viz. when the race is not to the swift nor the battell to the strong c. Eccles 9. 11. Eccles 9. 11. §. 9. If it be here demanded In as much as second Causes and created Principles especially in men act notwithstanding such a substraction of the Divine Presence from them as hath been declared though not according to the perfection of their natures but in a troubled and miscarrying manner the eyes of the two Disciples we spake of though they were so held that they knew not Christ viz. to be the person which he was yet they represented him unto them as a man c. Whether do such actings as these proceed from their Principles without any such presence of the first Cause with them as that which we have asserted to be simply necessary for and with second Causes whensoever they go forth into action Or what manner of presence of this first Cause or how differing from that which is constant and more agreeable to their natures shall we suppose they have with them when they act irregularly or deficiently To this I answer 1. Whensoever second Causes move into action whether they act congruously to their respective natures and kinds or whether defectively they still have and must have a presence of the first Cause with them as hath beene already argued But 2. When they faile or faulter in their motions or actings if their motions be such which are not morall or commanded by the will of which kind the mis representation of the person of Christ by the eyes or visive faculty of the two Apostles was I conceive that the presence or concourse of the first cause with them is attempered and proportioned in order to the deficiency of the action I mean as well to the degree as kind of this deficiency and is not the same with it selfe in the ordinary and proper actings of these faculties The reason hereof is because faculties meerly naturall act determinately and uniformly after one and the same manner unlesse they be troubled and put out of their way by a superior power But in morall actions and such whose deficiency proceedeth from the wills of men or other creatures indued with the Whether or how the concurrence of God with the wils of men in good actions dister from that which is afforded unto them in evill actions shall God willing be taken into consideration in the second part of this work same faculty the presence and concourse of the first Cause with the Principles producing them is not at least ordinarily different from that which is naturall and proper to them and by vertue whereof at other times they act regularly or at least may The Reason hereof is because the nature and intrinsecall frame and constitution of the will importeth a liberty or freedom of chusing its own motions or acts this being the essentiall and characteristicall property of it whereby it is distinguished from causes meerly naturall Now then if this faculty when it moves or acts inordinately should be so influenced by the first Cause as hereby to be determined or necessitated to the inordinacy of its actings 1. That distinguishing property we speak of should be dissolved or destroyed and the will it selfe hereby reduced to the Order and Laws of Causes meerly naturall 2. The inordinatenesse or sinfulnesse of the motions and actings of it could not be resolved into it selfe or its own corruption but into that over ruling and necessitating influence of the first Cause upon it which it was not able to withstand nor to act besides or contrary unto the determinating exigency thereof And thus God shall be made the Author of Sin which is the first born of abominations even in the eye of Reason and Nature it selfe But of these things more hereafter Though all the motions and actings of the creature and created Principles §. 10. or faculties are absolutely suspended upon the association of the first Cause with them in their actings yet do they very seldom suffer any detriment or actuall suspension of their motions or actings hereby God never denying suspending or withdrawing that concurrence or conjunction of himself with them without which they cannot act but only upon some speciall design as for example now and then to be a Remembrancer unto the world that Nature and Second Causes are not autocratoricall i. e. do not perform what ordinarily they do perform independently and of themselves but that he is the soveraign Lord of them and hath all the strength and operations of them in his hand The battell commonly is to the strong and the race ordinarily to the swift and bread most frequently to men of understanding c. But more of this also in the following Chapter The Apostle affirming That in God we live and move in the sence declared §. 11. passeth the sentence of condemnation against two opinions which yet condemn one the other also being two extreams leaving the Truth between them in the middle The former denies all co-operation of the first Cause with the second affirming That God only communicateth that operating virtue unto them which they respectively exert and put forth and preserveth it but doth not at all co-operate with it The latter affirmeth That it is God only who acteth or worketh at the presence of Second Causes and that these do nothing but stand by act not at all The former of these opinions wâ—â— held by Durandus the Schoolman and by some others far more ancient then he against whom Augustin disputeth Lib. 5. dâ— Geâ— ad lit c. 20. The latteâ— by Gabriel Biel a School man also and some others of that Learning The Apostles assertion That we move in God in the sence asserted is visibly attended with these two consequentiall Truths 1. That God doth associate himselfe and communicate with Second Causes and all created Principles in their respective motions and operations and consequently contributes more towards their motions and operations then only by a collation and conservation of a sufficient strength or virtue in their respective causes to produce them 2. That the ordinary effects acts and operations produced in these sublunary parts are not so or upon any such terms attributable unto God but that they have their Second Causes also respectively producing them whereunto they may as truly and perhaps more properly be ascribed as unto God CHAP. II. Though there be as absolute and essential a Dependance of Second Causes upon the first in point of motion action and operation as of simple Existence or Being yet are not the motions actions or operations of Second Causes at least ordinarily so immediately or precisely determined by that Dependance which they have upon the first Cause as their respective Beings are THe simple Existences or Beings of things may be said to be determined §. 1. by God the first Cause three ways 1. In respect of their Natures or constituting Principles of their respective Beings 2. In respect of their
doe not flow from that concurrence of God with it when it acteth but from that intrinsecall form or those naturall Properties which he hath vested in it by the Law of Creation There is the same reason of other causes of this kinde in their respective actions or effects Nor are the motions or actings of the second kinde of causes mentioned as of Birds Beasts c. any whit more determined then of the former by the Presence of God with them in their actions but partly by their naturall abilities for action or motion partly by the naturall proportions and disproportions between their respective Estimatives or Phantasies and such and such Creatures or Objects whose natures are either proportioned or disproportioned unto them As for example the reason why a lamb runneth to the dam and fleeth from the Wolfe is partly the naturall sympathy between the phantasie of the lamb and the dam and the antipathy betweene the said phantasie and the Wolfe partly also that ability or nimblenesse of motion which God hath given unto this creature for the conveyance of it selfe this way or that according as the phantasie of it is affected The concurrence of God with it when it runneth to the dam and when it fleeth from the Wolfe is doubtlesse one and the same So that the difference of these two motions in this Creature doth not arise from any diversity therein but from one of the causes now mentioned In like manner the actions and motions of the third and lâ—st kinde of §. 9. causes which we termed rationall and voluntary are not determined i. e. made rationall and voluntary much lesse are they necessitated by the conjunction or Presence of God with them when they act or move but by their owne proper and free election of what they act or move unto Whilst it remained Acts 5. 4. saith Peter to Ananias speaking of his possession whilst it was yet unsold and remained with him in specie was it not thine owne i. e. Wert thou not at full liberry to have retained and kept it for thine own private use there being no Law of God imposing it as a duty upon thee to sell it And when it was sold was it not in thy power viz. whether thou wouldst part with the money which thou receivedst for it or no The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated Power doth not only signifie a Power of right but of liberty also or a freedome of will to dispose of it as he pleased otherwise a Power of right had been of no accommodation unto him nor any competent matter of the aggravation of his sin Why hast thou put this thing into thy heart viz. to dissemble and lye pretending and professing to bring the whole money which thou receivedst for the possession when as thou bringest a part of it only God concurred with the motion of Ananias will when he resolved to bring his money to the Apostles for publique distribution and so likewise when he brought it otherwise he could not have resolved or willed to do it Yet this concurrence of God with him in his act of willing or resolving did not make it necessary for him so to will or resolve because he had a Power this notwithstanding to have willed or resolved the contrary I meane either the keeping of the Possession to himself being yet unsold or the not-bringing the money received for it to the Apostles Otherwise both the act of selling it and also of bringing the money to the Apostles must be looked upon not as the acts of Ananias but of God himselfe For whatsoever a man is necessitated to do especially by a Principle of force or power out of himselfe is the act of the necessiâ—ator not his Yea the Apostle Paul counteth it no flattery either of himselfe or any other man to acquit both himself and them of all such irregular acts whereunto they are necessitated though by an inward and inherent Principle Now saith he if I doe that I would not it is no more I that do it but sinne that dwelleth in me a Rom. 7. 20. It is true the act of Ananias his will both for the selling of his Possession and bringing the money to the Apostles in the very instant of the Elicitation or Production of it was necessary in this respect viz. because now it could not be unproduced according to the common maxime every thing that is when it is must of necessity be b Unumquodque quod est quando est necesse est esse but it was not the concurrency of God with his Will that imposed any necessity upon him to produce it because then it had not been in his own power neither had it been properly his own act when produced But it may be here objected and said that though the specificall actions §. 10. or motions of all the causes mentioned be determined as hath been proved by the specificall natures or properties of every of them respectively and not by any concurrence of God with them yet their individuall and particular actions and motions are determined by some kinde of concurrence or Providentiall interposall of God As for example that Fire in the generall burneth that which is combustible being put to it is from the nature of it not from any concurrence of God with it but that it burneth such or such a mans house goods or the like this is not simply from the nature of it without some speciall disposall of Divine Providence So againe that wicked and ungodly men should in the generall do wickedly as for instance plot contrive accomplish the death of such as are godly proceedeth from themselves and from the corruption of their wills not from any concurrence of God with them nor from any speciall interposall of his in such actings But that such and such wicked men by name should plot and effect the deaths of such and such godly men by name and not the death of others godly also proceedeth not so much from the wickednesse of such men as from some speciall decree of God together with a suteable interposall of his Providence and Power for the effecting of it That which Herod and Pontius Pilate and the Gentiles and the Jewes did in and about the crucifying of Christ Peter saith that the hand and counsell of God had determined before to be done * Acts 4 28. §. 11. To this I answer 1. That this particular and signall attribution of some speciall actions or events unto God or to the determination of his hand and counsell other instances whereof are to be seene 1 King 12. 15. 2 Sam. 17. 14. Jos 11. 20. Deut. 2. 30. c. cleerly argueth that ordinarily actions are performed by men and events come to passe upon other terms I meane without any such particular or extraordinary interposition by God either by way of Decree or of Providentiall efficiency or contribution towards them Emphaticall and remarkable appropriations are unsavoury and
production into Being 3. And lastly In respect of their permanency or continuance in and with these Natures and Beings In the first consideration they are absolutely and in every respect determined by God neither themselves nor any other contributing any thing at all towards their Natures or Beings in that sence nor being in any capacity to withstand or make any resistance against that hand of Pleasure and Power which made them so or so and imparted such and such a nature or frame determinately unto them But secondly In respect of their respective actuall productions into Being they are not at least a great part of them are not so determined by God as in the former consideration Men may sow more or less grain or corn in their fields as they please and so likewise herbs in their gardens Yea the ordinary course and assistance of Providence only supposed they have power to multiply individuals in some species of animal creatures and however to restrain such a multiplication Yea doubtless many Persons both of men and women have been propagated and born into the World whose Parents were not determined or necessitated to their generation In the third and last consideration though things cannot at least all things cannot be said to be absolutely positively or irresistibly determined by God as in the first yet doth his will and pleasure for the most part interpose effectually though by the mediation of Causes either naturall or morall or both for a determination in this kinde also The continuance of Herbs Plants and Trees in their vegetative lives or Beings in respect of their species or kindes respectively is determined by God but by the intervention of their severall natures temperatures constitutions or the like So that those Herbs Plants or Trees more generally and in respect of their kindes are longer liv'd whose tempers and complexions are more healthfull and strong and so better provided to resist and defend themselves against such inconveniences which endanger and are destructive unto the lives and beings of such creatures as they The continuance of individuals or particulars in each kinde of these vegetative creatures in their respective Natures or Beings is not so determined by God but that they are obnoxious at least many of them to the hand and will of man who may at pleasure serve himselfe of which and of how many of them he pleaseth being within the reach of his arme and under his power A man may cut down and suffer still to grow which and how many of the Trees growing in his own ground he pleaseth Thus may he do also by the Herbs in his garden There is the same consideration in all respects of sensitive creatures also The lives of many of these are subjected to the wills and pleasures of men Concerning the Naturall Lives and Beings of men in the World neither §. 2. is the continuance of these so absolutely or peremptorily fixed or determined by God but that either themselves or others may either abbreviate and contract them or else enlarge and protract them to a longer period by means proportionable unto either By excess in sinning and so by defect in caution and use of means for their preservation men may draw the evill day of death neerer to them as by righteousness and a prudent circumspection to prevent dangers and things destructive unto life they may put it further from them But thou O God saith David shalt bring them downe into the pit of destruction bloody and deceitfull men shall not live out halfe their days a Psa 55. 23. e. i. the half of those days which according to the course of Nature and Providence and Will of God otherwise they might have done To like purpose Eliphaz in Job speaking of a wicked man who stretcheth out his hand against God and strengtheneth himselfe againct the Almighty i. e. who sinneth at more then an ordinary rate of provocation His branch saith he shall not be green but shall be cut of before his day God shall destroy him as the vine his sowre grape and shall cast him off as the Olive doth his flower b Job 15. 32 33. And againe afterwards Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men have troden who were cut down out of time whose foundation was overflown with a flood c Job 22. 15 16 It is probable he here speaks of the old World who because of that redundancy of wickedness which was amongst them were destroyed by a deluge of waters which otherwise they might have escaped according to what our Saviour speaketh to Capernaum concerning Sodom If the mighty workes which have been done in thee had beene done in Sodom it would have remained unto this day d Mat. 11. 23. And whereas God threateneth Ephraim meaning the ten Tribes that within threescore and five years Ephraim should be broken that he be not a People e Isai 7. 8. this judgement according to Musculus his computation was put in execution within twenty years after this Prophecy and that propter enormitatem maliciae as he faith i. e. for the enormous heinousnesse of their wickednesse So then as God hath by no decree determined that men shall be wicked especially not outragiously wicked which we shall further demonstrate afterwards so neither hath he determined that abbreviation of the lives of particular men which their voluntary excesse in wickednesse brings upon them He hath indeed determined indefinitely and in the generall That bloody and deceitfull men shall not live out halfe their days but if we speake of any particular persons who being bloody and deceitfull came thereby to an untimely end neither their sin nor their suffering by an untimely end was determined by God Againe That men by a prudentiall and providentiall care in preventing §. 3. dangers sicknesses and such inconveniences which are of a known malignity to the life of man may advance their days to a greater number then under a contrary neglect especially as the neglect for degree might have been they would or could in reason have amounted unto is evident God himselfe informed David That if he stay'd in Keilah till Saul should come thither to demand him which he was now ready to do the Lords of this City would deliver him up unto him a Sam. 23. 12. in which case he had been but a dead man Therefore David by departing from Keilah before Sauls comming downe to demand him added many days unto his life above what their number would have been had he neglected the Divine Oracle and by staying in Keilah fallen into the hand of Saul The men that were with Paul in the ship by hearkning unto his counsell for causing the Mariners to abide in the Ship got enlargement of quarter for their lives which upon their leaving of the ship had certainly been denyed unto them For Paul said unto the Centurion and the Souldiers Except these abide in the ship yee cannot be saved b
other Person or Persons by Name should have acted this his determination knowing certainly 1. That these men would act it freely and without being any wayes determined yea or in the least degree excited by him hereunto 2. That in case these had not acted it there were enough in the World besides that would But 4. Concerning those actions of men with their Consequences Productions §. 16. and Events which are so emphatically and signally as hath been said attributed unto God the reason of this attribution I conceive is partly because the conjunction of such Principles in men and Providences about men between which the actions we speake of are begotten and produced is somewhat particular and rare partly also and chiefly because the event and consequence of such actions are some speciall designe and intendment of God as is cleerly to be seen in the instances already pointed at Deut. 2. 27. compared with v. 30. Jos 11. 20. 2 Sam. 17. 14. 1 King 12. 15. Act. 4. 28. compared with Rom. 4. 25. 8. 32. c. Therefore 5. Concerning the ordinary and constant motions and actions of other §. 17. Creatures in the World though the least of them commeth not to passe without the knowledge and fore-knowledge of God in such a sence as foreknowledge is attributable unto him nor without his Prudentiall disposall of them to their or rather his respective ends yet can they not be said be to determined by him in any other sence or consideration then this viz. as he was the Author of such and such determinate Natures Properties and Beings in the Creation which by his ordinary concurrence with them for support and action are apt to move or to act after such or such a manner determinately The regular and respective motions shinings influences of the Sun Moon and Starres the flowing of Rivers from their Fountaines together with the decurrency of their Waters into the Sea with a thousand things besides of like consideration are no otherwise determined by God then as hath beene said 6. Concerning the particular motions actions and exertions of such Creatures §. 18. or Causes which though meerly naturall do not move act or exert uniformly or without variation but with a latitude and disproportion in their motions and effects there is ground I conceive to judge that God doth at least sometimes though not so frequently as is commonly presum'd Providentially interpose beyond his ordinary concurrence to occasion or bring to passe such a variation As for example that the same ground with the same labour cost and skill of the Husbandman bestowed on it doth not yeild a like proportion of increase one year which it doth another so againe that the same fruit-bearing Trees are barren one year and well-bearing another that the Seas are Pacifique and commodious for Passage at one time in such parts and places of them as when such and such Ships with such and such Persons in them passe thorough them where they are turbulent and dangerous at another time when such and such other Ships and Persons in them passe the same way with many more particulars of like consideration the reason doubtlesse of the variety and diversity of occurrences or effects in this kinde is not alwayes to be resolved either divisim or conjunction only into the native Properties of the Causes whether mediately or immediately producing them or into the ordinary and standing concurrence of God with these Causes for or in producing them but there is somewhat a more particular hand of the great Ruler of the World which formes and fashions them in such different shapes and that in order to such and such ends which though sometimes apprehensible enough yet for the most part are very hard for men to call by their Names Only this remaines true that in such occurrences and events as those now specified notwithstanding that great diversity found between them yet ordinarily all Particular Causes interessed in the Production of them act in a regular and due conformity to their respective Natures and Properties and are not forced or turned out their way by any immediate Power or interposall of God And that which he doth in order to a diversification when the difference is Preter-naturall and signally from him consists either in a multiplication of or a substraction from the number of Causes which according to the course of nature and ordinary Providence would have joyned in raising the effect or else in suspending either in whole or in part or in augmenting the operating vertue of one cause or more present with those which together raise and produce the effect Which suspension and augmentation though in a sence they may be called miraculous yet are they not direct or perfect miracles partly because they are not so obvious to any of the outward senses partly also because though they be unusuall and rare compared with the co 〈…〉 of ordinary Providence yet are they frequent in such kindes of dispensations which are either signally penall or munificent 7. Concerning such occurrences and casuall events wherein or whereby §. 19. any creature suffers losse either of being or of well-being in what kinde or degree soever neither are these determined by God though he takes speciall knowledge of them both before and when they come to passe and contrives them accordingly to their most appropriate ends When our Saviour reacheth his Disciples that a Sparrow shall not fall to the ground i. e. be taken kil'd or hurt without his Heavenly Father his meaning is not to assert a particular Decree or determination in God concerning the death or hurt of every Sparrow that either dieth or receiveth harme but to shew that God is vigilant and carefull in his Rule and Government of the World and taketh exact notice how his Creatures suffer or are diminished It is more proper of the two and neerer to the truth to say and hold that God determineth the preservation or keeping alive of those Sparrowes which fall not to the ground then that he determineth the falling to the grounds of every one that so falleth The reason is because the object of Gods determinations or Decrees is only that which is good whereas things indifferent and things that are evill are the object of his knowledge as well as that which is good But of this more hereafter So when any mans Person House or Goods are consum'd or hurt by Fire there is no competent ground to say or thinke that any of these were determined by God or that they might not have been prevented For certaine it is that he Decreed not either the negligence or carelesnesse nor yet the malice of those who thorough either the one or the other were the Authors of such accidents If it be said yea but the permission of such accidents as these is good §. 20. otherwise God would not permit them to be And if so then such a Permission may be the object of Gods
meaning before Heaven and Earth were made For thâ—re was no THEN where there was no time Neither dost thou precede times in time for if so thou couldst not precede or be before all times But thou precedest all times that are past with the statelinesse or transcendent height of thine eternity which is alwayes present and art above all times that are future because they are yet to come and when they are come they will be past but thou art the same and thy yeares faile not a Si autem ante coelum terram nullum erat tempus cur quaeritur quid tunc faciebas Non enim erat Tunc ubi non erat tempus nec tu tempora tempore praecedis alioquin non omnia tempora praecederes Sed praecedis omnia tempora prâ—terita câ—lsitudine semper praesentis aeternitatis superas omnia futura quia illa futura sunt cùm venerint praeterita erunt tu autem idem ipse es anni tui non deficient Aug. Confess l. 11. c. 13. Consonant hereunto is the saying of Boetius a Philosopher Nor ought God saith he be conceived by us as more ancient then his Creatures in respect of any quantity of time but rather in respect of the propriety of his simple Nature b Neque Deus conditis rebus antiquâ—or videri debet temporis quantitate sed simplicis potiûs proprietate naturae Boet. de Consol Philos l. 5. pros 6. Fr. Arriba a late Writer and acute throughly versed in the learning of the Fathers and Schoolemen hath notably cleered this point and fully answered all Objections which as far as I am able to apprehend can be brought against it I shall present the Reader with two or three passages from him relating unto it When the Holy Scripture saith he and our Schoole-Doctors with it say and teach that things which are eternall are before things made in time they speake truly not of a priority FORMALLY so called such as that is which is found in those things unto which the consideration of what is before and what is after doth belong which I have often said cannot agree to eternity but they speake of a kinde of EMINENTIALL priority in respect of which those things which never faile but are alwayes the same indefinently are truly said to be before things that are temporall or in time not indeed formally but eminently For speaking properly of this eminentiall priority or of an eternall permanency that which is indefinently i. e. without end or ceasing is before that which sometimes is and sometimes is not c Dum Scriptura sacra simulque Doctores Scholastici dicunt aeterna esse priora temporalibus vere loquuntur non de prioritate formali qualis est illa quae reperitur in â—is rebus quibus convenit ratio prioris posterioris quod saepe diximus aeternitati convenire non posse sed loquuntur de prioritate sub quadam eminentiali ratione quatenùs illa quae nunquam deficiunt quae indesinenter sunt verè dicuntur priora temporalibus non quidem formaliter sed éminenter Proprie enim loquendo de ista prioritate eminentiali sive de aeternâ permanentiâ illud quod indesinenter est priùs esse dicitur quam illud quod aliquando est aliquando verò non est Fran. de Arriba Operis Con. l. 3. c. 15. Sect. 7. In another place he expresseth himself thus Our former Doctrine supposed it manifestly followes from thence that those words of Christ Joh. 8. Before Abraham was I am and that of Paul Eph. 1. He chose us in him before the World was made with many other like places of Scripture every where obvious are to be taken according to the manner of our understandings as meant of this eminentiall priority not of an antecedency in respect of time not of any priority properly and formally so called d Ex praesuppositâ Doctrinâ manifeste deducitur illa verba Christi Antequam Abraham fierit ego sum illud Pauli ad Eph. 1. Elegit nos in ipso ante mundi constitutione plurima alia Scripturae Sacrae similia loca qua passim occurrunt accipienda esse nostro modo intelligendi de istâ eminentiali antecedentiâ ad tempus non verò de Antecedentiâ propriè formaliter sumptâ c. Ibid. Sect. 11. The same Author elsewhere hath these words In as much as the proper and formall reason or Nature of mutability wherein the ratio or Nature of time consisteth is intrinsecall or essentiall unto time and to the differences of it as Past Present and to Come and consequently imperfection must needs be intrinsecall to them also mutability alwayes including imperfection evident it is that fuit and erit was and will be whereby that which is past and that which is to come are signified cannot with truth formally or properly be attributed unto God e Cum Tempora ejusque differentiis quales sunt praesens praeteritum futurum sit intrinseca formalis ratio mutabilitatis in qua consistit ratio temporis consequenter sit illis intrinseca imperfectio non debet tribui Deo formaliter fuit vel erit quibus praeteritum futurum significantur Ibid. c. 14. Sect. 7. This then is a third thing to be diligently considered and remembred to prevent all misprision about the point in hand no act of God is before any act of the Creature in respect of time The fourth and last thing of like necessity to be considered for the same §. 19. end is this No act of God nor Co-operation of his with his Creature imposeth any necessity upon any free-working cause I mean upon any cause which is free in the nature or constitution of it to work or not to work and to work variously to act so or so determinately nor yet supposeth any necessity or infallibility of any act or effect producible by such causes before or untill they be actually produced Nor is this any thing but the received Doctrine of Orthodox and approved Divines God saith Austine so administreth or governeth all things which he hath Created that he suffereth them to exercise and act their own proper motions a Sic administrat omniâ— quae creavit Deus ut etiam ipsa propâ—â—os exercere agere motus sinat Aug. de Civit. l. 7. c. 30. This saying of Austin is frequently cited and made use of by our best Reformed Divines as P. Martyr b Loc. Com. Class 1. cap. 14. Sect. 2. Polanus c Symph Cathol cap. 6. Thes 5. and others in their explications of the Providence of God and the manner of his concurrence with second Causes in their motions Now if God notwithstanding any influence of his upon or any Co-operation with his Creature in their motions or actings yet so far comports with them as to leave them to their native Principles Properties and Propensions in their actings doubtlesse he doth not
ἈπολÏτφωσις Ἀπολυτφώσεως OR Redemption Redeemed Wherein the Most Glorious Work of the REDEMPTION OF THE World by Jesus Christ is by Expressness of Scripture clearness of Argument countenance of the best Authority as well Ancient as Modern Vindicated and Asserted in the Just Latitude and Extent of it according to the Counsel and most Gracious Intentions of God against the incroachments of later times made upon it whereby the unsearchable Riches and Glory of the Grace of GOD therein have been and yet are much obscured and hid from the eyes of many Together with a sober plain and through Discussion of the great Questions relating hereunto as viz. concerning ELECTION REPROBATION THE Sufficiency and Efficacy of the Means vouchsafed unto Men by GOD to Repent and Beleeve concerning the Perseverance of the Saints and those who do Beleeve concerning the Nature of GOD his manner of Acting his Intentions Purposes Decrees c. the Dependency of all Creatures or second Causes upon Him as well in their Operations as simple Existencies or Beings c. The Decision of all these Questions founded upon the good Word of GOD interpreted according to the generally-received Doctrine concerning the Nature and Attributes of GOD the manifest Exigency of the Words Phrases coherencies in the respective passages hereof relating to the said Questions as also for the most part according to the Judgment and Sence of the best Expositors as well Modern as Ancient With three Tables annexed for the Readers accommodation By JOHN GOODVVIN A servant of God in the Gospel of his dear Son The Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite My wrath is kindled against thee and thy two Friends for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right as my servant Job hath Job 42. 7. Aegrotat humanum genus non morbis corporis sed peccatis Jacet toto orbe terrarum ab Oriente usque ad Occidentem Grandis aegrotus Ad sanandum grandem aegrotum descendit Omnipotens Medicus c. Aug. de verbis Domini Serm. 59. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. It becomes a man to sacrifice even his own opinions and sayings upon the service of the Truth Arist LONDON Printed by John Macock for Lodowick Lloyd and Henry Cripps and are to be sold at their shop in Popes head Alley neer Lumbard street M. DC LI. TO THE Reverend Doctor Benjamin Whichcote Provost of KINGS Colledg and Vicechancellor of the University of CAMBRIDG together with the rest of the Heads of Colledges and Students in Divinity in that famous VNIVERSITY REverend and Right worthy Gentlemen Friends and Brethren in Christ How either your selves or others will interpret this Dedication I am I confess no such Seer as to be able to foresee and were the foresight hereof to be bought I should strain my self very little to make the Purchase I have that Witness within me whose Prerogative it is to laugh all Jealousies and Suggestions of Men to scorn which rise up in opposition to his Testimony clearly assuring me that the Oracles consulted by me about this Dedication were neither any undervaluing of you nor over-valuing of my self or of the Piece here presented unto you nor any desire of drawing respects from you either to my person or any thing that is mine much less any malignity of desire to cause you to drink of my cup or to bring you under the same cloud of disparagement with me which the World hath spread round about me Praise unto his Grace who hath taught me some weak rudiments of his Heavenly Art of drawing Light out of Darkness for mine own use I have not been for so many years together trampled upon to so little purpose as to remain yet either ignorant or insensible of mine own vileness and what Element I am neerest allied unto or so tender and querulous as either to complain of the weight of those who still go over me as the stones in the street or to project the sufferings of others in order to my own solace and relief My long deprivation and want of respects from men is now turned to an athletique habit somewhat after the manner of those who by long fasting lose their appetites and withall either contract or finde an ability or contentedness of Nature to live with little or no meat afterwards I can 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Philip. 4. 13 Non est arrogantia sed fides praedicare ea quae accepisti Aug. from the dunghil whereon I sit with much contentment and sufficient enjoyment of my self behold my Brethren on Thrones round about me The Prize then that I run for in my Dedicatory Applications unto You is by the opportunity and advantage hereof to excite provoke and engage and this if it may be beyond and above all reasonableness of pretence to decline the service those whom I judged the most able and not the least willing among their Brethren to bless the World laboring and turmoyling it self under its own vanity and folly by bringing forth the Glorious Creator and ever-blessed Redeemer of it out of their Pavilions of Darkness into a clear and perfect Light to be beheld reverenced and adored in all their glory to be possessed enjoyed delighted in in all their beauty sweetness and desirableness by the Inhabitants of the Earth I know you have no need to be taught but possibly you may have some need to consider that your Gifts Parts Learning Knowledg Wisdom Books Studies Opportunities pleasant Mansions will all suddenly make Company for that which is not and never turn to any account of true greatness unto you nor of any Interest worthy the lightest thoughts of truly prudent and considering men unless they shall by a serious and solemn Act of Consecration be consigned over unto and interessed in that great Service of God and Men whereby that blessed Union between them shall be promoted and advanced the Foundations whereof have been by so high an Hand of Grace layd in the Blood of Jesus Christ You know the Saying of the great Prophet of the World He that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad b Mat. 12. 30 Whatsoever shall not suffer yea and offer it self to be taken and carryed along by and with Jesus Christ in that grand and sublime Motion wherein he moveth dayly according to the Counsel of his Father in a streight course for the saving of the World will most certainly be dissipated and shattred all to nothing by the irresistible dint and force thereof how much more that which shall stand in his way obstruct and oppose him in this his Motion Especially Gifts Parts Reason Understanding in Men improved and raised or under means and opportunities of being improved and raised by Study Learning Knowledg if these do not make one shoulder with Jesus Christ in lifting up the World from the gates of Death much more in case they shall disadvantage and indispose the World to a receiving of those impressions from Christ by which it should or
them as in their simple Existence or Being it self Page 1. Cap. 2. Though there be as absolute and essential a Dependance of second Causes upon the first in point of motion action operation as of simple existence or being yet are not the motions actions or operations of second Causes at least ordinarily so immediately or precisely determined by that Dependance which they have upon the first Cause as their respective Beings are 7 Cap. 3. Concerning the Knowledg and Foreknowledg of God and the Difference between these and his Desires Purposes Intentions and Decrees and how these also are distinguished one from another 28 Cap. 4. Concerning the Perfection of God in his Nature and Being Some things clearly deducible from it particularly his Simplicity Actuality and Goodness of Decrees 40 Cap. 5. Four several veins or correspondencies of Scriptures propounded holding forth the Death of Christ for All Men without exception of any The first of these argued 73 Cap. 6. Herein several texts of the second sort of Scriptures propounded in the former Chapter as holding forth the Vniversality of Redemption by Christ are discussed 97 Cap. 7. The third sort or consort of Scriptures mentioned cap. 5. as clearly asserting the said Doctrine argued and managed to the same point 113 Cap. 8. The Scriptures of the fourth and last Association propounded cap. 5. as pregnant also with the same Great Truth of general Redemption by Christ impartially weighed and considered 120 Cap. 9. Entereth upon a Digression about the commonly-received Doctrine of Perseverance occasioned by several passages in the preceding Chapter avouching and clearly evicting the benefit peace and comfort of that Doctrine which teacheth a possibility of the Saints declining and this unto death above the other contrary unto it 154 Cap. 10. A Continuation of the former Digression wherein the texts of Scripture commonly alledged to prove the impossibility of the Saints declining unto death are taken into consideration and discharged from that service 177 Cap 11. A further Continuation of the former Digression wherein the Arguments and Grounds commonly insisted on in defence of the received doctrine of Perseverance are detected of insufficiency proved and declared Null 225 Cap. 12. The former Digression yet further prosecuted and a possibility of defection in the Saints or true Beleevers and this unto death clearly demonstrated from the Scriptures 268 Cap. 13. Grounds of Reason from the Scriptures evincing a possibility of such a defection even in true Beleevers which is accompanied with destruction in the end 299 Cap. 14. Exhibiting from the Scriptures some Instances of a total Declining and falling away from the Grace and Favor of God in true Beleevers 344 Cap. 15. Declaring the Sence and Judgment as well of the Ancient Fathers of the Christian Church as of Modern Reformed Divines touching the Point of Perseverance and so concluding the Digression concerning this Subject 365 Cap. 16. Several other Texts of Scripture besides those formerly produced in ranks and companies argued to the clear eviction of Truth in the same Doctrine viz. that the Redemption purchased by Christ in his Death was intended for all and every man without exceptiof any 403 Cap. 17. Declaring in what sence the former Passages of Scripture asserting the Vniversality of Redemption by Christ are as to this point to be understood and consequently in what sence the said Doctrine of Vniversal Redemption is maintained in the present Discourse 432 Cap. 18. Exhibiteth several Grounds and Reasons whereby the Vniversality of Redemption by Christ or Christs dying for all men without exception is demonstratively evicted 453 Cap. 19. Wherein the Sence of Antiquity together with the variableness of Judgment in Modern Writers about the Controversie under discussion is truly and unpartially represented 524 Cap. 20. The Conclusion Exhibiting a General Proposal or Survey of Matters intended for Consideration Explication and Debate in the second Part of this Work 562 CHAP. I. There is no created Being or second Cause whatsoever but dependeth upon the first and supream Cause or Being which is God and this as well in the second as in the first Act I mean as well in the Motions and Operations issuing from or performed by every of them as in their simple Existence or Being it self WE shall not need I presume to levy a dispute for the gathering §. 1. or geting in that tribute due to the Crown and Soveraignty of Being from all Beings besides which consists in an acknowledgment of his free bounty in calling them out of the abyss of vanity and nothing by the Word of his Power hereby taking them into part and fellowship with himself in his Prerogative of Being according to what was resolved by the counsell of his Will as meet to be dispeâ—sed unto every of them respectively in this kind Trees that are throughly and deeply rooted in the Earth will grow and flourish though the dew or rain from Heaven should seldome or never fall upon them but grasse and herbs and tender plants whose roots have but a slender and thin protection of their Element against the scortching violence of the Sun will soon wither and die away if the clouds of Heaven should not ever and anon drop verdure upon them and relieve them In like manner such notions and impressions in the Soul into which Nature is deeply baptized and mightily 〈…〉 ssest with their Truth are like to live and to maintain their interest and autâ—â—rity in men though not seconded or relieved by argument or dispute but those which have only taken a fainter and looser hold of the judgements and consciences of men are in danger of miscarrying and proving like the Corne upon the house top which as David observeth withereth before it be grown up a Psal 129. 6. unlesse they be timely yea and frequently encouraged back'd and strength by discourse That there is a Being which looks upon this Universe â—ith all the host of it as the workmanship of his own hands and that every creature or finite Being is lineally descended from him as their Great and first Progenitor are I conceive such principles of Light and Truth written in so fair and full a Character in the Tables of all mens hearts that even whilst they run they may read them yea and cannot lightly depose or suffer the losse of â—hem though they be not bound upon their judgments and consciences with any other bands of argument or demonstration then those of their own evidence and conviction Therefore what God hath made manifest and clear in men we shall not cast any suspition of darknesse or obscurity upon by making it matter of disputation And though the dependance of things in actuall and compleat Being upon §. 2. God for sustentation and support as well of their simple Existences and Beings themselves as of their Operations respectively which is the sence and substance of the Thesis propounded be not altogether of so pregnant an inspiration as dependance upon him for their
rather importeth he implyeth not only that all our vitall actions and motions are exercised and performed by the gracious concurrence and compliance of God with us as well as our lives themselves and Principles of action preserved but further that there is a further and appropriate concurrence of God required and by him accordingly exhibited to enable men to act those very Principles of action and motion that are in them distinct from that by which their lives and Principles of action in every kind are preserved Insomuch that though men be never so well appointed or provided for action in one kind or other in respect of suitable proper and sufficiently-disposed Principles thereunto yet upon a suspension of that particular influence or concurrence by God which is appropriate and necessary both for the leading forth unto and for the supporting of these Principles in and under their proper actions there is none of them will go forth into action nor is able to maintain or support it selfe in acting But whether such a concurrence of God supposed and actually granted as is sufficient both for the leading forth unto and for the support of the Principles we speak of in their proper actings these Principles notwithstanding at least such of them whose actions lie under the command of the will may not refuse or forbear to act is another Question wherein more may be said hereafter In the mean time that God may at any time separate between Principles §. 7. and their actings even those that are most proper and connaturall to them only by with-holding that compliance of his with them which is appropriate and necessary for their conducting unto action is evident from severall passages in the Scriptures Doubtlesse the heat of the fire in Nebuchadnezzars furnace being het seven times hotter then ordinary was as proper as likely a means to have consumed Shadrach Meshach and Abednego being cast into the midst of this furnace as those who were imployed by the King only to cast them into it Nor can it reasonably be said That God separated the heat or burning property from the fire or annihilated it all the time that these three men were in the furnace For 1. unlesse we shall suppose the subject it self I mean the fire to have been destroyed or annihilated we cannot suppose that heat or a burning property being â— property inseparable from such a subject should be taken from it 2. It appears by the story that those who cast the three Servants of God mentioned into the furnace were consumed by the fire of it whilst the Servants of God remained in the furnace Therefore certainly there was true fire and true heat in the furnace whilest the three men continued in it 3. And lastly The story saith That the Princes Governors and Captains c. being gathered together saw these men upon whose bodies the fire had no power * Dan. 3. 27. So that there is not the least question but that there was reall fire and reall heat and that in abundance in the furnace which notwithstanding had no power no not so much as over the hair of their heads or the garments they wore What now was the Reason why this fire and this heat prevailed not over those that were cast into the midst of them as they did over those who cast them in Was it any other then this The Lord of hoasts his withdrawing the wonted conjunction of himselfe from the heat of the fire and refusing to comply with it in that expedition or attempt which it naturally inclined to make upon these men as well as upon any others to destroy them whereas he kept his naturall and accustomed union with this heat in that attempt which it made upon those other men who cast these into the furnace by means whereof it suddenly prevail'd upon them and consumed them There was the same Reason why the Bush which Moses saw burning with fire was not consumed by it The Reason likewise in all likelihood why the men of Sodom could not find the door of Lots house was because God withdrew his usuall concurrence from their visive faculty in order to the discerning of that object For that other things were all this while visible enough to them appears from their continued endevours even unto weariness in seeking this door If they had bin wholy blind so that they could have seen nothing at all it is no ways credible but that they would have desisted their enterprize at the very first This withdrawing or suspension of the wonted Presence of God with the Seeing faculty of men is called the holding of their eyes Luk. Luke 24 16. 24. 16. But their eyes were holden that they could not know him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were mightily or powerfully held they could not act or perform that which otherwise was most naturall and proper for them to do in receiving and representing to the Sensus Communis or adjudging faculty of the Soul the true species and shape of a Person standing visibly before them and neer to them through the want of that accustomed co-operative Presence of God with them in order to this act which untill now it is like had never failed them upon the like occasion Other instances we have in Scripture of such like impotencies and deficiences as these in naturall faculties through the suspension of that soveraign presence with them upon which all their motions and actions depend See Ioh. 20. 14 15. 2 Kings 6. 17 18 c. When God threatned his People of old That the wisdome of their wise men §. 8. Esa 29. 14 should perish and the understanding of their prudent men he hid Isai 29. 14. he doth not I suppose threaten an utter annihilation of those Principles or habits of wisdome and understanding in these men but only an intercision or failing of such interposals and actings from and by these Principles in order to the safety and preservatioâ—â—oth of themselves and their state which might reasonably and accordinâ— to the common course of second Causes be expected from them which wonder as he calls it was I conceive to be effected only by the hiding of his face from them without the beholding whereof no second Cause whatsoever is able to move no not in those ways of acting which are most appropriate to them This manner of execution of the judgment here threatened seems to be implyed in those latter words And the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid i. e. shall not be conspicuous or discernable in any fruits or effects worthy of it not that the Principle it self should be absolutely destroyed or devested of Being This Liberty or great Interest of God which we speak of I mean to suspend the proper and most accustomed effects of second Causes by refusing to joyn in action with them causeth that time and chance as the wise man calleth them which happen now and then in those occurrences of humane affairs as
the destruction that wasteth at non-day a Psa 91. 5 6 7 But dayly experience sheweth That God doth not engage himselfe upon such terms as these for the protection of the lives of all that are godly many of these falling by the hand of death even whilst the lives of thousands and ten thousands round about them are not touched there with Nor have any Persons though never so godly any sufficient ground from the passages mentioned or the like to expect absolutely and with confidence protection of life in the midst of all such dangers which are there specified but only conditionally viz. if God will vouchsafe to undertake for their Preservation and Peace Such Scriptures hold forth the constant power not the uniform Will or Pleasure of God On the other hand when God taketh no pleasure as the Scripture phrase is in the life of a man the little finger of death is enough to crush it my meaning is a very slender and inconsiderable occasion will serve his Providence for the dissolution of it But neither of these dispensations amounts to any demonstration of any such decree in God wherein he hath punctually and indispensably assigned to all Persons whatsoever a set number of years moneths days houres and moments for their allowance of life which neither himselfe nor themselves nor any other creature hath the least liberty or power either to augment or diminish upon any occasion or by any means whatsoever It is indeed commonly reported to be a great Article in the Turkish Creed That the lives of all men at least of all Turkes are so absolutely disposed of in the counsell and decree of God that it is a thing simply impossible for men either by running upon the mouths of Cannons or by casting themselves into the Sea or by rushing naked into the midst of an Host of armed enemies or by adventuring upon any danger upon any death whatsoever to anticipate the date of such a disposall and so on the contrary by any Care Prudence or circumspectnesse whatsoever to prevent the fatality thereof But such Notions and Decrees as these are fitter to make Alcoran Divinity then Christian. I freely acknowledge all the Decrees of God to be absolute and unchangeable upon any occasion or by any means whatsoever and none of them in a true and proper sence conditionall but I am far from making the Decrees of God commensureable with his Prescience or fore-knowledge But of this hereafter In order to a full and thorough explication of the subject last in hand if §. 6. this had been any materiall part of our present designe many Particularities besides those insisted upon should have been added But the consideration of the dependance of the motions and actings of the creature upon God in respect of their determination is more intimous to the heart and spirit of our Grand Intendment then of their simple existences or beings Therefore to passe on to the explication of this we have laid downe for the Argument of his Chapter this conclusion either in words or substance that the motions actions or operations of second Causes though they do as absolutely depend upon the first as their existences or beings as was argued in the former Chapter yet are they not by this dependance at least ordinarily so immediately or precisely determined as their beings Notwithstanding how their beings in respect of their natures their Productions their subsistings or durations in being are determined or not determined by God hath been the inquiry and decision of the preceding part of this Chapter We come now to inquire how how far and after what manner the motions and actions of second Causes are determined or necessitated to be both when and where and what they are by that essentiall dependance which they have upon God All second Causes whatsoever are reducible to one of these three heads §. 7. or kind◠They are either 1. Such which act and move without any knowledge or apprehension at all as being capable of neither either of the end for the obtaining whereof they act or move or of their motions or actings in order to this end Or 2. Such which are capable of some kinde of knowledge or apprehension both of their ends and of their actings and movings towards these ends but very imperfect and weak viz. such which extend not to the reason or relation of these ends nor to any deliberation about them nor yet to the proportion or aptness of those their actings and moveings for the obtaining of their ends Or 3. and lastly they are such which know and apprehend or at least are capable of both not simply of those ends in order whereunto they act and move but of the Nature Reason and further tendency of these ends also as likewise of the proportion of likelihood of their ingagements in any kinde for the obtaining of their ends The first kinde of these causes are called Naturall or meerly naturall the second Animall or spontaneous the third Rationall Voluntary or free-working Of the first sort are 1. all inanimate and life-lesse creatures as Fire Water Ayre Earth Stones Minerals and such like 2. all Creatures which are endued with a Principle of vegetation but not of sence Of the second are all animall or sensitive Creatures not partakers of any Principle or indowment above those of outward sensation and a certaine estimative faculty or phantasie by which they 1. apprehend what is naturally good or evill for them at least in some Particulars and 2. are acted and moved accordingly as either to or from them but without any deliberation or consideration had either about the one or the other Of this kinde are beasts of the Field birds of the Ayre fishes of the Sea and generally whatsoever hath breath and life excepting men These are said to act or move Spontaneously because they act out of some knowledge of their end without any compulsion or necessitation from without Of the third and last sort are only men and Angels whether good or bad in either kinde who are therefore called rationall voluntary or free working causes because they are capable not only of an apprehension or knowledge of such ends for and towards the obtaining of which they act and move but also of the nature quality and import of them and of deliberation likewise or consulation about the means and wayes of their Procurement Now though all these severall causes have such a dependance upon God §. 8. that as hath been said none of them can move into action without a surable concurrence from him yet are not their actions or motions thereby determined ordinarily or necessitated unto or upon them The reason why fire burns or heats and doth not moisten coole or the like is not because God concurreth with it when it acteth for then Ayre or Water should burn and heate likewise with a like concurrence Therefore the particular and determinate actions of the Fire are not caused by
things will come to passe is there not a necessity of their comming to pass or otherwise must not the knowledge of God prove abortive and be accompanied with error I answer no if the events supposed to be knowne by God before their §. 22. comming to passe be contingent or at least such in the Production whereof Futura contingentia etiam ut subsunt divinae scientiae non sunt simpliciter necessaria Rada Contr. 30. Art 5. Scientia Dei non tollit contingentiam ab eo quod est scitum ibid. the wills of men must some wayes or other interpose if ever they be produced of which kinde of events only we now speake the certainty of the knowledge of God may be salved and yet no absolute necessity of the comming to passe of such events be supposed The reason is because at the same time when God seeth or knoweth that they will come to passe he seeth and knoweth also that there is no necessity they should come to passe but that they may well be prevented In which respect in case they should not come to passe the knowledge of God should suffer no defeature or disparagement If yet it be said yea but when it is supposed that God knoweth that such §. 23. or such an event will come to passe if it should be supposed withall that he knoweth it may not come to passe or that it may come to passe otherwise then according to this knowledge doth not this suppose or imply a consciousnesse in God of the weakness or deficiency of his knowledge I answer no but rather the contrary viz. a consciousnesse in him of the strength and perfection of his knowledge For he that knoweth not that contingent and free-working Causes which way soever they shall act in order to any particular event might yet act otherwise or suspend their actings is certainly defective in knowledge And if God did not as well know that there is a Possibility of the non-futurity or of the not comming to passe of such contingent events which he knoweth will come to passe as well as he certainly knoweth that they will come to passe he should be defective in his knowledge concerning the Nature and Property of contingent and free-working Causes in as much as this is their Nature and Property as hath been said to be at liberty in reference to particular actings to act one way as well as another or else to suspend their action Indeed if it should be said or thought that any event WILL not or SHALL not come to passe which God knoweth before hand will come to passe this would import an obnoxiousness unto error in the knowledge or fore-knowledge of God But to say or think that such an event whose future comming to passe God knoweth MAY notwithstanding this knowledge of his not come to passe reflects no dishonour or disparagement at all upon his knowledge a Cum ista Antichristus crit stat haec Antichristus potest non fore Rada Contr. 30. Art 6. Et paulo post non pugnat igitur quod Deus sciat Petrum esse peccaturum tamen quod ipse possit non peccare vel possit non esse peccaturus but rather gives an honorable and high testimony of excellency and perfection unto it For he that certainly knowes what contingent and free-working Causes will do notwithstanding their freedom and liberty either to do or not to do or to do otherwise must needs be excellent in knowledge indeed and one who needeth not count it robbery to be equall with God Concerning the acts of the wills of men which are called I know not how Properly supernaturall I meane such which have an essentiall connexion with their eternall happiness and glory how or how far they are determined by God and how and how far not we shall be better fitted with an opportunity to demonstrate in the Process of our Discourse In the meane time the reason why the great Commander and Lord of §. 24. nature leaveth his whole Militia ordinarily to move and act according to their native Properties and inclinations respectively without counter manding them or turning them out of their way are these with their fellowes First Nature with all her traine and retinue of particular Causes together with all their furniture of Principles for Motion and Action being the workmanship of his own hand if he should ordinarily or frequently interpose to change her Lawes or innovate her course he should seeme to pull down that which himself hath built up and to dislike that Portraicture and resemblance of himself which he hath drawne with admirable and unimitable art and skill in the regular and standing Progress of Nature and second Causes Secondly being conscious to himself with what excellency of Wisdom Goodness and Power the great Body of Nature with all the Parts and Members of it was at first rais'd built fram'd and temper'd by himself he knows there is no need for him either to add to or to take from or to alter any thing ordinarily in her course He hath sufficient security that his hand-maid left unto her self only with his ordinary and regular concurrence without which she can neither move nor be will no wayes mis-behave her self in order to his ends and those concernments of his glory wherewith she is intrusted So that for him to check or controule her in her way would be but a kinde of condemning the innocent which is when practised amongst men an abomination to him Thirdly and lastly if he should customarily and of course over-rule Nature or second Causes in their regular Proceedings he should overlay his own market for miracles and works of wonder and bring down the price of the glory and esteem of them to a very low rate In the dayes of Solomon Silver was but as Stones nothing esteemed * 1 Kings 10. 21. 27. by reason of the abundance and commonness of it Miracles are the rarities of Heaven and the reserve of Nature when her testimony concerning the Glory and Power of her Lord and Master is despised by Men. CHAP. III. Concerning the foreknowledge and knowledge of God and the difference betweene these and his Desires Purposes Intentions and Decrees and how these also are distinguished the one from the other IT is not to be denied but that the Scriptures do attibute 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or §. 1. fore-knowledge unto God in severall places as Acts 2. 23. Rom. 8. 29. 11. 2. 1 Pet. 1. 2. c. Though evident it is that in some if not in all of these places the word rather imports a Pre-approbation then a simple Prescience or fore-knowledge according to the known signification of the simple word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which though properly it signifieth knowledge yet in Scripture language according to that idiome of speech wherein the consequent is put for the antecedent not unusuall in the Scriptures frequently imports approbation As Mat. 7. 23. Rom.
we are not to conceive that upon the multiplication or new production of Entities or Beings the acts of God are multiplied for or in their production but that whatsoever is produced by him or receives being from him as all things that have being do when or at what time soever they receive this being they receive it by vertue of that one creative act of his by which at once in the beginning as the Scripture phrase is he gave being to all things Past Present and yet to Come Nor are we to conceive that when Moses reporteth the History of the Creation thus And God said let there be light a Gen. 1. 3. and afterwards viz. after a dayes space that he said Let there be a Firmament b Gen. 1. 6. and again after the same distance of time Let the waters under the Heaven he gathered together into one place c Gen. 1. 9. c. that he spake these things at three severall distinct times or that he waited the just space of a day between speech and speech but that Moses his intent in this description or relation was to declare by what successive spaces or distances of time that one Creative Word of God which he spake at once took place and gave being to the severall and respective parts of the Universe So that for example when by way of Preface to the second dayes worke he writeth thus And God said let there be a Firmament c. His meaning only was to signifie what that one creative Word of God once and at once spoken did produce or give being unto towards the compleating of the Universe the second day after the Creation was begun not that God rested or kept silence for a dayes space and then fell to work again This truth I mean that all temporary and successive effects in the World §. 16. whether produced by the intervening and concourse of second Causes or without are produced by the impression and vigour of that one great act of God we speak of and not by any new act exercised or exerted by him in order to their severall and particular Productions is frequently insinuated in the Scriptures themselves yea and is demonstrable by ground of reason and nothing but what hath been the judgement of severall learned men and of Augustine by name The context of Moses Gen. 2. 4. tenoureth thus These are the generations of the Heavens and of the Earth when they were created IN THE DAY that the Lord made the Earth and the Heavens and every plant of the field BEFORE IT WAS IN THE EARTH and every herb of the Field BEFORE IT GREVV Here he plainly affirmeth that God created the Earth and the Heavens in the same day and every Plant of the Field BEFORE it was in the Earth c. Cleerly implying that though the Earth and the Heavens received their respective beings on two severall dayes successively yet that which God acted or did towards their Productions was done by him in one and the same day i. e. at once and again that although no Plant of the Field was actually produced before it was in the Earth for no Plant was made out of the Earth and afterwards by God put into it yet that on Gods part and in respect of what he contributed towards their actuall Production they were produced before viz. by that one Creative act we spake of Consonant to this deduction from as also to the exposition lately given unto the context of Moses is this passage of Augustine When thou hearest that all things were then made when the day was made conceive if thou beest able that six or seven fold repetition which is made or to be made without any intervalls of delayes or spaces of time or if thou beest not able so to conceive of it leave it for those to conceive who are able and go thou forward with the Scripture which forsaketh not thy infirmity but walketh a Mothers pace slowly with thee and which so speaketh that with her height shee laughs at the proud with her depth shee amazeth the considerate with her Truth shee feeds the strong or well-grown and with her affability nourisheth little ones a Et cum audis tunc facta omnia cum factus est dies illam senariam vel septenariam repetitionem sine intervallis moraâ—um spaciorumque temporalium factam si possis apprehendas si autem non possis haec relinquas conspicienda valentibus tu autem cum Scriptura non deserente infirmitatem tuam materno incessu tecum tardius ambulante proficias quae sic loquitur ut altitudine superbos irrideat profunditate attentos terreat veritate magnos pascat affabilitate parvos nutriat Aug. de Gen. ad lit l. 5. c. 3. The same Author elsewhere For God saith he made all time with all corporall Creatures together or at once which visible Creatures are signified by the Name of Heaven and Earth b Fecit enim Deus omne tempus simul cum omnibus creaturis corporalibus quae creaturae visibiles nomine coeli terrae significantur Aug. lib. 1. de Gen. contra Manich. c 3. Quod futurum est jam factum est Idem Soliq cap. 26. This to have been his positive and cleer judgement many other passages in his writings give plenary and pregnant testimony and more particularly his 105th Tractate upon John and his Books upon Genesis But to returne to the Scriptures Those words Psal 115. 3. He God hath done whatsoever he pleased in the best sence and interpretation of them and that which is closest to the letter are thus to be understood viz. that whatsoever God willeth or hath willed should at any time come to passe he hath already done viz. all that he meaneth or which is any wayes necessary for him to do towards the effecting of it In this sence also that of the Apostle Rom. 8. 30. with many other places of Scripture of like Phrase and consideration is to be understood Moreover whom he hath predestinated them also hath he called and whom he hath called them hath he also justified and whom he hath justified them hath he also glorified God is said to have already called justified glorified all those whom he did foreknow ver 29. i. e. preapprove viz. as lovers of God Vers 28. and so predestinated to be conformed to the Image of his Sonne because he hath already done whatsoever is requisite for him to doe for the procurement and effecting of them in due time By the way lest the Table of this Doctrine should prove a snare of error §. 17. or mistake unto any foure things are diligently to be minded First that that one great Act of God by which he gave Being in time unto the World and unto all things that either have been or ever shall be produced or done in it was not exercised or acted by him in time but from or in eternity The reason hereof is
perish but on the contrary that whosoever of them should not believe should perish Which according to their Principles against whom we now argue is as if a man should say which soever of my sheep is no sheep but a goate shall have no pasture with his fellowes 3. They who by the World here understand the Elect must if they will §. 14. not baulk with their Principles suppose that Christ speaks at no better Rate of Wisdom or Sence in this Scripture then thus So God loved the World that He gave His only begotten Sonne that whosoever did that which was not possible for them to decline or not to do should not perish but c. Who ever being serious and in his wits required that in the nature of a condition from any Man especially in order to the obtaining of some great and important thing which he of whom it was required upon such terms was necessitated or had no Liberty or Power but to performe what Father ever promised his Son his Estate either in whole or in part upon condition that whilest he rode upon an Horse he should not go on foote or upon condition that he would do that which a force greater he was able to resist should necessitate him to do So that the whole tenor and carriage of the verse renders the interpretation of the word World hitherto encountred a meer nullity in Sence Reason and Truth 5. The Context and words immediately preceding will at no hand endure §. 15. that sence of the word World against which we have declared hitherto This little word for FOR God so loved c. being causall importeth not only a connexion of these words with what went before but such a connexion or Relation as that which intercedes between the cause and the effect So that the words in hand must be looked upon as assigning or exhibiting the Cause or Reason of that effect which was immediately before mentioned This being granted as without breach of conscience it can hardly be denied it will appear as cleer as the light of the Sun that by the word World in the place under Contest cannot be meant the Elect only The tenor of the two next foregoing Verses for together they make but one intire sentence is this And as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wildernesse even so must the Sonne of Man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in Him or every one believing in Him should not perish but have everlasting Life So that the effect here mentioned and expressed is the Salvation and everlasting happinesse of what Person or Persons soever of Men or of Man-kinde that shall believe in Christ The Reason or Cause hereof our Saviour discovers and asserts in the words in hand For God so loved the World that He gave c. If now by the World we shall understand only the Elect the Reason or Cause here assigned of the pre-mentioned effect will be found inadequate to it and insufficient to produce it For Gods Love to the Elect and his giving his Son for their Salvation only is no sufficient cause to procure or produce the Salvation of WHOSOEVER shall or should believe on him For certaine it is that there is Salvation in Christ for no more then for whom God intended there should be Salvation in him If there be Salvation in him for none but for the Elect only then is it not true that whosoever believes in him shall be saved For certaine it is that no Mans believing puts any Salvation into Christ for him therefore if it were not there for him before he believed yea or whether he beleeved or not neither would it be there for him though or in case he should believe 6. And lastly that by the word World in the Scripture in hand is not meant the Elect nor any thing equivalent hereunto is evident also from the Context in the Verse and words immediately following where our Saviour goeth forward in his Doctrine Thus. For God sent not His Sonne into the World to condemne the World but that the World through him might be saved a Ioh. 3. 17. This Particle for being as we lately noted Causall or Raciocinative plainly sheweth that he useth the word World or speaks of the World in this Verse where he speaks of the condemnation of it in the same sence wherein he spake of it in the former and the meanes of the Salvation of it otherwise he should not argue ad idem i. e. to the point in hand Now then to make him here to say that God sent not his Sonne into the World i. e. to take the nature or to live in the condition of the Elest to condemne the Elect but that the Elect c. is to make him speak as never man I suppose spake but not for excellency of Wisdom or gracefulnesse of expression but for weaknesse in both To say that God sent not his Sonne into the World to condemne his Elect were but to beate the Aire or to fight against a shadow I mean solemnly to deny that which no man was ever likely to imagine or affirm For â—ow or by what way of apprehension should it ever enter into any mans thoughts that God should send his Sonne into the World to condemne those whom out of his infinite love he had from eternity decreed to save with a strong Hand out-stretched Arme and Power omnipotent and invincible Or are not these the Elect in their notion of Election with whom we have now to do Therefore certainly the World in the Scripture before us doth not signifie the Elect. A second interpretation of this word asserted by some is that by the §. 16. World is meant genus humanum or Mankinde indefinitely considered i. e. if I rightly understand the minde of those who thus interpret as neither importing all nor any of the individiuums or persons contained in or under this species or kinde but only the specificall nature of Man common to them all as when the Jewes said of the Centurion that he loved their nation * Luke 7. 5. their meaning was not either that he loved all that were Jewes without exception of any nor yet that he loved any particular person of them more then another but only that he was lovingly disposed towards them as they were such a particular Nation as viz. Jewes But that this Interpretation either falls in in substance with the former and so is already condemn'd with the condemnation thereof or else with the third and last which as we shall hear presently findeth in this Scripture a Love in God towards all the individuall Persons of Man-kinde without exception of any or else that it vanisheth into nothing and hath no substance at all in it may be thus demonstrated If by Man-kinde indefinitely considered be neither meant a speciall or determinate number of the persons of Men which the former interpretation asserteth nor yet the universality or intire body of Men consisting
greatnesse of His Power to preserve them against all enemies and threatning obstacles and oppositions whatsoever for His Heavenly Kingdome only upon condition that they shall not willingly willfully desperately destroy themselves or render themselves uncapable of such His preservation by apostatizing from that Faith in His Son Jesus Christ which He by His especiall Grace hath Planted in them and by which they stand at present in favour and acceptation with Him 2. Though God hath not simply and absolutely undertaken for their preseverance §. 20. or continuation of their Faith unto the end nor upon any such terms but that if they will be brutishly and desperately carelesse of so high a concernment to themselves as a blessed Eternity is they may make defection from it and turne Proselites to Hell yet hath He laid a rich foundation for their Perseverance in those many precious Promises and incouragements which He hath given unto those who shall persevere as also in those most severe and dreadfull threatnings bent against the faces of all Apostates and backsliders together with those frequent Promises or Declarations which He hath made to continue yea and to inlarge upon occasion the inward contributions of His Spirit the motions excitements and directions thereof in order to the plentifull inabling of His Saints to persevere untill they shall willingly and willfully turne their backs upon them and reject them Upon the account of all these gracious Promises and Declarations made by God unto His Saints for or towards the effectuall accomplishment of their Perseverance the Apostle Paul frequently incourageth them to the hope and expectation of it But the Lord is faithfull who shall stablish you and keepe you from evill a 2 Thess 3. 3 Who shall also confirme you unto the end that yee may be blamelesse in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ b 1 Cor. 1. 8 God according to the common Dialect and Notion of Scripture language is said to establish confirme and keepe men from evill when He doth that which is of a proper tendency and sufficient thereunto whither the effects or ends themselves of establishments confirmation c. be actually obtained or no For there is nothing more frequent or familiar in Scripture then to ascribe the effects themselves sometimes unto God sometimes unto Men only upon their respective actings or doings of such things which are of a Naturall Proper and Direct tendency to produce them whether they be actually and de facto produced or no. Thus our Saviour chargeth Him who shall put away his Wife for any other cause then Fornication with causing her to commit Fornication c Mat. 5. 32 whether the Woman thus put away committeth Fornication or no viz. because in that act of putting her away upon such terms He doth that which hath a proper and direct tendency to cause Her to commit this sin For it is not necessary to suppose that every Woman thus divourced or put away committeth or will commit Fornication But whether she doth or no the sin of Him that put Her away is one and the same He in our Saviours Dialect caused Her to commit Fornication Thus also He who eates to the offence of a weake Brother is charged by the Apostle with destroying him with his Meate for whom Christ Died d Rom. 14 15 20. i. e. with doing that which is apt and proper to occasion His destruction whether He be actually destroyed or no. In this idiome likewise of speaking God expresly saith that He had purged Jerusalem and yet in the same place saith also that Jerusalem notwithstanding was not purged In thy filthinesse is lewdnesse i. e. notorious and desperate obstinacy because I HAVE PVRGED THEE AND THOV WAST NOT PVRGED thou shalt not be purged from thy filthinesse any more till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee a Ezek. 24 13 God is said to have purged Jerusalem because He vouchsafed proper and sufficient means unto Her for Her purging as the Ministry of His Word and Spirit frequent Admonitions Exhortations Expostulations Promises Threatnings c. by His Prophets however Jerusalem by Her rebellious obstinacy hindered and obstructed the through and kindly working of these means by reason whereof the desireable effect of Her purging was not obtained In such a Sence and Phrase as this the goodnesse of God is said to lead such Men to Repentance who yet are so far from Repenting that after their hardnesse and impenitent heart they threasure up wrath unto themselves against the day of wrath c. b Rom. 2. 4 5 meaning that the goodnesse of God in His Patience and Long-sufferance towards wicked and ungodly Men ministreth many occasions and opportunities unto them by the advantage whereof they might easily be drawn to repent did they not willingly indulge themselves in that hardnesse of Heart which in the fruits of it tends to nothing but to the treasuring up of wrath to themselves c. In the same construction Christ is stiled the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the World c Ioh. 1. 29. and so to be the propitiation for the sinnes of the whole World d 1 Ioh. 2. 2 not as if or because the sin of the World is actually or compleatly taken away by Him or so that this whole sin either is or at any time must needs be pardoned or actually taken away in all the fruits consequents or effects of it because He is said to have taken it away but because He hath done and suffered that which hath a glorious efficacy and tendency in it to or towards such a taking of it away so that if it be not actually and compleatly taken away the cause of it is somewhere else to be sought and found as viz. in the sinners or men themselves and not in Him In this sence likewise He is said to be the propitiation for the sinnes of the whole World not because the sinnes of the whole World are actually compleatly or with succesfulnesse in the event propitiated or attoned by Him but because that Sacrifice of Himself which He hath offered in order to a propitiating or attoning the sinnes of the whole World is so pregnant and full of a propitiatory efficacy and vertue and withall is so propounded and held forth by God unto the whole World that if any mans sin remaines actually unpropitiated or un-pardoned it is through his own voluntary neglect of this Sacrifice and not from any intention on Gods Part that his sin should not be attoned or propitiated by this Sacrifice as well as any other Mans. It were easie to multiply examples of that propriety of expression now under observation from the Scriptures And I desire the rather that it may be carefully minded and remembred because I verily believe that the non-advertency of it by Men of learning and worth with some few others of like consideration whereof we may give notice in time hath mainly occasioned the dividing of
an actual production and the reason of the non-attainment or non-production of the effect resteth not at all in them but in some other cause one or more which should have contributed their efficiency or strength likewise towards the same production but did not As for example Suppose four or five Horses yoked in a Team and that one or two of these should pull or draw lustily yet because the rest are jadish and lazy and will not put their shoulders to it the wain being heavy laden sticks fast in the slow is not drawn out in this case because the Horses supposed to pull stoutly do as much for their parts as was requisite for them to do towards the drawing of it out and that which would actually have drawn it out in case their fellows had joyned as they ought and might in the same act of drawing with them there is no reason why they should lose the credit or commendation of their activity through the jadishness of their fellows nor consequently why they should not be said to have drawn the Wain out of the mire In like manner when God contributes his efficiency towards the keeping of men blameless and that such an efficiency which being seconded and complied with by them according to their duties and abilities for the action would actually produce the effect and keep them blameless indeed there is no reason why he should be deprived of the honor of his action because men are slothful and will not act with him and consequently why he should not be said to keep them blameless how blame-worthy in the mean time soever they be through their own default For of the two it is a more honorable expression to say that a man did such or such a worthy action then that he did somewhat towards it And for as much as 1. God doth no more towards the keeping of those Saints of his blameless who are actually and indeed kept blameless then he either doth or is ready to do in a regular way towards the keeping of others of them blameless who yet miscarry And 2. considering that when any of the Saints are actually kept blamelesse through that gracious supply of his Spirit and other means vouchsafed by him in order thereunto though not without their own care and concurrence with him herein the honor of this action or keeping blamelesse is most properly due unto him there is no reason why it should not be ascribed unto him in the former case as well as in the latter or that he should not be as well said to keep those blamelesse who only through their own unworthinesse prove blame-worthy as those who through his grace attended with their own endeavours are kept blameless It is a saying approved I suppose on all hands careat successibus opto Quisquis ab eventu facta notanda putet i. e. Successe in his attempts I wish him none Who by th' event will judg an action Therefore when God acteth uniformly in a way of grace he is uniformly to be honoured what difformity soever there be found in the event issue or consequent of his action 5. And lastly the words in hand cannot be judged Promissory or to suppose a Promise because then it would follow that God should stand ingaged by Promise to preserve Believers not only from totall and finall Apostacy but from all partiall and temporary declinings also For they that are sanctified wholly or throughout and whose whole Spirit and Soule and Body are preserved blamelesse c. are in the same sence preserved from all and all manner of declining The last piece of Scripture frequently called upon for support of this second §. 24. Argument answereth in these words Being confident of this very thing that He which hath begun a good worke in you will performe it untill the day of Jesus Christ a Philip. 1. 6 This Text is of the same interpretation with the former only it hath not so much of the letter or face as some of them have for an absolute Promise from God unto the Saints that He will cause them to Persevere For 1. That confidence or perswasion rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Apostle here professeth is not said nor insinuated to be built upon any Promise much lesse upon any absolute Promise of God to interpose after any such manner for their Perseverance that it should not be possible for them to decline or not to persevere but upon a charitable or equitable apprehension he had of the ingenuous integrity and simplicity of their hearts towards Christ His Saints and Gospell which kinde of temper or frame of spirit in Men is of all others most promising of perseverance in well doing through the Grace of God and consequently of the continuation of this grace unto Men in as much as according to the common saying of Divines Deus non deserit nisi deserentem God forsakes no Man but those who forsake Him first That such an apprehension of the holy ingenuity and uprightnesse of their Hearts as we speak of in conjunction with that gracious Principle or Disposition in God now hinted was the ground of that good perswasion which he here expresseth most evidently appeareth from the words immediately following Even as it is meet for me to thinke this of you all viz. that He who hath begun a good work in you will performe it c. because I have you in my Heart in as much as both in my bonds and in the defence and confirmation of the Gospell yee all are partakers of my Grace b Philip. 1. 7. Therefore it was the present goodnesse or honestnesse of their Hearts expressed by their willingness to partake of the afflictions of the Gospell and of the Saints not any Promise of God which was the ground of that perswasion in him which he here mentioneth 2. Had he had any absolute Promise of God for the ground of that his perswasion doubtlesse he would not have expressed himself with so much tendernesse and warinesse as to say even as it is meet for me to think c. The Promises of God would have taught Paul to speak at another manner of rate of confidence then so 3. And lastly had he here given unto these Philippians any absolute assureance of Gods performing the good worke begun in them untill the day c. or such which might have satisfied or made them confident that the good worke He speaks of should have been continued and perfected by God without all interposall or means to be used on their part he had layed a very slippery foundation to build all those Exhortations upon which with much earnestness he presseth upon them in the sequell of his Epistle and more particularly these Only let your conversation be as it becommeth the Gospell of Christ that yee stand fast in one spirit with one minde striving together for the Faith of the Gospell c Philip. 1. 27. c. And againe Wherefore my
Believers and of a temporary Faith I answer 1. That if by a temporary Faith the Objectors meane a Faith which is eventually onely such it is acknowledged that the Scripture owneth both the terme and notion But if by a temporary Faith they meane a Faith intrinsecally in the nature and kinde of it differing from that which is true and truly justifying they devise a new kinde of Faith which the Scriptures know not of And of how dangerous a consequence the introducing of an exotique Faith into the affaires of Christian Religion may be I leave to themselves to judge For those Hearers or Professors which in Mathews relation of the Parable our Saviour calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 temporaries are explained by Luke to be such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who BELIEVE for a season as we heard before Now the ordinary and most familiar signification of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to believe in such cases and constructions as this I meane when it is used indefinitely and without a specification of some particular Object is to signifie true Believers or such who believe unto justification Instances hereof are too many to be numbred And to turne words out of their native proper and best-known significations into unusuall by and improper sences no exigency of the Context compelling hereunto hath alwayes been adjudged a dangerous breach of the Lawes of Scripture-Interpretation 2. The temporarinesse of the Faith found in the Stony ground did not arise §. 34. from the nature essence or any internall property in this Faith wherein it was specifically distinguished from the Faith of those emparabled by the good ground but partly from the ill temper or inconsideratenesse of the Persons in whom it was seated who neglected to give it sufficient rooting or establishment within them partly from the outward occasions of trouble and persecution for the Gospell which came upon them Nor is there any sufficient ground or reason to conceive that it would have proved temporary and not perseverant unto the end had not the persons in whom it was been attempted with persecution When the year proves very moist showers of Râ—ine ever and anon falling from Heaven upon the Earth the seed that is sown even in stony ground is wont to prosper and to yeild a competent increase at least at harvest to the husbandman Otherwise such ground as this would never be sown nor would our Saviour have had the opportunity of furnishing his Parable with the mention of that event or ill successe which frequently befalleth the seed sown in such ground Now if the temporarinesse of the Faith we speak of was occasioned onely ab extra or by means accidentall and extraneous to it evident it is that it did not arise from any thing in the nature or essence of it and consequently that it was of the same kinde with that Faith which did persevere unto the end 3. If the temporarinesse of the Faith now under consideration either caused §. 35. it or declared it to be specifically distinct from that which was sound and justifying and which held out to the end then must perseverance or an impossibility of failing be of the nature and essence of true Faith The consequence is evident and needs no proof Now 1. If perseverance be of the essence of true Faith no person can be looked upon as a true Believer either by Himself or others untill he gives up the Ghost and dieth 2. If an impossibility of failing be of the essence hereof no Man can be looked upon as a true Believer neither before nor after he be dead For what though a Mans Faith should not faile before he dieth yet this amounts to no sufficient proof that therefore it was impossible that it should faile A thousand things come to passe which yet very possibly might not have come to passe Againe that Perseverance is not an intrinsecall or essentiall property of true Faith but onely a consequent of it and that contingent appears 1. From the Principles of our Adversaries themselves who commonly distinguish between the gift of Faith and the gift of Perseverance Wonderfull it is saith Austin and much to be wondered at that God should unto some of his Children whom he hath regenerated in Christ to whom he hath given FAITH hope and love NOT GIVE PERSEVERANCE a Mirandum est quidem multumque mirandum quod filiis suis Dâ—us quibusdam quos regeneravit in Christo quibus fidem spem dilectionem dedit non dat â—rseverantiam Aug. de Corrept Et Grat. c. 8. Therefore by the way Austin is no friend to the common Doctrine of Perseverance as it is taught and received amongst us 2. Adam they say before his fall had true Faith or at least a Power of believing truly which now they acknowledge in none but in those who truly believe however certaine it is that he had true holinesse yet the event in his fall declared that Perseverance was not essentiall unto any of these and consequently that in case he had persevered in them this Perseverance had been but consequentiall to them and that contingently 3. That which is true is not wont to be opposed or contra-distinguished to that which is temporary but may commodiously enough be distinguished into that which indureth for a season and that which continueth for ever Therefore that which is temporary and which standeth by a Man onely for a short time may be as reall and true in the same kinde as that which continueth with him all his dayes 4. If the Faith under dispute were temporary in the nature of it and not by consequence onely then could not a falling away from it by those who were possessed of it be the cause of their finall miscarriage which yet our Saviour plainely supposeth because should they have persevered in it they should not have been any whit more saved by it then now they were under a falling away from it The losing of that which being kept would not have saved a Man cannot be the cause of his losse of Salvation 5. And lastly if the said Faith were temporary and not true justifying or saving in the nature of it then the lack of moysture afterwards could not be the reason or cause thereof I mean why it was or proved temporary and not true or saving The reason hereof is plaine viz. because what is so or so such or such in the nature of it cannot be made or become such by any after means or occasion whatsoever whether act or neglect But evident it is from the express words of the Parable that the reason why the said Faith was or proved temporary was because the seed from whence it sprang wanted moysture And some fell upon a Rock saith Luke and as soone as it was sprung up i. e. within a short time after as appeares Mar. 4. 17. it withered away because it lacked moysture a Luke 8. 6. So that the withering of it away i. e. the
expresly granteth that the Saints many times are so far from obeying these Exhortations that they walke for a long time in full opposition to them as in security loosenesse vile Practises c. Nor have they yet proved nor I believe ever will prove but that they may walke yea and that many have thus walked I mean in full opposition to the said Exhortations to their dying day 2. If God by his Spirit irresistibly drawes his Saints to obey the exhortations we speak of he thus draweth them either by such a force or Power immediately acted upon their wills by which they are made willing to obey them or else he maketh use of the said Exhortations so to work or affect their wills that they become willing accordingly If the former be asserted Then 1. The said Exhortations are no means whereby the Perseverance of the Saints is effected but God alone and immediately by His Spirit For if the Will be immediately affected by God after such a manner or brought to such a bent and inclination as that it cannot but obey the said Exhortations i. e. doe the things which the said Exhortations require then would it have done the same things whether there had been any such Exhortations in being or no and consequently these Exhortations could have no manner of efficiency about their Perseverance For the will according to the common saying is of it self caeca potentia a blind faculty and followes its own predominant bent and inclination without taking knowledge whether the wayes or actions towards which it stands bent be commanded or exhorted unto by God or no. 2. If the will of a Saint be immediately so affected by God that it stands inclin'd and bent to doe the things which are proper to cause them to Persevere then is this bent and inclination wrought in the will of such a Person after his being a Saint and consequently is not essentiall to him as a Saint but meerly accidentall and adventitious And if so then is there no inclination or bent in the will of a Saint as such or from his first being a Saint to Persevere or to do the things which accompany Perseverance but they come to be wrought in him afterwards Which how consistent it is with the Principles either of Reason or Religion or their own I am content that my Adversaries themselves shall judge 3. If God doth immediately and irresistibly incline or move the wills of the Saints to doe the things which accompany Perseverance the said Exhortations can be no means of effecting this Perseverance For the will being Physically and irresistibly acted and drawn by God to doe such and such things needeth no addition of morall means such as Exhortations are if they be any in order hereunto What a Man is necessitated unto he needeth no further help or means to doe it 4. And lastly for this the things which accompany Perseverance import a continuance in Faith and Love unto the end If then the wills of the Saints be immediately and irresistibly moved by God thus to continue I mean in Faith and Love unto the end what place is there for Exhortations to come in with their efficiency towards their Perseverance Need they be exhorted to continue in Faith and Love or to Persevere after the end Thus then we clearly see that the former of the two consequences mentioned cannot stand God doth not by His Spirit irresistibly draw or move the wills of the Saints to doe the things which are necessary for the procuring their Perseverance immediately or without the instrumentall interposure of the said exhortations Secondly neither can the latter of the said consequences stand God doth §. 6. not make use of the said Exhortations to influence or affect the wills of the Saints upon any such terms as hereby to make them infallibly infrustrably necessitatingly willing to Persevere or to doe the things upon which Perseverance dependeth For 1. If so then one and the same act of the will should be both Physicall and morall and so be specifically distinguished in and from it self For so far as it is produced by the irresistible force or power of the Spirit of God it must needs be Physicall the said irresistible working of the Spirit being a Physicall action and so not proper to produce a morall effect Againe as far as the said Exhortations are means to produce or raise this act of the will or contribute any thing towards it it must needs be morall because Exhortations are morall causes and so not capable of producing naturall physicall or necessary effects Now then if it be unpossible that one and the same act of the will should be both physicall and morall that is necessary and noâ— necessary unpossible also it is that it should be produced by the irresistible Working of God and by Exhortations in a joynt efficiencie It may be objected They who hold or grant such an influence or operation of the Spirit of God upon the will which is frustrable and resistible doe or must suppose it to be a physicall action as well as that which is irresistible If so then the act of the will so far as it is raised by means of â—his action or operation of God must according to the tenor of the former argument be physicall also and so the pretended impossibility is no more avoided by this Opinion then by the other I answer Though such an operation of God upon the will as is here mentioned be in respect of God and of the manner of its proceeding from Him physicall yet in respect of the nature and substance of it it is properly morall because it impresseth or affecteth the will upon which it is acted after the manner of morall causes properly so called i. e. perswadingly not Ravishingly or necessitatingly When a Minister of the Gospell in his Preaching Presseth or Perswadeth Men to such and such duties or actions this act as it proceedeth from Him I meane as it is raised by His naturall abilities of understanding and speaking is physicall or naturallâ— but in respect of the substance or native tendency of it it is clearly morall viz. because it tendeth to incline or move the wills of Men to such or such elections without necessitating them hereunto and so comports with those Arguments or Exhortations in their manner of efficiency by which he presseth or moveth them to such things By the way to prevent stumbling and quarrelling it no wayes followeth from the Premisses that a Minister by his Preaching and perswading unto duties should doe as much as God Himself doth in or towards a perswading of Men hereunto It onely followeth that the Minister doth co-operate with God which the Apostle Himâ—elf affirmeth a 1 Cor. 3. 9. 2 Cor. 6. 1. in order to one and the same effect i. e. that he operateth by one and the same kinde of efficiency with God viz. morally or perswadeingly not necessitatingly For when one necessitates and another onely perswades
men in most things and in the main orthodox are any demonstrative grounds of the unsoundness of this Opinion or that it is not from God How much less when that Opinion indeed which suffers rebuke from men upon such terms was neither taught nor held by the one nor rejected or opposed by the other but onely an Opinion in some outward lineaments somewhat like unto it but in heart and substance of matter altogether differing from it The Doctrine of Election or Predestination unto Life from foreseen Faith or Works is commonly decryed and made odious unto men upon this pretence that it was a Doctrine held by Pelagians and Semi-Pelagians and condemned and cast out of the Church for an Error by all the Orthodox Fathers long since Whereas it is evident from the Records of Antiquity that the Opinion concerning Predestination from foreseen Faith or Works which was held by the Pelagians and rejected by the Orthodox Fathers was not simply this that God Predestinated those unto Life whom He foresaw would beleeve or live holily but whom He foresaw would beleeve or live holily out of the strength or abilities of Nature The Orthodox Fathers themselves held and taught Predestination from foreseen Faith and Holiness as well as the Pelagians but with this difference The Fathers taught it from the foresight of such a Faith and Holiness which men should be enabled unto by Grace the Pelagians from such whether Faith or Holiness which men should raise or exhibit by the strength of Nature This is evident from what Gerardus Vossius a diligent and faithful Surveyor of Antiquity demonstrateth in the sixth Book of his Pelagian History The Greek Fathers saith He always and all the Latine Fathers who lived before Austine are wont to say that they are Predestinated unto Life whom God foresaw would live godlily and well or as some others speak whom He foresaw would beleeve and persevere who should beleeve on Him to Eternal Life 1 Tim. 1. 16. Which they so interpret as to say that Predestination unto Glory is made by God according to His foreknowledg of Faith and Perseverance But they did not mean the foresight or foreknowledg of such things which a man was to do by the abilities of Nature but by the strength and assistance of Grace as well preventing as subsequent So that this consent of Antiquity no ways helpeth either the Pelagians or Semi-Pelagians in their cause For both these held that the cause of Predestination is assignable on mans part according to all the effects of it whereas the Orthodox Fathers acknowledg that the first or preventing Grace is conferr'd not of merit but freely So that their Opinion was that there was no cause assignable on mans part of Predestination unto preventing Grace a Graeci Patres semper Patrum Latinorum verò illi qui ante Augustinum vixerunt dicere solent eos esse praedestinatos ad vitaÌ„ quos Deus piè rectéque victuros praevidit sive ut alij loquuÌ„tur quos praevidit credituros perseveraturos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut est 1 Tim. 1. Quod ita in terpretaÌ„tur ut Praedestinatio ad Gloriam â—acta dicatur secundum praescientiam fidei perseverantiae Verum non intellexerunt praescientiam eorum quae homo acturus erat ex viribus naturae sed quae esset facturus ex viribus gratiae tum praevenientis tum subsequentis eóque antiquitatis ille consensus nihil vel Pelagianos vel Semi-Pelagianos juvat Nam utrique illi crediderunt Praedestinationis causam dari ex parte hominis secundum omnes effectus At Catholici agnoverunt gratiam primaÌ„ non ex merito sed gratis conferri Quare nec putârunt ex parte hominis causam dari Prâ—destinationis ad gratiam praevenientem c. Gerard. Johan Vossius Hist Pelag. lib. 6. Thes 8. c. This to have been the true and clear difference between the Ancient Orthodox Fathers and the Pelagians and Semi-Pelagians touching the Point of Predestination He sheweth with an high Hand of Evidence and Proof from several Passages cited out of the Authors themselves in the Prosecution and Proof of His said Thesis As the Doctrine of Predestination from foreseen Faith and Perseverance §. 2. as it is at this day held and taught by some which yet is none of my Sence or Opinion as I may have occasion I conceive more particularly to declare in the Progress of the Work in Hand is unjustly traduced as if it savored of Pelagianism and had been long since thrown out of the Church by all Orthodox Antiquity whereas it was the express Doctrine as we have heard generally held and taught by them so is the Doctrine of Conditional Perseverance and which asserteth an amissibility of Grace and true Faith both total and final most unduly and unworthily branded with this reproach that it is a rotten Popish Error and was never heâ—d by Orthodox Men. We shall therefore in the former part of this Chapter wipe off this aspersion and prove by express Testimonies and these not a few that this Doctrine was a branch of the Faith of the Primitive Christians and of those who were and are at this day esteemed to have been the most Orthodox and sound in their generation Some Testimonies of this import we have already as I remember cited upon other occasions in the preceding part of this Discourse and to save transcriptions as much as with convenience may be we shall not repeat the words of any Author which have been already expressed but onely give the sence of the said words in English and for the words themselves send you to those quarters of the Discourse where they are lodged and easie to be found We shall do the like in the latter part of this Chapter in respect of such Testimonies from Modern Writers which have been already presented in the express words of their respective Authors upon another account In the first place I shall account unto the Reader what the forementioned §. 3. Author Gerard Vossius delivers in His said Pelagian History for the sence and judgment of Orthodox Antiquity in the present Question about Perseverance From this additament of Austin's Opinion saith He speaking Ex altero hoc Augustinianae senteÌ„tiae additamento satis clarè liquet tam Augustinum Prosperum quà m Pelagium ejus reliquias super eo convenisse quòd Fides justificanâ— et gratia regeneranâ— amitti possit à plerisque amittatur of what this Father had added to the common Doctrine of those who had gone before Him touching Perseverance which He had expressed in His former Thesis it is manifest enough that both Austin and Prosper and Pelagius with His Followers agreed in this That Justifying Faith and Regenerating Grace may be lost and that they are lost by very many A little after Therefore they understand not the Doctrine or Judgment of Antiquity who when they read in Augustin and others that the Elect of God
hath been mentioned and as a total and persevering Apostacy importeth can it seem any ways improbable the Devils having desperately apostatized from a far greater light from a richer and more sensible experience of the Grace Love and Bounty of God then Apostates amongst Men lightly can do that his Soul should so far abominate them together with such their stupendious Apostacy as to judg it altogether unmeet for him unworthy that inaccessible Light of Wisdom Grace Holiness and Glory wherein He dwelleth to conceive so much as a thought within him in order to their Salvation The Schoolmen resolve the irremediableness as they term it of the Sin and Misery of the Devils into several causes or grounds most of which and these the most material respect the greatness of their sin the rest the quality or condition of their Natures Yet if that be true which they assign among other Reasons why no course should be taken or thought upon by God for or about their Salvation viz. that their Wills or Appetites are naturally and by the Principles of their Creation unflexible or unremovable from that Object whether it be good or evil which they have once chosen a Differt autē apprehensio Angeli ab apprehensione hominis quòd Angelus apprehēdit immobiliter per intellectum sicut nos immobiliter apprehendimus prima principia quorum est intellectus homo verò per rationem apprehendit mobiliter discurrendo de uno ad aliud habens viam procedendi ad utrunque oppositorum Vnde voluntas hominis adhaeret alicui mobiliter quasi potens etiam ab eo discedere contrario adhaerere voluntas autem Angeli adhaeret fixè immobiliter Et ideò si consideretur antè adhaesionem potest liberé adhaerere huic opposito in his scilicet quae non naturaliter vult sed postquam jam adhaesit immobiliter adhaeret Et ideò consuevit dici quòd liberum arbitrium hominis flexile est ad oppositum anté Electionem pòst liberum autem arbitrium Angeli est flexibile ad utrunque oppositum ante Electionem sed non pòst Sic igitur boni Angeli semel adhaerentes Justiciae sunt in illâ confirmati mali verò peccantes sunt in peccato obstinati Th. Aquin. Sum. Part. 1. qu. 64. Art 2. it is a consideration of strength enough alone to carry the business under enquiry clear before it For if this be an essential property of their Natures not to be in any capacity of changing when once they have chosen it follows at once that having now chosen Apostacy and Defection from God they are by their own Act irrecoverably and against all possibility of Redemption concluded under Sin and Misery for ever And if this were the frame and condition of their Natures and themselves conscious and privy to it and conscious doubtless they were to the Law and terms of their own Creation it renders their sin unmeasurably sinful and inexcusable above the sinfulness of the Sin or sins of Men. For though Adam and so all Men in him knew not in case he did or should sin whether he should obtain from God the Grace of a Redeemer or no yet neither did he know the contrary but knew that he was capable of Redemption so that though his sin was exceeding great in many considerations otherwise yet in this behalf it was the more rational and so the more pardonable and excuseable viz. that he knew himself in a capacity of being restored Whereas the Angels in case they understood the inflexibility of their Wills after an Election and consequently that they were simply and absolutely unredeemable after sinning and yet presumed to sin must needs be the more irrational and so the more insufferable and inexcusable in their sin But whether this Doctrine of the School concerning the unchangeableness of the Wills of Angels after their first determination be square and stable or no I am at present in a fitter posture to query then determine Onely herein my thoughts are all made that the Wills of both sorts of Angels as well of those who at first chose Righteousness as of those who made a choyce contrary hereunto remain to this day unchanged the one in their adherency to the good the other to the evil which they chose respectively in the begining But this unchangedness doth not necessarily flow from any unchangeableness in either of them but may in the former arise from the native liberty of their Wills which as they had Power at first to chuse that which was good so have they Power and this with enlargement by means of the sensible experience they gain continually of the sweetness of the good chosen by them to persevere in this their choyce and in the latter partly from the just Judgment of God denounced against them and made fully known to them viz. that He will upon no terms whatsoever be reconciled unto them to the days of Eternity partly also from his absolute and total withdrawing of his Spirit of Grace from them Nor do I apprehend any thing considerable to oppose my Belief but that they will both the one and the other of them remain upon the same terms unchanged to the days of Eternity Yet were I to build I had rather chuse the former of these for my foundation because I conceive Scripture-evidence more pregnant and clear for it To say that the Will of a Creature should and will remain unchanged in that which is good is no elevation of it above that sphere of excellency which is made for it to move in but to affirm that at any time it is or ever will be thus UNCHANGEABLE is to make it a Companion of his who in the height of his Pride said Ero similis Altissimo I will be like unto the Most High But concerning the unredeemableness of the Devils I much rather approve §. 19. another Reason which the forementioned Authors the Schoolmen give of it Diabolus say they peccavit in termino Homo in via i. e. The Devil sinned being at his journeys end Man sinned onely by the way The meaning is that the Devil sinned in an estate of perfect Blessedness under a full fruition of God in which respect his Sin was provoking in the highest Whereas Man when he sinned was but in his progress towards such a condition and was not as yet possessed of it and in this respect sinned though at a very high rate of provocation his sin simply considered yet at a far lower rate then the Devil because against a far lower Light and less Grace Received But of this enough if not more then enough our main business being no more interessed in it then we formerly intimated it to be Nor did the difficulty layd in our way exact of us any thing more then onely to prove that it had been no Act of Grace in God to provide for the Salvation of the Devil which I suppose hath
a Temptation from it Another place insisted upon upon the last mentioned account presenteth §. 20. it self in these words And the very God of Peace sanctifie you wholly and I pray God that your whole Spirit and Soule and Body be preserved blamelesse unto the comming of our Lord Jesus Christ * 1 Thess 5. 23 I answer 1. These words suppose no Promise much lesse any absolute Promise made by God to preserve their Spirit Soule or Body blamelesse but only containe a Prayer or holy desire conceived by the Apostle for such a gracious vouchsafement from God unto them Which rather proveth that such a preservation might possibly have been withheld or denyed by God unto them then the contrary For those things are more likely to be sought by Prayer which may possibly not be granted or obtained otherwise then such which might with the greatest confidence be expected upon another account and without such Prayer And besides what Efficacy or Prevalency with God can be ascribed unto such a Prayer which seeketh such things at His hand to the exhibition whereof He stands absolutely ingaged by Promise Purpose or the like and which should have been exhibited and given by Him whether such Prayer had been made unto Him or no 2. The same thing in effect which the Apostle here prayeth that God would do for the Thessalonians in other places he exhorteth men themselves to do which plainly sheweth that the intent and purport of the Apostles Prayer in this place was not that he would by a peremptory and irresistible hand preserve them blameless c. which is His manner of acting in the Performance of all His absolute Promises but that he would afford unto them such gracious excitements quickenings and enlargements of Heart and spirit by His Spirit whereby they might be effectually provoked and engaged to put forth themselves to do what was requisite on their parts for and towards such an actual preserving of themselves which notwithstanding he clearly supposeth in the Passages immediately subjoyned that they very possibly might not do even under such excitements and enlargements I give thee charge saith this Apostle to Timothy in the sight of God who quickeneth all things and before Jesus Christ That thou keep this Commandment without spot unrebukeable until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ b 1 Tim 6. 13 14 So also Peter to his Proselytes Wherefore beloved seeing that ye look for such things BE DILIGENT that ye may be found of him in peace without spot and blameless c 2 Pet. 3. 14 wherein that very possibly they might miscarry appears yet further from these words not long after Ye therefore Beloved seeing ye know these things before beware lest ye also being led away with the error of the wicked fall from your own steâ—fastness a 2 Pet. 3. 17 3. If it shall be supposed that the Apostle in the Passage in hand any ways supposeth a certainty or necessity in respect of any absolute Promise or Decree that God would actually â—nd with success preserve them blameless c. he should clearly destroy or at least much shake and weaken what he had built up in all his preceding Exhortations and Admonitions the joynt tendency of them all being this to preserve them blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ For to inform or insinuate unto such men whom we have most seriously admonished and exhorted to be studious and careful of doing such and such things that so they may be blameless unto the coming of Christ that they shall certainly and without any possibility of miscarrying be preserved by God blameless hereunto is nothing else being truly interpreted but to tempt them to neglect all our Admonitions and Exhortations in that behalf 4. Nor do the words following Faithful is he that calleth you who also §. 22. will do it b 1 Thes 5. 24 imply any such thing but onely this that God was and would be careful and tender over them in preserving them blameless c. so far as His Interest lieth or is any ways meet for Him to interpose act or assist in or towards such their preservation This sence we have formerly asserted unto like passages and expressions in this Chapter c Sect. 17 18 19 c. See also Cap. 10 Sect. 20. To heal the offence of such explications or limitations as these as far as His Interest lieth as far as is proper or appertaineth unto him to do with the like when the doing or performance of such things is attributed unto God wherein men also are to joyn and act with Him I shall here add 1. That such explications or limitations as these in the said cases and others of like consideration are frequently used both by the Ancient Fathers and by our late Divines also even such as are supposed our greatest Adversaries in the present Controversies Therefore saith Austin speaking of Christs coming to save the world AS MVCH AS LIETH IN THE PHYSICIAN he came to save or heal the sick He slayeth himself who will not observe the Precepts of the Physician d Ergo quantum in Medico est sanare venit aegrotum Ipsese interimit qui praecepta Medici observare non vult Aug. in Johan Tract 12. So Chrysostom For what saith he if all men do not beleeve yet HE HATH DONE HIS PART or fully performed that which was proper for him to do a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost in Heb. Serm. 4. And elsewhere For although Christ was not like to win or gain all men yet did he dye for all men So FVLFILLING THAT WHICH WAS PROPER FOR HIM or which appertained to Him b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost in Rom. Serm. 26. Yea AS MVCH AS IN THEM LIETH saith Calvin speaking of wicked Apostates they profane and abrogate the inviolable Covenant of God ratified by the blood of Christ c Imò quantum in se est inviolabile Dei foedus ac sancitum Christi sanguine profanant abrogant Calv. in 2 Pet. 2. 20. Piscator also in a like case useth the same explication Thy weak Brother shall perish viz. saith he AS TO THEE or as much as in thee lieth d Peribit nempe per te quidem seu quantum per te stat Piscat in 1 Cor. 8. 11. Our English Divines make use of the same explicatory expression in their Annotations upon the same place 2. Upon the same account I add this further that there is very good reason §. 23. for such Attributions as we now speak of whether unto God or men or any other efficient cause I mean why such effects should be ascribed unto them towards the production whereof they contribute any considerable degree of efficiency whether the said effects be ever actually produced or no viz. because they do as much and altogether the same in such a case of a non-production of the effect as they should do in a case of