dangerous a tortēt how are they o'rewhelmed at last and whilst they so ventrously climbe this steeper turrer throwned desperately into heresie For mine owne part I haue euer thought curiosity in diuine affaires but a quaint distraction rather applauding an humble yet faithful ignorance than a proud and temerarious knowledge And had some of the Fathers beene shot-free of this curious insolence they needed not haue retreated from former Tenents so much in deared posterity no lesse in the reuiew than retractation of laborious errors Amongst whom S. Augustine though since entituled Malleus Haereticorum shared not a little in the 83. of his Questions and 68. Where expounding our place of the Apostle would thus vindicate the Almighty from iniustice that God foresaw that in some Quo digni sunt iustificatione that in others Quo digni sunt obtusione so making God will to depend on a foreseene merit A position that doth not onely repugne the discipline of holy storie but thwarts the maine tide current of orthodox antiquity as in a fuller discourse we shall display anon and therefore in his 7. Booke de Praedestinatione Sanctorū cap. 4. he doth chastise his former tenents with 2 Deus non elegit opera sed sidem in praescientiâ That God did not elect lacob for foreseene workes but faith But because in saith there is as well a merit as in workes he once more rectifies his opinion in the first of his Retractations and 23 where he doth peach his sometimes ignorance and ingeniously declares himselfe that Nondum diligentius quaesiuit nec inuenit mysteria he had not yet throughly sifted that of the Apostle Rom. 11.5 That there was a remnant according to the election of grace which if it did flow from a foreseene merit was rather restored than giuen and therefore at last he informes his owne judgement and his Readers thus Datur quidem fideli sed data est etiam prius ut esset fidelis Grace is given to the faithfull but it is first given that he should be faithfull Hence Lumbard in his 1 booke 41 distinction pathetically Elegit quos voluit Deus gratuitâ misericordiâ non quia fideles futuri erant sed ut essent nec quià crediderant sed ut fierent credentes God out of the prerogatiue of his will and bounty of his goodnesse hath chosen whom he pleased not because they were faithfull but because they should be and not of themselues beleeuing but made so And therefore that Vt sim sidelis 1 Cor. 7.25 beares a remarkable emphasis I haue obtained mercie that I might be faithfull not that I was Here the Pelagian startles lately backt with a troope of Arminians takes head against this truth fancying and dreaming of certain causes without God which are not subsisting in God himselfe but externally mouing the will of God to dispose and determine of seuerall euents laying this as an unshaken principle Fidem esse conditionem in obiecto eligibili ante electionem That faith and obedience foreseene of God in the Elect was the necessary condition and cause of their election I intend not here a pitcht field against the vpstart Sectarie for I shall meet him anon in a single combat my purpose now is to be but as a scour or spie which discouers the weaknesse of his aduersary not stands to encounter And indeed both the time and place suggest me rather to resolue than debate and convince than dispute an errour That faith then or any praeexisting merit in the person to be elected was the cause of his election is neither warrantable by reason nor primitiue Authoritie For God could not foresee in the elect any faith at all but that which in after times he was to crowne them with and therefore not considerable as any precedent cause of election but as the effect and fruit and consequent thereof The primary and chiefe motive then is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephes 1.5 the good pleasure of Gods will which prompted of it selfe without any reference to praeexisting faith obedience merit as the qualities cause or condition of it hath powred grace on this man more than that Non solum in Christo Synod Dort sed per Christum And therefore as that late venerable Synode hath awarded it Non ex illis conditionibus facta est sed ad illas That election was not fram'd of these conditions but to them as to their effect and issue And if we commerce a little with passages of holy story we shall find that our election points rather to the free will of God in his eternall councell than to any goodnesse in vs which God foresaw so Acts 13.48 where we read of the Gentiles that many beleeued because they were ordained to eternal life and not therefore ordained because they formerly beleeued And if we will not suffer our minds to bee transported either with scruple or noueltie the text is open Ephes 1.4 He hath chosen vs before the foundations of the world were laid that we might be holy not that we were And in this very Chapter verse 23. The vessels of mercy are first said to be prepared to mercy then cald and therefore Saint Austin in his 86. Tract upon Iohn out of a holy indignation doth check the insolence of those Qui praescientiam Dei defendunt contra gratiam Dei Which in matters of saluation obscure and extenuate the grace of God with the foreknowledge of God for if God did therefore chuse vs because he did know and foresee that wee would be good he did not chuse vs to make vs good but wee rather chose him in purposing to be good which if it did carry any shew either of probabilitie or truth we might question our Apostle who in his 8 here and 29. no lesse perswades than proues that those which God foreknew he did predestinate to be conform'd to the image of his sonne and therefore God did not chuse vs because before election there was a conformitie in vs but because from all eternitie he did elect vs in time he made us conform'd to the image of his Sonne Whereupon St. Augustine in his fift booke contra Iulianum 3. chapt thus Nullum elegit dignum sea eligendo effecit dignum God in the choise of his Elect found none worthy but in the chusing made them worthy Moreover our election which is of grace as I yonder proued could not stand if workes and merits went before it Haec quippè non inuenit merita sed facit Grace doth not find works in vs but fashions them according to that of the Apostle 2 Thes 2.13 God hath from the beginning chosen you through sanctification of the spirit and not of works Nay some here so much abolish and wipe off all claime of merit that they admit not Christ as the meritorious cause of our election Indeed say they the Scripture is thus farre our Schoolemaster That we are iustified by the blood of Christ Synod Dort and
reconciled to God by the death of his Sonne but where are we informed that we are elected through his bloud or praedestinated by his death Indeed in the 3 of Iohn 16. we finde a sic Dous dilexit God so loued the world that he gaue his Sonne So that not because Christ died for vs God loued and chose vs but because God loued and chose us therefore Christ died for vs. For so Rom. 5.8 God setteth out his loue towards vs that whilst we were yet sinners Christ died for vs. In matters therefore of election we acknowledge not a cause more classicke than the Cuius vult here specified He will haue mercy on whom he will Insomuch that in the parable of the housholder Matth. 20. I finde but a sic volo as a sufficient and iust cause of his designes I will giue to this last as much as to thee yet this Will so clothed with a diuine iustice that God is not said to will a thing to be done because it is good but rather to make it good because God would haue it to be done For proofe whereof a sweet singer of our Israel instances in those wonderfull passages of creation where 't is first said that Deus creâ—uit God created all things and the Valdè bonum comes aloofe he saw that they were all good and the morall portends but this That euery thing is therefore good because it was created and nor therefore created because it was good which doth wash and purge the will of the Almighty from any staine or tincture of iniustice for though that be the chiefe mover and director of all his proiects as the prime and peremptory cause doing this because hee will yet we finde not onely sanctitatem in operibus but justitiam in vijs The Lord is righteous in all his wayes and holy in all his workes Hereupon that great treasurer of Learning and Religion Zanchius in his 3 booke de Natura Dei and 4 chapter diuides betweene the cause of Gods will and the reason of his will That though there be no superiour cause of it yet there is a iust reason and a right end and purpose in it Morl. Clean. Lep. Hence S. Ierome Deus nihil fecit quia vult sed quia est ratio sic fieri God doth nothing because hee will but because there is a reason of so doing in regard whereof it is not simply called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the will of God but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the good willof God Ephes 1.11 So that in his sacred resolutions and designements though we meet sometimes with passages wound vp in darkened terrour the cause whereof wee may admire not scan yet the drift and maine ends of the Almighty haue been so backt with strength of a iust reason that we may rather magnifie his goodnesse than tax his power and applaud the calmnesse of an indulgent mercie than repine at the lashes of an incensed iustice Equitie and goodnesse are children of one burden both the lawfull issue of his will which though foule mouthes of libertines haue strangely bastardized making that the throne of tyranny which is the rule of iustice yet let them know that of Augustine to his Sixtus Iniustum esse non potest quod placuit Iusto To be God and to be vniust is to be God and not God So faire a goodnesse was neuer capable of so foule a contradiction and therefore as the same father prosequutes Iniquitatem damnare nouit non facere God knows how to iudge not to commit a crime and to dispose not mould it and is often the father of the punishment not the fact Hence 't is that the dimnesse of humane apprehension conceaues that oftentimes a delinquency in God which is the monster of our own frailty making God not onely to foreknow but predestinate an euill when the euill is both by growth and conception ours and if ought sauour of goodnesse in vs Gods not ours yet ours too as deriuatiue from God who is no lesse the Patron of all goodnesse than the Creatour and 't is as truly impossible for him to commit euill as 't was truly miraculous to make all that hee had made good And therefore Tertullian in his first booke de Trinitate makes it a Non potest fieri a matter beyond the list and reach of possibilitie that he should be Artifex mali operis the promoter enginer of a depraued act who challengeth to himselfe the title no lesse of an vnblemished Father than of a Iudge Our thoughts then should not carry too loftie a saile but take heed how they cut the narrow straights and passages of his will A busie prying into this Arke of secrets as 't is accompanied with a full blowne infolence so with danger Humilitie here is the first staire to safetie and a modest knowledge stands constantly wondering whilst the proud apprehension staggers and tumbles too Here 's a Sea vnnauigable and a gulfe so scorning fathom that our Apostle himselfe was driuen to his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O depth and in a rapture more of astonishment than contemplation he stiles it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 voluntatis suae mysterium or as Beza translates it Sacramentum the Sacrament and mysterie of his will being so full of vnknowne turnings and Meanders that if a naked reason hold the clue we are rather inuolued than guided in so strange a Labyrinth To enquire then the cause of Gods will were an Act of Lunacie not of Iudgement for every efficient cause is greater than the effect now there 's nothing greater than the will of God and therefore no cause thereof For if there were there should something praeoccupate that will which to conceiue were sinfull to beleeue blasphemous If any then suggested by a vaine-glorious enquirie should aske why God did elect this man and not that we haue not onely to resolue but to forestall so beaten an obiection Because he would But why would God doe it Here 's a question as guiltie of reproofe as the author who seekes a cause of that beyond or without which there is no cause found where the apprehension wheeles and reason runs giddy in a doubtfull gire Composcat se ergo humana temeritas August id quod non est non quaerat ne id quod est non inueniat Here a scrupulous and humane rashnesse should be husht and not search for that which is not lest it finde not that which is For as the same Father in his 105 Epist Cur illum potiùs quà m illum liberet aui non scrutetur qui potest iudiciorum eius tam magnum profundum sed caueat praecipitium Let him hat can descry the wonders of the Lord in this great deep but let him take heed he sinke not and in his answer to the second question of Simplician Quare huic ita huic non ita home tu quis es qui respondeas Deo cur isti sic illi aliter
vnchewed and that is Whether God here as hee is said to harden be the cause of our transgressions Which quaere admits a three-fore distraction and difference of opinion Two of them are extremes and by hot opposition each of other they haue both lost the truth the third runnes in a midway and euer directs to safety Florinus whose opinion posterity records as the monument of a seduced errour with no lesse peremptorinesse than blaspemy hath arraigned the Almighry and made him not onely the permitter but the Author of our sins The Seleuciani after him were poisoned with that heresie the Libertines laboured in the defence therof Manes and his disciples dreampt of a summum malum and vpon that phantasie grounded their assertion that God the summum bonum is to be seene onely in our good actions but euery depraued Act had its deriuation from their summum malum But those of a more solid and well tempered iudgement whom the influence of the Spirit had taught a moderation or the danger of Inquisition forbad curiosity dare not with Florinus impute here sinne vnto God yet maintaine against the Manichees that God is not a bare and idle spectator but powerfull ouer although no actor in the sinne Not in the sinne as it is meerely a sinne but in the sinne as 't is a punishment of sinne And therefore in euery transgression of ours there are foure thing remarkeable 1 Subiectum seu materiale he subiect in which sinne subsists and that is two-fold 1 Substantia the substance or rather the faculties of the reasonable soule in which originall sinne is so riueted that the naturall man can by no meanes purge himselfe of that hereditary contagion or Actio bona on which all our actuall sinnes are grounded 2 Formale the formalitie or obliquity of the action For euery sinne is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the transgression of the Law and in the sinner there 's nothing sinne but this 3 Reatus The guilt of this enormitie which makes vs liable to eternall death 4 Poena the punishment inflicted vpon the guilty whether temporall or eternall or both Now wee may not charge God with the obliquitie of the action for that proceedes from a peruerse and a seduced will but the substance of the action as the Schoolemen speake that hath its originall from God And therefore we consider sinne either vt malum culpae as 't is a violation of Gods law or vt malum poenae as a punishment laid vpon vs for the violation of that Law So Rom. 1.25 The Gentiles turned the truth of God into a lye There 's malum culpae And it followes immediatly at the 26 verse For this cause God gaue them vp into vile affections There 's malum poenae Now God is author of the second not the first If mists still hang on the eyes of clouded errour I thus dispell them with that of Hugo de Sancto Victore Deus malis potestatem solam tribuit non voluntatem quià licet ex ipsius permissione sit quod malum possunt ex inspiratione tamen non est quod malum volunt God onely giues power to the wicked not will that although it be by his permission that we can doe euill yet it is not by his inspiration that we will doe euill And therefore as the Schooles doe commonly distinguish of the decree of God so must wee of the execution of that decree which is either per efficieutiam when the diuine power doth worke any thing with or without the creature or secundum permissionem when the creature hath leaue to worke without the guidance of that power Neither will it sauour of impertinence if we insert here that distinction of Gods prouidence in efficientem deserentem Into a releeuing and forsaking prouidence for whensoeuer God withdrawes his especiall aid and assistance from vs man is hurried where his owne corrupter appetite not Gods grace carrieth him Adam fell as soone as the influence of Gods grace ceased and without the supportance of the same grace we all fall with no lesse certainty of perill than danger of restitution When the Sunne sets we see darknesse followes immediatly vpon the face of the earth and yet the Sunne is not the efficient cause of darknesse but the deficient so when the Sunne of righteousnesse shall forsake vs the darknesse of errour must needs possesse the vnderstanding and the will must mistake in her choice and execution She must necessitate consequentiae non consequentis The necessitie is grounded on a consequent in Logicke not any influence in Nature And here we may borrow a true glosse for that in the 2 Acts where it is said that Christ was deliuered into the hands of the wicked by the determinate counsell fore-knowledge of God We must not thinken hat God was the setter in this villany that he conspired with Iudas in his treason or with Pilate in his bloudy sentence But that he only gaue way to their attempts and suffered them to crucifie the Lord of glory Yea but why did not God curbe them in their cruell proceedings Why should his conniuence betray the â—…ouâ—… of Innovence Saint Austine shall answer for me Quia melius iudicauit deâ— malis bene-facere quà m mala nullae esse permittere To extract good out of euill was peculiar onely to omnipotency and goodnesse and therefore no lesse solid than charitable is that caucat of Du-Plesses Malè quaeritur vnde malum essiciatur It is an ill curiosity to seeke an efficient cause of ill Let this then satisfie modesten quiry that it is with the sinner as with an vntuned Instrument and the Musitian the sound is from the finger of him that toucheth it but the iarring from the Instrument That our discourse then with the time may draw to wards a Period we inuolue and wrap vp in this one distinction the very iuice and substance of the controuersie Sinne is considerable two waies ante commissionem before the Commission Sic se Deus habet negatiuè tum respectu voluntatis tum productionis God doth neither worke with vs nor countenance vs in the act of sinning Post commissionem after the Commission sic Deus determinat ordinat peccatum God sets bounds to the malice of wicked men and so mannages the disorder in sin that contrary to the nature of sinne and the intent of the sinner it shall redound â—o his glory We inculcate then that God is not the author but the orderer of sinne Hee causeth the worke not the fault the effect not the delinquencie working by not in mischiefe Wherein according to the rules of Logicke the finall and impulsiue causes euer so distinguish the actions that two doing the same thing to a diuers intent are notwithstanding said not to doe the same So God gaue his Sonne and Christ himselfe and Iudas Christ saith Augustine why is God here holy and man guilty Nisâ— in re vnâ quam fecerunt non est causa vna ob quam