certaine that God determineth divers things which he would not did not some act of mans will goe before Armin. Some decrees of God praecede all acts of the will of the creature and some follow Cor. Men may make their election voide and frustrate Rem Apol It is no wonder if men doe sometimes of elect become reprobate and of reprobate elect Welsin Election is uncertaine and revocable and who ever denies it overthrowes the Gospel Grevin Many decrees of God cease at a certaine time Episcop Lib. Arbit God would have all men to be saved but compelled with the stubborne malice of some hee changeth his purpose and will have them to perish Armin. As men may change themselves from beleevers to unbeleevers so Gods determination concerning them changeth Rem All Gods decrees are not peremptory but some conditionate and changeable Sermon at Oxford CHAP. III. Of the praescience or foreknowledge of God and how it is questioned and overthrowne by the Arminians THE praescience or foreknowledge of God hath not hitherto in expresse termes beene denied by the Arminians but onely questioned and overthrowne by consequence in as much as they denie the certaintie and unchangeablenesse of his decrees on which it is founded it is not a foreknowledge of all or any thing which they oppose but onely of things free and contingent and that onely to comply with their formerly exploded error that the purposes of God concerning such things are temporall and mutable which obstacle being once removed the way is open how to ascribe the presidentship of all humane actions to omnipotent contingencie and her Sire Free-will Now we call that contingent which in regard of its next and immediate cause before it come to passe may be done or may be not done as that a man shall doe such a thing to morrow or any time hereafter which he may chuse whether ever he will doe or no. Such things as these are free and chanceable in respect of men their immediate and second causes but if we as we ought to doe looke up unto him who fore-seeth and hath ordained the event of them or their omission they may be said necessarily to come to passe or to be omitted it could not be but as it was Christians hitherto yea and Heathens in all things of this nature have usually upon their event reflected on God as one whose determination was passed on them from eternitie and who knew them long before as the killing of men by the fall of a house who might in respect of the freedome of their owne wils have not beene there or if a man fall into the hands of theeves we presently conclude it was the will of God it must be so he knew it before Divines for distinction sake ascribe unto God a two fold knowledge one intuitive or intellective whereby he foreknoweth and seeth all things that are possible that is all things that can be done by his Almightie power without any respect to their future existence whether they shall come to passe or no yea infinite things whose actuall being eternitie shall never behold are thus open and naked unto him for was there not strength and power in his hand to have created another world was there not counsell in the storehouse of his wisdome to have created this otherwise or not to have created it at all shall we say that his providence extends it selfe every way to the utmost of its activitie or can he not produce innumerable things in the world which now he doth not now all these and every thing else that is feazable to his infinite power he fore-sees and knowes Scientia as they speake simplicis intelligentiae by his essentiall knowledge Out of this large and boundlesse territory of things possible God by his decree freely determineth what shall come to passe and makes them future which before were but possible After this decree as they commonly speake followeth or together with it as others more exactly taketh place that praescience of God which they call visionis of vision whereby he infallibly seeth all things in their proper causes and how and when they shall come to passe Now these two sorts of knowledge differ in as much as by the one God knoweth what it is possible may come to passe by the other onely what it is impossible should not come to passe things are possible in regard of Gods power future in regard of his decree So that if I may so say the measure of the first kinde of Science is Gods omnipotencie what he can doe of the other his purpose what certainly he will doe or permit to be done With this praescience then God foreseeth all and nothing but what he hath decreed shall come to passe For every thing to be produced next and under him God hath prepared divers and severall kindes of causes diversly operative in producing their effects some whereof are said to worke necessarily the institution of their nature being to doe as they doe and not otherwise so the Sunne giveth light and the fire heat And yet in some regard their effects and products may be said to be contingent and free in as much as the concurrence of God the first cause is required to their operation who doth all things most freely according to the counsell of his will thus the Sunne stood still in the time of Ioshua and the fire burned not the three Children but ordinarily such agents working necessitate naturae their effects are said to be necessarie Secondly to some things God hath fitted free and contingent causes which either apply themselves to operation in particular according to election chusing to doe this thing rather then that as Angels and men in their free and deliberate actions which they so performe as that they could have not done them or else they produce effects 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meerely by accident and the operation of such things we say to be casuall as if a hatchet falling out of the hand of a man cutting downe a tree should kill another whom he never saw now nothing in either of these waies comes to passe but God hath determined it both for matter and the manner even so as is agreeable to their causes some necessarily some freely some casually or contingently yet all so as having a certaine futurition from his decree he infallibly foreseeth that they shall so come to passe but yet that he doth so in respect of things free and contingent is much questioned by the Arminians in expresse termes and denied by consequence notwithstanding Saint Hierome affirmeth that so to doe is destructive to the very Essence of the Deitie First their Doctrine of the immutabilitie of Gods decrees on whose firmenesse is founded the infallibilitie of this praescience doth quite overthrow it God thus foreknowing onely what he hath so decreed shall come to passe if that be no firmer settled but that it may and is often altered
together with the same ligament quo ille mortua iungebat corpora vivis wherewith the tyrant tied dead bodies to living men This strange advancement of the clay against the potter not by the way of repining and to say why hast thou made me thus but by the way of emulation I wil not be so I wil advance my self to the skie to the sides of thy throne was heretofore unknown to the more refined Paganisme as these of contingency so they with a better error made a goddesse of providence because as they faigned she helped Latona to bring forth in the I le of Delos intimating that Latona or nature though bigge and great with sundry sorts of effects could yet produce nothing without the interceding helpe of divine providence which mythologie of theirs seemes to containe a sweeter gust of divine truth then any we can expect from their towring fancies who are inclinable to beleeve that God for no other reason is said to sustaine all things but because he doth not destroy them now that their proud God-opposing errors may the better appeare according to my former method I will plainly shew what the Scripture teacheth us concerning this providence with what is agreeable to right and Christian reason not what is dictated by tumultuating affections Providence is a word which in its proper signification may seeme to comprehend all the actions of God that outwardly are of him that have any respect unto his creatures all his works that are not ad intra essentially belonging unto the Deitie now because God worketh all things according to his decree or the counsell of his will Ephes 1. 11. for whatsoever he doth now it pleased him from the beginning Psal 115. seeing also that knowne unto God are all his works from eternitie therefore three things concerning his providence are considerable 1. His decree or purpose whereby he hath disposed of all things in order and appointed them for certaine ends which he hath foreordained 2. His prescience whereby he certainly foreknoweth all things that shall come to passe 3. His temporall operation or working in time My Father worketh hitherto Ioh. 5. 17. whereby he actually executeth all his good pleasure the first and second of these have been the subject of the former Chapters the latter only now requireth our consideration This then we may conceive as an ineffable act or worke of Almightie God whereby he cherisheth sustaineth and governeth the world or all things by him created moving them agreeably to those natures which he endowed them withall in the beginning unto those ends which he hath proposed to confirme this I will first prove this position that the whol world is cared for by God and by him governed and therein all men good or bad all things in particular be they never so small and in our eyes inconsiderable secondly shew the manner how God worketh all in all things and according to the diversitie of secondary causes which he hath created whereof some are necessary some free others contingent which produce their effects nec 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nec 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meerely by accident The providence of God in governing the world is plentifully made knowne unto us both by his works and by his word I will give a few instances of either sort 1. in generall that the Almightie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and framer of this whole universe should propose unto himselfe no end in the creation of all things that he should want either power goodnesse will or wisdome to order and dispose the works of his own hands is altogether impossible 2. Take a particular instance in one concerning accident the knowledge whereof by some means or other in some degree or other hath spread it selfe throughout the world and that is that almost universall destruction of all by the flood whereby the whole world was well-nigh reduced to its primitive confusion is there nothing but chance to be seene in this was there any circumstance about it that did not show a God and his providence not to speake of those revelations whereby God foretold that he would bring such a deluge what chance fortune could collect such a small number of individuals of all sorts wherein the whole kinde might be preserved what hand guided that poor vessell from the rocks and gave it a resting place on the mountains certainly the very reading of that story Gen. 7. having for confirmation the Catholike tradition of all mankinde were enough to startle the stubborne heart of an Atheist The word of God doth not lesse fully relate it then his works doe declare it Psal 19. My Father worketh hitherto saith our Saviour Ioh. 5. 17. but did not God end his worke on the seventh day and did he not then rest from all his works Gen. 2. 2. True from his worke of creation by his omnipotence but his worke of gubernation by his providence as yet knows no end yea and divers particular things he doth besides the ordinary course only to make known that he thus worketh Ioh. 9. 3. as he hath framed all things by his wisdome so he continueth them by his providence in excellent order as is at large declared in that golden Psal 104. and this is not bounded to any particular places or things but his eyes are in every place beholding the evill and the good Prov. 15. 3. so that none can hide himselfe in secret places that he shall not see him Ierem. 23. 24. Acts 17. 24. Iob 5. 10 11. Exod. 4. 11. and all this he saith that men may know from the rising of the Sun and from the West that there is none besides him he is the Lord and there is none else he formeth the light and createth darknesse he maketh peace and createth evill he doth all these things Isaiah 45. 7. in these and innumerable like places doth the Lord declare that there is nothing which he hath made that with the good hand of his providence he doth not govern and sustaine Now this generall extent of his common providence to all doth no way hinder but that he may exercise certaine speciall acts thereof towards some in particular even by how much neerer then other things they approach unto him and are more assimilated unto his goodnesse I meane his Church here on earth and those whereof it doth consist for what nation is there so great that hath God so nigh unto them Deut. 4. 7. in the government hereof he most eminently sheweth his glory and exerciseth his power joyne here his works with his word what he hath done with what he hath promised to doe for the conservation of his Church and people and you will finde admirable issues of a more speciall providence against this he promiseth the gates of hell shall not prevaile Mat. 16. 18. amiddest of those he hath promised to remaine Matth. 18. 20. supplying them with an addition of all things necessary Matth. 6. 33. desiring that all
their care might be cast upon him who careth for them 1 Pet. 5. 7. forbidding any to touch his anoynted ones Psal 105. 15. and that because they are unto him as the apple of his eye Zach. 2. 8. now this speciall providence hath respect unto a supernaturall end to which that and that alone is to be convayed For wicked men as they are excepted from this speciall care and government so they are not exempted from the dominion of his Almightie hand he who hath created them for the day of evill Prov. 16. 4. and provided a place of their own Acts 1. 25. for them to goe unto doth not in this world suffer them to live without the verge of his all-ruling providence but by suffering and enduring their iniquities with great patience and long-suffering Rom. 9. 20. defending them oftentimes from the injuries of one another Gen. 4. 15. by granting unto them many temporall blessings Matth. 5. 45. disposing of all their works to the glory of his great name Prov. 21. 1 2. he declareth that they also live and move and have their being in him and are under the government of his providence Nay there is not the least thing in this world to which his care and knowledge doth not descend ill would it become his wisdome not to sustaine order and dispose of all things by him created but leave them to the ruine of uncertaine chance Hierome then was injurious to his providence and cast a blemish on his absolute perfection whilest he thought to have cleered his Maiestie from being defiled with the knowledge and care of the smallest reptiles and vermine every moment and St. Austine is expresse to the contrary who saith he hath disposed the severall members of the flea and gnat that hath given unto them order life and motion c. even most agreeable to holy Scriptures so Psal 104. 20 21. and 145. 15. Matth. 6. 26. He feedeth the fowles and cloatheth the grasse of the field Iob 39. 1 â— and Ionah 4. 6 7. sure it is not troublesome to God to take notice of all that he hath created did he use that great power in the production of the least of his creatures so farre beyond the united activitie of men and Angels for no end at all doubtlesse even they also must have a well disposed order for the manifestation of his glory not a sparrow falls to the ground without our Father Matth. 10. 29 30. even the haires of our head are numbred he cleatheth the lillies and grasse of the field which is to be cast into the even Luke 12. 27 28. Behold his knowledge and care of them again he used frogs and lice for the punishment of the Egyptians Exod. 8. with a gourd and a worme he exercised his servant Ionah Chap. 3. yea he cals the locusts his terrible Army and shall not God know and take care of the number of his souldiers the ordering of his dreadfull Hoast That God by his providence governeth and disposeth of all things by him created is sufficiently proved the manner how he worketh all in all how he ordereth the works of his owne hands in what this governing and disposing of his creatures doth chiefly consist comes now to be considered And here foure things are principally to be observed First the sustaining preserving and upholding of all things by his power For he upholdeth all things by the word of his power Heb. 1. 3. Secondly his working together with all things by an influence of causalitie into the agents themselves for he also hath wrought all our works in us Isaiah 26. 12. Thirdly his powerfull over-ruling of all events both necessary free and contingent and disposing of them to certaine ends for the manifestation of his glory So Ioseph tels his brethren as for you you thought evill against me but God meant it unto good to bring to passe as it is at this day to save much people alive Gen. 50. 20. Fourthly his determining and restraining second causes to such and such effects even the Kings heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of water he turneth it whither soever he will Prov. 21. 1. First his sustentation or upholding of all things is his powerfull continuing of their being naturall strength and faculties bestowed on them at their creation In him we live and move and have our being Acts 17. So that he doth neither worke all himselfe in them without any cooperation of theirs which would not only turn all things into stocks yea and take from stocks their own proper nature but also is contrary to that generall blessing he spread over the face of the whole world in the beginning increase and multiply Gen. 1. 22. nor yet leave them to a selfe subsistance he in the meane time only not destroying them which would make him an idle spectator of most things in the world not to worke hitherto as our Saviour speaks and grant to divers things here below an absolute being not derivative from him the first whereof is blasphemous the latter impossible Secondly for Gods working in and together with all second causes for the producing of their effects what part or portion in the worke punctually to assigne unto him what to the power of the inferiour causes seemes beyond the reach of mortals neither is an exact comprehension thereof any way necessary so that we make every thing beholding to his power for its being and to his assistance for its operation Thirdly his supreame dominion exerciseth it selfe in disposing of all things to certaine and determinate ends for his owne glory and is chiefly discerned advancing it self over those things which are most contingent and making them in some sort necessary inasmuch as they are certainly disposed of to some proposed ends betweene the birth and death of a man how many things meerely contingent doe occurre how many chances how many diseases in their owne nature all evitable and in regard of the event not one of them but to some prove mortall yet certaine it is that a mans dayes are determined the number of his moneths are with the Lord he hath appointed his bounds which he cannot passe Iob 14. 5. And oftentimes by things purely contingent and accidentall he executeth his purposes bestoweth rewards inflicteth punishments and accomplisheth his judgements as when he delivereth a man to be slaine by the head of an axe flying from the helve in the hand of a man cutting a tree by the way but in nothing is this more evident then in the ancient casting of lots a thing as casuall and accidentall as can be imagined hudled in the Cap at a venture yet God overruleth them to the declaring of his purpose freeing truth from doubts and manifestation of his power Prov. 16. 33. The lot is cast into the lap but the whole disposing of it is from the Lord as you may see in the examples of Achan Iosh 7. 16 17. Saul 1 Sam. 10. 21. Ionathan
Christ for us is of the same extent with that grace whereby he calleth us to faith or bestoweth faith on us for he hath called us with an holy calling according to his owne purpose and grace which was given us in Iesus Christ 2 Tim. 2. 9. which doubtlesse is not universall and common unto all Innumerable other reasons there are to prove that seeing God hath given his elect onely whom onely he loved to Christ to be redeemed and seeing that the Sonne loveth onely those who are given him of his Father and redeemeth onely whom he loveth seeing also that the holy Spirit the love of the Father and the Sonne sanctifieth all and onely them that are elected and redeemed it is not our part with a preposterous liberality against the witnesse of Christ himselfe to assigne the salvation attained by him as due to them that are with out the Congregation of them whom the Father hath loved and chosen without that Church which the Sonne loved and gave his life for it nor none of the members of that sanctified body whereof Christ is the Head and Saviour I urge no more because this is not that part of the Controversie that I desire to lay open I come now to consider the maine Question of this difference though sparingly handled by our Divines concerning what our Saviour merited and purchased for them for whom he died and here you shall finde the old Idol playing his prankes and quite devesting the merit of Christ from the least ability or power of doing us any good for though the Arminians pretend very speciously that Christ died for all men yet in effect they make him die for no one man at all and that by denying the effectuall operation of his death and ascribing the proper issues of his passion to the brave indevours of their owne Pelagian Deitie We according to the Scriptures plainly beleeve that Christ hath by his righteousnesse merited for us grace and glory that we are blessed with all spirituall blessings in though and for him that he is made unto us righteousnesse and sanctification and redemption that he hath procured for us and that God for his sake bestoweth on us every grace in this life that maketh us differ from others and all that glory we hope for in that which is to come he procured for us remission of all our sinnes an actuall reconciliation with God faith and obedience yea but this is such a desperate doctrine as stabs at the very heart of the Idol and would make him as altogether uselesse as if he were but a figgetree logge what remaineth for him to doe if all things in this great worke of our salvation must be thus ascribed unto Christ and the merit of his death Wherefore the worshippers of this great God Lib. Arbit oppose their engines against the whole fabricke and cry downe the title of Christs merits to these spirituall blessings in the behalfe of their imaginarie Deity Now because they are things of a two-fold denomination about which we contend before the king of heaven each part producing their evidence the first springing from the favour of God towards us the second from the working of his grace actually within us I shall handle them severally and apart especially because to things of this latter sort gifts as we call them enabling us to fulfill the condition required for the attaining of glory we lay a double claime on Gods behalfe First as the death of Christ is the meritorious cause procuring them of him Secondly as his free grace is their efficient cause working them in us they also producing a double title whereby they would invest their beloved darling with a sole proprietie in causing these effects First in regard that they are our owne acts performed in us and by us secondly as they are parts of our dutie which we are enjoyned to doe so that the quarrell is directly betweene Christs Merits and our owne free-will about procuring the favour of God and obtaining grace and righteousnesse let us see what they say to the first They affirme that the immediate and proper effect or end of the death and passion of Christ is not an actuall oblation of sinne from men not an actuall remission of iniquities iustification and redemption of any soule that is Christ his death is not the meritorious cause of the remission of our sins of redemption and justification the meritorious cause I say for of some of them as of justification as it is terminated in us we confesse there are causes of other kindes as faith is the instrument and the holy Spirit the efficient thereof But for the sole meritorious procuring cause of these spirituall blessings we alwaies took it to be the righteousnesse and death of Christ beleeving plainely that the end why Christ died and the fruit of his sufferings was our reconciliation with God redemption from our sinnes freedome from the curse deliverance from the wrath of God and power of hell though we be not actuall partakers of these things to the pacification of our owne consciences without the intervening operation of the holy Spirit and faith by him wrought in us But if this be not Pray what is obtained by the death of Christ Why a potentiall conditionate reconciliation not actuall and absolute saith Corvinus But yet this potentiall reconciliation being a new expression never intimated in the Scripture and scarce of it selfe intelligible we want a further explanation of their minde to know what it is that directly they assigne to the merits of Christ wherefore they tell us that the fruit of his death was such an impetration or obtaining of reconciliation with God and redemption for us that God thereby hath a power his iustice being satisfied and so not compelling him to the contrary to grant remission of sinnes to sinnefull men on what condition he would or as another speaketh it There was by the effusion of Christs blood a right obtained unto and settled in God of reconciling the world and of opening unto all a gate of repentance and faith in Christ But now whereas the Scripture every where affirmeth that Christ died for our good to obtaine blessings for us to purchase our peace to acquire and merit for us the good things contained in the promise of the Covenant this opinion seemes to restraine the end and fruit thereof to the obtaining of a power and libertie unto God of prescribing us a condition whereby we may be saved but yet it may be thus much at least Christ obtained of God in our behalfe that he should assigne faith in him to be this condition and to bestow it upon us also No neither the one nor the other after all this had it so seemed good unto his wisedome God might have chosen the Iewes and others following the righteousnesse of the law as well as beleevers because he might have assigned any other condition of salvation besides faith in Christ saith
saw before in the examples of Pharaoh and Abraham Now the will of God in the first acceptation is said to be hid or secret not because it is so alwayes for it is in some particulars revealed and made knowne unto us two wayes First by his word as where God affirmeth that the dead shall rise we neither doubt not but that they shall rise and that it is the absolute will of God that they shall doe so Secondly by the effects for when any thing cometh to passe we may cast the event on the will of God as its cause and looke upon it as a revelation of his purpose Iacobs sonnes little imagined that it was the will of God by them to send their brother into Egypt yet afterward Ioseph tels them plainly it was not they but God that sent him thither Gen. 45. but it is said to be secret for two causes First because for the most part it is so there is nothing in divers issues declarative of Gods determination but only the event which while it is future is hidden to them who have faculties to judge of things past and present but not to discerne things for to come Hence Saint Iames bids us not be too peremptory in our determinations if we will doe this or that not knowing how God will close with us for its performance Secondly it is said to be secret in reference to its cause which for the most part is past our finding out his paths are in the deeps and his footsteps are not known It appeareth then that the secret and revealed will of God are divers in sundry respects but chiefly in regard of their acts and their objects First in regard of their acts the secret will of God is his eternall decree and determination concerning any thing to be done in its appointed time his revealed will is an act whereby he declareth himself to love or approve any thing whither ever it be done or no. Secondly they are divers in regard of their objects the object of Gods purpose and decree is that which is good in any kinde with reference to its actuall existence for it must infallibly be performed but the object of his revealed will is that only which is morally good I speake of it inasmuch as it approveth or commandeth agreeing to the Law and the Gospell and that considered only inasmuch as it is good for whither it be ever actually performed or no is accidentall to the object of Gods revealed will Now of these two differences the first is perpetuall in regard of their severall acts but not so the latter they are sometimes coincident in regard of their objects for instance God commandeth us to beleeve here his revealed will is that we should so do withall he intendeth we shall doe so and therefore ingenerateth faith in our hearts that we may beleeve here his secret and revealed will are coincident the former being his precept that we should beleeve the latter his purpose that we shall beleeve in this case I say the object of the one and the other is the same even what we ought to doe and what he will doe And this inasmuch as he hath wrought all our works in us Isaiah 26. 12. they are our own works which he works in us his act in us and by us is ofttimes our dutie towards him he commands us by his revealed will to walke in his Statutes and keep his Laws upon this he also promiseth that he will so effect all things that of some this shall be performed Ezek. 36. 26 27. A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walke in my statutes and you shall keepe my iudgements and doe them so that the selfe same obedience of the people of God is here the object of his will taken in either acceptation and yet the precept of God is not here as some learned men suppose declarative of Gods intention for then it must be so to all to whom it is given which evidently it is not for many are commanded to beleeve on whom God never bestoweth faith it is still to be looked upon as a meere declaration of our dutie its closing with Gods intention being accidentall unto it there is a wide difference betwixt doe such a thing and you shall doe it if Gods command to Iudas to beleeve imported as much as it is my purpose and intention that Iudas shall beleeve it must needs contradict that will of God whereby he determined that Iudas for his infidelitie should goe to his own place his precepts are in all obedience of us to be performed but doe not signifie his will that we shall actually fulfill his commands Abraham was not bound to beleeve that it was Gods intention that Isaac should be sacrificed but that it was his duty there was no obligation on Pharaoh to thinke it was Gods purpose the people should depart at the first summons he had nothing to doe with that but there was one to beleeve that if he would please God he must let them goe Hence divers things of good use in these controversies may be collected First That God may command many things by his word which he never decreed that they should actually be performed because in such things his words are not a revelation of his eternall decree and purpose but only a declaration of some thing where with he is well pleased be it by us performed or no in the forecited case he commanded Pharaoh to let his people goe and plagued him for refusing to obey his command hence we may not collect that God intended the obedience and conversion of Pharaoh by this his precept but was frustrated of his intention for the Scripture is evident and cleere that God purposed by his disobedience to accomplish an end farre different even a manifestation of his glory by his punishment but only that obedience unto his commands is pleasing unto him as 1 Sam. 15. 22. Secondly That the will of God to which our obedience is required is the revealed will of God contained in his word whose compliance with his decree is such that hence we learne three things tending to the execution of it First that it is the condition of the word of God and the dispensation thereof instantly to perswade to faith and obedience Secondly that it is our duty by all means to aspire to the performance of all things by it enjoyned and our fault if we doe not Thirdly that God by these means will accomplish his eternall decree of saving his elect and that he willeth the salvation of others inasmuch as he calleth them unto the performance of the condition thereof now our obedience is so to be regulated by this revealed will of God that we may sin either by omission
regard it may be hindered or resisted but as it is considered to follow any act of man it is alwaies fulfilled by which latter member striving to mollifie the harshnesse of the former he runs himselfe into inexplicable non-sense affirming that that act of the will of God whereby he intendeth men shall doe any thing cannot be hindered after they have done it that is God hath irresistibly purposed they shall doe it provided they doe it in his following Discourse also he plainly grants that there is no act of Gods will about the salvation of men that may not be made voide and of none effect but onely that generall decree whereby he hath established an inseparable connexion betweene faith and salvation or whereby he hath appointed faith in Christ to be the meanes of attaining blessednesse which is onely an immanent act of Gods will producing no outward effect so that every act thereof that hath an externall issue by humane co-operation is frustrable and may fall to the ground which in what direct opposition it stands to the word of God let these following instances declare First Our God is in heaven saith the Psalmist he hath done whatsoever he pleased Psal 115. 5. not onely part but all whatsoever he pleased should come to passe by any meanes He ruleth in the kingdome of men and giveth it to whom he will Dan. 4. 23. The transposition of kingdomes is not without the mixture of divers free and voluntary actions of men and yet in that great worke God doth all that he pleaseth yea before him all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing and he doth according to his will in the Armie of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand or say unto him What dost thou vers 35. My counsell saith he shall stand and I will doe all my pleasure Isa 46. 10. I have purposed I will also doe it vers 11. Nay so certaine is he of accomplishing all his purposes that he confirmes it with an Oath the Lord of Hoasts hath sworne surely as I have thought so it shall come to passe and as I have purposed so it shall stand Isa 14. 24. and indeed it were a very strange thing that God should intend what he fore-seeth will never come to passe but I confesse this Argument will not be pressing against the Arminians who question that praescience but yet would they also would observe from the Scripture that the faylings of wicked mens counsels and intentions is a thing that God is said to deride in heaven as Psal 2. 4. He threatens them with it Take counsell saith he together and it shall come to nought Isa 8. 10. speake the word and it shall not stand see also Chap. 29. 7 8. and shall they be enabled to recriminate and cast the like aspersion on the God of heaven no surely saith Saint Austine Let us take heed we be not compelled to beleeve that Almightie God would have any thing done which doth not come to passe to which truth also that the Schoole-men have universally consented is shewed by Alvarez disput 32. pro. 3. and these few instances will manifest the Arminian opposition to the word of God in this particular S. S. Our God is in heaven and hath done whatsoever pleaseth him Psal 115. 3. I will doe all my pleasure Isa 46. Who can stay his hand or say unto him what dost thou Dan. 4. 35. I have purposed I will also doe it Isa 45. As I have purposed so it shall stand Chap. 14. 24. Lib. Arbit We nothing doubt but many things which God willeth or that it pleaseth him to have done do yet never come to passe Corvin We grant that some of Gods desires are never fulfilled idem It is in the power of man to hinder the execution of Gods will idem It is ridiculous to imagine that God doth not seriously will any thing but what taketh effect Episcopius It may be obiected that God faileth of his end this we readily grant Remonstr Synod CHAP. VI. How the whole doctrine of Predestination is accounted by the Arminians THe cause of all these quarrels wherewith the Arminians and their abettors have troubled the Church of Christ comes next unto our consideration the eternall predestination of Almightie God that fountaine of all spirituall blessings of all the effects of Gods love derived unto us through Christ the demollishing of this rocke of our salvation hath been the chiefe indeavour of all the Patrons of humane selfe-sufficiencie so to vindicate unto themselves a power and independent abillitie of doing good of making themselves to differ from others of attaining everlasting happinesse without going one steppe from without themselves and this is their first attempt to attaine their second proposed end of building a tower from the toppe whereof they may mount into heaven whose foundation is nothing but the sand of their owne free-will and indeavours quite on the sudden what they have done in effect to have taken away this divine praedestination name and thing had beene an attempt as noted as notorious and not likely to attaine the least successe amongst men professing to beleeve the Gospel of Christ wherefore suffering the name to remaine they have abolished the thing it selfe and substituted another so unlike it in the roome thereof that any one may see they have gotten a bleare-eyed Leah instead of Rachel and hugge a cloud instead of a Deitie The true Doctrine it selfe hath beene so excellently delivered by divers learned Divines so freed from all Objections that I shall onely briefely and plainly lay it downe and that with speciall reference to the seventeenth Article of our Church where it is cleerely avowed shewing withall which is my chiefe intention how it is thwarted opposed and overthrowne by the Arminians Predestination in the usuall sense it is taken is a part of Gods providence concerning his creatures distinguished from it by a double restriction First in respect of their Obiects for whereas the Decree of providence comprehendeth his intentions towards all the works of his hands predestination respecteth onely rationall creatures Secondly in regard of their ends for whereas his providence directeth all creatures in generall to those severall ends to which at length they are brought whether they are proportionated unto their natures or exceeding the sphere of their naturall activitie Predestination is exercised onely in directing rationall creatures to supernaturall ends so that in generall it is the counsell decree or purpose of Almightie God concerning the last and supernaturall end of his rationall creatures to be accomplished for the praise of his glory But this also must receive a double restriction before we come precisely to what we in this place aime at and these againe in regard of the objects or the ends thereof The Object of Predestination is all rationall creatures now these are either Angels or men of Angels I shall not treat Secondly the end by it provided
for them is either eternall happinesse or eternall miserie I speake onely of the former the act of Gods predestination transmitting men to everlasting happinesse and in this restrained sense it differs not at all from election and we may use them as Synonyma termes of the same importance though by some affirming that God predestinateth them to faith whom he hath chosen they seeme to be distinguished as the decrees of the end and the meanes conducing thereunto whereof the first is Election intending the end and then takes place Predestination providing the meanes but this exact distinction appeareth not directly in the Scripture This Election the word of God proposeth unto us as the gracious immutable decree of Almightie God whereby before the foundation of the world out of his owne good pleasure he chose certaine men determining to free them from sinne and miserie to bestow upon them grace and faith to give them unto Christ to bring them to everlasting blessednesse for the praise of his glorious grace or as it is expressed in our Church Articles Predestination to life is the everlasting purpose of God whereby before the foundations of the world were laid he hath constantly decreed by his counsell secret to us to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankinde and to bring them by Christ unto everlasting salvation as vessels made unto honour wherefore they who are endued with so excellent a benefit of God be called according to Gods purpose c. Now to avoid prolixitie I will annex onely such annotations as may cleere the sense and confirme the truth of the Article by the Scriptures and shew briefly how it is overthrowne by the Arminians in every particular thereof First the Article consonantly to the Scripture affirmeth that it is an eternall decree made before the foundations of the world were laid so that by it we must needs be chosen before we are borne before we have done either good or evill the words of the Article are cleere and so also is the Scripture He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world Ephes Chap. 1. vers 4. The children being not yet borne before they had done either good or evill it was said c. Rom. 9. 11. We are called with an holy calling not according to our workes but according to his owne purpose and grace which was given us in Jesus Christ before the world began 2 Tim. 1. 9. Now from hence it would undoubtedly follow that no good thing in us can be the cause of our election for every cause must in order praecede its effect but all things whereof we by any meanes are partakers in as much as they are ours are temporarie and so cannot be the cause of that which is eternall things with that qualification must have reference to the sole will and good pleasure of God which inference would breake the necke of the Arminian election wherefore to prevent such a fatall ruine they deny the principle to wit that election is eternall So the Remonstrants in their Apologie Compleate election regardeth none but him that is dying for this peremptorie election decreeth the whole accomplishment and consummation of salvation and therefore requireth in the obiect the finished course of faith and obedience saith Grevinchovius which is to make Gods election nothing but an act of his justice approving our obedience and such an act as is incident to any weake man who knowes not what will happen in the next houre that is yet for to come and is this post-destination that which is proposed to us in the Scripture as the unsearchable fountaine of all Gods love towards us in Christ yea say they we acknowledge no other predestination to be revealed in the Gospel besides that whereby God decreeth to save them who should persevere in faith that is Gods determination concerning their salvation is pendulous untill he finde by experience that they will persevere in obedience But I wonder why seeing election is confessedly one of the greatest expressions of Gods infinite goodnesse love and mercy towards us if it follow our obedience we have it not like all other blessings and mercies promised unto us is it because such propositions as these beleeve Peter and continue in the faith unto the end and I will choose thee before the foundation of the world are fitter for the writings of the Arminians then the word of God neither will we be their rivals in such an election as from whence no fruit no effect no consolation be derived to any mortall man whilest he lives in this world Secondly the Article affirmeth that it is constant that is one immutable decree agreeably also to the Scriptures teaching but one purpose but one fore-knowledge one good pleasure one decree of God concerning the infallible ordination of his elect unto glory although of this decree there may be said to be two acts one concerning the means the other concerning the end but both knit up in the immutabilitie of Gods will Heb. 6. 17. The foundation of God standeth sure having this seale God knoweth who are his 2 Tim. 2. 19. His gifts and calling are without recalling not be repented of Rom. 11. 29. now what say our Arminians to this why a whole multitude of new notions and termes have they invented to obscure the doctrine Election say they is either Legall or Evangelicall generall or particular complete or incomplete revocable or irrevocable peremptory or not peremptory with I know not how many more distinctions of one single eternall act of Almightie God whereof there is neither volanec vestigium signe or token in the whole Bible or any approved Author and to these quavering divisions they accommodate their doctrine or rather they purposely invented them to make their errours unintelligible yet something agreeably thus they dictate There is a complete election belonging to none but those that are dying and there is another incomplete common to all that beleeve as the good things of salvation are incomplete which are continued whilest faith is continued and revoked when that is denied so election is complete in this life and revocable againe there are say they in their confession three orders of beleevers and repenters in the Scripture whereof some are beginners others having continued for a time and some perseverants the two first orders are chosen vere truly but not absolute prorsus absolutely but only for a time so long as they will remaine as they are the third are chosen finally and peremptorily for this act of God is either continued or interrupted according as we fulfill the condition but whence learned the Arminians this doctrine not one word of it from the word of truth no mention there of any such desultory election no speech of faith but such as is consequent to the one eternall irrevocable decree of predestination they beleeved who were ordained to eternall life Acts 13. 48.
his life for his friends for his sheepe for them that were given him of his Father but now it should seeme he was ordained to be a King when it was altogether uncertaine whether he should ever have any subjects to be a head without a body or to such a Church whose collection and continuance depends wholly and solely on the will of men These are doctrines that I beleeve searchers of the Scripture had scarse ever been acquainted withall had they not lighted on such Expositors as teach that the only cause why God loveth or chooseth any person is because the honesty faith and pietie wherewith according to Gods command and his own dutie he is endued are acceptable to God which though we grant it true of Gods consequent or approving love yet surely there is a divine love wherewith he looks upon us otherwise when he gives us unto Christ else either our giving unto Christ is not out of love or we are pious just and faithfull before we come unto him that is we have no need of him at all against either way though we may blot these testimonies out of our hearts yet they will stand still recorded in holy Scripture viz. that God so loved us when we were his enemies Rom. 5. 8. sinners vers 10. of no strength that he sent his only begotten Sonne to die that we should not perish but have life everlasting Ioh. 3. 16. but of this enough Fourthly Another thing that the Article asserteth according to the Scripture is that there is no other cause of our election but Gods own counsell it recounteth no motives in us nothing impelling the will of God to choose some out of mankinde rejecting others but his own decree that is his absolute will and good pleasure so that as there is no cause in any thing without himselfe why he would create the world or elect any at all for he doth all these things for himselfe for the praise of his own glory so there is no cause in singular elected persons why God should choose them rather then others he looked upon all mankinde in the same condition vested with the same qualifications or rather without any at all for it is the children not yet borne before they do either good or evill that are chosen or reiected his free grace embracing the one and passing over the other yet here we must observe that although God freely without any desert of theirs chooseth some men to be partakers both of the end and the means yet he bestoweth faith or the means on none but for the merit of Christ neither doe any attaine the end or salvation but by their own faith through that righteousnesse of his the free grace of God notwithstanding choosing Iacob when Esau is rejected the only antecedent cause of any difference betweene the elect and reprobates remaineth firme and unshaken and surely unlesse men were resolved to trust wholly to their own bottomes to take nothing gratis at the hands of God they would not endeavour to rob him of his glory of having mercy on whom he will have mercy of loving us without our desert before the world began if we must claime an interest in obtaining the temporall acts of his favour by our own indeavours yet oh let us grant him the glory of being good unto us only for his own sake when we were in his hand as the clay in the hand of the potter what made this piece of clay fit for comely service and not a vessell wherein there is no pleasure but the power and will of the framer it is enough yea too much for them to repine and say why hast thou made us thus who are vessels fitted for wratth let not them who are prepared for honour exalt themselves against him and sacrifice to their own nets as the sole providers of their glory but so it is humane vilenesse will still be declaring it selfe by claiming a worth no way due unto it of a furtherance of which claim if the Arminians be not guiltie let the following declaration of their opinions in this particular determine We confesse say they roundly that faith in the consideration of God choosing us unto salvation doth precede and not follow as a fruit of election so that whereas Christians have hitherto beleeved that God bestoweth faith on them that are chosen it seemes now it is no such matter but that those whom God findeth to beleeve upon the stocke of their own abilities he afterwards chooseth Neither is faith in their judgement only required as a necessary condition in him that is to be chosen but as a cause moving the will of God to elect him that hath it as the will of the Iudge is moved to bestow a reward on him who according to the law hath deserved it as Grevinchovius speaks which words of his indeed Corvinus strives to temper but all in vaine though he wrest them contrary to the intention of the Author for with him agree all his fellows the one only absolute cause of election is not the will of God but the respect of our obedience saith Episcopius At first they required nothing but faith and that as a condition not as a cause then perseverance in faith which at length they began to call obedience comprehending all our dutie to the precepts of Christ for the cause say they of this love to any person is the righteousnesse faith and pietie wherewith he is endued which being all the good works of a Christian they in effect affirme a man to be chosen for them that our good works are the cause of election which whither it were ever so grossely taught either by Pelagians or Papists I something doubt And here observe that this doth not thwart my former assertion where I shewed that they deny the election of any particular persons which here they seeme to grant upon a fore-sight of their faith and good workes for there is not any one person as such a person notwithstanding all this that in their judgement is in this life elected but onely as he is considered with those qualifications of which he may at any time divest himselfe and so become againe to be no more elected then Iudas The summe of their Doctrine in this particular is laid by one of ours in a Tract intituled Gods love to mankinde c. a Booke full of palpable ignorance grosse sophistrie and abominable blasphemie whose Authour seemes to have proposed nothing unto himselfe but to rake all the dunghils of a few the most invective Arminians and to collect the most filthy scumme and pollution of their railings to cast upon the truth of God and under I know not what selfe-coyned pretences belch out odious blasphemies against his holy name The summe saith he of all these speeches he cited to his purpose is That there is no decree of saving men but what is built on Gods fore-knowledge of the good actions of men No decree no
then in respect of his purpose to save them by Christ some are said to be his thine they were and thou gavest them unto me Iohn 17. 6. they were his before they came unto Christ by faith the sheepe of Christ before they are called for he calleth his sheepe by name Iohn 10. 30. before they come into the flocke or congregation for other sheepe saith he I have which are not of this fold which must also be gathered Ioh. 10. 16. to be beleved of God before they love him herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us 1 Ioh. 4. 10. Now all this must be with reference to Gods purpose of bringing them unto Christ and by him unto glory which we see goeth before all their faith and obedience Thirdly Election is an eternall act of Gods will he hath chosen us before the foundation of the world Ephes 1. 4. consummated antecedently to all dutie of ours Rom. 9. 11. now every cause must in order of nature praecede its effect nothing hath an activitie in causing before it hath a being operation in every kinde is a second act flowing from the essence of a thing which is the first but all our graces and workes our faith obedience pietie and charitie are all temporall of yesterday the same standing with our selves and no longer and therefore cannot be the cause of no nor so much as a condition necessarily required for the accomplishment of an eternall act of God irrevocably established before we are Fourthly If Predestination be for faith foreseene these three things with divers such absurdities will necessarily follow first that election is not of him that calleth as the Apostle speakes Rom. 9. 11. that is of the good pleasure of God who calleth us with an holy calling but of him that is called for depending on faith it must be his whose faith is that doth beleeve secondly God cannot have mercy on whom he will have mercy for the very purpose of it is thus tied to the qualities of faith and obedience so that he must have mercy only on beleevers antecedently to his decree which thirdly hinders him from being an absolute free agent and doing of what he will with his owne of having such a power over us as the Potter hath over his Clay for he findes us of different matter one clay another gold when he comes to appoint us to different uses and ends Fifthly God sees no saith no obedience perseverance nothing but sinne and wickednesse in any man but what himselfe intendeth graciously and freely to bestow upon them for faith is not of our selves it is the gift of God it is the worke of God that we doe beleeve Iohn 6. 29. he blesseth us with all spirituall blessings in Christ Ephes 1. Now all these gifts and graces God bestoweth onely upon those whom he hath antecedently ordained to everlasting life For the election obtained it and the rest were blinded Rom. 11. 7. God added to his Church daily those that should be saved Acts 2. 47. therefore surely God chooseth us not because he foreseeth those things in us seeing he bestoweth those graces because he hath chosen us Wherefore saith Austine doth Christ say you have not chosen me but I have chosen you but because they did not chuse him that he should chuse them but he chose them that they might chuse him We choose Christ by faith God chooseth us by his decree of election the question is whether we choose him because he hath chosen us or he chooseth us because we have chosen him and so indeed choose our selves we affirme the former and that because our choyce of him is a gift he himselfe bestoweth onely on them whom he hath chosen Sixthly and principally the effects of election infallibly following it cannot be the causes of election certainly praeceding it this is evident for nothing can be the cause and the effect of the same thing before and after it selfe but all our faith our obedience repentance good workes are the effects of election flowing from it as their proper fountaine erected on it as the foundation of this spirituall building and for this the Article of our Church is evident and cleere Those saith it that are indued with this excellent benefit of God are called according to Gods purpose are iustified freely are made the sonnes of God by adoption they be made like the image of Christ they walke religiously in good workes c. Where first they are said to be partakers of this benefit of election and then by vertue thereof to be entitled to the fruition of all those graces Secondly it saith those who are endued with this benefit enioy those blessings intimating that election is the rule whereby God proceedeth in bestowing those graces restraining the objects of the temporall acts of Gods speciall favour to them onely whom his eternall decree doth embrace both these indeed are denied by the Arminians which maketh a further discovery of their Heterodoxies in this particular You say saith Arminius to Perkins that election is the rule of giving or not giving of faith and therefore election is not of the faithfull but faith of the elect but by your leave this I must deny but yet what ever it is the sophisticall heretique here denies either antecedent or conclusion he fals foule on the word of God they beleeved saith the holy Ghost who were ordained to eternall life Act. 3. 48. And the Lord added daily to his Church such as should de saved Act. 2. 47. from both which places it is evident that God bestoweth faith onely on them whom he hath praeordained eternall life but most cleerely Rom. 8. 29 30. for whom he did fore-know he also predestinated to be conformed to the Image of his Sonne moreover whom he did predestinate them also he called and whom he called them he also iustified and whom he iustified them also glorified Saint Austin interpreted this place by adding in every linke of the chaine onely those how ever the words directly import a precedency of predestination before the bestowing of other graces and also a restraint of those graces to them onely that are so predestinate Now the inference from this is not onely for the forme Logicall but for the matter also it containeth the very words of Scripture faith is of Gods elect Titus 1. 1. For the other part of the proposition that faith and obedience are the fruits of election they cannot be more peremptory in its denyall then the Scripture is plentifull in its confirmation He hath chosen us in Christ that we should be holy Ephes 1. 4. not because we were holy but that we should be so holinesse whereof faith is the root and obedience the body is that whereunto and not for which we are elected the end and the meritorious cause of any one act cannot be the same they have divers respects and require repugnant conditions againe we are predestinated unto the adoption of
as doth Grevinchovius I make my selfe saith he differ from another when I doe not resist God and his divine predetermination which I could have resisted why may I not boast of this as of mine own that I could is of Gods mercy endowing his nature with such an abilitie as you heard before but that I would when I might have done otherwise is of mine power Now when after all this they are forced to confesse some Evangelicall grace though consisting only in a morall perswasion by the outward preaching of the word they teach Thirdly That God sendeth the Gospel and revealeth Christ Iesus unto men according as they well dispose themselves for such a blessing Sometimes say they in their Synodicall writings God calleth this or that nation people citie or person to the communion of Evangelicall grace whom he himselfe pronounceth worthy of it in comparison of others So that whereas Acts 18. 10. God encourageth Paul to preach at Corinth by affirming that he had much people in that citie which doubtlesse were his people then only by vertue of their election in these mens judgements they were called so because that even then they feared God and served him with all their hearts according to that knowledge they had of him and so were ready to obey the preaching of Saint Paul strange doctrine that men should feare God know him serve him in sinceritie before they ever heard of the Gospel and by those means deserve that it should be preached unto them this is that pleasing of God before faith that they plead for Act. Synod fol. 60. That preparation and disposition to beleeve which men attaine by the Law and vertuous education that something which is in sinners whereby though they are not iustified yet they are made worthy of iustification for conversion and the performance of good works is in their apprehension a condition prerequired to iustification for so speake the children of Arminius which which if it be not an expression not to be paralelled in the writings of any Christian I am something mistaken the summe of their doctrine then in this particular concerning the power of Free-will in the state of sin and unregeneration is That every man having a native inbred power of beleeving in Christ upon the revelation of the Gospel hath also an abilitie of doing so much good as shall procure of God that the Gospel be preached unto him to which without any internall assistance of grace he can give assent and yeeld obedience the preparatory acts of his own will alwayes proceeding so farre as to make him excell others who do not performe them and are therefore excluded from further grace Which is more grosse Pelagianisme then Pelagius himselfe would ever justifie wherefore we reject all the former positions as so many monsters in Christian Religion in whose roome we assert these that follow First That we being by nature dead in trespasses and sinnes have no power to prepare our selves for the receiving of Gods grace nor in the least measure to beleeve and turne our selves unto him Not that we deny that there are any conditions pre-required in us for our conversion dispositions preparing us in some measure for our new birth or regeneration but we affirme that all these also are the effects of the grace of God relating to that alone as their proper cause for of our selves Without him we can do nothing Ioh. 15. 15. We are not able of our selves to thinke any thing as of our selves 2 Cor. 3. 5. much lesse doe that which is good in respect of that every one of our mouthes must be stopped for we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God Rom. 5. 19. 23. We are by nature the children of wrath dead in trespasses and sins Ephes 2. 1. Rom. 8. 9. our new birth is a resurrection from death wrought by the greatnesse of Gods power and what abilitie I pray hath a dead man to prepare himselfe for for his resurrection can he collect his scattered dust or renew his perished senses If the Leopard can change his spots and the Aethiopian his skin then can we doe good who by nature are taught to doe evill Ierem. 13. 23. we are all ungodly and without strength considered when Christ died for us Rom. 5. 6. wise to do evill but to doe good we have no strength no knowledge Yea all the faculties of our soules by reason of that spirituall death under which we are detained by the corruption of nature are altogether uselesse in respect of any power for the doing of that which is truly good our understandings are blind or darkened being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in us because of the blindnesse of our hearts Ephes 4. 18. whereby we become even darknesse it selfe Chap. 5. 8. so voide is the understanding of true knowledge that the naturall man receiveth not the things that are of God they are foolishnesse unto him 1 Cor. 2. 14. nothing but confounded and amazed at spirituall things and if he doth not mocke can doe nothing but wonder and say what meaneth this Act. 2. 12 13. Secondly we are not only blind in our understandings but captives also to sinne in our wils Luk. 4. 18. Whereby we are servants to sinne Iohn 8. 34. Free onely in our obedience to that Tyran Rom. 6. Yea thirdly all our affections are wholly corrupted for every imagination of the thoughts of the heart of man is evill continually Genes 6. 5. While we are in the flesh the motions of sinne doe worke in our members to bring forth fruit unto death Rom. 7. 5. These are the endowments of our nature these are the preparations of our hearts for the grace of God which we have within our selves Nay Secondly there is not onely an impotencie but an enmitie in corrupted nature to any thing spiritually good The things that are of God are foolishnesse unto a naturall man 1 Cor. 2. 14. And there is nothing that men doe more hate and contemne then that which they account as folly They mock at it as a ridiculous drunkennesse Act. 2. 13. And would to God our dayes yeelded us not too evident proofes of that universall opposition that is betweene light and darkenesse Christ and Beliall Nature and Grace that we could not see every day the prodigious issues of this in-bred corruption swelling over all bounds and breaking forth into a contempt of the Gospel and all wayes of godlinesse So true it is that the carnall minde is enmitie against God it is not subiect unto his law neither indeed can it be Rom. 8. 7. So that Thirdly as a naturall man by the strength of his owne free-will neither knoweth nor willeth so it is utterly impossible he should doe any thing pleasing unto God Can the Aethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots then can he doe good Ieremy 13. An evill tree cannot bring forth good fruit
of a new vitall principle by the powerfull working of the holy Spirit And indeed granting this I shall most willingly comply with them in assigning to Free-will one of the endowments before recited a power of resisting the operation of grace but instead of the other must needs ascribe to our whole corrupted nature and every one that is partaker of it an universall disabilitie of obeying it or coupling in that worke which God by his grace doth intend If the grace of our conversion be nothing but a morall perswasion we have no more power of obeying it in that estate wherein we are dead in sinne then a man in his grave hath in himselfe to live a new and come out at the next call Gods promises and the Saints prayers in the holy Scripture seeme to designe such a kinde of grace as should give us a reall internall abilitie of doing that which is spiritually good but it seemes there is no such matter for if a man should perswade me to leape over the Thames or to flye in the Ayre be he never so eloquent his sole perswasion makes me no more able to doe it then I was before ever I saw him If Gods grace be nothing but a sweet perswasion though never so powerfull it is a thing extrinsecall consisting in the proposall of a desired object but gives us no new strength at all to doe any thing we had not before a power to doe But let us heare them pleading themselves to each of these particulars concerning Grace and Nature and first for the nature of Grace God hath appointed to save beleevers by grace that is a soft and sweet perswasion convenient and agreeing to their free-will and not by any Almighty action saith Arminius It seemes something strange that the carnall minde being enmitie against God and the will inthralled to sinne and full of wretched opposition to all his wayes yet God should have no other meanes to worke them over unto him but some perswasion that is sweet agreeable and congruous unto them in that estate wherein they are and a small exaltation it is of the dignitie and power of grace when the chiefe reason why it is effectuall as Alvarez observes may be reduced to a well digested supper or an indisturbed sleepe whereby some men may be brought into better temper then ordinarie to comply with this congruous grace But let us for the present accept of this and grant that God doth call some by such a congruous perswasion at such a time and place as he knows they will assent unto it I aske whether God thus calleth all men or onely some if all why are not all converted for the very granting of it to be congruous makes it effectuall If onely some then why they and not others Is it out of a speciall intention to have them obedient but let them take heed for this will goe neere to establish the decree of election and out of what other intention it should be they shall never be able to determine Wherefore Corvinus denies that any such congruitie is required to the grace whereby we are converted but onely that it be a morall perswasion which we may obey if we will and so make it effectuall Yea and Arminius himselfe after he had defended it as farre as he was able puts it off from himselfe and falsly fathers it upon Saint Austine So that as they joyntly affirme they confesse no grace for the begetting of faith to be necessary but onely that which is morall which one of them interpreteth to be a declaration of the Gospel unto us Right like their old Master Pelagius God saith he worketh in us to will that which is good and to will that which is holy whilest he stirs us up with promise of rewards and the greatnesse of the future glory who before were given over to earthly desires like bruit beasts loving nothing but things present stirring up our stupid wils to a desire of God by a revelation of wisedome and perswading us to all that is good Both of them affirme the grace of God to be nothing but a morall perswasion working by the way of powerfull convincing arguments but yet herein Pelagius seemes to ascribe a greater efficacie to it then the Arminians granting that it workes upon us when after the manner of bruit beasts we are set meerely on earthly things but these as they confesse that for the production of faith it is necessarie that such arguments be proposed on the part of God to which nothing can probably be opposed why they should not seeme credible so there is say they required on our part a pious docilitie and probitie of minde So that all the grace of God bestowed on us consisteth in perswasive arguments out of the word which if they meet with teachable mindes may worke their conversion Secondly having thus extenuated the grace of God they affirme That in operation the efficacie thereof dependeth on Free-will so the Remonstrants in their Apologie And to speake confidently saith Grevinchovius I say that the effect of grace in an ordinary course dependeth on some act of our free-will Suppose then that of two men made partakers of the same grace that is have the Gospel preached unto them by the same meanes one is converted and the other is not What may be the cause of this so great a difference Was there any intention or purpose in God that one should be changed rather then the other No He equally desireth and intendeth the conversion of all and every one Did then God worke more powerfully in the heart of the one by his holy Spirit then of the other No The same operation of the spirit alwayes accompanieth the same preaching of the word But was not one by some Almightie action made partaker of reall infused grace which the other attained not unto No for that would destroy the liberty of his will and deprive him of all the praise of beleeving How then came this extreme difference of effects Who made the one differ from the other or what hath he that he did not receive Why all this procedeth meerly from the strength of his owne free-will yeelding obedience to Gods gracious invitation which like the other he might have reiected This is the immediate cause of his conversion to which all the praise thereof is due And here the old Idol may glory to all the world that if he can but get his worshippers to prevaile in this he hath quite excluded the grace of Christ and made it nomen inane a meere title whereas there is no such thing in the world Thirdly they teach That notwithstanding any purpose and intention of God to convert and so to save a sinner notwithstanding the most powerfull and effectuall operation of the blessed spirit with the most winning perswasive preaching of the word yet it is in the power of a man to frustrate that purpose resist that operation