is because both man hath neede of God and God is helpfull to man for the performing of Righteousnes For as Man can doe no good except he have Gods helpe so neither doth God worke any good in man except man be willing As neither the earth without seed fructifies nor seed without the Earth so neither man without God nor God without man doth worke righteousnesse in man Even as if hee had said If yee doe these things if yee pray for these things yee are children worthy of such a Father Now to try out the Truth let mee set forth into view foure Propositions 1. Without the Grace of God the will of Man can and doth both will and perform that which is good 2. Without the Grace of God the will of Man cannot will good but through Grace being once made able to will afterward without any further Grace it can alone both will and performe that which is good 3. By or through the Grace of God working on the will the will of Man can both will and performe that which is good and without grace it cannot will nor without further grace performe that which is good 4. By or through the Grace of God working on the will the will of man cannot but will cannot but performe that which is good The first Proposition of these is the Heresie of Pelagius detested by the whole Church of Christ The Second Proposition is the error of the Massilienses or Semipelagians And both these are against my first Principle or Maxime The Third Proposition holdeth out the light of Truth subjoyning the will of man to the Grace of God both in willing and performing that which is good and is the Doctrine of S. August in his setled judgement and the Catholick Doctrine of the Church The Fourth Proposition is the extreme opinion of S. August in his heat of disputation against Pelagius and the Massilienses and of many moderne Divines of force defended to support your Doctrine of the Order of Predestination without the prescience of all particular events putting onely the prescience of Adams fall But this fourth Proposition is destroyed by my two latter Principles or Axioms or they destroy'd by it Well said Nazianz. in the case of extreme Opinions about the Trinity Quid enim necesse est tanquam ramum omnino in aliam partem declinantem c. For what necessity is there as a bough declining altogether one way by force to bend it the other way and so by crookednesse to rectifie crookednesse and not rather to keep to the middle way and continue within the bounds of divine Piety but when I name the middle way I meane the Truth to which onely we so rightly direct our selves Orat. 17. Saint Augustine maintained through Grace such help was afforded to the predestinate that not onely they were not able to persevere without that gift but also through meanes of that gift could not chuse but persevere whereupon Saint Hilary writes to Saint Augustine His verbis Sanctitatis tuae ita moventur ut dicant quandam desperationem hominibus exhiberi That by such Speeches of his Sonne men were moved to say They held forth a kinde of Desperation unto men It were a labour worth the taking to compare the two Epistles of Prosper and Hilary with the two books of Saint Austin de praedest sanctorum and de bono perseverantiae wherein he laboureth to answer those two Epistles to see to what he maketh solid answer to what he faileth or what he slippeth untouched that is of moment sed hoc alias The Question then is betweene the third and fourth propositions and about the manner and measure of working Grace upon the Will or with it whether it be such as positâ gratiâ operante the Will may be Coworker or no as the third proposition affirmeth or whether positâ gratiâ operante the worke of Grace is such as the Will of Man cannot but be a Coworker as the fourth proposition maintaineth That is to say for the state of a question rightly put is almost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is said of an Oath Heb. 6. 16. the end of all strife whether the Grace of God be onely an efficient operant adjuvant prior cause and the Will also of Man an efficient prepared by Grace cooperant and collaborant second cause in the worke of our Conversion and every other good worke or whether the Grace of God be an effectuall prepotent invincible prevalent sole efficient that carries the Will to consent and obey willingly if that be willingly as it neither will nor can choose to doe otherwise For distinction sake I will call the grace meant in the third proposition Efficientem and the Grace meant in the fourth proposition Efficacem The issue will be that if Gratia Efficax do worke the Conversion and perseverance of a Christian then all in vaine I have disputed before de Praedestinatione secundum praescientiam which is therefore defended because it giveth place to freedome of Will proper freedome in our working out our Salvation which gratia Efficax utterly destroyes If Gratia Essiciens doe work our Conversion but not absolutely alone but with another co-worker which is free and Lord of its owne action and may faile in working then there must needs be prescience certaine of this contingent event or else Predestination shall not be certaine and then this doctrine of a sinners conversion will well stand with the doctrine of Predestination after foreknowledge of all contingences and this with that as all parts of truth ought to agree one with another The question in the usefull termes is as some love to speak whether grace be resistable which word though it be grounded upon Act. 7. 51. yet I had rather use words more frequent in the Scripture whether Grace can be disobeyed whether it can be in vaine whether a man can be wanting to the grace of God that hath him in hand to convert him or to worke in him some good as Act. 5. 32. and 6. Rom. 1. 5. and 10. 16. 2 Cor. 9. 13. and 10. 6. Gal. 3. 1. and 5. 7. 2 Thes 1. 8. To come to the Truth by a neere and compendious way Let me take that first which is given by an ingenuous and judicicious Adversary the Reverend professor Doctor Ward in his Clerum Phil. 2. 12. who yeildeth so much to the Truth and puts the question in so narrow a point as he seemes to me plainly to give over the cause which he would expugne See what hee grants pag. 9. after much spoken pro libertate Arbitrii Nos enim libere profitemur c. For we freely professe neither operating nor cooperating Grace neither in Conversion nor after Conversion doth take away from mans Will in the very exercise of its Elicite Act the power of Resisting or dissenting if he will For this Resistibility is naturall and borne with us insoparable from the Will it selfe as t is a naturall faculty
Faith for their recovery after notice taken of their impotency to rise again of themselves it seems an insulting mock and not a Call to say to sinners Turne repent believe and live unlesse there be some grace prepared for them whereby they may be able to repent and believe 2. Because it attributeth the Effect of obeying the Calling to the kinde of Calling it selfe and onely to one cause the operation of the Spirit as if many causes did not concur to produce an Effect and if any one faile the Effect faileth As if obedience to the Calling of God were not an Act of the will of Man under the ayde of the Spirit of God as if the ayde of the Spirit were never refused nor the Grace of God never received in vaine For though God be almighty and able to draw all second Causes unto his part and side yet he doth not use to disturbe or crosse the Nature of Causes nor the order of things which himselfe hath established 3. Because it maketh Gods Covenant to differ from all Covenants in humane affaires even in that which is essentiall to a Covenant yet this terme and title is borrowed from men the better to conceive of the Grace of God the duty of man In our Covenants each party hath something to performe and no one party doth all in a Covenant but by this distinction God is supposed both to provide infallibly to have the conditions fulfilled and also to fulfill his owne promises whereas all that he undertaketh for us is to make the conditions possible and not to be wanting in his helpe so far as is needfull for us Esay 59. ult And check me not that I am afraid to give too much to God lest I check you againe that you looke to be so much favoured as to be tyed to nothing Truth flattereth neither God nor Man Non est bonae solidae fidei c. T is not the part of a good and sound faith so to referre all things to Gods will and so to flatter every one by saying Nothing can come to passe without Gods permission that so we may imagine our selves are to doe nothing Tert. de Exhort Castitatis not far from the beginning CHAP. VIII Of Conversion THe Conversion of a sinner is the End which God seeketh in sending his Word and in Calling men Act. 3. 26. The Effect of Calling when it speedeth It may shortly be defined The Obedience of him that is called for it his part Vocantem audire obedire In Conversion there be two Termes A quo Ad quem From the power of Satan unto God Act. 26. 18. It is in all parts of Man In his Vnderstanding he is turned from darknesse to light In his Will from Idols of all sorts to serve the living God 1 Thes 1. 9. In his whole life from unrighteousnesse to Holinesse Rom 6. The Conversion of a sinner is also to be considered as Prima or Posterior The first is when a man of a naturall man is made a regenerate man and a member of Gods Church as the Gentiles called by the Apostles Act. 15. 3. Such were we all that are converted unto God having been first averted foolish disobedient deceived serving divers lusts Tit. 3. 3. The latter Conversion is when a regenerate man having committed iniquity and fallen into sin returneth unto God by repentance of that sinne Thus Peter that was foretold of denying Christ and that yet his faith should not finally faile was willed that he being converted should strengthen his Brethren Luk. 22. 32. See Bilson of supremacy pag. 278. 279. in 4. Next the Causes of our Conversion are to be considered without question Gods holy spirit working upon the heart of a sinner is the prime principall efficient powerfull Cause of his Conversion Turne us and we shall be turned Lam. 5. 21. in the beginning in the middle and in the end of it The word preached is the ordinary Instrumentall Cause Psal 19. 7. Adjuvant Causes are the Crosse that chastneth Jer. 31. 18. Blessings that draw and allure the prayers of others the holy example of others already converted c. But it is in question what part the Sinner himselfe who is the subject to be converted beareth in his owne Conversion being a living and reasonable Subject Whether he be active or passive in it when and how far whether he can further it or hinder it or whether it be possible for two supposed equally called one to be converted and not the other If so then whence this difference shall arise whether from God or from Man The determination of these questions cannot be cleare nor the manner of our conversion opened untill we have declared what is to be holden according to the Scriptures touching Gods free Grace and Mans freewill which we will indeavour to bring into more manifest light after so vehement Conflicts of the learned in all Ages which have raised clouds of obscurity to the losse of Truth amongst the strivers for it CHAP. IX Of Grace OF Grace and Freewill I will speak by Gods grace first severally then joyntly that so we may returne to the point of our Conversion to behold what be the parts of God therein and what of Man Of Grace I shall endeavour to declare the Thing the Distinctions the Necessity the Amplitude the Power and force thereof By Grace may be understood all that proceedeth from God out of free favour to an unworthy sinner tending to his Salvation yet here by Grace I will not understand the remaines of Nature as some light of Reason some sense of Conscience and the like though it was of Grace that these were spared and left to remaine in Man fallen Neither will I by Grace understand the Law describing the righteousnesse of works though the preacher of Grace doth use the Law to shew a sinner his Estate and to prepare him to Christ Nor will I understand the bare outward word of the Gospel though it be called Verbum gratiae Act. 20. 32. if not rather it be so called because the internall Grace of God goeth with it But by Grace I understand the internall Illuminations Teachings Motions Tractions Inspirations Operations Gifts of the holy Ghost merited by Christ to be given to the sinfull Sons of Adam in their fit time and order to the end to raise them fallen and to save them lost whence I shall call it with Saint August Gratiam Christi There is in man no merit of Grace for then grace were no grace there is only an occasion namely the wofull misery of Man which yet was in Gods pleasure to take as an occasion or to refuse it Even the good use of former Graces is no merit or cause of the giving of following Graces but the second are as freely given as the first for Gods good pleasure alone is the Author and Cause of that order and succession that is in graces in which he hath appointed to doe one thing in
humane capacity as de ordine modo praedestination is in mente divina concordia gratiae liberi arbitrii cum praedestinatione But these Papers I hope shall make it manifest first that I leave things unsearchable unsearchd and stand with the Apostle in the selfe same place that he did admiring and adoring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 11. 33. I say in the selfesame place or the like not to cloak iniquity or absurdity imputed to the divine Majesty by O the depth c. Secondly that I search not at all into any thing by meere naturall light and humane reason which to do in these things were a presumption deserving precipitation but by the light of divine revelation in Gods holy word and therefore I have set for my title Appello Evangelium which is the opening of Gods Counsell so far as he is pleased to communicate to us And thirdly this I doe not onely by appealing to those Texts that directly and immediately speak of our Predestination and Election which may seeme hard and obscure but also to the openest and commonest places that are fundamentall principles of Christianity and the grounds of Catechisme which ordinary capacities and not great wits alone are able to understand and by which the fewer and harder Texts are to be enlightned and interpreted and not contrarily Irenaeus hath a right saying Multa male interpretari coguntur Lib. 5. qui Unum recte intelligere non volunt which hath hapned to many in our Age. That unum which they will not rightly understand is promissum Evangelicum universale in Christo redemptore vniversali which our Church professeth in her Articles and in her Catechisme which unum is the ground of all the Conclusions here maintained So that my studies have not been about some curious and superfluous questions separable from the body of Divinity and which might well have been spared but about the most essentiall parts and articles of that body and of their mutuall coherence and connexion the industrious search and examination whereof is so necessary and worthy a thing as I can hardly hold him worthy the name of a Divine that hath not laboured therein And as to my Opinions which unexamined may be presumed to be nothing else but either ancient or late condemn'd Heresies which imputation or very supposition no good man ought to beare with silence these leaves do undertake to shew that the apprehensions expressed in them are none of those old condemned Heresies nor of those late rejected Heterodoxes but the very Doctrine of the ancient Fathers of the Church builded upon the sense and letter of the holy Scriptures and consonant to the publike establish'd Doctrine of the Church of England contained in the bookes of Articles Common Prayer and Homilies which if I shall make good by cleare and undeniable evidence then I hope my good friends will hold me excused and cleared of any such crime as Heresie or semi-heresie or novelty and will take me for a true and sound member of the Church of England both in Doctrine and in Discipline from both which I feare there hath been made by many in this Church too great a defection and departure since the dayes of King Edw. the 6. when they were first established and since the primitive years of the happy reigne of Queen Elizabeth wherein they were ratifyed and strengthened with a second and oft-renewed judgement But the examination and tryall of all this I commit and submit to my ingenuous and loving friends and them and their studies to the goodnesse and grace of God our Father CHAP. I. The first Opinion THe first Opinion concerning the order of Divine Predestination and having these defenders Beza Piscator Whitaker Perkins and other holy and learned men is this 1. That God from all eternity decreed to create a certain number of Men. 2. That of this number he Predestinated some to everlasting life and other some he Reprobated to eternall death 3. That in this act he respected nothing more than his own dominion and the pleasure of his own will 4. That to bring men to these ends he decreed to permit Sin to enter in upon all men that the Reprobate might be condemned for sinne and that he decreed to send his Sonne to recover out of sin his Elect fallen together with the Reprobate This Opinion is rejected by many protestant Divines as by the reverend Divines of our Church that were at the Synod at Dort by Peter Moulin by Robert Bishop of Salisbury and others It is detested by the Papists and Lutherans it was it tha◠Arminius and his followers chiefly opposed in the low Countries It is charg'd To make God the Author of Sin To Reprobate men before they were evill To Elect men not in Christ who is sent after this Opinion to recover out of sinne those that were elected before they were considered as sinners This is that irrespective decree which Mr. Mountague disliketh because in it there is no respect had to any thing fore-known not so much as the fall of man much lesse Christ or Faith giving to God no fore-knowledge or no use of it at all in this act of his which the Scripture calls predestination Yet this Opinion doth well admonish us to remember the Dominion and Soveraigne power and will of God which must be seen and acknowledged in his predestinating of men according to that of the Apostle Rom. 9. 21. Hath not the Potter power over the clay and vers 15. Hee hath mercy on whom he will which we will be mindfull of in the fifth Opinion Under this Opinion are to be placed the nine Assertions concluded at Lambeth Nov. 20. 1595. which have been often required to be put into our Booke of Articles but yet could it never be obtained It is requisite therefore to set them down because they are not vulgarly knowne and to examine them what they meane and see how farre they are Orthodoxall or agreeing to our Articles And for their sakes that understand not the Latine tongue I will render them in English * Consule Articulos Lambethanos ab F. G. Ecclesiae Ministro nuper editos Articles approv'd by the right Reverend Lords John Lord Archbishop of Canterbury and Richard Lord Bishop of London and other Divines at Lambeth the 20. of Novemb. in the year 1595. 1. God from Eternity Predestinated some Men to life and some he Reprobated unto Death 2. The Moving or Efficient cause of Predestination to life is not the foresight of Faith or of perseverance or of good workes or of any thing which may be in the persons predestinated but onely the Will of Gods good pleasure 3. Of the predestinate there is a predefined and certaine number which can neither be increased nor diminished 4. They which are not predestinated to salvation shal necessarily be condem'd for their sinnes 5. True lively justifying Faith and the sanctifying Spirit of God is not extinguished doth not fall out doth
Gentiles called 2. That even yet hee should withhold from many Nations the very word and outward calling as the new-discover'd Indians doe shew being found as farre from the knowledge of Christ as ever the Heathen were before the Apostles preached to them But wee being under this grace of Gods Calling it behoveth us to looke that it be not in vaine unto us CHAP. VII Of the Concurrence of the Word and Spirit in Calling SOme great Divines do distinguish Calling into two kindes one outward of the Word onely another inward of the Spirit joyn'd with the Word That they say is Ineffectuall This Effectuall That common to the Reprobate This speciall and peculiar to the Elect That never obeyed with truth of heart This never disobeyed This Doctrine is to bee examined I distinguish not two Callings but compound one Calling of the Word and Spirit as it were of a Body and a Soule supposing it to have in it selfe power to bring forth Effect in all that are under it and if it doe not so the cause not to arise from the Calling but from the Called that obey not 1. For declaration of this Point it must not be thought that the Spirit goeth with the Word to make the hearer performe that which he can doe by naturall strength for the Spirit is given to helpe where nature faileth as to keepe waking and to be attentive for that which Men can bring of their owne strength God expecteth to finde and to meete One case then where to many the Spirit is not present to the Word is when they are not present to the very Word through their sottish carelesnesse 2. Againe it must not be thought that the concurrence of the Word and Spirit is as it were naturall necessary and inseparable but voluntary and arbitrary in the Will and good Pleasure of God and as grace is annexed to the Sacraments so is it to the Word onely by Divine Institution and Ordination Hence the Church prayeth before Sermons for the illumination and power of the Spirit to come with the Word God expecting to have this asked of him by them that can pray both for themselves and others Another case then where the Spirit is not co-working with the word many times is when it was not duly and diligently asked 3. There are men that are past grace to whom the Spirit is not present with the Word such as for their former neglect and contempt of the time of their visitation when God did call them are now given up to blindnesse and hardnesse and have the light of the Spirit and the dew of grace held back from that Word which is Preached in their hearing by accident not for their sakes though we know them not in particular and so admit all 4. It must not bee thought that the Spirit goes with the Word to worke any grace in any person whatsoever but according to the order of Divine Providence which dispenseth his grace wisely which is thus to be declar'd Wee are to distinguish the Word that calleth the Persons that are called and operations of the Spirit by the Word in those persons The Word is either the Law or the Gospell 1. The Law hath two parts as the Preacher of the Covenant of Grace useth the Law 1 The Precepts 2. The Curse to the transgressors of the Precepts So the Law hath a double use to accuse and convince with the Precepts to wound and to kill with the Curse and to these the Law is effectuall and of force after the fall of Man 2. The Persons called by the Minister of God using the Law are all naturall unregenerate sinfull men or the regenerate relapsed and fallen into grievous Sinne who are of two sorts either ignorant of their evill Estate to whom the Precepts of the Law are to be Preach'd to bring them to the knowledge of Sinne. Rom. 3. 20. Or they are such as know sin buâ— are sâ—cure benummed senselesse of theâ—â— miserable estate to these the Curse is to be denounced untill they begin to feare to be cast down and perplexed Act. 24. 25. 3. The Operations of the spirit upon these Men by the Ministry of the Law are two First to open their eyes to see their sinnes Second to prick their hearts with feare of the Curse Acts 2. 37. Rom. 8. 15. For these effects ordinarily the Spirit goeth with the Word of the Law calling Men out of the pit of sinne and they are more easily admitted and wrought into the heart upon those remaines of light in the minde discerning good and evill and of Conscience accusing it selfe consenting to the Law Rom. 2. 15. But that these workes of the Spirit by the Law are wrought in many Reprobates our adversaries deny not that grant some initiall parts of grace to be begotten even in castawayes The Ministry of John Baptist figured this of which S. Ambrose in 1. Lucae Hoc mysterium in hac vita nostra hodieque celebratur praecurrit enim animae nostrae quaedam virtus Johannis cum credere paramur in Christum ut paret ad fidem animae nostrae vias Thus much of the word of the Law with its persons and operations 1. The Gospell hath two parts A Commandement A Promise The Commandement To repent of Sin shewed by the Lawes Precepts To beleeve in Christ to give life to him whom the curse of the Law hath killed The Promise is of forgivenesse of sins and life everlasting to him that repenteth believeth in the Lord Jesus Christ Act. 2. 38 39. 2. The Persons called by God in the word of the Gospell are all manner of sinners but convict terrifyed wounded full of compunction and selfe-condemning wrought in them by the Spirit in the preaching of the Law Mat. 11. 28. 3. The Operations of the Spirit upon these Men by the Ministry of the Gospell are 1. To open their eyes to see the marvelous light of Gods Mercy to Sinners of the infinite love of Christ in dying for sinners and the inestimable Merits of his Death of the powerfull graces gifts and aides of the holy Ghost to helpe and relieve the impotency and misery of sinners to the end that by this light this Opinion may be begotten in them that it is possible for them to be recovered 2. To poure into their hearts hope or to stay them from desperate sinning or sorrowing 3. To inspire the grace of Prayer at least to wish or desire Oh that they might be so happy as to escape the wrath to come and recover the favour and love of God! 4. To give them repentance that is to sorrow for sin past with a godly sorrow and to purpose to break off sin to cease from any further offending God or endangering the Soule 5. To worke in them Faith that is To run to Christ and to cast themselves into the Armes of his goodnesse and power to be saved by him These Graces in this Order the holy Ghost is present and ready
same measure of affection wherewith hee loves the whole World Therefore indeed was hee offered a Sacrifice for our whole nature and 't was sufficient to save all but to them onely it will be profitable and usefull who have believed Neverthelesse hee was not skared from this kinde of dispensation because all would not come but in like manner as in the Gospell the feast was made ready for all but because they which were invited would not come he did not presently take away what was provided but called others thereto August ad artic falso sibi impositos art 1. Quod ad magnitudinem potentiam preti◠c. As to the Greatnesse and vertue of the price and as far as concernes the sole cause of Mankinde Christs blood is the Redemption of the whole World but such as passe away this present life without Faith in Christ and the mystery of the New birth are aliens to that Redemption when therefore by that one Nature of us all which for all our sakes was truly taken by our Lord and Saviour all of us are rightly said to be redeem'd yet are we not all freed from captivity c. That Cup of Immortality which was prepared partly out of our infirmity and partly out of Gods Power hath enough in it to profit all but if it be not drunke off it is nothing profitable Homily 2. Concerning the Death and Passion of our Saviour Christ Concerning the great Mercy and Goodnesse of our Saviour Christ in suffering Death Vniversally for all Men in the very beginning And afterwards But to whom did God give his Sonne Hee gave him to the whole World namely to Adam and all that should come of him And after It remaines that I shew you how to apply Christs Death to our comfort as a medicine to our wounds so that it may worke the same effect in us wherefore it was given namely the health and salvation of our Soules for as it profiteth a Man nothing to have salve unlesse it be well applyed to the part infected so the Death of Christ shall stand us in no stead unlesse wee apply it to our selves in such sort as God hath appointed Of Free-will CHAP. X. THis title now adayes is in great disgrace and envy invisum nomen Dr. Abbot Sarisbur in Thompsoni Diatribam pag. 143. Ille verò Thompsonus sc hîc mereticulam suam Arbitrii libertatem quem commendaverat antè timidius in theatrum Ecclesiae productam palà m exosculatur Sic ille But time was when the Church of Christ stood and strove as earnestly in the defence of this Lady ut Gratiae pedissaeque as the handmaid of Grace against the Manichees and other Heretikes as any do now against her which when learned Men doe finde in Irenaeus Origen Chrysostome and other great Fathers I can but wonder they should bee so carelesse of their lavish termes as also I marvell they should be so mindfull of the one part of a wise saying Si non sit gratia Dei quomodo mundum salvabit Deus and so forgetfull of the other part Si non sit liberum Arbitrium quomodo judicabit mundum Deus when they finde both in the same Authors Aug. Epist 46. Valentino Hieronym If the thing be of God I will not feare the envy of the Name and my defence thereof shall be with such caution as I will not offend against the grace of God by the helpe of Gods grace Freewill is a naturall power in a reasonable Creature whereby it can will or nill this or that chuse it or refuse it be it good be it evill Of Freewill to Good Freewill to Good was put into the first Man by God at his Creation a faculty of his reasonable soule created good It was corroborated and guarded then by an assistance of supernaturall grace given by God to make him will good more cheerfully constantly and the highest eminent kinde of good But by the fall of Adam this supernaturall grace fortifying the will to good was utterly lost and Secondly the very freedome to any good of the superiour kinde 1. Spirituall as to love God above all to worke the righteousnes of the Law as the Law is spirituall to doe any act sutable or equall to these as to repent to believe in Christ This freedome to good is wholy lost Some freedome to humane naturall civill and morall good acts is onely remaining and freedome to the outward good acts of Religion as to goe to a Church to heare to attend to consider and compare the things delivered by the Preacher of Gods Word as a man can doe the rules or definition of any act or Science in the Schooles If then wee seeke for a freedome of will to spirituall and supernaturall good in the nature of man now fallen wee shall not finde it there unlesse we find it restored and renewed by the grace of Christ that goes with the Gospell If the Sonne makes us free wee shall be free indeed Without Grace Freewill to Good is not once to bee imagined in fallen man I must declare this by distinguishing the spirituall good to which freedome is restored by grace There is the spiritual good commanded by the Law as Righteousnesse and true Holinesse To this good Freewill is lost and is not restored by grace at first and immediately but late after a man is justified and made a new creature by grace There is another kinde of spirituall good not simply good but in a case when sinne is once committed as Aristotle saith of Verecundia that it is good Ex hypothesi of a fault that is Compunction Feare Conscience accusing sense of guiltinesse The freedome of will to this good remaines commonly in a sinner after his fall nay sometime hee is smitten with terror will hee nill hee As Adam when hee had sinned feared and fled and hid his head But if by custome in sinne this also be lost the Spirit of God in the Law setteth upon the will to free it from the bondage of this security and under the Law the will is free to feare There is a third kinde of spirituall good commanded by the Gospell To repent and to believe in Christ To these the will of Man is not free of it selfe but the same Gospell that commands them brings to the will a freedome to them which may be conceived possible to be done by two manner of wayes 1. By framing the Commandments of the Gospell so easy and accomodate to the weaknesse and misery of the Will of man that there may be a proportion betweene the will of a sinner and the Commandement of the Gospell and then the grace of the Gospell shall lie in this descending to the imbecility of the will and in accomodating the worke to the workeman the task to the labourer 2. Or by bringing and giving to the will so much power and helpe as is requisite to make a sinner able to doe the Commandements of the Gospell admitting the Commandements
different measure even of saving graces yet that difference of an Emptinesse and absence of fayth in them that heare the word he putteth not he approveth not Lastly the difference in the measure of gifts of all sorts may come from God that giveth but the different using of these gifts doth come from man that is to reckon with God about the usage of them That one Servant received five another two another one Talent this difference was from the Lord but that one Servant gained five another two another none this difference was not from the Lord but from the Servants whence it is that one heareth Euge serve bone fidelis and another Serve nequam piger Vid. Origen super Numeros homil 12. Being secure of this place of Saint Paul I come with greater confidence to avoyd those absurdities in pressing of which some so much triumph They say that if man make the difference betweene himselfe and another then it followes 1. That God doth no more for his Elect than for the Reprobate 2. That the Saints have no more to give thanks to God for than the wicked 3. That one man may glory against another for that he hath done something more than another did To these I answer 1. in particular 2. in generall 1. To the first admitting for a while that God in the grace of Vocation doth no more for the Elect than for the Reprobate yet in the grace of Predestination he doth incomparibly more In that foreknowing the different successes of his Calling and the Ends of the called so different he was pleased to decree and confirme that Calling to some which he foreknew would be saving to them and to decree no other to the rest than that which he foresaw would not be saving to them through their owne disobedience when it was in his power to have altered their Calling to such as obedience in his knowledge would have followed So that in the Preparation and in the Execution of his gracious Calling which God knew would prove happily to these his Election of them and his love to them appeareth singular and they have infinite reason of gratitude above the Reprobate The Reprobate have cause to thank God for preparing that Calling whereby they might have been saved as well as others are and are to blame onely their owne contempt and folly but they have not this to thank God for that he did alter their Calling to a better when he found the Event of this would be Evill unto them neither can they blame him seeing he was no way bound to doe so for if he were He should not have suffered any to perish at all And the Elect who obey their Calling which of them can tell in the preparation of their Calling how often God changed it and amended it to speak after our manner of Understanding who use to bring things thus to perfection and to our liking untill he had brought it to that order as where of he saw the Effect would be the free Conversion of the Called But it was admitted onely not affirmed that in the Grace of Vocation God doth no more for the Elect than for the Reprobate for what if the time wherein a Convert obeyeth be not the first second third or the hundredth time that he hath Suffr 3. 4. thesi 6. beene called upon but God hath shewed him that Patience as one that would not give him over untill he win him What if the time wherein the unconverted refused mercy was but the first second or the third after which God in just severity would no more move him by his Spirit nor wait upon him but forsooke him here is much inequality in Grace and favour for it is enough for my supposition of the liberty of mans Will under Grace and of two equally called that one may obey and not another that sometime two may be equally called and unequally obey though all that be called be not every one called as oft as another for as we may suppose an equality in some so doe we confesse an infinite variety and inequality in most yet there is a time when that hath place which our Church saith in the Homily of the knowledge of the Scripture the second part pag. 5. That God receiveth the learned and unlearned and casteth away none but is indifferent unto all 2. To the second I answer for matter of thankfulnesse That as Grace is not therefore Grace because it is given to one and denyed to another but because it is given the Unworthy for Grace were not the lesse but the greater if it were given to all So my thanks are not therefore given to God because he hath beene mercifull to me more than to another but because he hath been mercifull to me unworthy and my thanks are not diminished because many more are partakers with me in the same benefits but the greater and should have been yet greater had more still been partakers than are Heare the words of Salvianus or whosoever be the Author l. 2. ad Ecclesiam Catholicam prope à principio Sed forsitan dicis c. But happily thou dost say there is a generall debt of all men touching these things of which we speak and that all mankinde without exception are obliged thereunto namely in the Passion of Christ we confesse it is Truth Yet doth any man therefore owe the lesse because another also owes the like summe c. That which I said formerly though it be a general debt yet no question it is also a special debt although all men in common be engaged yet every one in particular is also bound For Christ as he suffered for all so he suffered for every one and bestowd himselfe upon all as well as upon every one and gave himselfe wholly for all and wholly for every one And in regard of this whatever our Saviour by his suffering perform'd as all owe themselves wholly to him for it so every one wholly except in respect of this every one owes more than all Mankinde because every one hath reaped as much benefit thereby as all men This is a good rule for thankfulnesse but take heede of the Pharisees forme of thanks for Graces with comparisons to other folkes Lord I thank thee I am not like other men or as this Publicane Indeed as some put the case of mankinde like a company of Rebels out of whom the King chooseth whom he pleaseth to pardon and executes the rest with the sword those pardoned owe thanks for their pardon and more thanks for culling them out that were like to the rest in Rebellion But the Scripture puts not the case of mankinde so but rather thus God by the Gospell as a King mercifully proclames a generall pardon to all the company of Rebels in such a County upon condition that he that comes in and yeelds his sword and takes at the Kings Pavilion a Ticket of his pardon be free to goe home and enjoy the
blessednesse of the Saints is both from the Reward of Grace and Retribution of Justice This sentence cleareth the most doubtfull part for that eternal death is de retributione justitiae is a truth so cleare and not possible to be decreed from before time without foreknowledge of sinne as my Opposites therefore love not to argue about Reprobation or if they doe they fly to the Dominion and Liberty of God as a Lord absolute and unaccountable to exclude Prescience even here if it were possible But for Predestination to eternall life because it is the gift of God they are confident it may be decreed without Prescience what man will doe which they well might seeme to have some colour for if the blessednesse of the Saints were onely de munere Gratiae and not also de retributione Justitiae But why strive they to separate and dis-joyne those things which God hath joyned together he having made the blessednesse of the Saints to be the retribution of Justice out of his Prescience of their labouring to attaine their end life and to be also the gift of his Grace out of his owne understanding what will bring them to happinesse if he grant them these benefits whereby he shall also attain his end the glory of his free love in giving eternall life to whom hee will both these being understood and knowne before the very existence of men or any act of his be allowed to be by any decree of the will of God that is onely upon condition or supposition if hee please to will the Creation Calling Governing of the Saints in such sort as he foreknowes will bring forth life unto them and this be a way of Glory to himselfe In summe this judgement being ex praeteritis the predestination of it cannot but be ex praevisis The Judge whom God hath ordained for that day is Christ the Lord. God and man not the Father himselfe immediatly the reason is Joh. 5. 22 23. that all might honour the Sonne as they honour the Father and the reason of that is because as the Father hath Created so the Sonne hath Redeemed mankinde And this shall be the great crime upon which the World shall be judged Joh. 3. 19. That light is come into the World and men loved darknesse more than light and Christs Word shall judge him in the last day whosoever hath rejected Christ Joh. 12. 48. as after the Gospell is preached any where the rule of judgement is Mark 16. 16. He that believeth and is Baptized shall be saved hee that believeth not shall be damned But S. Paul more fully 2 Thess 1. 8. When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven to recompence rest to them that have beene troubled for his Truth and in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the Gospell of our Lord Jesus Christ The severity of the last judgement in flaming fire rendring vengeance The particularity of the Persons wee must all appeare before the judgement Seat of Christ 2 Cor. 5. 10. The specialty of causes which God shall judge the very secrets of men by Jesus Christ Rom. 2. 16. When as many as have sinn'd without Law shall also perish without Law vers 12. having had a Law written in their hearts which is as much as that vengeance shall be rendred to them that know not God as Tertullian saith Illius etiam est ignorantes Deum plectere quem non liceat ignorare when those that have sinned in the Law shall be judged by the Law and they that have not obeyed the Gospell shall be judged by the Gospell by the like proportion This specialty of causes argueth I say to mee that Originall sinne which is one just cause of death shall justly be alleged against them that have had no other cause of condemnation in them but this as against all Infants that have dyed and have not this sinne purg'd by the lavacre of Regeneration either in act or vow of the Church but to allege it against them that have lived to yeares capable to know God and to obey the Gospell and perhaps have by Baptisme that sinnes forgivenesse sealed unto them as it seemed strange to Doctor Whitakers that any man should be Reprobated for that sinne which is forgiven him so it seemeth strange to mee that those sinnes should be alleged against a man for which hee is condemned and yet for which he was not Reprobated since the sentence of Reprobation is the heaviest and most wofull sentence that can be as that which drawes after it the sentence of Condemnation as the fourth Assertion at Lambeth saith I conceive the same sins for which the wicked are condemned at the last were the sinnes for which they were written Reprobates before all dayes Jude vers 4. altogether first and last great and small but especially their finall impenitency and obstinacy in sinne else what needed this exactnesse of differencing the specialties of causes Or how doth it more burden the guilty to heare of their several crimes when they all were rejected in the common case of mankinde fallen and from thenceforth unable to arise and amend having neither Saviour to die for them nor Spirit to call them nor helpe to heale them all which Reprobation hath excluded and debarred them from or these from them God will overcome in judgement but not by pleading his prerogative or his Soveraigne power or by putting men to silence with his greatnesse else Abraham was too bold to expostulate with God shall not the Judge of the whole earth doe right but by Justice and equity else hee would not offer himselfe to be tryed Isay 5. 3. Iudge I pray you betwixt mee and my Vineyard what could I have done more to my Vineyard that I have not done in it God will convince the ungodly and put them to silence and shame by their unthankfulnesse and stubbornnesse against his abundant goodnesse patience and long-suffering shewed unto them Let mee take my leave of the ingenous Reader by leaving with him my doubt and my resolution thereof expressed in the words of the grave Cardinall Sadolet no carnall man nor enemy to Truth as his times had light In his Commentaries upon the Epistle to the Romans pag. 1178. hee brings in this Objection At enim ex contaminatio genere oriundi c. But even wee being borne of a corrupted originall are now by nature it selfe made to destruction that those whom God passeth by and doth not call unto himselfe might have no just cause of complaint To this hee answereth thus At ego video c. But I conceive in the judgement of the World to come Christ Jesus will not so passe the sentence who shall then sit in judgement for his Father upon them whom he hath condemn'd as thus to pronounce Seeing you proceeded out of the corrupted loines of Adam and have contracted the fault and guilt of your Parents for this cause doe I sentence you to eternall torments
the one and mercifully to the other and judge them all righteously But all these things understood from the first to the last from the beginning to the end of the world with every particular circumstance the same that now are under execution I say understood them as under condition and with supposition if it shall please the Soveraigne Lord to determine and decree to put them into being and into act were brought and presented to the wisdome counsell and will of God to allow or amend to approve or to alter or to decree and establish them for ever which after long and deep contemplation that we may still speak after our poore manner of Understanding it pleased the onely wise God and Lord of all upon them to pronounce this mighty word or decree Fiant let them be so This frame this Order these Causes with their Effects these benefits these Mercies these Judgements these Ends glory to some shame to others Let them be established and ratified to the glory of the divine wisdome justice Grace power and holinesse Amen Amen Amen said the blessed and eternall Trinity Thus the Will of God comming to his knowledge maketh the Decree of Predestination which Knowledge or Understanding alone doth not Of this Will of God we are further to consider an essentiall property of it and a necessary distinction The Property of the Will of God is to be free absolute independent to proceed out of no cause but out of himsefe in so much as even his occasioned will had liberty not to have taken the occasion from whence it followeth that the things predestinate cannot be causes or motives of their predestination neither are things predestinate out of Prescience of simple understanding such for therein all things were knowne yet but as possible and having no subsistence at all being as possible never to be they could not be movers of Gods Will to will them They are deceived therefore that think Predestination out of Prescience makes Gods will to depend on Mans Will or to be a conditionall or uncertaine Will nay a decree out of this Prescience of simple understanding concludes Gods Predestination to be as absolute free certaine infallible as his Omniscience is infallible and his Will free and his Power supreme or as any other way or manner of understanding this mysterie can conclude it The Distinction of the Will of God is that of Damascen out of Chrysostome into his Antecedent and Consequent Will That is his chiefe and primary Will proceeding out of himselfe or out of his owne goodnesse and therefore is called by Anselme The will of his Mercy This other is his occasioned will or the will of his Justice as the cause now standeth Out of the first proceedeth all the good of Grace and Glory which the reasonable creature receiveth Out of the second proceedeth all the evill of Punishment and Revenge for the evill of Chastisement may proceed from love and so from the first Will as good that an offender suffereth or endureth From the first of these floweth that part of Predestination which is to Life which decreeth to give those meanes and benefits which understanding knowes will be saving to such men if they be given them which is the very decree of Election From the second of these floweth the other part of Predestination which is to Wrath which decreeth to give but those meanes and benefits which foreknowledge understandeth will faile to be saving to some men through their extreme fault and to inflict Death upon them for their fault which is the Decree of Reprobation And thus much is enough of the Will of God Of Gods Dominion The third excellency in the Nature of God seene especially in his Predestination is his Soveraigne Lordship and Dominion called by the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 9. 21. whereby he hath right and power to disspose of his creatures at his pleasure yet with wisdome and justice according to his Nature and by which he is accountable to none for his so doing From hence an answer is given to any that shall aske a reason Why God allowed and alotted unto these men the meanes which he foreknew would bring them to Glory and setled the End Glory and Eternall life upon them and why he permitted any at all to perish or why these rather than others when he foreknew their Ends would be unhappy through their owne fault when he could have remedyed and have so disposed things out of the Treasures of his wisdome and knowledge whereby these also might have been saved and others that are saved might have perished The Answer I say to this is out of the Dominion of God that it was his high pleasure to have his Justice manifested as well as his Mercy and his Justice in these as his Mercy in those out of the same his pleasure without wrong or injustice to any with free frank bounty to others as Lord of his owne things Thus is that verifyed in God as the supreme Cause disposer and ruler of all then when all things were in contriving and ordering how they should be to have Mercy on whom he will and to Harden whom he will Rom. 9. that is not to helpe him farther whom he findes to faile under sufficient helpe already given him Here is to be seen that Masse or lump of Mankinde out of which the great Potter made Vessels to honour and to dishonour namely the whole race of men from the first man to the last under all circumstances accompanying every particular both on Gods part and also on Mans knowne and considered by the Naturall and simple understanding of God for then they were as a Lumpe without determined formes capable of any change or amendment which the great workmaster might please to have For as God by his Soveraigne power makes of the same Earth some peece gold some lead or baser stuffe so of Mankinde he made some to holinesse and honour some he permitted to be defiled and come to dishonour But with this difference that there his own hand did all as working upon a dead and senselesse matter here he worketh upon a living and reasonable creature whose Nature we must suppose and provide to be preserved in Gods working upon it for in comparisons as there must be some likenesse so the differences must be marked as the Nature of things compared doe differ else nothing is more fit to deceive with than a similitude Thus much for the Consideration of the Nature of God who did Predestinate there followeth the consideration of the Nature of Man who was Predestinated It pleased the most wise and omnipotent Creator amongst other his glorious works to conceive one more admirable and excellent than the rest To subsist of a mixt compound Nature of Spirit and of flesh By the flesh inferiour to the Angels by the Spirit superiour to beasts to whom he might say Be not as the Horse as the Mul◠that have no understanding For
hee saw a fit occasion to open all these by separating some ex promiscua illa perditione quâ ad unum omnes pari mortis aeternae conditione obstricti erant the Scripture no where saith and hee himselfe that saith it dares not doe it but with this parenthesis interponente se hîc dilecto filio quos in illo voluit it would clearly appeare that the separation of man was not made upon the view of Mankinde corrupted no more than upon the view of the same uncorrupted but upon Christ interposing Himselfe God separating quos in illo voluit voluit autem credentes in ipsum This let mee expresse in the words of Alesius on John 17. 1. Cum filius Dei praevidisset genus humanum ruiturum in aeternum exitium propter peccatum factus est supplex aeterno Patri ecce interponente se hîc dilecto filio ac promeruit Pater ei daret universos qui credituri essent in ipsum ut eos servaret à tyrannide Diaboli morte aeternâ The Father never denyed the Son any thing which hee asked Psal 2. Aske of me and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance So by this the intercession of Christ hath obtained all that beleeve in him to bee given to him to deliver from curse and to bring to eternall Life and Salvation not their faith nor their works but Christs favour with his Father The last thing in the Definition is an illustration the predestinated to Life are accounted as Vessells made to honour This is taken out of S. Paul Rom. 9. 21. where you shall finde the Vessells made to honour to be also called Vessells of mercy vers 23. and the Vessells made to dishonour called Vessels of wrath vers 22. but mercy and wrath doe both presuppose sin Both so farre wide from the Apostle and our Article are the defenders of the first Opinion What sinne is it that is presupposed That 's now in the question Whether Originall sinne or sinne against Christ It seemes by the Apostle that Vessels of Wrath were such as God endured with much long-suffering which being despised hee then shewed his wrath and his power over them ver 22. which argued their sinne to be impenitency And Vessels of Mercy to be such in whom he maketh knowne the riches of his Glory but this is done in Christ above all Eph. 1. 6. 7. and 2 Tim. 2. 20. the very visible Church of Christ is the great house wherein are Vessels some to honour some to dishonour But the whole Chapter Rom. 9. deserves an especiall elaboration that together with the whole the similitude of the Potter and his lumpe and his Vessels might be openly cleared The summe is That whereas the Salvation of all those that are saved and the perdition of all those that perish is referred as it ought to be to the Will of God to his mercy to his love to whom he will inlarged and from whom he will restrained and that there is no resisting nor complaining against this Will that then God and his Will is to be considered as it is by the Apostle as the Universall and supreme Cause of all things and as the generall Mover Governour disposer of them through whose understanding judgement and allowance they have all passed and might have been otherwise disposed and other Events have proceeded out of them if God had willed And againe the Supreme Cause as such must not onely be considered as the chiefe and prime agent of things or as alone doing all but permitting other created Natures to use their properties faculties and freedomes and to governe them and to use them to such ends and uses as the wisdome of God his Justice his Mercy his Dominion shall judge fit to use them and apply them holily and righteously and according to Gods Nature God therefore in contemplation of his owne workes which he himselfe would doe and of his creatures of free nature what they would doe if he permit conceiving the issues would be diverse some good some evill out of his owne Soveraigne pleasure and power confirmed and ratified by an immutable decree those issues and their free causes that would bring them forth whereby he prepared some men to glory some men to destruction as unto ends but not without the intervent of their owne acts as well as of his who though he could have mended or altered any of his own workes or any of the other Creatures to other issues yet hee would not notwithstanding hee knew that letting things goe thus the greatest part of the Masse or multitude of Mankinde would goe into perdition and but a few in comparison would be transmitted to life and glory yet he rested in this purpose with as much blamelesse liberty as the Potter hath who makes of the same lumpe of Clay vessells for honorable uses and vessels for viler and baser uses For although there seeme a great deale of neerenesse betweene the Potter as a man an owner and his Clay and there come but few things betweene the Will and power of the one and the uses and End of the other as put case the aptnesse and inaptnesse of Clay to an end which yet the Potter could mend if hee list by cost and labour whereby the Potters power seemes to be more great and absolute yet it is most true that there is a great deale more of neerenesse betweene God and his Creature and though there come many more things betweene the Will of God and the End of his Creature yet is the infinite Knowledge Wisdome and Power of God that notwithstanding these many more things intervenient Gods Will is neerer to the End of his creatures than the Potters Will can be to the End of his Clay where so little or nothing come betweene Those then whom God chose in Christ and decreed to bring to Salvation by Christ upon supposition of his owne acts in giving Christ and his Spirit unto them and upon supposition of their acts in receiving Christ and obeying his Spirit these are Vessells made unto honour And againe those whom hee rejected and decreed to bring into everlasting destruction upon supposition of their acts in despising his Promises and inabusing his benefits given unto them those are Vessels made to destruction There is a necessity of such suppositions here because the Masse of Mankinde is not like unto the Masse of Potters earth rude reasonlesse and senselesse but is a free Creature whose nature is by the Ordinance of the Creator to worke out and to procure to it selfe its owne End good or evill good by working according to God seeking that good to men or evill by declining from or forsaking of God in his Worke and so failing of God hee falls into evill But because God was able to have altered or amended the whole or any peece of the Masse which happily the Potter is not alwayes able to doe in his Masse therefore God must needs bee acknowledged to have a
more excellent power over Mankinde his Masse than any Potter hath of his Clay to make Vessels to honour or dishonour whereby at last all is resolved into the Will of God but as it is the supreme and universall cause which doth allow all inferiour causes to move and worke according to their Natures which movings and workings hee orders and applyes to his owne Glory of Justice or Mercy as seemeth agreeable to his Will Vide Epiphan Haeres 64. contra Orig. p. 246. Et Hieronimum Hebdiae Quaest. 10. Thus much for the first branch of the first paragraph viz. The Definition of Predestination to life Now followeth the second Branch which is a Description of the Execution or of the manifestation of our Predestination to life which is expressed in these words Wherefore they that be endued with so excellent a benefit of God bee called according to Gods Purpose by his Spirit working in due season This straine seemes to be an Imitation of S. Paul Rom. 8. 29. and it is a good explication thereof saving that S. Paul tyeth the Linkes together one unto another by a repetition or replication Those whom hee foreknew hee did predestinate And whom hee did predestinate them hee also called whom hee called hee also justifyed and whom hee justifyed hee also glorifyed But our Article uniteth all these latter unto one the first as so many effects of one cause and implyeth the connexion of one of them to the other onely by the order of their enumeration saying thus They that bee endued with so excellent a benefit of God which is as much as they that bee elected by Christ as foreknowne they be called they be justifyed they be glorifyed So the imitation agreeth well without any materiall difference The Explication our Article makes appeares most by the additions which it putteth to S. Paul 1. As first instead of whom hee foreknew it calleth our Predestination praeclarum Dei Donum those that hee endued with so excellent a benefit with reference to the Definition afore 2. That it esteemeth this excellent benefit the Fountaine and the cause of all spirituall blessings that follow in the Article viz. Calling Justifying Glorifying for it saith Vnde qui tam praeclaro Dei beneficio sunt donati vocantur wherefore they that be endued with so excellent a benefit of God are called 3. That to S. Pauls words called according to purpose the Article addeth by his Spirit working in due season and they through grace obey the Calling By which two additions the Article declareth what Calling according to purpose is viz. when Gods Spirit worketh in Calling and not the outward word alone and when by grace that Calling is obeyed for these two are in the course and plot approved by God 4. When to S. Pauls justifyed the Article addeth They be made the Sonnes of God by adoption they bee made like to the Image of his holy Sonne Jesus Christ they walke righteously in good Workes These are added as so many effects of our Election originally and as so many effects of our Justification immediately and as so many pledges and signes of our future Glorification for upon this is concluded that at length by Gods Mercy they attaine to everlasting felicity Out of this Declaration which the Article maketh of the Execution and Manifestation of Predestination there bee foure things especially to bee learned 1. That the Article intendeth the same thing which Melanchton sayes S. Paul intended Rom. 8. 29. Totum ordinem complecti voluit quo Ecclesia condita est à Deo To the end that our Faith of eternall Salvation by Christ might bee established and confirmed since God hath contrived the whole course whereby hee will build his Church that is whereby hee will have on Earth a chosen Generation that shall inherit in Heaven everlasting felicity And this wee may certainly beleeve because the Knowledge of God which is infallible his purpose which is unchangeable his Calling according to purpose which cannot bee frustrate his justifying which cannot be controuled and his glory which is invincible are all found in this order and course here set downe besides the Scripture saith The Counsell of the Lord standeth sure and the thoughts of his heart to all Generations Psal 33. 11. 2. Secondly whereas in this chaine there is one linke which is put not onely as the first in order but also as the cause and fountaine of all the rest which are not onely tyed to it but derived from it namely the excellent benefit of our Election and Predestination in Christ which was given unto us by God and settled upon us by his purpose before the Foundation of the World 2 Tim. 1. 9. from whence doe flow all the lower blessings of Calling according to purpose justifying glorifying as effects as issues out of the first and highest Therefore wee are bound to blesse God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ as S. Paul doth who hath blessed us with all Spirituall blessings viz. with calling justifying and according as hee hath chosen us in him that wee should be holy and unblameable before him in love Eph. 1. 3 4. for the latter blessings doe call upon the first not onely as a patterne but as a Fountaine and root of them all Now if it should seeme strange that those should be the Effects of Predestination and yet bee foreknowne before Predestination according as S. Paul setteth Foreknowledge before Predestination and Calling after it as the Effect this doubt is cleered by the remembring that the foreknowledge that S. Paul speaketh of is that onely of Simple understanding which is not the cause of any thing absolutely to bee but onely as possible or futurum but sub Hypothesi if the Will of God say it and by remembring secondly that the Will and Decree of God wherein Predestination properly consisteth is onely the cause why any thing comes to act and into being absolutely God willing it to be indeed after that manner as hee knew it might be before hee willed it to bee So by this it is plaine that the things which were the Objects of the Understanding foreknowing them first as possible are after the Effects of the Will of God when they are commanded by a Decree absolutely to be and to come into act The knowledge of God being unto him a light and a guide but his Will being to us the Fountaine of all our good and the ground of the duties of thankfulnesse 3. Thirdly whereas the lower linkes say whom hee predestinated hee called c. we learne from hence that the ministery of the Word whereby the holy Ghost calleth justifyeth sanctifyeth the Elect people of God chiefly intendeth the Execution of Predestination according to S. Paul Eph. 4. 12. That Pastors and Teachers are given for the perfecting of the Saints for the worke of the Ministery for the Edifying of the Body of Christ Non ergo alios sed quos praedestinavit vocavit justicavit ipsos glorificavit