might avoyd all inconveniences the thing which I desire to doe by the light of Gods Holy Spirit and Word 1. So conceiving the order of Divine Predestination as that wee set not forth onely some one or two of the Divine attributes and properties but preserve and present them all His Dominion and Power as the first Opinion would His Mercy and Justice as the second Opinion would His Truth and speciall Grace as the third Opinion would His Wisdome and foreknowledge as the fourth Opinion would And yet to acknowledge his judgements unsearchable c. as the Apostle would Rom. 11. 33. 2. So conceiving it as may agree with the holy Scripture expounded literally without Tropes in the greatest Propriety and by the light of the most the plainest the most fundamentall places and principles therein 3. So conceiving it as that the order in Grace doth not subvert the order in nature but that wee confesse the Wisedome of God so to worke his Will as yet hee preserveth the nature freedome and properties of the Creature in which hee worketh 4. Lastly conceiving it so as that God may both save the World in mercy and judge the World in righteousnesse CHAP. V. The fifth Opinion THe Fifth Opinion may be lesse acceptable to some for the Teachers and the defenders sake but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 accepts no persons These are Arminius himself if he be interpreted according to his owne principles in his Theses de naturâ Dei and Vorstius in his Tractate De Deo and the Jesuits Molina Vasquez Zuarez Becanus and others Besides that this is the Opinion of the Fathers Greeke and Latine before St. Augustine if their Doctrine concerning Prescience be rightly examined and declared namely 1. That God by his infinite understanding from all Eternity knew all things possible to bee seeing them in his owne Omnipotency 2. That among other infinite things possible in his understanding he conceived all this one frame of the World that now is and in it all the Race of Mankinde from the first man to the last every one in his severall order government and event only as possible to be if he will say the Word Wherein hee understood there might be things necessary things contingent some things causes some effects some as ends some as meanes to ends some Acts of God some acts of a free Creature some good some evill some things as rewards some as punishments 3. That hee knowes how to vary or alter the ordering either of all or of any part or person in the race of men so as other effects and other ends than those that now are might be brought forth if hee would otherwise order them 4. But considering this frame of the world and order of mankinde as now it is but then onely as possible that he judged it was exceeding good for the manifestation of the glory of his Wisdome Power Goodnesse Mercy Justice Dominion and Lordship if hee should will or decree to put it into execution and into being 5. That God infallibly foreknew that if hee should decree to put it into execution that then these and these particular persons would certainly by this order of meanes and government be transmitted and brought to eternall life and that those other particular persons under their order of meanes and government through their owne fault would goe into perdition if Justice should bee done them 6. That though hee knew what these would be yet hee determined and decreed out of his owne absolute Will and pleasure to say Fiat Be it so and to put into execution and into being all this which he had in his understanding and in so doing hee predestinated all men either to life or death Eternall For he predestinated to life those particular men to whom out of his owne good pleasure he decreed to give those happy meanes wherby hee foreknew they would be Vessells fit for honour being given unto them Hee rejected those letting them to perish to whom he decreed to give no other meanes than such under which hee foreknew that through their owne ingratitude they would be fit for wrath if no other were given them and out of his owne just Will when as hee could have ordered them otherwise to the producing of another event he would not doe it but make them vessells of his wrath With reference to this order the Elect are stiled by St. Luke Acts 13. 48. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Such as were ordained to eternall life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the reprobate by St. Jude vers 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 †Such as were before of old ordained to this condemnation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and for Providence in generall see Acts 17. 27. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 determining the foreappointed times 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and for Predestination in speciall see Rom. 8. 28. And Ephes 1. 11. There is †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the setting and placing of things by the counsell of his owne will in that order of Causes and of meanes which he infallibly understands will bring forth such ends and such effects if he please to doe his part as is laid out by himselfe in this order and please to permit the creature to doe its part as is observed in the same Order By this Order meanes government benefits aides c. I understand the creation of man righteous the permission of his fall the corrections of his sinne the meanes of his restauration by the Sonne of God made man the calling the converting of a Sinner his faith repentance perseverance his blessings chastisements tryalls and whatsoever else is now found in the order of any mans salvation or in the aberrations from that order whereby men come to destruction And to this agrees the antient definition of Predestination that it is Praeparatio beneficiorum Dei quibus liberantur quicunque liberantur * The preparation of Gods benefits whereby all are delivered that are set free And Fulgentius his definition lib. 2. ad Monimum Praedestinatio Dei nihil est aliud quam praeparatio operum ejus quae in aeterna sua dispositione aut misericorditer se facturum praescivit aut juste that is Divine Predestination is nothing else but the preparation of Gods workes Which in his eternall providence he foreknew he would doe either mercifully Vid. infra 3. part cap. 20. or justly CHAP. 6. An 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the fifth Opinion THis Opinion in the decree of Predestination observeth 1. An Act of Gods understanding and an Act of his will 2. The Act of his Understanding is his knowledge in respect of things not yet in being call'd foreknowledg which foreknowledge is put by this Opinion before the act of Predestinating according to the Scriptures Rom. 8. 28. 1 Pet. 1. 1. 2. Whom he foreknew he Predestinated 3. It taketh knowledge here properly and without any trope for that within Schooles
Faith for their recovery after notice taken of their impotency to rise again of themselves it seems an insulting mock and not a Call to say to sinners Turne repent believe and live unlesse there be some grace prepared for them whereby they may be able to repent and believe 2. Because it attributeth the Effect of obeying the Calling to the kinde of Calling it selfe and onely to one cause the operation of the Spirit as if many causes did not concur to produce an Effect and if any one faile the Effect faileth As if obedience to the Calling of God were not an Act of the will of Man under the ayde of the Spirit of God as if the ayde of the Spirit were never refused nor the Grace of God never received in vaine For though God be almighty and able to draw all second Causes unto his part and side yet he doth not use to disturbe or crosse the Nature of Causes nor the order of things which himselfe hath established 3. Because it maketh Gods Covenant to differ from all Covenants in humane affaires even in that which is essentiall to a Covenant yet this terme and title is borrowed from men the better to conceive of the Grace of God the duty of man In our Covenants each party hath something to performe and no one party doth all in a Covenant but by this distinction God is supposed both to provide infallibly to have the conditions fulfilled and also to fulfill his owne promises whereas all that he undertaketh for us is to make the conditions possible and not to be wanting in his helpe so far as is needfull for us Esay 59. ult And check me not that I am afraid to give too much to God lest I check you againe that you looke to be so much favoured as to be tyed to nothing Truth flattereth neither God nor Man Non est bonae solidae fidei c. T is not the part of a good and sound faith so to referre all things to Gods will and so to flatter every one by saying Nothing can come to passe without Gods permission that so we may imagine our selves are to doe nothing Tert. de Exhort Castitatis not far from the beginning CHAP. VIII Of Conversion THe Conversion of a sinner is the End which God seeketh in sending his Word and in Calling men Act. 3. 26. The Effect of Calling when it speedeth It may shortly be defined The Obedience of him that is called for it his part Vocantem audire obedire In Conversion there be two Termes A quo Ad quem From the power of Satan unto God Act. 26. 18. It is in all parts of Man In his Vnderstanding he is turned from darknesse to light In his Will from Idols of all sorts to serve the living God 1 Thes 1. 9. In his whole life from unrighteousnesse to Holinesse Rom 6. The Conversion of a sinner is also to be considered as Prima or Posterior The first is when a man of a naturall man is made a regenerate man and a member of Gods Church as the Gentiles called by the Apostles Act. 15. 3. Such were we all that are converted unto God having been first averted foolish disobedient deceived serving divers lusts Tit. 3. 3. The latter Conversion is when a regenerate man having committed iniquity and fallen into sin returneth unto God by repentance of that sinne Thus Peter that was foretold of denying Christ and that yet his faith should not finally faile was willed that he being converted should strengthen his Brethren Luk. 22. 32. See Bilson of supremacy pag. 278. 279. in 4. Next the Causes of our Conversion are to be considered without question Gods holy spirit working upon the heart of a sinner is the prime principall efficient powerfull Cause of his Conversion Turne us and we shall be turned Lam. 5. 21. in the beginning in the middle and in the end of it The word preached is the ordinary Instrumentall Cause Psal 19. 7. Adjuvant Causes are the Crosse that chastneth Jer. 31. 18. Blessings that draw and allure the prayers of others the holy example of others already converted c. But it is in question what part the Sinner himselfe who is the subject to be converted beareth in his owne Conversion being a living and reasonable Subject Whether he be active or passive in it when and how far whether he can further it or hinder it or whether it be possible for two supposed equally called one to be converted and not the other If so then whence this difference shall arise whether from God or from Man The determination of these questions cannot be cleare nor the manner of our conversion opened untill we have declared what is to be holden according to the Scriptures touching Gods free Grace and Mans freewill which we will indeavour to bring into more manifest light after so vehement Conflicts of the learned in all Ages which have raised clouds of obscurity to the losse of Truth amongst the strivers for it CHAP. IX Of Grace OF Grace and Freewill I will speak by Gods grace first severally then joyntly that so we may returne to the point of our Conversion to behold what be the parts of God therein and what of Man Of Grace I shall endeavour to declare the Thing the Distinctions the Necessity the Amplitude the Power and force thereof By Grace may be understood all that proceedeth from God out of free favour to an unworthy sinner tending to his Salvation yet here by Grace I will not understand the remaines of Nature as some light of Reason some sense of Conscience and the like though it was of Grace that these were spared and left to remaine in Man fallen Neither will I by Grace understand the Law describing the righteousnesse of works though the preacher of Grace doth use the Law to shew a sinner his Estate and to prepare him to Christ Nor will I understand the bare outward word of the Gospel though it be called Verbum gratiae Act. 20. 32. if not rather it be so called because the internall Grace of God goeth with it But by Grace I understand the internall Illuminations Teachings Motions Tractions Inspirations Operations Gifts of the holy Ghost merited by Christ to be given to the sinfull Sons of Adam in their fit time and order to the end to raise them fallen and to save them lost whence I shall call it with Saint August Gratiam Christi There is in man no merit of Grace for then grace were no grace there is only an occasion namely the wofull misery of Man which yet was in Gods pleasure to take as an occasion or to refuse it Even the good use of former Graces is no merit or cause of the giving of following Graces but the second are as freely given as the first for Gods good pleasure alone is the Author and Cause of that order and succession that is in graces in which he hath appointed to doe one thing in
not be knowne to us unlesse it had beene but unlesse it had beene knowne to God before it was it had never beene De civitate lib. 11. c. 10. Prideaux also de scientia media pag. 54. Before these Times every Divine held for most certaine these things which follow 1. That God was the Cause of Things 2. That hee fram'd them not in himselfe onely but with his Will adjoyn'd 3. A twofold knowledge to bee distinguish'd one of Pure understanding the other of Vision and that to respect things Possible this Future things 4. That to be understood before the act of Gods Will this to comprehend that 5. Not that but this to be the Cause of things See Scientia simplicis Intelligentiae praeintelligitur actui divinae voluntatis whereby the same things that were respected as possible are now respected as future for actus divinae voluntatis accedens facit ut sint futura So my first doubt is cleared 2. The second doubt is whether future contingent conditionall things especially the free acts of a created will under supposition if such an one were created or placed in this or that order be a subject knowable by the understanding of God which is Simplicis intelligentiae the reason of the doubt is because they that dispute contra scientiam mediam Jesuitarum say Objectum hujus scientiae mediae perit per consequens ipsa scientia tollitur e medio quia omnes actus voluntatis liberae juxta decretum divinum determinentur sic ut Deus non aliter ipsos praesciat futuros nisi quia futuros esse decreverit Sic perspicacissimus Prideaux Againe about the name of Scientia media they will not strive veruÌ„ res substrata displicet quatenus actus liberos voluntatis creatae effingit qui decretum divinum non praesupponerent sed ordine saltèm pracederent This that displeaseth might indeed displease if Scientia Media did apprehend liberos actus voluntatis creatae as simply futuros for it is Modus scientiae simplicis Intelligentiae and scientia media partakes more of simplicis Intelligentiae than of liberae never to see more than the possibility of things and sees the futurition of them only upon supposition if God make them to come into being by his decree of Fiant Neither can this contradicting here stand good with the grants and concessions before and after Before convenit inter omnes Deum saltem aliqua scientia non conjecturali sed certissimâ absolutâ non tantum res ipsas sed uitiles ipsaruÌ„ combinationes sive connexiones praesentes praeteritas vel futuras necessarias vel contingentes ab aeterno scire and that the Dominicans are slandered when it is said they deny absolutely that God doth foreknow suâ—h future conditionate things Paulus Ferrius consenting that God doth know such things cap. 23. After there be six wayes by which God is said to know conditionata futura Quaestio non est an omnino cognoscantur sed utro horum modorum cognoscantur But I strive not for the manner how but if they be known any way certainly by Gods Simple Understanding which runs before any Decree of his Will onely a Will to supply them and to imagine them being granted that they shall absolutely be I have enough to conclude That all things whatsoever acts of God or acts of the Creature necessary free contingent future good evill that are after the Decree of God certainly knowne scientiâ Visionis were before the Decree when they were suspended under the pleasure of God whether they should absolutely be or no knowne as certainly Scientiâ simplicis intelligentiae for posito objecto qualicunque necessariò illud cognoscit intellectus divinus propter infinitatem essentiae ipsius posito itidem ex hypothesi objecto qualicunque necessariò intelligit Deus quid ex illo sit extiturum I will determine both these doubts in the words of Bellarmine lib. 2. de amissione gratiae cap. 17. Deus cognitione simplicis intelligentiae c. God by his knowledge of simple Vnderstanding knew man would fall if he were made not onely before his Creation but before he had decreed to make him Therefore according to our meane capacity that knowledge of this conditionall Proposition namely if Man be created he will sin doth precede Gods absolute decree of making Man for those things are first in God which are Necessary then those which are Voluntary seeing those things may not be in God these cannot but it is necessary for God to know all things which may be possibly knowne whether they be absolutely future or Conditionally otherwise he should not be of an infinite knowledge But it was not necessary but Voluntary that God should decree to make man For more ample proofe of this foreknowledge of God futuroruÌ„ contingentiuÌ„ c. I referre you to Suarez his second book in his Opuscula and to Vasquez disp de scientia Dei 64 deinceps It being confessed then that there is in God such a manner of Knowledge which wee call simplicis intelligentiae the next consideration is where wee shall finde him using it questionlesse no place is so fit to seeke it in as in the Divine act of Predestinating for as to Predestinate is the first and highest act of the Will so to know intelligentiâ simplici is the first and highest act of the Understanding and the most wise Agent willeth not that but which hee hath first most perfectly understood as before was said In the first Opinion of the five set down before there was no place at all given to Gods foreknowledge whence the defenders thereof have a hard taske to cleare themselves from making God the Author of Sin Sin being a futurum in the World and to be ordered and governed by God In the second Opinion it was confessed that God did use this his foreknowledge simplicis intelligentiae in understanding the fall of man to come if hee were created before hee decreed to create him which is right well done But what reason is there to stop this knowledge at this Object or at one free act of the first Man and not to extend it to all the free acts of all Men in all times God did understand by the same knowledge that if Christ were sent to the Jewes they would not receive him that if Peter were tempted he would deny his Master before he decreed either to send Christ or to create Peter If this question then bee how farre the knowledge of God extended it selfe before hee decreed any thing concerning Men whether unto the Creation of the Masse of mankinde in one or to the Fall of mankinde in the first man or to Christ to be sent into the World or to the Faith of men beginning or to their End and Perseverance to the beginning of the World or to the end thereof â—t is most agreeable to the infinite and glorious Wisdome and Knowledge of God to have extended it selfe unto
c. And after pag. 27. Non hic queritur c. It is not questioned here simply whether God in the work of Conversion or in any other good worke doth move the Will resistibly for that we have affirmed formerly This is given then that Resistibility is never taken away See then secondly what remaines in Controversie De modo Resistibilitatis totalis est c. Touching the manner of Resistibility all question is made for this is that which we say when God by his effectuall Grace works in the Will Ipsum velle this Grace doth effectually produce Non-resistency and so for that time take away actuall resistance which is brought to passe by certaine knowledge and the prevalency of delight saith August Therefore doe we maintaine actuall resistence for that time to be certainly taken away because t is impossible such a resistence should consist together with effectuall Grace received in the Will Because these two things cannot co-exist together or be composed in the Will namely The Will to be wrought upon by effectuall Grace and the Will at the same time to resist which were as much as to say in the same Instant the Will not to resist and to resist or velle non resistere velle resistere Let us have leave a litle to search into this mystery De modo resistibilitatis tota lis est nay truly nulla lis est de modo resistibilitatis for resistibilit as est potentia resistendi actus now about resistibilitas the power there is no controversie for you grant neque innata neque adnata tollitur per gratiam in conversione here can be no question de modo resistibilitatis all must be de ipsa resistitentiâ or de modo non resistentiae for hoc est quod dicimus c. rem haud magnam dicitis Ideo enim contendimus c. de re minime dubiâ contenditis for is there any Remonstrant so silly to say Posit â gratiâ efficaci resistentiam ipsam manere that when the will doth actually yeeld that then it doth and can resist who beares a part in hac lite Plainly the State of the question is changed for the question of Contingency is not when things are in esse but before they were whether they were not possible to be otherwise Scholastici utuntur hîc erudita distinctione Quod fit consideratur duobus modis uno ut est jam in se extra suas causas hoc modo ipsum fieri transit in factum esse praesens in praeteritum proinde res illa non potest non esse dum est quia non potest non facta esse quae facta est Altero modo ut fluit à causa sive ut habet ordinem ad causam id est Quatenus est adhuc in manu causae atque hoc modo si causa est libera contingens potest res illa non esse contingenter est non necessario quia habet ordinem ad causam seu ut loquar cum Zabarella connexioneÌ„ cum causa non necessarium sed contingentem ita Goclenius The Question then of the Resistibility is before the very act of good or evill not in it It were sense I trow to say A regenerate man willeth sinne resistibly not in the very moment when he willeth it but because ere he willed it he could have resisted it so a Convert obeyeth Grace or willeth his conversion resistibly because ere he willed it he could have dissented Sinne is resistible though it be too late to resist when it is consented unto and Grace may be resisted though to say so is too late when it is accepted in the Will for to be received and then to be resistible cannot Coexistere 3. Againe granting that non resistentiam which is in the very act of consenting the question is still as doubtfull what is the Cause of this Non-resistance in cujus causae manu sita erat whether Gratia efficax be the cause or voluntas efficax for the selfe-same may be said of the Will that you say of Grace when the Will obeyeth it is impossible it should disobey or wil to resist No man can tell by the very act of obeying which is the cause of not resisting for put either of the two Grace or Will to remove resistance it is surely gone in the act of consenting And to me it seemes demonstrable that the Will is the proper cause that ends resistance or refuseth to resist First because that gratia efficax which you speak of so much is but nomen sine re there being no such Grace that can determine the Will but it destroyes it the nature of the Will being to determine it selfe Secondly because to resist and not resist are the proper acts of the Will as to convert repent beleeve are the immediate acts of man who converteth repenteth beleeveth and are not the acts of God though without his help and power they are not produced which is a plaine signe that man is later in the operation than God in the order of Nature by whom the act was terminated Our Church in the Homily of Salvation 1. tomo understands the matter thus First for the necessity of something to be done on our part for our justification to Gods mercy on his part and Christs satisfaction on his part concurs on our part a true and lively Faith in the merits of Jesus Christ which yet is not ours but by Gods working in us Secondly how it understands this Not ours but by Gods working in us a lâ—â—tle lower it declarerh Lively faith is the gift of God and not mans onely worke without God This might suffice sober wits that all confesse Gods grace to prevent to operate to helpe mans Will and the Will of man to have some office and part under the Grace of God though we were not able to expresse or declare the manner of the coworking God promiseth to Circumcise the Heart Deut. 30. 6. and Man is commanded to Circumcise his owne heart Deut. 10. 16. Jer. 4. 4. God promiseth to put a new spirit into man Ezek. 11. 19 and men are commanded to make them a new heart and a new spirit This promise and this commandement are both Evangelicall The promise supposeth and implyeth our utter impotency of our selves to doe these supernaturall acts and tendreth unto us the power assistance and operation of God to comfort and encourage us The commandment supposeth and implieth a power in us by the power of God to endeavour and to doe something towards these supernaturall acts and that they are our acts doth appear for that they savour of our imperfections from whence it is that we daily accuse our selves and complaine of the weaknesse of our faith the coldesse of our love the pride of our hearts though it be true that God hath given us faith love humility Why doe we not rather magnifie the gifts and graces of God but extenuate and disgrace them like
the one and mercifully to the other and judge them all righteously But all these things understood from the first to the last from the beginning to the end of the world with every particular circumstance the same that now are under execution I say understood them as under condition and with supposition if it shall please the Soveraigne Lord to determine and decree to put them into being and into act were brought and presented to the wisdome counsell and will of God to allow or amend to approve or to alter or to decree and establish them for ever which after long and deep contemplation that we may still speak after our poore manner of Understanding it pleased the onely wise God and Lord of all upon them to pronounce this mighty word or decree Fiant let them be so This frame this Order these Causes with their Effects these benefits these Mercies these Judgements these Ends glory to some shame to others Let them be established and ratified to the glory of the divine wisdome justice Grace power and holinesse Amen Amen Amen said the blessed and eternall Trinity Thus the Will of God comming to his knowledge maketh the Decree of Predestination which Knowledge or Understanding alone doth not Of this Will of God we are further to consider an essentiall property of it and a necessary distinction The Property of the Will of God is to be free absolute independent to proceed out of no cause but out of himsefe in so much as even his occasioned will had liberty not to have taken the occasion from whence it followeth that the things predestinate cannot be causes or motives of their predestination neither are things predestinate out of Prescience of simple understanding such for therein all things were knowne yet but as possible and having no subsistence at all being as possible never to be they could not be movers of Gods Will to will them They are deceived therefore that think Predestination out of Prescience makes Gods will to depend on Mans Will or to be a conditionall or uncertaine Will nay a decree out of this Prescience of simple understanding concludes Gods Predestination to be as absolute free certaine infallible as his Omniscience is infallible and his Will free and his Power supreme or as any other way or manner of understanding this mysterie can conclude it The Distinction of the Will of God is that of Damascen out of Chrysostome into his Antecedent and Consequent Will That is his chiefe and primary Will proceeding out of himselfe or out of his owne goodnesse and therefore is called by Anselme The will of his Mercy This other is his occasioned will or the will of his Justice as the cause now standeth Out of the first proceedeth all the good of Grace and Glory which the reasonable creature receiveth Out of the second proceedeth all the evill of Punishment and Revenge for the evill of Chastisement may proceed from love and so from the first Will as good that an offender suffereth or endureth From the first of these floweth that part of Predestination which is to Life which decreeth to give those meanes and benefits which understanding knowes will be saving to such men if they be given them which is the very decree of Election From the second of these floweth the other part of Predestination which is to Wrath which decreeth to give but those meanes and benefits which foreknowledge understandeth will faile to be saving to some men through their extreme fault and to inflict Death upon them for their fault which is the Decree of Reprobation And thus much is enough of the Will of God Of Gods Dominion The third excellency in the Nature of God seene especially in his Predestination is his Soveraigne Lordship and Dominion called by the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 9. 21. whereby he hath right and power to disspose of his creatures at his pleasure yet with wisdome and justice according to his Nature and by which he is accountable to none for his so doing From hence an answer is given to any that shall aske a reason Why God allowed and alotted unto these men the meanes which he foreknew would bring them to Glory and setled the End Glory and Eternall life upon them and why he permitted any at all to perish or why these rather than others when he foreknew their Ends would be unhappy through their owne fault when he could have remedyed and have so disposed things out of the Treasures of his wisdome and knowledge whereby these also might have been saved and others that are saved might have perished The Answer I say to this is out of the Dominion of God that it was his high pleasure to have his Justice manifested as well as his Mercy and his Justice in these as his Mercy in those out of the same his pleasure without wrong or injustice to any with free frank bounty to others as Lord of his owne things Thus is that verifyed in God as the supreme Cause disposer and ruler of all then when all things were in contriving and ordering how they should be to have Mercy on whom he will and to Harden whom he will Rom. 9. that is not to helpe him farther whom he findes to faile under sufficient helpe already given him Here is to be seen that Masse or lump of Mankinde out of which the great Potter made Vessels to honour and to dishonour namely the whole race of men from the first man to the last under all circumstances accompanying every particular both on Gods part and also on Mans knowne and considered by the Naturall and simple understanding of God for then they were as a Lumpe without determined formes capable of any change or amendment which the great workmaster might please to have For as God by his Soveraigne power makes of the same Earth some peece gold some lead or baser stuffe so of Mankinde he made some to holinesse and honour some he permitted to be defiled and come to dishonour But with this difference that there his own hand did all as working upon a dead and senselesse matter here he worketh upon a living and reasonable creature whose Nature we must suppose and provide to be preserved in Gods working upon it for in comparisons as there must be some likenesse so the differences must be marked as the Nature of things compared doe differ else nothing is more fit to deceive with than a similitude Thus much for the Consideration of the Nature of God who did Predestinate there followeth the consideration of the Nature of Man who was Predestinated It pleased the most wise and omnipotent Creator amongst other his glorious works to conceive one more admirable and excellent than the rest To subsist of a mixt compound Nature of Spirit and of flesh By the flesh inferiour to the Angels by the Spirit superiour to beasts to whom he might say Be not as the Horse as the Mul◠that have no understanding For
humane capacity as de ordine modo praedestination is in mente divina concordia gratiae liberi arbitrii cum praedestinatione But these Papers I hope shall make it manifest first that I leave things unsearchable unsearchd and stand with the Apostle in the selfe same place that he did admiring and adoring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 11. 33. I say in the selfesame place or the like not to cloak iniquity or absurdity imputed to the divine Majesty by O the depth c. Secondly that I search not at all into any thing by meere naturall light and humane reason which to do in these things were a presumption deserving precipitation but by the light of divine revelation in Gods holy word and therefore I have set for my title Appello Evangelium which is the opening of Gods Counsell so far as he is pleased to communicate to us And thirdly this I doe not onely by appealing to those Texts that directly and immediately speak of our Predestination and Election which may seeme hard and obscure but also to the openest and commonest places that are fundamentall principles of Christianity and the grounds of Catechisme which ordinary capacities and not great wits alone are able to understand and by which the fewer and harder Texts are to be enlightned and interpreted and not contrarily Irenaeus hath a right saying Multa male interpretari coguntur Lib. 5. qui Unum recte intelligere non volunt which hath hapned to many in our Age. That unum which they will not rightly understand is promissum Evangelicum universale in Christo redemptore vniversali which our Church professeth in her Articles and in her Catechisme which unum is the ground of all the Conclusions here maintained So that my studies have not been about some curious and superfluous questions separable from the body of Divinity and which might well have been spared but about the most essentiall parts and articles of that body and of their mutuall coherence and connexion the industrious search and examination whereof is so necessary and worthy a thing as I can hardly hold him worthy the name of a Divine that hath not laboured therein And as to my Opinions which unexamined may be presumed to be nothing else but either ancient or late condemn'd Heresies which imputation or very supposition no good man ought to beare with silence these leaves do undertake to shew that the apprehensions expressed in them are none of those old condemned Heresies nor of those late rejected Heterodoxes but the very Doctrine of the ancient Fathers of the Church builded upon the sense and letter of the holy Scriptures and consonant to the publike establish'd Doctrine of the Church of England contained in the bookes of Articles Common Prayer and Homilies which if I shall make good by cleare and undeniable evidence then I hope my good friends will hold me excused and cleared of any such crime as Heresie or semi-heresie or novelty and will take me for a true and sound member of the Church of England both in Doctrine and in Discipline from both which I feare there hath been made by many in this Church too great a defection and departure since the dayes of King Edw. the 6. when they were first established and since the primitive years of the happy reigne of Queen Elizabeth wherein they were ratifyed and strengthened with a second and oft-renewed judgement But the examination and tryall of all this I commit and submit to my ingenuous and loving friends and them and their studies to the goodnesse and grace of God our Father CHAP. I. The first Opinion THe first Opinion concerning the order of Divine Predestination and having these defenders Beza Piscator Whitaker Perkins and other holy and learned men is this 1. That God from all eternity decreed to create a certain number of Men. 2. That of this number he Predestinated some to everlasting life and other some he Reprobated to eternall death 3. That in this act he respected nothing more than his own dominion and the pleasure of his own will 4. That to bring men to these ends he decreed to permit Sin to enter in upon all men that the Reprobate might be condemned for sinne and that he decreed to send his Sonne to recover out of sin his Elect fallen together with the Reprobate This Opinion is rejected by many protestant Divines as by the reverend Divines of our Church that were at the Synod at Dort by Peter Moulin by Robert Bishop of Salisbury and others It is detested by the Papists and Lutherans it was it tha◠Arminius and his followers chiefly opposed in the low Countries It is charg'd To make God the Author of Sin To Reprobate men before they were evill To Elect men not in Christ who is sent after this Opinion to recover out of sinne those that were elected before they were considered as sinners This is that irrespective decree which Mr. Mountague disliketh because in it there is no respect had to any thing fore-known not so much as the fall of man much lesse Christ or Faith giving to God no fore-knowledge or no use of it at all in this act of his which the Scripture calls predestination Yet this Opinion doth well admonish us to remember the Dominion and Soveraigne power and will of God which must be seen and acknowledged in his predestinating of men according to that of the Apostle Rom. 9. 21. Hath not the Potter power over the clay and vers 15. Hee hath mercy on whom he will which we will be mindfull of in the fifth Opinion Under this Opinion are to be placed the nine Assertions concluded at Lambeth Nov. 20. 1595. which have been often required to be put into our Booke of Articles but yet could it never be obtained It is requisite therefore to set them down because they are not vulgarly knowne and to examine them what they meane and see how farre they are Orthodoxall or agreeing to our Articles And for their sakes that understand not the Latine tongue I will render them in English * Consule Articulos Lambethanos ab F. G. Ecclesiae Ministro nuper editos Articles approv'd by the right Reverend Lords John Lord Archbishop of Canterbury and Richard Lord Bishop of London and other Divines at Lambeth the 20. of Novemb. in the year 1595. 1. God from Eternity Predestinated some Men to life and some he Reprobated unto Death 2. The Moving or Efficient cause of Predestination to life is not the foresight of Faith or of perseverance or of good workes or of any thing which may be in the persons predestinated but onely the Will of Gods good pleasure 3. Of the predestinate there is a predefined and certaine number which can neither be increased nor diminished 4. They which are not predestinated to salvation shal necessarily be condem'd for their sinnes 5. True lively justifying Faith and the sanctifying Spirit of God is not extinguished doth not fall out doth
not vanish in the Elect either finally or totally 6. A man truly believing that is endued with justifying Faith is certaine by or with full perswasion of Faith of the forgivenesse of his sins and of his everlasting salvation by Christ 7. Saving Grace is not given is not communicated is not granted to all men whereby they may be saved if they will 8. No man can come to Christ unlesse it be given unto him and unlesse the Father draw him and all men are not drawne of the Father that they come unto the Son 9. It is not put in the free choice and power of every man to be saved These be the nine Assertions concluded at Lambeth at the instance of Doctor Whitakers against three Propositions delivered at Cambridge by Peter Baro the Frenchman Professor of Divinity in the Chaire erected by the Lady Margaret 1. De Praedestinatione Reprobatione 2. De Amissione Gratiae 3. De certitudine securitate salutis Whit. cont ult p. 4. Foure of these nine which concerne the Doctrine of Predestination are here onely considered the other five we shall speake of in their proper place in the third part of this book For the words of these foure they are so composed as they comprehend most certaine Truths but appliable aswell to the fifth Opinion to be propounded yet as to any other But because all men will fetch the interpretation of them from Doctor Whitakers the chiefe composer his understanding of them must be taken for their meaning And how hee understood the Doctrine of Predestination doth appeare in his last Conc. ad clerum Octob. 9. before this 20. of November wherein hee argueth against St. Austine That originall sinne was not the cause of Reprobation seeing it is remitted to many Reprobates according to St. Augustines Doctrine pag. 7. He expoundeth Rom. 9. 21. de massa incorrupta pag. 8. and nameth Bucer as concurring with him pag. 8. and iterum pag. 15. He appealeth to our Confession in the 17. Article which he is perswaded delivers the same doctrine that hee did not onely because those Articles were composed by the Disciples of Martyr and Bucer as hee saith but by the words themselves How other Bishops and Professors since have understood that Article and what hand Martyr and Bucer had in our Articles shall be seen in the next Opinion For these nine Assertions wee know Doctor Whitakers dying at his return from his journey were not received with such accord but that two the following Professors dissented from them and when the life of Doctor Whitakers was written by a learned friend of his who would have inserted these nine Assertions they were by authority suppressed a signe that though much were imputed and yeelded to the excellent judgement of Doctor Whitakers of worthy memory yet all in authority then were not of his minde in this matter whom yet they would not offend or lose as the times then were Neither in the first of King James in the Conference at Hampton Court when these nine Assertions orthodoxall as Doctor Reynolds termed them were sued for to be inserted into the Booke of Articles was this request obtained but that motion quenched by the speeches first of the Bishop of London who had beene at the concluding of those Assertions at Lambeth and secondly of the Deane of Pauls Doctor Overald who had beene a party in these controversies page 29. and page 41. And for the Orthodoxie of these Assertions in Doctor Whitakers sense Doctor Barlow the Relater of this Conference puts it upon Doctor Reynolds terming them so not upon his owne or his Masters Opinion he having beene well acquainted with the â—â—riage of that businesse at Lambeth as then Chaplaine to the Archbishop in his house and his Relation tels us The nine Assertions were sent to the University for the appeasing of those quarrells that were risen in Cambridge about certaine points of Divinity If for the appeasing of quarrels it was wisdome so to pen them as they might satisfie and unite all sides with common and generall truth As the first Assertion doth saying 1. That God hath predestinated c. which is most true but it saith nothing de ordine modo c. which is now the question and was then 2. The second speakes true of the moving and efficient cause both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but de causa non est quaestio sed de objecto whether it be Homo or homo peccator or homo peccator paenitens aut contumax Nothing in man is the cause of his Election 3. The third of the number is very true but founded on the Infalibility of Godâ— foreknowledge as on the Immutability of his will 4. The fourth is the most ambiguouâ— assertion for if it suppose Non-predestination to be the Cause of the Necessity of Condemnation for Sinne it putteth noâ— causam pro causa but if it suppose Non predestination as a meere negative of sucâ— an Act of God and suppose sinne committed and not repented of there is causâ— enough for the Justice of God to condemâ— him that hath sinned and used no remedy CHAP. II. The second Opinion THe second Opinion of the Order oâ— Predestination having these Defeâ—ders The Synod at Dort P. Mouliâ— Doctor Abbot B. of Sarisbury Doctoâ— Carleton B. of Chichester many Papists 〈◊〉 Bellarmine Cajetan and the Dominicanâ— and of which many doe say that Saint Aâ—â—â—stine was the first Author is this 1. That God from all Eternity decreed to create mankind holy and good 2. That he foresaw man being tempted by Satan would fall into sin if God did not hinder it he decreed not to hinder 3. That out of Mankinde seen fallen into sinne and misery he chose a certaine number to raise to righteousnesse and to eternall life and rejected the rest leaving them in their sinnes 4. That for these his chosen hee decreed to send his Son to redeeme them and HIS SPIRIT TO CALL THEM and sanctifie them the rest he decreed to forsake leaving them to Satan and themselves and to punish them for their sins This Opinion is misliked by the defenders of the former and of the following Opinions also 1. Because to defend the justice of God it supposeth mankinde corrupted before any Election or Reprobation was made which seemeth needlesse because there be Elect and Reprobate Angels without or before any corruption or fall Cacodaemones non fuere in Massâ tamen Reprobati Christus non fuit in Massâ and tamen ut homo Eligitur Prideaux 1. Lectione 2. Because it supposeth Originall sinne the cause of Reprobation which sinne yet is remitted in Baptisme to many Reprobates Whitaker Cygnea Cant. p. 7. 3. Because with the former Opinion it teacheth Christ to be sent onely to the Elect and the Word and Spirit onely to call them whereby the Reprobate is but more oppressed being call'd to embrace salvation offered which they cannot doe and yet for refusall thereof they are more deeply condemned
is called Scientia simplicis intelligentiae and that extended even to things future contingent sub hypothesi God knowing by his infinite understanding infallibly what things will follow if this or that be done by himselfe or by a Creature 4. This knowledge is the highest that we can conceive in an intelligent Nature and necessary to any that worketh with wisdome and therefore most worthy to be attributed to the first highest and most wise Agent especially in the first contriving disposing and ordering of all things 5. A knowledge most necessary for him that must governe contingent Events and Acts of a free Creature if he will have any such to be under his government 6. A knowledge confessed and supposed by the defenders of the second third and fourth Opinions who teach that by his knowledge God did foreknow the fall of Adam before he decreed to create him and before he decreed to send his Son to redeeme him for with them and with truth God did not first decree to create man and to permit him to fall and then was to seeke a remedy how to relieve him but foreknew the remedy that he could use if he should fall before he decreed to permit him to fall or to create him yea so infallibly did God foreknow the sinfull fall of man which yet was not Gods Act but mans and a contingent Act of a free creature that upon this foreknowledge he contrived the whole mystery of Christ and of our Redemption Now if this knowledge were used in one contingent thing it might have been used in a Million if in one free Act of the first man then in all the free Acts of all men and if in that which was the occasion of Gods mercy in our Redemption then in all occasions of Gods Acts that are consequent Acts even of the Generall Judgement which shall be at the last day For Gods knowledge is infinite 7. This knowledge of God being previall to his predestinating did not look therefore to the Masse of mankind as created and uncorrupted nor to the Masse fallen and corrupted nor to Christ beleeved on only but to these and beyond all these to the first middle and finall state of every particular man and the Universall state of all men This here for the Act of Gods Understanding whereof more anon the Act of his will followeth 1. To predestinate is the proper Act of the will of God His knowledge is his Counsellor but his will is King and they are both himselfe Ephess 1. 11. Who worketh all things according to the counsell of his will And to predestinate is the part and office 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which most properly is Gods that supremely orders all things choosing and allowing what shall be and in what manner and to what end Thus Saint Paul Rom. 9. 18. 19. speakes of the will of God but as of the prime and highest and most universall cause of things approving or permitting all other inferiour causes which because they might have been restrained or changed by the supreme cause and were not they are said all at last to be resolved into the will of God as the prime Cause 2. This will of God is absolute Independent having no other cause but his owne good pleasure for when as untill God make his decrees all things are knowne but as possible and are yet under the pleasure of God whether they shall be or no how can they possibly be the Causes of his will He understandeth them indeed as he hath contrived them fit to be willed because they are fit to shew forth all his glory and therefore in the end he willeth them but he could contrive other things than these or set these some other way as fit to shew forth his glory if he would Therefore that he willeth these it is his own most free pleasure Hinc autem nullam esse Praedestinationis causam in praedestinato patet quia cum homo praedestinandus nullo modo censeatur propriè existere sed conditionaliter tantum nihil potest esse in eo quod Deus moveat ad illū Predestinandum That is Hence it plainly appeares there can be no cause of Predestination in him that is Predestinated because when as the man that is to be predestinated can be thought no manner of way properly to be but onely conditionally there can be nothing in him which may move God to predestinate him P. Ferrius Spec. Schol. c. 24. p. 253. Furthermore this opinion avoideth all the Inconveniences that any of the former foure doe fall into for 1. It exalteth and magnifieth all the attributes of God and not some onely As His wisdome and knowledge In foreknowing not onely his owne works but also all the workes of every free creature and that to every circumstance of every particular in this numberlesse number and how to governe them to his glory P. 139. In using the reasonable creature according to its nature in the permission of Sinne in the obedience or disobedience to grace that he may judge the world in Righteousnesse His Power In creating and governing all things bringing light out of darknesse and happinesse out of misery His goodnesse In making all good at the first and overcomming evill with goodnesse His Universall Grace and Mercy In preparing Redemption for all men that had made themselves bond slaves to Satan and in providing meanes to apply and to communicate this Redemption His Truth In that his promises are meant to all to whom they are sent and performed to all that keepe his conditions Ideò veracem Tert. in Praxeam Deum credens scio illum non aliter quam disposuit pronunciasse nec aliter disposuisse quam prenunciavit His Justice In punishing all such as use not either the Rectitude of their nature or the benefit of their Redemption offered sincerely and constantly His speciall grace and singular Love In them whom he foreknew would use his benefits if they were granted them in whose Salvation and glory he was so well pleased that he confirmed to them by his decree that course and calling which he saw would infallibly bring them unto it Lesse grace being shewed unto them whom he foreknew would faile of Salvation through their owne infidelity ingratitude or security in the good way wherein they were set or under the sufficient calling which they had which faile of theirs he could have mended by bettering his benefits if he would but rather decreed to make them deserved Vessels of his wrath and subjects for his Justice His Dominion and soveraign Lordship In that he being the highest and supreme cause of all things ordered them after his own pleasure making happy whom he will and forsaking whom he will finding them in cause worthy to be forsaken after they so often have forsaken him Irenaeus lib. 3. cap. 43. Sapientiâ praecellet Pater c. In wisdome the Father excelleth all humane and Angelicall wisdome because he is Lord and a just Judge and Ruler
certainty was needfull to be used 4. I demand a proofe that the use of the Verbe simple shall draw the compound to follow it in the like signification That because God knoweth the way of the righteous Psal 1. ult is well interpreted God approveth it Therefore that the Lord foreknoweth the way of the righteous it is well interpreted God foreapproveth the way of the righteous which though it is true yet it doth not follow by any necessity of the connexion 5. Lastly if this interpretation make the whole and the onely sense of this word foreknowledge here then I say the difference is quite taken away that Paul and Peter make betweene these two to foreknow and to predestinate To foreknow and to elect nay worse that is put into foreknowledge which more properly belongs to Predestination and to Election for approbation and love is more discovered by the Act of the Will which is to Predestinate and to Elect than it is by the Act of the Understanding which is to foreknow Yet if their desire be to have it onely admitted and granted which was Origens minde that there goes with the foreknowledge of God a good liking and a well-pleasing and approving of the subject foreknowne as fit to be loved and capable of choosing I shall not onely allow but maintaine their desire for this is the reason why in Scripture not in Schooles the good and the Elect are called onely Praesciti or foreknowne and not the Reprobate though simply they also were foreknowne as God being not ignorant of them but there was not that in them which hee might approve or thinke well of yet this doth neither hinder the acceptions of foreknowledge properly as remaining in the Understanding nor infer an argument that the Persons chosen were chosen for the good that was approved in them or that they could not but be chosen because they were good in Gods knowledge for many worlds of men God might see in that infinite knowledge which now I speake of as eligible as these whom hee hath chosen all which notwithstanding hee hath covered in the eternall darknesse of never-being for to bee eligible and to be Elect I trow are two things that need not ever follow one another For the clearing whereof and of this whole question The distinction of Gods Knowledge is all sufficient which saith It is either scientia Simplicis Intelligentiae or scientia Visionis The Knowledge of Pure Vnderstanding or the knowledge of Vision the first is of all things possible understood in the omnipotency of God himselfe The second is of things that shall be upon the Decree made that they shall be for then they are seen as present the first is Scientia naturalis the second is libera the first is naturall in God the second is free namely following some free act of the Will of God Aquinas part 1a Q. 14. Art 9. Deus scit omnia quaecunque sunt quocunque modo c. God knowes all things whatsoever after what manner soever they are some things although they are not now in being yet either they were or shall bee and all those things God is said to know by the knowledge of Vision c. But somethings there are which are in the power of God or the Creature which yet neither are nor were nor ever shall bee and in respect of these God is not said to know by the knowledge of Vision but by the knowledge of pure Vnderstanding Fra. Junius Thes Theolog. Disp 8. Thes 32. 33. Scientiae Dei duplicem statuimus modum c. To supply the defect of our weak apprehensions we fancy a twofold manner of Gods knowledge One is whereby God knows himselfe by himselfe 1 Cor. 2. 11. Another whereby in one act not successively eternally not in time by his Essence not by reception of species immutably not contingently he knows all things that are or that are not as yet but shall be by the knowledge of Vision that is hee sees them as if they were present before him Those things also which are not nor ever shall be hee knowes so farre forth as he knowes whatever he himself is able to doe and what by his Permission may bee done of every Creature Zanchius de natura Dei lib. 3. c. 2. q. 8. Novit Deus etiam quae non sunt c. God knows also the things which are not no less than those things which are namely in his powerfull Essence This is call'd The knowledge of pure Vnderstanding Hee knows those things which are not as yet but shall be hereafter in himselfe as in one that is able and willing to make them bee and this is is call'd The knowledge of Vision For God sees those things as present because they shall all come to passe 1. This distinction to be allowed is out of question yet two things may be doubted about it 1. Whether the meaning of it be so to separate the objects of these 2. Knowledges possibilia from futura and so unite possibilia to scientiae simplicis Intelligentiae futura to scientiae Visionis that it s not possible the same things should first be known as possibilia and after as futura and first be the objects simplicis Intelligentiae and then a decree of the will comming to them to make them futura bee objects scientiae Visionis This is of so much importance to mee that if all these things that are now in the World have been or shall bee by the force of Gods Decree that hath settled them were not afore that Decree known onely as possible by the naturall and necessary Knowledge of God onely conditionally if hee please to give them being and way If I say this bee not true in God after our manner of understanding I am quite beside the cushion and this is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that leads mee into this long error But I neede not feare since it is undeniable that the knowledge of God is not the cause of things but voluntate adjunctâ when his will comes to his knowledge and his power whence it followes Non esse in scientia Dei ut res sint sed quòd esse possint so long as they are but in the understanding they are there but as possibilia and if this were not so there were no speculative knowledge in God of things which hee worketh but practicall onely contrary to Thomas Q. 14. art 16. Zanchius Deus omnia creavit creat c. God created all things and doth create Therefore the Idea forme and copie of all things must needs bee in Gods Minde and Vnderstanding For what Artisan doth any thing who hath not the Idea and forme of those things which hee makes preconceiv'd in his minde And St. Augustine notably Deus non aliquid nesciens fecit c. God made nothing ignorantly which also cannot be rightly spoke of any Artificer whence wee meete with a kinde of Miracle but yet a Truth that this World could
all and over all the whole the parts universa singula genus species individua demum ipsa individuorum ortus progressus successiones facta dicta cogitata sua aliena even to the last ends and events of things which will be manifested at the last judgement This they meane that would have Christ and Faith in him foreknowne by this science of simple Understanding before the Act of God Electing or Predestinating not staying at the foreknowledge of the fall not that they would make the Faith of the believers or Christ himselfe the causes of Gods Predestination but the Objects in Gods Knowledge when hee Predestinated both Christ and us 1 Pet. 1. 20. Eph. 1. 4 5. out of no cause but the good pleasure of his owne Will Now after the view of the whole World God finding this frame both possible to his Power and Good in his Wisdome to declare thereby his Justice and Mercy and all other his excellent attributes of perfection decreed to put it into being and into execution which was the first act of his practicall Knowledge calling up his Will to allow and approve and decree this goodly and glorious 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the mirror of his eternall Arist lib. de Mundo Power and Godhead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and this order of all things specially of humane kinde that great Masse out of which his Mercy and Justice and soveraigne Power draws forth vessells to honour and vessels to dishonor CHAP. II. Of the Will of God and the distinctions thereof IT is the proper worke of the Will to Predestinate or to Decree what of those infinite things which the understanding presented shall bee and come into light for unlesse the Will of God with his Power come to them their being knowne makes them not to be Praedestinatio est propositum propositum est actus practicus ultimus voluntatis ergo Praedestinatio magis importat voluntatē quà m scientiam P Ferrius p. 232. He saith Vltimus because there is an act of the Will even in knowing Primò enim volumus aliquid scire quam sciamus vel intelligamus deinde intelligimus tunc quod intelleximus voluntate probamus as it is a little above in the same Author Here then is the first Act of Gods Will chusing and refusing chusing these things that now are to bee refusing all the rest which he knew notitiâ simplicis intelligentiae of infinite variety but hee cast them into perpetuall darknesse and silence so according to the Psal 115. 3. Quaecunque voluit fecit The Will of God being in it selfe one and simple may be considered with diversity onely as conversant about things that are diverse his Will allowing them to bee diverse 1. There be some things therefore which God willeth as to bee done by himselfe by his owne Power as the World to bee created of nothing his Sonne to be sent into the World made of a Woman and such like This first Will of God never faileth because hee workes it himselfe alone by his Almighty power 2. There be some things which God willeth as to bee done by the Creature either as a naturall Agent as flowers to be drawne out of the Earth by the Sunne in the Spring or as by a voluntary Agent as righteous and good workes to be done by man yet God himselfe concurring and coworking with the Creature a naturall and voluntary Agent according to its kinde This second will oftentimes fayleth by the Creatures failing by whom God would have the worke wrought God permitting and not hindering the faile as he could 3. Some things God willeth and doth himselfe or with others as leading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 antecedent out of himselfe his own goodnesse and mercy as all the good wee have in Nature or in Grace our Creation our Calling our glory God beginning following perfecting all our good out of his abundant and never-failing bounty Some things hee willeth and doth as following 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 led or urged thereunto upon occasion of some evill of the Creature as to forsake to punish or to destroy it and this is the Will of his Justice the maker of all the evill of paine which wee suffer This Distinction Damascen tooke out of Chrysostome on the first to the Ephesians and Anselme calls it voluntatem Misericordiae voluntatem Justitiae wherewith why some Divines should finde such fault I know not nor why it should not bee call'd the primary and chiefe Will of God and not a Velleity or a simple complacentia and the second a secondary and lesse desirable for these two may well stand and remaine together as in a tempest the will of the Merchant to save his goods abideth in him as his chiefe desire though now as the case stands hee by another will casts them into the Sea neither are they contrary one to the other seeing they have two objects diversly qualifyed a man as hee is Gods Creature and as hee is an impenitent Sinner him God would have sav'd and yet this God wills to perish There be many other distinctions of the Will of God which doe not availe to the opening of the Doctrine of Predestination and some of them availe not to the clearing of any Doctrine but rather to the obscuring of truth which we will omit I will shut up this head with this sentence There is nothing in the World that did not passe under the censure of the Will of God of some sort or kinde or other before it was as it passed under the view of his knowledge Voluntas Dei est prima summa causa c. The Will of God is the prime and highest cause of all spirituall and corporall motions for there is nothing visibly or sensibly which is not from the invisible and intelligible Court of the King of Kings either commanded or permitted according to the ineffable justice of Rewards and Punishments of thankes and retributions in that most ample and immense Republike of the whole Creation Prosper Epigram 58. Aug. de Trin. l. 3. c. 4. CHAP. III. Of Providence and Predestination THe Decree of the Will of God determining all other things besides those about man is called by the generall name of Providence The Decree of God whereby he determined concerning Man as a speciall and principall part of his Providence is called by a peculiar name Predestination Predestination is an Act of Gods Will from all eternity decreeing the Ends of all Men the meanes which he foreknows will bring them to those ends The ends be Life or Death eternall the meanes be the government of every particular Man in this life under more or lesse of the goodnesse or of the severity of God The Predestinating to some Men those meanes which God doth foreknow will bring them unto life is the Electing of them to life Deus praedestinatos non aliâ ratione in vitam aeternam elegit quam complacendo sibi in mediis
is because both man hath neede of God and God is helpfull to man for the performing of Righteousnes For as Man can doe no good except he have Gods helpe so neither doth God worke any good in man except man be willing As neither the earth without seed fructifies nor seed without the Earth so neither man without God nor God without man doth worke righteousnesse in man Even as if hee had said If yee doe these things if yee pray for these things yee are children worthy of such a Father Now to try out the Truth let mee set forth into view foure Propositions 1. Without the Grace of God the will of Man can and doth both will and perform that which is good 2. Without the Grace of God the will of Man cannot will good but through Grace being once made able to will afterward without any further Grace it can alone both will and performe that which is good 3. By or through the Grace of God working on the will the will of Man can both will and performe that which is good and without grace it cannot will nor without further grace performe that which is good 4. By or through the Grace of God working on the will the will of man cannot but will cannot but performe that which is good The first Proposition of these is the Heresie of Pelagius detested by the whole Church of Christ The Second Proposition is the error of the Massilienses or Semipelagians And both these are against my first Principle or Maxime The Third Proposition holdeth out the light of Truth subjoyning the will of man to the Grace of God both in willing and performing that which is good and is the Doctrine of S. August in his setled judgement and the Catholick Doctrine of the Church The Fourth Proposition is the extreme opinion of S. August in his heat of disputation against Pelagius and the Massilienses and of many moderne Divines of force defended to support your Doctrine of the Order of Predestination without the prescience of all particular events putting onely the prescience of Adams fall But this fourth Proposition is destroyed by my two latter Principles or Axioms or they destroy'd by it Well said Nazianz. in the case of extreme Opinions about the Trinity Quid enim necesse est tanquam ramum omnino in aliam partem declinantem c. For what necessity is there as a bough declining altogether one way by force to bend it the other way and so by crookednesse to rectifie crookednesse and not rather to keep to the middle way and continue within the bounds of divine Piety but when I name the middle way I meane the Truth to which onely we so rightly direct our selves Orat. 17. Saint Augustine maintained through Grace such help was afforded to the predestinate that not onely they were not able to persevere without that gift but also through meanes of that gift could not chuse but persevere whereupon Saint Hilary writes to Saint Augustine His verbis Sanctitatis tuae ita moventur ut dicant quandam desperationem hominibus exhiberi That by such Speeches of his Sonne men were moved to say They held forth a kinde of Desperation unto men It were a labour worth the taking to compare the two Epistles of Prosper and Hilary with the two books of Saint Austin de praedest sanctorum and de bono perseverantiae wherein he laboureth to answer those two Epistles to see to what he maketh solid answer to what he faileth or what he slippeth untouched that is of moment sed hoc alias The Question then is betweene the third and fourth propositions and about the manner and measure of working Grace upon the Will or with it whether it be such as positâ gratiâ operante the Will may be Coworker or no as the third proposition affirmeth or whether positâ gratiâ operante the worke of Grace is such as the Will of Man cannot but be a Coworker as the fourth proposition maintaineth That is to say for the state of a question rightly put is almost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is said of an Oath Heb. 6. 16. the end of all strife whether the Grace of God be onely an efficient operant adjuvant prior cause and the Will also of Man an efficient prepared by Grace cooperant and collaborant second cause in the worke of our Conversion and every other good worke or whether the Grace of God be an effectuall prepotent invincible prevalent sole efficient that carries the Will to consent and obey willingly if that be willingly as it neither will nor can choose to doe otherwise For distinction sake I will call the grace meant in the third proposition Efficientem and the Grace meant in the fourth proposition Efficacem The issue will be that if Gratia Efficax do worke the Conversion and perseverance of a Christian then all in vaine I have disputed before de Praedestinatione secundum praescientiam which is therefore defended because it giveth place to freedome of Will proper freedome in our working out our Salvation which gratia Efficax utterly destroyes If Gratia Essiciens doe work our Conversion but not absolutely alone but with another co-worker which is free and Lord of its owne action and may faile in working then there must needs be prescience certaine of this contingent event or else Predestination shall not be certaine and then this doctrine of a sinners conversion will well stand with the doctrine of Predestination after foreknowledge of all contingences and this with that as all parts of truth ought to agree one with another The question in the usefull termes is as some love to speak whether grace be resistable which word though it be grounded upon Act. 7. 51. yet I had rather use words more frequent in the Scripture whether Grace can be disobeyed whether it can be in vaine whether a man can be wanting to the grace of God that hath him in hand to convert him or to worke in him some good as Act. 5. 32. and 6. Rom. 1. 5. and 10. 16. 2 Cor. 9. 13. and 10. 6. Gal. 3. 1. and 5. 7. 2 Thes 1. 8. To come to the Truth by a neere and compendious way Let me take that first which is given by an ingenuous and judicicious Adversary the Reverend professor Doctor Ward in his Clerum Phil. 2. 12. who yeildeth so much to the Truth and puts the question in so narrow a point as he seemes to me plainly to give over the cause which he would expugne See what hee grants pag. 9. after much spoken pro libertate Arbitrii Nos enim libere profitemur c. For we freely professe neither operating nor cooperating Grace neither in Conversion nor after Conversion doth take away from mans Will in the very exercise of its Elicite Act the power of Resisting or dissenting if he will For this Resistibility is naturall and borne with us insoparable from the Will it selfe as t is a naturall faculty
inspired into men and strength and constancie given to performe them if men doe not wilfully resist the said Grace offered unto them And likewise as many things be in the Scriptures which doe shew Freewill to be in man so there be no fewer places in Scripture which doe declare the Grace of God to be so necessary that if by it Freewill be not prevented and holpen it can neither doe nor will any thing that is good and Godly Of which sort be these Scriptures following Without me ye can doe nothing John 15. No man commeth unto me except it be given him of the Father John 6. We be not sufficient of our selves as of our selves to think any good thing 2 Cor. 3. According unto which Scriptures and such other like it followes that Freewill before it may think or will any good thing must be holpen by the Grace of Christ and by his Spirit be prevented and inspired that it may be able thereto And being so made able may freely thenceforth work together with Grace and by the same sustained holpen and maintained may doe and accomplish good workes and avoid sinne and persevere also and increase in Grace It is surely of the Grace of God onely that first we be inspired and moved to any good thing but to resist temptations and to persist in goodnesse and goe forward it is both of the Grace of God and of our Freewill and endeavour And finally after we have persevered to the End to be crowned with glory therefore is the gift and mercy of God who of his bountifull goodnesse hath ordained that reward to be given after this life according to such good works as be done in this life by his Grace Therefore men ought with much diligence and gratitude of mind to consider and regard the inspirations and wholsome motions of the Holy Ghost and to embrace the Grace of God which is offered unto them in Christ and moveth them to good things And furthermore to goe about by all meanes to shew themselves such as unto whom the Grace of God is not given in vaine and when they doe feele that notwithstanding their diligence yet through their owne infirmity they be not able to doe that they desire then they ought earnestly and with a fervent devotion and stedfast faith to aske of him who gave the beginning that he would vouchsafe to performe it which thing God will undoubtedly grant according to his promise to such as persevere in calling upon him for he is naturally good and willeth all men to be saved and careth for them and provideth all things by which they may be saved except by their owne malice they will be evill and so by righteous judgement of God perish and be lost For truly men be to themselves the Authors of sinne and damnation God is neither Author of sinne nor cause of damnation And yet doth he most righteously damne those men that doe with vices corrupt their Nature which he made good and doe abuse the same to evill desires against his most holy will wherefore men be to be warned that they doe not impute to God their vice or their damnation but to themselves which by Freewill have abused the Grace and benefits of God All men also be to be monished and chiefly Preachers that in this high matter they looking on both sides so attemper and moderate themselves that they neither so preach the Grace of God that they take away thereby Freewill nor on the other side so extoll Free-will that injury be done to the Grace of God In horum numero me quoque cupio inveniri Nazianzen in Apolog. Thus was it determined in that age from which I wish there had beene no declining neither to the right hand nor to the left Here is no Freewill to spirituall good without Grace Here is no Grace so prepotent but may be disobeyed Here is enough for the praise of Gods Grace and for convincing of mans ingratitude This booke is alleged by Doctor Ward in his determination Omnes infantes baptizati proculdubio justificantur as agreeing with the Doctrine of our Liturgie in the baptisme of Infants shewing that our Reformers had a respect to the Doctrine lately before published CHAP. XV. Of Perseverance THe next worke of the Divine Providence executing the decree of his Predestination is to preserve and continue the Called and Converted in that State of Regeneration and Sanctification unto the End it being our assured Confidence That he which hath begun a good work in us will finish it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will hold it out to the End Phil. 1. 6. yet about this work there was much Dispute I by searching for the true State of the questions will endeavour to shorten it 1. I take it there is no question Whether there be a speciall gift or Grace called Perseverance like to the gift of Faith Charity Patience Chastity or the like for that a man may as safely deny as that there is a Grace of Beginning seeing Perseverance is but the continuing and abiding in the same Graces of Faith Charity c. So long as I confesse that by the protection government Visitation and supportance of Gods Grace all gifts given by God are by him continued and preserved from losse or from decay 2. There is no question that without the Grace Protection preservation of God no man of himselfe alone is able to continue in the midst of so many assaults of Satan the World and the Flesh 3. There is no question that the Elect doe finally persevere in Faith and Sanctification for whosoever persevereth not by that selfe-same not-persevering he is declared to be none of the number of the Elect Election according to my fifth opinion presupposing an infallible foreknowledge of finall perseverance if there be any such as Doctor Carlton late Bishop of Chichester saith as maintaine that the Grace of Predestination or Election may be lost I have no acquaintance or confederacy with them 4. The question is not about every beleever for all confesse that some beleevers of some kind or degree of Faith may lose it Nor is it whether a beleever not perseveing doth lose all Graces at once or all at last it being confessed that he may keep many by which yet he cannot be saved and may lose those that be essentially necessary to Salvation as fides mentis may abide with an evill Conscience when fides cordis cannot but is lost by mortall sinne 5. But the question is of a beleever whose Faith worketh by love whether it may be lost and it is the same question which heretofore was wont to be disputed in these termes An Charitas amitti poterit and is handled at large by Gratian de Paenitentia distinct secunda where the distinction of Charity is into Inchoatam Perfectam begun and perfect planted and radicated and so may Faith be distinguished as often in the Gospell into weake and strong little Faith and great Faith c. Now the
Hee shall not pronounce thus But what then shall he say Goe yee cursed into everlasting fire for yee saw me an hungry and fed mee not c. But these are not the common sinnes of all mankinde but the particular faults of every particular man which therefore shall then be specially objected to every one lest in that sharpe torment and griefe of minde they should presume to beg mercy of God who themselves have denyed mercy to their poore Brethren craving it CHAP. XX. An Abridgement of the whole Doctrine of this Booke TExts the Foundation of it Acts 15. 18. Knowne unto God are all his Workes from everlasting Psal 135. 6. Whatsoever the Lord pleased that did he in Heaven and in Earth Rom. 8. 29. Whom he did foreknow he did predestinate 1 Pet. 1. 2. To the Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father Ephes 1. 3 4. Blessed be God who hath blessed us with all spirituall blessings in heavenly things in Christ according as hee hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the World To conceive aright of the Order and Manner of the Divine Predestination in the Minde of God revealed unto us in the holy Scriptures after our manner of Understanding It is necessary to consider something of the Nature of God who did predestinate and something of the Nature of man who was predestinated Of the Nature of God chiefly in this matter must be considered with humble Reverence His infinite Vnderstanding or knowledge His just Will His Soveraigne Dominion His knowledge may be conceived of two sorts that which is called Scientia Visionis knowledge of Vision or that which is scientia simplicis intelligentiae knowledge of simple or meere Understanding that is called also scientia libera because it followeth some free act of the Will of God this is called Naturalis Naturall because it is in God who is of Infinite Understanding before any act of his Will be supposed to have passed His knowledge of Vision or of sight is onely of those things which either have or shall have a being and therefore this knowledge is after Predestination and builded upon it for when Predestination hath decreed what things shall be then God by his Understanding of Vision doth know them as beholding them Seeing then this knowledge is after Predestination is finished and concluded it hath no place in the Act of God predestinating neither can any thing that is under such knowledge or sight be any cause or rule of Predestination whence it appeareth that Rom. 8. 29. Whom he foreknew he did predestinate such foreknowledge of Vision cannot be understood seeing there Foreknowledge goes before Predestinating as Predestinating goes before Calling and Calling before Justifying So that they speak improperly that use the termes of praevisa fides for fides Praecognita in the Question whether Faith foreknown have any place in Gods Predestination with this knowledge then of Vision we have no more to doe in this matter Gods knowledge of pure or simple Vnderstanding is of the same things that are predestinate to be but before they were predestinated and of infinite things more besides them all which it understood and compared together before any thing was decreed or determined to be This knowledge is founded on Gods Omnipotency for he knoweth his owne power and so it is of things but as possible to be if he please to give them being and he knoweth also by this his Understanding if he please to give them being what will be their Operations and effects and what may flow or issue from them either as they are Naturall Agents or Voluntary So by this meanes the knowledge of God ariseth to an infinitenesse and to be without number as the Psalm saith 147. 5. But if it should be limitted to these things alone which have a being and are within the circle of heaven or within the compasse of the ages of the world the knowledge of God should in a sort be finite since these things though to us they be many yet certainly they are finite Now the first act of Predestination was in choosing these things to be which now are and the decree to put them into being refusing and rejecting infinite other things which God knew as possible as these and which might have beene if it had pleased him But of this predestination of all things that are and the rejection of such things as are not our inquiry and dispute is not but of Angels and Men that have a being in what order and manner some were predestinated to life and some rejected To which my answer is that this was not done without that selfe-same foreknowledge of simple Understanding of this part of the world Angels and Men which was used in the predestinating of the whole That is to say 1. That God did Understand that if it pleased him to create among other his glorious workes some creatures endued with reason and of a free Nature they would be more fit than the rest for him to shew forth in them his wisdome goodnesse bounty justice mercy fidelity and all his glorious properties yet it remained at his pleasure to create them or not 2. That he did understand that such creatures according to their freedome would vary in their choices some cleaving fast to good some declining to evill he knew this not onely in generall and as possible but particularly the very persons if they were created and put to the tryall yet it remained at his pleasure to create them or to try them or no to permit or hinder any of them in their choices which he knew how to doe if he would 3. That he did understand that of them whom he knew would forsake their first good estate if he permitted them hee might justly forsake some and punish them for their rebellion or he could find means to restore them and reconcile them to himselfe but yet he determined neither 4. That he understood that it might be more justifiable and equall not to spare Angels but to shew mercy to Men as more fraile and weake as also deceived by Angels Yet he would consider what to doe 5. That he understood that if he should out of that mercy provide excellent meanes sufficient to raise men fallen and to restore to them power and freedome to work like reasonable and free Agents in the Use of those meanes to their Salvation he understood I say that among many some would thankfully receive his mercy some ungratefully reject it for the sake of the pleasures of sin the very particulars he knew of al his own mercies in their several degrees and varieties of all the Persons in their severall conditions and events but still the determination what should be done or permitted of all this was as it were held in suspence 6. That he understood that if he should condemne them that had refused his many mercies and should receive them to favour that returned to him he should doe justly to
nothing without the Sonne being the chiefest peece in the Frame Secondly this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signifie the Purpose Decree Determination and Resolution of the Will of God to execute and to put into being the things whereof the plot which is in his minde is the patterne thus S. Paul taketh it 2 Tim. 1. 9. when hee joynes purpose and grace together Who hath saved us and called us with an holy calling not according to our workes but according to his purpose and grace given unto us in Christ Jesus before the World was or of both these together is the purpose of God consisting the Counsell and the Decree of God intending those things the order and course and forme wherof he hath in his Mind and his Power and lastly in his Will So that I may say with Vrsinus on Esai 14. Eventus rerum accuratissimè respondent consilio praevisioni Dei tanquam Archetypo So S. Paul would say all things come to passe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all things doe and fulfill the purpose of God This purpose is about Ends and Meanes to those ends and all circumstances accompanying them both in things of the order of nature and of the order of grace and about those things God will doe himselfe and those things hee will permit the Creature and all secondary Causes to doe And although in the whole frame or plot there be two parts or two wayes one that leadeth some to happinesse and another wherein some goe to their owne destruction and although the purpose of God runs upon them both as being not without his Counsell or his will yet in S. Paul that onely which is the way to happinesse to some as the more worthy and desirable part is called the purpose of God just as in the foreknowledge where although the wicked are not unknowne to God as ignorant of the men and of their workes yet the faithfull onely and the Elect are named and called those whom God foreknew because in them hee is pleased and delighted So it is in purpose that part onely of Divine disposition that bringeth unto happinesse is called Gods purpose because hee delighteth in the good of his Creatures and hath no pleasure in their death and destruction which is of themselves and not of him yet adjudged by him and decreed upon their rebellion And this may suffice for the opening of this Terme The Purpose of God As for the Adjuncts added by our Article to purpose as the everlasting purpose they are so cleer as they neede no further Explication than was made in the Analysis before Onely to the last we may adde a word By his Counsell secret to us Consilio nobis quidem occulto This Clause I would have reserved and kept in minde to prove that Doctrine which I delivered in the 18. Chapter of the third part of this worke That although there be revealed to us some hopefull signes of our Election and Predestination as it is witnessed in the next branch of this paragraph yet the very certainty of our Election or Predestination is a secret hidden in God and in this life unknown to us Come wee now to the outward Act or End purposed by God to his chosen viz. to bring them to everlasting Salvation This is terminus ad quem the end which Predestination intendeth as that which decreeth a perfect worke and leaveth not the issue uncertaine or contingent as unto God To this is added in the Article the terminus à quo from whence men are brought to Salvation from curse and damnation from which they are delivered And there is added the meanes by which they are both delivered from curse and brought to Salvation and that is Christ and lastly there is an Illustration As Vessels made to Honour Out of these words To deliver from curse is rightly collected by Robert late Bishop of Salisbury that the Church of England doth acknowlege them quos Deus in Christo elegit to be maledicto exitio liberatos nam privatum est non publicum Ecclesiae judicium quicquid aliter à quibusdam inconsideratè scriptum est So he in praefatione ad Lectorem In these quibusdam are no meaner men than Doctor Whitakers and Master Perkins who tooke this Article to speak for them Whom yet this learned Bishop saith have written aliter and inconsideratè the Article then hath not beene understood and so it may yet be not fully apprehended by great Praelates for likewise out of this that our Article saith with the Apostle that our Election is in Christ Doctor Carleton late Bishop of Chichester well collecteth that this Counsell of God had respect unto the corrupt masse of Mankinde for saith he the benefit we have by Christ appeareth not in the state of Innocency pag. 10. against the Appealer where the said reverend Bishop disputeth earnestly against them that teach Predestination to be a separation between men and men as they were found in the Masse of Mankinde uncorrupt which is the Doctrine the Appealer so much inveighed against as contrary to our Church in the 17 Article So that to mee it is strange the Bishop should bee so severe against the Appealer whith whom himselfe concurreth in the condemning of the same Novelty But more strange it seemes to mee that out of those words Chosen in Christ hee could collect the fall of Mankinde to be presupposed by God before the Counsell proceeded to Election and could not aswell collect now that Christ himselfe was presupposed to be sent into the World to be preached to be beleeved on or refused before God proceeded to Elect or to Reprobate man Seeing the first is collected more remotely that the Gift of Christ supposeth sinne and a curse from whence men had neede to be delivered by a Saviour But the second is expresly affirmed by the Apostle Hee hath chosen in Christ and so it may immediately be collected that wee were chosen not to Christ as to be sent but in Christ supposed as sent and we found Beleevers in him seeing the foreknowledge of God did aswell understand the issue and successe of Christ preached in the World that hee would be the occasion of the rising of many and of the sorer fall of many others as it understood the issue of the Creation of man of the Commandement given of the Tempter permitted that it would bee to the fall and corruption of all Mankinde It is very true that the Bishop of Salisbury saith Sect. 1. P. 2. That God looking upon the Masse of Mankinde defiled with sinne and guilty of eternall Death and Damnation did there see subesse ibi commoditatem evolvendi explicandi opes illas abyssos sapientiae suae justitiae misericordiae potentiae patientiae summa ut in illum gloria istustrium virtutum praedicatio redundaret but how to shew all this The Scripture saith by sending his Sonne to die for the World for therein are all these riches opened But that
more excellent power over Mankinde his Masse than any Potter hath of his Clay to make Vessels to honour or dishonour whereby at last all is resolved into the Will of God but as it is the supreme and universall cause which doth allow all inferiour causes to move and worke according to their Natures which movings and workings hee orders and applyes to his owne Glory of Justice or Mercy as seemeth agreeable to his Will Vide Epiphan Haeres 64. contra Orig. p. 246. Et Hieronimum Hebdiae Quaest. 10. Thus much for the first branch of the first paragraph viz. The Definition of Predestination to life Now followeth the second Branch which is a Description of the Execution or of the manifestation of our Predestination to life which is expressed in these words Wherefore they that be endued with so excellent a benefit of God bee called according to Gods Purpose by his Spirit working in due season This straine seemes to be an Imitation of S. Paul Rom. 8. 29. and it is a good explication thereof saving that S. Paul tyeth the Linkes together one unto another by a repetition or replication Those whom hee foreknew hee did predestinate And whom hee did predestinate them hee also called whom hee called hee also justifyed and whom hee justifyed hee also glorifyed But our Article uniteth all these latter unto one the first as so many effects of one cause and implyeth the connexion of one of them to the other onely by the order of their enumeration saying thus They that bee endued with so excellent a benefit of God which is as much as they that bee elected by Christ as foreknowne they be called they be justifyed they be glorifyed So the imitation agreeth well without any materiall difference The Explication our Article makes appeares most by the additions which it putteth to S. Paul 1. As first instead of whom hee foreknew it calleth our Predestination praeclarum Dei Donum those that hee endued with so excellent a benefit with reference to the Definition afore 2. That it esteemeth this excellent benefit the Fountaine and the cause of all spirituall blessings that follow in the Article viz. Calling Justifying Glorifying for it saith Vnde qui tam praeclaro Dei beneficio sunt donati vocantur wherefore they that be endued with so excellent a benefit of God are called 3. That to S. Pauls words called according to purpose the Article addeth by his Spirit working in due season and they through grace obey the Calling By which two additions the Article declareth what Calling according to purpose is viz. when Gods Spirit worketh in Calling and not the outward word alone and when by grace that Calling is obeyed for these two are in the course and plot approved by God 4. When to S. Pauls justifyed the Article addeth They be made the Sonnes of God by adoption they bee made like to the Image of his holy Sonne Jesus Christ they walke righteously in good Workes These are added as so many effects of our Election originally and as so many effects of our Justification immediately and as so many pledges and signes of our future Glorification for upon this is concluded that at length by Gods Mercy they attaine to everlasting felicity Out of this Declaration which the Article maketh of the Execution and Manifestation of Predestination there bee foure things especially to bee learned 1. That the Article intendeth the same thing which Melanchton sayes S. Paul intended Rom. 8. 29. Totum ordinem complecti voluit quo Ecclesia condita est à Deo To the end that our Faith of eternall Salvation by Christ might bee established and confirmed since God hath contrived the whole course whereby hee will build his Church that is whereby hee will have on Earth a chosen Generation that shall inherit in Heaven everlasting felicity And this wee may certainly beleeve because the Knowledge of God which is infallible his purpose which is unchangeable his Calling according to purpose which cannot bee frustrate his justifying which cannot be controuled and his glory which is invincible are all found in this order and course here set downe besides the Scripture saith The Counsell of the Lord standeth sure and the thoughts of his heart to all Generations Psal 33. 11. 2. Secondly whereas in this chaine there is one linke which is put not onely as the first in order but also as the cause and fountaine of all the rest which are not onely tyed to it but derived from it namely the excellent benefit of our Election and Predestination in Christ which was given unto us by God and settled upon us by his purpose before the Foundation of the World 2 Tim. 1. 9. from whence doe flow all the lower blessings of Calling according to purpose justifying glorifying as effects as issues out of the first and highest Therefore wee are bound to blesse God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ as S. Paul doth who hath blessed us with all Spirituall blessings viz. with calling justifying and according as hee hath chosen us in him that wee should be holy and unblameable before him in love Eph. 1. 3 4. for the latter blessings doe call upon the first not onely as a patterne but as a Fountaine and root of them all Now if it should seeme strange that those should be the Effects of Predestination and yet bee foreknowne before Predestination according as S. Paul setteth Foreknowledge before Predestination and Calling after it as the Effect this doubt is cleered by the remembring that the foreknowledge that S. Paul speaketh of is that onely of Simple understanding which is not the cause of any thing absolutely to bee but onely as possible or futurum but sub Hypothesi if the Will of God say it and by remembring secondly that the Will and Decree of God wherein Predestination properly consisteth is onely the cause why any thing comes to act and into being absolutely God willing it to be indeed after that manner as hee knew it might be before hee willed it to bee So by this it is plaine that the things which were the Objects of the Understanding foreknowing them first as possible are after the Effects of the Will of God when they are commanded by a Decree absolutely to be and to come into act The knowledge of God being unto him a light and a guide but his Will being to us the Fountaine of all our good and the ground of the duties of thankfulnesse 3. Thirdly whereas the lower linkes say whom hee predestinated hee called c. we learne from hence that the ministery of the Word whereby the holy Ghost calleth justifyeth sanctifyeth the Elect people of God chiefly intendeth the Execution of Predestination according to S. Paul Eph. 4. 12. That Pastors and Teachers are given for the perfecting of the Saints for the worke of the Ministery for the Edifying of the Body of Christ Non ergo alios sed quos praedestinavit vocavit justicavit ipsos glorificavit
the promise testifyeth against them that say God hath decreed afore to whom to give Faith and to whom to deny it out of the multitude of Mankinde fallen out of his owne pleasure that they asmuch as in them lyeth make God a Lyer and a Dissembler The last Caveat or direction is not much different from the former That in our doings that Will of God is to be followed which wee have expresly declared unto us in the Word for this Doctrine ariseth from the true and necessary distinction of the Will of God which is Deut. 29. 29. into secret and revealed and that of the Schoole into Signi Beneplaciti which some abusing by thinking that God may have another will secret and different about the same thing whereof hee hath a declared and revealed Will or that which is signifyed is lesse pleasing than that which is secret called Beneplaciti doe forsake or neglect his Will revealed to fulfill his Will secret which they count to be his onely Will As in this present matter when the Word of God revealeth it to be the Will of God that every hearer of the Gospell doe repent beleeve and be saved some man granting this to be Gods revealed Will and signifyed Will may notwithstanding imagine that God hath another secret Will and that of his good Pleasure which shall stand not to have him repent nor to beleeve nor to be saved And this imagination is commonly founded upon the Doctrine of Predestination which excludeth Prescience and makes God to proceede immediatly to his Election upon the consideration of the fall of Mankinde But against this our Article adviseth to follow in our doings the Will of God declared in his Word and this it doth not onely by way of advice as if it were at our liberty and onely the best and safest way but even out of necessary grounds For 1. First That which is secret and hidden can be to us no certaine ground to build upon for who knowes God will not give him leave to repent beleeve or bee saved 2. That there can be no secret Will of God contrary to his revealed and declared Will for this were to make God a Lyer but even these two secret and revealed have two divers Objects or of one Object yet divers times wherein they are placed As for Example That there shall bee a day of judgement is the revealed Will of God but when that day shall be is secret to us though determined and knowne to God these be two Objects that a day shall be and when that day shall bee Againe the Gospell of our Salvation before the World was was a secret counsell and Will of God but since the World was it hath beene revealed and opened to the Prophets and Apostles and is no more hidden but manifested the same thing in both but in two times in the one hidden in the other revealed being well-pleasing unto God while it was secret and not ceased to be so being signifyed and declared to the sons of men To conclude This expressed Will of God whereby hee commands all men that heare the Gospell to beleeve it Joh. 6. 29. 1 Joh. 3. 23. and whereby the disobedience of them that believe not is aggravated Joh. 3. 19. 2 Thes 1. 8. strongly perswadeth mee that the way to life is yet open and that Salvation is to be had untill that Commandement come nay untill it bee contemned and despised And that the God of Truth who useth simplicity and sincerity in all his sayings and who will overcome when hee is judged hath not made so much as any secret Decree not to give a man Faith nor Salvation whom hee commandeth to beleeve the Gospell before the consideration of this Commandement given and the disobedience thereto observed in mente Divinâ omnisciâ And therefore all Opinions and Imaginations of Predestination determined before the consideration of obedience or disobedience to the Gospell in the Church where the Gospell is preached are utterly to bee excluded which if I obtaine in this Discourse Habeo intentum and for this Appello Evangelium Appello hunc Articulum Ecclesiae Anglicanae FINIS Dr. POTTER His own VINDICATION Of Himselfe By way of Letter unto Mr. V. touching the same Points VVritten Julii 7o. 1629. LONDON Printed by J. G. for John Clark and are to be sold at his Shop under S. Peters Church in Cornhill 1651. The Preface to the Reader AFter the publishing of the former Treatise was concluded on the ensuing Letter very fortunately was met withall and by the advice of grave and serious men judg'd fit to be made publike as well for strengthning of our Evidence touching the Points in difference that where a single Testimony though never so pregnant is not able to carry the Cause there according to Gods owne Rule this Word of Truth might be established in the Mouths of two or more witnesses as also to let the World see how the Eyes of specially the most sharp-sighted in both Universities looked one and the same way and that those famous Sisters unanimously concentred in their Opinions even in those dayes when these Controversies were first ventilated As for the Occasion of this Letter you may be pleased to understand Dr. Potter having Preached at the Consecration of the late Bishop of Carlisle 150. Martii 1628. did afterwards Print his Sermon Anno 1629. which his ancient Friend Mr. V. having perus'd it seemes hee boggled at some passages therein yet with a friendly though somewhat vehement affection in a Letter hee expostulates with the Doctor touching his change of Opinion as hee conceived The Doctor for his friends satisfaction and to quit himselfe of inconstancy presently returnes him this modest yet very judicious and Rationall Answer And for the Readers Ease that hee may rightly understand and judge whether Mr. V. had any just cause of exceptiō against the Doctor those passages of the Doctors Sermon at which the exceptions were taken are herewith Printed as followeth For our Controversies first let mee professe I favour not I rather suspect any new Inventions for ab Antiquitate non recedo nisi invitus especially renouncing all such as any way favour or flatter the depraved nature and will of man which I constantly beleeve to be free onely to evill and of it selfe to have no power at all meerely none to any act or thing spiritually good Most heartily embracing that Doctrine which most amply commends the Riches of Gods free Grace which I acknowledge to be the whole and sole cause of our Predestination Conversion and Salvation abhorring all damned Doctrines of the Pelagians Semipelagians Jesuites Socinians and of their ragges and reliques which helpe onely to pride and prick up corrupt nature humbly confessing in the words of S. * Test ad Quir. lib. 3. c. 4. Cyprian so often repeated by that worthy champion of grace S. †Cont. dua◠epist Pelag. l. 4. cap. 6. Austine In nullo gloriandum est quandoquidèm nostrum