children by Iesus Christ vers 5. adoption is that whereby we are assumed into the family of God when before we are forreigners aliens strangers a far off which we see is a fruit of our predestination though it be the very entrance into that estate wherein we begin first to please God in the least measure of the same nature are all those places of holy writ which speake of Gods giving some unto Christ of Christs sheepe hearing his voyce and of others not hearing because they are not of his sheepe all which and divers other invincible reasons I willingly omit with sundry other false assertions and hereticall positions of the Arminians about this fundamentall Article of our Religion concluding this Chapter with the following scheme S. S. Whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Sonne that he might be the first borne among many brethren moreover whom he did predestinate them he also called and whom he called them he also iustified and whom he iustified them he also glorified so that nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Rom. 8. 29 30. 39. He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy Ephes 1. 4. Not for the workes that we have done but according to his owne purpose and grace which was given us in Iesus Christ before the world began 2 Tim. 1. 9. For the children being not yet borne before they had done either good or evill that the purpose of God which is according to election might stand not of works but of him that calleth c. Rom. 9. 11. Whatsoever the Father giveth that cometh unto me Ioh. 11. Many are called but few are chosen Matth. 22. 14. Feare not little flock it is your Fathers pleasure to give you the kingdome Luk. 12. 32. What hast thou that thou hast not received 1 Cor. 4. 7. Are we better then they no in no wise Rom. 3. 9. But we are predestinated to the adoption of children by Iesus Christ according to the good pleasure of his will Ephes 1. 5. Iohn 6. 37. 39. Iohn 10. 3. Chap. 13. 18. and 17. 6. Act. 13. 48. Titus 1. 1. 2 Tim. 2. 19. Iames 1. 17 c. Lib. Arbit No such will can be ascribed unto God whereby he so would have any to be saved that from thence his salvation should bee sure and infallible Arminius I acknowledge no sense no perception of any such election in this life Grevinch We deny that Gods election unto salvation extendeth it selfe to singular persons Remonst Coll. Hag. As we are iustified by faith so we are not elected but by faith Grevinch We professe roundly that faith is considered by God as a condition preceding election and not following as a fruit thereof Rem Coll. Hag. The sole and onely cause of election is not the will of God but the respect of our obedience Episcopius For the cause of this love to any person is the goodnesse faith and piety wherewith according to Gods command and his owne dutie he is endued is pleasing to God Rem Apol. God hath determined to grant the meanes of salvation unto all without difference and according as he fore-seeth men will use those meanes so he determineth of them Corvin The summe of their doctrine is God hath appointed the obedience of faith to be the meanes of salvation if men fulfill this condition he determineth to save them which is their election but if after they have entred the way of godlines they fall frō it they loose also their predestination if they will returne againe they are chosen anew and if they can hold out to the end then and for that continuance they are peremptorily elected or postdestinated after they are saved now whether these positions may be gathered from those places of Scripture which deliver this doctrine lot any man iudge CHAP. VII Of Originall sinne and the corruption of nature HErod the great imparting his counsell of rebuilding the Temple unto the Iewes they much feared he would never be able to accomplish his intention but like an unwise builder having demolished the old before he had sate downe and cast up his account whether he were able to erect a new they should by his project be deprived of a Temple wherefore to satisfie their jealousies he resolved as he tooke downe any part of the other presently to erect a portion of the new in the place thereof Right so the Arminians determining to demolish the building of divine providence grace and favour by which men have hitherto ascended into heaven and fearing lest we should be troubled finding our selves on a sudden deprived of that wherein we reposed our confidence for happinesse they have by degrees erected a Babylonish Tower in the roome thereof whose top they would perswade us shall reach unto heaven First therefore the foundation stones they bring forth crying haile haile unto them and pitch them on the sandy rotten ground of our owne natures Now because heretofore some wise master-builders had discovered this ground to be very unfit to be the basis of such a lofty erection by reason of a corrupt issue of blood and filth arising in the middest thereof and over-spreading the whole platforme to incourage men to an association in this desperate attempt they proclaime to all that there is no such evill fountaine in the plaine which they have chosen for the foundation of their proud building setting up it selfe against the knowledge of God in plaine termes having rejected the providence of God from being the Originall of that goodnesse of entity which is in our actions and his predestination from being the cause of that morall and spirituall goodnesse where with any of them are cloathed they endeavour to draw the praise of both to the rectitude of their nature and the strength of their owne endeavours but this attempt in the latter case being thought to be altogether vaine because of the disabilitie and corruption of nature by reason of originall sinne propagated unto us all by our first Parents whereby it is become wholly voyd of integritie and holinesse and we all become wise and able to doe evill but to doe good have no power no understanding therefore they utterly reject this imputation of an inherent originall guilt and demerit of punishment as an enemie to our upright and well deserving condition and Oh that they were as able to root it out of the hearts of all men that it should never more be there as they have been to perswade the heads of divers that it was never there at all If any would know how considerable this Article concerning Originall sinne hath ever been accounted in the Church of Christ let him but consult the writings of Saint Augustine Prosper Hilary Fulgentius any of those learned Fathers whom God stirred up to resist and enabled to overcome the spreading Pelagian heresie or looke on those many
in his owne image Gen. 1. 26. that is upright Eccles 7. 29. indued with a nature composed to obedience and holinesse that habituall grace and originall righteousnesse wherewith he was invested was in a manner due unto him for the obtaining of that supernaturall end whereunto he was created an universall rectitude of all the faculties of his soule advanced by supernaturall graces enabling him to the performance of those duties whereunto they were required is that which we call the innocency of our first parents our nature was then enclined to good only and adorned with all those qualifications that were necessary to make it acceptable unto God and able to doe what was required of us by the law under the condition of everlasting happinesse Nature and grace or originall righteousnesse before the fall ought not to be so distinguished as if the one were a thing prone to evill resisted and quelled by the other for both complyed in a sweet union and harmony to carry us along in the way of obedience to eternall blessednesse no contention betweene the flesh and the spirit but as all other things at theirs so the whole man joyntly aymed at his own chiefest good having all means of attaining it in his power that there was then no inclination to sinne no concupiscence of that which is evill no repugnancy to the Law of God in the pure nature of man is proved because First The Scripture describing the condition of our nature at the first creation thereof intimates no such propensitie to evill but rather an holy perfection quite excluding it we are created in the image of God Gen. 1. 27. in such a perfect uprightnesse as is opposite to all evill inventions Eccles 7. 29. to which image when we are againe in some measure renewed by the grace of Christ Colos 3. 10. We see by the first fruits that it consisted in righteousnesse and holinesse in truth and perfect holinesse Ephes 4. 24. Secondly An inclination to evill and a lusting after that which is forbidden is that inordinate concupiscence wherewith our nature is now infected which is every where in the Scripture condemned as a sinne Saint Paul in the seventh to the Romans affirming expressely that it is a sinne and forbidden by the Law vers 1. producing all manner of evill and hindering all that is good a body of death vers 24 and Saint Iames maketh it even the wombe of all iniquitie Iames 1. 14 15. surely our nature was not at first yoked with such a troublesome inmate where is the uprightnesse and innocency we have hitherto conceived our first parents to have enjoyed before the fall a repugnancy to the law must needs be a thing sinfull an inclination to evill to a thing forbidden is an anomie a deviation and discrepancy from the pure and holy law of God we must speake no more then of the state of innocency but only of a short space wherein no outward actuall sins were committed their proper root if this be true was concreated with our nature is this that obedientiall harmony to all the commandements of God which is necessary for a pure and innocent creature that hath a law prescribed unto him by which of the ten precepts is this inclination to evill required is it by the last thou shalt not covet or by that summe of them all thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart c. is this all the happinesse of Paradise to be turmoyled with a nature swelling with aboundance of vaine desires and with a maine streame carried headlong to all iniquitie if its violent appetite be not powerfully kept in by the bit and bridle of originall righteousnesse So it is we see with children now and so it should have been with them in Paradise if they were subject to this rebellious inclination to sinne Thirdly and principally whence had our primitive nature this affections to those things that were forbidden it this rebellion repugnancy to the law which must needs be an anomie and so a thing sinfull there was as yet no demerit to deserve it as a punishment what fault is it to be created The operation of any thing which hath its original with the being of the thing it self must needs proceed from the same cause as doth the essence or being it self as the fires tending upwards relates to the same original with the fire and therefore this inclination or affection can have no other Author but God by which means he is entitled not only to the first sinne as the efficient cause but to all the sins in the world arising from thence plainly and without any strained consequencies he is made the author of sinne for even those positive properties which can have no other fountaine but the authour of Nature being set on evill are directly sinfull And here the Idoll of free-will may triumph in this victory over the God of heaven heretofore all the blame of sinne lay upon his shoulders but now he begins to complaine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is God and the fate of our creation that hath placed us in this condition of naturally affecting that which is evill backe with all your charges against the ill government of this new Deitie within his imaginary dominion what hurt doth he doe but incline men unto evill and God himselfe did no lesse at the first but let them that will rejoyce in these blasphemies it sufficeth us to know that God created man upright though he hath sought out many inventions so that in this following dissonancy we cleave to the better part S. S. So God created man in his own image in the likenesse of God created he him male and female created he them Gen 1. 27. Put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that made him Colos 3. 10. which after God is created in righteousnesse and true holinesse Ephes 4. 24. Loe this onely have I found that God hath made man upright but he hath sought out many inventions Eccles 7. â—9 By one man sinne entered into the world and death by sinne Rom. 5. 12. Let no man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God for God tempteth no man but every one is tempted when he is drawne away of his own lust Iam. 1. 13. 14. Lib. Arbit There was in man before the fall an inclination to sinning though not so vehement and inordinate as now it is Armin. God put upon man a repugnancy to his law Gesteranus in the Synod Man by reason of his creation had an affection to those things that are forbidden by the Law Corvinus The will of man had never any spirituall endowments Rem Apol. It was not fit that man should have a law given him unlesse he had an naturall inclination to what was forbidden by the Law Corvinus CHAP. IX Of the death of Christ and of the efficacie of his merits THe summe of those Controversies wherewith the Arminians and
to do what he will then grant him to be contented to do what he may and not much repine at his hard condition certainly if but for this favour he is a debtor to the Arminians theeves give what they do not take having robbed God of his power they will yet leave him so much goodnesse as that he shall not be troubled at it though he be sometimes compelled to what he is very loath to do how doe they and their fellows the Iesuits exclaime upon poore Calvin for sometimes using the harsh word of compulsion describing the effectuall powerfull working of the providence of God in the actions of men but they can fasten the same terme on the will of God and no harme done surely he will one day plead his own cause against them but yet blame them not si violandum est ius regnandi causa violandum est it is to make themselves absolute that they thus cast off the yoke of the Almightie and that both in things concerning this life and that which is to come they are much troubled that it should be said that every one of us bring along with us into the world an unchangeable preordination of life and death eternall for such a supposall would quite overthrow the maine foundation of their heresie viz. that men can make their election voide and frustrate as they joyntly lay it down in their Apologie nay it is a dreame saith Dr. Iackson to thinke of Gods decrees concerning things to come as of acts irrevocably finished which would hinder that which Welsingius laies down for a truth to wit that the elect may become reprobates and the reprobates elect now to these particular sayings is their whole doctrine concerning the decrees of God inasmuch as they have any reference to the actions of men most exactly conformable as First their distinction of them into peremptory and not peremptory termes rather used in the citations of litigious courts then as expressions of Gods purpose in sacred Scripture is not as by them applyed compatible with the unchangeablenesse of Gods eternall purposes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say they or temporary beleevers are elected though not peremptorily with such an act of Gods will as hath a coexistence every way commensurate both in its originall continuance and end with their fading faith which sometimes like Ionas gourd is but filia unius noctis in the morning it flourisheth in the evening it is cut down dried up and withereth a man in Christ by faith or actually beleeving which to do is as they say in every one 's own power is in their opinion the proper object of election of election I say not peremptory which is an act pendent expecting the finall perserverance and consummation of his faith and therefore immutable because man having fulfilled his course God hath no cause to change his purpose of crowning him with reward thus also as they teach a man according to his infidelitie whether present and removeable or obdurate and finall is the only object of reprobation which in the latter cause is peremptory and absolute in the former conditionall and alterable it is the qualities of faith and unbeliefe on which their election and reprobation doe attend Now let a faithfull man elected of God according to his present righteousnesse apostate totally from grace as to affirme that there is any promise of God implying his perseverance is with them to overthrow all religion and let the unbeleeving reprobate depose his incredulitie and turne himselfe unto the Lord answerable to this mutation of their conditions are the changings of the purpose of the Almightie concerning their everlasting estate againe suppose these two by alternate courses as the doctrine of Apostacie maintaineth they may should returne each to their former estate the decrees of God concerning them must againe be changed for it is injust with him either not to elect him that beleeves though it be but for an houre or not to reprobate unbeleevers now what unchangeablenesse can we affixe to these decrees which it lies it in the power of man to make as inconstant as Euripus making it beside to be possible that all the members of Christs Church whose names are written in heaven should within one houre be enrolled in the blacke book of damnation Secondly as these not-peremptory decrees are mutable so they make the peremptory decrees of God to be temporall finall impenitencie say they is the only cause and the finally unrepenting sinner is the only object of reprobation peremptory and irrevocable as the Poet thought none happy so they thinke no man to be elected or a reprobate before his death now that denomination he doth receive from the decree of God concerning his eternall estate which must necessarily then be first enacted the relation that is betweene the act of reprobation and the person reprobated importeth a coexistence of denomination when God reprobates a man he then becomes a reprobate which if it be not before he hath actually fulfilled the measure of his iniquitie and sealed it up with the talent of finall impenitencie in his death the decree of God must needs be temporall the just judge of all the world having till then suspended his determination expecting the last resolution of this changeable Proteus nay that Gods decrees concerning mens eternall estates are in their judgement temporall and not beginning untill their death is plaine from the whole course of their doctrine especially where they strive to prove that if there were any such determination God could not threaten punishments or promise rewards Who say they ean threaten punishment to him whom by a peremptory decree he will have to be free from punishment it seemes he cannot have determined to save any whom he threatens to punish if they sinne which is evident he doth all so long as they live in this world which makes God not only mutable but quite deprives him of his foreknowledge and makes the forme of his decree run thus if man will beleeve I determine he shall be saved if he will not I determine he shall be damned that is I must leave him in the meane time to doe what he will so I may meet with him in the end Thirdly they affirme no decree of Almightie God concerning men is so unalterable but that all those who are now in rest or misery might have had contrary lots that those which are damned as Pharaoh Iudas c. might have been saved and those which are saved as the blessed Virgin Poten Iohn might have been damned which must needs reflect with a strong charge of mutabilitie on Almightie God who knoweth who are his divers other instances in this nature I could produce whereby it would be further evident that these innovators in Christian religion doe overthrow the eternitie and unchangeablenesse of Gods decrees but these are sufficient to any discerning man and I will adde in the close an
certaine that God determineth divers things which he would not did not some act of mans will goe before Armin. Some decrees of God praecede all acts of the will of the creature and some follow Cor. Men may make their election voide and frustrate Rem Apol It is no wonder if men doe sometimes of elect become reprobate and of reprobate elect Welsin Election is uncertaine and revocable and who ever denies it overthrowes the Gospel Grevin Many decrees of God cease at a certaine time Episcop Lib. Arbit God would have all men to be saved but compelled with the stubborne malice of some hee changeth his purpose and will have them to perish Armin. As men may change themselves from beleevers to unbeleevers so Gods determination concerning them changeth Rem All Gods decrees are not peremptory but some conditionate and changeable Sermon at Oxford CHAP. III. Of the praescience or foreknowledge of God and how it is questioned and overthrowne by the Arminians THE praescience or foreknowledge of God hath not hitherto in expresse termes beene denied by the Arminians but onely questioned and overthrowne by consequence in as much as they denie the certaintie and unchangeablenesse of his decrees on which it is founded it is not a foreknowledge of all or any thing which they oppose but onely of things free and contingent and that onely to comply with their formerly exploded error that the purposes of God concerning such things are temporall and mutable which obstacle being once removed the way is open how to ascribe the presidentship of all humane actions to omnipotent contingencie and her Sire Free-will Now we call that contingent which in regard of its next and immediate cause before it come to passe may be done or may be not done as that a man shall doe such a thing to morrow or any time hereafter which he may chuse whether ever he will doe or no. Such things as these are free and chanceable in respect of men their immediate and second causes but if we as we ought to doe looke up unto him who fore-seeth and hath ordained the event of them or their omission they may be said necessarily to come to passe or to be omitted it could not be but as it was Christians hitherto yea and Heathens in all things of this nature have usually upon their event reflected on God as one whose determination was passed on them from eternitie and who knew them long before as the killing of men by the fall of a house who might in respect of the freedome of their owne wils have not beene there or if a man fall into the hands of theeves we presently conclude it was the will of God it must be so he knew it before Divines for distinction sake ascribe unto God a two fold knowledge one intuitive or intellective whereby he foreknoweth and seeth all things that are possible that is all things that can be done by his Almightie power without any respect to their future existence whether they shall come to passe or no yea infinite things whose actuall being eternitie shall never behold are thus open and naked unto him for was there not strength and power in his hand to have created another world was there not counsell in the storehouse of his wisdome to have created this otherwise or not to have created it at all shall we say that his providence extends it selfe every way to the utmost of its activitie or can he not produce innumerable things in the world which now he doth not now all these and every thing else that is feazable to his infinite power he fore-sees and knowes Scientia as they speake simplicis intelligentiae by his essentiall knowledge Out of this large and boundlesse territory of things possible God by his decree freely determineth what shall come to passe and makes them future which before were but possible After this decree as they commonly speake followeth or together with it as others more exactly taketh place that praescience of God which they call visionis of vision whereby he infallibly seeth all things in their proper causes and how and when they shall come to passe Now these two sorts of knowledge differ in as much as by the one God knoweth what it is possible may come to passe by the other onely what it is impossible should not come to passe things are possible in regard of Gods power future in regard of his decree So that if I may so say the measure of the first kinde of Science is Gods omnipotencie what he can doe of the other his purpose what certainly he will doe or permit to be done With this praescience then God foreseeth all and nothing but what he hath decreed shall come to passe For every thing to be produced next and under him God hath prepared divers and severall kindes of causes diversly operative in producing their effects some whereof are said to worke necessarily the institution of their nature being to doe as they doe and not otherwise so the Sunne giveth light and the fire heat And yet in some regard their effects and products may be said to be contingent and free in as much as the concurrence of God the first cause is required to their operation who doth all things most freely according to the counsell of his will thus the Sunne stood still in the time of Ioshua and the fire burned not the three Children but ordinarily such agents working necessitate naturae their effects are said to be necessarie Secondly to some things God hath fitted free and contingent causes which either apply themselves to operation in particular according to election chusing to doe this thing rather then that as Angels and men in their free and deliberate actions which they so performe as that they could have not done them or else they produce effects 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meerely by accident and the operation of such things we say to be casuall as if a hatchet falling out of the hand of a man cutting downe a tree should kill another whom he never saw now nothing in either of these waies comes to passe but God hath determined it both for matter and the manner even so as is agreeable to their causes some necessarily some freely some casually or contingently yet all so as having a certaine futurition from his decree he infallibly foreseeth that they shall so come to passe but yet that he doth so in respect of things free and contingent is much questioned by the Arminians in expresse termes and denied by consequence notwithstanding Saint Hierome affirmeth that so to doe is destructive to the very Essence of the Deitie First their Doctrine of the immutabilitie of Gods decrees on whose firmenesse is founded the infallibilitie of this praescience doth quite overthrow it God thus foreknowing onely what he hath so decreed shall come to passe if that be no firmer settled but that it may and is often altered
perversly said that originall sinne makes a man guilty of death Of any death it should seeme temporall eternall or that annihillation they dreame of and he said true enough Arminius doth affirme it adding this reason because it is onely the punishment of Adams actuall sinne now what kinde of punishment they make this to be I shewed you before But truely I wonder seeing they are every where so peremptorie that the same thing cannot be a sin and a punishment why they doe so often nick-name this infirmity of nature and call it a sinne which they suppose to be as farre different from it as fire from water is it because they are unwilling by new naming it to contradict St. Paul in expresse termes never proposing it under any other denomination or if they can get a sophisticall elusion for him is it least by so doing Christians should the more plainely discerne their heresie or what ever other cause it be in this I am sure they contradict themselves notwithstanding in this they agree full well That God reiecteth none for originall sinne onely as Episcopius speakes and here if you tell them that the question is not de facto what God doth but de iure what such sinne deservers they tell us plainly That God will not destinate any infants to eternall punishment for originall sinne without their owne proper actuall sinnes neither can he doe so by right or in iustice so that the children of Turkes Pagans and the like Infidels strangers from the covenant of grace departing in their infancie are farre happier then any Christian men who must under-goe a hard warfare against sinne and Satan in danger to fall finally away at the last houre and through many difficulties entering the kingdome of heaven when they without further trouble are presently assumed thither for their innocency Yea although they are neither elected of God for as they affirme he chooseth none but for their faith which they have not nor redeemed by Christ for he died onely for sinners he saved his people from their sinnes which they are not guiltie of nor sanctified by the holy Ghost all whose operations they restraine to a morall swasion whereof infants are not a capable subject Which is not much to the honour of the blessed Trinitie that heaven should be replenished with them whom the Father never elected the Sonne never redeemed nor the holy Ghost sanctified And thus you see what they make of this originall pravitie of our nature at most an infirmitie or languor thereof neither a sinne nor the punishment of sinne properly so called nor yet a thing that deserves punishment as a sinne Which last assertion whether it be agreeable to holy Scripture or no these two following observations will declare First there is no confusion no disorder no vanitie in the whole world in any of Gods creatures that is not a punishment of our sinne in Adam That great and almost universall ruine of Nature proceeding from the curse of God overgrowing the earth and the wrath of God revealing it selfe from heaven is the proper issue of his transgression It was of the great mercy of God that the whole frame of Nature was not presently rolled up in darkenesse and reduced to its primitive confusion Had we our selves beene deprived of those remaining sparkes of Gods Image in our soules which vindicates us from the number of the Beasts that perish had we beene all borne fooles and voyd of reason by dealing so with some in particular he sheweth us it had beene but justice to have wrapped us in the same miserie all in generall all things when God first created them were exceeding good and thought so by the wisedome of God himselfe but our sinne even compelled that good and wise Creator to hate and curse the worke of his owne hands Cursed is the ground saith he to Adam for thy sake in sorrow shalt thou eate of it all the dayes of thy life thornes also and thistles shall it bring forth unto thee Gen. 3. 17 18. hence was that heavie burden of vanitie that bondage of corruption under which to this day the whole Creation groaneth and travelleth in paine untill it be delivered Rom. 8. 21 22. Now if our sinne had such a strange malignant influence upon those things which have no relation unto us but onely as they were created for our use surely it is of the great mercy of God that we our selves are not quite confounded which doth not yet so interpose it self but that we are all compassed with divers sad effects of this iniquitie lying actually under divers pressing miseries and deservedly obnoxious to everlasting destruction so that Secondly death temporall with all its antecedents and attendants all infirmities miseries sicknesses wasting destroying passions casualties that are poenall all evill conducing thereunto or waiting on it is a punishment of originall sinne and this not onely because the first actuall sinne of Adam is imputed to us but most of them are the proper issues of that native corruption and pollution of sinne which is stirring and operative within us for the production of such sad effects our whole nature being by it throughly defiled hence are all the distortures and distemperatures of the soule by lusts concupiscence passions blindnesse of minde perversenesse of will inordinatenesse of affections wherewith we are pressed and turmoiled even proper issues of that inherent sinne which possesseth our whole soules Vpon the body also it hath such an influence in disposing it to corruption and mortality as it the originall of all those infirmities sicknesses and diseases which make us nothing but a shop of such miseries for death it selfe as these and the like degrees are the steps which leade us on apace in the road that tends unto it so they are the direct internall efficient cause thereof in subordination to the justice of Almighty God by such meanes inflicting it as a punishment of our sinnes in Adam Man before his fall though not in regard of the matter whereof he was made nor yet meerely in respect of his quickning forme yet in regard of Gods ordination was immortall a keeper of his owne everlastingnesse Death to which before he was not obnoxious was threatned as a punishment of his sinne In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die the exposition of which words given by God at the time of his inflicting this punishment and pronouncing man subject to mortalitie cleerely sheweth that it comprehendeth temporall death also dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt returne our returne to dust is nothing but the soules leaving the body whereby before it was preserved from corruption Further Saint Paul opposeth that death we had by the sinne of Adam to the resurrection of the body by the power of Christ for since by man came death by man also came the resurrection from the dead For as in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive 1 Cor. 15. 21. 22.
Christ for us is of the same extent with that grace whereby he calleth us to faith or bestoweth faith on us for he hath called us with an holy calling according to his owne purpose and grace which was given us in Iesus Christ 2 Tim. 2. 9. which doubtlesse is not universall and common unto all Innumerable other reasons there are to prove that seeing God hath given his elect onely whom onely he loved to Christ to be redeemed and seeing that the Sonne loveth onely those who are given him of his Father and redeemeth onely whom he loveth seeing also that the holy Spirit the love of the Father and the Sonne sanctifieth all and onely them that are elected and redeemed it is not our part with a preposterous liberality against the witnesse of Christ himselfe to assigne the salvation attained by him as due to them that are with out the Congregation of them whom the Father hath loved and chosen without that Church which the Sonne loved and gave his life for it nor none of the members of that sanctified body whereof Christ is the Head and Saviour I urge no more because this is not that part of the Controversie that I desire to lay open I come now to consider the maine Question of this difference though sparingly handled by our Divines concerning what our Saviour merited and purchased for them for whom he died and here you shall finde the old Idol playing his prankes and quite devesting the merit of Christ from the least ability or power of doing us any good for though the Arminians pretend very speciously that Christ died for all men yet in effect they make him die for no one man at all and that by denying the effectuall operation of his death and ascribing the proper issues of his passion to the brave indevours of their owne Pelagian Deitie We according to the Scriptures plainly beleeve that Christ hath by his righteousnesse merited for us grace and glory that we are blessed with all spirituall blessings in though and for him that he is made unto us righteousnesse and sanctification and redemption that he hath procured for us and that God for his sake bestoweth on us every grace in this life that maketh us differ from others and all that glory we hope for in that which is to come he procured for us remission of all our sinnes an actuall reconciliation with God faith and obedience yea but this is such a desperate doctrine as stabs at the very heart of the Idol and would make him as altogether uselesse as if he were but a figgetree logge what remaineth for him to doe if all things in this great worke of our salvation must be thus ascribed unto Christ and the merit of his death Wherefore the worshippers of this great God Lib. Arbit oppose their engines against the whole fabricke and cry downe the title of Christs merits to these spirituall blessings in the behalfe of their imaginarie Deity Now because they are things of a two-fold denomination about which we contend before the king of heaven each part producing their evidence the first springing from the favour of God towards us the second from the working of his grace actually within us I shall handle them severally and apart especially because to things of this latter sort gifts as we call them enabling us to fulfill the condition required for the attaining of glory we lay a double claime on Gods behalfe First as the death of Christ is the meritorious cause procuring them of him Secondly as his free grace is their efficient cause working them in us they also producing a double title whereby they would invest their beloved darling with a sole proprietie in causing these effects First in regard that they are our owne acts performed in us and by us secondly as they are parts of our dutie which we are enjoyned to doe so that the quarrell is directly betweene Christs Merits and our owne free-will about procuring the favour of God and obtaining grace and righteousnesse let us see what they say to the first They affirme that the immediate and proper effect or end of the death and passion of Christ is not an actuall oblation of sinne from men not an actuall remission of iniquities iustification and redemption of any soule that is Christ his death is not the meritorious cause of the remission of our sins of redemption and justification the meritorious cause I say for of some of them as of justification as it is terminated in us we confesse there are causes of other kindes as faith is the instrument and the holy Spirit the efficient thereof But for the sole meritorious procuring cause of these spirituall blessings we alwaies took it to be the righteousnesse and death of Christ beleeving plainely that the end why Christ died and the fruit of his sufferings was our reconciliation with God redemption from our sinnes freedome from the curse deliverance from the wrath of God and power of hell though we be not actuall partakers of these things to the pacification of our owne consciences without the intervening operation of the holy Spirit and faith by him wrought in us But if this be not Pray what is obtained by the death of Christ Why a potentiall conditionate reconciliation not actuall and absolute saith Corvinus But yet this potentiall reconciliation being a new expression never intimated in the Scripture and scarce of it selfe intelligible we want a further explanation of their minde to know what it is that directly they assigne to the merits of Christ wherefore they tell us that the fruit of his death was such an impetration or obtaining of reconciliation with God and redemption for us that God thereby hath a power his iustice being satisfied and so not compelling him to the contrary to grant remission of sinnes to sinnefull men on what condition he would or as another speaketh it There was by the effusion of Christs blood a right obtained unto and settled in God of reconciling the world and of opening unto all a gate of repentance and faith in Christ But now whereas the Scripture every where affirmeth that Christ died for our good to obtaine blessings for us to purchase our peace to acquire and merit for us the good things contained in the promise of the Covenant this opinion seemes to restraine the end and fruit thereof to the obtaining of a power and libertie unto God of prescribing us a condition whereby we may be saved but yet it may be thus much at least Christ obtained of God in our behalfe that he should assigne faith in him to be this condition and to bestow it upon us also No neither the one nor the other after all this had it so seemed good unto his wisedome God might have chosen the Iewes and others following the righteousnesse of the law as well as beleevers because he might have assigned any other condition of salvation besides faith in Christ saith
against its exaltation to this height of independencie I oppose First every thing that is independent of any else in operation is purely active and so consequently a God for nothing but a divine will can be a pure act possessing such a libertie by vertue of its owne essence every created will must have a libertie by participation which includeth such an imperfect potentiality as cannot be brought into act without some praemotion as I may so say of a Superiour Agent neither doth this motion being extrinsecall at all prejudice the true libertie of the will which requireth indeed that the internall principle of operation be active and free but not that that principle be not moved to that operation by an outward Superiour Agent nothing in this sense can have an independent principle of operation which hath not an independent being it is no more necessary to the nature of a free cause from whence a free action must proceed that it be the first beginning of it then it is necessarie to the nature of a cause that it be the first cause Secondly if the free acts of our wils are so subservient to the providence of God as that he useth them to what end he will and by them effecteth many of his purposes then they cannot of themselves be so absolutely independent as to have in their owne power every necessarie circumstance and condition that thoy may use or not use at their pleasure Now the former is proved by all those reasons and Texts of Scripture I before produced to shew that the providence of God overruleth the actions and determineth the wils of men freely to doe that which he hath appointed and truely were it otherwise Gods dominion over the most things that are in the world were quite excluded he had not power to determine that any one thing should ever come to passe which hath any reference to the wils of men Thirdly all the acts of the will being positive entities were it not previously moved by God himselfe in whom we live move and have our being must needs have their essence and existence solely from the will it selfe which is thereby made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a first and supreame cause indued with an underived being and so much to that particular Let us now in the second place looke upon the power of our free-will in doing that which is morally good where we shall finde not onely an essentiall imperfection in as much as it is created but also a contracted defect in as much as it is corrupted the abilitie which the Arminians ascribe unto it in this kinke of doing that which is morally and spiritually good is as large as themselves will confesse to be competent unto it in the state of innocencie even a power of beleeving and a power of resisting the Gospel of obeying and not obeying of turning or of not being converted The Scripture as I observed before hath no such terme at all nor nothing equivalent unto it but the expressions it useth concerning our nature and all the faculties thereof in this state of sinne and unregeneration seeme to imply the quite contrary as that we are in bondage Heb. 2. 15. dead in sinne Ephes 2. 3. and so free from righteousnesse Rom. 6. servants of sinne ver 16. under the reigne and dominion thereof vers 12. all our members being instruments of unrighteousnesse vers 13. Not free indeed untill the Sonne make us free so that this Idol of free-will in respect of spirituall things is not one whit better then the other Idols of the heathen Though it looke like silver and gold it is the worke of mens hands it hath a mouth but it speakes not it hath eyes but it sees not it hath eares but it heares not a nose but it smels not it hath hands but it handleth not feet but it walkes not neither speaketh it through the throat all they that made it are like unto it and so is every one that trusteth in it O Israel trust thou in the Lord c. That it is the worke of mens hands or a humane invention I shewed before for the rest it hath a mouth unacquainted with the mysteries of godlinesse full onely of cursing and bitternesse Rom. 3. 14. speaking great swelling words Iude vers 16. great things and blasphemies Revel 13. 5. a mouth causing the flesh to sinne Eccles 6. 5. his eyes are blinde not able to perceive those things that are of God nor to know those things that are spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2. 14. eyes before which there is no feare of God Rom. 3. 18. his understanding is darkened because of the blindnesse of his heart Ephes 4. 18. wise to doe evill but to doe good he hath no knowledge Ierem. 4. 22. So that without farther light all the world is but a meere darkenesse Iohn 1. 5. he hath eares but they are like the eares of the deafe Adder to the word of God refusing to heare the voyce of the Charmer charme he never so wisely Psal 54. 8. beeing dead when this voyce first cals it Iohn 5. 25. eares stopped that they should not heare Zach. 8. 11. heavie eares that cannot heare Isa 6. 10. a nose to which the Gospel is the savour of death unto death 2 Cor. 2. 16. hands full of blood Isa 1. 15. and fingers defiled with iniquitie Chap. 59. 3. feet indeed but like Mephibosheth lame in both by a fall so that he cannot at all walke in the path of goodnesse but swift to shed blood destruction and miserie are in their waies and the way of peace they have not knowne Rom. 3. 15 16 17. These and divers other such endowments and excellent qualifications doth the Scripture attribute to this Idol which it cals the old man as I shall more fully discover in the next Chapter and is not this a goodly Reed whereon to rely in the paths of godlinesse a powerfull Deitie whereunto we may repaire for a power to become the sonnes of God and attaining eternall happinesse the abilities of Free-will in particular I shall consider hereafter now onely I will by one or two reasons shew that it cannot be the sole and proper cause of any truely good and spirituall act well pleasing unto God First all spirituall acts well pleasing unto God as faith repentance obedience are supernaturall flesh and blood revealeth not these things not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of the will of God Iohn 1. 13. That which is borne of the flesh is flesh and that which is borne of the spirit is spirit Iohn 3. 6. Now to the performance of any supernaturall act it is required that the productive power thereof be also supernaturall for nothing hath an activitie in causing above its own sphere nec imbelles generant feroces aquilas columbae but our free-will is a meerly naturall faculty betwixt which and those spirituall supernaturall acts there is no proportion unlesse