs the end and meanes which God hath inseparably joined together He might as well argue that because God had determined that Hezekiah should live fifteen yeares after his sicknesse therefore hee need no longer make any use either of food or physick yet this is his manner of arguing all along his discourse 4. His conditionall decree drawes after it these absurdities 1. He takes away all difference between election and reprobation betwixt love and hatred For by this Esau is loved as well as Jacob if he chuseth good and Jacob hated as well as Esau if hee chuseth evill

any of these things if once by the fault of the creature per accidens sinne do but cleave to them 2. God may not nor doth at any time punish sinne with sinne contrary to Rom. 1. 24. 1. Thes 2. 9 10. or doe any of those many things which even by Arminius (n) Arminius and others I have elsewhere transcribed at large looke after them Armin. Disp 9. pub Tilenus in no lesse then 8 positions in Collat. cum camerone The Remonstrants in script is Synodal●bus who as they do all confute the aequitable sense so let Austin shut up the reare in proving Gods punishing sinne with sinne and pleading for other acts of Gods providence about sin lib. 5 contra Julian Pelag. cap. 3. Per totum fer mè caput Nec tacetur de coecitate Israel Quar● donec plenitudo gentium inquit Rom. 11. intraret nisi sortiter istam poenam negabis esse quam si lucis internae amator esses non solum aliquam sed valde magnam poenam esse clamares A● ista caecitas suit judae is grande incredulitatis malū grandis causa peccati ut occiderent Christum Jam istam caecitat●m si poena fuisse negaveris simil●m te perpeti etiam non confitens indica●is Similia habe●us passim al●bi Tilenus and others are granted for the avoiding of Atheisme in the deniall of Gods soveraign providence to belong to him 4. You would make us beleeve that God hath no other waies of with-holding us from sinne but by destroying us robbing us of our free will turning us into stocks uncreating his creature Which if so pray what becommeth 1. Of al Gods diverting waies by common and speciall providence 2. Of all his restraining waies by Lawes inward feares c. his waies of conviction by common graces Heb. 6. Besides what is done by arts and civilities didicisse fideliter artes c. 4. What of his converting waies of the worst of sinners when ex nolentibus he makes them volen●es 5. Of his preservatives of the good Angels who per magis auxilium by the super-addition of greater grace preserved in their first station which surely if it had pleased God he could have given unto man also for the preventing of his fall 6. Of his timelie taking men out of the world or translating them to glory lest as the antients were used to say our of Ecclesiastic Malitia mutaret in●ellctum ejus If any of these waies of hindering sin tend to the destruction of free will I beseech God demolish that Idoll as much in me as ever Moses did the Golden Calfe when he beat it to powder Exod. 32. 20. 2. As for what you in the second place quote out of Mr Hooker I am sure enough of it were it not that you were a Platonick lover you see I borrow a fine phrase from you p. 24. rather of his Ecclesiasticall policy then of his Divinitie you would not have made him your spokesman who saith nothing to God's meere speculative permission of evill I think you would rather have snibbed him for his so profuse commendation of Calvin as you know we have had out of him 2. All that he saith hath been most readilie consented unto by men because in another Classe of Church-policie lesse liked by you (o) Let one who hath been long an Advocate fo● Protestants speake in his w●y for the rest D● Ames Rescript schol ad Grevinch● cap. 3. D●●o igitur quod antea dixi recte à scholasticis haec ita exponi ut non sit assignanda causa divinae voluntatis ex parte actus volend● quamvis potest ●ssignari ratio ex parte vol●torum in quantum scilicet Deus vult esse aliquid propter aliud Th. 1. q 23. a. 5. Quo sensu rectè etiam dicunt Deus vult hoc esse propter hoc sed non propter hoc vult hoc q. 19. a. 15. illud ordinationem unius rei ut causae ad aliam affectam notat hoc verò motum ipsius voluntatis divinae ab externo medio quod jure dixi indignum Deo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For what saith he in effect but this 1. That though considering all inferiour causes and things as they stand in subordination to God his absolute will is the cause of them yet as they stand in relation to each other so they have many other causes and lawes besides God's absolute will In a word God's absolute will is the sole cause of the making of his decrees and it is Atheisticall to say otherwise even Arminius himselfe being judge (p) Armin. Disp publ 4. Thes 51. Non movetur a causâ externâ ut velit non ab ●fficiente alio non a fine qui extra ipsum sit ne ab objecto quidem quod non sit ipse Etrectè Augustinus apud Lombard l. 1. d 45. Qui causam quaerit voluntatis divinae aliquid majus ●â quaerit cum nihil eâ majus sit Et si habeat causam voluntas est aliquid quod antecedit voluntatem Dei quod ne●as est credere but there be many causes besides of the execution of his decrees If to this true and undeniable assertion you would but take in what all your adversaries will as willingly yield unto you that God in his absolute decrees the results of his will and wisedome and praescience doth not only determine all things and actions but their severall modalities too as to the manner of their being whether as necessary contingent or voluntary and so that his decrees are the supreme cause not onely of all necessitie but of all contingencie and voluntarinesse too q I know you Deus ordinat omnia ut proprios motus exercere sinat August Tho. Aquin. Ordo praedestinationis est certus tamen libertas arbitrii non tollitur ex quâ contingenter provenit praedestinationis effectus Idem Aquinas ad object ad art 4. de provident In hoc est immutabilitas certus divinae providentiae ordo quod ●a quae ab ipso providentur cuncta eveniunt eo modo quo ipse providet sive necessario sive contingenter out of your Jac. Arm●n would not keep such a pudder as you doe about necessity and freedome as if it were impossible they should proceed out of the womb of one and the same decree caderent omnes de crinibus hydrae but of this when I come to your p. 47 48. 3. As for what you say p. 14. that no other reason is knowne to us of Gods works besides his absolute will and that hee workes all things according to the counsell of his will 1. The latter part of this saying is most true and strenuouslie pleaded for by your enemies especiallie by Calvin (r) Vide Calvinum fusè l. de praedestin p. 700. 728. who was not so mad as all along you would have the Christian world beleeve hee was as to hold that Gods wils and decrees were

reprobation And that both these and the supralapsarians with them premise the consideration of all actuall sinnes to the decree of positive reprobation usually called damnation 3. Indeed they are neither of them so simple as to apprehend these objective considerations to be at all any causes of Gods decree (o) D. Rivet disput 3 Thes 14. Non solum quaestio haec de objecto praedestinationis abstrusa est ac in penitiori Dei sanctuarii adyto condita sed quia otiosa curiositas alenda non est cujus illa nimis alta speculatio alumna est nutrix He addes the other part Quod ex damnata Adae sobole Deus quos visum est elegit quos v●●t reprobat quae sicuit ad fidem exercendam longè aptior est ita majore cum fructu tractatur In hac igitur doctrina quae humanae naturae corruptionem reatum in se continet libentiùs insistit quia non solum adpietatem propius conducit sed magis etiam videtur Theologica He had said a little before Paulum docuisse Deum ex perdita massa eligere reprobare quos ipsi visum est as that in him is an internall eternall act though they be the proper causes of his temporall transient acts and of the execution of those decrees They be loath to incurre that censure of madnesse from Aquinas as above or so much as to receive a gentle checke from your selfe when as p. 51. you acknowledge that these kinde of considerations must onely be ascribed to Gods will secundum res volitas not according to the act of Gods will considered in its simplicitie A better speech then which you never uttered any in all your booke and which rightly understood and applied overthrowes all that you say against absolute praedestination 4. That all these considerations of sub or supra are onely some honest ingenious necessary devices which some therefore well call ingenii nostri figmenta for the helping of us poor creatures crasie mortals who cannot approach to that light which inhabiteth eternitie to understand some little something of all that which Scripture reveales concerning Gods decrees but that God ab aeterno decreeing did both will and foresee all things unico intuitu unico actu All things are as I may say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the very twinkling of an eie open and naked before him Heb. 4. 13. What we distinguish by our signa rationis and moments of time hee wils and foresees all at once end and meanes together It is therefore extreme childish to wrangle overmuch with one another about the different conceits which all we crazie people may have about the meer ordering or marshalling of Gods decrees according to first or second when as the very purblind Jewish Rabbines can assent to it that in God there is neither first nor last An unworthy thing then it is for any praetending to Divinitie fowly to be spatter one another about meere methodicall mistakes which I am perswaded the very Angels in Heaven are not exactlie acquainted with Oh what horrid uncharitablenesse must it argue in you upon a meer dislike of Calvins ordering of Gods decrees to fling and flounce and to poure out damnable blasphemies and then when you have done to say p. 24. that you doe it for edification 5. That when upon the consideration of Gods beeing a free and judicious agent it is by all Christian mortals agreed nemine contradicente unlesse perhaps by one giddie headed Nich. Grevinchovius (p) Who yet could say cont Ames p. 113. Gradus hosce seu momenta varia quae fingi solent in decretis Det infirmitatem nostram posse sub●●vare sed in ipso Deo unum idem esse Yet alibi contra Nego simpliciter decretum hoc esse decretum finis medioorum medium cum fine in ipso decreto quod ais conjungi nemo sanus dabit that in Gods one decree we must needs distinguish betwixt the decree of the end and the decree of the meanes and that we must needs place the decree of the end in so wise an agent as God is before the decree of the means according to that well grounded Rule dictated by nature it selfe that Quod prius est in intentione ultimum est in executione that is last executed which is first intended it must needs follow for all your jerking toyish gybes p. 2● 23. that of punishment for example be last executed after sinne as all the world knowes it is and if that may be looked upon in any consideration as an end intended by God as Prov. 16. 4. seemes to make for it then as to our manner of apprehending things it must needs be most evident that punishment must be decreed before the permission of sinne or else sinne in execution must be punished eternally before it bee permitted or acted which if you cannot like of you will easilie perceive to whom the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Divinity with which p. 23. you make your selfe so merty will of right belong 6. But seeing the supreme ultimate or sole end of God as Calvin and all the orthodox agree (q) Calvin de praedest p. 728. c. was not is not nor ever will be the meer destruction or tormenting of his creature animi gratia as Nero set Rome on fire or as you against your conscience would have us to hold for recreation to cut up animals alive like the Spanish Prince most odious and for ever to be Ananathematiz'd comparisons but the just tormenting of him for the just manifestation of the glory of his justice Rom. 9. 22. 2 Thes 1. 6. after much long-suffering and patience Dr Twisse (r) Epist dedic ad Reg. Bohem Ego verò sic instituo Deum neminem destinasse ad damnationem nisi propter peccatum Nec ullo vel naturae momento priorem esse judico destinationem ad damnationem quam sit consideratio peccati secundum quam fiat ista praedestinatio c. hath nobly and irrefragablie strongly proved an hundred times over in all his writings That because mans destruction and torment is not an end of it selfe intended but onely a means tending to a further end and not willed for its owne sake but propter aliud and that in Gods decrees all meanes are to be coordinated not subordinated none are before or after another in divine consideration as not in order of nature or time to him he makes it evident that your suggestion That God intended the eternall destruction and miserie of his so noble and excellent a creature before hee intended to permit his sinne the onely true meritorious cause of all his miserie is so farre from being true that never any rationall creature noble or ignoble did ever in time suffer so much as to the cutting of his finger but for his sinne Nor did God ever entertaine any thoughts that he should suffer for any thing else 2. By what hath been said I trust

you will say your selfe I am pretty confident that every honest body will say not wilfully prepossessed and blinded by the dust of your flaunting rhetoricke that I have an easie taske in the second thing proposed viz. Animadversions upon the text of this Section Take therefore brieflie this 1. That you are at your hot fierce scuffle with your old over vanquished Adversarie Sir N. N. whilst you doe so tediouslie plead for that which no honest body will deny you viz. That God did not make hell p. 24 by an absolute purpose meerely because hee would that some should suffer it and not in a previous intuition of their sinne But there-hence it followes not that sinne is the cause of Gods decree but onely of the execution of it Belike you will not beleeve that you have killed your Adversary till with the coward in Sir Philip Sydneys Arcadia you look upon him twenty times dead at your feet Can you beleeve that what you say in this either 1. Makes for Gods not being the author and that ab aterno too as to intention of mans eternall punishment for sinne the thing offered to proofe p. 17. Sect. 14 2. Or to what you fell upon afterwards Gods equall love to mankind or Christs equall redemption of al mankind Sect. 15. 2. If you wil needs have it granted you which you plead for next as I see no great absurditie in it why it should not be yielded you that sinne and punishment are relata secundum esse simul natura I cannot conceive how this makes for you but rather against you For if Relata qua talia are simul natura then sinne and punishment according to what I have pleaded for at least in Gods decree are not one after another but rather together But I would not wish you hence to infer as you seem to doe your discourse here and every where else seems to have a wishlie look that way 1. That God did not at all from eternity for sin intend to damn any men but took up that resolution in time when men have actually merited it by their sinnes 2. Or to think that Gods intention to kill men for sinne before they were born makes him a man might tremble againe to write it over an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 24 to slay men before they were borne when as you should know that praedestinatio ab aeterno non egreditur extra se and so is no more a reall punishment then Gods resolving to create us rich and noble makes us actually so And this Dr Twisse if you bee but willing to learne any thing from him will fully instruct you in (ſ) Vindic. l. 1. c. 3. in 4●0 col 1. Nil Vulgatius in scholis quam praedestinationem reprobationem nihil ponere in praedistinato c. Quod evidens ratio confirmat Sunt enim actus Dei immanentes non transcuntes omnis autem poena est actionis transeuntis in creaturam effectus 3. Or to beleeve that you had just cause in both your margins p. 22 23. to bring Calvin againe to your whipping post nay upon that occasion p. 24. to breake out as you wretchedly speake for edification sake into horrid blasphemies against the Almighty himselfe for saying nothing but what first he proves by Scripture reason and authority out of Austin which you doe not so much as offer to put away for saying nothing but what multitudes of Schoolmen some hundred of yeares before Calvin was born had said with a most unanimous consent (t) Scot. l. 1. dist 41. l. 3. dist 19. Suarez in 3. disp 5. p. 103. Probabiliorem existimo communem sententiam Theologorum asserentium electionem hominum praedestinatorum antecessisse permissionem originalis peccati Contra-Remonstr secunda p. 90. Agnoscimus docemus Deum non decrevisse quenquam damnare nisi ●ustissime propter sua ipsius peccata atque hoc respectu decretum hoc non posse it a absolutum vocari ut Deus sine ullo peccatorum respectu decreverit quenquam damnare c. viz. Scotus with the whole Army of Scotists and which all the supralapsarians in the Church of Rome doe say which Suarez himselfe being witnesse are by farre the greater number Yea for saying nothing but what Bellarmine himselfe is forced to beare him witnesse hee hath Austin for Nay for saying nothing but what as we shal have occasion against your 3. Chapter to prove must be granted if we have no mind to turn Atheists As for what you have out of him concerning the horribile decretum p. 24. which as you say did fright you into your wits and upon that occasion belch out of your mouth slanders against heaven oftentimes confuted as fast and as full as the Apocalypticall Red Dragon Rev. 12. against the woman to drowne her 1. That is by Calvin upon the place understood no otherwise then as that decree is of such a nature as that it cannot but incutere ho●ror●m as it did make the Apostle cry out O the depth Rom. 11. 33. Not that it is to bee abominated as you doe now for which the Lord if it be his blessed pleasure give you repentance 2. Your former little wit now much better as you think since you have left Calvins horribile decretum is neither much for the prior or posterior part of it to be heeded unlesse you had grace to make better use of it than here you doe who use it in this place just so as that Wilding in Prov. 26. 18. who easts firebrands arrowes and death and saith am I not in sport Belike this way you will have it verified of you that nullum magnum Ingenium est sine mixtura dementiae 3. The true and just cause give me leave to speake plainlie what I think In repub libera liberas oportet habere linguas is not so much your amazement at any thing Calvin delivers about the absolute decree as the extreme pride of your own heart and the deep love you are fallen into with your over-gallant parts which I beseech God they may not doe your pretious soule as deadly a displeasure as ever Absolons brave haire did to his body What of old made many a man a Massilian (u) Prosp Epist ad Ruffin Ab hac confessione Gratiae Dei ideo quidam resiliunt ne cum eam talem confessi fuerint qualis divino eloquio praed●catur qualis opere suae potestalis agnoscitur etiam hoc necesse habeant confiteri quod ex omni numero hominum per saecula cuncta natorum certus apud Deum definitusque numerus sit praedestinati in vitam aeternam populi secundum propositum Dei vocantis electi Quod quidem tam impium est negare quam ipsi gratiae contraire hath made you an Arminian Good brother returne returne whilst there is or may be any hopes of you As for your girding at the excuses which you say though falsely wee make to excuse

explaine themselves they first peremptorilie denie that Christ by his death brought all into a state of peace reconciliation 2. They maintaine the proprietie of Christs redemption as to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 11. 29. to be onelie peculiar to the elect 3. They have so many handsome orthodoxe put-offs of all Arminian glosses as that I will sue out a writ of melius inquirendum before I passe any damnatory censure upon them who I am sure make not for your purpose who hint not the least discrimination in Christs dying for the elect or the reprobate but who reject the distinction of the sufficiency and efficiency of Christs death which the Authors mentioned plead so much for and doe most amply explaine that which you quote out of 2 John 2. 2. helps you nothing at all though wee should allow your glosse of Christs dying for infidels and impenitents to be true for so he might doe and yet those infidels and impenitents be no other then such who for the present were so but were not to continue so and that by vertue of Christs death No question Christ died for all people tongues and languages Rev. 5. 9. who either actually did or for after times should beleeve in his name John 17. 20. And you my good friend who are so tender as you say p 72. as that you dare not tell your people that any crucifying wretches though Paul for any thing is known to the contrary and other elect vessels of God were at that time among them Acts 19. 15. who afterwards were brought to the faith were precious vessels of election Yet here you dare say without the least limitation that Christ died for all sorts of infidels and impenitents your hardnesse and tendernesse goes by the placet of your interest as kissing useth to goe by favour Sect. 29. You are a most deadly man for here a fourth or fifth time we must be all struck dead become Ala-mort by your seventh deadly reason taken from the condition of temporall death and other temporall punishments and this will kill just as many as your former p. 24 and up and downe elsewhere did even all those who against all rationall warning with you are weakely or wilfully resolved to confound the absolute eternall decree with the temporall conditionall execution of it And pray you what wise body ever yet denied the execution of Gods absolute decrees to bee conditionall and the causes of that execution though not of the decree it selfe I will not be so adventurous as to say to your followers Quando quidem hic populus vult decipi decipiatur But I would charitably by this time hope that they perceive how your immoderate eagernesse to get in to your beloved veine of rhetoricating with a matter of twelve quibling interrogations which need to be answered by no body but by your deadly enemy Sr N. N betraies you to the forgetting of all sound distinctions in divinity and well couched forms of logicall argumentation for what you have about Hezekiah and Nineveh 1. I have elsewhere given a large returne to it in answer to your first papers where you bring in these instances almost in the same words for the same purpose 2. Gods decrees in both these cases might be absolute and peremptorie enough in themselves and in him and yet he not at first dash reveale all his mind to his Prophets concerning what he had resolved on that Hezekiah and Nineveh might bee put upon praiers not to reverse his decrees but the absolute seeming damnation of them when as they were onely to be understood conditionally as the event did declare afterwards (e) Jac. Crucius in Beverovicia in vitae ●ermino p 10. explaine it well thus Sub hoc nuntio tacitam contineti conditionem ut in ill a conciene Jonae ad Ninivitas e●cidio perituros nisi resipuerint Sic moriturum Regem nisi seria poenitudine so ad Deum convertat c. Deus saepe sententiam mutat concilium nunquam Sic Gregor N. You should not take upon you to teach the Almightie how for the triall of his people to propose his denuntiations Neither should you comment upon them otherwise then God himselfe doth by his after-works But I had forgot that you love not Epist. 2. ante publicat sapere cum commentario which makes you so unhappie in those which you make upon his decrees 3. As for your saying that Gods decrees are conditionall if you understand them as they be in God or else you say nothing to the purpose it both opposeth what you grant p. 5. in Gods will simply considered there can be neither prius nor posterius and doth induce such uncertaine velleitios and depending wils and wouldbees as that the very popish Schoolmen doe chide you for them (f) Ruiz de vol. disp 10. Sect. 1 Velitiones purè conditionales sunt alienae à sapientia prudentia Dei. V●sques disp 83 p. 511. Voluntas Dei conditionat● dici potest non quia actu feratur in objectum sub conditione sed quia ex ill● volu●tate quae praesens est c. 2. As to what you say concerning Rom. 9. and the quaeties you put about it p. 40. 1. I cannot but smile to see how cowardly you come to it even tanquam canis ad Nilum lambit abit Indeed it hath put all your valiant party so terribly to their shifts for the warding of the blowes which it gives to your cause as that I cannot greatlie wonder though in this your publike theatricall corrected piece you doe seem to me laborare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to tremble at the very mention of it yet in your uncorrected as you call it indeed your truly domestique and genuine first-born you had spent no less then one by farre the longest Sections in whiffling of it off as you could But alas as I trust I have made it in my answer copiously evident that place doth and ever will sticke in the heart of your cause Tanquam lateri laethal is arundo I have there shewed 1. I hat how troublesome soever the matter of the Chapter is to obstreperous flesh and blood especially in carnal men yet it speaks out its mind as fully and clearlie as words can deliver it both in Thesi Rom. 9 11 18. 2. and in Antithesi v. 19. 2. That it is a most shamefull ridiculous subterfuge to interpret texts speaking plainly concerning what God hath decreed to doe or shall be done by texts from promises commands exhortations c. declaring what ought to be done believed or avoided 3. That to speake properlie and theologically no one text hath any more then one sense (g) Vide Dr Am●s in Psa 2 though the parts of that one sense may be made up of severall ingredients 4. That the two senses which like some Janus bifrons looking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which you in your first papers and your complices in theirs give of it are too plaine