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
to do what he will then grant him to be contented to do what he may and not much repine at his hard condition certainly if but for this favour he is a debtor to the Arminians theeves give what they do not take having robbed God of his power they will yet leave him so much goodnesse as that he shall not be troubled at it though he be sometimes compelled to what he is very loath to do how doe they and their fellows the Iesuits exclaime upon poore Calvin for sometimes using the harsh word of compulsion describing the effectuall powerfull working of the providence of God in the actions of men but they can fasten the same terme on the will of God and no harme done surely he will one day plead his own cause against them but yet blame them not si violandum est ius regnandi causa violandum est it is to make themselves absolute that they thus cast off the yoke of the Almightie and that both in things concerning this life and that which is to come they are much troubled that it should be said that every one of us bring along with us into the world an unchangeable preordination of life and death eternall for such a supposall would quite overthrow the maine foundation of their heresie viz. that men can make their election voide and frustrate as they joyntly lay it down in their Apologie nay it is a dreame saith Dr. Iackson to thinke of Gods decrees concerning things to come as of acts irrevocably finished which would hinder that which Welsingius laies down for a truth to wit that the elect may become reprobates and the reprobates elect now to these particular sayings is their whole doctrine concerning the decrees of God inasmuch as they have any reference to the actions of men most exactly conformable as First their distinction of them into peremptory and not peremptory termes rather used in the citations of litigious courts then as expressions of Gods purpose in sacred Scripture is not as by them applyed compatible with the unchangeablenesse of Gods eternall purposes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say they or temporary beleevers are elected though not peremptorily with such an act of Gods will as hath a coexistence every way commensurate both in its originall continuance and end with their fading faith which sometimes like Ionas gourd is but filia unius noctis in the morning it flourisheth in the evening it is cut down dried up and withereth a man in Christ by faith or actually beleeving which to do is as they say in every one 's own power is in their opinion the proper object of election of election I say not peremptory which is an act pendent expecting the finall perserverance and consummation of his faith and therefore immutable because man having fulfilled his course God hath no cause to change his purpose of crowning him with reward thus also as they teach a man according to his infidelitie whether present and removeable or obdurate and finall is the only object of reprobation which in the latter cause is peremptory and absolute in the former conditionall and alterable it is the qualities of faith and unbeliefe on which their election and reprobation doe attend Now let a faithfull man elected of God according to his present righteousnesse apostate totally from grace as to affirme that there is any promise of God implying his perseverance is with them to overthrow all religion and let the unbeleeving reprobate depose his incredulitie and turne himselfe unto the Lord answerable to this mutation of their conditions are the changings of the purpose of the Almightie concerning their everlasting estate againe suppose these two by alternate courses as the doctrine of Apostacie maintaineth they may should returne each to their former estate the decrees of God concerning them must againe be changed for it is injust with him either not to elect him that beleeves though it be but for an houre or not to reprobate unbeleevers now what unchangeablenesse can we affixe to these decrees which it lies it in the power of man to make as inconstant as Euripus making it beside to be possible that all the members of Christs Church whose names are written in heaven should within one houre be enrolled in the blacke book of damnation Secondly as these not-peremptory decrees are mutable so they make the peremptory decrees of God to be temporall finall impenitencie say they is the only cause and the finally unrepenting sinner is the only object of reprobation peremptory and irrevocable as the Poet thought none happy so they thinke no man to be elected or a reprobate before his death now that denomination he doth receive from the decree of God concerning his eternall estate which must necessarily then be first enacted the relation that is betweene the act of reprobation and the person reprobated importeth a coexistence of denomination when God reprobates a man he then becomes a reprobate which if it be not before he hath actually fulfilled the measure of his iniquitie and sealed it up with the talent of finall impenitencie in his death the decree of God must needs be temporall the just judge of all the world having till then suspended his determination expecting the last resolution of this changeable Proteus nay that Gods decrees concerning mens eternall estates are in their judgement temporall and not beginning untill their death is plaine from the whole course of their doctrine especially where they strive to prove that if there were any such determination God could not threaten punishments or promise rewards Who say they ean threaten punishment to him whom by a peremptory decree he will have to be free from punishment it seemes he cannot have determined to save any whom he threatens to punish if they sinne which is evident he doth all so long as they live in this world which makes God not only mutable but quite deprives him of his foreknowledge and makes the forme of his decree run thus if man will beleeve I determine he shall be saved if he will not I determine he shall be damned that is I must leave him in the meane time to doe what he will so I may meet with him in the end Thirdly they affirme no decree of Almightie God concerning men is so unalterable but that all those who are now in rest or misery might have had contrary lots that those which are damned as Pharaoh Iudas c. might have been saved and those which are saved as the blessed Virgin Poten Iohn might have been damned which must needs reflect with a strong charge of mutabilitie on Almightie God who knoweth who are his divers other instances in this nature I could produce whereby it would be further evident that these innovators in Christian religion doe overthrow the eternitie and unchangeablenesse of Gods decrees but these are sufficient to any discerning man and I will adde in the close an
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
children by Iesus Christ vers 5. adoption is that whereby we are assumed into the family of God when before we are forreigners aliens strangers a far off which we see is a fruit of our predestination though it be the very entrance into that estate wherein we begin first to please God in the least measure of the same nature are all those places of holy writ which speake of Gods giving some unto Christ of Christs sheepe hearing his voyce and of others not hearing because they are not of his sheepe all which and divers other invincible reasons I willingly omit with sundry other false assertions and hereticall positions of the Arminians about this fundamentall Article of our Religion concluding this Chapter with the following scheme S. S. Whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Sonne that he might be the first borne among many brethren moreover whom he did predestinate them he also called and whom he called them he also iustified and whom he iustified them he also glorified so that nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Rom. 8. 29 30. 39. He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy Ephes 1. 4. Not for the workes that we have done but according to his owne purpose and grace which was given us in Iesus Christ before the world began 2 Tim. 1. 9. For the children being not yet borne before they had done either good or evill that the purpose of God which is according to election might stand not of works but of him that calleth c. Rom. 9. 11. Whatsoever the Father giveth that cometh unto me Ioh. 11. Many are called but few are chosen Matth. 22. 14. Feare not little flock it is your Fathers pleasure to give you the kingdome Luk. 12. 32. What hast thou that thou hast not received 1 Cor. 4. 7. Are we better then they no in no wise Rom. 3. 9. But we are predestinated to the adoption of children by Iesus Christ according to the good pleasure of his will Ephes 1. 5. Iohn 6. 37. 39. Iohn 10. 3. Chap. 13. 18. and 17. 6. Act. 13. 48. Titus 1. 1. 2 Tim. 2. 19. Iames 1. 17 c. Lib. Arbit No such will can be ascribed unto God whereby he so would have any to be saved that from thence his salvation should bee sure and infallible Arminius I acknowledge no sense no perception of any such election in this life Grevinch We deny that Gods election unto salvation extendeth it selfe to singular persons Remonst Coll. Hag. As we are iustified by faith so we are not elected but by faith Grevinch We professe roundly that faith is considered by God as a condition preceding election and not following as a fruit thereof Rem Coll. Hag. The sole and onely cause of election is not the will of God but the respect of our obedience Episcopius For the cause of this love to any person is the goodnesse faith and piety wherewith according to Gods command and his owne dutie he is endued is pleasing to God Rem Apol. God hath determined to grant the meanes of salvation unto all without difference and according as he fore-seeth men will use those meanes so he determineth of them Corvin The summe of their doctrine is God hath appointed the obedience of faith to be the meanes of salvation if men fulfill this condition he determineth to save them which is their election but if after they have entred the way of godlines they fall frō it they loose also their predestination if they will returne againe they are chosen anew and if they can hold out to the end then and for that continuance they are peremptorily elected or postdestinated after they are saved now whether these positions may be gathered from those places of Scripture which deliver this doctrine lot any man iudge CHAP. VII Of Originall sinne and the corruption of nature HErod the great imparting his counsell of rebuilding the Temple unto the Iewes they much feared he would never be able to accomplish his intention but like an unwise builder having demolished the old before he had sate downe and cast up his account whether he were able to erect a new they should by his project be deprived of a Temple wherefore to satisfie their jealousies he resolved as he tooke downe any part of the other presently to erect a portion of the new in the place thereof Right so the Arminians determining to demolish the building of divine providence grace and favour by which men have hitherto ascended into heaven and fearing lest we should be troubled finding our selves on a sudden deprived of that wherein we reposed our confidence for happinesse they have by degrees erected a Babylonish Tower in the roome thereof whose top they would perswade us shall reach unto heaven First therefore the foundation stones they bring forth crying haile haile unto them and pitch them on the sandy rotten ground of our owne natures Now because heretofore some wise master-builders had discovered this ground to be very unfit to be the basis of such a lofty erection by reason of a corrupt issue of blood and filth arising in the middest thereof and over-spreading the whole platforme to incourage men to an association in this desperate attempt they proclaime to all that there is no such evill fountaine in the plaine which they have chosen for the foundation of their proud building setting up it selfe against the knowledge of God in plaine termes having rejected the providence of God from being the Originall of that goodnesse of entity which is in our actions and his predestination from being the cause of that morall and spirituall goodnesse where with any of them are cloathed they endeavour to draw the praise of both to the rectitude of their nature and the strength of their owne endeavours but this attempt in the latter case being thought to be altogether vaine because of the disabilitie and corruption of nature by reason of originall sinne propagated unto us all by our first Parents whereby it is become wholly voyd of integritie and holinesse and we all become wise and able to doe evill but to doe good have no power no understanding therefore they utterly reject this imputation of an inherent originall guilt and demerit of punishment as an enemie to our upright and well deserving condition and Oh that they were as able to root it out of the hearts of all men that it should never more be there as they have been to perswade the heads of divers that it was never there at all If any would know how considerable this Article concerning Originall sinne hath ever been accounted in the Church of Christ let him but consult the writings of Saint Augustine Prosper Hilary Fulgentius any of those learned Fathers whom God stirred up to resist and enabled to overcome the spreading Pelagian heresie or looke on those many
according to the divers inclinations of mens wils which I shewed before they affirme he can have at best but a conjecturall fore-knowledge of what is yet for to come not founded on his own unchangable purpose but upon a guesse at the free inclination of mens wils For instance God willeth that all men should be saved this act of his will according to the Arminian doctrine is his conditionate decree to save all men if they will beleeve well among these is Judas as equall a sharer in the benefit of this decree as Peter God then will have him to be saved and to this end allows him all those meanes which are necessarie to beget faith in him and are every way sufficient to that purpose and doe produce that effect in others what can God foresee then but that Iudas as well as Peter will beleeve he intendeth he should he hath determined nothing to the contrarie let him come then and act his owne part why he proves so obstinately malicious that God with all his omnipotencie as they speake by any way that becomes him which must not be by any irresistible efficacie cannot change his obdurate heart well then he determineth according to the exigence of his justice that he shall be damned for his impenitencie and foreseeth that accordingly but now suppose this wretch even at his last moment should bethinke himselfe and returne to the Lord which in their conceit he may not withstanding his former reprobation which as they state it seemes a great act of mercy God must keepe to the rules of his justice and elect or determine to save him by which the varlet hath twice or thrice deceived his expectation Secondly they affirme that God is said properly to expect and desire divers things which yet never come to passe we grant saith Corvinus that there are desires in God that never are fulfilled now surely to desire what one is sure will never come to passe is not an act regulated by wisdome or counsell and therefore they must grant that before he did not know but perhaps so it might be God wisheth and desireth some good things which yet come not to passe say they in their confession whence one of these two things must needs follow either first that there is a great deale of imperfection in his nature to desire and expect what he knowes shall never come to passe or else he did not know but it might which overthrowes his praescience yea and say they expressely That the hope and expectation of God is deceived by man and confesse that the strength of their strongest argument lies in this that God hoped and expected obedience from Israel Secondly that he complaineth that his hope is deluded which being taken properly and as they urge it cannot consist with his eternall praescience For they dis-esteeme the usuall answer of Divines that hope expectation and such like passions which include in them any imperfection are ascribed unto God per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in regard of that analogie his actions hold with such of ours as we performe having those passions Thirdly they teach that God hath determined nothing concerning such things as these in question That God hath determined future contingent things unto either part I meane such as issue from the free-will of the creature I abominate hate and curse as false absurd and leading us on unto blasphemy saith Arminius to determine of them to either part is to determine and ordain whether they shall be or whether they shall not be as that David shall or shall not goe up to morrow against the Philistines and prevaile Now the infallibilite of Gods foreknowing of such things depending on the certaintie of his decree and determination if there be no such thing as this that also must needs fall to the ground Fourthly see what positively they write concerning this everlasting fore-knowledge of God First they call it a troublesome question Secondly they make it a thing disputable whether there be any such thing or no and though happily it may be ascribed unto God yet Thirdly they thinke it no motive to the worship of him Fourthly they say better it were quite exploded because the difficulties that attend it can scarcely be reconciled with mans libertie Gods threatnings and promises yea Fifthly it seemes rather to be invented to crucifie poore mortals then to be of any moment in religion so Episcopius it may be excepted that this is but one Doctors opinion it is true they are one mans words but the thing it selfe is countenanced by the whole sect As first in the Large prolix Declaration of their opinions they speake not one word of it and being taxed for this omission by the Professors of Leyden they vidicate themselves so coldly in their Apologie that some learned men doe from hence conclude that certainly in their most secret judgements all the Arminians doe consent with Socinus in ascribing unto God onely a conjecturall fore-knowledge And one great Prophet of their owne affirmes roundly That God after his manner oftentimes feareth that is suspecteth and that not without cause and prudently coniectureth that this or that evill may arise Vorst and their chiefest Patriarchs That God doth often intend what he doth not foresee will come to passe Armin. Corvin Now whether this kinde of Atheisme be tolerable among Christians or no let all men judge who have their senses exercised in the word of God which I am sure teacheth us another lesson For First it is laid downe as a firme foundation that knowne unto God are all his workes from the beginning of the world Acts 15. 18. Every thing then that in any respect may be called his worke is knowne unto him from all eternitie now what in the world if we may speake as he hath taught us can be exempted from this denomination even actions in themselves sinfull are not though not as sinfull yet in some other regard as punishments of others Behold saith Nathan to David in the name of God I will take thy wives before thine eies and give them unto thy neighbour and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sunne for thou diddest it secretly but I will doe this thing before all Israel 2 Sam. 12 v. 11 12. So also when wicked robbers had nefariously spoyled Job of all his substance the holy man concludeth The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away Job 1. 1. Now if the working of Gods providence be so mighty and effectuall even in and over those actions wherein the devil and men doe most maliciously offend as did Absolom and the Sabean with the Caldean theeves that it may be said to be his worke and he may be said to doe it I crave libertie to use the Scripture phrase then certainly nothing in the world in some respect or other is independent of his all-disposing hand yea Judas himselfe betraying our Saviour did
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.
not that whereby God determineth to give some unto Christ to ingraft them in him by faith and bring them by him unto glory which giveth light to that place of Arminius where he affirmeth That God loveth none precisely to eternall life but considered as iust either with Legall or Evangelicall righteousnesse Now to love one to eternall life is to destinate one to obtaine eternall life by Christ and so it is co-incident with the former assertion that our election or choosing unto grace and glory is upon the fore-sight of our good workes which containes a doctrine so contradictorie to the words and meaning of the Apostle Rom. 9. 11. condemned in so many Councels suppressed by so many Edicts and Decrees of Emperours and Governours opposed as a pestilent heresie ever since it was first hatched by so many Orthodoxe Fathers and learned Schoole men so directly contrary to the Doctrine of this Church so injurious to the grace and supreame power of Almightie God that I much wonder any one in this light of the Gospel and flourishing time of learning should be so boldly ignorant or impudent as to broach it amongst Christians to prove this to be a heresie exploded by all Orthodoxe and Catholique antiquitie were to light a candle in the Sunne for it cannot but be knowne to all and every one who ever heard or read any thing of the state of Christs Church after the rising of the Pelagian tumults To accumulate testimonies of the Ancient is quite beside my purpose I will onely adde the confession of Bellarmine a man otherwise not over-well affected to truth Predestination saith he from the fore-sight of workes cannot be maintained unlesse we should suppose something in the righteous man which should make him differ from the wicked that he doth not receive from God which truly all the Fathers with unanimous consent doe reiect but we have a more sure testimonie to which we will take heed even the holy Scripture pleading strongly for Gods free and undeserved grace First our Saviour Christ Matth. 11. 26. declaring how God revealeth the Gospel unto some which is hidden from others a speciall fruit of election resteth in his will and good pleasure as the onely cause thereof even so O Father for so it seemed good in thy sight so comforting his little flock Luk. 12. 32. he bids them feare not for it is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the kingdome his good pleasure is the onely cause why his kingdome is prepared for you rather then others but is there no other reason of this discrimination No he doth it all that his purpose according to election might stand firme Rom. 9. 11. For we are predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsell of his owne will Ephes 1. 11. But did not this counsell of God direct him to choose us rather then others because we had something to commend us more then they No The Lord did not set his love upon you nor choose you because you were more in number then any people but because the Lord loved you Deut. 7. 7 8. He hath mercy on whom he will have mercy yea before the children were borne and had done either good or evill that the purpose of God according to election might stand not of workes but of him that calleth it was said unto her the elder shall serve the younger as it is written Jacob have I loved but Esau have I hated Rom. 9. 11 12. In briefe where ever there is any mention of election or predestination it is still accompanied with the purpose love or will of God his foreknowledge whereby he knoweth them that are his his free power and supreame dominion over all things of our faith obedience or any thing importing so much not one syllable no mention unlesse it be as the fruit and effect thereof it is the sole act of his free grace and good pleasure that he might make knowne the riches of his glory towards the vessels of mercy Rom. 9. 23. for this onely end hath he saved us and called us with an holy calling not according to our workes but according to his owne purpose and grace which was given in Iesus Christ before the world began 2 Tim. 1. 9. Even our calling is free and undeserved because flowing from that most free grace of election whereof we are partakers before we are it were needlesse to heape up more testimonies in a thing so cleere and evident when God and man stand in competition who shall be accounted the cause of an eternall good we may be sure the Scripture will passe the verdict on the part of the most high and the sentence in this case may be derived from thence by these following reasons First If finall perseverance in faith and obedience be the cause of or a condition required unto election then none can be said in this life to be elected for no man is a finall perseverer untill he be dead untill he hath finished his course and consummated the faith but certaine it is that it is spoken of some in the Scripture that they are even in this life elected few are chosen Mat. 20. 16. for the elects sake those dayes shall be shortned Matth. 24. and shall seduce if it were possible the very elect vers 24. where it is evident that election is required to make one persevere in the faith but no where is perseverance in the faith required to election yea and Peter gives us all a command that we should give all diligence to get an assurance of our election even in this life 2 Pet. 1. 10. and therefore surely it cannot be a decree presupposing consummated faith and obedience Secondly consider two things of our estate before the first temporall act of Gods free grace for grace is no grace if it be not free which is the first effect of our predestination comprehendeth us Were we better then others no in no wise both Iewes and Gentiles were all under sinne Rom. 3. 9. there is no difference for we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God vers 23. being all dead in trespasses and sinnes Ephes 2. 1. Being by nature children of wrath as well as others vers 3. a farre off untill we are made nigh by the blood of Christ vers 12. we were enemies against God Rom. 5. 10. Titus 3. 3. and looke what desert there is in us with these qualifications when our vocation the first effect of our predestination as Saint Paul sheweth Rom. 8. 30. and as I shall prove hereafter separateth us from the world of unbeleevers so much there is in respect of predestination it selfe so that if we have any way deserved it it is by being sinners enemies children of wrath and dead in trespasses these are our events this is the glory whereof we ought to be ashamed But secondly when they are in the same state of actuall alienation from God yet