For God hath concluded all into incredulity that he may haue mercy vpon all 1. Tim. 2. vers 4. God will that all men be saued and to come to the knowledge of the Truth Tit. 2. vers 12. For the grace of God our Sauiour hath appeared vnto al men â— Pet. 3. vers 9. God is not willing that any perish but that all returne to pennance 1. Ioan. 2. vers 2. He to wit Christ is the propitiation for our sinnes not for ours alone but also for the whole worlds These are the places of Scripture alleadged by the Arminians for their opinion in this point Now followeth the doctrine of the Gomarian-Caluinists to the contrary to wit That God hath created some to damnation Iohn Caluin Instit l. 3. cap. 23. b. Seeing the disposition of all things is in the hand of God and seeing he hath the power of death of saluatioÌ„ he ordayneth then with his counsell and will that some are borne who from theiâ— Mothers wombe are certainly deliuered ouer vnto death to the end that by their destruction the name of God should be praysed The same Caluin vpon the 18. vers of the 9. cap. to the Romans The destructioÌ„ of the vngodly is not only foreknown but they are also purposely created to the end they should come to destruction or perdition Idem in his booke ad â—alumn Nebulon. pag. 867. Say you that it is not permitted vnto God to damne any body but such as haue done euill There are taken away out of this life an infinite nuÌ„ber of yong children Cast now out your poyson against God who taketh away innocent childreÌ„ from the brestes of their Mothers and casteth them into the depth of hell in eternall death and damnation Theâ— Beza in his little Annot vpon the Romans 9. vers 22. Let vs then againe be licensed to say with Paul that some men are of God the workmaister created vnto destruction Amandus Polanus on the 9 vers of the 13. of Osee Those whom God hath predestinated to eternall perdition he hath also created vnto eternal perdition al those thinges strengthen them to â—â—â—â—nall perdition that strengthen the elect vnto saluation The same Polanus in his doctrine of the tâ—uth of Predestination pag. 139. sayth Abiection is an inward and eternall worke of God which in truth differeth not from the essence of God it selfe Fr Gomarus in his translated dispute of Predestination Thes 23. sayth Abiection is Gods predestination through which out of reasonable creations he hath in grosse and without fore-knowne limits according to his priuiledge and pleasure from eternity reiected some fâ—om eternall life anâ— hath also before hand ordaâ—ned them to eternall death and conâ—empt The Contra-Remonstrants in the conference at the Hage pag. 53. â—he cause why God hath determined to elect some and not others is only his pleasure grace and not that he hath forseene that one should belieue in Christ not another The second point Whether God necessarily causeth man to sinne Places of Scripture alleadged by the Arminians for the negatiue Genes caD. 4. vers 6. The Lord sayd to Cayn why art thou angry and why is thy countenance fallen If thou do well shalt thou not receaue agayne but if thou doest ill shall not thy sin be present at the dore but the lust thereof shal be vnder thee and thou shalt haue dominion ouer it Psal 5. vers 5. 6. 7. Thou art no God that hath pleasure in wickednes the euill shall not conuerse with thee The foolish shal not stand in thy sight thou hatest all those that worke iniquity Thou shalt destroy them that speake lyes the lord abhorreth both the bloud-thirsty and the deceytfull man Psal 45. vers 8. Thou hast loued righteousnes and hated iniquity Therfore hath God thy God annoynted the with the oyle of gladnes aboue thy fellowes Isa 59. vers 2. Thy iniquities do separate thee thy God one from another and thy sinnes do hyde his face from thee that thou canst not be heard Ose 13 vers 9. Israel thou bringest thy selfe into vnhappynes for thy saluation standeth only with me Matt. 1 vâ—rs 21. Thou shalt sayth the Angel to Ioseph call his name Iesus for he shall saue his people from their sins Luc. 1. vers 74. 75. That without feare being deliuered out of the hands of our enemyes wee may serue him in holynes and iustice before him all our dayes Ioan 8. vers 44. The diuell when he speaketh a lye he speaketh of his own because he is a lyer the father therof Rom. 1. vers 18. The wrath of God from heauen is reuealed vpon all impiety and iniustice of Men. Galat. 5. vers 16 Walke in the spirit and the workes of the flesh you shal not accomplish Iac. 1 vers 13. 14. 15. Let no man when he is tempted say that he is tempted of God for God is not a tempter of euill and he tempteth no man But euery one is tempted of his own concupiscence abstracted and allured Afterward concupiscence when it hath conceaued bringeth forth sin but sin when it is consummate engendreth death 1. Pet. 3. vers 12. 13. The face of the Lord is vpon them that do euill things but who is he that can hurt you if you be emulators of good 1. Ioan 2. vers 16. All that is in the world is the concupiscence of the flesh and the concupiscence of the eyes and the pryde of lyfe which is not of the Father but is of the world Ibid. cap. 3. vers 8. He that comitteth sin is of the diuell because the diuell sinneth from the beginning for this appeareth the Son of God that he might diâ—â—olue the works of the diuell The affirmatiue doctrine of the Gomarian-Caluinists to wit that God doth necessarily cause man to sinne Caluin Instit. lib. 1. cap 18. 2. I do confesse that God in the abiect doth worke through the seruice of the diuel but so as Sathan through Gods prouocation doth his worke Ibid. lib. 3 cap. 23. 9. The abiect sinning will be excused because they cannot auoyd the necessity of sinning seeing through the ordinance of God such necessity is layd vpon them But we feare that they are not therby rightly excused for the ordinance of God by which they complaine to be ordayned to perdition hath her iustice which albeit vnknowne vnto vs yet it is very certaine Theod. Beza against Castalio We confesse to be true that God hath predestinated all such as he listeth not only vnto damnation but also vnto the causes of damnation Zuinglius de prouid tom 1. cap 6. pag. 366. No man can say that the murtherer is excused because he hath killed through Gods prouocation for he hath sinned against the lawes But you will say he was prouoked to sinne I agree heereunto that he was prouoked to sin howbeit to the end that one should be saued and another hanged c. Ibid. pag. 365. One the selfe same wickednes as for
poysoned and preuented by one whome himselfe had thought by such a meanes to haue made away He dyed without any signe of a Christian and being dead seemed so vgly a corse as euen amazed the beholders His body was opened and in his stomake were great holes eaten through with the poyson His Landes were all presently seized on for his debts to the Queene whereby he was now as much disgraced being dead as he would perhaps haue beene if he had liued but a little longer and as his life was not much laudable so was his death not greatly lamented The next in this â—anke must be Queene Elizabeth her selfe by whose meanes as this rebellion at the first began so was it by her ayd euen to her last end continued And if a happy death be the true happynes of the precedent life she cannot be sayd to haue had it neither in regard of the good of her selfe nor yet of her subiects for she sought not the one and she had not the other She sought not the good of her subiects which in all reason and right she was bound to do both before God maÌ„ because she prohibited both speach and euen the knowledge as it were of any successor to her Crowne as all the world well knoweth In so much that if some of the Nobility presently vpon her death had not resolued to receaue vnto her Crowne dignity the true lawfull Heyre that now raigneth the bloud of many thousandes of her subiects might haue beene spilt for ought she did to preuent it Some do report her to haue sayd that whyles she liued no Heyre apparent should be deâ—lared and after her death she wished that she might for a while remayne betweene heauen earth to see how they would tugge for the Crown Surely the desire of seeing such a sport could litle deserue the loue that her subiects boâ—e vnto her and heerby may we see vpon how little cause and reason vulgar affection is oftentymes grounded That her death was not happy appeareth in that it is no happynes to dye distracted and not to haue had from the beginning to the end of her sicknes the perfect vse of reason and consequently not to haue beene able most earnestly to call vpon God which as it is most fit that at their end aâ—l men should doe so is it most requisite that in the end of a life which hath been entertayned with all the pleasures that the World could affoard it should be done with the greatest compunction contrition of hart that may be And I haue heard it confidently reported that Syr Thomas Gressam more then thirty yeares before Queene Elizaâ—eths death did in priuate discourse tell vnto some friends of his and namely vnto Syr Philip Scidamore then not Knight that at the death of Queene Mary he then being in the Citty of Antwerp a woman comming into a house where he was sayd vnto him Your Queene Mary is now dead and Queene â—lizabeth that succeedeth her shall in the end come to dye mad Whether this woman had the spirit of prophesy or no I cannot say but certaine it is that she seemed not in her sicknes nor at her death to be in her perfect senses wheâ—eby she could neither be carefull for the future good of her subiects by not then declaring that which she needed not any longer to haue concealed nor in calling vpon Almighty God for mercy for a soule that so greatly had need thereof Let vs now lastly come vnto the great Statesman and Menager of this State composed of States the Holland-aduocate Berneuelt This man after the death of the Prince of Oâ—ange aforesayd when his sonne Count Mauriâ—e and his other children were but young and the State and gouernment wholy raw and out of order deuised and set down the plot and meanes for the mayntayning of it in the forme of a Republike he made the alliances between it and other Princes and States abroad and became a most careful Tut or for the bringing vp of the Prince of Orange his children yet in the end about realousies and wranglings grown vp among themselues this great Aduocate of Holland and Sterne-holder of that whole State hauing deserued so well thereof as any man could came to dye on a scaffold as a criminall malefactor by the handes of the hangman whereby the King of Spayne and their Highnesses the Princes of the Netherlands whome he had most offended and had not the meanes to punish him did see him punished by those whome himself had most serued in offending them Some may heer aâ—leage that the Archduke Matthias who afterward came to be Emperor had beene a chief Commaunder and gouernour also ouer this rebellious faction and yet came not to any vnfortunate end To this I answere that true it is this Prince had such a charge layed vpon him when by reason of his youth he wanted iudgment perfectlâ— to descern what he did William of Nassaw the vnhappy Prince of Orange before mentioned being his chief Lieftenant vnder him and the only man that disposed of al. And yet escaped this yong Archduk not without disgrace among theÌ„ when they neither cared for him nor much respected him in their ordinary speaches gaue him the name of their Foster chyld esteeming him but as a chyld or as a cipher that only serued to supply a place But in the end this noble Prince discouering their vniust courses his own errour left theÌ„ and gaue ouer that mistaken gouernment and retyring himselfe into Germany sought and found meanes to reconcile himself vnto his Cousin the King of Spayne whose grace and fauour he obtayned which none of the former that came to vnfortunate endes euer sought for And by this meanes all former soars were salued this Prince by leauing to follow this wrong course was not only freed from comming to an vnfortunate or disgracefull end but came to dy as a good Christian Prince and in the most high estate of an Emperour Thus haue I heere briefly related vnto you how ill they haue sped who haue beene the chiefest Actors in so ill a busines as is rebellion the assisting of rebels against their most iust and lawfull Soueraigne what may succeed to others that do or intend to continue the same vniust course must be reserued to the manifestation of tyme but apparent it is by that which heere hath been shewed that the most high and supreme Ruler of all hath by permitting these their disgracefull endes shewed his dislike of their actions contrarywise to such as haue beene obedient to his will his benediction hath been manifest in a copious manner The benefits then which England might expect by continuing to take the Hollanders partes must be vnderstood to be endles Charges great Dishonour and the high Displeasure of Almighty God togeather with the Hollanders recompensing the same with contemptuous ingratitude which are motiues to mooue mad men to be their friendes Some may perhaps
example either Adultery or Murther if the same come from God as the Author moouer and prouoker is a worke but no misdeed but if so be it proceed from man then it is sinne Zanchius de Natura Dei lib. 5. pag. 172. We acknowledge that the abiect with a necessity to sinne and consequently to perish do through the disposition of God lye constrayned and bound yea do so ly constrayned and bound that they cannot leaue to sinne and to perish Ibid. Thes 4. de reprobat The elect as well as the reprobate are vnto sinne as being sinne in as much as the honour of God thereby is aduanced before ordayned Io. Piscator praefat disput contra Schafman pag. 7. The fifth principall point that we are charged withal is that God doth secretly inforce a man to doe the sinne that he forbiddeth but the same being well vnderstood the Scripture teacheth In the Treatise of Predestination published by D. Pezelius Lichae Anno 1604. If for an Author you vnderstand such an one as giueth counsell vrgeth forward or inforceth or in any sort giueth cause to doe ought then may you assuredly name God to be the Author of sinne Nicasius Vander-scheuren in his briefe Institution pag. 15. sayth God ruleth not only the body but also the hart and mind of his creatures as wel vnto good as vnto euill Ibid pag. 16. If so be God hath power to ordayne man to damnation before he be borne being borne then presently before he haue committed any euill to cast him into the bottomlesse pit of hell wherfore should he not then haue much more power to moue the hart of man to sinne and to direct it For whether is more to damne him that hath done no euill or to moue direct him to sinne And seeing God will damne the abiect is it not all one how he damneth him whether after that he hath moued directed him to sin or before The third point Whether God do inuite any man to saluation whome he hath resolued in any case not to saue Places of Scripture alleadged by the Arminians to proue That God inuiteth all men to saluation Deuter. cap. 30 vers 19. I call for witnesse this day Heauen and Earth that I haue proposed to you life and death blessing and cursing chuse therefore life that thou mayst liue and thy seed Psal 95 vers 8. This day if you heare my voyce harden not your harts Prouerb 1. vers 24. 25. 26. Seeing I call and you refuse I stretch forth my hand and no man regards it you let passe all my counsels and will not accept of my correction So will I also laugh in your mishâ—p and deryde you when that hapneth vnto you that you feare Isay 5. vers 4. What might more be done vnto my vineyard that I haue not done vnto it Wherefore hath it then brought forth wyld grapes when I expected it should haue broght wyne-grapes Matth. 23. vers 37. Hierusalem Hierusalem which killest the Prophets and stonest them that were sent vnto thee How often would I gather thy children as the Henne doth gather togeatheâ— hâ—r chickins vnder her winges and thou wouldest not Marc. 1. vers 15. The tyme is fullfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand be penitent and belieue the Ghospell Luc. 7. vers 29 30. And al the people hearing and the Publicans iustifyed God being baptized with Iohns Baptisme but the Pharisees and the Scribes despysed the counsell of God against themselues being not baptized of him Ioan. 5 vers 40. You will not come to me that you may haue life Act. 7. vers 5. You stif-necked and men of vncircumcised harts and eares you alwayes resist the holy Ghost Rom. 10 vers 21. out of Isay 65 vers 2. Al the day haue I held out my hands to a people that belieueth not and contradicteth me Apec 3. vers 20. Behold I stand at the doore and knocke if any man shal heare my voyce and open the gate I will enter in vnto him and will sup with him and he with me Ibid. cap. 22. vers 17. He that thirsteth let him come and he that will let him take the water of life gratis The doctrine of the Gomarian Calâ—inists to the contrary to wit That God inuiteth not all men to saluation Caluin Inâ—tit lib. 3. cap. 24. vers 12. Those whome God hath created vnto eternall death to the end they should be instruments of his anger become examples of his seuerity those bereaueth he sometims of the power to heare his word sometyms he doth blind them maketh them more ignorant through the manifestation of his word because they should come vnto their end Ibid. cap. 13. Behould he speaketh vnto them but to the end they should become more deafe he kindleth his light to the end they should be the blinder he declareth his doctrine but to the end they should thereby become vnintelligible he vseth meanes but to the end they should not be saued Caluin lib. ad calum Nebulon. pag. 858. Why doth God willingly let erre yea through a secret resolution hath ordayned to erre such as himselfe commaundeth to go the right way Not to know this becommeth measured modesty but saucely to be prying into it as you do is a foolish boldnes Theo. Beza against Castalio pag. 398. God sendeth forth his seruants because they should declare the Ghospell of saluation to all people yet keepeth he secret to himselfe in whome he will that the preaching of the Ghospell shal be of force and in what moment and also who he hath resolued by the same preaching to blind and to obdurate 10. Piscator in disput aduersus Schafman Pag. 7. It is manifest out of Gods word that God doth also call some out-casts vnto saluation and that he notwithstanding will not that any of those outcasts be saued as being such as he with an vnchangeable resolution hath ordavned altogeather to perdition Ibid Pag 143. God acknowlegeth or witnesseth with tongue by the ministers of the Ghospel that he will that the outcasts which he speaketh vnto in the number of the elect shall belieue the Ghospell in asmuch as he commaundeth it and yet wil he not that they belieue for were it that he so would then should he affoard them the grace to belieue without the which no man can belieue Aug. Marloratus in his Annot. Ioan. 15. So standeth then this senteÌ„ce firme that he whome God hath elected before the creation of the world cannot perish and that he whome he hath reiected can not be saued although he do all the workes of the Saintes So irreuocable is the sentence of God And now hauing truely translated and layd downe the different opinions vpon these points I will leaue you to iudge of them according as piety and reason shall direct you There was a Synode held about the controuersies betweene these two sydes at Dort in Holland in the yeare 1619. gathered togeather from sundry forreyne partes aswel as out