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cause_n	act_n	effect_n	will_n	1,670	5	6.6468	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75616	Armilla catechetica. A chain of principles; or, An orderly concatenation of theological aphorismes and exercitations; wherein, the chief heads of Christian religion are asserted and improved: by John Arrowsmith, D.D. late master both of St Johns and Trinity-Colledge successively, and Regius professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge. Published since his death according to his own manuscript allowed by himself in his life time under his own hand.	Arrowsmith, John, 1602-1659.	1659 (1659)	Wing A3772; Thomason E1007_1; ESTC R207935	193,137	525

much as he doth not will to all men the chief good viz. eternal life he is said to hate and to reprobate them § 3. Fourthly His purpose was to deny unto the non-elect that special grace which brings infallibly to glory those whom God bestows it upon No creature can challenge effectual grace at the hands of God as a due debt either to his nature or to his labour There be many that speak and write of God sawcily as if he were bound to give this and that and the other grace even where they can produce no promise by which he hath made himself a debtour I cannot but commend the zeal of Peter Lombard against such men To me saith he this word Vt mihi videtur hoc verbum Debet venenum habet nec Deo proprie competit qui non est debito● nobis nisi forte ex promisso Lib. 1. sententiarum Dist 43. He ought or he is bound seems to have much poyson in it and cannot be properly applied to God who is no debtour to us save onely in those cases wherein he hath passed some promise Sure I am our Saviour telleth his Disciples plainly It is given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdome of heaven but to them it is not given Matth. 13. 11. And the housholder in the Parable stops the mouths of those murmurers that repined as expecting more from him then it was his pleasure to give with the sole consideration of its being his will to have it so Friend I do thee no wrong Take what is Matth. 20. v. 10 13 14 15. thine I will give to this last even as unto thee Is it not lawfull for me to do what I will with mine own Fifthly The consequents of the forementioned denials are 1. Permission of sin particularly of unbelief John 10. 46. Ye believe not because ye are not of my sheep 2. Obduration in sin Romans 9. 18. He hath mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardeneth 3. Condemnation for sin Revel 20. 15. Whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire This last is that which by Divines is usually styled Positive Reprobation and is clearly distinguishable from the Negative in that the one is an act of punitive justice respecting sin committed and continued in But the other an absolute decree of Gods most free and Sovereign Will without respect to any disposition in the creature I call them consequents not effects because though Negative Reprobation be antecedent to them all it is not the proper cause of them This difference between the decrees Aquinas long since took notice of Election saith he Thom. part 1. quaest 23. Artic 3. ad ● um is a proper cause both of that glory which the Elect look for hereafter and of that grace which here they enjoy Whereas Reprobation is not the cause of the present sins of the non-elect though it be of Gods forsaking them but their sin proceeds from the parties themselves so passed by and forsaken But I am under a promise of brevity and therefore shall add no more but onely advise the English Reader who is desirous of further information in these deep points to procure and peruse that excellent piece of the profound Doctor Davenant printed at Cambridge Ann. 1641. under this Title Animadversions written by the right Reverend John Bishop of Salisbury upon a Treatise intituled Gods love to mankinde where he will not onely meet with the doctrine of Predestination modestly handled but also with ample satisfaction to most of those wicked cavils which flesh and bloud have been wont to suggest against it § 4. Having thus finished that preamble which the daring Heterodoxie of some modern writers put me upon a necessity of I proceed to the making good of two Assertions tending to cleare the former part of our present Aphorisme viz. That the Goodness of God is abundantly manifested in his Decree of our Election and his Greatness no less in that of Preterition In order to a demonstration of the former I desire to have it considered how free how peculiar how ancient how leading how lasting a favour Election is First A free favour It is therefore called Election of Grace and spoken of Roman 11. 5. as tending to the praise of the glorie of free grace The Lambs book of life Ephes 1. 6. so named because the Lamb Jesus stands there inrolled in the head of it as the head of all the Elect and the Captain of that salvation whereunto they are chosen is a book of love Behold my servant whom I have chosen my beloved Ma● 12. 18. in whom my soul is well pleased It was so said of Christ and may be applied to all the Elect in their measure Hence Paul stileth his Thessalonians Brethren beloved of the Lord because God had chosen 2 Thess 2. 13. them to salvation and God expresseth the Election of Jacob by Jacob have I loved to shew that free love on Gods part is the fountain of this favour We love persons or things because they are lovely God loveth them first after makes them lovely then loves them more for being so The cause of our love is in the objects of Gods in himself we are predestinated aster the Ephes 1. 11. counsel of his own will not after the good inclinations of ours Secondly A peculiar favour Rarity much enhaunceth a benefit Immunities and priviledges are therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato Privilegium gaudet paucitate much valued and stood upon because they are not common to many and are therefore more rejoyced in because but few partake of them There were but eight persons saved from the Deluge of waters in Noahs time who is accordingly said to have fround grace in Gen. 6. 8. the eyes of the Lord in that he and his were preserved when all the world beside perished And in regard the Deluge of fire that came upon Sodom and Gomorrah swept away all the other inhabitants but Lot onely and his nearest relations were exempted from it God is said to have magnified his mercy toward them as Lot acknowledged saying Behold thy servant hath found Gen. 19. 19. grace in thy sight and thou hast magnified thy mercie which thou hast shewed unto me We should all have perished in the Deluge of fiery indignation had not God elected some few whom he hath not appointed to wrath but to obtain salvation by 1 Thess 5. 9. our Lord Jesus Christ. They are but few as Scripture tels us again and again Many are called but few chosen Mat 20. 16. 22. 14. The goodness of God is therefore to be more acknowledged in so peculiar a favour § 5. 3ly An ancient favour Old things if evil are so much the worse for that Old leaven is to be purged out and the 1 Cor. 5. 7. Ephes 4. 21. old man to be put off But every

their interest in him I do not mean an haughty spirit swelled with pride for that is altogether unsutable to a saving interest in God who beholds the proud afar off but Psalm 138. 6. an humble spirit greatned by continual converse with the great God who by raising vp his servants hearts to the contemplation and fruition of higher objects maketh them too big for this world It is reported of Moses that when he was come to years or according to the original when he was waxed great Hebr. 11. 24 25 26 27. in spirit perhaps as well as in stature he did overlook the preferments pleasures and riches of the world which are all there intimated yea the menaces of it too for it is there also said He feared not the wrath of the king but endured as seeing him who is invisible His conversing with the great God had made all these to appear to him as petty things To a soul truly great no Animo magno nil magnum worldly matter hath any true greatness in it As if one could take a station in heaven whatsoever is here below would appear but small in his sight by reason of its distance It is accounted by some a great matter to have the frowns and ill word of a great man But St John whose conversation was in heaven made nothing of it Speaking of Diotrophes his malignancy and reproachfull speeches he phraseth it thus prating against us with malitious John 2 epistle v. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 words The term properly signifieth trifling Though Diotrephes were a great prelate and his words very malitious yet the Apostles spirit was raised so far above them that with him all were but trifles and by him contemned as such APHORISME V. The Goodness and Greatness of God are both abundantly manifested by his decrees of Election and Preterition together with his works of Creation and Providence EXERCITATION 1. Exerc. 1. How predestination cometh to be treated of here Election described from the Nature Antiquity Objects Products and Cause of it Rom. 11. 33. 2 Tim. 1. 9. with Tit. 1. 2. Ephes 1. 4. with Matth. 25. 34. opened Of Acts supposing their objects Of Acception of persons what it is and that Predestination doth not import it Acts 13. 48. Expounded and vindicated Whether one Elect may become a reprobate The negative maintained and 1 Cor. 9. 24 25 26. cleared Ephes 5 and 11. enlightned Concerning the good pleasure of Gods will and the counsel thereof § 1. I Durst not wholly wave the doctrine of Predestination no not in this Treatise of Principles after I had duely Aph. 5. pondered that grave admonition of Ambrose or according to others of Prosper Quae Deus occulta esse voluit non sunt scrutanda quae autem monifesta fecit non sunt neganda ne in illis illicitè curiosi in istis damnabiliter inveniamur in grati De vocar Gent. cap. 7. Such things as God would have kept secret must not be pried into by us nor such denied as he hath openly declared lest we be found in the former attempt unlawfully curious in the latter damnably unthankfull And also laid to heart the endeavours not of foreiners onely but of certain late English writers to possess their readers with vehement and strong prejudices against the long-received truth in those points One of them telleth us It is sacrilegious to grant that God hath I. G. Red. Redeem pag. 243. lin 7. Ibid. pag. 278. lin 46. from eternity elected a certain number of men personally unto salvation whom he purposeth to bring thereunto infallibly c. Elsewhere styling it That capitall errour of personal Election and Reprobation Another speaking of preterition or negative reprobation hath these words This is T. P. Divine philanthropy defended c. 4. § 2. one of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which have been infamously invented to disguise and palliate the frightfull rigidness of their doctrine Not long after he calleth it canting pretends the lamentable distinction as it is there by him styled to be no more then a trick insufficient to buoy up a sinking cause and in another book of his The dream of absolute preterition Mean Divine purity defended pag. 97. while where alas is the reverence and submission due to Scripture that onely card and compass by which we are to sail in this ocean that onely clue by the help whereof this labyrinth is to be traversed It directly opposeth Rom. 11. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Electi and Reliqui the elect and such as were passed by in that saying The election hath obtained and the rest were blinded In it we reade of a book of life containing Revel 13. 8. 21. 27. 26. 15. the names of all those whom God hath chosen and of others whose names were not written in that book Of some whom the Lord knoweth for 2 Tim. 2. 19. Ma●th 7. 23. his and others to whom he will say I never knew you Of Christs sheep given John 10. 26 28 29. to him by the father and of such persons as were not his sheep nor accordingly so given to him This I hope is no canting there is neither Errour nor Trick in all this but to proceed § 2. Election as to our purpose which concerns the choise of men onely not of Angels is that secret unsearchable decree of God wherein he did from everlasting single out of the rest of mankinde a definite number of particular persons ordaining them infallibly unto the attainment of holiness here and happiness hereafter according to the counsel and good pleasure of his Will Which description offers to the readers consideration as things material and not unfit to be treated of provided it be soberly done the Nature Antiquity Object Products and Cause of Election First The Nature of it It is a secret unsearchable decree of God The two principall emanations of God's Will respecting intellectual creatures are his Decrees and his Commands They differ as in sundry other things so in point of perspicuitie The Commands are plain he that runs may read his duty in them the Decrees abstruse Our destinies cannot be so easily read as our duties may And whereas divers secret things may yet be discovered upon diligent search according to that Proverb of Solomon Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water Prov. 20. 5. but a man of understanding will draw it out The Decrees of God are so secret as to be withall unsearchable Whence the Apostle O the depth of the riches both of the wisdome and knowledge of Rom. 11. 13. God! How unsearchable are his judgements and his waies past finding out where by Judgements it is as I conceive most proper to understand the Decrees of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence cerno decerno decretum his Will by Waies the Administrations of his Providence in order to the execution of those

some pretend to the contrary whose arguments have been elsewhere sufficiently answered I shall onely here propound and endeavour to satisfie another objection whereof no mention is there made Paul knew himself to be a chosen vessel for Ananias had told him Acts 9. 15. so from Christs own mouth yet speaks of himself as of one in some danger at least in some possibility of becomming a Reprobate in these words I keep under my body and bring it into subjection lest that by any 1 Cor. 9. 27. means when I have preached to others I my self should be a castaway or as other translations have it a Reprobate Ergo the decree of Election is not irreversible Resp To prepare the way for a full answer let it be considered 1. That the places cited in the objection are not fitly opposed because the former is not necessarily to be understood of election to salvation but may probably be limited to Pauls being chosen an Apostle Neither is the latter infallibly meant of that reprobation which is contradistinct to the said election but of somewhat else Yea although it be true and may strongly be inferred from other texts that Paul knew his own election to life eternal the reprobation spoken of in the end of the verse is not to be taken in the most rigid sense but in a milder 2. That our Apostle according to his custome in sundry epistles was in the end of this chapter fallen upon the use of terms agonistical borrowed from the Olympick and other Grecian games in that age as appeareth in the foregoing verses Know ye not that they 1 Cor. 9. 24 25 26. who run in a race c. Every man that striveth for the mastery c. I so run not as uncertainly So fight I not as one that beateth the air And that in the last verse he hath no less then four allusions to these exercises One in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to cuffing wherein the combatants were wont with their blows to make one another livid under their eyes so did he by acts of mortification beat himself as it were black and blue A second in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the exercise of wrestling wherein the antagonists mutually strove to cast each other to the ground and to keep them under So he the better to subdue his body of sin was carefull to keep down his body of flesh which if pampered is apt to rebell A third in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We reade in the second to Timothy chapter the second verse the fifth of their striving lawfully that is according to the rules and laws prescribed for that game respectively in which they were to strive for the mastery The officer by whom these laws were propounded to the combatants was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Paul in allusion thereunto saith of himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because in the discharge of his Apostolical office he had acquainted them with the rules laws of Christianity A fourth in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unapproved a term of disgrace put upon those whom such as were to judge and pass sentence upon the combatants disallowed Whereas those whom the judges rewarded were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 approved ones 3. That this unapprovedness may either relate to God himself or to good men If to God the supreme judge then whosoever carrieth himself amiss in any particular course of living offendeth the Lord falleth under his fatherly displeasure and is as to this particular a person disallowed and rejected how firm soever his station may be as to the main If to good men who are subordinately to judge of their preachers doctrine and conversation a teacher is then said to be unapproved of them when upon observation of some unfaithfulness or looseness in his demeanour some sensuality or unlawfull indulgence to his body they begin to disesteem him in comparison of what they did before yea perhaps to cast him out of their affections and of their prayers of which till then he was a partaker These things premised let it now be observed whether the meaning of the place contested about be not clearly this or to this effect I Paul well remembring what I am a member and minister of Jesus Christ am and shall continue carefull to exercise my self in all the duties of mortification not making provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof lest I who by mine office am bound to declare unto others the grand rules of Christian practise particularly of temperance which I urged but now saying Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things should by any sensual demeanour of mine own not onely prove a castaway as to the esteem I formerly had in the hearts and consciences of good people and to the interest I enjoyed in their devotion which I should account a loss far exceeding that of honour or estate but also fall under the wrath and fatherly displeasure of my God and be cast out of fellowship with him though but for a short space of time which to me who have lived in the sense of it under the constant light of his countenance and found his loving kindness better then life would be worse then any death And if this really be the utmost importance of the text as for ought I know it is without extending it to further or other kinde of reprobation I hope the objection built upon it will not need any further or other kinde of answer § 10. Fifthly The Cause of divine Electionis tuae causam in te quaere nec invenies quod quaeris quod invenisse te existimas jam perdidisti quia ibi quaeris Heins homil in Job 17. 9. pag. 38. election about which the world is so filled with disputes is not to be found in any thing without God himself the disputers indeed of this world lay out many thoughts and put out many books concerning such contrivements as our corrupt reason would perhaps better allow and our corrupt wils better affect but holy Scripture resolveth all into the sole will of God the good pleasure and Counsel whereof the Apostle celebrateth as the causes of our predestination Having predestinated us Ephes 1. 5 11. unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will And again Being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will Words so very plain and full as would certainly have put an end to altercations and silenced disputes in these points but that corrupt reason is extremely talkative and the wisdome of flesh direct enmity against God Rom. 8. 7. and therefore such as will never yield till its corruption be removed for enmity cannot be reconciled the enemies may Whence that excellent speech of Melancthon worthy to be had in everlasting remembrance Dulcescet nostra de predestinatione sententia ubi impiae rationis judicium