themselves God took not that pleasure in them as to give them his custodient grace to keep them from withdrawing themselves which grace and that out of his good pleasure he afforded unto others But this grace comes in no account throughout with this Author like unto the Remonstrants who would have no other notice taken of any other counsell of God then that whereby he decreeth to save believers and damne unbelievers But if you call them to enquire of Gods decree to bestow the grace of Faith and repentance upon some and not on others as whether it proceeds absolutely or conditionally they usually lend a deafe eare to this whereby it is as cleare as the Sunne what estimation they make of the grace of regeneration of the grace of Faith and of repentance and after what manner they give God the glory of it By the way observe I pray how he makes the state of man in being a reprobate consequent to his withdrawing himselfe which undoubtedly is a Temporall act and accordingly the act of Reprobation whereby a man is denominated a reprobate to be meerely Temporall and consequently such an act must election be also viz. not eternall but Temporall Still he keepeth himselfe in his strength of confusion as most advantageous for him as in saying God forsakes no man till by actuall sinnes and continuance in them he forsaketh God But albeit God forsaketh no man as touching the inflicting of punishment untill man commits actuall sinne and continueth therein impenitently yet before this God did forsake him as touching the denyall of this grace custodient from sinne and the denyall of the grace of repentance to rise out of sinne which yet he grants to many as in shewing mercy to whom he will like as whom he will he hardneth and so accordingly cures in some that naturall infidely and hardnesse of heart wherein we are all borne and leaves it uncured in others Now consider we his argument following which is this If God reject no man from salvation in time or in act and deed till he reject God then surely he rejected no man in purpose and decree but such a one as he foresaw would reject and cast off God Now this argument not one of our Divines deny not only as it is applied to reprobation but neither doe we deny it applied unto election For we willingly professe that like as God bestowes salvation on none but such as he then findes believers penitent and given to good works in like sort wee all professe that God decrees to bestow salvation on none but such as he foreseeth will believe repent and become studious of good works Like enough many doe wilfully dissemble the true state of the Question between us others ignorantly mistake it The question is not whether God decrees to bestow salvation on such as he foreseeth will believe and reject those from salvation whom he foreseeeth will not believe but of the order of reason between these decrees of God and the foresight of obedience the one side and disobedience on the other that is whether like as faith repentance and good works in men of ripe years doe precede their salvation as disposing causes thereunto so the fore-sight of faith repentance and good works precede election as disposing causes or prerequisites thereunto In like manner on the other side whether as finall perseverance in sinne precedes damnation as the meritorious cause thereof So finall perseverance in sinne as foreseen by God precedes reprobation as the decree of Damnation as the meritorious cause thereof So that the argument here mentioned which is all his strength in this place rightly applyed must runne thus Faith repentance and good works actually existent precede salvation as the disposing causes thereunto therefore faith repentance and good works foreseen precede election as the disposing causes thereunto and what is this but as good as in expresse termes to professe that election is of faith repentance and good works though it be in direct contradiction unto Saint Paul professing in terminis to speak in this Divines language that the purpose of God according to election is not of works So on the other side Finall perseverance in sinne precedes damnation as the meritorious cause thereof therefore finall perseverance in sinne foreseen precedes the decree of damnation as the meritorious cause thereof And then what is to make reprobation to be of evill works if this be not Whereas Saint Paul look by what arguments he proves that election is not of good works viz. because before Jacob and Esau were borne or had done good or evill it was said of them the Elder shall serve the Younger by the same argument it is equally evident that Reprobation is not of evill works Yet we acknowledge an exact conformity between Gods decrees and the execution thereof because like as God damnes no man but for sinne so he decreed to damne no man but for sinne where sinne is in each place made the meritorious cause of damnation not of the decree of damnation And like as God bestowes salvation on no man of ripe years but by way of reward of faith repentance and good works so he decreed to bestow salvation on no man of ripe years but by way of reward of faith repentance and good works where faith repentance and good works are in each place made the disposing causes to salvation but not to election There was never any so madde saith Aquinas as to say that merits are the cause of predestination as touching the act of God predestinating and Why but because so is the cause of predestination to be enquired into as the cause of Gods will is enquired into but formerly he had shewed that there can be no cause of Gods will as touching the act of God willing Now let every one judge whether the act of reprobation be not as clearly the act of Gods will as the act of predestination and consequently whether it be not equally as mad a course in Aquinas his judgement to devise a cause of reprobation as to devise a cause of predestination on the part of Gods will And no marvail for the act of Gods will is eternall all the works of the creature are temporall Then the act of Gods will is God himselfe for there is no accident in God and therefore they may as well set themselves to devise a cause of God as a cause of Gods will His phrase of casting off is ambiguous if it signifieth the denyall of salvation it followeth disobedience if it signifieth the deniall of grace it precedes disobedience in what kind soever 3. Our velle and facere are both temporall in God it is otherwise for his deeds are temporall and may admit the works of men precedaneous thereunto but his resolutions are his decrees and they are all eternall and can admit no work of man precedaneous thereunto yet is God as just in the one as in the other For like as he damnes no man but for
be made after Gods image Gen. 1. 27. Nor when they are regenerated to be renewed after the same image Col. 3. 10. And to be made partakers of the Divine nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. That Picture cannot be the picture of such a man which doth not in its parts and lineaments clearly resemble him nor can we be truly the image of God in respect of our graces if in these graces there be not a resemblance of Gods Attributes 3. We may not safely imitate God as we are commanded Be you perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect Math. 5. 48. and be ye holy as I am holy Nor when we shew forth mercy justice and truth in our actions can we be properly said to imitate God if these be one thing in God and in men another These two things being thus premised viz. that Gods mercy justice and truth are three of his chief Attributes in the exercise of which he takes himselfe to be much glorified and that we are to measure these Attributes by the same vertues in ourselves I come to the proofe of my second reason against absolute reprobation which is that it opposeth some of Gods principall Attributes particularly his justice mercy and truth TWISSE Consideration I Cannot but wonder at the performances of the true Author of this Discourse in comparing that which goes before with that which comes after His poverty of argumentation out of Scripture and the exuberancy of his discourse following Before he was in some straits but now he seems to have gotten Sea roome enough yet this is my comfort I seem to perceive out of what chimney all this smoak proceeds and to be as well acquainted with the spirit that breatheth here as if I were at his elbow while he penned it Agnosco veteris vestigia flammae such like are Doctor Jacksons discourses and him I have known of old and his Ephestion also I professe willingly of Scholar acquaintance they were my greatest and dearest But seeing it hath pleased God to put such a difference between us I would have both them and the World know I doe as little regard them as feare them Arminius himselfe is never more plausible then in such like extravagant discourses as a positive Theologue But these inspirations were never derived from him they are flowers of another garden These have been shapen in a more Philosophicall brain whereof some having gotten the reputation give Oracles therehence first to forme interpretations of Scriptures in congruity to these Theorems as the true Author blusheth not to professe which when he hath perswaded the World of I see no cause to the contrary but he may adventure a degree farther and perswade the burning of the Bible so farre as it concerneth the Doctrine of Predestination and Reprobation Grace and Free-will and content themselves with these magisteriall precepts as most sufficient and soveraigne for the endoctrinations of the Christian World in these poynts But he might have spared his pains in proving this consequence that if our Doctrine of Reprobation be contradictory to Gods principall attributes it cannot be true I say he might have spared the proofe hereof for all that he brings in proofe of this is but darknesse in comparison of the domesticall light and selfe-evidence which this consequence carryeth with it His premises here and discourse thereof is like unto the Turkes parly before the encounter when he challenged any one of Scanderbegs army to a single combate For as that parley was meerely complementall and to no purpose save only as he might conceit to abate the fervor of his opposite who longed to be dealing with him so this introduction I find to be of no Scholasticall use in the world but meerely Politick to work some impression upon the readers affections where by it may come to passe that when he reads of Gods mercy and justice as here it is set forth he may be the more enclined to judge thereof according to the genius of human mercy and justice Yet I am content to give my selfe to be wrought upon by these pretty contemplations as farre as I shall be convicted of any truth and sobriety in them though I willingly professe I am very suspicious for I love to betray my infirmities that there is little or no truth and sobriety at all in them 1. Now because he hopes to hatch much advantage unto his cause out of these attributes and to that purpose he sitts very long upon them though his market may be never the better for all that He tells us these are Gods chief attributes and as it appeareth by that which followeth his practice is to disparage his power which I call the Lords Soveraignty in comparison to these Now it seems they are chiefe indeed in his opinion for the furthering of his cause but as for any absolute chiefty they have in God I am not as yet acquainted therewith what I may be by this Authors performances I know not yet in the next page save one he professeth expressely That all Gods excellencies are infinitely good and one is not greater then another wherein I doe much approve his judgement as savouring of more depth then this which yet I think not that he who pretends to be the Author of this discourse in respect of his minority should be likely to broach as for other respects of principality I shall be ready to take notice of them in due place But when he saith God is most glorified in the manifestation of mercy justice and truth it is a very odde phrase For it is one thing to be glorious another thing to be glorified dare he deny that God is as glorious in his power and soveraignty as in his mercy justice and truth As for the glorifying of him that depends upon the will of the creature It may be some are more thankfull unto God for blessing them with health and riches and honour and preferment then for bestowing his Gospell upon them but will it follow herehence that his goodnesse in giving riches c. is more glorious then his goodnesse is seen in giving us his Word and Gospell We read that when God laid the foundations of the earth the Starres of the morning praised God together and all the children of God rejoyced Job 38. 7. did these Angells glorify God for his mercy justice and truth in the creating of them We read sometimes of Gods power sometimes of his wisdome manifested in the Creation as Jer. 10. 11. and 51. 11. and Psal 136. 5. Jer. 10. 12. c. But no where have I read that I can remember he made the World by his mercy justice or truth and Revel 4. 11. I find the glory of power given unto God in the creation by the 24 Elders but neither there nor any where else that I know is the glory of his mercy justice and truth given unto God therein Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour and power for thou hast created all
saith then for inflicting eternall death only on them that are guilty of it as we say But let we him finish the Declamation he hath begunne Is his mercy abundant doth it extend it selfe farther then justice when it is tackt up so short limited to a very few chosen ones when a hundred for one at least are unavoidably cast away out of his only will and pleasure As touching this I have already shewed how much he is out in his Algebra but let that passe unlesse this Divine take upon him to deliver truer Oracles then Saint Paul we are bound to believe that the elect only are vessells of mercy distinguished from reprobates as vessells of wrath Rom. 9. 22 23. and toward these alone it is that his mercy is abundant in the way of bestowing saving and spirituall graces It is untrue that he hath proved any such thing as he pretends namely that Gods mercy is extended to more persons then his justice And applied aright namely as touching mercy seen in pardoning sinnes in changing the heart and saving soules which are peculiar to Gods elect the most brazen faced opposite to Gods holy truth that liveth cannot deny but that they to whom these are granted are farre fewer then they to whom they are denied And if within the Church only for there only are found such as feare God his mercy extends to thousands of them that feare him when but to the third and fourth generation he punisheth the sinnes of the Father upon the Children which is all the proofe this Author brings to this purpose it followeth not herehence that his mercy extendeth any whit to more then doth his justice considering the small proportion of those within the Church and therein of them that feare him in comparison to those without the Church And like as visiting the sinne of Fathers which is commonly understood of temporall punishments so in proportion the mercy is to be understood of temporall mercy And we well know that it is nothing necessary that a man that fears God should have children And like as God doth not alwaies thus visit the sinnes of Fathers upon the Children in like sort it is not alwaies necessary that God should shew mercy to thousands of every one of them that feare him He dealt so with Abraham Isaack and Iacob they to whom the Law was delivered knew this full well then again must not they who look to have an interest in this gracious promise look unto it that they walk in the steps of their Forefathers that feared God By all which may appeare the superficiary nature of this Disputants argumentation even then when the zeale of his cause makes him as most confident so also most luxuriant Lastly doe we say that God damnes any man out of his only will and pleasure Doe we not professe that he damnes no man but for sinne And as he damnes no man but for sinne so likewise that he decreed to damne no man but for sinne though there could be no cause of this his decree but of his meere will and pleasure he made this decree namely to damne many thousands for their sinnes But let him come to an end of this his roaving discourse when he thinks good and not before Or doth his love passe knowledge when we see daily greater love then this in men and other creatures What Father or Mother would determine their children to certain death or to cruell torments worse then death for one only offence and that committed too not by them in their own persons but by some other and only imputed unto them How much lesse would they give themselves to beget Children and bring them forth that they might bring them to the rack fire gallowes and such like tortures and deaths What doe I heare Doth man or any creature shew more love to their Children then God doth towards his Elect Did they ever provide such a sacrifice to make satisfaction for their Childrens sinnes as God did provide for his Yea but reprobates also are Gods Children this must needs be his meaning though in plain termes he spared to expresse so much How unnaturall then was Christ who would not pray for the World if they were all his children And what meant he to professe that he sanctified himselfe only for them for whom he prayed Which sanctification of himselfe was in respect of the offering up of himselfe upon the crosse as Maldonate confesseth was the interpretation of all the Fathers whom he had read And in that prayer professeth of them saying they are thine and thou gavest them unto me as much as to say the World was not his And farther consider Is it safe to measure out Gods proceedings by the proceedings of men What Father or Mother would be content to execute a Child of theirs upon the Gallowes when by some capitall crime he hath deserved it How much lesse hold them upon the rack of continuall tortures what then must not God be allowed to inflict eternall death upon his creatures And what hath an earthly Father or Mother to doe either to determine or execute death on any This belongs to God not to man unlesse he make choyce of them as of his Ministers for the execution of vengeance But this Author is nothing yet awaked out of his dreames or his Arminian Lethargy Yet I hope he will grant that God did foresee all this even the sinnes of Judas in betraying and of the Jewes in crucifying the Sonne of God yet neverthelesse he was content to bring forth both him and them into the World Now what earthly Father and Mother would not make choyce rather to be Childlesse then to bring forth such children as should deale with them as Nero dealt with his Mother Proceed then and as from the affections of earthly Fathers and Mothers he disputes against the absolutenesse of Gods decrees so also in the next place let him conclude the like to the utter overthrowing of Gods foreknowledge Yet who of our Divine saith that God for one offence hath determined death and tortures to any reprobate of ripe years Doe they not all professe that as many as dye in actuall sinnes unrepented of God determined to damne them for those actuall sinnes unrepented of I doe not think he can alleadge any that denies this Againe what one of our Divines maintaines that Infants perishing in originall sinne are damned for that sinne which is made theirs only by imputation What a shamelesse habit hath he gotten to himselfe to deliver untruths yet will he not I warrant you be accounted a Pelagian neither will he plainly deny originall sinne as Grevincovius is said to have done and that testibus convinci potuit Their Tenets are nothing lesse shamefull then Pelagius his Tenets were only they have not that ingenuity which Pelagius had in professing plainly that there was no originall sinne conveyed unto us by propagation Now he comes more closely unto the matter yet but a little neither a
the Gospell according to that Mar. 1. Repent ye and believe the Gospell Now to believe the Gospell is one thing the summe whereof is this That Jesus Christ came into the World to save sinners but to believe in Christ is another thing which yet this Author distinguisheth not though it appears by the course of his argumentation that he draws to this meaning and that in a particular sense which is this to believe that Christ died for them as appears expressely in the latter end of this Section And no marvaile if this Author carry himselfe so confidently in this being as he is armed with such confidence But I am glad that in one place or other he springs his meaning that we may have the fairer flight at him to pull down his pride and sweep away his vain considence though we deale upon the most plausible argument of the Arminians and which they think insoluble My answer is first Look in what sense Arminius saith Christ died for us in the same sense we may be held to say without prejudice to our Tenet of absolute reprobation that all who heare the Gospell are bound to believe that Christ died for them For the meaning that Arminius makes of Christs dying for us is this Christ dyed for this end that satisfaction being made for sinne the Lord now may pardon sinne upon what condition he will which indeed is to dye for obtaining a possibility of the redemption of all but for the actuall redemption of none at all Secondly But I list not to content my selfe with this therefore I farther answer by distinction of the phrase of dying for us that we may not cheat our selves by the confounding of things that differ To dye for us or for all is to dye for our benefit or for the benefit of all Now these benefits are of a different nature whereof some are bestowed upon man only conditionally though for Christs sake and they are the pardon of sinne and Salvation of the Soule and these God doth conferre only upon the condition of faith and repentance Now I am ready to professe and that I suppose as out of the mouth of all our Divines that every one who hears the Gospell without distinction between Elect and Reprobate is bound to believe that Christ died for him so farre as to procure both the pardon of his sinnes and the salvation of his soule in case he believe and repent But there are other benefits which Christ by his obedience hath merited for us namely the benefit of faith and repentance For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulnesse dwell Col. 1. And He hath blessed us with all spirituall blessings in Christ that is for Christs sake and God works in us that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ and therefore seeing nothing is more pleasing in Gods sight on our part then faith and repentance even these also I should think God works in us through Jesus Christ and the Apostle praies in the behalfe of the Ephesians for peace and faith and love from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ that is as I interpret it from God the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost as an efficient cause and from the Lord Jesus Christ God and Man as a meritorious cause thereof Now I demand whether this Author can say truly that t is the constant opinion of our Divines that all who heare the Gospell whether Elect or Reprobate are bound to believe that Christ dyed to procure them faith and repentance Nay doth any Arminian at this day believe this or can he name any Arminian that doth avouch this Nay doth himselfe believe this If he doth not if he cannot shew any Arminian that doth with what face can he charge this opinion upon us as if we should extend the obligation to believe much farther then the Arminians doe whereas usually they criminate us for not extending it so farre as we should And indeed there is a main difference between these benefits and the former For as touching the former namely pardon of sinne and salvation God doth not use to conferre them but conditionally to wit upon the condition of faith and repentance But as for faith and repentance doth God conferre them conditionally also If so then let them make known to us what that condition is on mans part and whatsoever it be let them look unto it how they can avoid the making of grace to wit the grace of faith and repentance to be given according unto works But if these graces are conferred absolutely and Christ dyed for all to this end that faith and repentance should be conferred absolutely upon all then it followeth manifestly herehence that all must believe and repent and consequently all must be saved So that not only Election as Huberus that renegate faigned must be universall but Salvation also Thus have I given in my answer distinctly to that which he delivered most confusedly Fourthly I come to the scanning of the particular opinion of Zanchy namely that every one that hears the Gospell whether elect or reprobate for so I suppose it proceeds to wit only of them who heare the Gospell though this Author takes no consideration of that neither but hand-over-head laies about him like a mad man is bound to believe that he is elect in Christ and will trye whether I cannot reduce that opinion of his also to a faire interpretation And here first I observe Zanchy is not charged to maintain that every hearer of the Gospell is bound to believe that he is elect in Christ unto faith and repentance but only to salvation that puts me in good heart that Zanchy I shall shake hands of fellowship in the end and part good friends Secondly I distinguish between absolute-Election unto Salvation and election unto Salvation-absolute The first only removes all cause on mans part of election the latter removes all cause on mans part of salvation By cause of salvation I mean only a disposing cause such as faith repentance and good works are as whereby to expresse it in the Apostles phrase we are made meet partakers of the inheritance of the Saints of light Now albeit Zanchy maintains as we doe that all the elect are absolutely elected unto salvation there being no cause on mans part of his election as we have learned yet neither Zanchy nor we doe maintain that God doth elect any unto salvation absolute that is to bring him to salvation without any disposing of him thereunto by faith and repentance Now to accommodate that opinion of Zanchy I say it may have a good sense to say that every hearer is bound to believe both that Christ dyed to procure Salvation for him in case he doe believe and that God ordained that he should be saved in case he doe believe where beliefe is made the condition only of salvation not of the Divine ordination and the confusion of these by the Arminians doth usually
was sufficient to convert them which must be by the Antithesis to bring them to faith provided that they that is the hearers play the good husbands in the using of it But what is it to play the good husbands These and such like Phrasiologies are the usuall sculking courses of the Arminians like the inke which the Fish Saepia casts forth that she may thereby the better hide her selfe and escape from the hands of the Fisher But certainly it must be some worke or other to be performed by the hearer whereby he shall be brought to faith therefore I say it is either the worke of Faith it selfe or some other worke preceding it not of faith it selfe for faith it selfe cannot in reason be said to be a worke whereby a man is brought to faith Secondly herehence it followeth that Mans good husbandry being here distinguished from the worke of Faith it selfe the act of Faith is hereby made the work of mans will not of Gods grace if some work preceding faith whereupon faith is wrought by grace it followeth that the grace of faith is given according to mans works this is the foule issue of their tenet making faith either not at all the worke of God or if wrought by God to be wrought according to mans worke And thus they shape the grace of God conferring faith not only towards Reprobates but also towards the elect Now observe I beseech you how our Brittaine Divines doe purposely reject this Doctrine in the Synod of Dort art 3. in their third Thesis of those which are rejected by them The Thesis which they reject is positis omnibus gratiae operationibus quibus Deus ad efficiendam hanc conversionem utitur voluntatem hominis relinqui in aequilibrio velitne credere vel non credere convertete se ad Deum vel non convertere All the operations of grace supposed the will of man is left in an even ballance whether he will believe or no whether he will convert himselfe to God or no this is the very opinion of this Author against which our worthy Divines dispute there in this manner If this were so then it would follow that God by his grace is not the principall cause of mans believing and conversion but man by his free will rather For in this case God shall not predominantly worke mans conversion but upon condition only to wit in case the will first move it selfe whereby the lesse worke is given to God and the greater worke to man to wit in mans conversion 2. Herehence it will follow that God gives no more grace to the Elect than to the Reprobate and that the elect are not bound to be more thankefull to God than the non-elect because the worke of God in both is no other than to place the will in an even ballance 3. The grace of conversion is given with an intention that it shall prove effectuall and to move nay rather to bring man to the producing of the act of faith in such sort as it cannot be made in vaine Haec gratia a nullo duro corde respuitur ideo quippe tribuitur ut cordis duritia primitus auferatur And seeing the good Husbandry of mans consists in obedience to the Gospell it appears hereby that the grace they speake of is no other than the Gospell exhorting to repentance and this we confesse is sufficient in a certain kind to wit in the kind of instruction and exhortation and is not this sufficient to convict of unbeliefe as many as wilfully resist it and such is the condition of all in hearing the Gospell to whom God gives not the grace of conversion for as Saint Austin saith Libertas sine gratiâ non est libertas sed contumacia and no other impotency of beliefe doe we ascribe to a naturall man but such as consists in contumacy which is meerely a fault and corruption of the will not the defect of any naturall power and therefore as I said the impotemcy of converting to God by faith and repentance is impotency morall consisting meerely in the corruption of the will and there is no question but every man hath as much power to believe as Simon Magus of whom it is said that he believed Fides in voluntate est saith Austin credimus quando volumus but the will of man is so corrupt that without speciall preparation by Gods grace it is rather wilfully set to walke in the waies of flesh and bloud than obsequious to that which is good we make no question but that as Prosper saith every one that heareth the Gospell is thereby called unto grace even to obtaine pardon of sinne and salvation upon his faith in Christ and is called upon also to believe but withall we say with our Brittaine Divines Art 3. De Conversione Thesi 1a. In the explication thereof that God gives his elect not only posse credere si velint which in Austins opinion lib. 1. de gen contra Manic cap. 3. and de praedest Sanct. cap. 5. is common to all but velle credere nay they spare not to professe that if God should worke in us only posse credere posse convertere and leave the act of believing and converting to mans free will we should all doe as Adam did and fall from God through our free will and never bring this possibility into act take their own words Quod si vires quasdam infundendo daret Deus tantum posse credere posse convertere ipsum interim actum committeret libero hominum arbitrio certe quod primus parens fecit faceremus omnes libero arbitrio a Deo deficeremus nec possibilitatem hanc in actum perduceremus Haec itaque eximia est illa specialis gratia qua non modo possunt credere si velint sed volunt cum possunt Phil. 3. 13. Dat Deus nobis velle perficere As for that which he discourseth of Gods principall aime that the Church of Israell should bring forth good fruit let us speake plainly and not cheat our selves first and then become impostors unto others was it that which God did principally intend Gods intentions are his decrees now if God did decree they should bring forth fruit de facto who hath resisted his will Nay take their own rules according to their doctrine of Scientia media Why did God give them only such a grace to move them unto fruitfulnes which he foresaw they would resist And refuse to give such grace as he foresaw would not be resisted and that without all prejudice to their wills Let thē answer unto this for that God in the storehouse of his wisdome hath such courses as being used he foreseeth infalliby that any sin will be hindred Arminius acknowledgeth as I have oftē alleadged him But we may safely say 1. That God intended it should be their duty to bring forth fruit 2. If he did farther intend that the Church of Israel should de facto bring forth fruit this he
the decision whereof carryeth with it the decision of all the rest this Author should unshamefacedly decline it But some there be that hate the light because their workes are evill but doth it become him to taxe others for declining the triall when none sheweth more vile carriage this way then himselfe What that Privy-Councellor was I know not nor have I any evidence of the truth of the story but as it lyeth dictated at pleasure I have shewed how it nothing disadvantageth our cause though the Author of that speech were not only a Privy-Councellor but a great Divine too Yet amongst many good there might be some bad in Queen Elizabeths dayes If that were true which is reported to have been mentioned by D r Lively in a Lecture of his in Cambridge namely that a certaine Booke was found under a Privy-Councellors pillow whose inscription was this De tribus Mundi impostoribus Mose Christo Mahumite As for fate stoicall to give the Divell his right I no where find it maintained by any of them so as to prejudice mens wills but by many great ones I find this expresly denyed and hereof I have already spoken more at large Still he keepes his course in impugning an absolute decree determining mens ends precisely What secret misteries he conceales in the Word precisely I know not but it is aparent we maintaine no such determining the Salvation of any man so as to exclude a Godly life We both know and teach that without Holinesse as much as to say without a Godly life no man shall see God But we further say that this is not wholy the decree of predestination though this Author with his Remonstrants would faine rest here but we farther say that a Godly life is the gift of Gods grace and that God bestowes this gift on whom he will but this Author hath no great lust to oppose us here The more Equivocall a phraise is the fitter it is to serve his turne that lyes upon advantages to promote error and obscure truth And therefore keepes himselfe to the absolute decree and precise determinations either not understanding or not considering that an absolute decree may be takendivers waies either quoad actum volentis as touching the act of God willing or quoad res volitas as touching the things willed the decree properly signifies the act of God willing but this Author in consideratly takes it quoad res volitas as touching the things willed all along as appeares by his oppossing it to decree or will conditionall And will conditionall with him is such as when the thing willed is not effected because the condition is not performed They are his owne words in the last Section save one of his former sorts of reasons the very last words As for example the will of Saving men is not accomplished because men doe not believe Then as touching the things willed Gods decrees being considered here also arise different considerations for as much as the things willed are different Grace and Glory As for Glory and Salvation we doe not say that God hath decreed to confer that absolutly but only conditionally yet thereupon he stiks throughout supposing his adversaries to maintaine an absolute decree concerning the conferring of Salvation abolutely which is most untrue wherein he fights without any adversary yet there he dischargeth himselfe very strenuously and layes about him like a mad man But as for grace to wit the grace of regeneration the grace of faith and repentance this we readily professe that God doth bestow it absolutly to wit on whom he will according to the meere pleasure of his will All this It is the glory of this Author in his discourse most juditiously to confound which made him the more to abound in matter that he might seem to say some thing when indeed it is nothing supple to the purpose And to meet with him in every particular of his conclusion The events to wit of Salvation or damnation are not at all decreed by God to come to passe absolutely but meerely conditionally and consequently not unavoydably but avoydably rather like as things that come to passe contingently doe come to passe with a possibility not to come to passe and accordingly God decreed they should came to passe contingently And consequently mens actions hereabouts are not unprofitable nay they are both necessary for obtayning the ends here intimated such as never faile of obtayning them As for example Sanctification of the spirit and faith of the truth never faile of procuring Salvation for as much as God ordained by these meanes to bring men unto Salvation 2 Thess 2. 13. And by no meanes else And therefore most absurd it is to conceive that the practise of Godlinesse proves unprofitable and from such wild promises the unprofitable nature of the prctise of Godlinesse can prove no better then a wild conclusion I come to his two witnesses the first is Calv. Inst l. 3. c. 23. sect 14. Si quis ita plebem compellet si non creditis ideo fit quia jam divinitus exitio destinati estis is non modo ignaviam fovet sed indulget malitiae This saith this Author is as much to say as this If a man should set downe the doctrine of Reprobation in its colours and explaine it to people in a cleare and lively fashion he would hereby open a doore to liberty and prophanenesse Now this Calvin delivereth as out of Austin as appeareth both by his entrance hereunto and by his shutting up of it His entrance into it is this Et tamen ut singulare aedificationis studium sancto viro fuit that is Austin sic docendi veri rationem temperat ut prudenter caveatur quoad licet offensio Nam iquae vere dicuntur congruenter simul posse dici admonet The man he speakes of still is Austin as is apparent to him that shall consider the coherence of this Section with the former Then he sets downe the inconvenient manner of Preaching this truth as Austin doth though not in Austins words but in his owne Si quis ita plebem compellet si non creditis ideo fit quia jam divinitus exitio destinati estis c. And shutting the whole up he expressely names Austin misliking such manner of Preaching thus Tales itaque Augustinus non immerito tanquam vel insulsos Doctores vel sinistros ominosos Prophetas ab Ecclesia jubet facessere What is the mystery then of this that Calvin is here brought in for a witnesse in making a relation of Austins discourse and Austin himselfe whose judgement Calvin doth but relate is pretermitted especially considering that Austins testimony where it serves his turne would give farre more credit to his cause then Calvins you will give me leave to guesse at the mistery which I take to be this Calvin is well known to be opposite unto him in the doctrine of reprobation but Calvin acknowledging that this Doctrine might be delivered in a harsh
his trust in himself with Gods concurrence as if otherwise a mans condition were uncomfortable and the way were open to desperation But what doth Austin answer to such like discourses of old de Predest sanct cap 22. An vero timendum est ne nunc de se homo desperet quando spes ejus demonstratur ponenda in Deo non autem desperaret si eam in se ipso superbissimus infelicissimus poneret Is it to be feared least a man despaire when it is proved that a mans hope is to be placed in God and that he is free from despaire in case he place his hope in himselfe most proudly and most unhappily As for that which he cites out of Melancthon it is every way as much to the purpose as that which he cited out of Calvin in the first Section Melancthon sayeth we must judge of Gods will by his Word so saith Calvin his words are these Qui recte atque ordine electionem investigant qualiter in verbo continetur eximium inde referunt consolationis fructum To enquire after a mans election in the Word is the way to reape singular consolation But they that enquire after the eternall counsell of God without the Word in exitialem abyssum se ingurgitant they plung themselves into a gulfe of perdition Yet when Melancthon sayeth multa disput antur durius the comparative there is not to be rendred as this Authour renders it more harshly but rather thus somwhat harshly And of Melancthons concurrence with Calvin in the doctrine of predestination as touching the substance of the doctrine I have formerly shewed out of his owne Epistle who professeth that he differeth only tradendi ratione in the manner of delivering it and of his owne professeth that they are of a popular nature thus Mea sunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 adusum accommodata as it were woven with a thicker thred and fited to use and practise No man doubts but that as Melanchton saith it is Gods immutable commandement to heare the Son and to assent to the promise and the promise is universall to wit that whosoever believeth shall be saved Therefore let us not seeke election besides the Word it is a grave counsell and well becomming Melancthon and Calvin gives the very same councell in the very Booke Chapter and Section last related by this Author But he saw it fitter for his turne to represent Melancthon professing as much rather then Calvin We nothing doubt but God will performe that he hath promised and therefore whosoever believeth shall be saved according to our doctrine not so according to the doctrine of Arminians who maintaine that a man may totally and finally fall away from faith Rogers upon the Articles of the Church of England Art 17. Not only acknowledgeth this universality of Gods promises according to the Tenor of that Article but concludeth herehence That they are not to be heard that say that the number of the elect is but small and seeing we are uncertaine whether we be of that company or no we will proceed in our course as we have begunne and accompts all such adversaries of this truth touching the universality of Gods promises and let every sober man judge whether this Author doth not justify this their discourse whom he accompts adversaries to the truth of that Article in that particular The same Rogers in his 8 proposition as touching the comfortable nature of predestination writs thus This doctrine of predestination is to the Godly ful sweet pleasant and comfortable because it greatly confirmeth their faith in Christ and encreaseth their love towards God But saith he to the wicked and reprobate the consideration hereof is very sower unsavory and most uncomfortable as that which they think though very untruly and sinfully causeth them either to despaire of his mercy being without faith or not to feare his justice being extreamely wicked whereas neither from the Word of God nor any confession of the Church can man gather that he is a vessell of wrath prepared to damnation What more contradictions to this Authors discourse of the uncomfortable condition of predestination according to our way yet who was this Authour was he at any time accompted an innovatour in this Church His books dedicated to Arch-Bishop Bancroft writing upon the Articles of the Church of England perused and by the lawfull authority of the Church of England allowed to be publick And because some choosing to play at small game rather then sit out may say that he speakes not a word of absolute election or absolute reprobation let his 5. Proposition be observed which is this Of the meere pleasure of God some men in Christ Jesus are elected and not others unto salvation this he prooves by that Rom. 9. 11. That the purpose of God might remaine according to election And that Eph. 1. 5. Who doth predestinate us according to the good pleasure of his will And that 2 Tim. 1. 9. Not according to our workes but according to his owne purpose and grace And that Exod. 33. 19. And Rom. 9. 15. I will shew mercy to whom I will shew mercy And as touching the other part of not choosing others that of Solomon Prov. 16. 4. The Lord hath made all things for his owne sake yea even the wicked against the day of evill And Rom. 9. 21. Hath not the Potter power over the clay to make of the same lumpe one vessell unto honour and an other unto dishonour And comming unto the Errours and adversaries of this truth Hereby saith he is discovered the impiety of those men which think that 1. Man doth make himselfe elegible for the Kingdome of Heaven by his owne good workes and merits so teach the Papists 2. God beheld in every man whether he would use his grace well and believe the Gospell or no and as he saw man so he did predestinate choose or refuse him 3. Besides his will there was some other cause in God why he chose one man and cast off another but this cause is hidden from us 4. God is partiall and unjust for choosing some and refusing others calling many and electing but few The other place alleadged by this Author of Melancthon partly repeates the same matter concerning the universality of the promises no mention at all with him either of the universality of Gods love or of the universality of Christs death or of the universality of the Covenant of grace partly opposeth it to dangerous imaginations of predestination what are these but such as proceed without the word For without doubt it is to be understood in opposition to that which he formerly delivered advising us to judge of the will of God by his expresse Word and all one with seeking election extra verbum formerly specified of both which Calvin speakes more at large in that very place aleadged by this Author in the first Section of this last sort of Arguments And there Calvin commends the one as a
issues doe justly befall them because they abhorre to professe that God causeth us to walke in his statutes and to keepe his judgements and doe them The course that Junius took to quiet her conscience who thought she was damned for neglecting to goe to Masse by proving unto her that the Masse was a meere wil-worship was faire and reasonable but the course this Author takes to comfort an afflicted soule I have shewed to be most unreasonable Absolute reprobate hath a different sense according as it is differently applyed If applyed unto damnation or the denyall of glory we utterly deny that either the one is inflicted or glory is denyed absolutely but meerely upon supposition of sinne But applyed to grace we willingly confesse that God doth absolutely give the grace of regeneration the grace of faith and repentance to whom he will according to that of Saint Paul He hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardneth Rom. 9. 18. compared with Rom. 11. 30. Where to shew mercy is apparently to bring men unto faith neither can it have any other sense Rom. 9. 18. being set in opposition to hardening and in reference to the objection rising therehence in the words following Thou wilt say then why doth he yet complaine for who hath resisted his will v. 19. And while this Author denies that faith and repentance are given according to the good pleasure of Gods will which is to give them absolutely he must be driven to confesse that they are given conditionally and if a man will take any comfort therehence he must be acquainted with the condition which yet this Author undertaking the office of consolation upon this ground doth from the first to the last conceale as if he feared to discover the shamefull nakednesse of his cause which I have adventured to display and whereof I desire the indifferent reader would judge So that indeed this discourse is a new snare rather to entangle a poore soule in sadnesse and heavinesse inextricable fowler-like then any true office of consolation where she may escape as a bird out of the first snare of the Fowler by breaking it and delivering her Indeed these grounds of hope and comfort a Minister cannot make use of that holds absolute Reprobation What sober man would expect he should but such a one is never a whit the worse comforter for that For as for these grounds I have already discovered them to be voyd of all truth of all sobriety For if men be not absolutely Reprobated from the grace of faith and of repentance but conditionally For as for the denying of glory or inflicting damnation we utterly deny that God hath decreed that they shall have their course absolutely according to the meere pleasure of his will having made a Law according whereunto he purposeth to proceed therein it became this Author performing the part of a Comforter on this ground to make knowne the condition which he utterly declineth And with all I have shewed the reasons of his carriage thus in Hugger Mugger to wit that their shamefull Tenets might not breake forth and be brought to light We abhorre to say that God gives the grace of faith and repentance according to mens workes Wee abhorre to say that God workes in men the act of believing and repenting provided they will believe and repent or that he workes in them the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 velle of every good worke modovelint But our comsolations proceed as I have shewed in this manner If any man man doth believe and repent we can assure such a one by our doctrine that he is an elect of God this Arminians by their doctrine cannot as who maintaine that a true believer may fall a way from grace and be damned which is to hold the soules of the best children of God upon the rack of feares and terrours and tortures continually and make them walke as it were upon pinacles of the Temple for they have no assurance of stedfastnesse but in their owne wills to keepe them from dropping into Hell fire which burneth under them If men doe not believe and repent we will enquire into the cause of their feares grounds of their apprehentions that they are Reprobates and shew that they have no just cause for such apprehensions whether it be the conscience of their sinne or want of faith that doth affright them For as much as the holiest meÌ„ living before their calling had as great cause to be affrighted as they yet had they thereupon conceived themselves to be Reprobates this had been but an erronious conceit If perhaps it be not the conscience of sinne in generall that affrights them but rather the conscience of some sinne in speciall which they conceive to be a sinne unto death or a sinne against the Holy Ghost which they conceive to be unpardonable we will conferre with them thereabouts and try whether they understand aright the nature of that sinne and endeavour to scatter those mists of illusions in this particular which Satan hath raised desiring to swallow them up in desperation if it doe not prove to be a sinne against the Holy Ghost we will set them in a course to get the spirit of faith and of repentance For albeit God alone can give them yet seeing his Word is a Word of power even a voyce that pearceth the graves we willperswade them to give themselves to be wrought upon by Gods Word and we will pray for them who yet want spirit to pray for themselves And albeit they cannot prepare themselves in a gratious manner to the hearing of Gods Word yet let them come and when they are come let his Word worke yet if forthwith we have not that comfortable experience of Gods goodnesse towards us let us not give over to wait at the lords gates and to give attendance at the posts of his doore Give him leave to be the Master of his own times let us not prescribe unto him We know his course is to call some at one houre of the day some at an other and at the very last hour he calleth some This is the way of consolation that we take We doe not take any such course as this Author at his pleasure obtrudes upon us that God would have all to be saved and that Christ died for all I have allready set forth this Authors collusions in his triple universality of Gods love Christs death and and of the Covenant of grace We rather will exhort him to believe and herein we will take such course as God in his Word hath directed us unto and we will pray unto God that his Word may be as the raine that cometh downe and the snow from Heaven returneth not thither but watereth the earth and maketh it bring forth buâ—d hat it may give seed to the sower and bread to him that eateth So his Word may be that goeth out of his mouth it may not returne unto him voyd but accomplish that
that they shall come to passe in such a manner as joyned with a possibility of not cōing to passe otherwise they should come to passe not contingently but necessarily But it is growne to be this Authours naturall genius miserably to overreach while he keeps himselfe to his own formes inshaping the opinion of his adversaries impatient to be beaten out of them and to have his veteres avias à pulmone repelli oldgrandmothers vain conceits to be pulled out of Lastly this Authour shapeth us to make damnation an end intended by God which we conceive to be a very shallow project we know nothing but Gods owne glory that can be this end And therefore even there where Solomon professeth that God made the wicked against the day of Evill herewithall acknowledgeth that God made all thinges forhimselfe At length we have gotten cleare aboard to come acquainted with this Authours full discourse and not by patches as hitherto we have done For here he promiseth to acquaint us with the reasons that have convinced him of the untruth of absolute Reprobation as it is carried the upper way and like a Martialist a man at armes he tells us they fight against it and thus the interpolator discourseth The first part of the first Argument against the supralapsarians sect 1. They are drawen ab incommodo from the greater evils and inconveniences which issue from it naturally which may be referred to two maine heads 1 The dishonour of God 2 The overthrow of religion and government It dishououreth God For it chargeth him deeply with two things no wayes agreeable to his nature 1 Mens Eternall torments in Hell 2 Their sinnes on Earth First It chargeth him with Mens eternall torments in Hell and maketh him to be the prime principall 2nd invincible cause of the damnation of Millions of miserable soules The prime cause because it reporteth him to have appointed them to distruction of his owne voluntary disposition antecedent to all deserts in them and the Principall and invincible cause because it maketh the Damnation of Reprobates to be necessary and unavoydable thorough Gods absolute and uncontroulable decree and soe necessary that they can no more escape it then poore Astyanax could avoyd the breaking of his necke when the Graecians tumbled him downe from the Tower of Troy Now this is an neavy charge contrary to scripture Gods nature and sound Reason 1 To Scripture which makes man the Principall nay the only cause in opposition to God of his owne ruine Thy destruction is of thy selfe ô Israell but in me is thine help As I live saith the Lord I will not the death of the wicked c. Turne yee turne yee why will yee dye He doth not afflict willingly nor greive the Children of men To which speech for likeneile sake I will joyne one of Prospers Gods predestination is to many the cause of standing to none of falling 2 It is contrary to Gods nature who sets forth himselfe to be a God mercifull gracious long suffering abundant in goodnesse c. And he is acknowledged to be soe by King David Thou Lord art good and mercifull and of great Kindnesse to all them that call upon thee And by the Prophets Joell Jonah and Michah He is gracious and mercifull slow to anger and of great Kindnesse And who saith Micah is a God like unto thee that taketh away iniquity c. He retaineth not his wrath for ever because mercy pleaseth him 3 'T is contrary also to sound reason which cannot but argue such a Decree of extreame cruelty and consequently remove it from the father of mercyes We cannot in reason thinke that any man in the world can so farre put off humanity and nature as to resolve with himselfe to marry and beget Children that after they be borne and have lived a while with him he may hang them up by the tongues teare thir flesh with scourges pull it from their bones with burning pincers or put them to any cruell tortures that by thus torturing them he may shew what his Authority and power is over them Much lesse can we believe without great violence to reason that the God of mercy can so farre forget himselfe as out of his absolute pleasure to ordaine such infinite multitudes of his Children made after his owne image to everlasting fire and create them one after another that after the end of a short life here he might torment them without end hereafter to shew his power and soveraingty over them If to destroy the righteous with the wicked temporally be such a peece of injustice that Abraham removeth it from God with an Absit wilt thou destroy the righteous with the wicked that be farre from thee O Lord. shall not the judge of all the world doe right How deepely may we thinke would that good man have detested one single thought that God resolveth upon the destruction of many innocent soules eternally in hell fire Here this Authour carrieth himselfe like another Ptolomeus Ceraunus or as if he had some cheife place in the lightning legion not by his prayers but by his discourse he seemes to thunder and to lighten all along When the Lord appeared to Elias he was neither in the mighty wind nor in the earthquake nor in the fire but in the still and soft voyce I hope to prove all this to be but Ignis fatuus Mountebancks use to make great ostentation and crackes but commonly they end in meere impostures and it is no hing strange when men opposing the grace of God loose their owne witts and please themselves in the confusion of their owne senses For when men are in love with their owne errours they hate the light yea the very light of nature in the distinct notice of it would be an offence unto them Can this Authour be ignorant of that which every meane Sophister knowes that there be foure kinds of causes Materiall Formall Efficient Finall that he should expatiate thus in speaking of a cause without all distinction Is it strange that God should be a prime cause and principall in execution of vengeance Doth he not professe saying vengeance is mine and I will repay Is he not called the God to whom vengeance belongeth And are not his magistrates his Ministers to execute vengeance temporall here in this world And can any sober man dout whether God be invincible whom the Apostle pronounceth to be irresistable Againe an efficient cause admits farther distinction for it is either Physicall or Morall Physicall is that which really workes or executes any thing as every tradesman hath his worke which his hands doe make so God hath his worke which he executes and his worke is judgment as well as mercy I am the Lord which shew mercy and judgment and righteousnesse for in these things I delight saith the Lord and he would have us when we doe glory glory in this that we doe understand and know him to
pag. 710. Cùm de praedestinatione sermo habetur inde exordiendum esse constantèr semper docui atquè hodiè doceo jure in more relinqui omnes reprobos qui in Adam mortui sunt atquè damnati As for Beza I know full well he maintained that man not created is the object of Predestination but can this Author represent unto us any place out of Beza wherein he should affirme that God doth decree to damne any man but for sin or that damnation is the end that God intends in the decree of Predestination to death In his Questions and Answers he professeth the contrary pag. 111. Postremò non dixi exitium istorum he speaks of Reprobates esse finem deo decernenti propositum sed gloriam ipsius Nequè etiam simpliciter dixi istos esse exitio destinatos sed justo exitio destinatos dixi And in his Book De aeternâ Dei Praedestinatione contrà Sebastian Castell ad argument Castell 2. pag. 346. Quamobrem etiam illud quoquè probavimus nos ita loqui non solere quanquam à Deo simpliciter conditum dicamus ad perditionem sed idcircò ut ipsius justa condemnatione Dominus justitiam suam patefaciat As for Zanchy Peter Baro that caused such perturbation in Cambridge about this very argument he denyes this to have been the opinion of Zanchy In summa trium de Praedestinatione sententiarum his words are these Altera sententia est Augustini posterior etiam Sohnii Heydelbergensis Theologiae Professoris aliorum quorundam Protestantium ut Zanchii atquè etiam Bellarmini qui omnes priorem illam improbant in hoc inter se consentientes ut sit praedestinatio ab Adami tantum lapsu accipienda And as touching Piscator he handles the question about the object of Predestination in a small Treatise annexed to an answer of his to Hemingius De Universali Gratiâ and inquires whether the obiect thereof be Humanum genus nondum conditum or conditum but nondum corruptum or both conditum and corruptum and his resolution is that in the decree of Predestination there is place for all these considerations according to three severall acts comprised therein which I have formerly mentioned and so drawes into one all three opinious As touching Gomarus in the last place I have seen little or nothing of his but when Lubbertus in his Book Ad 99 Errores Conradi Vorstii pag. 807. had professed Massam consideratam esse a Deo non ut integram sed ut corruptam and was charged by Vostius as delivering that which was contrary to the doctrine of Calvin Beza and Gomarus he replies that herein he doth not contradict them but saith he Illorum dict a quae quibusdam asperiuscula videntur lenio in commodissimum sensum interpretor But be it so that all of them made Humanum genus not corruptum no nor integrum but nondum conditum the object of reprobation I am of their mind that doe so and was not D r Whitaker also whom very wisely this Author conceales This renowned Professor in the University of Cambridge in a Publique exercise his Concio ad Clerum professeth what Paul speaks De luto sigulo non posse melius exponi quà m de Massâ incorruptâ and that Bucer understands it thus Bucerus per Massam intelligit primam humani ganeris originem ex quá homo conditus à Deo fabricatus est And he disputes at large that there is no cause of reprobation and that neither sin actuall nor sin originall is the cause thereof and professeth this to be the Opinion of the Church of England And though now a daies we be upbraided as if we had learned it of Papists and Schoole Divines this great light of Cambridge spares not to make honourable mention of Schoolemens sollid discourse on this point saying Hanc sententiam Scholastici si ullam egregiè solideque pertractarum praeserùm qui insigniores sanioresque habiti sunt Lombardus ait ut praedestinationis nulla merita sunt ità nec reprobationis Now the doctrine which he saith the Schoolemen handle so solidly as none more is the very doctrine which this Author seems here to impugne as when he saith some make the will of God without any consideration of sin in men originall or actuall to be the cause of their eternall Rejection for D r Whitaker expresseth it thus His igitur isto modo explicatis sequitur tertiam opinionem solummodò necessario veram esse aequè reprobationis ac praedestinationis causam esse dei voluntatem quandoquidem providentiae divinae munus est omnia ad fines istos certa ratione certisque mediis ordinare Only as touching the end here mentioned That so he might shew his absolute and unlimited power and dominion over them in appointing to heaven or hell whom he pleaseth that I find not in D r Whitaker He saith plainly that God predestinated unto death whom he would and because he would Deus igitur ad mortem praedestinavit quos voluit quia voluit which phrase I willingly confesse I like not so well but that the end thereof is to manifest his absolute and unlimited dominion and power he saith not and Beza in the places before mentioned referres it to the manifestation of Gods justice as the end thereof And like as he saith certissimum est damnationem nunquam nisi propter Peccatum infligi so I should think it nothing lesse certain that God doth not ordaine any man to be damned but for sin especially cosidering that damnation in the notion thereof hath an essential reference to sin Now since I have found such a Champion as D r Whitaker for the maintenance of this Tenent have I cause to feare the sharp censures of any professors in the Country Were he alive I presume he would be nothing skarred with the imputation of making God the Prime and Principall cause of mens everlasting ruine he would I think require a little more learning in the Criminator then to expresse himselfe so crudely For without all question God is the prime and principall cause nay the sole cause of mans everlasting ruine in genere causae efficient is though this excludes not a meritorious cause of his own damnation on the creatures part as D r Whitaker professeth in the words formerly alleadging acknowledged Damnationem infligi propter Peccatum And farther I am apt to conceive and have undertaken to justify and that to the view of the World that albeit mankind not created be the only object of predestination and reprobation yet no mans reprobation is made by God citra considerationem Peccati in as much as I hold that the decrees of creation permission of sin and of finall perseverance therein and lastly of damnation for sin are not decrees subordinate but coordinate and simultaneous as being decrees concerning means tending to the same end which is the manifestation of Gods glory in the way of vindicative justice
so Gods grace preserved him from such excesse but that the Ministers Tiberius set about them did more provoke them by exasperating courses then God did in like manner provoke Ionah it doth not appeare but had Ionah hereupon broken forth into blasphemies had Ionah's sinne been excusable or Gods course blameable Revel 16. 21. we read of a great hayle that fell upon the men like Talents out of heaven and men blaspheamed God because of the plague of the hayle for the plague thereof was exceeding great And Isai 8. 21. The Lord prophecyeth that He that is afflicted and famished shall goe to and fro and when he shall be hungry he shall even fret himselfe and curse his King and his Gods and look upward such plagues are the work of God for there is no evill in the citty but the Lord hath done it Amos 3. But let them look unto it that thereupon take occasion to blaspheme And Tentatio probationis was never yet that I know denyed unto God to try whether they will blaspheme God or no. To this end Satan desired to have an hand on Job yet not so much to try whether he would blaspheme or no but being confident he should bring him to blaspheme Job 1. 11. stretch out now thine hand and touch all that he hath and he will curse thee to thy face The Lord gave him leave and Job acknowledgeth the Lords hand in all that Satan did saying The Lord gave and the Lord takes away yet in all this Job sinned not nor charged God foolishly Satan desires yet farther liberty saying skin for skin yea all that a man hath will he give for his life But put forth thy hand now and touch his bone and his flesh and he will curse thee to thy face And the Lord said unto Satan Behold he is in thy hand but save his life So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord and smote Job with sore boyles from the sole of his foot unto his crowne and he took him a potshard to scrape himselfe withall and he sate down among the ashes Then said his Wife unto him Doest thou yet continue in thy integrity Curse God and dye She manifested the inward corruption of her irreligious heart Job might have brought her to a forme of godlines by his pious courses in his family but litle power of godlinesse doth appeare upon her For as Solomon saith If thou faint in the day of adversity thy strength is small It seems her heart was sowred with Atheisme thinking the world was governed by chance rather then by divine providence and consequently it was all one whether a man did blesse God or curse God and a madnesse to make a conscience of walking in integrity and that in Iobs case at this time whether he did blesse God he must dye or whether he did curse God he could but dye and better it was for him thus impoverished thus afflicted to dye then to live as for the powers of the world to come it seems she never had but a tast of them and that tast never produced any true faith in her concerning them Here was a sore temptation the very gates of hell playing upon him with their greatest Ordinance to batter if it were possible his shield of faith But what is Iobs answer Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh What shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evill In all this did not Iob sin with his lips The worke of Satan in the impoverishing of Iobs estate and afflicting his person cannot be denied to be Gods work As for the work of his wife why might not that be the work of God as well as the work of Satan For did not Satan sin in all this As our Saviour saith that he was a murtherer from the beginning and as S t Peter saith The devill goes about like a roring Lyon seeking whom he may devoure so who can make doubt but these courses practised against Iob were fruits of his murthering and devouring disposition And all sides now a daies confesse that the act of the most flagitious sin committed by man or Angell is the work of God in the way of a principall efficient cause as well as it is the work of the creature And as for the sinfulnesse of the act either of the Devill or his Wife that was not it which did or could hurt Iob but the works wrought by Satan the temptation atheisticall proposed by his Wife this was the greatest danger in the consideration thereof to corrupt his soule for that is it alone that workes upon the will to incline it And as for their sinning herein that proceeded from the want of Gods feare according to that of Abraham Genes 20. 10. I said surely the feare of God is not in this place therefore they will slay me for my Wives sake And albeit God engageth himselfe towards some for the putting of his feare in their hearts that they shall never depart away from him Ierim 36. 40. yet he hath not engaged himselfe thus farre towards all For the Apostle plainly professeth that He hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardneth Rom. 9. 18. and hardning we know is denying the feare of God either as touching the habituall infusion thereof or as touching the actuall excitation thereof after it is infused Yet I deny not but obduration and excaecation are sometimes promiscuously used the one for the other because of the strict conjunction that is betwixt them And as touching the particular act of Convitiation Austin spares not to professe that even when it is committed by man it is brought forth by God out of his secret providence lib. 9. Confess cap. 8. Quid egisti Deus meus unde curasti unde sanasti nonne protulisti durum acutum ex alterâ animâ convitium tanquam medicinale ferrum ex occultis provisionibus tuis uno ictu putredinem illam praecidisti And whereas Bellarmine endeavoureth to blast the evidence of this place giving testimony unto Gods secret providence in evill I have endeavoured to shew the vanity of his discourse in my Vind. Grat. Dei lib. 2. Crim. 3. digress 2. cap. 13. And in what congruity can it be said that God bid Shimei to curse David but that in the same analogy of faith it may be said that God bid Iobes Wife in this manner to tempt him And which of the two was the greatest provocation Tiberius his Ministers Provocation of Drusus and Nero or Shimei's provocation of David rayling on him to his face the Subject blaspheaming his Prince undoubtedly the provocation was nothing inferior only here was the difference Tiberius gave such commandment to his Ministers so to provoke Drusus and Nero God gave no such commandement in proper speech unto Shimei but rather commanded the contrary in his law Thou shalt not speak evill of the ruler of thy people But Gods secret providence whereby he
makes use of all his creatures in what condition soever he finds them even of Devills and wicked men to serve his turne by them either in the way of judgement or in the way of mercy and sometimes for triall of the faith and patience of his children is in Scripture phrase called Gods bidding or commanding And indeed it is farre more effectuall then his commandment And Austin by pregnant passages of holy Scripture convicted of this truth spareth not to professe as much in these words His talibus testimoniis divinorum eloquiorum quae omnia commemorare nimis longum est satis quantum existimo manifestatur operari Deum in cordibus hominum ad inclinandas eorum voluntates quocunquè voluerit sive ad bona pro suâ misericordiâ sive ad mala pro meritis eorum judicio utique suo aliquando aperto aliquando occulto semper autem justo De Grat. lib. Arbitr cap. 21. And touching this particular case of Shimei inquiring about the interpretation of it see I pray how he resolves concerning it Quomodo dixerit dominus huic homini maledicere David Quis sapiens intelliget Non enim jubendo dixit ubi obedientia laudaretur sed quod ejus voluntatem proprio vitio suo malam in hoc peccatum judicio suo justo occulto inclinavit Ideò dictum est dixit ei dominus Nam si jubenti obtemper asset Deo laudandus potius quam puniendus esset sicut ex hoc peccato posteà novimus esse punitum And he proceeds farther to shew the reason of this divine providence Nec causa tacita est cur ei Deus justo modo dixerit maledicere David hoc est Cor ejus malum in hoc peccatum miserit vel dimiserit ut videat inquit dominus humilitatem meam retribuat mihi bona pro maledictio ejus in die isto And hereupon concludes Ecce quomodo probatur Deum uti cordibus etiam malorum ad laudem atque adjumentum bonorum Sic usus est Iuda tradente Christum Sic usus est Iudaeis crucifigentibus Christum quanta inde bona praestitit populis credituris Qui ipso utitur diabolo pessimo sed optimè ad excercendam probandam fidem pietatem bonorum non sibi quia omnia scit antequam fiant sed nobis quibus erat necessarium ut eo modo ageretur nobiscum But let us proceed to provocations unto other sins not in the way of exasperation but in the way of allurements Achan was a covetous person at the sacking of Jericho it was his hap to light among the spoyle upon a goodly Babylonish garment and two hundred shekells of silver and a wedge of gold of fifty shekells waight Was not so faire a prey a sore temptation to a covetous person How was Demosthenes taken with a rich bowle that was shewed him by Harpalus but there was great danger in it I confesse yet if desire of prey doth sometimes overrun the sent may it not as well overcome the feare of danger especially considering the opportunity of secrecy to convey it closely into his Tent and hide it there I saw saith he and I coveted them and took them and behold they lye hid in the earth in the midst of my Tent and the silver under it Now can it be denied but that God by his providence brought him into this temptation and consequently into this provocation for to tempt is to provoke 1 Chron. 21. 1. And is it not just with God to bring any man into such temptations of what kind or in what degree soever seeing no temptation or provocation in this kind or degree bereaves a man of the liberty of his will If not what meant our Saviour to teach his Disciples and in them us to pray unto God that He will not lead us into temptation And what cause hath Achan to complaine of this temptation We do not read he did was it not the condition of many others as well as himselfe Was this prey that he ceazed on the only spoyle of that great Citty Were there no Babylonish garments but that one no more silver or wedges of gold but that Achan lighted on Yet they refrained some out of the feare of God that restrained them in a gracious manner and kept them from sinning against him others though not out out of a feare of God yet out of the feare of punishment were moved to beware how they transgressed For albeit Libertas sine gratia non est libertas sed contumacia as * Austin writes yet feare of punishment oftimes restraines from committing capitall crimes though this restraint be not gracious and considerations of lesse force then these doe prevaile many times with carnall men both to abstain from evill and to doe that which is good though not in a gracious manner As we read in the Gospell of a wicked Judge that neither feared God nor reverenced man yet he would doe the Widdow justice to ease himselfe of her importunate sollicitations where with she molested him Come we to provocations unto sinne of another nature in satisfying the concupiscence of the flesh David arising out of his bed at eventide and walking upon the roof of the Kings Pallace from the roofe he saw a Woman washing her selfe and the Woman was very beautifull to look upon we know what followed hereupon Now was it not God that lead him into this temptation into this provocation Surely if this were not just with God it were in vaine for us to pray that God will not lead us into temptation for we need not feare any such temptation which cannot befall us without violation of Gods justice in the course of his providence Paul the Apostle least he should be exalted out of measure through the abundance of revelations made unto him which were very dangerous to puff a man up and make him swell in the conceit of his own worthinesse being admitted into the secrets of God was sometimes exercised with a thorne in the flesh the messenger of Satan sent to buffet him But the feare of God was alive in him and stirred up his faith to pray unto God three times that it might depart from him and the Lord made him a gracious answer not as yet to deliver him but to support him in this conflict and give him the victory over it For the Lord said unto him my grace is sufficient for thee for my power is made perfect in thy weaknesse This answer put heart into Paul Therefore saith he will I very gladly rejoyce rather in mine infirmities that the power of Christ may dwell in me Mark I pray Rahter in mine infirmities He would not blame God for thus exercising him but rather rejoyce to be thus exercised for as much as this same should doe him no harme for by vertue of Christs power dwelling in him he should have the victory Secondly it should doe him good in preserving him from being exalted
naturall and carnall men and therein they doe abstaine from the committing of it freely And yet we say that even in abstaining from these acts they doe not abstaine from sinne for as much as they doe not abstaine from them in a gracious manner and all by reason of that originall corruption which remaines uncured in them untill such time as God who hath mercy on whom he will is pleased to cure it by the grace of regeneration 3. But because I imagine this Author le ts fly at randome and keeps not himselfe to the precise genius of the Tenent by him impugned but rather aimeth at our doctrine concerning providence divine and the decree of God according whereunto we willing professe with Austin that Non aliquid fit nisi Omnipotens fieri velit Enchir. 95. Therefore I answere in the third Place That the necessity following upon this will of God is nothing prejudiciall to the liberty or contingency of second agents in their severall operations Although I am not ignorant that now a daies it is the common and glorious course of our Adversaries very confidently to presume and presuppose that upon the will of God passing upon the action of the creature there followeth a necessity standing in flat opposition to the liberty of rationall agents and no marvail for sic factitavit Hercules Arminius the great Champion of their cause his learning served him to doe so before them As if the contumelious usages of our Saviour by Herod and Pontius Pilate together with the Gentiles and people of Israel were not performed freely but by meer necessity opposite to liberty For it cannot be denied but that all these were gathered together against the holy sonne of God to doe what Gods hand and Gods counsel had predestinated to be done Acts 4. 28. And in like sort they that through disobedience stumbled at the word of God did not freely disobey the Word because Peter professeth of them in expresse termes that Hereunto they were ordained And after the same manner it is to be conceived of the Kings that gave their Kingdomes to the Beast namely that they did it not freely in as much as the Holy Ghost saith that God put into their hearts to fulfill his will and to consent and give their Kingdome to the Beast Yet the Church of Ireland in their Articles set forth by as good Authority as the Articles of the Church of England Art 11. having professed that God from all eternity did by his unchangeable counsel ordaine whatsoever in time should come to passe to prevent such like objections as this Author fashioneth forthwith adde Yet so as thereby no violence is offered to the willes of reasonable creatures and neither the liberty nor the contingency of second causes is taken away but established rather And Austin in his Book De Grat. Liber Arbitr where he speaks as freely of Gods effectuall Providence working in evill as no where more in so much as our Adversaries take great exceptions against his speeches such as formerly delivered and that in expresse termes His main drift notwithstanding and scope in that Book is to prove that notwithstanding the divine operation in working the motion of the creature as he thinks good yet is the creature never a whit the lesse free in its own operation And indeed where grace is wanting there is too much will rather then too little unto that which is evill according to that he writes also elsewhere Libertas sine gratia non est libertas sed contumacia And if Gods operation prejudiceth not the liberty of the creature much lesse the will of God For though not any thing comes to passe unlesse God willeth it whether it be good or evill yet with this difference as Austin in the same place professeth He will have that which is good come to passe by the effecting of it but evill only by his permitting of it Non aliquid fit nisi Omnipotens fieri velit vel sinendo ut fiat vel ipse faciendo But though Austin and the Church of Ireland yea and the Word of God teacheth this yet the Tragaedian as this Author saith could see the contrary that is perceive the evidence of the contrary which none of these saw And is not this a pretty Comaedy that a Tragaedian and Zeno's servant must be brought in and that in a confidentiary supposition to out face not Divines only both antient and late but the very word of God For it is as clear forsooth that what comes to passe by the will of God and by the effectuall operation of God doth not come to passe freely and consequently that the doctrine which maintaines that evill comes to passe by the will of God as the crucifying of Christ by the predestination of God or by the operation of God as the Rent of the ten Tribes from the two and the hardning of Pharaoh's heart so as not to let Israel goe God professeth to be his work takes away all conscience of sinne All this I say is as cleare if we believe this Author as that Seneca's Tragaedies are the Oracles of God And I pray consider must it not take away as well all conscience of righteousnesse whether of faith or of repentance or of obedience unlesse we deny faith to be the gift of God repentance to be the gift of God unles we deny that God is he Who makes us perfect to every good work working in us that which is pleasing in his sight that God is he that putteth his own spirit in us and causeth us to walke in his statutes and to keep his judgements and doe them Yet what doth Seneca speak of the divine will or divine operation Did the Tragaedian under the terme of Fate denote the divine decree or the divine administration of things which is plentifully revealed to us in the word of God Austin I am sure thought otherwise in more places then one in Psalm 31. on these words Pronunciabo adversum me He blames those who when they are found in their sinnes say Fatum mihi fecit stellae meae fecêrunt But saith he Quid est fatum Quae sunt stellae certè istae quas in Coelo conspicimus Qui eas fecit Deus Quis eas ordinavit Deus ergo vides quod voluisti dicere Deus fecit ut peccarem Then he tells of others who said that Mars facit Homicidam Venus Adulterum So that Fatum with them were second causes which we all know in their operations doe both work by necessity of nature and have no power to maintain the free will of man and in Psalm 91. Quaeris ab illo quid sit Fatum dicit stellae malae Quaeris ab illo quis fecit stellas quis ordinavit stellas non habet quid tibi respondeat nisi Deus It 's true indeed the Pelagians did object the Stoicall Fate unto Austin as if his doctrine favoured of it and what doth he answer thereunto Nec
shewed because both are eternall and the act of Gods will which is God himselfe and withall to devise a cause hereof is to cast our selves upon an unavoydable absurdity as namely to say That God did ordaine that upon the foresight of this or that in men he would ordaine some of them to solvation and others unto damnation And indeed the harshnesse of the Tenent consists chiefly in confounding these different considerations whereby a colour is cast as if we maintained that God did decree to damne men of his meere pleasure and not for sin 2. As touching the second which is this That the finall impenitency and damnation of reprobates are necessary and unavoydable by Gods absolute decree Here as it were to make weight impenitency and damnation are clapt together as unavoydable by Gods absolute decree whereas it is without all question that supposing impenitency to be finall damnation is unavoydable by the Law of God as who hath ordained that whosoever dies in impenitency shall be damned And as for impenitency doth this Author or any Arminian deny it to be a fruit of that originall corruption wherein all are borne I perswade my selfe they doe not Corvinus professeth of all That by the sinne of Adam they are conjecti in necessitatem peccandi Then againe doth he maintaine that any is able to cure this but God It seems he doth not by that which followeth where he signifieth that God in his opinion did not absolutely intend to leave men to that woefull estate wherein they were borne What then Will he have God bound to cure it in all If so then certainly he doth cure it in all For it were impossible God should not doe that whereunto he is obliged in the way of justice But nothing more manifest then that God doth not cure it in all therefore certainly he is not bound to cure it in all But I imagine he conceives that God is ready to cure it in all and it is mans fault that he doth not cure it in any As much as to say if man would doe somewhat which he may doe then God would give him repentance Here is good stuffe towards and undoubtedly this is the criticall point as touching the nature of efficacious grace Yet this I know full well how carefull the greatest Rabbies amongst the Arminians are to decline And will it not manifestly follow herehence that the grace of repentance is given secundum merita according to some good work of man that went before Which was condemned in the Synode of Palestine above 1200 years agoe Nay what will you say if their doctrine hereabouts in the issue thereof comes to this namely that God doth work in man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Velle credere modo Velit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Velle resipiscere modò Velit as I can shew it under the hand of one and I have cause to suspect that it comes also from another manner of hand then his with whom I have had to deale with And in this case it shall not be true that God shews mercy on whom he will in giving faith and repentance but rather he shall shew mercy on whom man will And like as when a question is made why such a man is rewarded by the Magistrate no wise man will answer because it is the pleasure of the Magistrate so to reward him but rather represent the cause on mans part why he was reward so if God shews mercy in giving repentance according to some preparation found in one man rather then in another it shall not be said that God hath mercy on whom he will but rather the reason on mans part is to be represented why God doth give him repentance Yet these Petitions he calls maxima gravamina on the part of Reprobation And will he not give us leave to propose in proportion hereunto our maxima gravamina as touching their opinion in point of election namely 1. That it is not the meer pleasure of God but the faith and repentance of a man foreseen that is the moving cause of divine election 2. And that every man hath power to believe and repent and no man hath more cause to be thankfull unto God for giving him any more grace to believe and repent in the way of grace preventing then he gives to reprobates I speak of reprobate men but for ought I yet know to the contrary I may as well deliver it of the reprobate Angells And as touching that which they call grace subsequent which is only Gods concurrence seeing God affords that to any sinfull act they may thank themselves rather then God for that like as for Gods concurrence unto any act of sinne These doctrines are no gravamina to the tender consciences of our Adversaries The doctrine opposite to this which here he dislikes must needs be this God hath not absolutely purposed from eternity of his meer will and pleasure but upon consideration of actuall continuance in sinne and unbeliefe to cast off men from grace and glory Now this actuall continuance in unbeliefe I presume must be finall and upon the consideration hereof God casts them off from grace but I pray from what grace surely from the grace of faith otherwise it stands not in any contradiction to our Tenent So that their doctrine in the issue comes to this Whom God foresees that they will not believe unto death he decrees that they shall not believe unto death and applied unto repentance thus Whom God foresees that they will not repent unto death he decreeth that they shall not repent unto death This is the sober and savoury doctrine of these impugners of the grace of God and yet they perceive not what a spirit of giddinesse possesseth them in this It is without question I think that God leaves many in that woefull estate which here is called corruption of nature no more without any specification wherein it consists the guilt whereof is eternall death and seeing that if he so leaves them it cannot be denied but that God intended so to leave them All the question is Whether God did absolutely intend to leave them Now had this Author as he professeth his dislike of Gods absolue intention hereof so dealt clearly and shewed how he did intend so to leave some as namely upon what condition or upon foresight whereof and withall given some proofe of his assertion his ingenuity had been commendable Yet we say that God did not at all intend to leave men in this state For the terme men in this place being indefinite it is capable of truth either way And this Author defines not whether he speaks of some or of all We willingly grant he doth not leave his elect in that woefull state but brings them out of it by faith and repentance which are expressely called the gifts of God in holy Scripture But as for Reprobates I doe not find he gives either faith or repentance unto them And Austin lib. 5. contra Julian
fides à naturâ sit In my poor judgement the Fathers as many as stated predestination according to the prescience of mens works had no other meaning but this that God did predestinate no man to eternall life but such as coming to ripe years should believe in Christ and repent no man unto eternall death but such as should finally persevere in infidelity and impenitency so making works foreseen the cause of salvation but not of Gods decree And Aquinas was bold to professe that Nemo fuit it a insanae mentis qui diceret merita esse causam praedestinationis divinae quoad actum praedestinantis And 't is a good rule that Gerson gives that holy mens Writings are not to be urged precisely according to the letter De Vitâ Spirituali animae Sect. 1. co 11. Notet his quód Doctores etiam sancti sunt magis reverenter glossandi in multis quà m ampliandi quoniam non omnes semper adverterunt aut advertere cogitaverunt ad proprietatem locutionis Improprietas autem non ampliari debet sed ad proprietatem reduci alioquin quid mirum si augetur deceptio 5. We know what answer Austin himselfe makes unto this De Praedestin Sanct. cap. 14. Quid igitur opus est ut eorum scrutemur opuscula qui priusquam ista Haeresis oriretur non habuerunt necessitatem in hac difficili ad solvendum quaestione versari quod proculdubio facerent si respondere talibus cogerentur 6. As before I shewed Fulgentius himselfe maintaines predestination to be secundum praescientiam yet Vossius acknowledgeth him as well as Austin to have maintained the absolutenesse of predestination 7. Lastly this passage concerneth predestination alone as it signifies the divine decree of conferring glory but who ever was known to maintaine the divine decree of conferring grace to have been secundum praescientiam according to foresight of any work in man For this is plainly to maintain that grace is given according unto works which in the Ancients phraise is all one as to acknowledge that grace is given according unto merits which is direct Pelagianisme and condemned 1200 years agoe in the Synod of Palestine As for that of Minutius Foelix We deny that God doth sortem in hominibus punire non voluntatem We doe not say Genitura plectitur we say that in every one who is punished by God ingenii natura punitur Wee confesse that Fatum illud est quod de unoquoque Deus fatus est and that pro meritis singulorum qualitatibus etiam fata determinat Yet the holy Ghost professeth in the mouthes of all his Apostles that both Herod and Pontius Pilate together with the Gentiles and People of Israel were gathered together against the holy sonne of God to doe that which Gods hand and Gods councell predetermined to be done and yet this predetermination divine I should think was nothing prejudiciall to the liberty of their wills As for Hierome this Author saith that he was an eager opposer of the Pelagians but no where doth it appeare that the point of predestination comes in question between them These very passages out of Hierome are proposed by Grotius in his Pietas Ordinum Hollandiae and answered by Gratianus Civilis punctually and long before by Bellarmine Lib. 2. de Grat. lib. arb cap. 14. I answer what is this any other but that which the Fathers many of them have professed in saying that predestination is secundum praescientiam And doth not Fulgentius affirm the same Yet is he acknowledged by Vossius a maintainer of the absolutenesse of predestination as well as Austin Did Hierome deny faith to be the gift of God or granting it to be the gift of God did he maintaine that God gave it according unto works If not but according to the meer pleasure of his will having mercy on some while he hardned others the case is cleare that he maintained absolute election unto faith As for Gods decree of salvation and damnation we willingly professe that God decreed to save no man but upon his finall perseverance in faith and piety to damne none but such as finally persevere in infidelity and impenitency Now compare we these decrees together the decree of giving faith and the decree of saving which of these are most likely to be the foremost it is apparent that salvation is more likely to be the end in respect of faith and faith the means in respect of salvation then the contrary And the generall and most received rule of Schooles is that the intention of the end is before the intention of the means I think the glory of God in the way of mercy mixed with justice is the end of both and that the decrees of giving faith and salvation are simultaneous as decrees of means tending to the same end and so neither before the other But Hierome saith that ex Praescientia futurorum nascitur dilectio vel odium I confesse he doth in a disjunctive manner thus vel ex praescientia vel ex operibus And we know that passions such as Love and Hatred are commonly said to be attributed to God not quoad affectum but quoad effectum and so they may fairely stand for salvation and damnation which proceed ex operibus in Hieroms phraise But admit he means hereby decretum salvandi which rising expraescientia fidei must presuppose the decree of giving faith to precede I answer then there is to be acknowledged an impropriety of speech and here is place for Gersons rule Sancti non semper adverterunt ad proprietatem locutionis And the rather because Hierome we never find exercised in this Controversy And it is against common reason that faith should be intended before salvation And lastly this were to impute unto him to acknowledge 2 motive cause of Predestination quoad actum praedestinantis which Aquinas professeth against as a thing impossible namely that there should be a cause of Gods will quoad actum volentis Nay he is bold to say that No man was so mad to say that merits are the cause of Predestination quoad actum praedestinantis The last part of this Authors performance in the poynt of Antiquity is the Councell of Arles subscribing as he saith the letter which was written by Faustus against Lucidus the Predestinarian for so he styles him and in his Epistle he insists upon two Anathema's the one this Anathema illi qui dixerit illum qui periit non accepisse ut salvus esse possit The other this Anathema illi qui dixerit quod vas contumcliae non possit affurgere ut sit vas in honorem First I will answer as touching the Anathema's themselves then as touching the credit and authority of this story 1. As touching the Anathema's The first proceeds as well of him that is baptized and afterwards perisheth as of him that is a Pagan and never was baptized and perisheth in his Paganisme as the Anathema it selfe witnesseth if it be repeated at
at first fight and much more by the distinction following of Gratia sufficiens efficax which he so well perceived that he is content to clap it upon Austins back to beare the burthen of it and puts it but upon adventure that it may prove to be the Scripture meaning And in like sort when pag. 98. having proposed two things to be necessarily unfolded by him Primò de Gratiâ sufficiente efficaci Secundo de utriusque dispensatione dispensationisque Causis He leaves off there giving it over in plain ground What doth this argue but that he manifestly perceived he was not able in any tollerable manner to shape this distinction in congruity to his own Tenent Let this Author well consider this that talkes so much of our Divines unwillingnesse to come to tryall in the poynt of reprobation When Arminius durst not adventure upon the explicating of his own opinion touching the distinction of grace sufficient and effectuall and in giving us the definition of each The like to have been the course of other Arminians I have known declining the point of effectuall grace as a precipice and breakneck unto them And when others have been put upon it they have placed it in the grace subsequent and have not been ashamed to make it consist in this that God by effectuall grace doth work in man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Velle credere modo velit and why not as well that he workes in man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Credere modo Credat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Resipiscere modo Resipiscat This that I speake I can shew under the hand of one of them a great stickler for the Arminian Cause great I say in respect of affection not of judgement And I have cause to conceive that both this Authors Discourse and that others I have had to deale withall is but as a smoake that for a great part if not for the most of it comes out of the same Chimney 4. Let the argument stand as it doth let infidelity by Gods permission follow upon the decree of damnation and that necessarily Yet consider 1. Gods permitting of it is no other then the leaving of it uncured not that hereby infidelity followeth which was not before but being in all before as the fruit of that naturall corruption wherein all were borne as all confesse as many as concurre against the Pelagians in acknowledging Originall sinne By Gods permission of it it continueth to be uncured What actuall sinne is there in the World or habituall sinne arising thereupon which God cannot cure if it please him If then he will not cure it in some shall it not be lawfull for him to punish it where he findes the continuance of it unto the end without breaking off by repentance 2. Suppose all men had power to doe any good thing if God will not give them Velle quod possunt as Austin saith he dealt with Adam in his innocency and gave the Angels that stood amplius Adjutorium then he gave the others whereby it came to passe that they stood in obedience when the other fell what shall wee say in this case is it possible that they should Velle bonum if God will not work it in them of whom the Apostle professeth that he works in us both the Will and the Deed Or shall wee hereupon say they doe not sinne freely What shift have they to avoyd this but either by contradicting the Apostle and saying God doth not work in us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Velle or by saying that God doth work in us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Velle modò Velimus as plain a contradiction as ever proceeded from the mouth of any The selfe same act being made before and after it self for the condition is allwaies before the thing conditioned And is this to work in us the Will according to Gods pleasure or according to mans good pleasure What is it to say that grace is given according unto works if this be not 3. We deny that any evill act therefore comes not to passe freely because it comes to passe necessarily upon supposition of Gods denyall of grace to refraine from it For like as good works are not therefore not wrought freely by us because God by his grace workes us to the performance of them For who dares deny that it is in Gods power to make us work this or that freely in like sort and much more evill works are not done the lesse freely because God denies speciall and effectuall grace to abstain from them For want of grace doth not take away willingnesse unto that which is evill but leaves too much rather in man of that kind As Austin saith that Libertas sine gratiâ non est libertas sed contumacia Now where there is contumacy there is rather too much will then too little For Contumacy is Wilfulnesse 4. The Schooles teach that liberty of will consists only in electione mediorum in the election of means to certain ends Now when the Gospel is preached to a carnall man whose ends are only carnall as the Apostle saith Philip. 3. 20. They mind earthly things so farre forth as he shall find it serviceable to his carnall ends he may believe it and make profession of it as many times Hypocrites doe and sometimes in such sort as it is hard to distinguish between a true and an Hypocriticall professour This moved the Apostle to exhort the Corinthians famous for their faith to examine themselves and prove themselves Whether they were in the faith that is in faith unfaigned For there is not only a grosse Hypocrisy whereunto a mans own heart is privy but a secret Hypocrisy whereof the man himselfe is nothing conscious yet such a faith undoubtedly is performable by a naturall man Now when a man rejects the Gospell the faith and profession whereof he finds nothing serviceable to his carnall ends doth he not judiciously and deliberately yea and wisely too according to the wisdome of flesh and bloud reject it 5. Austin professeth Lib. 1. De Gen. contr Manich. cap. 3. That all men may believe if they will and justifies it in his Retractations But if the will of man be corrupt and averse from believing We justly say such a man cannot believe as our Saviour saith How can you believe that receive honour one of another and seeke not the honour that cometh of God alone Joh. 5. 44. yet this is an impotency Morall only which is to be distinguished from impotency Naturall For notwithstanding this it may be truely said that All men may believe if they will and herein consists the naturall liberty of the will The Morall liberty consists rather in a sanctified inclination unto that which is good whereby it is freed from the power of sinne and Sathan then in a power to doe good if they will and not otherwise But I never find that Arminians doe distinguish these 6. It is not sufficient for Arminians to conclude that such a
both Utenbogard on the one side and Festus Hommius on the other side to consider of a course how these stirres might be pacified To which motion Festus Hommius makes answer that in case the Remonstrants differed from the Churches only in five Articles he could think of a course whereby some peace might be made in the interim untill a Nationall Synod were gathered This is the more observeable because this Author layeth all the cause of those uproares as he calls them upon Reprobation But he professeth they had great cause to suspect the Remonstrants differed from them in greater points of moment And these are afterwards declared to be these Fol. 14. pag. 1. De perfectâ Christi pro peccatis Satisfactione de Justificatione hominis corà m Deo de Fide Salvificâ de Peccato Originali de Certitudine salutis de Perfectione hominis in hâc vitâ And whereas they desired the Remonstrants would deale clearly and make known what their opinion was in those poynts Utenbogard having laboured to have a hearing before the States alone There traduceth the actions of his Brethren in demanding the Declaration of their minds hereupon as if this were to bring in a new kind of Inquisition amongst them not to be endured And hereupon obtaines of the States that no such Declaration should be required at their hands And more then that finding the Deputies of the Synode by their continuall sollicitations with the States as it well became them in their places to be most prejudiciall to their proceedings they brought it so to passe that like as formerly their Annuall Synods were hindered so now it was forbidden to the Deputies themselves thenceforth to take any such stile unto them or performe any such office as whereabout they were then imployed And so the Relator proceeds in setting downe their insolent courses untill at length perceiving that by the mediation of the King of Great Brittaine all for the most part inclined to the convocation of a Nationall Synod they fell plainly on upon these desperate Counsells openly professing that the calling of a Nationall Councell would prove prejudiciall to the Majesty and Liberty of the Provinces manifesting themselves hereby utterly averse from such a course which yet hath been most in use in the Church of God and that of ancient times for the pacifying of contentions arising in matter of Religion I professe I nothing affect to spend time in such searches and relations I had rather imploy it another way but you see I am driven unto it to represent the unshamefased condition of this Narration 4. And whereas he saith It was accused with open mouth and challenged of falshood it is apparent that the Remonstrants would very well have rested contented with a mutuall toleration of one another in their severall waies For when Utenbogard and Festus Hommius were to meet together and treat upon some faire course of composition Utenbogard together with those of his side professed they knew no other course for setling peace but my mutually tolerating one the other Festus Hommius and others with him on the other side professed they knew no better course then convocation of a Nationall Synode and in the interim to tolerate one another provided they would declare themselves to differ from the received doctrine in the Church in no other points then in the five Articles But how they carried themselves herein refusing to declare themselves I have formerly shewed And farther in the pursuit of this their practice to enjoy toleration it is farther storied by what means they procured a Letter from King James to farther them therein and after that an Edict to that purpose from some of the States And consider farther If any amongst us should rise up and confederate themselves and impugne any five Articles of the Church of England and accuse us for maintaining erronious doctrine therein and challenge us for falshood if they doe it with never so open mouth shall this be sufficient to justify them and condemne us if wee doe not come to a tryall with them to dispute the case though Wee are the Possessours They the Intruders and Innovators Wee maintaining no other Doctrine then that which is by Authority established amongst us and They which impugne the doctrine received are they not usually judged amongst us as such who are rather to be censured then disputed with And withall consider that this mutua tolerantia which the Remonstrants so much pressed and were so glad to enjoy was with greatest instance stood for long after the Conference at the Hague Lastly how often was Arminius himselfe questioned and called upon to give satisfaction for his Heterodoxies and how often did he decline it When at the first Motion was made for his surrogation into the place of Iunius beind deceased then the suspicions of his Heterodox breaking forth and they of Amsterdam not well likeing to let him goe from them amongst whom at that time he exercised his Ministry and that because they observed his luxuriant and novelizing Wit which was like to breed dangerous effects in an University at length upon the great instance both of Utenbogard and Arminius himselfe way was made for him unto the Chayre upon condition he should conferre with Gomarus upon some chief heads of Doctrine and by a round declaration of his mind thereon remove all suspicion of Heterodoxy having formerly by a solemne Protestation given his word that in case he had any singular opinion of his own he would not spread it Hereupon he made open profession that he condemned the chiefe Pelagian opinions concerning grace naturall the strength of Free-will Originall sinne the perfection of man in this life and Predestination and that he approved all those disputes which Austin and other Fathers had written against them and that in his judgement the Pelagian errours were rightly refuted by those Fathers and withall promised that he would teach nothing that differed from the received Doctrine of the Churches and hereupon he was admitted to a Professors place in the University In the beginning whereof he laboured by all means to quench all suspicion of Heterodoxy in himselfe and maintained the doctrine of the Reformed Churches De satisfactione Christi de Fide justificante de justificatione per fidem de Perseverantiâ verè fidelium de Certitudine salutis de Perfectione hominis in hac vitâ c. all which he afterwards contradicted as also did his Followers This I say he then at the first maintained publiquely contrà sententiam suam which let every man judge whether it be not as much as to say against his own Conscience and Corvinus is alleaged as in a certain Writing of his set forth in Low-Dutch ingeniously professing as much Praefat in Synod Dordracen Authoritate Ordinum Fol. 2. p. 1. But after he had been a yeare or two in the place he begins to unmaske himselfe and by his Publique Lectures and chiefly by his dealing with his Schollers in private his heterodoxy
professe as formerly mentioned and charge us to our face that we have learned this doctrine of ours out of the Writings of Papists And Grevincovius against Amesius spares not to pronounce that They may with better credit follow the Jesuits then Wee the Dominicans considering that the Dominicans are the great Administrators of the Inquisition in Spaine This is delivered as touching the poynt of grace and Free-will but as touching the poynt of election and reprobation absolute I can shew under the hand of an Arminian that herein there is no materiall difference between the Dominicans and most part of the Jesuits so little difference there is between the Gratia Praedeterminans of the one and the Gratia Congrua of the other So that if this be true it is not probable that hereby we scandalize the judicious and learned Papists and what those other Churches are which we scandalize excepting Churches Lutheran either this Author knows not or is well content to dissemble it to wit the Churches of Socinians and Anabaptists And how doe we more scandalize the Churches Lutheran herein then they scandalize us Was it ever known that by meer differing in Opinion from other Churches Christian men were said to scandalize them Or if it were so must not the scandall in this case be equall on both sides As for the leaving many of our own very ill satisfied why should that seem strange What doth Carryer write of many well known to him in this our Church of England of the same mind with himselfe some Papists some Lutherans And may there not be as many amongst the Lutherans as ill satisfied with the doctrine commonly received amongst them save that they are farre more forward to excommunicate all such as soon as they appeare then Wee Besides all this The poynt of scandall is brought in very unseasonably For if it be a truth that we maintain and professe if any are scandalized by it it is a scandall taken not given God forbid we should grow so profane as to account it a scandalous thing to make profession of Gods truth especially this truth we maintain being so neere to a cleare opposition to Pelagianisme a Heresy condemned by the Church above 1200 years agoe When Frederick Duke of Woortenberg exhorted his Divines to acknowledge Beza and his Company for Brethren and to declare it by giving them their hands The answer of refusall was made by Jacobus Andreas a most bitter enimy and one whom Beza describes tanquam virum sanguinarium and his carriage throughout was most imperious And it becomes an Arminian spirit well to make the rancour of his malicious heart a rule wherebyto cry down the doctrine which he abhorred With a farre better grace might a Papist cry down our faith opposite to the doctrine of the Church of Rome by the Popes abhorring it and damning of it to the pit of hell For surely it is fit he should be of farre more authority then Jacobus Andreas not to speak of the Anathematization of it in the Councell of Trent nor of the common argument of Papists in that they deny that we can be saved many amongst us are of opinion that a Papist can be saved therefore better to be a Papist then a Protestant yet surely it is in the power of our corruption to requite malice with malice and as much to scorne with our heeles their Brotherhood as they ours But if through the grace of God we doe not give our selves leave to requite their malice if that be no scandall to themselves there is no cause why it should be any scandall unto us In Sir Edwin Sands about Fol. 59. there is such a relation as this Though the Princes and Heads of the weaker sides in those parts both of Palsgrave and Landsgrave have with great wisdome and judgement to aslack those flames imposed silence on that poynt to the Ministers of the one Party hoping that the charity and discretion of the other sort would have done the like yet it falleth out otherwise that Lutheran Preachers rage hitherto in their Pulpits Now let Arminians if they think good conclude herehence that seeing there was so little charity and discretion in the Lutheran Preachers it becomes them in their writings and Conclusions to shew as little charity and discretion as they for their hearts and that grace of God which they fashion to themselves will bear them out in this it beeing meerely the power of their own free-wills But this is not all I have to say in answer hereunto The phrase in Osiander is not errorum teterrimorum but haerescωn teterrimarum of which this Author saith they reckoned this for one And let him speak out and tell us what were the others Was not the denyall of Consubstantiation another As also the denyall of the lawfulnesse of that Baptisme which was administred by Woemen the practice whereof King James reformed in our Book of Common-Prayer As also their not concurrence with them in opinion about the Person of Christ which by their Ubiquitary Chimaera as Sir Edwin Sands call it they doe miserably deforme These and other such like were the errours whereof this Author saith Beza and his Fellowes were proved to be guilty of in this Conference for so I take his meaning pronouncing thereby sentence tanquam ex Cathedra Judicis or the Lutheran Party throughout in that Conference which Conference was not of Predestination alone but de Caenâ Domini de Personâ Christi de Imaginibus de Baptismo and last of all de Praedestinatione Yet I have not done with this For I beseech you consider whether this Author or his Oracle be not miserably deceived in all this and that these teterrimae Haereses are not such as Iacobus Andreas with his Lutheran party laid to the charge of Beza and his Brethren but rather such as Beza and his Brethren laid to the charge of the Lutherans and that not in this Conference but in their Writings in Scriptis so goeth the relation Whereas this Conference was not by writing but only by word of mouth Iacobus Andreas not enduring to give way to Beza's motion as touching the consigning of that which they delivered in writing under their hands For the relation in Osiander runs thus Ad haec D. Iacobus respondit Woortenbergicos Theologos Deum oraturos ut Bezae ipsius Collegis oculos mentis aperiat Ut autem illis dextram fraternitatis praebeant non ignor are illos quà m horribilium errorum teterrimarum haereseω◠in suis Scriptis coram Fcclesiâ ipsos reos egerint Ideoque se mirari quomodo eos pro fratribus agnoscere possint aut velint aut corum fraternitatem expetant si pro talibus agnoscant qui damnatas Haereses ab Orco revocent ut Ecclesiae Dei obtendant Now these words though at first sight they may seem to be referred either to the Woortenbergers as accusing Beza and his Brethren of such errours and heresies yet the words following
Parentemque caeterorum the Caeteri belike were such spirits as wee call Angells And that Maximi Dei leges were inevitabiles and this was called Necessity and such a Necessity cui ne Deos quidem that is inferior spirits resistere posse Quae verò ab Astris geruntur talia interdum esse ut evitari sapientiâ industriâ labore queant in quo sua est Fortuna Quae verò certis causis progrederentur ac permanerent fixa id dici Fatum quod tamen necessitatem non afferat electioni That the Manichees maintained two supreme and coëternall causes of all things we read the one the cause of Good the other of Evill and that every creature was a substantiall part of one or both and that man in his nature was compounded of both and that his corruption was essentiall from the supream Author of evill and not such as acrewed to him of disobedience We read But of their opinion that all things were determined by them both good and evill I no where read but in this Authors Legend Danaeus hath commented upon Austin de Haeresibus and to every Head of Heresy draws what he hath read thereof in other Authors But I find no mention at all of this Article amongst 21 shamefull errours of theirs which he reckons up The 19 th is this Voluntatem malè agendi quod vocant liberum arbitrium nob is à naturâ ipsâ insitam non rebellione nostrâ accersitam vel ex inobedientiâ natam Quanquam homines propriâ voluntate peccant And where Austin answereth the criminations against the Catholiques made by the Pelagians I find no mention at all of this He should have shewed from whom he takes this that understanding their Opinion aright we might the better judge of the reproachfull comparison which he makes 2 To the consideration of which comparison of his I now addresse my selfe He proposeth two things one whereof he saith must needs be maintained The First whereof is this That all actions naturall and Morall good and evill and all events likewise are absolutely necessary Concerning which I say First I have cause to doubt that this Author understands not aright the very notions of absolute necessity and necessity not absolute There is no greater necessity then necessity of nature And this necessity is twofold either in Essendo in being or in Operando in working God alone is necessary in being and his being is absolutely necessary it being impossible he should not be as not only we believe but Schoole Divines demonstrate and that with great variety of evident and curious conclusions As for the other necessity which is in respect of operation First this is no way incident unto God speaking of operation ad extrà and secluding the mysterious emanations within the Divine Nature such as are the Generation of the Sonne by the Father and the wonderfull Procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Sonne But ad extra this necessity of operation is only found in the creature and that only in such creatures as by necessity of nature are determined one way as fire to burne heavy things to move downwards and light things upwards the Sunne Moone and starres to give light and the heavens to turne round all naturall Agents in a word distinct from rationall are thus determined to wit to work that whereunto they are inclined by necessity of nature but yet so that being finite they are subject to superiour powers and thereby obnoxious to impediment most of them even to powers create all of them to power increate Whence it comes passe that no work of theirs is absolutely necessary especially in respect of God who can either set an end to all when he will or restraine their operations at his pleasure We know the Three Noble Children when they came forth of the fiery oven had not so much as any smell of the fire upon them And therefore Durand professeth that these things which are commonly accounted to come to passe most necessarily doe indeed come to passe meerely contingently in respect of the will of God Neverthelesse we willingly professe that upon supposition of the will of God that this or that shall come to passe it followeth necessarily that such a thing shall come to passe like as upon supposition that God knowes such a thing shall come to passe it followeth necessarily that such a thing shall come to passe but how not necessarily but either necessarily according as some things are brought to passe by naturall agents working necessarily after the manner aforesaid or contingently and freely according as some things are brought to passe by rationall agents working contingently and freely And therefore as touching the Question of the Schooles about the root of contingency Aquinas and Scotus concurre in resolving it into the Will of God but with this difference Scotus relates it into the will of God as a free agent Aquinas resolves it into the Will of God as an efficacious agent For the will of God is so efficacious that he can effectually procure both that things necessary shall be brought to passe necessarily and things contingent contingently and according he hath provided congruous causes hereof to wit both agents naturall for the produceing of necessary things necessarily and agents rationall for the producing of contingent things contingently and freely Thus God preordained that Josias should burne the Prophets bones upon the Altar that Cyrus should proclaim liberty to the Jewes to returne into their Country yet what sober Divine hath made doubt whether Josias and Cyrus did not herein that which they did freely And as in doing so in abstaining from doing For God ordained that Christs bones should not be broken as also that when the Jewes all the Males came up to the Lord thrice in the year to Jerusalem None of their neighbours should desire their land Exod. 34. 24. Yet what sober man should make question whether the Souldiers did non as freely abstaine from breaking Christs bones as from ought else and so likewise the bordering Nations did as freely abstaine from invading the land of Israel And how often is this phrase used in Scripture Necesse est of some things coming to passe which yet came to passe as contingently and freely as ought else And unlesse this be granted that Gods determination is nothing prejudiciall to the freedome of the creatures will either we must deny faith and repentance to be the gifts of God or that they are works produced freely and so every action pleasing in the sight of God For the Scripture expressely professeth that God it is who worketh in us every thing that is pleasing in his sight And whatsoever God workes in us or bestows upon us in time the same he determined to work in us and to bestow upon us from everlasting For he worketh all things according to the counsell of his will Ephes 1. 11. and the counsell of his Will was everlasting it being the same with God
that he saith he proves by Iohn 16. 9. The spirit shall convince the World of sinne because they believe not in me Reprobates therefore are bound to believe But now they cannot be justly bound to believe if they be absolute and inevitable Reprobates for three causes 1. Because it is Gods will that they shall not believe and it appears to be so because it is his peremptory will that they shall have no power to believe for its a Maâ—ime in Logick that Qui vult aliquid in causâ vult effectum ex ista causa necessario profluentem No man will say that it is Gods serious will that such a man shall live when it is his will that he shall not have the concourse of his providence and the act of preservation now will any say that forget not themselves that God doth unfainedly will that those men shall believe whom he will not furnish with necessary power to believe Now if it be Gods will that absolute reprobates shall in no wise believe they cannot in justice be tied to believe For no man is bound to an act against Gods peremptory will 2. Because it is impossible that they should believe they want power to believe and must want it still God hath decreed they shall have none to their dving day without power to believe they can no more believe then a man can see without an eye and live without a Soule Nemo obligatur ad impossibilia To believe is absolutely impossible unto them and therefore in justice they can be tyed to believe no more then a man can be bound to fly like a Bird or to reach heaven with the top of his finger 3. Because they have no object of saith Credere â—ubet dâ— fidei nulium objectum 〈◊〉 This decree makes God to oblige men to believe and to give them no Christ to believe in and to punish them as transgressors of the covenant of grace when yet they have no more right unto it or part in it then the very Devills Can God justiy bind men to believe a lye To believe that Christ died for them when it is no such matter If a man should command his Servant to eate and punish him for not eating and in the mean time fully resolve that he shall have no meat to eate Would any reasonable man say that he were just in such a command such a punishment Change but the names the case is the same TWISSE Consideration IN this discourse on the poynt of Gods justice this Author seems to storme and shewes great confidence of bearing downe all before him but the more ridiculous will it prove in the issue when it shall appeare that all this wind beats down no corne He takes his rise from a particular opinion of Zanchy whose opinion is that all even Reprobates are bound to believe they are elected in Christ unto salvation though never they shall believe nor can believe But doth this Author himselfe concurre with Zanchy in this opinion If he did I presume it were upon some better ground then the authority of Zanchy and in all likelihood we should have heard of those grounds or doth himselfe believe that that passage Ioh. 16. 9. He shall convict the World of sinne because they believed not in me doth evince as much or import as much as that is whereunto Zanchy drives it If he doth not concurre with Zanchy in either of these why should he tye us to the particular authority of Zanchy Must we be bound to stand to every interpretation of our Divines or every particular opinion of theirs wherein perhaps they were singular Secondly suppose this opinion of Zanchy be a truth and suppose we concurre with him herein will it from this opinion follow that therefore even Reprobates have power to believe Who seeth not that it is a flat contradiction to the antecedent For the Doctrine of Zanchy as here it is related is this that even Reprobates though they cannot believe yet are they bound to believe Now will it herehence follow that therefore they have power to believe Whereas it is manifestly supposed in the antecedent that they cannot believe And to my understanding the distinction of Elect and Reprobate in this case is most unseasonable For to what end doe we Preach unto our hearers that all sorts of men are bound to believe but this to wit that every one that heareth us being privy to his condition may understand that he of what condition soever he be which is supposed to be better known to him then to the Preacher or at least as well is bound to believe But as for these different conditions of elect and reprobate no man can be privy to the one untill he doth believe nor to the other untill finall perseverance in unbeliefe And if I list I could alleadge the opinion of another Divine who is very peremptory in his way professing that the Ministers calling upon us to believe is no commandement at all but like a Kings gracious Proclamation unto certain malifactors who are all accused of High Treason giving them to understand that in case they will voluntarily confesse their sinne and accept of his gracious pardon offered them he will most graciously pardon them But if they will not but stand rather to their triall presuming to acquit themselves right well and prove themselves to be true Subjects let them stand to the adventure and issue of their tryall And that thus the covenant of grace is offered to be received by them only who feare to come and dare not come to the tryall of the Covenant of works But I will not content my selfe in putting off Zanchy in this manner although by the way I cannot but professe that were I of their opinion who teach that God gives unto all and every one when they come into the World a certain grace for the enlivening of their wills whereby they are enabled to will any spirituall good whereto they shall be excited I see no reason but that the way is open to everlasting life as well by the covenant of works as by the covenant of grace for let perfect obedience be the spirituall good whereto they are excited let them but will it as it is supposed they can and then God will be ready to concurre to the doing of it like as to the work in us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 resipiscere modò velimus so also I should think to work in us perfect obedience modò velimus And in this case I pray consider what need were there of faith in Christ on their part more then on the part of the Holy Angells certainly there would be no need of repentance Thirdly therefore consider we the constant Doctrine of Divines not that Reprobates are bound to believe but that all that heare the Gospell are bound to believe but in what sense Piscator saith as I remember that the thing which all such are bound to believe is
all causes meritorious If it be farther said that not so much the foresight of sin as to speak more properly sinne foreseen is the cause of reprobation I reply against it in this manner sinne foreseen doth suppose Gods decree to permit sinne and consequently if sinne foreseene be before reprobation then also the decree of permitting sinne is before the decree of reprobation that is the decree of damning for sinne But this cannot be as I endeavour to prove by two reasons The first is this There is no order in intentions but between the intention of the end and the intention of the means and the order is this that the intention of the end is before the intention of the means Therefore if the decree of permitting sinne be before the decree of damning for sinne the decree of permitting sinne must be the intention of the end and the decree of damning for sinne must be the intention of the meanes But this is notoriously untrue For it is apparent that damnation tends not to the permission of sinne as the end thereof for if it did then men were damned to this end that they might be permitted to sinne But far more likely it is that sinne should be permitted to this end that a man might be damned which yet by no means doe I a vouch other reasons I have to shew the vanity of this argumentation I rather professe that permssion of sinne and damnation are not subordinate as end means but coordinate both being means tending joyntly to a farther end which under correction from understandings purged from prejudice and false principles I take to be the manifestation of Gods glory in the way of justice vindicative 2. My second reason is if permission of sinne be first in intention and then damnation it followes that permission of sinne should be last in execution but this is most absurd namely that a man should be first damned and then suffered to sinne 2. My second principall argument is this Reprobation as it signifies Gods decree is the act of Gods will now the act of Gods will is the very will of God and the will of God is Gods essence and like as there can be no cause of Gods essence so there can be no cause of Gods will or of the act thereof Upon some such arguments as these Aquinas disputes that the predestination of Christ cannot be the cause of our Predestination adding that they are one act in God And when he comes to the resolution of the question he grants all as touching actum volentis that the one cannot be the cause of the other But only quoad praedestinationis terminum which is grace and glory or the things predestinated Christ is the cause of them but not of our predestination as touching the act of God predestinating And I think I may be bold to presume that Christs merits are of as great force to be the cause why God should elect man unto salvation as mans sinnes are of force to be the cause why God should reprobate him unto damnation The same Aquinas a tall fellow as touching Scolasticall argumentation hath professed that no man hath been so mad as to say that merits are the cause of predestination quoad actum praedestinantis and why but because there can be no cause on mans part of the will of God quoad actum volentis Now reprobation is well knowne to be the will of God as well as election and therefore no cause can there be on mans part thereof quoad actum reprobantis And it is well knowne there is a predestination unto death as well as unto life and consequently t is as mad a thing in his judgement to maintaine that merits are the cause there of quoad actum praedestinantis God by efficacious grace could breake off any mans infidelity if it pleased him that is by affording him such a motion unto faith as he foresaw would be yeelded unto this is easily proved by the evident confession of Arminius formerly specified Now Why doth God so order it as to move some in such a manner as he foresees they will believe others in such a māner as he foresees they will not believe but because his purpose is to manifest the glory of his grace in the salvation of the one and the glory of his justice in the damnation of the other Herein I appeale to the judgement and conscience of every reasonable creature that understands it in spight of all prejudice and false principles to corrupt him 4. In saying sinne foreseen is the cause of Gods decree of damnation they presuppose a prescience of sinne as of a thing future without all ground For nothing can be foreknown as future unlesse it be future now these disputers presuppose a futurition of sinne and that from eternity without all ground For consider no sinne is future in its own nature for in its own nature it is meerely possible and indifferent as well not to be future as to become future and therefore it cannot passe out of the condition of a thing meerely possible into the condition of a thing future without a cause Now what cause doe these men devise of the futurition of sinne Extra Deum nothing can be the cause thereof For this passage of things out of the condition of things possible into the condition of things future was from everlasting for from everlasting they were future otherwise God could not have known them from everlasting And consequently the cause of this passage must be acknowledged to have been from everlasting and consequently nothing without God could be the cause of it seeing nothing without God was from everlasting Therefore the cause hereof must be found intra Deum within God then either the will of God which these men doe utterly disclaime or the knowledge of God but that is confessed to presuppose things future rather then to make them so or the essence of God now that may be considered either as working necessarily and if in that manner it were the cause of things future then all such things should become future by necessity of nature which to say is Atheisticall or as working freely and this is to grant that the will of God is the cause why every thing meerely possible in its own nature doth passe from everlasting into the condition of a thing future if so be it were future at all And indeed seeing no other cause can be pitched upon this free will of God must be acknowledged to be the cause of it And consequently the reason why every thing becomes future is because God hath determined it shall come to passe but with this difference All good things God hath determined shall come to passe by his effection All evill things God hath determined shall come to passe by his permission And the Scripture naturally affords plentifull testimony to confirme this without forcing it to interpretations congruous hereunto upon presumptuous grounds that these arguments proceed from
understandings purged from prejudice and false principles 5. My fifth argument is this If sinne be the cause of Reprobation that is of the decree of damnation then either by necessity of nature or by the constitution of God not by necessity of nature as all that hitherto I have known confesse But I say neither can it be by the free constitution of God for mark what a notorious absurdity followeth hence and that unavoidably namely that God did ordaine that upon foresight of sinne he would ordaine them to damnation marke it well God did ordaine that he would ordaine or God did decree that he would decree In which words Gods eternall decree is made the object of Gods decree Whereas it is well known that the objects of Gods decrees are meerely things temporall and cannot be things eternall we truly say God did decree to create the World to preserve the World to redeeme us call us justify us sanctify and save us but it cannot be truly said that God did decree to decree or ordaine to ordaine for to decree is the act of Gods will and therefore it cannot be the object of the act of Gods will Yet these arguments I am not so enamoured with as to force the interpretations of Scripture to such a sense as is sutable hereunto presuming of the purity of my understanding as purged from prejudice and false principles I could willingly content my selfe with observation of the Apostles discourse in arguing to this effect Before the Children were borne or had done good or evill it was said the elder shall serve the younger therefore the purpose of God according to election stands not of works In like manner may I discourse Before the Children were borne or had done good or evill it was said the elder shall serve the younger therefore the purpose of God concerning Reprobation stands not of works And like as hence it is inferred that therefore election stands not of good works so therehence may I inferre that therefore reprobation stands not of evill works 6. If sinne foreseen be the cause meritorious of reprobation then faith and repentance and good workes are the disposing causes unto election For therefore evill works foreseen are made the meritorious cause of reprobation because evill works exsistent are the meritorious cause of damnation And if this be true then also because Faith and Repentance and good workes are the disposing causes unto salvation then by the same force of reason faith repentance and good workes foreseen must be the disposing cause unto election But faith repentance and good workes foreseen are not the disposing causes unto election as I prove thus 1. If they were then the purpose of God according to election should be of faith repentance and good works which is expressely denyed by the Apostle as touching the last part and may as evidently be proved to be denied by him in effect of the other parts also by the same force of argumentation which he useth as for example from this anticedent of the Apostles before the Children were borne or had done good or evill it no more evidently followeth that therefore the purpose of God according to election is not of workes than it followeth that the same purpose of God according to election is not of faith nor of repentance For before they were borne they were no more capable of faith or of repentance than of any other good works And undoubtedly faith and repentance are as good works as any other 2. If God doth absolutely work faith in some and not in others according to the meer pleasure of his will then it cannot be said that faith foreseen is the cause of any mans election For in this case faith is rather the means of salvation then salvation a means of faith and consequently the intention of salvation rather precedes the intention of faith than the intention of faith can be said to precede the intention of salvation And to this the Scripture accords Acts 1348. As many believed as were ordained to everlasting life making ordination to everlasting life the cause why men believed answerable hereunto is that Acts 2. last God added daily to the Church such as should be saved and that of Paul to Titus according to the faith of Gods elect So that according to Pauls phrase fides est electorum but according to the Arminians Doctrine the inverse hereof is a more proper and naturall predication as to say electio est fidelium But God doth absolutely work faith in some men according to the meer pleasure of his will denying the same grace to others which I prove 1. By Scripture Rom. 9. 18. God hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardneth compared with Rom. 11. 30. Yee in times past have not believed but now have obtained mercy where it appears by the Antithesis that to find mercy is to believe that is to obtain the grace of faith at the hands of God in Saint Pauls phrase 2. By cleare reason for if it be not the meer pleasure of Gods will that is the cause hereof then the cause hereof must be some good workes which he finds in some and not in others whence it manifestly followeth that God giveth grace according unto works which in the phrase of the ancients is according to merits and for 1200 years together this hath been reputed in the Church of God meere Pelagianisme 2. I further demand what that good worke is whereupon God workes it in one when he refuseth to worke it in another Here the answer I find given is this that God doth work in man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 velle credere modo velit Now of the absurdity hereof I appeale to the very light of nature and let all the books that ever were written on this argument be searched and let it be enquired whether ever any did expresse themselves in the manner of so palpable and grosse absurdity as wherein the act of willing is made the condition of it selfe whence it followeth evidently that it must be both before it selfe and after it selfe for the condition must allwaies exsist before the thing conditionated Yet they are driven upon these rocks of absurdities in spight of their teeth so shamefull is the issue of their discourses who in hatred of Gods truth revealed in Gods word and in a proud conceit of their own performances in the way of argumentation dare prescribe rules to all others how to carry themselves in the interpretation of Scriptures as namely to be so warie as that they doe not deliver any thing repugnant to understandings purged from prejudice and false principles as if the word of God supposed them that are admitted to the studying thereof to have their understandings already purged from prejudice and false principles not that it is given by God for this very end namely to purge our understandings for what is the illumination or opening of the eyes of the mind other than the purging of
is ingaged to give ability of believing unto men he may as well inferre that he is engaged to give ability unto men to the keeping of his law and what need was there of Christs coming into the world Seeing by his coming into the world we have gained no better condition by the Arminian Tenet than to be saved if we will and if men have ability to to keepe the law even by the law they may be saved if they will and it will follow as well that God without giving this ability to keepe the law cannot justly punish the transgressours of it as that God without giving men ability to believe cannot punish men for not believing no more than a Magistrate having put out a mans eyes for an offence can command this man with justice to read a booke and because he reads not put him to death But this is a very vile simile and stands in no tolerable proportion to that whereunto it is resembled For the man thus bereaved of his eyes hath a will to read and consequently it is no fault for not reading for all sinne is in the will But it is not so in not obeying either Law or Gospell If a man had a will to obey and believe but he could not in such a case it were unreasonable he should be punished But in the case of disobedience unto God we speake of all the fault is in the will voluntarily and wilfully they neither will obey the one nor the other like as they that have accustomed themselves to doe evill can not doe good as a blackemoore cannot change his skinne Yet with this difference that man is never a whit the more excusable or lesse punishable for not doing that which is good not so the blackemore for not changing his skinne But such is the shamefull issue of them that confound impotency Morall with impotency naturall as if there were no difference As wild is the comparison following of the Masters exacting from his Servant a just employment of that stock which he hath taken from him An evill servant may have a will to play the good husband in imploying his Masters stock where he pleased to intrust him with it But though he hath a will to be faithful and thrifty yet without matter to worke upon he cannot exercise this fidelity of his to his Masters behoofe Shew the like will in a carnall man to believe if he could and if God bereave him of power in such a case then conclude the unreasonablenesse of Gods courses herein But if the Master gave him a stock to employ upon a resonable rent to be payd him yearly for certaine yeares if so be the servant wast the stock Shall it not be lawfull for the Master neverthelesse to require his debt And bid him pay that he owes him This is the case we speake of In Adam we all have sinned saith the Apostle and thereby have wasted that stock of grace which God had given us and so disabled our selves to performe that duty we owe to God What therefore Shall not God call upon us to pay our debts because we are become bankrupts Especially considering the naturall man is proud enough of his abilities to performe any thing that is good And as for ability to believe is there not a kind of faith performed by prophane persons by Hypocrites who concurre with the best in the profession of the Gospell Nay Is there not a secret kind of hypocrisie as when a man thinks his heart is upright towards God when indeed it is not Otherwise what should move Saint Paul to call upon the Corinthians to examine themselves whether they were in the faith saying Know you not your selves how that Christ is in you except ye be reprobates 2 Car. 13. 5. It is true there is a faith infused by the spirit of God in regeneration but who ever said that any man was damned because he doth not believe with such a faith As much as to say that non-regeneration is the meritorious cause of damnation Now how well he hath proved that our Doctrine in the poynt of absolute reprobation is repugnant to Gods justice let the indifferent judge DISCOURSE SECT IV. Which I divide into Three Subsections SUBSECT I. THe Third Attribute which it oppugneth is the truth of God God is a God of truth Deut. 32. 4. Truth it selfe Ioh. 14. 6. So called because he is the fountain of truth and the perfection of truth without the least mixture of false-hood the strength of Israell cannot lye 1 Sam. 15. 29. Never could any man justly charge him with dissembling Let God be true and every man a lyar saith the Apostle that he might be justified in his sayings and overcome when he is judged Rom. 3. 4. That is men may lye for all men are lyars but God cannot lye for God is true if any man should goe about to challenge him of untruth his challenge would easily appeare to be a calumny The truth of God like a glorious Sunne will break through all those clouds of accusations which seek to obscure and hide it Simile gaudet Simili God loves such as are of a true heart Psal 51 6. And hath an hypocrite in utter detestation and therefore he must needs be true himselfe No man for ought I know doubts of it But by this decree is God made untrue and hypocriticall in his dealing with all men and in all matters that concerne their eternall estate particularly in his commands in his offers of grace and glory in his threats in his passionate wishes and desires of mens chiefest good and in his expostulations and commiserations also 1. In his commands for by this doctrine God commands those men to repent and believe whom he secretly purposeth shall never believe Now whom God commands to believe and repent those he outwardly willes should believe and repent For by his commandements he signifies his will and pleasure and he must inwardly and heartily will it too or else he dissembles For words if they be true are an interpretation of the mind when they are not are meere impostures and simulations 2. In his offers of grace and glory these offers he makes to such as refuse them and perish for refusing them as well as unto those who doe accept them to their salvation This is evident Math. 22. where those were invited to the wedding that came not And Acts 3. 26. Where t is said To you hath God sent his Sonne Jesus to blesse you in turning every one of you from your iniquities Math. 23. 37. How oft would I have gathered of you saith Christ speaking of such as neglect the day of their visitation and so lost their salvation This is evident also by reason for as many as are under the commandement are under the promise too as we may see Acts 2. 38 39. Repent and be Baptized every one of you and you shall receive the gift of the holy Ghost for to you and to your Children
manner who shall deliver me from the body of this death And receiving a gracious answer concerning this concludes with thankes I thank my God through my Lord Jesus Christ if I have a will to believe to repent I have no cause to complaine but to runne rather unto God with thankes for this and pray him to give that power which I find wanting in me And indeed as I may adde in the fourth place this impotency of believing and infidelity the fruit of naturall corruption common to all is meerely a morall impotency and the very ground of it is the corruption of the will therefore men cannot believe cannot repent cannot doe any thing pleasing unto God because they will not they have no delight therein but all their delight is carnall sensuall and because they are in the flesh they â—annot please God and because of the hardnesse of their hearts they cannot repent sinne is to them as a sweet morsell unto an Epicure which he rolleth under his tongue Fiftly dost thou blaspheame God because of Leprous Parents thou art begot and conceived and borne a leprous child What impudency then is it in thee to challenge him for injustice in that the spirituall leprosy of thy first Parents is propagated to thy soule Lastly if thou renouncest the Gospell what reason hast thou to complaine of want of power to embrace it so farre as not to renounce it hast thou not as much power to believe as Simon Magus had as many a prophane person and hipocrite hath that is bred and brought up in the Church of God Hadst thou gone so farre as they and performed submission unto the Gospell by profesing it surely thou shouldest never be brought to condemnation for not professing of it but rather for not walking according to the rule of it which thou promisedst when first thou gavest thy name to Christ I come to the third 3. Look what the Word promiseth that doe the Sacraments scale the word promiseth Justification Salvation to all that beleive the same doth the Sacraments seal As Circumsion Rom. 4. 5. Is said to be the seale of the Rightiousnes of faith so is Baptisme it did in our Saviours dayes and in the dayes of his Apostles seale to the believer and penitent Person the assurance of the forgivenesse of their sinnes over and above Baptisme is the Sacrament of our birth in Christ and the Lords Supper of our growth in Christ each an outward and visible signe of an inward invisible grace But what is the grace were of the Sacrament is a signe Is it a power to doe good if a man will Call you that grace which is not so much as goodnesse for certainly goodnesse consists not in a power to doe good if a man will but in a definite inclination of the will it selfe to delight in that which is good and to be prone to doe it But this grace whereof Baptisme is a signe is suo tempore conferenda like as Circumcision was even to those Jewes who yet were not regenerated untill they were partakers of the Gospell Jam. 1. 18. Of his own will hath he begotten us by the word of truth Writing unto the twelve tribes of the Jewes And it is very strange to me that regeneration should so many years goe before vocation But this opposite Doctrine and the sealing of a blanke is nothing strange to me I was acquainted with it twenty yeares agoe and I seeme plainly to discerne the chimney from whence all the smoake comes 4. As for other gifts bestowed on the Reprobates 1. We willingly confesse they shall never bring them to salvation be they as great as those who were bestowed on Aristotle Plato Aristides Sophocles and the most learned morall and wise men of the World that never were acquainted with the mystery of Godlinesse it was wont to be received generally for a truth that Extra Ecclesiam non est satus But Arminians take liberty to coyne new Articles of our Creed 2. But yet they may doe them good hereby they may Proficere ad exteriorem vitae emendationem quo mitius puniantur For certainly it shall be easier in the day of udgement for Cicero then for Cattline for Augustus than for Tiberius for Trajan than for Heliogabalus 3. And therefore it is certainly false that they are hurtfull and that they proceed out of extreme hatred And as for love the Scripture teacheth us that Jacob was loved of God and Esau hated each before they were borne Such is the condition of all the elect as Jacob of all the Reprobates as Esau and in Thomas Aquinas his judgement Non velle alicui vitam aeternam est ipsum odisse Knowledge I confesse of the mysteries of Godlinesse where life and conversation is not answerable doth encrease mens condemnation neither is God bound to change the corrupt heart of any man if they are workers of iniquity Christ will not know them at the great day though they have Prophesyed in his name and in his name cast out Devills neither was it ever heard of that the graces of edification and graces of sanctification must goe together and that God in giving the one is bound to give the other As for being proud of them pride for ought I know requires no other causes but domesticall corruption but he that acknowledgeth God to be the giver of any gift and hath an heart to be thankfull for it I make no doubt but he hath more grace than of edification only certainly the gifts they have sinke them not to hell but their corrupt heart in abusing them And hath a man no cause to be thankfull unto God for one gift unlesse he will adde another The Gentiles are charged for unthankfulnesse Rom. 1. But it seems by this Authors Divinity it was without cause unlesse we will with this Author say they all had sufficiency of meanes without and power within to bring them to salvation and what had Israell more Or the elect of God more in any age True for according to the Arminian tenet an elect hath no more cause to be thankfull to God for any converting grace than a Reprobate In a word what good act wrought in the heart of man whether of faith or of repentance or any kind of obedience hath man cause to be thankfull to God for when God workes it in him no otherwise than modó homo velit and so they confesse he workes every sinfull act Have they not in this case more cause to thank themselves than to thank God And unlesse we concurre with them in so shamelesse unchristian gracelesse and senselesse an opinion and in effect if God converts the heart of man according to the meere pleasure of his will and hardeneth others all the gifts that he bestowes on man are censured by this audacious censurer as Sauls bestowing Michal on David Jaells courtesy and usurers bounty c. or a baite for a poore fish as if God needed any such course
day to the Senate House and meeting by the way with him who had given him that warning he called him by his name and to shew his fearlesse condition sayd The Ides of March are come true S r quoth the other but they are not yet past The mortall wound in the Senate House was given him before he feared it for of thirty and odde wounds there received it is written that every one of them was mortall His heroicall spirit bare him out neverthelesse not against the feare for that was now out of season but against the sense of mortall paine in such sort as not to commit any indecent thing in dying under the hands of so many Assassinates either in word or deed for not a word of distemper was uttered by him only to Brutus his neere Kinsman and deare unto him when he came upon him in like manner as the rest he said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and took care to gather his garments in such sort about ut honeste caderet Heaven and hell are ordained by God as the portion of the righteous the one of the wicked the other I hope this Author will not deny but that Heaven according to his phrase was unavoydably obtained by our Saviour yet this nothing hindred his hope but rather confirmed it by casting out of feare And the hope of Christ is the first thing this Author instanceth in while he amplifies the nature of hope but in his large expatiation thereon according to his course he spent so much time that he might well forget it before he come to the accommodation of it unto his Argument And indeed hope in Scripture phrase is the looking for of Christ and the glory he brings with him and what a senselesse thing is it to conceive that the more sure we are of blessednesse the lesse we should expect and look for the enjoyment of it Doth not our Saviour bid his Disciples Luke 10. 20. not to rejoyce in this that Devills are subdued unto them but rather to rejoyce in this that their names are written in heaven Now let any sober man judge whether this joy shall be of force to expectorate our hope and not rather to confirme and increase it As for Hell I know none are assured thereof as of their due portion but the Devills yet they feare and tremble never a whit the lesse for that But men while they live on earth not one of them in particular that I know are or have any just ground to be assured of their damnation For albeit faith in Christ may well be an assurance of mans election yet nothing but finall perseverance in infidelity or impenitency can be a just assurance to any man of his damnation As for the eternall states of men they are not existent but only in Gods intention and consequently to alter their eternall states is to alter Gods intentions Now what Arminian of these daies that is of any learning and judgement dares boldly affirme that it is in the power of the creature to alter Gods intentions In like sort with what sobriety can any man deny that every man is determined either to salvation or damnation the prescience of God being sufficient hereunto and we acknowledge that none is ordained by God to be damned but for finall perseverance in sinne unrepented of none to be saved of ripe yeares but by way of reward for his faith obedience repentance As for power and liberty to choose either let that be first rightly stated Moses Deut. 30. 19. or the Lord rather by him professeth that he hath set before them life and death and exhorts them to choose life the meaning whereof is to choose that the consequent whereunto is life now that was obedience unto the lawes and holy ordinances of God Now as touching the power and liberty to choose this we say 1. That this power was given to all in Adam and we have all lost it in him through sinne for we all sinned in him as the Apostle in expresse tearmes professeth Rom. 5. 12. 2. The power that we have lost in Adam is no naturall power but a morall power like unto that whereof the Lord speaketh by the Prophet Jeremy Jere. 13. 23. Can a Blackamore change his skinne Or the Leopard his spotts No more can you doe good that are accustomed to evill Nor will any sober man judge that such an impotency as this doth make a man excusable In the like sort our Saviour unto the Jewes Iohn 5. 44. How can yee believe that receive Honour one of another and seek not the Honour that comes of God only So that this impotency is meerly morall arising from the corruption of their wills Had a man a will to believe to repent but withall had no power to believe and repent though he would here indeed were a just cause of excuse but all the fault hereof is in the will of man This our Britaine Divines at the Synod of Dort upon the 3. and 4. Articles of the second Position expresse in this manner The nature of man being by voluntary Apostacy habitually turned from God the creatour it runs to the creature with an unbridled appetite and in a lustfull and base manner commits fornication with it being always desirous to set her heart and rest on those things which ought only to be used on the by and to attempt and accomplish things forbidden What marvell then if such a will be the bondslave to the Devill The will without charity is nothing but a vitious desire inordinata cupiditas Aug Retract 1. 5. 3. Yet the same Austin professeth Lib. 1. de Gen. cont Manich cap. 3. credere possunt ab amore visibilium rerum temporalium se ad ejus praecepta servanda convertere si velint And ad Marcel De spiritu littra proves at large that fides in voluntate est Only it is the grace of God to prepare the will ut velit and so to encrease with the gift of charity ut possit so that there is a great deale of difference between posse si velit and posse simpliciter in Austins judgment posse si velit is lesse then velle but posse simpliciter is more then velle 4. Lastly what meanes this Author to discourse thus hand overhead of power and liberty to choose whether as if whatsoever they pretend their true meaning were that man hath power to believe and repent without grace For as for power to believe and repent through Gods grace no man denyes Why then doth he not try his strength on this point which indeed is the criticall point of these controversies and wherein it will clearly appeare whether they differ one iot from the Pelagians For the question between the Pelagians and the Catholiques in Austins dayes was not about the possibility of willing or doing that which is good but only about the act of willing and doing And herein they granted instruction and exhortation requisite All the question
the word of God But Ecce Rhodus ecce Saltus we are come to the Dialogue it selfe where he undertakes to make good that which he saith And here begins the Enterlude Tempted Woe is me I am a Castaway I am utterly rejected from grace and Glory CONSIDERATION Let me take liberty to set down what I should think fit to answer unto such a complaint Now my Answer is this Who hath revealed this unto thee Art thou privy Councellour to the Almighty We are taught that secret things belong to the Lord our God but the things revealed are for us and for our Children to doe them Now where and when and how hath God revealed this his counsell unto thee namely concerning thy rejection from Grace Glory We know no other revelations divine then are contayned in his Word Now hath God in his word revealed unto thee more then unto me that thou art a reprobate The word saith unto thee If thou shalt confesse with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved Rom 10. 9. Now how canst thou make it appeare that this belongs lesse unto thee then to any Martyr that ever was content to lay downe his life for Christ Wilt thou say Thy sinnes make thee to conceive so I answer are thy sinnes greater then were the sinnes of Manasses who made his sonnes passe through the fire to Molech gave himselfe to witchcraft and sorcery and filled Jerusalem with bloud from corner to corner If his sinns were not sufficient to conclude that he was a Reprobate why should thy sins be thought sufficient to conclude that thou art a Cast-away Are thy sinnes greater then Sauls were who was a Blasphemer a Persecutor of the Saints of God from Citty to Citty Yet was he received unto mercy Wilt thou say Thy sinnes have been committed since thy calling Yet are they greater then was the sinne of Peter in denying Christ his Master with execrations and oathes And these sinns were committed not only after his calling but even within his Masters hearing too Yet he went out and wept bitterly And Christ as soone as he was risen sent word of his resurrection by name to Peter to comfort him Nay hath not God taught us in his word that the bloud of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sinne 1 John 1. And how canst thou make it appeare that any one that ever was or is hath greater interest therein then thy selfe wilt thou say this remedy belongs unto none but such as believe and repent but I doe not I answere in like sort there was a time when Paul believed not and when every one believed not yet at length they believed and so maist thou wilt thou say But I cannot believe and repent I answer this is the condition of all till God takes away the stony heart out of their bowells and gives them a heart of flesh and puts his owne spirit within them wilt thou say God gives grace to others but not to thee I answer there was a time when God had not mercy on them at length an houre came wherin he called them so an houre may come wherin he may call thee And thou hast no more cause to conclude that he hath rejected thee then every Child of God had before his calling that God had rejected him without grace neither thou canst nor they could believe but grace can bring all to faith and repentance and thou hast no more cause to think that God will not bring thee to faith then any elect had before his calling to think that God would not bring him to faith Now seeing this grace is given in the Word doe thou wait upon God in his owne ordinance which any naturall man hath power to doe as namely to goe heare a sermon thou knowest not how it may worke upon thee yea though thou commest thither with a wicked mind For we read of some that comming to take Christ were taken by him And Father Latimer taking notice of some that come to Church to take a nap yet never the lesse saith he let them come they may be taken napping Minister Discourage not thy selfe thou poore afflicted soule God hath not cast thee off for he hateth nothing that he hath made but bears a love to all men and to thee amongst the rest CONSIDERATION And not only poore but miserable also is that afflicted soule that hath no better comforter whether we consider the nature of the consolation or the warrant of it For first hath not God made Froggs and Toades and Devills as well as man And hath an Arminian that boasts so much of strongest arguments of comfort no better comfort to an afflicted soule then that she is Gods creature which is the condition of a Frogge and a Divill and a damned spirit 2. Then as touching the warrant of it Is the booke of Wisdome the best store-house of comfort for an afflicted soule a booke writen by Philo the Jew that living after Christs passion resurrection and ascention yet never believed in him Againe speake out and tell us what is the fruit of that love which God beares to all men Hath he ordained to give Salvation unto all to this afflicted soule in particular If he hath not but damnation rather unto some and particularly to this soule for upon what ground darest thou say or canst assure he hath not art not thou as miserable a comforter to her as ever Jobs friends were to him Or hath God ordained to give all men the grace of regeneration the grace of faith and repentance if so then either absolutely or conditionally if absolutely then all must be regenerate all must believe and repent If conditionally speake it out and let thy Patient know what condition that is on performance whereof by man God will give him faith say what thou wilt the comfortable issue shall be this That grace is given according to workes and this indeed is the only Arminian consolation Tempted 1. God hateth no man as he is his creature but he hates a great many as they are involved in the first transgression and become guilty of Adams sinne CONSIDERATION Pooresoule suffer not thy selfe to be instructed by them that labour to deprive thee not only of the comfort of Gods grace but of the comfort of common sence Dost thou well understand what it is to hate a man as a sinner and not as a man If hatred be no more then displeasure surely whatsoever be the cause of it in hating thee he is displeased with thee as thou art his creature and that in thy proper kind of man if withall it signify punishment whatsoever the cause thereof be surely he punisheth thee as man though not for thy natures sake for that is the worke of God but for some corruption he finds in thee And we should prove very sorry comforters if on such a distinction as this we should ground any true
manner to command Abraham to sacrifice his sonne but it was not Gods determination that Isaack should be sacrificed In like sort he commanded Pharaoh to let Israel goe but withall he told Moses he would harden Pharaohs heart that he should not let them goe for a long time 2. But in the accommodation of these distinctions unto thy selfe What ground hast thou to affirme that God willeth not thy salvation in particular If thou believest Gods word assureth thee thou shalt be saved if thou believest not yet thou maist believe and Gods word hath power to bring thee unto faith as formerly I have discoursed And as for the best of Gods Children who doe believe to the great comfort of their soules rejoycing with joy unspeakable and glorious 1 Pet. 1. They were sometimes in as uncomfortable a condition as thou now art And the rather I put thee upon this because I see he that takes upon him to comfort thee doth take a course rather to feed thy humour then to remove it in as much as he never enquires into the cause thereof For albeit he gave to understand he would apply his argument with as much art and cunning as could be yet it may be that was rather with respect to the advantage of his own cause then to thy consolation But let us see whether he mends it in the next Minister Christ came into the World to seeke and to save what was lost and is a propitiation not for our sinnes only i. e. the sinnes of a few particular men or the sinnes of all sorts of men but for the sinnes of the whole World therefore he came to save thee for thou wast lost and to be a propitiation for thy sinnes for thou art part of the whole World CONSIDERATION Still he continues to afford thee as much comfort as any Reprobate in the world and if thou desirest no more thou maist rest satisfied with this but withall I confesse he affords thee as much comfort as he can afford any of Gods elect for he maketh elect and Reprobate all alike in receiving comfort from Gods Word Christ came into the world to save that which was lost but unlesse he came to save all that is lost it will not follow that he came to save thee We know that pardon of sinne and salvation is procured by Christ for none but such as believe and therefore be not deceived without faith looke for neither by faith be assured of both and that thou art one of Gods elect and no Reprobate And observe well he tells thee nothing of Christ meriting faith and repentance this now a dayes is plainly denyed by the Remonstrants and this Authour is content to say nothing of it when he is put to it we know what must be the issue of it if he sayeth Christ hath merited faith and repentance for thee the meaning is but this Christ hath merited that if thou wilt believe thou shalt believe if thou wilt repent thou shalt repent And that Christ hath merited that God should bestow faith and repentance not on whom he will according to the meere pleasure of his will but according to mens workes The comfort that our doctrine ministers unto thee is this If thou dost believe in Christ thou maist be assured thou art an elect of God if thou dost not believe there is no cause why thou shouldest thinke thy selfe a Cast-away for albeit thou hast not faith to day yet thou maist have faith to morrow Give thy selfe to Gods Word and waite upon him in his ordinances thou maist be so wrought upon as that unbeliever was 1 Cor 14. Who is there represented falling downe on his face and confessing that God was in the Preacher of a truth And though at first thou attendest to it but in a carnall manner yet God may open thy heart as he opened the heart of Lidia and make thee attend unto it in a gracious manner Tempted The World as I have heard is taken two waies in Scripture Largely for all mankind and strictly for the elect or believers In this latter sense Christ dyed for the World Or if for all yet it was only dignitate pretii not voluntate propositi thus only for a few selected ones with whom it is not my lot to be numbred CONSIDERATION Suffer not thy selfe to be abused by them who pretending thy comfort yet seeke nothing lesse but only the promoting of their owne cause And observe how he takes notice of no other benefits of Christs death then such as belong unto men upon the condition of faith to wit pardon of sinne and Salvation in which case the mention of Gods elect comes in very unseasonably And thus is the love of God set forth unto us so God loved the world that he gave his only begotten Sonne that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life And if it be not thy lot to be numbred amongst believers then we can give thee by Gods Word no assurance of thy Salvation But if thou art not a believer yet thou maist be in good time as formerly I have spoken more at large and therefore no reason to think thou art a Reprobate And if once thou dost believe in Christ our doctrine gives thee assurance of Justification Salvation and Election the Arminan doctrine doth not As for faith and repentance we say Christ hath merited them also but to be bestowed how According to mens workes say our Arminians though forraine Arminians professe plainly that Christ merited not faith and regeneration for any And if thou relishest this comfort be satisfied with it we say faith and repentance are bestowed absolutely according to the meere pleasure of Gods will and accordingly Christ merited them but not for all for then all should believe and repent and be saved but only for some and who can these be but Gods elect whence it followeth clearly that whosoever believes may by our doctrine be assured of his election not so by the doctrine of Arminians but if thou believest not thou art in no worse case then the best of Gods childern have been for there was a time when they believed not therefore thou hast no more cause to think thy selfe a cast-away then they had Minister God hath founded an universall Covenant with men upon the bloud of Christ and therefore he intended it should be shed for all men universally he hath made a promise of salvation to every one that will believe and excludes none that will not believe CONSIDERATION This I confesse is to administer as much comfort as is administred to any Reprobate but how can this qualify thy discomfort and discontent which riseth from this conceit that thou art a Reprobate And the truth is that by our Doctrine wee were all in a miserable case if Gods Covenant of grace extended no farther then this But hath not God promised to be our Lord and our God that sanctifyeth us to circumcise our hearts and the hearts
of our Children to love the Lord our God with all our hearts to take the stony heart out of our bowells and give us an heart of flesh and to put his own spirit within us as he seeth our waies so to heale them yea to heale our back-slidings to heale our rebellions All this this sweet comforter takes no notice of contenting himselfe with such a grace to be merited for him by Christ as this if he will believe he shall believe if he will repent he shall repent if he will love God with all his heart he shall love him with all his heart Yet when a man doth believe they are able to give him no assurance of his salvation or of his election because they maintaine that a man may totally and finally fall away from grace And all because their doctrine is that Gods effectuall grace in working the act of faith and repentance is given meerely according to mens works Tempted God purposed that his Sonne should dye for all men and that in his name an offer of remission of sinnes and salvation should be made to every one but yet upon this condition that they will doe that which he meanes the greatest part shall never doe i. e. Repent and believe nor I among the rest CONSIDERATION How doth God meane that the greatest part of men shall never believe and repent by our opinion Is it in this sence that they shall not believe and repent if they will When was it ever knowne that any of our Divines ever wrote or taught this We think rather it is impossible it should be otherwise therefore say it is a very absurd thing to call this Grace as the Arminians doe Indeed we say that God doth not meane by his preventing grace to work the wills of the greatest part of men to believe repent Doe not the Arminians say so too Yes verily and a great deale more for they deny that he workes any mans will to believe and repent in this manner but we say God purchaseth thus to worke the wills of all his chosen ones and when he hath wrought them to keepe them by his power through faith unto Salvation and put his feare in their hearts that they shall never depart a way from him Jer 32. 40. And upon this ground we can assure believers of their election which Arminians cannot And them that believe not keepe from dispaire in better manner then the Arminians can for they leave them to themselves to believe whereas the Scriptures shew that to be impossible so that they take upon them to comfort such quite against the haire But we comfort them with a possibility of being converted unto God by representing his allmighty power whose voyce is able to pierce into the graves and make dead Lazarus heare it This power he shewed in converting Saul when he marched furiously Jehu like against the Church of God Therfore be thou of good comfort especially considering thou art as it were under the wings of God thou hearest his voyce many come out of their graves at his call some at one time some at another and so maist thou God knowes how soone then shalt thou be assured of thine election which by Arminianisme thou canst not be in the meane time thou hast no cause to conclude that thou art a Reprobate Minister God hath a true meaning that all men who are called should repent and believe that so they might be saved as he would have all to be saved so to come to the knowledge of the truth and as he would have no man to perish so he would have all men to repent and therefore he calls them in the Preaching of the word to the one as well as to the other CONSIDERATION He keepes his course to afford thee the best comfort his doctrine yeelds which is as much as is incident to a Reprobate and how that should make thee conceive better of thy selfe then as of a Reprobate I doe not perceive Gods meaning is that as many as heare the Gospell should believe and repent ex officio that is that it shall be their duty for he commands it but he hath no meaning to bestow on all and every one the grace of faith and repentance as appeares by experience And if God did will they should de facto believe and be saved then either God is not able to bring them to faith and to save them or else his will is changed In like sort if it were his will that all and every one should know his truth then God is not able to make all and every one know his truth for it is apparent that all doe not it is apparent that all have not the Gospell The Apostle saith That God will not have any of us to perish but all to come to repentance he doth not say he would but he will And this is true of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as the Apostle speakes of believers and elect But as for others the Scriptures plainly professe that God blinds them hardens them and of Israell in the wildernesse The Lord saith Moses hath not given you an heart to perceive nor eyes to see nor eares to heare unto this day Deut 29. 4. He calls all that heare the Gospell indifferently by the Ministry of the Word but he openeth not the heart of all to attend unto it as to the Word of God like as we read he opened the heart of â—idia Acts. 16. 14. Tempted God hath a double call outward by his word inward by the irresistible work of his spirit with this he doth not call every man to believe but a very few only whom he hath infallibly and inevitably ordained to eternall life and therefore by the outward call which I enjoy among many others I cannot be assured of Gods good will and meaning that I shall believe repent and be saved CONSIDERATION Our Doctrine teacheth not that God calls every one by his Word that is an Arminian interjection But the outward call belongs to many more then are chosen as our Saviour sayth many are called but few are chosen Indeed he gives faith and repentance to a very few which no Arminian denyes only the Question is Whether God gives faith and repentance to whom he will or according to mens works We saytis to whom he will proceeding herein according to the meere pleasure of his will and not according to mens workes which to affirme is manifest Pelagianisme and publikely condemned many hundred yeares agoe It is true if thou dost not believe Gods Word doth not assure thee that he will make thee believe that were to assure thee of thine election before thy vocation a most unreasonable thing to be expected But God by his word assures thee that t is his meaning that without faith thou shalt not be saved Yet there is no cause thou shouldest think thy selfe a Reprobate for this was the condition of every one of Gods elect before their calling
It may be thou maist have experience of the same power of divine grace to bring thee to faith also and to repentance therefore seeing Gods Word is the only meanes to worke faith waite daily at his Gates and give attendance at the posts of his doores and doe not prescribe unto him or say with Joram Shall I wait upon the Lord any longer though it be longere he calls thee yet it may goe never a whit the worse with thee for that for sometimes it falleth out that the last are first and the first last and the commendation that Austin makes of the Theef's faith upon the Crosse is remarkeable De orig animae lib. 1. cap. 9. Tanto pondere appensum est tantumque valuit ap ud eum qui haec novit appendere quod confessus est dominum crucifixum quantum si fuisset pro Domino crucifixus Tunc enim fides ejus de ligno floruit quando discipulorum marcuit nisi cujus mortis terrore marcuerunt ejus resurrectione reviresceret Illi enim desperaverunt de moriente ille speravit in commorientem Refugerunt illi authorem vitae rogavit ille consortem poenae Doluerunt illi tanquam homines mortem credidit ille regnaturum esse post mortem Deseruerunt illi sponsorem salutis honoravit ille socium crucis Inventa est in eo mensura Martyris qui tunc in Christum credidit quando defecerunt qui futuri erant Martyres 2. From the Comedy I come to the Tragedy I meane the story of Spira Sleidan saith of him that Incredibili ardore caepit complecti puriorem doctrinam cum indies magis magisque proficeret non domi tantum apud amicos quid sentiret de singulis dogmatis verum etiam passim apud omnes explicabat Tidings hereof coming to the Popes Legat then at Venice John Casa Arch-Bishop of Beneventum he convents Spira who confesseth his errour before him intreats pardon and promiseth obedience for time to come The Legat not contented with this commands him to goe home and publiquely to revoke his errour Sleidan writes no more here of but this Accipit ille conditionem licet etiam tum inciperet ipsum paenitere facti tamen urgentibus amicis qui non ipsius modo sed conjugis etiam liberorum facultatum ipsius spem totam in eo positam dicerent obtemperavit Osiander writes that pessimo consilio obsecutus abnegando veritatem caelestem perrexit eamque publice ut haeresin blasphemavit abjuravit The distresse of conscience which overtooke him hereupon is notorious the issue whereof was to end his woefull dayes more woefully in despaire But nothing more strange then his discourses and meditations in the midst of this his desperate condition As for the particulars following 1 Touching the greatnesse of his sinne and that he was taken off from that by the example of Peter I find no such thing neither in Sleidan nor Osiander nor in Goulartius but rather in this latter who makes the largest relation thereof taken out of the discourse of one Henry Scringer a learned Lawyer who was then at Padua who did see and many times talke with this poore Spira I find that which makes to the contrary namely that the sinne which he laid to his owne charge was the sinne against the Holy Ghost And no example I trust neither of Peter nor any other was sufficient to take him off from despaire in such a case 2. And as for the discourse here suggested of his absolute reprobation which he opposed against their comforts ministred unto him no mention thereof neither in Sleidan nor in Osiander nay Osiander writes that he was wish'd to revoke doctrinam Lutheranam and this was it which he did as he sayeth blaspheme as an heresy and abjure Goulartius indeed relates how he conceived himselfe to be reprobated of God as justly he might in case he judged himselfe to have sinned against the Holy Ghost And as for that which is here set down in Latin of him that is a Reprobate namely that necessario condemnabitur though his sins be small few that nihil interest multa an pauca magna an parva sint quando nec Dei misericordia nec Christi sanguis quicquam ad eos pertinet Neither Sleidan nor Osiander nor Goulartius makes any mention of it And therefore I wonder not that he neither followeth Sleidan nor Osiander much lesse that he followes not Goulartius He cites Caelius secundus and Calvin as his Authours and some others that wrot thereof to their friends but names them not as neither where it is that Caelius secundus makes mention of it or in what booke of Calvin it is found I imagined it might be in his Epistles I have spent some houres in searching therein from the yeare 1545 to the yeare 1663 and can find nothing concerning it Now Goulartius wrote since Caelius secundus and Calvin and Sleidan and his relation is large and it semes he inquired in to it somewhat better then they that went before him And thus he relates it out of the discourse of Henry Scringer a Lawyer of Padua who saw Spira at that time and divers times spake with him In a small towne of the territory of Padua called Civitelle there was a Learned Lawyer and advocat a wise and very rich man and an honourable father of a family called Francis Spira who having sayd and done divers things against his conscience to maintaine himselfe and his charge observe by the way he delivers the cause only in generall concealing the speciality it being so strang a testimony and evidence against the Romish Religion being returned to his house he could never rest an houre not a minut nor have any ease of his continuall anguish And even from that night he was so terrified and had such horrour of his actions as he held himselfe for lost For as he himselfe did afterward confesse he did set plainely before his eyes all the torments all the paines of the damned and in his soule did heare the fearfull sentences being drawne before the judgment seat of Jesus Christ a fearfull example to all Apostates The next day and so following he was not seene to resume any courage but his spirits were strangely troubled and the terrour tooke from him all rest and appetite This accident was so greivous to his friends as some repented them much that they had beene the cause of so great an inconvenience by their intreaties Others thinking it did proceed from some cholerick or melancholy humour were of opinion to send him to Padova to be Physicked by the Learned Physitians revived by honorable company and setled by the coference of Learned men there to some of which he was well knowne His Wife and Children with some of his familiar friends did accompany him and he was lodged in one of the chiefe houses Frisimilega Bellocat and Crassus famous Physitians did visit him and give him Physicke with singular
perdition whereof Jesus Christ propounds an example in the rich man Luc. 16. That God doth often propound to mankind an hope of reward to draw them to the right beliefe of his holy will and oft-times withdrawes them from impieties by fearfull and prodigious signes And yet as impiety is naturall to men they make not their profit of such instructions and think not that it concernes them but impute it to any other thing rather then to the wisdome of God to feare and reverence him Hereupon he made a bitter invective against a certain Philosopher whom he had known above twenty years before for that his Morosoph had been so impudent to deliver in his lessons yea to write it and publish it in Print that all the Miracles that Christ had done upon the earth might well be done by a man that were skilfull in the knowledge of naturall things It were hard to represent the admiration wherewith they were surprized and with what compassion they were moved that came to visit him for the discourses which they heard come from his mouth Every man laboured to reduce this poore man to some hope of his salvation Among others there was one a Reverend man for his holinesse of life who departed not from the Patients bed it was the Bishop of Capod ' Istria in the Venetians Territory This was Vergerius who afterwards renounced Popery and became a Protestant He ceased not to exhort Spira and ceased not by many testimonies of the holy Scriptures to divert him from that apprehension Adding that he did not think his spirit was altogether voyd and destitute of some good and heavenly inspirations seeing he spake so holily and devoutly of the excellency of Christian Religion 4. Although the sick man knew ful well that these admonitions proceeded from a sincere and true heart yet for that he had diverse times rejected them he began to frowne saying to the Bishop you believe as I think that I doe willingly nourish this obstinacy in my mind and that I take delight in this vehement passion of despaire If you be of that opinion you are deceived I will tell you to the end you may know my resolution that if I could be perswaded that the judgement of God might by any meanes be changed or mitigated for mee it should not grieve me to be tormented ten thousand yeares with the sharpest paines of hell so as I might have any hope of rest after this long sufferance But even in that whereby you doe exhort me to gather any hope I see all meanes of health and pardon taken from me For if the testimonies of holy Scripture have any authority as they have doe you thinke that Jesus Christ hath said in vaine that he which hath renounced him before men he will renounce him before his heavenly father Doe you not see that it concernes me and that it is as it were particularly verified in my person What shall become of him whom the Sonne hath disavowed before his Father when as you say we must hope for no salvation but in Jesus Christ Thereupon he did expound certain passages of the Epistle to the Hebrewes and of the second Catholique Epistle of Saint Peter out of which he drew terrible conclusions against himselfe Wee cannot believe with what gravity and vehemency his words were delivered neither was there ever heard man pleading better for himselfe then Spira did then against himselfe He did alleadge notable things of Gods justice detesting his forepassed life admonishing all that were about him very earnestly not to think that Christian life was a light thing and easily discharged That it doth not consist only in having the head Baptised in reading certaine verses and texts of the Gospell and to be termed an honest man but it was needfull to live as the word of truth doth command him Thereupon he repeated a Text out of Saint Peter exhorting us to shew through holinesse of life certain signes of the love of God towards us and of the confidence we should have in him He said moreover that he had known many who after they had tasted the sweetnesse of true felicity suffered themselves so to be carried away as they had no longer care to performe that which belonged to a child of God 5. He protested that he had sometimes imagined that his sinnes had been hidden and that he could not be punished for that Christ had made satisfaction for them but then he knew too late that those things belonged only to the elect and chosen of God betwixt whose sinnes and the celestiall Throne Jesus Christ sets his precious bloud and the dignity of his obedience as a veile and shadow to cover them and doth plant them against the Divine vengeance as an high and strong Rampart that sinners repenting them might not be opprest nor drowned with the deluge and overflowings of their offences and sinnes As for himselfe seeing that he had renounced our Saviour Jesus Christ here was the true burthen of his sorrowfull heart he had as one should say overthrowne this strong Rampart with his own hands so that after this ruine and overflowing the deluge of waters of this vengeance had covered and swallowed up his soule One of his most familiar friends said unto him that he did hold the cause of this his great torment proceeded from abundance of Melancholy humours that did so trouble his braine Spira remembring that he had many times refuted that opinion and seeing they were to begin againe said unto the other You may think what you please but God in truth hath troubled my spirit and deprived me of judgement seeing it is impossible for me to have any hope of my salvation Having continued in such and the like speeches during his abode at Padua they carried him back to his own house at Civitelle where he dyed in this despaire DISCOURSE SECT III. It makes Ministers unable to afford true comfort to the tempted and this it doth because it 1. Takes from them all solid grounds of comfort 2. Leaves them only weake and insufficient grounds 1. It bereaves them of the solid grounds of comfort which are these 1. The universality of Gods love 2. Of Christs death 3. And of the covenant of grace That Minister which doth explaine and apply these three things soundly and wisely to him that is tempted in this kind doth that which is abundantly enough for the relieving and releasing of him from his temptation and he that doth not apply these leaves him as he found him in the midst of his temptation still whatsoever may be said to the contrary in the hear of disputation Etsi multa disputantur durius saith Melancthon tamen necesse est in vero agone ad hanc arcem confugere videlicet quod de voluntate Dei indicandum sit ex verbo expresso quod promissio sit universalis quod sit mandatum Dei aeternum immutabile audire filium assentiri promissioni Though there
which he will and proper in the thing whereto he sends it And remove all vaine grounds of apprehensions of terrible things against themselves What if a great many be reprobated from grace and shall never have any part in Christ it doth not follow that this afflicted soule is any of them what one is there of the children of God which was not sometimes dead in sinne and if pangs of childbirth goe before the delivering of a child into the world of nature why should it seeme strange that pangs of childbirth are suffered before a man be brought forth in to the world of grace And these feares and terrours wherwith this poore soule is perplexed may be unto her as pangs of childbirth to bring her forth into a new world We say that by Gods Word we are to conceive that ye are elected upon our faith and repentance Thus Paul concluded the election of the Thessalonians 1 Thess 1. 3 4. And 2 Thess 2. 13. Thus Melancthon would have us seeke it but by the Arminian doctrine it is in vaine to seeke after it for as much as none can find it We acknowledge that as our Saviour saith Few are chosen therefore we admonish every one to strive to enter in at the straight gate This was our Saviours exhortation delivered by way of answer to a question made unto him by his Apostles Whether there were but few that should be saved We teach that Christ hath died for the people of God for the elect of God for his Church for his body not only to make satisfaction for sinne and to procure salvation for them in case they believe but to procure also the Holy Spirit for them to make them believe and repent c. And this is wrought by the word which is the sword of the spirit We take not the course he obtrudes upon us We make no such distinctions for the consolation of the afflicted as he faignes We deale plainly and spare not to professe that albeit salvation is open to all that believe and that by the ordinance of God yet that no man is able of himselfe to believe or repent for as much as the Scripture testifies that all are dead in sinne in the state of nature and led captive by the Divell to doe his will and that the very Law of God doth strengthen sinne such being the course of mans corruption that the more he is forbidden this or that the more it provokes him to transgresse taking occasion by the law to work in mans heart all manner of concupiscence this is our course to beat downe the pride of man and beat out of him all conceit of ability to doe any good as of himselfe and so to cast him downe at the feet of Gods mercy Yet God is able by his grace to quicken him and being brought up in the Church of God wherein is the balme of Gilead able to heale our waies be they never so sinfull and that that is administred not according to the vile workes of men as if they had any power to prepare them for the participation of Gods grace but of the meere favour and good pleasure of God Who calleth as the Apostle speakes 2 Tim. 1. 9. with an holy calling not according to our own workes but according to his own purpose and grace And that for the merits of Christ who hath merited not only pardon of sinne and salvation for all that believe but faith also and regeneration for all his elect and being as we are members of Gods Church we have no cause to despaire but sooner or later God may call us as continually he doth some or other and we know not how soone our turne may come And as for Gods purpose touching the performance of the condition of faith we plainly professe That God purposed to give faith and repentance only to his elect according to that Act. 13. 48. As many believed as were ordained to everlasting life And Acts 2. last God added daily to his Church such as should be saved Now heare I pray their doctrine on the other side which set out our manner of consolation devised most ridiculously at their own pleasure so to expose our doctrine to scorne Doth God purpose to bestow faith and repentance upon any other besides his elect This they must avouch if they contradict us and that he purposeth to bestow it on all and every one but how Not absolutely on any that is not according to the meere pleasure of his will how then Surely conditionally to wit according to mens workes that so not Semi-Pelagianisme only but plain Pelagianisme may be commended unto Gods Church for true Christianisme And what is that worke in man whereupon God workes faith or repentance in them Surely the will to believe the will to repent So that if all men will believe will repent then in good time through Gods grace they shall believe they shall repent and if this be not to crowne Gods grace with a crowne of scornes as Christ himselfe was crowned with a Crowne of Thornes I willingly professe I know not what it is We utterly deny that God hath two wills one contrary to the other We acknowledge that in Scripture phrase Gods commandement is called his will as This is the will of God even your sanctification 1 Thess 4. 3. But this is not that will of God which the Apostle speakes of when he saith Who hath resisted his will Rom. 9. 19 For his will of commandement is resisted too oft But the will he speaketh off there is the will of Gods purpose and decree whereof the Psalmist speakes saying Whatsoever the Lord will that hath he done both in Heaven and earth Now suppose God command Abraham to sacrifice his sonne Isaack and yet decrees that Isaack shall not be sacrificed both which are as true as the word of God is true yet there is no contradiction For as much as his commandement signifies only Gods will what shall be Abrahams duty to doe not what shall be done by Abraham On the other side Gods decree signifies what shall not be done by Abraham Now what contradiction I pray is there betweene these It is Gods will that it shall be Abrahams duty to sacrifice Isaack but it is not Gods will that Isaack shall be sacrificed by Abraham for as much as when Abraham comes to the poynt of sacrificing Isaack the Lord purposeth to hold his hand In like manner God commanded Pharaoh to let Israell goe It was his will then that it should be Pharaohs duty to let Israel goe but withall he toâ—d Moses that he would harden Pharaohs heart that he should not let Israel goe whereby it is man iâ— est that God decreed that Israel should not be dismissed by Pharaoh for a while and that as is signified in the Text to make way for his judgements to be brought upon the land of Egypt whereby God meant to glorify himselfe as in the sight of Pharaoh and of his
the light but the morning is even to them as the shadow of death if one know them they are in the terrours of the shadow of death Now there is a course of adulterating the word of God and deflouring his truth every way as abominable in the sight of God as the deflowring of women yea and much more abominable In my answer to the former discourse as I remember I proposed certaine arguments to prove the absolute nature of Reprobation This Authour doth not accommodate himselfe nor his Achates neither to answer so much as one of them Thus having Prefaced concerning these concealed Authours and therewithall made answer to the Preface of this Interpolator I come to make answer to the Additions themselves The Answer to the Additions 1. Some say that God of his meer pleasure antecedent to all sinne in the Creature originall or actnall did decree to glorifie his Soveraigntie and Justice in the eternall rejection and damnation of the greatest part of Mankind as the end and in their unavoidable sinne and impenitence as the meanes 2. The rest of that side thinking to avoid the great inconveniences to which the supralapsarian way lies open fall downe a little lower and present men to God in his decree of Reprobation lying in the fall under the guilt of originall sinne laying 3 That God looking upon miserable mankind lying in Adam's sinne did decree the greatest number of men even those men whom he calls to repentance and salvation by the preaching of the Gospel to Hell torments for ever and without all remedie for the declaration of his severe justice This way went the Synod Let the Reader observe that this Authour in stating the opinion of our Divines alleageth no passages out of any of them no nor so much as quotes the place of any of their writings where this doctrine is to be found in the terme wherein he delivers it that so he may take the greater libertie to shape their opinions according to his owne pleasure first as touching the first observe 1. How he shapes this opinion 2 the Persons to whom he imputes it concerning the first the Decree is shaped as consisting of two parts The one sets downe the end which God intended the other the meanes whereby this end is procured 1. As touching the end it is hard to say by his shaping of it whether the manifestation of God's glory be made the end or man's damnation and if any one conceaves hereupon that man's Damnation is the end which God intended in the opinion of our Divines like enough this Authour will be well enough pleased with it 2. Consider how God's Soveraingtie and Justice are coupled together as appearing in the eternall rejection and damnation of his Creatures as if both of them did appeare equally in each 3. Then rejection is proposed without distinction and specification that we might know whether he understands it of rejection from Grace or rejection from Glorie 4. And in the fourth place he couples rejection with Damnation as if both were of equall yoke signifying Acts temporall whereas rejection in the Common notion thereof is all one with reprobation and reprobation is commonly taken for an act eternall to witt The eternall purpose of God to deny grace permit sinne and inflict damnation for sinne 5. Damnation is here brought in as belonging to the Decree of the end and quite left out in the Decree of the meanes whereas by the very light of Nature it is apparent that Justice vindicative is manifested no where more then in the execution of punishment 6. And lastly Damnation in it selfe is no manifestation of Justice any more then of Injustice unlesse it be executed as a condigne punishment for sinne yet most absurdly he talks of manifesting justice in man's Damnation without specifying the meritorious cause of Damnation without consideration whereof Damnation is no manifestation of Justice either Divine or humane 7. Whereas he sets forth the Persons damned to be the greatest part of Man-kind this is only to speak with a full mouth and to gull a partiall Reader who may be well pleased to have his mouth filled with an emptie spoone For the Scripture teatheth expreslie that even of them that are called but few are chosen and clear reason doth manifest that look how God may deale with one in the same manner it is lawfull for him to deale with Millions We love to speak distinctly and accordingly we say that all God's decrees are of doing something for the manifestation of his owne Glory I say of doing something for no glory of God is manifested in Decreeing but in executing his Decrees As when Solomon saith God hath made all things for himselfe even the wicked against the day of evill Prov 16 4. So then the manifestation of God's Glory is the end of all his actions And accordingly if rejection here be taken for God's Decree no glory is manifested herein and too absurd it is to account God's eternall Decrees to to be meanes for the accomplishing of his ends But if Rejection be taken here for a temporall Act to witt Of finall dereliction in sinne then it may be a meanes for the manifestation of God's glory in a certaine kind namely his Soveraigntie for like as God hath mercy on whom he will in not leaving them finally in their sinnes but delivering them from the power of it by bestowing on them the Grace of Faith and Repentance In like manner God hardneth whom he will in denying the same Grace of Faith and Repentance and so finally leaving them and permitting them to continue finally in their sinnes without breaking them of by repentance So that God proceed's herein merely according to his pleasure for the manifestation of that Soveraingtie which he hath as a Creator over his Creatures Even the same that the Potter hath over his Clay to make of the same lump one vessell unto honour an other unto dishonour No Justice is manifested in this difference I meane no such Justice as proceedes in reference to the workes of men for he doth not bestow Grace upon men because of their good workes nor deny grace unto them because of their evill workes but finding men equall in the state of sinne he bestowes Grace upon the one to cure sinne in them and bestowes it not upon others Yet God is just herein in another respect namely in as much as he doth no other thing in all this but such as he hath a lawfull power to doe As for Damnation that is clearly an Act temporall and this the Lord inflicts on none but for their sinnes And like as in giving or denying grace God manifested no justice Compensative but Soveraigntie only proceeding therein merely according unto pleasure So in inflicting dānation denying glory he manifest's vindicative Justice alone not proceeding according to mere pleasure herein but according to mens workes and that according to a Law which himselfe hath given unto men namely
shewing the like grace to them which he shewed to others 1. So that the moving cause of Reprobation is the alone will of God and not the sinne of man originall and actuall like as on the other side the moving cause of election is only the will of God or not faith or any good workes whereupon this Authour is loath to manifest his opinion This doctrine is not only approved by Doctour Whitaker Doctour of the Chaire in the Universitie of Cambridge and that in his Cygnea Cantio a little before his death but justified and confirmed by varietie of Testimonies both of Schoolemen as Lumbard Aquinas Bannes Petrus de Alliaco Gregorius Arminensis of our owne Church and the Divines thereof as taught by Bucer at Cambridge by Peter Martyr at Oxon professed by the Bishops and others promoted by Queen Elizabeth and farther in the yeare of our Lord 1592 there was a famous recantation made in the Universitie of Cambridge by one Barret in the 37. of Elizabeth whereunto he was urged by the heads of houses of that Universitie The Recantation runnes thus Preaching in Latine not long since in the Universitie Church Right worshipfull many things slipt from me both falsly and rashsly spoken whereby I understand the mindes of many have been grieved to the end therefore I may satifie the Church the truth which I have publiquely hurt I doe make this publique confession both Repenting and Revoking my Errour First I said that no man in this transiâ—â—ie world is so strongly underpropt at least by the certainty of Faith that is unlesse as I afterwards expounded it by Revelation that he ought to be assured of his owne Salvation But now I protest before God and acknowledge in my conscience that they which are justified by faith have peace towards God that is have reconciliation with God and doe stand in that grace by faith therefore that they ought to be certaine and assured of their owne Salvation even by the certainty of Faith it selfe 2. Secondly I affirmed that the faith of Peter could not faile but that other mens faith may for as I then said Our Lord prayed not for the faith of every particular man but now being of a better and more sound Iudgment according to that which Christ teacheth in plaine words Ioh. 17. 20. I pray not for these alone that is the Apostles but for them also which shall believe in mee through their word I acknowledge that Christ prayed for the faith of every particular believer and that by the vertue of that prayer of Christ every true believer is so stayd up that his faith cannot faile 3. Thirdly touching perseverance to to the end I said that that certainty concerning the time to come is proud for as much as it is in his owne nature contingent of what kind the perseverance of every man is neither did I affirme it to be proud only but to be most wicked but now I freely protest that the true and justifiing faith whereby the faithfull are most neare united unto Christ is so firme as also for the time to come so certaine that it can never be rooted up out of the mindes of the faithfull by any temptation of the flesh the world or divell himselfe so that he that once hath this faith shall ever have it for by the benefit of that justifying faith Christ dwelleth in us and we in Christ therefore it cannot but be both increased Christ growing in us dayly as also persevere unto the end because God doth give constancy 4. Fourthly I affirmed that there was no distinction in faith but in the Persons believing in which I confesse I did erre Now I freely acknowledge the Temporarie faith which as Bernard witnesseth is therefore fained because it is temporary it is distinguished and differeth from the saving faith whereby sinners apprehending Christ are justified before God for ever not in measure and degrees but in the very thing it selfe Moreover I adde that Saint Iames doth make mention of a dead faith and Paul of a faith that worketh by love 5 Fifthly I added that forgivenesse of sinnes is an Article of faith but not particular neither belonging to this man or that man that is as I expounded it that no true faithfull man either can or ought certainely believe that his sinnes are forgiven But now I am of an other mind and doe freely confesse that every true faithfull man is bound by this Article of faith to believe the forgivenes of sinnes and certainely to believe that his owne particular sinnes are freely forgiven him neither doth it follow hereupon that that Petition of the Lord's prayer to wit forgive us our trespasses is needlesse for in that Petition we aske not only the gift but also the increase of Faith 6 Sixtly these words escaped me in my Sermon viz As for those that are not saved I doe most strongly believe and doe freely protest that I am so perswaded against Calvin Peter Martyr and the rest that sinne is the true and proper cause of Reprobation But now being better instructed I say that the Reprobation of the wicked is from everlasting and that saying of Saint Austine to Simplician to be mòst true viz If sinne were the cause of Reprobation then no man should be elected because God doth know all men to be defiled with it And that I may speak freely I am of the same mind and doe believe concerning the Doctrine of Election and Reprobation as the Church of England believeth and teacheth in the booke of the Articles of faith in the Article of Praedestination Last of all I uttered these words rashly against Calvin a man that hath very well deserved of the Church of God to wit that he durst presume to lift up himselfe above the high and Almighty God by which words I doe confesse that I have done great injurie to that most learned and right good man and I most humbly beseech you all to pardon this my rashnes as also in that I have uttered many bitter words against Peter Martyr Beza Zanchy Iunius and the rest of the same religion being the lights and ornaments of our Church calling them by the odious names of Calvinâ—sts and other slanderous termes branding them with a most grevious marke of reproach whom because our Church doth worthily reverence it was not meet that I should take away their good name from them Doctor Fulke in like manner maintaines that reprobation is not of workes but of God's free will Rom 9 Num 2. His words are these God's election Reprobation is most free of his owne will not upon the foresight of the merits of either of them for he hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardeneth vers 18. Yet here is to be distinguished for the explication of the truth That God's decree of Reprobation may be considered either as touching the Act of God reprobating and willing or as touching the things hereby willed or Decreed As
be such a God A Morall efficient is twofold being only of a moveing nature to move others to doe somewhat as namely either by perswading or by meriting or deserving He that perswades moves an other to doe some what he that meriteth thereby moves another either to reward him or punish him Now to walke in the light of this distinction and not to please our selves by walking in darknesse though God be the prime principall and invincible cause of man's damnation in the kind of a cause efficient physicall which should not seeme strange to an ordinary Christian who knowes full well that vengeance is God's peculiar worke as the Iudge of all the world and that he delights in the execution thereof yet this hinders not but that man may be the cause of his own damnation in the way of a meritorious cause justly deserving it Omnis poena Deum habet Authorem All punishment hath God for the Authour of it This is a principle acknowledged both by the Arminians and Vasquez the Jesuite but never is punishment inflicted on any by the hands of God save on those who formerly have deserved it Consider we farther as touching the severall kinds of causes formerly mentioned if the question be which is the principall Aristotle answereth that this is not confined to any one kind of them somtimes the materiall cause somtimes the formall cause somtimes the efficient somtimes the finall cause is the demonstrative cause the cause propter quam the cause by vertue where of the effect hath its existence but this peculiar and speciall cause is described thus It is that whereby satisfactory answer is made to the question demanding why such a thing is Now in execution of punishment or condigne vengeance this satisfactory answer is made by representing the meritorious cause never by representing the efficient cause as for example if it be demanded why such a malefactor is executed upon the gallowes no sober man will answer because the Sheriffe cōmanded it to be so or because the Judge would have it so but because he robd upon the high way or committed some criminall fact or other which is capitall by the lawes of our land and to be punished with hanging upon the gallowes In like sort if question be made why devills or wicked men are damned is it our doctrine to referre the cause hereof to the mere pleasure of God Doe not all confesse that God inflicts damnation upon thē merely for their sinnes and transgressions wherein they have continued unto death without repentance Yet we acknowledge that God could have taken them off from their sinnes while they lived if he would by giving them repentance as he hath dealt with us and that merely of his free grace For we willingly confes that our sinnes are our owne but our faith is not our repentance is not When I say our owne I meane in respect that they are of our selves otherwise we acknowledge both faith and repentance to be our owne accipiendo in asmuch as we receive them but they are God's gifts and so they are his dando in asmuch as he gives them as Remigius speaketh Now what is become of this Authours pompous discourse Is it not the like the cracking of thornes in the fire making a great noise but the light of distinction like fire sets an end unto it and makes it appeare in its owne likenesse and proves nothing but a squib For albeit God in his decree makes the damnation of reprobates to be necessary and unavoidable yet seeing he makes it not to fall on any but for their sinnes what colour of dishonour unto God in ordaining that Iudas shall necessarily and unavoidably be damned for betraying the Sonne of God and afterwards most desperatly murthering himselfe If hereupon he could no more avoid his damnation then Astionax could the breaking of his neck when the Grecians tumbled him downe from the tower of Troy will any man that is not bereaved of common sense make strange of this It is true God did appoint both Iudas and all other wicked persons that never break off their sinnes by repentance unto destructiō of his own voluntary disposition For God workes all things according to the counsaile of his will and if it pleased him he could annihilate them upon the fresh foot of any sin or after they have suffered the vengeance of hell fire as many yeares in hell as they lived here in sinne yea and the devills in hell as Origen was of opinion and the Jewes at this day are of the same by Sir Edwin Sandes his relation whether this Author be of the same or not I know not And lastly we willingly confesse that the decree of God was antecedent to the deserts of men for reprobation is as antient as election and election was made before the foundation of the world if we believe Saint Paul rather then any other who either by word or deed doth manifest himselfe to be of a contrary opinion Still damnation is inflicted by God only for sinne and in degree answerable unto their sinnes and only because of their sinnes as a meritorious cause thereof though God makes use of it to his owne ends and the manifestation of his owne glory as Solomon professeth namely that God made all things for himselfe even the wicked against the day of evill And Saint Paul tells that as the Lord suffereth with long patience the vessells of wrath prepared to destruction that he might shew his wrath and make his power known So likewise another reason hereof he specifies to be this That he might declare the riches of his glory upon the vessells of mercy which he hath prepared unto glory For when we shall behold the unspeakable misery brought upon others by reason of their sinnes how rich will God's glory appeare unto us when we consider that had it not been for his free grace delivering us from sinne we had been swallowed up of the same sorrowes And thus Alvarez writeth disput III. The glory of God's mercy in his elect and in like manner the manifestation of divine justice on Reprobates is truely and properly the finall cause why God did permit sinnes both in Reprobates and Angells And he proves it out of this passage of Saint Paul So Aquin 1 p. pag. 23. art 5. This is the reason saith he why God hath chosen some and Reprobated others that representation might be made of Gods goodnesse towards the Elect in the way of mercy pardoning them and on the Reprobates in the way of justice punishing them And Alphonsus Mendoza a Scotist concurres with them in this and we see they make Saint Pauls doctrine their foundation And indeed albeit at the day of judgment there will be found a vast difference between the Elect and Reprobates the one having departed this life in the state of faith repentance the other in infidelitie and impenitency in such sort as God will bestow on his elect
Agents by whom they are acted to doe otherwise Yet there is another difference according to the morall condition of these actions For if they are good and so farre as they are goood they come to passe by Gods working of them but if they are evill and so farre as they are evill they come to passe onely by Gods permitting according to that of Austin Non aliquid sit nisi omnipotēs fieri velit vel sinendo ut fiat vel ipse faciendo Not any thing comes to passe but God willing it either by suffering it to wit in case it be evill or himselfe working it to wit in case it be good And according to that eleventh Article of Religion agreed upon by the Arch-Bishop and Bishops and the rest of the Clergy in Ireland which is this God from all eternity did by his unchangeable counsell ordaine whatsoever should come to passe in time yet so as thereby no violence is offered to the wills of the reasonable creatures and neither the liberty nor the contingency of the second causes is taken away but established rather Farther consider it is confessed by all that God concurres in producing the act of sinne as an efficient cause thereof not morall but naturall And Aquinas himselfe though he denyes that Voluntas Dei est malorum Because indeed as Hugo de Sancto Victore observes by the will of God is commonly understood in this case Voluntas approbans his will approving it and loving it And so it is justly denyed that God doth will evill things speaking of the evill of sinne Yet Aquinas professeth and disputes and proves that Actus peccati est a Deo the Act of sinne is from God Like as the Act of walking is from the soule though the lamenes in walking ariseth from some disease in the legge Now the Devill concurres not in this manner to any act of sin neither is the efficient cause thereof in the Kinde of a Naturall efficient but onely Morall by tempting and perswading What therefore shall we conclude as this Authour doth without feare or witt or honesty that by the confession of all men God is hereby made worse then the Devill To what abominable courses do the wilde witts and profane hearts of these men expose them The greatest works of Satan in moving men to sin are comprehended under blinding and hardening of them Now these operations are also attributed to God And like enough he doth usually performe them not by the ministry of his holy Angells but by the Ministry of Satan and his Angells of Darkenesse as we read 1. Kings 22. v. 21. 22. 23. Ioh 13. 27. Acts 5. 3. What then shall the Devill so farre possesse our hearts as to break forth into such intolerable blasphemyes as to conclude hereupon that God is bad or worse then the Devill The providence of God I willingly confesse is wonderfull and mysterious in this like unto the Nature of God to be adored rather then pryed into So this providence to be dreaded rather then for satisfaction to every wanton and wild witt to be searched into Yet all confesse that the Lord could hinder all this if it pleased him and rebuke Satan and restraine the power and stop the course of sin and prevent occasions leading thereunto but he will not and why But because he knowes it becomes his allmighty power and wisdome infinite rather exmalis bene facere quà m malum esse non sinere To worke good out of evill then not at all to suffer evill Lastly what meanes this Authour to carry himselfe so as to betray so strange ignorance in mitigating Satans operation in tempting unto sin as if this were not sufficient to make him the Authour of sin Especially considering the reason that moves him hereunto which is meerely the delight that he takes in dishonouring God and being a desperate spirit himselfe to make as many as he can partakers of the same desperate condition For cupiunt perditi perdere sayth Cyprian cum sint ipsi paenales quaerunt sibi ad poenam comites being damned themselves they desire to damne as many as they can And being bound in chaines and kept to the judgement of the great day they desire to have as many companions as they can in drinking of that cup of trembling and sucking the very dreggs of that cup of trembling and wringing them out For as the Historian observes Maligna est calamitas cum suo supplicio crucietur acquiescit alieno Calamity makes a man of a spightfull nature and when himselfe is tormented he takes content in this that others suffer with him And as the Oratour observes Nullum adversarium magis metuas quà m qui non potest vivere potest occidere No adversary more to be feared then he who cannot live himselfe yet can kill another This makes a coward resolute when he must needs dye he will fight like a mad man and kill all he can I say what meanes this Authour to carry the matter hand over head as if it were without question That he is not the Authour of sinne who onely is a Morall cause thereof but rather he that is the naturall efficient whereas great Divines carry it to the contrary As namely Dominicus Soto in his first booke of nature and grace chap 18. Although sayth he there are many that thinke it hard to explicate how in the hatred of God which hath an inward and indivisible malignity God can be the cause of the entity but not of the fault Yet this is not so hard to be understood Then he proceeds to shew how this may be First laying for his ground what it is to be the cause of sinne thus In morall actions he is altogether and is judged to be the cause who by a law or help or counsell or favour or perswasion moves any one either to good or evill Observe I pray the doctrine of this School-Divine directly contrary to that which this Authour supposeth without all proofe For in the judgement of Dominicus Soto he onely is to be accounted the cause of another mans sinne who is the morall cause thereof as by tempting counselling perswading thereunto And upon this ground he proceeds to free God from being the Authour of it after this manner But as for God he by all these wayes moves his creatures to that which is good and honest and none at all to evill Neither is the doctrine of Dominicus Soto alone but the common doctrine of the Divines of Salamancha as Molina confesseth in his disputation 23. And albeit Molina the Jesuite were of another opinion Yet Vasquius the Jesuite professeth that he was ever of the same minde with Dominicus Soto and the Divines of Salamancha in this In his 129 disputation upon the first part of his Summes As for Prosper he hath no such argument But first observe the Objection whereunto he answereth was made against the Doctrine of Austin as the Authour acknowledgeth Whence it followeth that looke
then to advance our selves into the very Throne of God's Soveraigntie and doe wee not feare least his wrath smoake us thence And if all this that hee contends for were granted him that nothing but mere necessitie were found in the motion of men's wills yet Suarez will justifie us from speaking contradiction or delivering ought that exceeds the compasse of God's omnipotencie And what if all the world were innocent yet God should not be unjust in casting the most innocent creature into hell fire as Medina professeth and that by the unanimous consent of Divines and Vasquez the Jesuite acknowledgeth this to be in the power of God as he is Lord of life and death and in the last chapter of the booke de praedestinatione gratiâ which goes under Austin's name there is an expresse passage to justifie it And albeit that worke be not Austin's yet it is lately justified to be the worke of a great follower of Austin's and as Orthodoxe as he namely the worke of Fulgentius as Raynaudus the Jesuite hath lately proved and justified that passage also together with that which is usually brought by School-Divines to prove it out of the twelfth chapter of Wisedome and shewes the right reading as followed by Austin and Gregory And withall represents a pregnant passage taken out of the fifteenth Homily of Macarius to the same purpose And out of Chrysostome in his 2. De compunctione cordis about the end thereof And out of Austin upon Psalme the seventieth about the beginning And to these he addeth Ariminensis Cameracensis Serarius and Lorinus all maintaining the same And this is evident by consideration of the power which it pleased the Lord to execute upon his holy Son and our blessed Saviour and by the power which he gives us over brute creatures This I say if all that he contends for were granted should rather be concluded therehence namely that in this case the creature should be innocent then that God should be the Authour of sinne especially considering that God performes in all this noe other thing then belongs unto him of necessitie as without which his moving of the second causes it were impossible the creature should worke at all which we have made good by shewing the manifest absurdity of their contrary doctrine who maintaine a bare concourse Divine either in subordination unto the agency of the creature or without subordinating the operation of the creature to motion Divine But we doe subordinate it as without which the second cause could not worke at all and by vertue whereof it doth worke and that freely so farre forth as liberty of will is competent to a creature but not so as to make the creature compeere with his Creatour Let man be a second free Agent but set our God that made us evermore be the first free Agent least otherwise we shall deny him the same power over his creatures that the Potter hath over the clay of the same lumpe to make one vessell unto honour and another unto dishonour This power in my maker the Lord hath given me eyes to discerne as taught us in his holy word and an heart to submit unto it and to his providence in governing my will even in the worst actions that ever were committed by me without any repining humour against his hand though I thinke it lawfull for us in an holy manner to expostulate with God sometimes in the Prophets language and say Lord why hast thou caused us to erre from thy waies and hardened our hearts against thy feare Which yet I confesse he brings to passe at noe time infundendo malitiam by infusing any malice into me who naturally have more then enough of that leaven in me but non infundendo gratiam not quickning in me that holy feare which he hath planted in me of which grace I confesse willingly I have a great deale lesse then I desire though the least measure of it is a great deale more then I doe or can deserve Neither shall I ever learne of this Authour after his manner to blaspheme God if at any time hee shall harden my heart against his feare Though this Authour speakes commonly with a full and foule mouth yet his arguments are lanke and leane and of noe substance but words As when hee saith that God over-rules men's wills by our opinion Now to overrule◠a man is to carry him in despight of his teeth Wee say noe such thing but that God moves every creature to worke agreably to it's nature necessary things necessarily contingent things contingently free Agents freely though nothing comes to passe by the free agency of any creature but what God from all eternity by his unchangable counsell hath determined to come to passe As the eleventh Article of Ireland doth professe by the unanimous consent of the ArchBishop Bishops and Clergy of that Kingdome when those Articles were made So I speake warily and circumspectly the rather because one Doctour Heylin doth in a booke intituled The History of the Sabbath professe Chapter 8. page 259. That that whole booke of Articles is now called in and in the place thereof the Articles of the Church of Ireland confirmed by Parliament in that Kingdome Anno 1631. A thing I willingly confesse at first sight seemed incredible unto mee namely that Articles of Religion agreed upon in the dayes of King Iames should be revoked in the dayes of King Charles but expect to heare the truth of that relation For the Authour thereof hath never as yet deserved so much credit at my hands as to be believed in such a particular as this But to returne this Authours text is nothing answerable to the margent For first imperare to command is one thing and to over-rule is another thing though he that doth imperare command ought is commonly accounted the Authour thereof as a cause Morall from whom comes the beginning of such a worke But utterly deny that God commands evill and the truth is wee acknowledge noe other notion of evill then such as the Apostle expresseth in calling it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an incongruitie to the law of God which law commands somethings and forbids other things I come to his third reason 3. I grant wicked counsellours and perswaders are deservedly accounted the Authors of sinne The common use and acception of the words as I shewed in answer to the first is observed to denote such Therefore Cicero makes Authour and disswader opposite and by law they are punishable in the same degree with the Actors But God is noe counsellour or perswader to any lewd course but forbids it and disswades it and that with denuntiation of the greatest judgments among trangressours 2. I willingly confesse that councelling is farre inferiour to enforcing yet in Scripture phrase earnest intreaty or command is oftentimes exprest by compelling as Mat 14. 22. Mark 6. 45. Luk 14. 23. Gala 6. 12 and 2. 14. 1 Sam 28. 23. 2 Chron 21. 11. And noe marvaile
abstaine from sinne when such a grace is granted him and consequently in granting such a grace he permits him still to sinne as well as in denying it and in denying he permits him to doe good as much as in granting it So that still it is not God that keepeth a man from sinne as often as he abstaineth from it but merely the power of his own free will Whereby it is evident that this Authour as well denies that God is the Authour of any good as that he is the Authour of any evill But man is Authour of the one as well as of the other The power of doing good he will grant is from God neither can it be denied but that the power of doing evill is from God He will grant likewise that God is ready to concurre to any good act if man will and I presume he will not deny but that God concurres also to the substance of every evill act The only difference that remaines is this God perswades only to good and disswades only that which is evill Now this third and last assertion we grant as well as he Yet he layes to our charge that we make God the Authour of evill but cares not at all how he denies God to be the Authour of any good in the actions of men and makes noe place for any grace save such as is hortatory which is performed usually by the ministery of men Yet consider what Bradwardine sometimes Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Elect hath written in this kind before Luther or Calvin were borne The title of the fourth chapter of his second booke is this That free will being tempted cannot of his own strength without the helpe of God and his grace overcome any temptation Of the first this that free will strengthned with what created grace soever cannot without another speciall succour of God overcome any temptation of the sixth this that That speciall succour of God is the unconquerable grace of God Of the seventh this That no man though not tempted can by the strength of his free will alone without created grace or with created grace how great soever it be without the speciall asistance of God avoide any sin all these propositions he demonstrates with variety of argument Behold the ingenuity of this Authour He flies in the face of Calvin and Beza and other our Divines for maintaining that unlesse God by his grace keep and preserve a man effectually from sinning it cannot be that he should abstaine from sinne Bradwardine maintained the same before any of these were borne yet he saith nothing to him le ts all his arguments alone but upbraides us for maintaining the same doctrine without giving any reason to convict us of our errour Adde to this which I have omitted the Corolary of that seventh chapter in Bradwardin formerly mentioned is this That it is the will of God which preserves them that are tempted from falling and them that are not tempted both from temptation and from sinne Not one of the arguments whereby he confirmes any of these positions doth this Authour goe about to answer In like manner Alvarez Positâ permissione divinâ infallibiliter peccat homo upon supposition of God's permission man sins infallibly The proposition he intends to prove in that disputation is this Therefore a man is not converted because he is not aided of God But both he and we deny that hereupon a man sinneth necessarily alwaies but only in some cases In some cases it followeth as namely a man borne in sinne and in the state of corruption the naturall fruits whereof are infidelity and impenitency untill God affords a man the grace of regeneration he cannot believe he cannot repent They that are in the flesh cannot please God Thou after the hardnesse of thy heart that cannot repent Therefore they could not believe In which case God is not the cause of infidelity and impenitency but these proceed naturally and necessarily from that originall corruption wherein they are conceived and borne God is only the naturall cause why this their naturall corruption continues uncured For none can cure it but God it being a work nothing inferior to the raising of them from the dead Yet he is no culpable cause of this For as much as he is not bound to any but he hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardneth So that necessarily without the grace of regeneration every man continueth in his naturall corruption devoyd of faith of hope and love These being supernaturall and whereunto no man can attaine with out supernaturall grace In like manner hence it followeth that no naturall man can performe any morall good act in a gracious acceptable manner in the sight of God because â—he fountaines of such performances are not found in naturall men But they have a free power as to commit any naturall evill worke so to abstaine from it though not in a gracious manner Free power as to abstaine from any vertuous act so to performe it also though not in a gracious manner They may be temperate chast just and the like but their vertuous actions are not truly vertues in a Christian account because they know not God nor Christ much lesse doe they believe in him and performe these vertuous actions out of their love unto him If Maccovius and Whitaker and Pareus be of the same mind and the Dominicans with them and Bradwardine before them all let the indifferent Reader consider what an hungry opposition is made by this Authour not offering to answer any one of their Arguments nor of mine neither in my Vindiciae Nor saith ought by way of reply upon any answer to the like argument of Arminius The resolution of all that here he delivers determining in a rule himselfe proposeth without reason or authority to justifie it A rule as here it is applyed conteining a notorious untruth For causa deficiens in no case can be efficiens in proper speech any more then causa efficiens can be accounted deficiens unlesse it be understood in divers kinds As for example efficiens naturaliter may be deficiens moraliter and deficiens moraliter may be efficiens naturaliter An efficient cause naturally may be deficient morally and so a cause deficient morally may be efficient naturally Least of all can it have place in the present question which is of the cause of sinne For sinne as sinne evill as evill non habet causam efficientem sed deficientem hath no cause efficient but deficient only as Austin hath long agoe determined and it is a rule generally received and never that I know denied of any Againe causa deficiens in necessariis may be culpable I confesse and so interpretativè as they say may be interpreted to be as good as an efficient As in a civill consideration it is said of the Magistrate that Qui non vetat peccare cum possit jubet He that forbiddeth not a man to sinne when it
hath a Corollary to this effect That some kind of necesity and liberty are not repugnant but may consist together Againe God doth after a sortnecessitate every created will unto every free act therefore and to every free cessation and vacation from act that by necessity antecedent naturally And he addes a Corollary that some kind of antecedent necessity and liberty are not repugnant and may consist together This distinction of liberty from necessitie liberty from sinne liberty from misery I find in Bernard and Vossius alleadgeth it only out of him and the School-men might take it up after him Bernard hath many obscure passages in the prosecuting of it especially in reference to the two first members Neither doth Vossius take any paines to cleare them from a manifest contradiction in shew And no marvaile if Doctor Potter doth not in stating the opinion of the Church of England in the point of free will which he undertakes very magnificently in his answer to charity mistaken he was content to be led by his blind guid now the seeming contradiction is this If there be in a naturallman no liberty from sinne then is he necessarily carried into sinne and how then is there any liberty in him from necessitie unlesse necessitie be taken as all one with constraint And Bernard sometimes in that very treatise doth clearly expresse himselfe to understand thereby coaction And so M. Fulkes in his answer to the Rhemish testament denying unto man liberty from sinne yet grants unto him a liberty from coaction And indeed sinne to the profane person is like a sweet morsell which he rolleth under his tongue as the booke of Iob speaks he comes not constrained thereunto but naturally takes delight therein I doubt too many there be who though they are driven to confesse that a naturall man hath no liberty from sinne yet they please themselves with a certaine expression of Lindan's that a man hath free will unto sinne hoping therehence to conclude when time serves that a man as he hath freedome to commit it so he hath freedome to abstaine from it and so by a backe doore to draw in a Tenet quite contrary to the first namely that even a naturall man hath liberty from sinne I am not sure that Lindan did well understand his own expression so as to know how to make it good much lesse that they are able who licke their lips at it But of this and the clearing of Bernard and of the difference between liberty naturall and liberty morall I have else where discoursed at large And Calvin observing this contradiction might well blame them that confound necessity with coaction whereby a way is opened to conclude that because a man is free from constraint of sinning therefore he is free from necessity of sinning whereas originall sin doth necessarily incline him to sinfull actions courses in generall though to this kind of sin in speciall or to this particular in what kindsoever it doth not yet by the way it is to be considered that Calvin in some particulars as namely in gracious courses did attribute so much to the efficacy of God's operation upon a man's will as that the actions performed thereby though voluntary yet in his opinion were not to be accounted free indeed they are wrought in opposition as it were in spight of a certain principall of corruption that in part remaines in the very best of God's children But we see no reason to the contrary but that when once God hath planted in us a principle of new life of the life of grace by the spirit of regeneration though all the powers thereof doe incline only to that which is good like as the powers of naturall corruption incline only unto evill yet the particular use and exercise of those is alwaies free Like as the particular use and exercise of the powers of our corruption is allwaies free to the committing of this or that sinne according unto emergent occasions standing in congruity to every man's particular dispositioÌ„ 2. The Authour keepes himselfe to the language of his own Court but he should not so imperiously put it upon his opposites to concurre with him in the language of Ashdod We know nothing that necessitates the will to sinne but that originall corruption wherein every man is conceived and which we brought with us into the world For that makes us impatient of a yoake like unruly Heyfers And nothing is more burthensome unto us in our corrupt nature then the holy lawes of God The statutes of Omri are not so nor all the manner of the house of Ahab these are punctually observed when God's holy ordinances are proudly despised God moves every creature to worke agreeably to ' its nature Necessary Agents necessarily contingent Agents contingently Free Agents freely He doth not move to any such act as is sinfull save only where the feare of God is not at all found or not quickned but the motions and suggestions of Satan entertained nor then neither alwaies and that not only in his own children but even in the hearts of the wicked to restraine from sinfull courses in spight of Satans temptations by injecting into their minds the consideration either of danger or of shame ensuâ—ng so in a naturall way to restraine from the committing of such an act as is sinfull especially when he seeth it prejudiciall to the peace of his Church in generall or any member thereof in particular otherwise if he gives them over to Satan and moves them agreably to his suggestions entertained by them as being naturally well pleased with them why should this seem strange to any So that not any sin is inevitably committed by the most wicked creature that lives upon the face of the earth but he hath power enough I doe not say to avoid it an absurd phrase as if sinne were a thing to be forced upon a man whether he would or no but to abstaine from it though not in a gracious manner that being in the power of them only who have the spirit of regeneration dwelling in them 3. In the same language he prosecutes his vile cause giving manifest evidence to the world that it cannot be supported without lyes nor embraced by any but those whom God in his secret judgments hath given over to strong illusions to believe lyes It is not incredible to me that ever any Papist or Protestant hath affirmed that God necessitates the will to sinne They generally acknowledge that evill hath no cause efficient but deficient only The terme of God's operation is no other then the substance of the act which as an entity and as an act must necessarily proceed from God as Aquinas hath delivered And albeit they maintaine that God's concurrence to the producing of the act doth worke upon the will of the creature which from the first time that Divines came resolutely unto the acknowledgment of this Divine concourse to the act of sin hath also been received
impose or can impose any such necessity on things neither are creatures capable of such necessity But if we speake of such necessity as creatures are capable of under the divine liberty by causes intermediate it is to be said that all things doe not come to passe of necessity but some doe and some doe not God will have some things come to passe by the mediation of causes necessary those come to passe necessarily Others come to passe by the mediation of causes contingent and those come to passe contingently Whereby saith he 't is manifest that they say not well who say that all things come to passe of necessity in reference to the Divine will because as hath been shewed in respect of the Divine will all things come to passe freely and therefore speaking absolutely they may not come to passe although upon supposition that they are willed they cannot but come to passe but this is only necessity upon supposition 1. Indeed if men did sinne against their wills and virgins sometimes are ravished men are slaine by force full sore against their wills they deserved no punishment But is it possible that a man can will that which is evill against his will Every ordinary Scholar in the University knowes that axiome Voluntas non potest cogi the will cannot be forced Lipsius his speech fatali culpae fatalis poena fatall faults have fatall punishments this Authour saith is but a mere crotchet contrary to reason As if he would teach the very maintainers of fate yea the very first to understand themselves For fate wherewith our doctrine is charged by our opposites is commonly called Fate Stoicall Now Zeno was the father of the Stoicks yet when his servant was taken playing the theife pleaded for himselfe saying it was my destiny to steale Zeno answeared him in his own language that it was his destiny to smart for it too right in this same sense that Lipsius spake Yet Zeno knew full well that he punished his servant freely And Zeno is well knowne to have been a great Master of morality for all this which could not consist with denying the liberty of man's will as this Authour well knowes And Austin censureth those who feared to subject the will to all manner of necessity as men transported with vaine and causelesse feares manifesting thereby that some necessity may very well consist with a man's liberty Magistrates though they believe with Austin that Not any thing comes to passe unlesse Allmighty God will have it come to passe And with the Church of Ireland that God from all eternity did by his unchangeable counsell ordaine whatsoever should in time come to passe And with Aquinas that the roote of contingency is the effectuall will of God yet may they well thinke it reasonable enough to punish offences seing that God decrees that some things even all the actions of men shall come to passe contingently as well as other things shall come to passe necessarily For to come to passe contingently is to come to passe avoidably and if they be the actions of men freely also It is incredible that any sober man should remissely punish faults for the exorbitancy strength sake of the passions whereby they were committed but rather in consideration of the potent causes which raised such passions in them under a colour of justice And we commonly say the greater the temptation is the lesse is the sin So Peter surprised suddainly with feare denied his Master Yet what saith Aristotle In some things no force is suffecient for excuse but a man ought to dy rather any manner of death then commit them For those things in Euripedes are rediculous which moved Alcmaeon to kill his mother Indeed Plato maintained that things done through passion were not voluntary But Aristotle a better Master then he disproves it and by excellent reasons confirmes the contrary And whatsoever Popilius the Roman Pretor judged of her who slew her mother provoked by her Mothers fact in murthering her children yet let our lawes be consulted and the opinion of our Judges in such a case and whether such a one were not to be condemned and whether Popilius his judgment deserves to be admitted for the correction of the lawes of our land and working a reformation in this particular We should soone have a wild world if every one being provoked by the insolencies of others should thrust themselves into the throne of God for the execution of vengeance Yet none more unfit for this then the daughter to execute God's vengeance upon the mother that bare her Yet it was wont to be held If I forget not that potestas patria originally was power of life and death But all is fish that comes to this Authour's net like as her fact who poisoned her husband and son for killing a son of hers destroying two for one without all authority most unnaturally and that not hastily but in a deliberate way by poisoning And doth it become Christians to admire such heathenish courses of men nothing acquainted with the divine providence And was this so doubtfull a case whether so wicked a wretch avenging her selfe by poison secretly given upon her husband and son for the death of another son of hers that the sentencing thereof should be put over untill an 100 yeares after But what of all this These willfully affect revenge the execution whereof belongs not to them but it is just with God to punish sinne with sinne one man's sinne by another As of Senacherib the Lord professeth that he would cause him to fall by the sword in his own land this was brought to passe by his own children falling upon him furiously and as unnaturally as the actions of any of these How was innocent Naboth used and by publique sentence condemned to be stoned to death and accordingly executed by the practise of wicked Iezabel Yet Solomon spareth not to professe that every man's judgment commeth of the Lord. Never were more abominable courses executed upon any then upon the holy son of God Yet these were all foredetermined by the hand of God and the counsell of God as the Apostles with one voice acknowledge By the same providence was Ioseph sold into Egypt God working thereby the preservation of them that sold him Thus Sihon was hardened and the Canaanites and the Egyptians with Pharaoh their King to their own destruction Thus the Lord punished David's foule sinne by the murther of Amnon contrived by his own brother and by the sword of Absolon rising up against his own father and by the sword of Shimei's tongue cursing David wherein David acknowledged the hand of God Thus he punished the Idolatry of the Gentiles by giving them over to vile affections and so prostituting them to abominable courses What outrages were committed by Senacherib that proud and blasphemous wretch upon the people of God yet is he called the rod of God's wrath and the staffe in his hand is
holinesse and maketh him the principall cause of sin in the greatest number of men I know that the defender of it doth not thinke so For the maine reason which moved the Synod of Dort some other Divines before and since to bring downe predestination thus low and begin their Reprobation after the fall was that they might maintaine a fatall and absolute Reprobation of men and yet avoid this imputation as Doctor Twisse hath noted But what they intended for ought that I can see they have not compassed For it followeth evident enough even from their conclusions too that of all the sins of reprobates which are the greatest number by many degrees God is the true and principall Authour Two things they say which taken together methinks inferre it 1. That God of his own will and pleasure hath brought men into an estate in which they cannot avoid sinne 2ly That he leaveth the Reprobate irrecoverably in it 1. That God of his own will and pleasure hath brought men into an estate in which they cannot possibly avoid sinne that is into the state of originall sinne which consists of two parts 1. The guilt of Adam's transgression 2. The corruption of nature In both these they say mankind is interessed not through the force and efficiency of naturall generation because we all derive our nature from Adam as our first principle but by God's free and voluntary order and impuration It came not to passe by any naturall meanes saith Calvin that all men fell from salvation by the fault of our first parem That all men are held under the guilt of eternall death in the person of one man it is the cleare and constant voice of Scripture Now this cannot be ascribed to any naturall cause it must therefore come from the wonderfull councell of God A little after he hath the same againe with as great an Emphasis How is it that so many nations with their children should be involved in the fall without remedy but because God would have it so As roundly doth Doctor Twisse affirme the same The guilt of originall sinne is derived unto us only by imputation the filth only by propagation and both these only by God's free constitution A little before he hath these words The fault of our nature commeth rom God's free appointment For he doth not cut of any necessity but of his mere will only impute the sinne of Adam to us To this purpose he speaketh a great deale more in the same place To these sayings Saint Bernard hath the like speaking of Adam's sinne he saith Adam's sinne is anothers because we knew not of it and yet ours because it was through the just though secret judgment of God reputed ours And this that they say is agreable to reason For if we be fallen into the guilt of the first sinne and the corruption of nature only because we were in Adam's loines when he sinned and derive our being from him then these two things will follow 1. That we stand guilty of all the sinâ— which Adam committed from his fall to his lives end For we were vertually in his loines as well after his fall as before and in every passage and variation of his life he was still a principle of mankind But where doe we read that we are guilty of any other of his sins To the nâ—st sin only doth the Scripture entitle that sin and misery which entred into the world and invaded all mankind as we may see Rom 5. 15. 16. 17 c. 2. That children are guilty of the sins of all their progenitours especially of their immediate parents For they were in their loines when they sinned and more immediatly then in Adam's But children are not guilty of their parents faults nor obnoxious to their punishments because they are their children as we may see Exod 20. 5. where God saying that he will visit the sins of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of them hate him plainly implyeth that children are not simply charged with their fathers sins but conditionally if they be haters of God as their fathers were if by imitating their wicked parents they become partakers of their sins In Ezech 18 14 c. The Lord signifieth thus much in his Apology against the cavill of the Jewes For first he saith that if a wicked man begetteth a son that seet his fathers sins doth not the like he shall not die for the iniquiry of his father This implyeth that the derivation of being from the patent doth not render the child obnoxious to the punishment of the fathers sin nor consequently to the sinne For the good child is not obnoxious and yet the good child is equally in the fathers loines with the bad and equally receiveth nature and being from him And then the Lord tells them expresly thus much in two propositions 1. Affirmatively The soule that sinneth it shall die And that it may be known that he speaks exclusively only the soule that sinneth shall dye he delivers his mind 2. Negatively The Son shall not beare the iniquity of the father neither shall the father beare the iniquity of her Sonne c. Our Saviour in that woefull speech of his to the Pharisees Fulfill ye also the measure of your fathers Behold I send unto you Prophets c. them ye shall kill and crucifie that on you may come all the righteous blood c. Intimateth apparently that the Pharisees were not inheritours of their fathers sins punishments by birth but by the commission and imitation of their fathers sins they came to inherit both their sins and plagues Miserable would our case be on whom the ends of the world are coÌ„e if children should be guilty of all their Ancestours prevatications What a world of sins should we be to answer for personall sins parents progenitours sins to a thousand past generations A thing with no reason to be imagined This is the first thing Whereas I am quoted here to give the reason which moved the Synod of Dort and some other Divines to begin Reprobation after the fall namely this to avoid the imputation of making God the Authour of sinne I doubt this Authour hath so long inured himselfe to leasings that it is growne naturall unto him to deliver untruthes For first I make no mention in that fourth Digres of mine in the matter of predestination of the Synod of Dort neither indeed were they the Objects of my thoughts in this particular That Digression of mine is spent in answering the arguments of those who dispute against Massa nondum condita and stand for massa corrupta to be the object of election and reprobation In the first chapter I make answer to Mr. Elnathan Parre in an English tract of his wherein he deales upon this argument In the second chap I deale with others that make choice of the lower way because it seemes to be the easiest
way which I expresse in the very words of Mr. Doctor Abbats Bishop of Sarisbury ere he died and I conceived that indeed this motive prevailed with most and therefore I thought good so much the more throughly to discusse that But doe I say they tooke this course to free God from the imputation of sinne Nothing lesse my words are these in the Digression cap. 2. Quod plurimos movet illud est nimirum quod in sententia illâ de massâ nondum conditâ omnia sint ut aiunt intricata perplexa infinitis difficultatibus involuta in hac verò de massâ corruptà predestinationi hominum praestruendâ contra clara sint omnia cum Scripturarum autoritate judicioque antiquitatis planissimè consentientia where I mention two reasons that moved them to take this way 1. This in that opinion concerning the Masse of mankind not yet created all passages are intricate perplext and intangled with infinite difficulties but in the opinion concerning the Masse corrupt all things are cleare 2. This that in this other opinion all things are most plainly found to agree both with the authority of Scriptures and with the judgment of antiquity Now after I had endeavoured to discover the insufficiency of this plea in the second and third chapter of that fourth Digression in the matter of predestination In the fourth chapter I propose mine own judgment concerning the true benefit of this way in making the corrupt masse of mankind the object of election and reprobation not the judgment of others as this Authour carrieth the matter but mine own judgment For thus I beginne Ad extremum vis liberè pronuntiem quid unicè proficiatur ex hac nostrá praedestinationis Objecti sententiae temperatione Dicà m igitur quid sentiam Hinc nimirum efficitur ut à lapsu primorum parentum decreto praedestinationis subjiciendo subordinando liberemur huic unicè provisum esse ab istius quasi mediae temperatioris opinionis assertioribus mihi plusquam probabile aut verisimile videtur ne scililicet alias peccatum fieri statueretur decernente Deo tanquam medium ad fines à Deo in praedestinatione sibi praestitutos accommodatum unde etiam quà m author peccati constituendus sit nullâ solidâ ratione explicari posse videtur In the last place will you give me leave freely to professe what we profic by thus tempering our opinion touching the object of predestination I will therefore deliver what I thinke So that herein I purpose mine own opinion only not the opinion of others Herehence thus we gaine that we are freed from subjecting and subordinating man's fall unto God's decree of predestination It seemes to me more then probable or likely that the maintainers of this middle and temperate openion doe provide only against this inconvenience that is their way doth indeed provide against this and against no other inconvenience in my opinion to wit least otherwise the sinne of Adam should be said to come to passe God willing it as a meanes conducing to those ends which God intended in predestination from whence it followes as it seemes that it cannot be explicated by any solid reason that God is not made the Authour of sinne All which is delivered by me as my opinion conceiving that others thinke so too namely not that God is hereby made the Authour and principall cause of sinne but that the contrary cannot be explicated by any solid reason Now Cajetan confesseth as much namely that in these mysteries all the distinctions that are used doe not quietare intellectum satisfie the understanding and therefore he doth captivate his owne into the obedience of faith And Alvarez justifies him in this professing herein that he speakes doctissimè piissimè most learned and holyly And in a peculiar disputation he maintaines that the mistery of Gods providence and predestination standing with the liberty of our wills is incomprehensible by us in this world Lastly consider this is delivered only of the first sinne of our first parents which this authour perverts most shamefully when he avoucheth that I should acknowledge our Divines many of them to embrace this way to avoyd the imputation of making God the principall cause not of Adams sinne alone but of sinne in the greatest number of men And to confesse a truth if sinne be made the meanes for the procuring of the ends which God intends in predestination undoubtedly God himselfe should be the authour of sinne For whosoever intends any end he and none but he must be authour in working the meanes which tend to this end Therefore I said only that in this case It seemes that the sinne of Adam was intended by God as the meanes Whereas in truth and upon due consideration it appeares that not the creatures sinne but Gods permission of the creatures sinne is the meanes whereby God brings to passe his glorious ends Yet not the permission of sinne alone but joyned together with the pardoning of it and saving his elect in despight of it is the compleat meanes together with the procuring of Christs merits for the manifestation of Gods glory in the way of mercy And in like manner not the permitting of sinne alone but joyned with the punishment of it is the compleat meanes for the manifestation of Gods glory in the way of justice vindicative which in Scripture phrase is called the declaration of his wrath And whereas I said that hereby it seemed that it could not by any sound reason be manifested that God was not the Authour of sinne by the first way this Authour avoucheth of the defenders of the lower way which seemes most temperate that from their conclusions it followeth evidently that of all the sinnes of Reprobates which are the greatest number by many degrees God is the true and principall Authour Observe this he sayth followeth evidently from their conclusions and forthwith he tells us that he thinks so or to his thinking it doth so And why is he not the Authour of all the sinnes of the elect also whereas originall sinne continues in them also they carry about them a body of death and have cause to complaine of a law in their numbers that rebelleth against the law of their mind and leadeth them captive to the law of sinne Only there is a principle of spirituall life in them that renewes their repentance dayly as their sinnes are renewed but they looke not to be freed from sinne as long as they live in this world But let us examine how well he makes good that which he affirmes of the sinnes of the Reprobate that God is made the Authour of them by our doctrine of Reprobation I find that Cornelius a Lapide a Iesuite shapes Calvines doctrine of election and Reprobation this lower way and imputes unto him that from Reprobation according to his doctrine in Reprobis manat certus necessarius lapsus in peccata quaelibet A certaine and necessary falling into
among heathen men I come to his second position which he casts upon us as dissenting therein from himselfe and it is this That God leaves the Reprobates irrecoverably in it Now on this point I would gladly know his contrary Tenet in what sense it proceeds namely That Reprobates are not left irrecoverably in originall sinne or in such state wherein they cannot avoid sinne For I cannot comprehend his meaning herein But it was wont to be said of Africa that semper aliquid apportat novi alwaies it brings forth some new monster in course of nature So men of this Authour's spirit are alwaies bringing forth some new monster in Divinity For what thinks he was ever any Reprobate recovered out of originall sin Nay was ever any child of God recovered out of it while he lived upon the face of the earth Or doth he thinke himselfe recovered out of it or is it in his power to avoid it Perhaps he will say though he cannot avoid sin originall yet he can avoid sin actuall and so not only the children of God may if they will but even Reprobates also But what may they avoid all sinne or some only What one of our Divines denies that a Reprobate hath power to avoid fornication We see heathens doe avoid it Or stealth For heathens doe so Or murther Even heathens have been found very morall and that generally But this we say All men in the state of nature whether they doe good as touching the substance of the act yet they doe it not in a gracious manner Or whether they abstaine from that which is evill they doe not abstaine from it in a gracious manner nor can doe Nay since the fall of Adam who ever lived free from sinne the Son of God only excepted Doth notholy Paul professe of himselfe saying I doe not the good that I would but the evill that I would not that doe I. To will is present with me but I find not to performe hat which is good And if God may justly damne all for sinne originall as Mr. Hoord affirmes why may not God leave all irrecoverably in it and that justly So that herein I find my selfe in a brake not can devise with my selfe in what tollerable or colourable sense he can affirme that Reprobates are not left irrecoverably in the state of originall sinne or in such a state in which they cannot avoid sinne I say in what sense he can deliver this different from us I cannot devise For we willingly grant that there is no particular actuall sinne from which a Reprobate hath not power to abstaine though he cannot abstaine from it in a gracious manner without grace and that grace we account the grace of regeneration which is a supernaturall principle of gracious actions both as touching faith in God and the love of God to the contempt of our selves Now I guesse his meaning is that no Reprobate is so left and abandoned in originall sinne but that God gives him grace to believe if he will to repent if he will to love God if he will that above all things I guesse I say that this is his meaning but I would have him expresse it that I might see it under his hand For till then I find noe apparent difference between him us as touching these two principles from whence he deduceth that God is thereby made The principall cause of sin in the greatest number of men And if once he deliver himselfe fairely and comes to this the issue of the question to be debated between us will be faire and cleare namely about this their universall grace whether all men elect and Reprobate by vertue of supernaturall grace given unto them have power to beleive if they will repent if they will And against this I will dispute after this manner First in all this there is no difference between us excepting that this power is said to be wrought in man by supernaturall grace For we say with Austin Deo credere ab amore temporalium ad divina praecepta servanda se convertere omnes possunt si velint All men can believe God if they will and from the love of temporall things convert themselves to the keeping of God's commandements if they will For all the moment of inclining a man to workes of morallity lyeth in the will of man And therefore marke what followes in Austin Sed praeparatur voluntas à Domino supple ut velit tantumque augetur munere charitatis ut possit But the will is prepard by the Lord to wit to make it willing and so much augmented by the gift of charity as to make it able And I prove that looke what I supply is according unto Austin interpreting that of the Apostle neque volentis neque currentis sed miserentis Dei it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy For he shewes that the whole both to will and run is to be ascribed unto God qui hominis voluntatem bonam praeparat adjuvandam adjuvat praeparatam who both prepares the good will of man that after he may helpe it and helpes it being once prepared where plainly man swilling that which is good is made the fruit of God's preparing it but because there is in man a will of the flesh resisting this will of the spirit therefore there is need not of grace preparing only but of grace adjuvant and helping also to enable it to doe what it hath a will unto whence immediatly followeth running as well as willing And these two graces praeparant and adjuvant are afterward called by the names of grace prevenient and subsequent thus Nolentem praevenit ut velit volentem subsequitur ne frustra velit Him that is unwilling the Lord preventeth to make him willing and willing he followeth him that he may not will in vaine And that this double grace is required by reason of the reluctancy between the flesh and the Spirit I prove out of the same Austin writing thus Prima gratiâ est quâ fit ut habeat homo justitiam si velit secunda ergo plus potest quâ etiam fit ut velit tantum velit tantoque ardore diligat ut carnis voluntatem contraria concupiscentem voluntate spiritus vincat The first grace is that whereby it comes to passe that a man is righteous if he will The second grace therefore is of more power whereby it comes to passe also that a man doth will and that so resolutely and with such fervency loveth compare this with that of Austin de Gen contrae Manich lib. 1. cap 3. that by the will of the Spirit he overcommeth the will of the flesh fighting against it So that a power to doe good if a man will is one thing to will that which is good is another thing and lastly to be able to doe that which it wills is a third thing yet both these two last are
Synod of Palestine 1200. yeares agoe to this day The difference of opinions here feigned by him about the point of Reprobation amongst our Divines is like the feigning of a knot in a bulrush For what is a peremptory denying of grace and glory to some men lying in the fall other then a denyall of that grace and glory which is prepared in the decree of election to the sonnes of God though indeed neither of them make it a denyall which is done in time but rather Gods decree to deny it For do not the latter Divines maintaine it to be peremptory as well as the former For what difference doth he devise between a flat denyall and a peremptory denyall and as for the latter decree belonging to reprobation here mentioned namely a preordination of the man thus left to the torments of hell do not the latter Divines acknowledge this decree to belong to Reprobation also Only they professe that God preordaines none to eternall torments in hell but for their sinnes actuall as well as originall of as many as live to ripenesse of age Now I would faine know what Divine of ours maintaines the contrary 1. Our Divines in saying Reprobation is Decretum quo statuit non misereri do manifest that not denying grace but the decree of denying it is Reprobation Walaeus speaketh of no common endowments though that be a truth which here is attributed unto them else how should they be called common endowments 2. If he decrees to leave Reprobates without grace and consequently under that necessity of sinning into which all are cast by the sinne of Adam it is nothing strange I thinke that God should accordingly leave them therein though in a different manner the Lord prostituting some to their own lost's and to the power of Satan more then others and making some even by the ministery of the Gospell proficere ad exteriorem vitae emendationem quo mitius puniantur as Austin some where speaketh If Gods decree cannot be frustrated as here is avouched I wonder he should charge us with teaching that God decreeth this or that immutably For if he should change any of his decrees they should undoubtedly be frustrated Indeed we do not say that God decrees Hypothetically to give grace to wit upon condition that men will make themselves fit for it and for failing herein to deny them grace And I am very glad to observe so good correspondence in the suffrages of Protestant Divines in the Synod of Dort and our English also with them Sect 3. 3. God both decreeth and executeth this leaving of men to themselves of his alone absolute will and pleasure This is the third branch 1 That they say so witnesse the suffrage of our English Divines We affirme that this non election is founded in the most free pleasure of God And that no man lying in the fall is past over by the meere will of God is numbred by the same Divines among the heterodox positions To this purpose also speake The Palatinate Ministers The cause of Reprobation is the most free and just will of God That God passeth over some and denyeth them the grace of the Gospell the cause is the same free pleasure of God Thus the Divines of Hessen God decreed to leave some in the fall of his own good pleasure The proofe of this they fetch from the execution of this decree in time God doth in time leave some of mankind fallen and doth not bestow upon them meanes necessary to beleive c. and this out of his most free pleasure This they joyntly affirme and prove it by this reason especially All men were lookt on as sinners If sinne therefore were the cause that moved God to reprobate he should have reprobated or rejected all But he did not Reprobate all therefore for sinne he reprobated none but for his owne pleasure in which we must rest wthout seeking any other cause 1. Now from these two things layd together viz. 1. That God did bring men into a necessity of sinning 2. That he hath left the Reprobates under this necessity it will follow that he is the Authour of the reprobates sinnes 1. Because Causae causae est causa causati the Cause of a cause is the cause of its effect if there be a necessary subordination betweene the causes and the effect whether it be a cause by acts negative or positive But God is the cheife or sole cause by their doctrine of that which is the necessary and immediate cause of the sinnes of reprobates namely their impotency and want of supernaturall grace therefore he is by the same doctrine the true and proper cause of their sinnes 2. Because Removens prohibens that which withdraweth and withholdeth a thing which being present would hinder an event is the cause of that event As for example he that cutteth a string in which a stone hangs is the cause of the falling of that stone And he that withdraweth a pillar which being put to uphold a house is the true cause in mens account of the falling of that house But God by their opinion withholdeth from reprobates that power which being granted them might keep thē from falling into sinne therefore he becometh a true morall cause of their sinnes In whose power it is that a thing be not done to him it is imputed when it is done sayth Tertullian In cuius manu est quid ne fiat ei deputatur cum iam fit It will not suffice to say that God by withholding grace from reprobates becometh only an accidentall not a proper and direct cause of their sinnes For a cause is then only accidentall in relation to the effect when the effect is beside the intention and expectation of the cause For example Digging in a feild is then an accidentall cause of the finding a bag of gold when that event is neither expected not intended by the husbandman in digging But when the event is lookt for and aymed at then the cause though it be the cause only by withholding the impediment is not accidentall As a Pilot who withholdeth his care and skill from a ship in a storme foreseeing that by his neglect the ship will be drowned is not to be reputed an accidentall but a direct and proper cause of the losse of this ship This being so it followeth that God by this act and decree of removing and detaining grace necessary to the avoyding of sinne from reprobates not as one ignorant and carelesse what will or shall follow but knowing infallibly what mischeife will follow and determining precisely that which doth follow viz their impenitency and damnation becomes the proper and direct cause of their sinnes That God of his meere pleasure sheweth mercy on some and hardeneth others is the expresse word of God Therefore he hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardneth Now to shew mercy is to give the grace of faith and obedience as appeares
ministery is a mere imposture because all the inforcements wherewith the tender of salvation unto Reprobates is accompanied is in shew most hearty serious but indued nothing so For what have the elect of God no part in the ministery Or dates he say that by our doctrin these insorcements are nothing hearty serious to them Thou wilt say the Authour's meaning is that the whole ministery is a mere imposture towards reprobates but he saith not so but thus The whole ministery is a mere imposture and afterwards in giving his reason for it he pleads that inforcements in shew hearty serious made to reprobates are nothing so hence he concludes that the whole ministery is a mere imposture without any distinctiō of persons to whom it is a mere imposture 4. Yet I willingly confesse that it is foul enough that God's courses should be courses of imposture towards any even towards reprobates But how doth he prove that God takes any such course with reprobates To whom hath God sent his word vouchsafed the ministery hereof according to all the enforcements mētioned accompanying his tender of salvation unto them is it not unto his Church What is the preserment of the Jew above the Gentile much every way saith Paul chiefly because unto thē were committed the Oracles of God And was the Church of Jewes a Church of reprobates Were they not the City of God but the city of the Devill If these enforcements had been used to the Nativites there had been some colour for such an imputation but seing 〈…〉 of God's word in all these enforcements is used to the people of God his pretious people chosen out of the world to put his name among'st them shall this ministery be so carryed as concerning reprobates All that he hath to say for this is no other but that a great part or the most part of the people to whom he sends his prophets are reprobates Be it so but how doth he prove that God intends this ministery for the salvation of reprobates or that he intends it at all for them If God commands them as he commanded Ieremiah saying Goe cry in the eares of Jerusalem Thus saith the Lord they must doe so without difference For they are not able to put a difference between the Elect and Reprobate to know who are the one and who are the other Austin was willing to pray for all but yet he professeth that if they knew who they were whō God had ordained unto damnation they would pray no more for them then for the Devill himself so that either the Prophets were not of Austin's mind or else that they thought that their ministery in God's purpose and appointment tended to the salvatiō only of Gods elect But because they knew not who they are therefore they prayed for all and used their ministeriall enforcements indifferently towards all But like enough this Authour will deny that the Prophets were of Austin's mind Therefore I will prove they were in this The Prophets were undoubtedly of St. Paul's mind but St. Paul was of St. Austin's mind in this therefore the Prophets also were of St. Austin's mind Now that St. Paul was of St. Austin's mind and that his ministery though performed towards all yet was intended for the salvation only of God's elect I prove thus Though I be free from all men yet have I made my selfe a servant unto all men that I might winne the more Observe he doth not say that he might winne all Againe I became all things to all men that I might save some Who are these some at whose salvation he aimes I answer they are God's elect and none but they and this I prove out of those words of his where he saith Therefore I suffer all things for the elects sake that they might also obtaine salvation which is in Christ Iesus with eternall glory Now if his sufferings were for their sakes undoubtedly his whole ministery was for their sakes for this alone brought his sufferings upon him The holy Ghost witnesseth in every City saying that bonds and afflictions abide me But I passe not at all neither is my life deare unto my selfe so that I may fulfill my course with joy and the ministration that I have received to testifie the Gospell of the grace of God 5. But be it that God intends it for Reprobates also yet not for their salvation But first to take away excuse from them as to this purpose he sent Ezechiel Son of man I send thee to a rebellious nation For they are impudent children I doe send thee unto them and thou shalt say unto them Thus saith the Lord God but surely they will not heare neither indeed will they cease for they are a rebellious house yet shall they know that there hath been a Prophet among them Or otherwise as Austin hath observed ut proficiant ad exteriorem vitae emendationem quo mitius puniantur that they may profit to an outward amendment of their lives that their punishment may be the lesse And consider whether in all this he doth not openly invade not so muchour doctrine as the manifest evidence of God's word For it is apparent that God gives commands to those whose hearts he means to harden that they shall not obey those commands though those commands were not made in a cold manner but with strongest enforcements Thou shalt say to Praraoh thus saith the Lord Israel is my son even my first borne wherefore I say to thee let my son goe that he may serve me If thou refuse to let him goe behold I will slay thy son even thy first borne Yet before this he told Moses saying I will harden his heart and he shall not let the people goe And after this The Lord hardned the heart of Pharaoh and he hearkned not unto them as the Lord had said to Moses And hereupon the Lord deales with him in the way of greater enforcement then before For the Lord said unto Moses Rise up early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh and tell him Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews let my people goe that they may serve me For I will at this time send all mine plagues upon thine heart and upon thy servants and upon thy people that thou maiest know that there is none like me in all the earth For now will I stretch out mine hand that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence and thou shalt perish from the earth And indeed for this cause have I appointed thee to shew my power in thee to declare my name thoroughout all the world Yet thou exaltest thy selfe against my people and lettest thē not goe Behold tomorrow this time I will cause to raine a mighty great hayle such as was not in Egypt since the foundation of it was laid And The lord said unto Moses Goe to Pharach for I have hardned his heart and
their p. 47 l. 2 praeoptat l. 23 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 48 l. 5 6 degree l. 8 degree of diminution l 10 any paine p. 49. l. 18 my argument p. 50. l. 7 in this l. 22 will p. 51. l. 22 the corrupt p 53. l. 33. permittente Deo p 55 l. 1 But God by this opinion doth will and procure it by a powerfull and effectuall decree which cannot be resisted p. 56 l. 5 this will l 53 signes of p. 57 l 8 God p. 59 l. 9 of Thomas p. 60 l 16 as holily p. 61 l. 45 is just p. 62. l. 4 restraines ib l. 14 good works l. 22 that therefore God l. 28. double evill l. 48 for it by p. 63 l. 5 Potan p. 64 l. 7 efficacy of l 16 supposition l. 18 necessarily but either necessarily or c. l. 19 supposition l. 24 of Aquinas l. 26 on Gods Marg pro culpa p. 65. l. 34 quotation l. 45 to feare l. 48. emortui sarmenti quia Christo resecti sunt l. 49 multi p. 66 l. 7 saith not l. 12 nill that l. 25 futurition l. 47 from sin l. 56 or whither he abstaine from that which is evill he doeth not abstaine from it in a gracious manner p. 67 l. 12 this of l. 24 you hearts l. 51. mans infidelity p. 68 l. 57. manner of appointing hereunto for if they be at all appointed hereunto undoubtedly they are precisely appointed thereunto p. 69 l. 12 supposition p. 70 l. 28 second way p. 73 l. 24 as we l. 44 severally p. 74 l. 46 author of the Sin l. 48 del good p. 76. l. 13 will not p. 78. l. 3 futurition l. 29 procure l. 30 as a second p 80 l. 12 of England l. 22 but we l. 31 against l. 38 if he should worke them contrary to their natures then c. p. 81 l. 7 effecting p. 83 l. 29 of sin p. 84 l. 24 acts p. 85 l. 1 any naturall act l. 50 mere pleasure as the apostle professeth that God hath mercy on whom he will it is evident that God of his mere pleasure c. p. 86 l. 18 as uncapable p. 89. l. 59 nec recte p 93 l. 30 will doe p. 94 l. 2 nill it p. 97 l. 36 the cause l. 54. my answer p. 100 l. 44 with their p 102 l. 56 and that p. 104 l. 4 Credible p 105 l 2 agent p. 118 l. 41 or vitious p. 121 l. 41 will of p. 127 l. 14 of destiny p. 134 l. 44 asserâ—oribus l. 47 quin author l. 50 I propose p. 140 l. 21 so as to come to passe p 146 l. 22 pillar had not l. 23 del pillar had p. 147 l ult why God p. 151 l. 38 so p. 157 l. 7 without which p. 164 l. 56 it may p. 186 l. 47 decrees p. 193 l. 2 wherein 't is manifest that finall perseverance in sin goeth before l. 3 But if you farther proceed to make it good according to your usuall course thus finall perseverance in sin goeth before damnation Ergo c p 195 l. 35 mine l. 54 decrees p. 198 l. 36 is in p. 199 l 10 and some l. 11. privatively A VINDICATION OF Dr. TWISSE FROM THE EXCEPTIONS OF M r JOHN GOODWIN IN HIS Redemption Redeemed BY HENRY IEANES Minister of Gods Word in Chedzoy OXFORD Printed for T. Robinson 1653. TO THE Reverend and Learned Mr IOHN GOODWIN SIR I Have assumed so much boldnesse as to examine some passages that you have in your Booke entituled Redemption Redeemed against D. Twisse wherein I believe that you your selfe will acknowledg that I have carried my selfe as a fair adversary as an adversary only unto your opinions and not unto your person which I love honour as in other respects so for the good and great gifts and parts God hath bestowed on you Many of my friends have earnestly disswaded me from this vindicatioÌ„ assuring me that I must expect from you insteed of a reply nothing but a libell But for my part I shall hope and pray unto the Almighty for better things of you However I am not hereby deterred from entring into the lists with you However I am not hereby deterred from entring into the lists with you neither shall I deprecate your utmost severity in rationall argumentation for the discovery of any thing that you conceive to be weake and unsound in this my discourse You may perhaps think and say that so small a trifle is unworthy a diversion from your more serious employments but for that I am contented that the learned Reader judge betwixt us Indeed I had long ere this finished an answer unto your whole Book but that there was a generall and as I think a just expectation that some in the University of Cambridge who dissented from you would comply with your faire invitation of them to declare themselves in some worthy and satisfactory answer to the particulars propounded in your Book But upon their long silence which I can neither excuse nor will I accuse as being altogether ignorant of the causes thereof I renewed my thoughts of setting about this worke and intended in the interim to have annexed to this piece of D. Twisse a Table referring unto such passages in this and other of his Books as doe in great part satisfy whatsoever you have delivered in your forementioned Treatise in opposition unto the absolutenesse of Divine Reprobation But from these resolutions I was quite taken off by certain information that the Learned M. Kendall heretofore Fellow of Exeter Colledge in the University of Oxford hath undertaken you But I detaine you and the reader too long with Prefacing I shall therefore presently without more adoe addresse my selfe unto the encounter with you In three places you except against D. Twisse I shall consider them severally To begin with the first M r GOODWIN p. 25. 26. c. 2. §. 20. IT is indeed the judgement of some Learned men that the purpose or intent of God to permit or suffer such or such a thing to be done or such or such an accident to come to passe supposeth a necessity at least a syllogisticall or consequentiall necessity of the coming of it to passe But that the truth lieth on the other side of the way appears by the light of this consideration If whatsoever God hath decreed or intendeth to permit to come to passe in any case upon any termes or any supposition whatsoever should by vertue of such an intention or decree necessarily come to passe then all things possible to be or at least ten thousand things more than ever shall be must be yea and this necessarily For doubtlesse God hath decreed and intendeth to leave naturall causes generally to their naturall and proper operations and productions yea and voluntary causes also under a power and at liberty to act ten thousand things more then ever they will doe or shall doe For example God intendeth and hath decreed to permit that fire
by the other his commandement which is without him performed usually by the Ministry of the creature and therefore not his will properly so called I utterly deny the consequence of your argument and how just and reasonable this my denyall thereof is will appeare if you please to reduce your Enthymeme into a Categoricall Syllogisme for then you will find the proofe of its consequence to depend on this That whatsoever acts are differenced and distinguished by their objects doe digladiate and one fight against the other and this is a proposition so grossely false as that I am very confident you cannot back it with so much as one either testimony or reason That acts are differenced and distinguished by their objects is a common and received rule but that all acts are opposite whose objects are repugnant is an assertion that as yet I never so much as read or heard of in any either Philosopher or Divine and 't is this alone will serve your turne to conclude a digladiation or repugnancy between the Decree and the Command of God from the opposition that D. Twisse admitteth to be between the things Decreed and the things Commanded 2. If we take opposition and repugnancy as the Ramists who divide it into disparation and contrariety we may safely say that Gods decree and his commandement are things opposite for they are disparate but this will no wise prejudice D. Twisse who speakes in the language of the followers of Aristotle neither will it any waies advantage you for the opposition or repugnancy that is between things disparate is only as touching an essentiall predication one of another we cannot say that Grammar is Logick or that temperance in a man is fortitude and so we cannot say that Gods decree is his commandement or his commandement is his decree not of a denominative or concretive predication of the same subject the same man may be valiant and temperate a Grammarian and a Logician See Scheibler Top. cap. 14. n. 7. cap. 15. n. 19. MR GOODWIN IT is impossible that I should inwardly and seriously will or desire the death of my Child and yet at the same time seriously also will and injoyne the Physitian to doe his best to recover him IEANES IF you would hereby insinuate that we affirme that God doth inwardly and seriously will or desire the death or damnation of his Children and yet at the same time also seriously injoyne his Ministers who are spirituall Physitians to doe their best to recover them out of the snare of the Divell you doe wonderfully misconceive and misreport our opinion for we say that unto none hath he given power right or priviledge to be his Sonnes but unto such as believe on his name and all those who believe he hath ordained unto eternall life and will keepe by his power unto salvation but of this see our Author In the first Book of this Treatise p. 133. 134. 137. What hath been said is sufficient to convince him that will not wilfully and obstinately shut his eyes against the light that the command of all who heare the Gospell to believe and repent and the purpose of God to deny faith and repentance unto many are not contradictory I shall before I discharge my selfe of this Section evince as much briefly concerning this latter purpose and that purpose or decree out of which the command proceedeth and which is signified thereby Here we must premise that the commandement of God doth signify a decree or decreeing will of God though not such a decree or will as the Arminians usually shape for themselves 1. It signifieth the decree of God concerning the commandement it selfe 2. Concerning the thing commanded First then the command of God signifieth Gods will or decree of the commandement it selfe of the externall transient act of commanding Eph. 1. 11. God worketh all things after the Counsell of his own will Gods commanding then of things in time is a signe that from everlasting he did decree to command them But secondly It signifieth a will or decree of God also concerning the thing commanded viz as touching the obligation to it not as touching the existence or non-existence of it it signifieth that God from everlasting did decree that the thing commanded should be mans duty should be a thing Morally good but it doth not signify or reveale that the thing commanded should actually exist and be performed by every one unto whom the command is propounded Indeed the obedience of the elect for whose salvation only the commands of God are given was both commanded and decreed or determined by God Ezek. 36. 26 27. And hence we may inferre that the command of faith repentance obedience c. all which God hath determined to be necessary unto salvation doe imply and reveale in a generall and indefinite way that God from eternity did purpose to worke faith repentance and obedience in those whom he had designed to salvation But this concession will not satisfy Arminians who will be contented with nothing unlesse we will grant them that God willeth and desireth the faith repentance obedience and salvation of Reprobates which we cannot doe but withall we must renounce and disclaime Gods omnipotency and immutability These things thus briefely premised That Gods purpose or decree of commanding faith and repentance unto all that heare the Gospel and his purpose or decree to deny faith and repentance unto many are not contradictory is manifest because Gods purpose or decree of commanding faith and repentance referres unto the thing commanded faith and repentance only as concerning the obligation to them not as touching the existence of them now to decree and purpose to bind and oblige all to faith and repentance and to decree and purpose that some yet shall never actually believe and repent cannot be proved by any rules of Logick to be contradictory Before I proceed unto the consideration of your next and last passage against D. Twisse I shall only represent unto you that our Author whom you take to be one of the greatest patrons of that cause which you account adverse doth dislike the accommodation of that distinction of voluntas signi and beneplaciti or a secret and revealed will unto 1 Tim. 2. 4. the place which you have under debate as well as you though I confesse upon different grounds In his Booke against Jackson pag. 534. he informeth us that neither Calvin embraceth it nor Beza nor Piscator but all concurre upon that interpretation which Austin gave many hundred years agoe Peter Martyr proposeth it saith he amongst diverse others but embraceth it not neither doe I know any Divine of ours that embraceth it Cajetan indeed embraceth it and Cornelius de Lapide and Aquinas amongst other interpretations If you take saith he speaking to D. Jackson a liberty to put upon us the opinions and accommodations of distinctions used by Papists you may in the next place make doubt whether we have not subscribed to the Councell of
he hath prevailed so with them we have no reason to conceive that it is an easy matter for him to perswade us that we are absolute Reprobates no nor then neither considering that we make no such rules but rather conceive them to be the fancies of crackt or crazed braines And the Devill had need be more wise then so if he practice to prevaile with us which undoubtedly so long as God be pleased by his grace to keepe us in our right wits he never shall Certainly if they desire to bring this rule into our faith they must first manifest that the Devill hath so prevailed with them to make them conceive themselues to be Reprobates otherwise it cannot be they should conceive so easy a matter for the Devill to perswade any of us upon so sorry a ground as this that we are absolute Reprobates As for them that are fallen to prosecute that distinction this Authour gives according to the parts of it which the Authour himselfe doth not Christians fallen may be understood two manner of wayes either as fallen from the state of grace or as fallen only into sinne but still standing in the state of grace As touching the first we acknowledge no such falling away St John professing of certaine Apostates saying They went out from us but they were not of us for had they beene of us they had continued with us As for such as fall into sinne we that maintaine absolute election and reprobation doe withall maintaine with King James in the conference at Hampton Court that all such shall arise againe by repentance And therfore there is no reason we should conceive upon the committing of any such sinne that we are Reprobates least of all upon so base grounds as here are specified by this Authour Now I come to his proofe of this by his three testimonies 1. The first whereof is the testimony of Calvin whereto I answer first in generall That not one of these Authours here mentioned take any notice of the ground whereupon this Authour builds namely of the paucity of the elect in comparison to Reprobates therehence to conclude That it is an easy matter for the Devill to perswade them that they are Reprobates if they should have beene sure to have received so much from the pen of this Authour More particularly I acknowledge the words of Calvin here alledged namely that the Devill doth not assault the believer with a temptation more dangerous But why doth not this Authour goe on to tell what the temptation is which as it were in a breath Calvin sets downe thus Quam dum ipsos suae electionis dubitatione inquietans simul prava ejus extra viam inquirendae cupitate solicitat It consists of two parts The first is disquieting of them with doubting of their election The second is his solliciting of them with an ill desire of inquiring about it after a wrong way Both these Calvin so compounds as to make up but one tentation In the next place Calvin shewes what it is for a man to inquire of his election a wrong way Extra viam inquirere voco ubi in abditos divinae sapientiae recessus perrumpere homuncio conatur quo intelligat quid de se sit constitutum apud Dei tribunal ad supremam usque aeternitatem penetrare To inquire after it out of the way is when a vile man endeavoureth to breake into the secrets of divine wisdome and to pierce into the highest eternity to know what God hath ordained of him there This he sayeth is for a man to cast himselfe into a deep to be swallowed up of a bottomlesse gulfe and to throw himselfe into innumerable snares such as he can never wind himselfe out off And to this he sayeth we are very prone and hereupon comes in the next sentence alledged by this Authour Rarissimus enim est few there be whose minds are not taken up with this contemplation Whence doth Salvation come unto thee but from Gods election Now what revelation hast thou of thine election And if these thoughts doe once take hold of a man either in cruell manner it torments miserable man continually or makes him altogether stand astonished All this is delivered by Calvin of them who enquire about their election a wrong way the very same way being condemned also by King James in the conference at Hampton Court or that which he there delivereth much at one And all this this Authour very judiciously conceales thinking such a dog-trick well becomes his free will and his grace also But then Calvin discovereth also another way in ea lustranda that is in discovering a mans election and such as wherein tuta est pacata addo etiam jucunda navigatio a man may saile safely peaceably and sweetly and that they who search after their election in a due order as it is contained in Gods Word they are like to reape thence singular consolation eximium inde referent consolationis fructtum Then he shewes what this way is and that we must beginne from our vocation to wit unto faith and unto repentance and thence ascend to our election in this way he professeth no uncomfortable condition but most comfortable is likely to accrue unto him The wrong way he warnes us to avoyd carefully but withall professeth that no rocke at all is likely to be met withall in this right way By this I desire every indifferent person will judge aright of this Authours carriage 2. The next is Bucer in 8. ad Rom q de praedest Now Bucers discourse as it is related by this Authour himselfe appeares to tend to no other end but this that Christians should not disquiet themselues with doubting whether they are predestinate or no but rather without doubt perswade themselues that they are of the number of those whom God hath predestinate And by this I perceive what is his meaning here in which formerly I understood not when this of Bucer was alleadged by this Authour to an other purpose And his meaning seemes to be this whosoever is called and believes in Christ ought to believe that he is predestinate For indeed faith in his opinion is the fruit of our election and from the like in the Thessal Paul was perswaded of their election 1 Thess 1. 3 4. Remembring the worke of your faith and labour of your love knowing that you are elected of God Now shall others hereby be drawne to be confident of our election and shall not we our selves who alone are privy to the secret passages of our hearts when others are not Now I pray consider whether this be so much as to intimate that it is a farre easier matter for a man to be perswaded that he is a Reprobate then that he is of the number of Gods elect 3. By this I perceive the meaning of Zanchy also in saying That every Christian is bound to believe that he is elect Let us in the name of God examine our faith whether it be
true faith or no but surely so farre as we are perswaded of the truth of our faith so farre have we no cause to doubt of our election But this of Zanchius is no more to the purpose whereunto this Authour alleadgeth it than that of Bucers 4. In the last place I come to the relation of Georgius Major of a certaine Schoole-Master in Hungary Petrus Hosuanus by name for so I find him called in Dietricus though this Authour calls him Ilosuanus mistaking belike the copy which he transcribed Now Dietricus relates it as out of Georgius Major as this Author doth But I wonder not a little that Osiander in his last Century makes no mention of it that I can find though I have searched after it as the Woman in the Gospell did after her lost groat Whether he gave any credit to Georgius Major his relation I know not or whether any thing came to his knowledge afterwards as touching the unfaithfullnesse thereof But take we it as it lyes in this Authours relation 1. That he professed himselfe of Calvins and Austins opinion I hope this makes no more against Calvin and us then it doth against Austin and all those that tooke part with him against the Pelagians in his dayes and the remnants of them afterwards But if his opinion was that men are not dealt withall secundum bona or mala opera but that there are occultiores causae of mens Eternall conditions will any sober Arminian impute this unto us Doe we say that God damnes any man but for sinne or that God rewards any man of ripe yeares with Salvation but by way of reward of theire faith repentance and good-workes When the Remonstrants at the Hague conference proposed their doctrine of predestination and reprobation after this manner namely That God from eternity did ordaine to save believers and to damne unbelievers to this effect Did any of the Contra-Remonstrants or any of the Synod of Dort except against the truth of this But whereas the Remonstrants and Arminians did acknowledge this to be the whole decree of predestination and reprobation Against this exception was tooke both in the Hague conference and in the Synod of Dort and Theses also by divers forraine Divines laid downe against it particularly by our Brittayne Divines amongst others All of them maintaining that there was an other decree concerning the giving of the grace of regeneration of the grace of faith and repentance unto some and denying it unto others And this decree we willingly maintain proceeds not no not in the execution thereof according to mens workes good or evill whatsoever be the end of any that maintaine it The contrary namely that grace is given according unto workes being a doctrine generally condemned in the Church from the yeare 415 at that time it was condemned in the Synod of Palestine and Pelagius himselfe driven to subcribe unto it otherwise himself had been anathematized But this Authour delivers it as the opinion of Hosuanus concerning mens Eternall conditions whereby I take to be meant Salvation and Damnation And indeed as here the doctrine is expressed it is more agreable with the doctrine of the Predestinarians as Sigebert relates it then with the doctrine either of Austin or Calvin and the same Sigebert writes not that it was Austins doctrine but that it rose out of the misunderstanding of Austins writings Yet I confesse that Tyro Prosper before Sigebert spares not to professe of that Predestinarian hereby that it rose from Austin as Dr Vsher observeth But this was a meere practice of the Semi-Pelagians corrupting the doctrine of Austin the better to expose it to obloquy and reproach 2. As for the second that he was one of the woefull company of absolute castawayes Herein the Author of this discourse accomodates himselfe to his own stage Throughout Dietricus his relation I find no mention of any such distinction as of reprobates and absolute reprobates but an acknowledgement certum esse numerum salvandorum praedestinatorum vel ad vitam vel ad mortem And of himselfe that he was ex numero damnatorum but I doe not find the word absolute throughout That his life was none of the worst himselfe was no competent judge yet I confesse there are degrees of prophanenesse and hypocrisy and the very reprobates are not equall in sinne And withall a morall life is esteemed in the world in respect of their conversation towards men but we know that to deny Gods truth and to oppose it against the light of conscience is of an higher nature in the sight of God and usually is of more fearfull consequence Of Francis Spira I find no complaints made in respect of his morality towards men but he laid unto his own charge That he had sinned against the holy Ghost Yet neither this Hosuanus nor Spira doe I find to have broken forth into any blasphemy against Gods justice in reprobating them Nay this latter was heard strangely to discourse of the justice of God without any murmuring against his power And in our time we have heard of strange examples of some that have gone soberly on to the destroying of themselves in a very devout acknowledgement of Gods justice in giving them over 3. As touching the dreadfull apprehensions of Gods wrath I nothing doubt but when God gives men over to the power of Satan they may be so improved by him as to make a man weary of his life though I find not this specified in Dietricus who yet relates this story out of Georgius Major But I read the like in Goulartius his collections of a desperate man in his time dying that said among many other horrible speeches that he wished to be already in Hell And being demanded the cause of so wicked a desire For that said he the apprehension of torments which doe attend me cause me presently to feele a double Hell when I shall feele it at the full I shall not exspect it any more But no mention throughout of any opinion of his concerning Divine reprobation that moved him thereunto The words here alleadged Discedo ad lacus infernales Deo vos commendo cujus misericordia mihi negata est These I say and the matter of these alone I find in Dietericus his relation out of Georgius Major on 2 Tym. c. 2. p. 59. 6. It runs thus Ait in Hungaria multis aliis locis notissimum esse de homine quodam Calviniano Petro Hosuano Rectore Scholae Gengerinae qui ex desperatione sibi ipsi laqueo injecto vitam finivit Anno 1562. die 22. Julii relicto manuscripto in quo praeter alia haec exstitere O me infaelicissimum omnium quia satius fuisset me nunquam natum Verum est certum esse numerum salvandorum hoc ex me sed quid ad me Hoc ità necessariò fieri debuit Nemo igitur argumentetur Deus omnes vocat longe secùs se res habet Calvini sententiam de certo praedestinatorum numero item