transgression of some Law so every punishment is the revenge of some sin upon which it follows that if a mans sin is from himself 't is from himself that he is punisht And as the Law is not the Cause but the * Occasion only of sin so God is not the Cause but the inflicter only of punishment for so saies the Apostle Sin taking occasion by the Commandement wrought in me all manner of Concupiscence for without the Law sin was dead That which is good not being made death but sin working death by that which is good God and his Law are each of them the Causa sine qua non the Condition without which sin and punishment could not have been for without Law no sin without God no Reprobation but not the Energetical efficient Cause of which sin punishment were the necessary effects For if God had made a Hell by an absolute purpose meerly because he would that some should suffer it and not in a previous intuition of their sins Damnation had been a Misery but not a Punishment as if a Potter makes a vessel on purpose that he may break it which yet none but a mad man can be thought to do or if a man meerly for recreation cuts up Animals alive which yet none ever did that I can hear of except a young Spanish Prince it is an Infelicity and a torment but no more a punishment than it is any thing else Indeed the Common people who doe not understand the just propriety of words make no distinction many times betwixt Pain and Punishment not considering that Punishment is a relative word of which the correlative is breach of Law and therefore is fitly exprest in Scripture by the mutual relation betwixt a Parent and a Child when lu◠hath * conceived it bringeth forth sin sin being perfected bringeth forth death Iam. 1. 15. which is as much as to say according to the propriety of the Apostles words sin is the parent and death is the childe Now there cannot be a child without a parent for they are relata secundum esse much lesse can the child be before the parent for sunt simul natura dicuntur ad convertentiam Upon which it followes that punishment could not be ordained by God either without sin or before it or without respect and intuition of it which yet the great * Mr. Calvin does plainly say I say it could not because it implies a contradiction For though God could easily make Adam out of the earth and the earth out of nothing yet he could not make a sinful Cain to be the son of sinful Adam before there was an Adam much lesse before there was a sinful one because it were to be and not to be at the same time Adam would be a Cause before an entity which God Almighty cannot do because he is Almighty So that when the Romanists assert their Transubstantiation or the posterity of Marcion their Absolute decree of all the evil in the world both pretending a Reverence to Gods omnipotence they doe as good as say †those things which are true may therefore be false because they are true or that God is so * Almighty as to be able not to be God that being the Result of an Ability to make two parts of a contradiction true so said S. Austin against Faustus and Origen against Celsus Whensoever it is said God can do all things 't is meant of all things that become him So Isidore the Pelusiote But to return to that argument in the pursuit of which I have stept somewhat too forward if Gods preordination of mans eternal misery were in order of nature before his prescience of mans sin as Mr. Calvin evidently affirms in his Ideo * praesciverit quia decreto suo praeordinavit setting Praeordination as the Cause or Reason or praevious Requisite to his Praescience either mans Reprobation must come to passe without sin or else he must sin to bring it orderly to passe which is to make God the author either of misery by it self without relation to sin or else of sin in order to misery The first cannot be because God hath * sworn he hath no pleasure in the death of a sinner Ezek. 33. 14. much lesse in his death that never sinn'd And because if it were so the Scripture would not use the word Wages and the word Punishment and the word Retribution and the word Reward Hell indeed had been a torment but not a Recompence a fatal Misery but not a Mulct an act of power but not of vengeance which yet in many places is the stile that God speaks in Vengeance is mine and I will repay Rom. 12 19. Nor can the second be lesse impossible it having formerly been proved that God is not the Author of sin he hath no need of the sinful man whereby to bring mans Ruine the more conveniently about and most of them that dare say it are fain to say it in a Disguise Some indeed are for ligonem ligonem but the more modest blasphemers are glad to dresse it in cleaner phrase A strange {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in Divinity to put the 1 child before the parent the 2 wages before the work the 3 end before the means the Reprobation before the sin yet so they do who make the Decree of Reprobation most irrespective and unconditional and after that say that whom God determines to the end he determines to the meanes To put the horse upon the Bridle is a more rational Hypallage For by this Divinity eternal punishment is imputed to Gods Antecedent will which is called the first and sin to his consequent will which is the second The first {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and the other only {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} punishment chiefly and sin by way of consecution Men are bid not to sin ex voluntate signi or revelata but are determin'd to it ex voluntate occulta or beneplaciti Distinctions very good when at first they were invented for better uses the former by S. Chrysostome from whom it was borrow'd by Damascene and from him by the Schoolmen But I say they all were used to very contrary purposes by them and by these who endeavour'd to repel those Fathers with their own weapons as the elaborate †Gerard Vossius does very largely make it appear I am sorry I must say what yet I must saith * Tertullian when it may tend to edification That the Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering abundant in goodnesse and truth who is all Bowels and no gall who hateth nothing that he hath made who in the midst of Iudgement remembreth mercy ever forgiving iniquity transgression and sin is exhibited to the world by the Authors and Abetters of unconditional Reprobation as a kind of Platonick Lover of so excellent a Creature 's everlasting misery Which if
THE Christians rescue FROM THE GRAND ERROR of the HEATHEN touching the fatal Necessity of all Events AND The Dismal consequences thereof which have slily crept into the CHURCH In several Defences Of some Notes writ to Vindicate the Primitive and Scriptural Doctrine of Gods Decrees By THOMAS PIERCE Rector of Brington in Northamptonshire LONDON Printed by J. G. for Richard Royston at the Angel in Ivy-lane 1658. The general Preface to the ensuing Tracts 1. I cannot but think it very expedient and very agreeable to Reason that Altercations and Controversies in every kind those especially in Religion should be made to acknowledge their mortality as well as the Controverters themselves by whom the dissensions are kept alive This concerning Gods Decrees of Reward and Punishment as it is much stricken in years and even decrepitly aged so by the blessing of God it is drawing the faster towards its end too The Erroneous side of the controversie is grown so feeble and dispirited what with its wounds and bruises and putrifying sores which in its desperate encounters it hath received and is become so gastly to lookers on that even they who are ashamed to see it falling are more ashamed to hold it up 2. There is not sure a more effectual or shorter course for the putting a period to a Dispute then by proceeding from such principles as are assented to and granted by men of all sides 3. There are not any two Principles more universally received throughout the world then that God is the Author of every thing that is good and that he cannot be the Author of any thing that is evil I mean the evil of sin which is properly evil in it self for the evil of punishment is in it self very good and doth onely seem evil to them that suffer it 4. In these preceding Considerations I began to reason on those two * grounds And supposing my self to be of neither or at least of both parties I was resolved to state the Question between me and my self as I should finally be conducted by those infallible guides religiously intending to go as far and withal resolving to go no farther then those granted Maxims should either carry or allow me 5. I have had the happiness to observe that none of those whom I displeased in the course I took have either dared in †plain terms to deny the truth of my Principles or adventured to discover wherein my deductions could seem illegal but only talking at Rovers they have largely expressed their dislikes without exhibiting to the Reader a reason why except the contract they had made with some vulgar Errors with which my Principles Deductions were very equally inconsistent 6. What deductions they have made from their fanciful notions of Gods praescience and decrees I have abundantly proved to be blasphemous And my proofs have been taken not from Scripture only and Reason and the whole suffrage of Antiquity and the most eminent of the Moderns for Life and Learning but over and above from their own Confessions which in their soberest intervals have happily falne down from their publick Pens So unadvised was * M. Baxter in charging Grotius and others with uncharitable censures and odious inferences for the odious inferences are made by his own dear Brethren and Praedecessors who have avowedly deduced them from those grounds of Theology on which they go whereas Grotius and others have but recited them to their Authors out of their publick works 7. The head spring of their Doctrines is known by the * streams which issue from them as the †tree is known by its fruit * It cannot be a good tree which bringeth forth evil fruit much less is that a good Doctrin whose very Patrons and Abettors have often acknowledgâ—d it doth infer what a thousand times they have themselves inferred from it that God is the natural cause of sin 8. The head-spring of their Doctrines is that of irrespective praedestination or praedetermination of all events antecedent to praescience 9. If Gods eternal Decrees concerning the final estate of man cannot possibly be absolute or irrespective of those respective qualifications by which alone he can be qualified for reward or punishment it cannot chuse but follow by the confession of all that those Decrees are respective or as some express it conditional that is according to Gods prâ—science of such and such qualifications There being clearly no medium of participation or proportion no nor so much as of abnegation betwixt the respectiveness and irrespectiveness of the very same act as they both relate to the very same object For what implies a contradiction is very happily exploded by men of all sorts So as the ruine of the one is the establishing of the other And they that are beaten from the hold of irrespective praedestination must fly to the tenet of the respective by way of refuge there being nothing betwixt them but the pit of Atheism 10. It is confessed by Mr. Whitfield Wollebius and Dr. Twisse against Moulin to name no more that there is parity of reason in the decrees both of Election and Reprobation And the respectiveness of the later doth evince the former to be respective 11. That I have spoken on these subjects according to Gods revealed will and not proceeded a step farther then I was warranted to go by unavoidable deductions from clearest Scripture not enduring their boldness who interpret Gods revealed word by those Caprices of their brains which they presumptuously call Gods secret will alwayes implying this contradiction that it is secret and not secret the following Tracts will make apparent 12. As for those mysterious Questions 1. Why the word of God is preached rather to one sort of men then to another and sometimes to a more impious people then those to whom it is not preached 2. Why the means of conversion perseverance unto the end are not afforded alike to all to whom the Gospel is daily preached and many times in greater measure to an exceedingly evil people then to a people less evil 3. Why some mens lives are prolonged to a happy opportunity of true repentance whilest others are speedily cut off like Corah and his complices in a state of impenitence I never yet have inquired I never will * The secret things belong unto the Lord our God but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children 13. I shall conclude with an Admonition to the unstable and unlearned among the people that they beware of those Teachers who prefer the interest of their Faction before the honour of their God and will rather take part with a Presbyterian in making God to be the Author and cause of sin then live in any kind of charity with an Episcopal Divine who proves that Doctrine to be blasphemous Some have made themselves examples of this prodigious partiality whilest even in Print they have thought it fitter that a Brother of the
Presbytery should invent strange slanders against the innocent then that a man of the Church of England should proceed to conviction against the guilty It will appear to all Readers from the first to the last of these following Tracts that my principal intention hath been to vindicate my God both in his Essence and in his Attributes from the publick calumnies of evil doers whilest one doth teach that God willeth sin and another that he ordaines it and a third that it is one of Gods works the desperate sinner is taught to say I have done the will of God and what God appointed me to do 2. Whilest some affirm that Gods willing of sin doth make it cease to be a sin and others say he willeth all sins a third sort conclude that there are no sins at all 3. Whilest they say with eagerness that God must be such or there is no God at all they teach as many to be Atheists as cannot believe with the Libertines that God doth will and work sin 4. Whilest they say that the Regenerate cannot possibly fall away nor become notoriously ungodly by their commission of Crimson and Scarlet sins they teach the Ranters to live accordingly I can name the persons who have taught such things and experience hath taught us what they are who have reduced their knowledge of the several Lessons into Practice Towards the remedying of this I have in singleness of heart considered what should be the cause and as God hath enabled me us'd my endeavours to remove it I have been most of all intent upon clearing the Holiness of God that men may think of him with Reverence and Love unfeigned A wrong apprehension of the Deity is apt to breed a wrong worship and so I have pitch't upon the subject wherein it primely concerns us to set men right The holiness of God is his Soveraign Attribute and dearer to him then his power The Cherubims and Seraphims do continuaily cry out in honour to him Not high and mighty and unresistible but Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Hosts As if God esteemed more of this then of all his Attributes besides And Bishop Andrews of precious memory thought fit to make it his observation that in God Holy Holy is before Lord of Hosts His Holiness first his Power after May all that hate me upon the earth but follow the method of the Angels which are in Heaven speaking so honourably of God to a peevish world as not to miss of his favour in the word to come I shall not fail of their Love and shall receive the best recompence for all my Labour Fiat Fiat THO. PIERCE Directions for the placing of the ensuing Tracts I. The Correct Copy of Notes II. The Divine Philanthropie defended III. The Divine Purity defended in answer to Dr. Reynolds IV. The Self-Revenger exemplified in Mr. B. V. Self-Condemnation exemplified in Mr. W. and others A brief Table to the five ensuing Tracts immediately to follow the General Preface I. In the Correct Copie Two General Principles 1. That no moral evil is from the evil of God but of the Creature p. 6. 11. 2. That all good is from the free grace of God p. 6. 55. The distinction of Gods secret and revealed will as contrary to one another blasphemous p. 12. God permits sin only so as not to hinder it by sorce p. 15. Man is the sole efficient cause of his own destruction p. 17. Absolute Reprobation contrary to all the antient Fathers p. 25. 45. Even to S. Aug. p. 28. 44. The judgment of the Church of England p. 29. Gods Decree of Reprobation is not irrespective but conditional p. 32. Knowledge and Fore-knowledge in God p. 48. Gods Antecedent and Consequent will p. 51. All good is from Gods free Grace p. 56. Gods free Grace doth not destroy mans Free-will p. 57. Irresistible Grace not reconcileable with Choise p. 59. Distinction between Infallible and Necessary p. 61. Sufficient Effectual and Irresistible Grace p. 61. Taking and Chusing p. 62. Voluntary and Spontaneous p. 64. Gods Grace the Cause of Good Mans will the Instrument of Choise p. 63. Gods Decree of Election Conditional and Respective p. 68. II. In the Divine Philanthropie defended Post-destination p. 4. Eternal Praedestination Receptive p. 7. Pelagianisme p. 8. Arminius and Arminianisme p. 12. chap. iv p. 35. The judgment of the Church of England p. 19. Literal and Figurative Interpretations of Scripture p. 21. ch. iv p. 47. Absolute and Conditional will of God p. 56. Faith not the Cause but the Condition of Election p. 63. Negative and positive Reprobation p. 65. ch. iv p. 4. Hell prepared for Devils not for Men p. 70. Special Grace p. 83. and Redemption p. 84. Christ died not only for the Elect p. 85. Christ died for all not only sufficienter but intentionaliter p. 93. Grace of Perseverance p. 101. chap. iv p. 17. not irresistible p. 102. Vniversal Tradition p. 105. The cause of Punishment eternal p. 108. 117. The cause of sin not Deficient but Efficient p. 113. Gods permission of sin p. 129. 139. Gods Decrees Absolute Conditional chap. iv p. 1. Praeterition p. 4. Fundamentals p. 10. Synod at Dort p. 13. Gods Soveraignty and Justice p. 20. Plea for Infants p. 25. Vniversal Redemption p. 28. Esficacious Permission p. 33. Act and Sinsull Act p. 43. Twofold command of God p. 52. God hath not two contrary wills p. 57. III. In the Divine Purity Defended The Judgment of King James p. 6. Making God the Cause of Sin is blasphemy in the judgment of the Antients p. 22. and Modern learned men p. 26. even the Calvinists p. 30. Gods hardening Mens hearts p. 66. Gods Allmightiness p. 81. Gods way of working on the will p. 92. Free grace not unconditional p. 112. IV. In the Selfe-Revenger Abuse of the Tongue p. 1. Selfe-deceiving p. 2. Adams Sin p. 22. Original Sin p. 23. Born in Sin p. 24. Innocency p. 32. Christian Perfection p. 35. Excommunicating and Murthering Kings p. 77. Dangerous effects of Presbyterian Discipline p. 80. Vniversal and special Grace p. 87. Grotius his temper and Designe p. 92. Episcopacy and Liturgy approved by Calvin p. 95. Rigor of Presbytery advances Popery p. 98. In the Appendage Vniversal Grace and Vniversal Redemption p. 128. Extent and Intent of Christs death p. 138 142. Application of it p. 145. V. In Selfe-Condemnation Irrespective Decrees founded in the mistake of Gods Prescience Introd p. 3. Conditional Decrees p. 15. Order of Time and Order of Nature p. 20. Gods Promise Conditional p. 28. Gods glory not advanced by irrespective Reprobation ch. 1. p. 3. Act and obliquity of the Act p. 11. Efficacious permission p. 22. Hebraisme p. 39. Actions Natural and Vnnatural p. 72. 77. 81. Sin and the sinfull Action inseparable p. 84. Sin makes not for Gods glory p. 87. The Nature of Knowledge and Degree p. 122. Foreknowledge p. 123. doth not necessitate p. 126. nor presuppose
a Praedetermination p. 128. Futurition Will Certain Counsel p. 132. 133. Sin hath a true Efficient Cause p. 145. Positive Entity of sin p. 149. The Importance of the word Author p. 187. Christ died for all p. 195. 207. A PARAENESIS to the Reader Shewing the first occasion of this following Discourse and the Authour's necessity to make it publick SECT. 1. THat I am subject to errours it is no humility to acknowledge it being no more than to confesse that I carry about me the infirmities of a man which whosoever doth not let him cast the first stone at me But whether or no I am an Heretick or a dangerous person I desire my Censors may be my Iudges and do therefore addresse this present Apologie and Appeal not to the kindnesse and partiality of my dearest friends but to the very jealousies and prejudices of my severest enemies I bar the suffrage of none but the accuser of the Brethren that Abaddon or Apollyon so very skilful to destroy who is the Father of Lies and was a murderer from the beginning 2. I do professe in the presence of that punctual Register within me to which I bear a greater reverence than to affront it with a premeditated and wilful Lie that I do not unsheath my Pen to wound the reputation of any man living But since mine own lies bleeding in the mouths of some whose very Tongues have Teeth which bite much harder than I will ever allow mine and if there happen to be any in all my papers I shall not think it painful to have them drawn it is but needfull that I be clothed at least with armour of defence I meant indeed at the first onely to have armed my self with silence that my reservednesse and obscurity might keep me safe and even now that I am forced and as it were dragg'd into the field I contend not for victory but for an honourable Retreat And if after I have suffer'd I may be competently safe I will thank my Buckler but not my Sword Even now that I am writing it is with a kind of willingnesse to blot it out and I do onely so do it as preferring an inconvenience before a mischief 3. There had been a private conference betwixt a Gentleman and my self which for his further satisfaction I threw hastily into paper every whit as incohaerent as it had been in our oral and extemporary Discourse A Discourse which of necessity was forc'd to be without method as without premeditation because in my answers to his objections I was bound to follow after the measure that I was led I thought the thing so inconsiderable as not to vouchsafe it a reading over but just as 't was written deliver'd it instantly to my friend to be returned when he had used it unto the usuall place of my forgetfulnesse And forgotten it was so long that truly I know not how long it was till discoursing with another Gentleman upon the very same subject I found my memory awak'd by that sleeping scribble But forgetting that secrets do cease to be so when they are told though but to one and that with strict conjurations of greatest secrecy I gave him leave to peruse it as his leasure served him It seems this Gentleman had a Confident as well as I and so my original increast and multiplied into many false copies of which not one was like the mother Now that my paper went abroad by the help of more hands than one was against my knowledge against my will against my precept against my care and lastly against my best endeavours to recall it It having been absolutely impossible that I should love the publication of my poor Abortive who never esteemed my ripest and most legitimate productions to be any way worthy of publick view So farre was I from an ambition of being known by a disfigured and mis-shapen childe that when I first heard of its travels it was fallen out of my memory and when it came to me in a disguise it was quite out of my knowledge 4. I do acknowledge the great abstrusenesse of the whole subject on which I treated and the disproportion of my faculties to undertake or manage it For if the learned bishop Andrews did chuse with Saint Austin much more may I with Bishop Andrews rather to hear than to speak of these Insearchables I doe not hope to fathom either the Bathos of the Apostle or the Psalmists Abysse But I expect to be pardoned if when my way is slippery I take heed to my footing and so eschew the precipice as not to run upon the Wolfe It is not the businesse of this paper either to state an old question in a new-found way or to publish my judgement as a considerable thing Who am I that I should moderate between the Remonstrants and Anti-remonstrants betwixt S. Austin and other Fathers betwixt him and himself betwixt the Synod of Dort and that other at Augusta betwixt the Dominicans and the Iesuites Arminius and Mr. Perkins Twisse and Bellarmine or betwixt Whitaker and Baro Much indeed may be excus'd because much may be lockt for from such reverend Prelates as were Overal and Davenant But I believe amongst the Clergy there is not one in a hundred fit to speak of these Mysteries and amongst the Laity not one in a thousand that 's fit to hear them Hence was that silence first and afterwards that secrecie wherein I fain would have buried mine own conjectures and even now that I am forc'd to be more publick than I meant by the many false copies of my discourse whereof one of the falsest is now preparing for the Presse by one who it seems is at very great leisure it is not at all from any ambition to be followed but from an humble desire to be rightly understood and I therefore onely pretend to an Apologie and an Appeal First an Apologie for my imprudence that I could think such a secret might be communicated to one and so betray those papers to the Light which belonged onely to the Fire Secondly an Appeal whether I am a Pelagian or whether so much as a Massilian or whether indeed I am not rather a very Orthodox Protestant of the Church of England I have managed my discourse as I ground my Faith not from the hidden Mysteries of God's secret will but from the clearest expressions of his written Word Where of divers interpretations as often as they are divers I love to pitch upon that which I finde agreed upon by the wisest and the best and which in my shallow judgement which yet is the deepest that I have doth seem the safest and the most sutable to the Analogie of Faith Even Babes and Idiots have this advantage of their betters to be afraid of that fire where wiser men have been burnt And sad experience hath taught me who am a Babe and an Idiot in respect of the Aged and the wise to steer aloof in my Doctrines from those
adigit cogit compellit He makes us willing who are unwilling but does not force us to be willing whilest we are un willing that is to say to be willing against our wils or whether we will or no 12. But I find that I have shot somewhat farther then I aimed it being onely my design and the proper business of this place to shew that the words of the Apostle he worketh all things are infinitely far from being meant either of sin or Reprobation So far from that that God Almighty does not permit sin as permission signifies connivence or consent but he permits it as that signifies not to hinder by main force If I see a man stealing and say nothing to him I so permit as to be guilty but if I warn and exhort if I promise and threaten and do all that may avert him besides killing him I so permit as to be innocent In like manner all that is done by God Almighty by way of permission is his suffering us to live and have that nature of the will with which he made us Whereas to destroy us for the prevention of sin or to make us become stocks as Beza phrases it or like wooden Engines which are moved only by wires at the meer pleasure discretion of the Engineer were by inevitable consequence to * uncreate his creature which to do were repugnant to his immutability as Tertul. shews This is all that I am able to apprehend or pronounce that God permits our sins in this sense onely and that he disposes and orders them to the best advantage 13. Having proved my first Principle by Scripture and Reason it will be as easie to confirm it by the common suffrage of Antiquity and to avoid the repetition of so long a Catalogue which I suppose will be as needlesse as I am sure it will be nauseous to a considerable Reader I REFER him to the CITATIONS which will FOLLOW my FIRST INFERENCE SECT. 18. I will content my self at present to shut up all with a that Article of the Augustan Confession to which our 39. Articles have the greatest regard and conformity and which for that very reason is to me the most venerable of any Protestant Confession except our own That though God is the Creator and Preserver of Nature yet the only cause of sin is the will of the wicked that is to say of the Devil and ungodly men turning it self from God to other things against the will and commandements of God b And the Orange Synod doth pronounce an Anathema upon all that think otherwise If any will not subscribe to this Confession I will leave him to learn modesty both from Arrian the Heathen and from Philo the Iew {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Arrian in Epictet {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Philo {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} p. 325. CHAP. II. 14. MY first Demand being fully granted as in the Mathematicks 't is usual to build upon certain Postulata it doth immediately follow that Man himself is the sole efficient cause of his eternal punishment I say the sole Cause as excluding God but not the Devil whom yet I also exclude from the efficiency of the Cause because he can onely incite and propose objects and adde perswasions to sin but cannot force or cause it in me without my will and consent so that the Devil being onely a Tempter and Perswader cannot for that be justly stiled an efficient Or if he were sure for that very Reason God himself cannot be so but onely Man and the Devil must be the Concauses of mans destruction Which is the second thing I am to prove both by Scripture and Reason and the whole suffrage of Antiquity 15. And here I shall not be so solicitous as to rifle my Concordance but make use of such Scriptures as lye uppermost in my memory and so are readiest to meet my pen These I find are of two sorts negative on Gods part and affirmative on mans God gives the first under his oath Ezek. 33. 11. As I live saith the Lord I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live turn ye turn ye from your wicked waies for why will you die O house of Israel In the 18. ch. of the same Prophesie the Latine translation is more emphatical than the English for there it is not non cupio but nolo mortem morientis noâ— that he doth not will the death of a sinner but that he wils it not he doth not only not desire it but which makes the proof more forcible he desires the contrary even that he should turn from his wickednesse and live chapter 33. vers. 14. not willing saith S. Peter that any should perish but on the contrary that all should come to Repentance And so 1 Tim. 2. 4. He will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth Where it appears by the Context that the Apostle does not onely speak of all kindes of particulars but of all particulars of the kindes too For he first of all exhorts them that prayers and supplications and giving of thankes be made for all men verse 1. secondly he does instance in one sort of men for Kings and all that are in Authority verse 2. thirdly he addes the Cause of his exhortation for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour who will have all men to be saved verse 3 4. And if the Spanish Friar said true that few Kings go to Hell giving this reason because all Kings are but few the Apostles way of arguing will be so much the stronger for when he speaks of all men in general he makes his instance in Kings in all Kings without exception thereby intimating Nero the worst of Kings under whom at that time the Apostle lived And he uses another argument verse 6. because Christ gave himself a Ransome for all This is yet more plain from Rom. 2. 4 5. Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance but after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thy self wrath against the day of wrath Observe who they are whom God would have to repent even the hard-hearted and the impenitent But I have stronger proofs out of Scripture and lesse liable to cavil than any of these which yet I thought fit to use because I find they are the chief of those that Vossius relies upon and expounds to my purpose from the Authority of the Ancients I will adde to these but three or four Texts more of which the one will so establish and explain the other as to leave no place of evasion to the gainsayer First our blessed Saviour is called by the Apostle the Saviour of all men especially of them that believe 1 Tim. 4. 10. As if
That God did not absolutely irrespectively unconditionally decree the everlasting misery of any one but in a foresight and intuition of their refusing his profer That he sent his Son to die for all the sins of the whole world inviting and commanding all men every where to repent and be forgiven Acts 17. 30. but that most like the slave in Exodus are in love with their bondage and will be bored through the ear That everlasting fire was prepared especially not for men but for the Devil and his Angels nor for them by a peremptory irrespective Decree but in praescience and respect of their pride and Apostasy That Christ came to save that which was lost and to call sinners to repentance and to have gather'd them as a Hen gathereth her Chickens under her wings but they would not That God gave his law his rule his promises to all and excepted none in the publishing of either but so as he expected they should be willing as well as he for he would not save any whether they would or no That God Almighty made no man on purpose to torment him but that he might participate of his goodnesse * That so many as perish may thank themselves and that so many as live for ever are beholding to nothing but the grace of God That God decreed the fall of none but the raising up of those were down and that those very men who are reprobated had been predestin'd to salvation if they would have return'd and remain'd in truth and holinesse Gods Decrees being to many the cause of their rise but to none of their downfal Lastly that they who have despis'd the will of God wch did invite them to repentance shall feel the terrors of his will wch is to execute vengeance upon the children of Disobedience 20. From all this together which hath been said from Scripture from Reason from the authority of the Ancients who are the fittest of any to interpret Scripture I thus conclude within my self That God Almighty is the Author of men and Angels That wicked Angels and wicked men are the Authors of sin and that the sin of men and Angels is the Author of unexpressible and endlesse punishment That sin is rebellion against the Majesty of God that hell was made to punish Rebels and that God never decreed any rebellion against himself Upon which it follows that as I look for the cause of my election in the sole merits of my Redeemer so for the cause of my Reprobation in the obliquity of my will because the Reason of my punishment is to be taken from my sin and the Reason of my sin is to be taken from my self From whence there follows and follow it will do what I can a second Inference from my first compared with my first Principle viz. CHAP. III. 21. That every Reprobate is praedetermin'd to eternal punishment not by Gods irrespective but conditional Decree GOD doth punish no man under the notion of a Creature but under the notion of a Malefactor And because he does not create a malefactor but a man he hateth nothing that he hath created but in as much as it hath wilfully as it were uncreated his image in it So that no man is sinful because ordain'd to condemnation but ordain'd to condemnation because he is sinful Sin is foreseen and punishment is foreappointed but because that sin is the cause of punishment and that the cause is not after but before the effect in priority of nature though not of time it follows that the effect is not foreappointed untill the cause is foreseen So that God damns no man by an absolute decree that is to say without respect or intuition of sin but the praescience of the guilt is the motive and inducement to the determining of the Iudgement And yet however my second Inference is depending upon my first by an essential tye which gives it the force and intrinsick form of demonstration yet because some Readers will assent much sooner to a plain Reason lesse convincing than to a more convincing Reason lesse plain and that some are wrought upon by an argument exactly proportion'd to their capacities or tempers rightly levell'd and adopted more by luckiness than design whilest another argument is displeasing they know not why but that there is an odnesse in the look and meen which betokens something of subtilty and makes them suspect there is a serpent though they see not the Ambush in which it lurks I will gratifie such a Reader by a proof of this too first from Scripture then from Reason grounded upon Scripture and last of all by an addition to my former suffrages of Antiquity in which S. Austin more especially shall speak as plainly and as strongly in my behalf as any man that can be brib'd to be an Advocate or a witness 22. That my proof from Scripture may be the more effectual I shall first desire it may be considered that since God is affirmed to have a secret and a revealed will we must not preposterously interpret what we read of his revealed will by what we conjecture of his secret one for that were to go into the dark to judge of those Colours which are seen only by the light but we must either not conjecture at that which cannot be known as Gods secret will cannot be but by ceasing to be secret or if we needs will be so busie we must guesse at his secret will by what we know of his revealed one that so at least we may modestly and safely erre Upon which it follows that we who meekly confesse we have not been of Gods Counsel must onely judge of his eternal and impervestigable Decrees by what we find in his Word concerning his Promises and his Threats which are fitly called the Transcripts or Copies of his Decrees Such therefore as are his Threats such must needs be his Decrees because the one cannot praevaricate or evacuate the other but his Threats as well as Promises are all conditional therefore his Decrees must be so too Thus in his Covenant with Adam and indeed the word Covenant doth evince what I am speaking he threatens Death or decrees it not with that peremptory Reason which is the redoubling of the will onely I will therefore because I will but on supposition of his eating the forbidden fruit Which was not therefore forbidden that Adam might sin in the eating man was not so ensnared by the guide of his youth but Adam sinned in the eating because it had been forbidden Such immediately after was Gods language to Cain If thou do well thou shalt be accepted and if thou doest not well sin lyeth at the door Again saith God by the mouth of Moses Behold I set before you this Day a Blessing and a Curse A blessing if ye obey and a Curse if ye will not obey That is the form of making Covenants betwixt God and man every where throughout the Scripture and
and sufficient patience would fail my Reader if I should make repetition of all I find to my purpose For whatsoever hath been spoken by the Fathers of universal Redemption doth diametrically oppose the irrespective Reprobation And to reckon up their verdicts in that behalf were to ingage my self and my Reader in a new Ocean of employment I hope the account that I have given of my belief in this matter is a sufficient Apologie for my belief and may at least excuse though not commend me Rather than offend any man who takes me upon Trust to be unsound in my principles I have made this excuse for being orthodox and do humbly desire to be forgiven if I shall still adhere to that doctrine which by Scripture and Reason and the Authority of my Teachers I am verily perswaded is the truest and the most safe to wit 1. That man himself is the Cause of his sin 2. That sin is properly the Cause of its punishment And by consequence 3. That man is the procurer of his own Misery And by consequence 4. That Reprobation is a conditional thing Not decreed by God Almighty to shew his absolute power but to shew his power in the exercise of his Iustice not determin'd before but because of his praescience nor without regard or respect but in relation to sin in foresight and hatred and requital of it as of an injury on which damnation is praeordained by way of Recompence and Revenge And therefore the last day is call'd a day of Iudgement as well as of perdition and the Iudge himself is called the Lord God of Recompense And when the Lord Iesus shall be revealed in flaming fire it shall be to take vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of Iesus Christ Now that which is the motive to the taking of vengeance was also the motive to the making of the decree He who therefore takes vengeance because they obey not the Gospel of Christ did for the very same Reason decree to take it Which to me is Demonstration that the Decree is conditionall {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} 36. I have nothing now of duty that lies upon me to be done but that I descend to the second ground of my Belief But for the love of Charity and Reconcilement I will endeavour to take a course of making some composition with my Dissenters If they will but come up to my most reasonable demands we will not strive about words and phrases so small a thing shall never part us I will swallow the word Necessity so I may take it down with a grain of salt I will say with Dr. Whitaker in his 4. Article at Lambeth That they who are not predestin'd to salvation shall be necessarily damned but for their sins as he himself speaks I allow my self to be no wiser than Bishop Andrews the strings of whose Books I am not worthy to untie who interprets necessario not by an absolute Necessity but by a Necessity which follows sin They shall be damned for their sins that is for that very Reason because they have sinned not for that onely Reason because they are not predestin'd And because that Reverend I know not whether more learned or Saint-like Man allow'd himself to be no wiser than all the Fathers and Schoolmen that went before him he thought 't was fit to abstain from such {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} such new phrases and wayes of holding forth and making out the ancient doctrines of the Church and therefore instead of necessity to say without doubt And for my own part I desire to be no deeper and to speak no better language than all the Fathers of the Church who have gone to Heaven with those opinions for which I am censur'd by some to Hell I chuse to say a Conditional not an absolute Necessity 37. If I may guesse without censure at the cause of other mens mistakes by that which once was mine own I shall ascribe much of it to the vulgar misconception of Gods praescience or fore-sight which being constant and infallible seems to give a necessity to all events which are the objects of that praescience And this must certainly be the reason I at least must so conjecture who can think of no better and did my self once stumble upon this very stone why Mr. Calvin will have Gods praescience to succeed his praeordination The ground of which error does so border upon Truth as to lessen the wonder why men of good parts should so frequently mistake it for that truth it self on which it borders and does unluckily verifie the Italian Proverb Troppo confina la vertu col vitio Gods praescience indeed doth imply a necessity which it is mistaken to have effected And again necessity is not by every body distinguisht as by the admirable Boethius to whom I owe my greatest light in this particular for if it were I believe many others might be converted as I have been But before I mention much lesse insist on the distinction I shall chuse to say something in preparation to it It is briefly this 38. That the knowledge of the Eternal far transcending all motion and succession of time does abide in the simplicity of its present being beholding all past and future things in his simple knowledge as just * now done And therefore Boethius will have it call'd not †Praescience but Science not Praevidence but Providence which doth not change the natures and proprieties of things future but considers them as they are in respect of himself which is as they shall be in respect of Time For as the knowledge of things present doth import no necessity on that which is done so the fore-knowledge of things future layes no necessity on that which shall be because whosoever either knows or sees things he knows and sees them as they are and not as they are not Gods knowledge doth not confound things but reaches to all events not only which come to passe but as they come to passe whether contingently or necessarily As for illustration when I see a man walk upon the earth and at the very same instant the Sun shining in the Heavens I see the first as voluntary and the second as natural And though at the instant that I see both done there is a necessity that they be done or else I could not see them when I do yet there was a necessity of one onely before they were done viz. the Suns shining in the Heavens but none at all of the other viz. the mans walking upon the earth The Sun could not but shine as being a natural agent the man might not have walked as being a voluntary one Upon which it follows 39. There is a twofold necessity whereof one is absolute and the other on Supposition The absolute is that by which a thing must be moved when something moves it The Suppositive is that
by which a man shall be damn'd if he die Impenitent The later necessity though not the first does extreamly well consist both with the liberty of mans will and Gods conditional Decrees E. G. I am now writing and God foresaw that I am writing yet it does not follow that I must needs write for I can chuse What God foresees must necessarily come to passe but it must come to passe in the same manner that he foresees it He foresees I will write not of necessity but choice so that his fore-sight does not make an absolute and peremptory Necessity but infers a Necessity upon supposition We must mark in a Parenthesis how great a difference there is betwixt the making and the inferring of a Necessity Whatsoever I do there is an absolute Necessity that God should foresee yet God foreseeing my voluntary Action does not make it necessary but on supposition that it is done If all things are present to God as indeed they are his fore-sight must needs be all one with our sight As therefore when I see a man dance as he pleases it is necessary that he do what I see he does but yet my looking on does not make it necessary so Gods foreseeing that man would sin implyed a certainty that so it would be but did not make it an absolutely necessary or involuntary thing For that a thing may be certain in respect of its event and yet not necessary in respect of its cause is no news at all to a considering person who will but duly distinguish Gods Omniscience from his Omnipotence and his Foresight from his Decree and infallible from necessary and spontaneous from voluntary and that which follows as a Consequence onely from that which follows as a consequent If I may judge by those errours which I convince myself to have been in when I was contrary-minded to what I am I see as many mistakes in other men arising from the misfortune of confounding those things which I just now distinguisht as from any one unhappinesse that I can think of And from all that I have spoken upon this last subject it seems inevitably to follow that a suppositive Necessity and none else is very consistent with a free and contingent Action Whilest I see a man sitting it is necessary that he sit but upon supposition that I see him sitting his posture is still a voluntary contingent thing For he sate down when he would and may arise when he pleaseth but still vvith a proviso of Gods permission I desire to be taught vvhat is if this is not exact speaking viz. That God by his prohibition under penalty makes my disobedience become liable to punishment and by his Decree to permit or not hinder me he leaves me in the hand of mine own counsel so in the state of peccability that I may sin perish if I will So that by his prescience that I will sin he hath no manner of influence or causality upon my sin vvhich infers my destruction to be entirely from my self I am a little confident that vvhosoever shall but read Boethius his fifth book and reading shall understand it and understanding shall have the modesty to retract an errour he vvill not reverence the 4. Section of the 23. chapter of the 3. book of Institutions because it is Mr. Calvins but vvill suspect Mr. Calvin because of that Section The question there is Whether Reprobates vvere predestined to that corruption vvhich is the cause of Damnation To vvhich he ansvvers vvith a Fateor I confesse that all the sons of Adam by the expresse vvill of God fell dovvn into the misery of that condition in vvhich they are fetter'd and intangled And a little after he professeth that no account can be given but by having recourse to the sole vvill of God the cause of vvhich lies hidden vvithin it self And that vve may not think he speaketh onely of the posterity of Adam he telleth us plainly in the close of that Section that no other cause can be given for the defection of Angels than that God did reprobate reject them In this place I vvould ask Was the Angels Defection or Apostasie their sin or no If not vvhy vvere they reprobated and cast into chains of darknesse and if it vvere hovv then is Gods Reprobation not only the chief but the onely Cause of such a sin This is the sad effect of being enslaved to an opinion and of being asham'd of that liberty vvhich looks like being conquer'd I believe the love of victory hath been the cause of as many mischiefs as have been feigned to leap forth from Pandora's Box Whereas if every one that writes would but think it a noble and an honourable thing to lead his ovvn pride captive to triumph over his own conceitednesse and opiniastrete and to pursue the glory of a well-natured submission there is perhaps hardly an Author of any considerable length but might think he had reason to write a book of retractations And sure it will not be immodesty for a young man to say That many old men might have done it with as much reason as S. Austin 40. But as I have learnt of Boethius that most excellent Christian aswell as Senator and profound Divine as well as Philosopher who lived a Terrour to Heresie and died a Martyr for the Truth to distinguish of Necessity so have I learnt from other Ancients to distinguish better of Gods will than I was wont to do before the time of my Retractation First I distinguish with S. Chrysostome of a first and second Will Gods first will is that the sinner shall not die but rather return from his wickednesse and live his second will is that he who refuseth to return receive the wages of iniquity Secondly I distinguish with Damascene of an antecedent and a consequent will The antecedent is that by which he wils that every sinner should repent his consequent is that by which he preordaineth the damnation of the impenitent Which distinction is not made in respect of Gods will simply in which there cannot be either prius or posterius but in respect of the things which are the object of his will For every thing is will'd lâ—y God so far forth as it is good Now a thing consider'd absolutely may be good or evil which in a comparative consideration may be quite contrary E. G. To save the life of a man is good and to destroy a man is evil in a first and absolute consideration But if a man secondly be compared with his having been a murderer then to save his life is evil and to destroy it good From whence it may be said of a just Iudge that by his antecedent will he desires every man should live but by a consequent will decrees the death of the Murderer and even then he doth so distinguish the murderer from the man that he wisheth the man were not a murderer whom he condemns as murderer
and not as man for whilest he hath a will to hang the murderer he hath a merciful woulding to save the man He doth not hang the man but only because he is a murderer and if it lay in his power he would destroy the murderer to save the man Both the one and the other is not an absolute but a conditional will he would save the man with an if he were not a murderer and doth destroy the murderer with a because he is a Malefactor Just so Gods antecedent will is that every man would repent that they may not perish it is his consequent will that every one may perish who will not repent both the one and the other is respective and conditional Thirdly I distinguish with Prosper of an inviting and revenging will The inviting will is that by which all are bidden to the Wedding Feast his revenging will is that by which he punisheth those that will not come Or fourthly I distinguish with reverend Anselme of the will of Gods mercy and of the will of his Iustice It is the will of his Mercy that Christ should die for the sins of all but 't is the will of his Iustice that all should perish who come not in to him when they are called or who only so come as not to continue and persevere unto the end 41. All these distinctions come to one and the same purpose and being rightly understood as well as dexterously used doe seem to me a Gladius Delphicus sufficient to cut asunder the chiefest knots in this Question For the first will of God may be repealed whereas the second is immutable which is the ground of that Distinction betwixt the Threats and Promises under Gods Oath and those other under his Word only of which saith the Councel of Toledo Jurare Dei est a seipso ordinata nullatenus convellere poenitere vero eadem ordinata cum voluerit immutare When he is resolv'd to execute his purpose he is said to swear and when it pleaseth him to alter it he is said to repent for there are some decrees of God which being conditional do never come to passe as he thought to have done an Evil of punishment unto Israel which yet he did not Exod. 32. 14. And the reason of this is given us from that distinction before mentioned which also serveth to reconcile many seeming repugnances in Scripture For when it is said that God repenteth 1 Sam. 16. 35. it is meant of the first will and when it is said he cannot repent 1 Sam. 16. 29. it is meant of the second In respect of the first we are said to grieve to quench to resist the Spirit of God 1 Thess. 5. 19. but when it is said who hath resisted his will Rom. 9. 19. it is meant of the second God's Mercy is above and before his Iustice and therefore that is his first will that all should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth 1 Tim. 2. 4. but yet so as that his Iustice is not excluded by his Mercy and therefore that is his second will that so many should be damned as hated knowledge and did not chuse the fear of the Lord Prov. 1. 29. The will of his Mercy that all should live is from nothing but his goodnesse whereas the will of his Iustice that some should die depends upon something in the Creature So that both parties may be gratified they that are for the dependence and the independency of his Will That the Reprobate is invited is from the mercy of Gods Will but that he is punished for not accepting is from the obliquity of his own In respect of the first it is the man that refuseth God Ier. 8. 5. but in respect of the second it is God that doth reprobate man Rom. 1. 28. The free love of the Creator is the only motive to his first will but mans ingratitude and rebellion is his impellent to the second The first shews him a tender and compassionate Father the second speaks him a righteous and impartial Iudge both proclaim him a powerful and a provident God Now can any distinction be better chosen can any word that is aequivocal be more safely understood can any Opinion of Gods will or mans be more rationally or more warily or more religiously entertain'd than that wherein Gods Mercy doth greet his Iustice and wherein his Love doth kisse his Power I appeal to any man living whether this be an Error or if it is whether it is not a very safe one and if it is so whether it is not a very small one and if so safe that no body can suffer by it if so small that no body can see it whether the Author of this Appeal is not very excusable both for not being able to see his own Eyes nor to see his own Errour with other mens As much as in me lies I would live peaceably with all men with those especially who when I speak unto them thereof make them ready to battel And in order to that Peace I desire them to lay this one thing to heart that as if I were as they I would quit my Opinion so if they were as I they would not long keep their own CHAP IV. Free and special Grace defended against the Pelagians and Massilians in the second Principle proposed 42. HAving proved hitherto that Sin is really the cause of Punishment that Man is really the cause of sin and therefore that Man is the grand cause of Punishment as being the cause of the cause of his Damnation intending thereby to secure my self against the errours and blacker guilt of the Manichees the Marcionites the Stoicks and the Turks who do all affirm some directly some by necessary consequence That Gods absolute Will is the cause of sin and mans onely the instrument the second part of my Task is to be an Advocate for the pleading and asserting the Cause of God too and that against the Opiners of the other Extream to wit the Pelagians and the Massilienses who to be liberal to Nature do take away from Grace and to strengthen the Handmaid do lessen the forces of the Mistress And though I think the later to be the milder Heresie of the two it being lesse dangerous to ascribe too much goodness to the Power of Nature which very power is undoubtedly the gift of God than the very least evil to the God of all Grace and this according to the judgement of the Synod at Orange which pronounced an Anathema upon the first Heresie whereas it did but civilly reject the second yet in a perfect dislike and rejection of this later extremity aswell as of the former my second Principle is this That all the good which I do I do first receive not from any thing in my self but from the special Grace and Favour of Almighty God who freely worketh in me both to will and to do of his good pleasure Phil. 2. 13. 43.