determination but not the perswasion of the will God is therefore a truer cause of sinne by this doctrine then the Divell 2 Wicked men are esteemed authors of their owne offences because they plot purpose choose and commit them and are immediate agents in the acting of them But God by this opinion doth more for he overruleth the projects and purposes of wicked men and by an uncontrollable motion proceeding from an immutable decree carrieth all their deliberations resolutions choyses and actions precisely that very way so as they cannot choose but doe as they doe whatsoeuer they may think to the contrary They have indeed potentiam in se liberam a power in it self free to choose what they refuse or to refuse what they choose to determine themselves this way or that way as liketh them best but they have not liberum â—sum a free use of this their power God doth determine their will before it hath determined it selfe and maketh them doe those onely actions which his omnipotent will hath determined and not which their willes out of any absolute dominion over their owne actions have prescribed More rightly therefore may God be called the Author of those offences for (u) Opera magis pertinent ad imperaÌ„tem quaÌ„ ad exequentem deeds whether good or bad are owned more truly by him that over-ruleth them then by the servile instruments that onely execute and doe them 3 Wicked counsellers and they who allure and advise men to sinne are accounted by God and men to be the causes of those sinnes to which they are the perswaders and have beene punished for those misdeeds which others through their instigations have committed Jezabell Ahabs wife was reputed and punished as the murderer of Naboth because she counselled and contrived the doing of it as we may see 1. Kings 21.23.25 But what is counselling to inforcing Evill counsels may be refused but an almighty power cannot be resisted God therefore that useth this according to their doctrine in the production of sinnes is much more an author of them then hee that onely useth the other 2 If we could finde out a King that should so carry himselfe in procuring the ruine and the offences of any subject as by this opinion God doth in the effecting of the damnation and transgressions of Reprobates we would all charge him with the ruine and sinnes of those his Subjects (w) Molin Anat. c. 12. de praedest p. 73 Quis non regem abominetur sic loqueÌ„tem Who would not abhorre sayth Moulin a King speaking thus (y) Ego hunc hominem addico suspendioâ— sed ut justè suspendatur volo patret homicidium vel peculatum J will have this man hang'd and that J may hang him justly I will have him murther or steale This King saith he should not onely make an innocent man miserable sed sceleratum but wicked too and should punish him for that offence cujus ipse causa esset of which himselfe is the cause It is a cleere case (y) Sueton vit Tib. cap. 61. Tiberius as Suetonius reports having a purpose to put certaine Virgins to death because it was not lawfull among the Romans to strangle Virgins caused them all to be defloured by the Hangman that so they might bee strangled Who will not say that Tiberius was the principall author of the deflouring of those maides In like manner say the Supralapsarians God hath a purpose of putting great store of men to the second death but because it is not lawfull for him by reason of his justice to put to death men innocent and without blame he hath decreed that the Divell shall defloure them that afterward he may damne them It followeth therefore that God is the maine cause of those their sinnes 3 That God is the Author of mens salvation and conversion all sides grant and yet hee doth no more in the procuring of them then these men report him to do in the Reprobates impenitency and damnation The salvation and conversion of the Elect say they he hath absolutely and antecedently without the fore-sight of any deservings of theirs resolved upon and by irresistible meanes in their severall generations draweth them to beleeve repent and endure to the end that so they might be saved and his absolute decree accomplished On the other side the damnation the sinnes and the finall impenitency of Reprobates he hath of his alone will and pleasure peremptorily decreed this his decree he executeth in time drawing them on by his unconquerable power and providence from sinne to sinne till they have made up their measure and in the end have inflicted on them that eternall vengeance which he had provided for them What difference is here in the course which God taketh for the conversion and salvation of the Elect and the obduration and damnation of Reprobates And therefore what hindereth but that God by their grounds may as truly be stiled the prime cause and author of the sinnes of the one as of the conversion of the other The Fathers thought it a plaine case and therefore they did generally make sinne an object of prescience not predestination and bent the most of those arguments by which they refuted this foule assertion against an absolute irresistible and necessitating decree as I could easily shew but that I feare to be overlong Onely I will cite some few of those Authors words whom the learned and reverend Bishop hath alledged in favour and for the defence of the Predestinarians and the mainteiners of Gotteschalkes opinion The Church of Lyons in their answer to the positions of Iohannes Scotus which he framed against Gotteschalk hath these words (z) Bish Vsher his hist of Gottesc pag. 138. Qui vim necessitatem peccandi deum intuliste homini vel inferre dicit manifeste horribiliter in deum blasphemat quem ad peccata compellendo utique authorem peccati osse confirmat Whosoever sayth that God hath layd a constraynt or a necessity of sinning upon any man he doth manifestly and fearfully blaspheme God in as much as he maketh him by affirming that of him to be the very author of sinne Remigius Archbishop of that Church explaining his Churches opinion in the poynt of prescience and predestination in 7 severall rules in the 5th of those rules he hath these words to the same purpose God sayth he by his prescience and predestination hath layd a necessity of being wicked upon no man (a) Id. ib. p. 173. Hee enim si fecisset ipse utique esset author mal rum c. For if he had done this he should have been the author of sinnes And thus in my judgment doth it plainly appeare that by absolute Reprobation as it is taught the upper way God is made to be the true cause of mens sinnes Many distinctions are brought to free the Supralapsarian way from this crimination all which me thinke are no better then meere delusions of the simple and inconsiderate
(r) Fulgent l. 1. c. 2. ad Mont cap. 22. Nec justitia justa dicetur si puniendum râ—um non invenisse sed fecisse dicatur Major vero erit injustitia si lapso Deus retribuat paenam quem stantem praedestinasse dicitur ad ruinam Jt is great injustice in God to punish him whom he doth not find but make an offender This was St. Bernards opinion too (s) Ber. l. de graâ— lib. arb p. 908. Sola voluntas quoniam profui ingenita libeâ—tate aut dissentire sibi aut praeter se in aliquo consentire nulla vi nulla cogitur necessitate nâ—n mimerito justum vel injustum beatitudine seu miseria dignaÌ„ ac capaâ—m creaturam câ—uit prouâ— scilicet justitiae injustitiaenè consenseâ— It is onely a will free from compulsion and necessity saith he which maketh a creature capable of reward and punishment Out of these testimonies layed together may be collected 3 things 1 That the Ancients did use to call a necessity of humane actions good and bad by the name of destiny from what externall cause soever this necessity did arise 2 That they did use these two words Necessity and Compulsion proâ—cuously and therefore thought that necessity as well as compulsion did take away the wills liberty 3 Which is for our present purpose that they beleeved and contended that the judgements of God on sinners could not be just if they were held by the Adamantine chaines of any absolute necessity under the power of their sinnes I will therefore conclude this argument with the words of Epiphanius writing of the error of the Pharisees who beleeved the immortality of the soule and the resurrection of the Dead and yet held that all things come to passe by necessity (t) Epiph. l. 1. adv hâ—r 1â— p 35. nu 3. Est illud verò extremae cujusdam imperitiae ne dicâ—m amentiae cùm resurrectionem mortuorum â—sse fateare ac justissinauÌ„ cujuisque fâ—cts juâ—iuâ—o stiâ—utum fâ— nihil â—uâ— esse â—ullum â—ssâ—reâ—e Qui mâ—â—stâ—â—veâ— pâ—sâ—unt judâ— atque fatum It is sayth hee a Point of extreme ignorance or madnesse rather for him that confesseth the resurrection of the dead and the great day appointed for the revelation of Gods righteous judgement to say that there is any Destiny any necessity in mens actions For how can the righteous judgement of God and destiny comply and stand together And let me adde how can the beliefe of this and true piety stand together For where this perswasion that mens sinnes are necessary and that therefore there can be no righteous judgment is rooted in religion will quickly be rooted out 4 It tendeth to religions overthrow because it maketh the whole circle of a mans life but a meere Destiny By it all our doings are Gods ordinances all our imaginations branches of his Predestination and all events in Kingdomes and Common-weales the necessary issues of the divine decree All things whatsoever though they seem to doe somewhat yet by this opinion they do indeed just nothing the best lawes restraine not one offender the sweetest rewards promote not one vertue the powerfullest Sermons convert not one sinner the humblest devotions divert not one calamity the strongest endeavours in things of any nature whatsoever effect no more then would be done without them but the necessitating over-ruling decree of God doth all And if lawes doe nothing wherefore are they made If rules of Religion doe nothing why are they prescribed If the wills of men doe nothing why are men encouraged to one thing scared from another And if good endeavours and onsets doe nothing being excited continued limited controlled and every way governed by an active absolute and almighty decree to what purpose are they used Who seeth not plainely whither these things tend To nothing more then the subversion of piety and policy religion and lawes society and government This did the Romans see full well and therefore they banished Mathematicos The teachers and aberters of destiny out of Rome These and the like inconveniences which come from the upper way did worke so with Prosper as that he cals him no Catholique who is of this opinion (u) Prosp ad â—a Gall. sâ—t 1. Quisquis ergo ex pâ—aedestinatione deâ— veluâ— fatali necessitate homines in peccata compulsos cogi dicit in mortem non est Catholicus Whosoever saith that men are vrged to sinne and to be damned by the predestination of God as by a fatall unavoydable necessity he is no Catholique They did also make the Arausican councell denounce a curse against such (w) Concil Arâ—s 2. Can 2. Aliques ad malum divina potestâ—e praedestâ—tos esse non solum non 〈◊〉 edimus sed etiam si qui sint qui tantum mâ—lum credere velâ—nt cum onini detestatione illis Anathema dicimus That any are predestinated by the divine power to sinne we doe not onely not beleeve but with the greatest detestation that we can we denounce Anathema to such if there be any such as will beleeve so great an evill Thus farre of my reasons against the upper and most harsh and rigorous way THe Arguments by which for the present I stand convinced of the untruth even of the milder and lower way too I will take from These five following heads namely from 1 Pregnant testimonies of Scripture directly opposing it 2 Some principall attributes of God not compatible with it 3 The end of the word and Sacraments with other excellent guifts of God to men quite thwarted by it 4 Holy endeavours much hindred if not wholly subverted by it 5 Grounds of comfort by which the conscience in distresse should be releeved which are all removed by it It is 1 Repugnant to Scripture 1 It is repugnant to plaine and evident places of Scripture even in terminis as will appeare by these instances Ezek. 33.11 As J live sayth the Lord J have no pleasure in the death of a sinner but that the wicked turne from his wayes and live And lest men should say It is true God willeth not the death of a repenting sinner the Lord in another place of the same Prophet Ezek. 18.32 extendeth the proposition to them also that perish I have no pleasure in the death of him that dyeth In this Scripture we may note three things 1 Gods affection to men set forth Negatively I have no pleasure in his death that dyeth Affirmatively but that the wicked turne 2 The persons in whose destruction God delighteth not Wicked men such as for their rejecting of grace dye and are damned If God have no pleasure in their death much lesse in the death of men eyther altogether innocent or taynted onely with originall sinne 3 The truth of his affection Tertull. lib. de paen c. 4. As I live Cupit credi sibi God would fâ—ine have us beleeve him sayth Tertullian when he sayth J will not the death of him that dyeth and
sayth he among the Canonists but (h) Ibi maxime verū est ubi rex justus est nihil vult nisi justum Quanto magis in regno Dei c. this is true where the King is just and willeth nothing but what is just In which words he plainly maketh the iustice of the King antecedent to that will of his which must be a law Many more speeches he useth there to the same purpose Gods will therefore is not a rule of Iustice to himself To whom then To us For by it we are 1 to square all our thoughts words and deeds 2 to examine them when they are spoken and done Primum in aliquo genere est regula posteriorum supremum inferiorum 2 I reply that these absolute decrees of mens inevitable salvation and damnation are no parts of Gods revealed will The Scriptures teach us no such matter And therefore to say they are is but a meere begging of the question It hath alwayes beene ordinary with false Teachers to make Gods word a Father to their false opinions that they may stand the faster and winne the greater credit The Papists ground their transubstantiation and the Lutherans their consubstantiation and ubiquity upon the Scripture Hoc est corpus meum This is my body Math. 26. And the defenders of absolute Reprobation do so too they make their cause to be Gods and entitle his word to it because they see it is the surest way to defend it being herein like to some contentious people who being in law and having a bad cause which they are like to lose they entitle the King to it that they may the better uphold it 3 Absolute Reprobation can be no part of Gods revealed will The reason is because it is odious to right reason and begetteth absurdities For Nulla veritas parit absurda no truth begetteth absurdities Divers truths are revealed in Scripture which are above but not contrary to right reason whether they be matters of faith or life faith and reason nature and scripture are both Gods excellent gifts and therefore though there may be a disproportion yet there can be no repugnancy between them The worship which God requireth is cultus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a reasonable service Rom. 12.2 and the word of God is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 milke reasonable and without guile 1 Pet. 2.2 These things therefore being layd together it will appeare to be but a meere shift and evasion when absolute Reprobation is proved to be unjust and therefore unworthy of God to say Gods will is the rule of Iustice this is part of Gods revealed will and therefore most just whatsoever reason may cavill and say to the contrary 3 Their third answer is that God is not bound to restore men power to beleeve because they once had it and have lost it through their own fault as a master is not bound to renew his servants stocke if he have wasted it by bad husbandry This answer doth not satisfie me For I grant that God is simply and absolutely bound to no man because he is agent liherrimum a most free dispenser of his owne favours where and what and to whom he will and no man is aforehand with God Quis prior illi dedit ut retribuatur Who hath given unto him and it shall be recompensed again Rom. 11.35 But yet he is conditionally bound for he hath determined and tyed himselfe 3 wayes especially 1 Decernendo by decreeing The Almighty is eternally subject to his own ordinances or els he should be mutable And therefore what gifts soever he hath decreed to men he is bound to give them by vertue of his own decree 2 Promittendo by promising We use to say promise is debt it is Iustice to performe what it was free to promise and whosoever he be that promiseth and payeth not is guilty of a trespasse witnesse Ananias and Sapphira and unworthy of the kingdome of heaven Psal 15.4 If therefore God hath made a promise of any gift or grace to men his promise bindeth him to performance Nam semell emissum volat irrevocabile verbum 3 Legem ferendo by giving men a law to keep which without supernaturall grace they can no more keepe then they can eate a rock By such a law the supreme Lawgiver bindeth himself to his people to give them such power as may enable them to keep that law or else he becommeth as the evill servant in the parable stiled him a hard master reaping where he sowed not and the very true and proper cause of the transgression of that law We shall finde God alwayes giving strength when he giveth a command When he commandeth the creatures to increase and multiply he gave them a multiplying vertue when CHRIST bade the lame man arise take up his bed and walk he put into his limbs an ability of walking when Adam had a spirituall law given him to obey which without spirituall strength he could not God gave him strength answerable to the law as Divines agree consenting to that noted speech of St. Austin that Adam had posse non cadere though he never had non posse cadere a power and possibility though no necessity of continuing in obedience That I may bring this home to my purpose I say that God is bound to restore unto men power to beleeve supposing these things that follow 1 That he hath vouchsafed to enter into a new Covenant of peace with men when he needed not 2 That in that Covenant he requireth obedience at mens hands even at theirs that perish 3 That he promiseth eternall life to every man if he obey and keepe the Covenant 4 That he punisheth the disobedient with everlasting death These particulars supposed the most free God who is absolutely bound to none is engaged to give ability of beleeving unto men nor can he justly without this gift punish the disobedient any more then a Magistrate having put out a mans eyes for an offence can command this man with justice to reade a book and because he readeth not put him to death or then a Master that I may returne the Simile in the answer when he hath taken away from his servant the stocke which he hath misimployed can afterward exact of him a just imployment of the same stocke and punish him because he imployeth it not I conclude therefore that the absolute and inevitable reprobation of such men as are called to beleeve in CHRIST and punished if they beleeve not is utterly repugnant to the Iustice of God and therefore can be no part of his word 4 Opposite to Gods Truth FOurthly it oppugneth the truth and sincerity of God God is a God of truth Deut. 32.4 Truth it self Ioh. 14.6 so called because he is the fountaine of truth and the perfection of truth without the least mixture of falshood The strength of Jsraell cannot lye Rom. 3.4 1 Sam. 15.29 Let God be true and every man a lyar sayth the Apostle
as he hath layd on none a necessity of â—inning And a little after he is plainer (y) Quos verissimè praescivit impios iniquos futuros insuâ impietate iniquitate permansuros justis rectissimis de causis decrevit statuit praedestinavit perituâ—os sicut ipse ait Qui peccaverit mihi ipsum delebo de libro meo Those whom God did foreknow would live and dye in their wickednesse for reasons most just he decreed should perish as himselfe saith Him which sinneth against me even him will J blot out of my booke In the Valentine Synod assembled in favour of Gottschalk we may finde these words (z) Can. 2. Nec ipso malos ideò perire quia boni esse non potuerunt sed quia boni esse noluerunt suo que vitio in massâ damnationis vel merito originali vel etiaÌ„ actuali permaÌ„serunt Therefore do the wicked perish not because they could â—ot but because they would not be good and by theyr owne fault Originall or actuall also remained in the masse of perdition And in the end of their third Canon they denounce Anaâ—hema to those that hold that men are so predestinated unto evill as that they cannot be otherwise (a) Can. 3. Verum aliquos ad malum praedestinatos esse divinà potestate ut aliud esse non possint non soluÌ„ non credimus sed etiam si sunt qui tantum malum credire velint cum omni deâ—estatione sicut Araâ—sica Synodus illis Anathema dicimus That any should be saith the Councell predestinated to evill by the power of God so as he cannot be otherwise we doe not onely not beleeve but also if there be any that will believe so great an evill with all detestation we denounce them accursed as the Arausican councill also did By these testimonies which are but a few of many it appeareth that absolute and inevitable Reprobation â—ound but cold entertainment from Antiquity Which considering I began to call it into question For albeit I make not the decisions and determinations of the Fathers or councels the rules of my faith because they are but men and therefore subiect to error yet I honour their gray hayres and their grave assemblyes and do vehemently mistrust those doctrines which they never taught or approved but misliked and condemned 2 Its vnwillingnesse to abide the triall I finde that the authors and abetters of it have beene very backward to bring it to the standart not onely when they have beene called upon by their adversaries to have it weighed 2 Reason Vnwillingnesse to be tryed but also when they have beene intreated thereto by their chiefe Magistrates who might have compelled them a shrewd argument mee thinks that it is too light In the disputation at Mompelgart anno 1586 held between Beza and Jacobus Andrea with some seconds on both sides Beza and his company having disputed with the Lutherans about the Person of CHRIST and the Lords supper when they came to this poynt did decline the sifting of it and gave this reason among others that it could not then be publiquely disputed of (b) Beza in Coll. Mompel pa. 373. Sine gravi eorum offendiculo qui tanti mysterij capaces non sunt without the great scandall and hurt of the ignorant and unacquainted with these high mysteries (c) Braud Col. Hag. pa. 57. The contraremonstrants also in their Conference with the opposite parties at the Hague in the yeare 1611 could not be drawne to dispute with them about this poynt but delivered a petition to the States of Holland and West Friezeland that they might not be urged to it resolving rather to break off the conference then to meddle with it In the Synod likewise at Dort in the yeares 1618 and 1619 the Remonstrants were warned by the President of the Synod (d) Act a Syn per 1. pa. 133. Vt de electione potiùs quam de odiosa Reprobationis materiâ agerent That they should rather dispute of the point of Election then the odious point of Reprobation Can this Doctrine be a truth and yet blush at the light which maketh all things manifest Especially considering these things 1 That Reprobation is a principall head of Divinity by the well or ill stating and ordering of which the glory of God and the good of Religion is much promoted or hindered 2 That there is such a necessary connexion betweene the points of Election and Reprobation both being parts of Praedestination that the one cannot well bee handled without the other 3 That the Doctrine of Reprobation was the chiefe cause of all the uproares in the Church at that time 4 That it was accused with open mouth and challenged of falshood and therefore bound in Iustice to purge it selfe of the crimination 5 That the Remonstrants did not at that time desire that it should be talked of among the common people who might have stumbled at it but disputed of among the judicious and learned who as the thressing Oxen which were to beat the corne out of the huske are to bolt out those truths which are couched and hidden in the letter of the Scriptures That the doctrine which is loth to abide the tryall even of learned men carrieth with it a shrewd suspicion of falshood the Heathen Orator shall witnesse for me who to Epicurus saying that he would not publish his opinion to the simple people who might happily take offence at it answereth thus (e) Cicer. de fin bon malorum l 2 pag. 115 Aut tu eadem ista dic in judicio aut si coronam times dic in Senatu Nunquam facies Cur nisi quod turpis est oratio Declare thine opinion in the place of Judgement or if thou art afraid of the assembly there declare it in the Senate-house among those grave and judicious persons Thou wilt never doe it and why but because it is a foule and dishonest opinion This striving to lye close is peradventure no infallible argument of a bad cause yet it is a very probable one For true Religion as Vives saith is not a thing guilded over but gold it selfe the more that 's scraped and discovered the brighter and goodlyer it is and so is the truth (f) Vives de veâ— fidei l. 1. p. 16. Puriorem ac nitidiorem illam â—eddit bellum quam pax adversus gentes Disputations illustrate and set forth true opinions more then silence can let 's not feare therefore saith he lest our Faith when it is layd open appeare filthy to the eyes of beholders (g) Metuant hoc aliae religiones falsae umbranles Let false and Superficiall religions in which there is no soundnesse be afraid of this The Iew is loth to reason with the Christian touching his Law and the Turke is forbidden to dispute of his Alcoran because their Religions are brittle like glasse broken with the least touch But the Christian