Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	faith_n	grace_n	work_n	6,088	5	6.2038	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A78160	Prædestination, as before privately, so now at last openly defended against post-destination. In a correptorie correction, given in by way of answer to, a (so called) correct copy of some notes concerning Gods decrees, especially of reprobation; published the last summer, by Mr. T.P. in which correct copy of his, he left so much of pelagianisme, massilianisme, arminianisme uncorrected, as Scripture, antiquity, the Church of England, schoolmen, and all orthodox neotericks will exclaime against to his shame, as is manifestly evinced, / by William Barlee, rector of Brock-hole in Northamptonshire. To which are prefixed the epistles of Dr. Edward Reynolds, and Mr. Daniel Cawdrey.	Barlee, William.; Reynolds, Edward, 1599-1676.; Cawdrey, Daniel, 1588-1664.	1657 (1657)	Wing B819; Thomason E904_1; ESTC R19533	287,178	284

reject your haeresy as it did that of Pelagianisme and then it would be done effectually You would bee soundly rated for Courting that Mistresse and in the mean while lying and committing spirituall fornication with that more beloved Hand-maid Dame Nature After you would be shent Can. 7. An Haeretico falleris spiritu An Resistis ipsi spiritui sancto Nay the Anathema of the 4. Canon Concil Milev Can. 4. c. And then 2. As to Massilianisme which once your great Oracle Jacob. Arminius (z) Art 10. with some grains of allowance would have questioned whether it were not to be looked upon as verus Christianismus true Christianity none shall have any the least shadow of reason to doubt of that who either can or will but compare what you have in your fifth Chapter about conditionall election (a) Massilianisme or Semipelagianisme may as well be denied by you as that your nose stands in your face unlesse you will blot out most of all your fifth Chapter There 1. to you Election is founded upon praescience p. 69. 71. So the M●ssilians Psosp Epist ad August Qui credituri sunt quivè in ea●fide quae deinceps per Dei gratiam sit juvanda mansuri sunt praescisse ante mundi constitutionem Deum eos praedestinasse in regnum suum quos gratis vocatos dignos suturos electione de hac vitae bono fine esse excessuros praeviderit 2. Faith in Christ which you make the difference between the elect and reprobate and a difference you say there must be before there can be an election So they as Austin himselfe did when he held their errour August Epist ad Hilar. Non potest in rebus omnino aequalib electio nominari quoniam sp sanctus non datur nisi credentib 3. Election to you is a retribution p. 70. reprobation a punishment passim cap. 3. So they Prosp resp ad dub Genuens ut ipsa electorum praedestinatio non sit nisi retributio 4. The number of the elect or reprobate is not to you fixed nor determinate if it bee conditionall how can that be But you say most expressely in your first papers p. 4. That God praedestinated Israel both to salvation and reprobation God does write and blot and write againe p. 8. So they Prosp ad August Nec acquiescunt praedestinatorum electorum numerum nec augeri posse nec minui Sic Hilar. Arelat ad August 5. According to you none can be certaine of election till he have beleeved obeied and persevered in both p. 69. So they Jansen l 8 de Pelag. haeres Ab electione sola ad bona opera nemo secundum illos de quibus loquitur nemo potest simpliciter electus aut praedestinatus esse vel dici hoc enim nemini competit nisi postquā non solū sanctus esse bene vivere sed etiam in eadem sanct●tate ac bona actione permansurus esse praescitur 6. Add to this your doctrine about universall grace and free will p. 64. 71. wherein you and they are one Prosp ad August universis hominib aiunt propitiationem quae est in sacramento sanguinis Christi esse propositam ut q●icu●que ad fidem ad baptismum accedere voluerint salvi esse possint August lib. de gra contr Petag Habere nos possibilitatem utriusque partis à Deo insitam velut quandam radicem fructiseram soecundam quae possit ad proprii cul●oris arbitrium vel ni●ere flore virtutum vel sentibus horrere vitiorum p 69. and other matters with the marginall parallels which I have drawn up in short and may have occasion as to Pelagianisme and Semi-Pelagia●isme to draw out more at large some other time The third thing proposed hath been proved already in the second for whosoever proves you a Pelagian or Massilian proves you either no Christian or but a piece of one and as good never a whit as never the better But that you may know how kinde hearted I am to you after all the many course salutes which I have had from you I will add somewhat to what already in these and much more to what I have had in answer to your first papers towards the probatum est that in words you doe indeed say over your second principle p. 55. but that it is impossible that it should be consistent with the rest of your tenents for which in this book and in these very last Chapters of it you doe appeare like another pugnacious Bellarmine Anagrammaticè spirans Bella Arma minas Take these few Arguments as a supra-pondium or auctarium to what hath been brought in alreadie Argument 1. He defends not the speciall evangelicall grace of Jesus Christ of which Christ said you have not chosen me but I have chosen you John 15. 16. who mainteins his good workes to be a necessary condition we shall finde that to be tantamount when wee come to it if leisure wil serve to speak to it to a necessary cause of our election But that doth Mr. T. P. indeed and in ipsis terminis p. 69. Ergò quod est causa cansae est causa causati If Mr T. P. his good works be a necessary cause or say but a necessary condition of his election it must much more be so of his vocation justification adoption c. For as Bishop Carleton learnedly proves it 's possible that a prior grace may in some sort and sense be said to be the cause of a posterior as ex gr election of vocation vocation of justification and Sanctification c. but that a posterior grace should be the cause or a necessary condition of a prior is most absurd and impossible (b) See B. Carleton at large exam of the Author of the appeale p. 52 53 54. c. where these words are most remarkable To hold the contrary to this is for love to hold with Pelagius to say something wherein they forsake understanding reason Divinity and Philosophy speak non-sense For that I call non-sense that is against Divinity Philosophy and common sense as this is which maketh a subsequēt gtace to be the cause of a precedent grace to set the effect before the cause If then faith and good works and perseverance in them be before election it selfe the very first grace and fountaine of all grace Rom. 8. 30. Eph. 1. 4. then of necessitie mans free will and good works must be before all true Christian speciall grace according to you Arg. 2. That grace which for kinde and species is but the same with the grace which was given to the first Adam from whence he fell totally and finally that is none of the speciall grace procured and purchased by Jesus Christ. But such is the grace which Mr T. P. doth most ●ouragiouslie stand up for p. 95. Sect. 52. which as Jansenius doth most learnedlie out of Austin dispute did only afford unto Adam adjutorium sine quo non without which

it had been impossible for Adam to have stood at all but did not afford him Adjutorium quo by which he was enabled certainely to stand Ergo. Arg. 3. That grace which doth not absolutelie give us to will and doe according to Gods will and pleasure but only upon condition of our willing and doing and that in the very first act of our regeneration and conversion that is not the speciall grace of Jesus Christ Phil. 2. 12 13. But no other grace doth Mr T. P. stand up for either before regeneration as may be seen and read of all men in the application of his illustrious simile taken from the opening of the eye-lid as a necessary condition for the intromitting of light p. 63. A thing which as Austin hath well cleared is most necessary even sanis oculis to those who see best and unto whom not a faculty of seeing is given but externall light nor after regeneration as is plaine Sect. 45. p. 57 58. by what he disputes there and what is not greatly as he might have known disputed betwixt him and his adversaries who denie not but that after the first grace received and after the habits of grace infixed and impacted into the will that doth voluntarily act being acted But T. P. mainteins the will to be not only the materiall cause or rather the subject in which and upon which as not a blockish and brute instrument as he represents it but upon a rationall intelligent subject grace workes (c) Bernard de lib. arb gra opus hoc sine duobus perfici non potest uno a quo sit altero in quo sit Deus est Author salutis liberum arbitrium tantum capax De hoc primo actu intelligendum est quod Augustinus dicit Deum ut velimus in nobis sine nobis operari Idem quod Thomas in primo actu voluntatis qui procedit à gratia praeveniente voluntatem esse motam non moventem or the formall cause which doth elicite the acts of willing believing doing for questionlesse we will when we will we beleeve when we believe and God doth not will believe repent (d) August de gra lib. arb c. 16. Certum est nos velle cum volumus sed ille facit ut velimus bonum c. Certum est nos facere cum faciamus sed ille facit ut faciamus praebendo vires efficacissimas voluntati vid. de bon persev cap. 13. but he doth as hath been seen often and in his never to be forgotten simile p. 63. make the will as very an efficient cause of its own willing as the faculty of seeing is of the eie-lids opening ergo T. P. defends not the speciall grace of Christ Arg. 4. He that mainteines no other grace then what is conveied by a generall covenant founded o●●y upon conditionall promises he doth not mainteine the speciall grace of Jesus Christ Jer. 31. 33. Heb. 10. 16. But that doth Mr T. P. p. 36. 71. Ergo. Arg. 5. Hee that so interprets those scriptures which speake of Gods most efficacious omnipotent wonder-working grace as to allow grace not a supernaturall reall efficacious worke but only a forinsecall morall suasive worke he say he what he will to the contrary shuts Christs speciall grace out of doors and makes it stand in the cold lackying upon mans will Pelagian like e But that doth Mr T. P. by his glosses d August de gra cont Peag Celest l. 1. cap. 7 Adjuvat nos Deus per doctrinam revelationem suam dum cordis nostri oculos aperit dum nobis ne praesentib occupemur futura demonstrat dum Diaboli pandit insidias dum mult●formi ineffabili dono gratiae coelestis illuminat Nay doth Mr T. P. allow so much as Pelagius doth who c. 38. ibid. hath these words N●s qui per Christi gratiam in meliorem hominem renati sumus qui sanguine ejus expiati mundati upon Phil. 2. 12 13. Sect 45. and upon Ezek. 26 27. Cant. 1. 14. 1 John 3. 9. Sect. 47. p. 60. c. Ergo. Arg. 6. And last He that mainteins Christ himself to jeer at sinners p. 37. c. alibi and every where jeers at Christs faithfull servants for mainteining with Christ and his Apostles John 15. 2. Rom. 8. 7. 1 Cor. 2. 14. men to be so impotent since their fall as that they cannot come to Christ unlesse Christ and the Father draw them by their speciall all conquering power of grace not communicated unto all John 6. 44 But this doth Mr T. P. p. 37. and in this Chapter from Sect. 44. p. 56. almost to the end of it Ergo I trust I may upon the whole matter something more theologically and logically conclude with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then Mr T. P. that though in aemulation to Dr Jackson (f) Of divine Attri praef the very oracle and Arminius revived to all English Arminians you did think it most conducing to the credit of your interest to maintein God to be the speciall author of all grace and goodnesse p. 5. yet you will never be able without contradicting most of your whole book to defend it If the three faire lines and a halfe set downe p. 55. or the foure and a halfe set down p. 6. must stand uncrossed you must provide a deleatur and an Index expurgatorius for many five hundred lines of good English but bad Theology in your book 4. As to the fourth thing promised touching your ordering of Gods decrees proposed by you p. 56. 1. The Father loves the Sonne c. I list not much in these high points to contend with any man about meer matters of order (g) D. Riv. disp de praedest thes 12. Certè inter eos qui credunt praedestinationis causam referendam esse ad summam voluntatis divinae libertatem non ad prae visa bona vel mala in hominibus controversia in re nulla est etsi in loquendi modo videantur dissentire if all other matters were but right especially in an age and Church which after many vows and Covenants for good order and discipline seems to have adjured both good order and all Ecclesiasticall discipline but yet I must needs confesse I think not yours though it be verbatim a Saint Andrean order to bee either soundly 1. Theologicall 2. Rightly rationall 3. Or so passable as that of Arminius himselfe 1. It is Atheologicall without any necessity to multiply decrees in God who is purus putus actus and in whose will simply as you say very truly p. 51. there cannot be either prius or posterius first or second Frustra fit per plura quod fieri potest per pauciora The orthodox do much better who for their own ease distinguish one entire decree of praedestination into that about the end and that about the meanes according not to the diversity of Gods acts as according to the great

force you to mainteine meritorious causes of divine election as farre as ever Pelagius did and in the sense that the Fathers did take the word merit and deny grace to be conferred according to works Your second argument Sect. 56. p. 69. and 70. hath that mistake in the ●ail of it which the other hath ● the head namely because that Christ in time is the head of the Church and before all time was designed to be such therefore he was the merit●rious cause of election it selfe and not onely of salvation and every saving grace tending to it which none but Socinians and the grostest sort of Arminians use to deny and so the election of Christ being in the in●uition of the back-sl●ding of the first Adam p. 69. ergo say you it must needs be respectively but because you doe but in this imperiously dictate and offer no proofe at all and that you be a direct Anti-Augustinian in this Augustin using against the Pelagians to triumph in the contrary Argument taken from Gods freely choosing Christ to be the head of the praedestinate (i) Aug. lib. de p●ecatorum merit remis de persev sanct cap. ult de corrept gra cap. 17. Nemo enim quisquam tanta rei hujus sidei caecus est ignorantia ut audeat dicere quamvis de spiritu sancto Virgine Maria filium hominis natum per liberum tamen arbitrium bene vivendo sine peccato bona opera faciendo mer●isse ut esset Dei filius resistente evangelio at● dicente verbum caro factum est c. I shall think nothing so fit as to send you to School again to Dr Twisse that famous School-man whom you point at when you reject the saying which some affirme p. 70. that Christ is not onely the meanes but the meritorious cause of our election and there you may understand I pray God give you grace to doe it how that assertion is mainteined by him without the least diminution to Christs blessed merits but to the certeine overthrow of your cause D. I will onely at this time leave you to muse upon that saying of Th. Aquinas 1. q. 23. Artic. 5. Nullus ita fuit insanae mentis ut diceret merita esse causam divinae praedestinationis exparte actus praedestinantis and whilst you be musing on it aske but of your selfe this question num satis sobrius 3. Your third proposed Sect. 57. p. 70 71. is so horribly and most uglily grosse in the forefront and ●ear of it as that it would even affright a Christian to looke upon it And yet 1. The sequell of it is but taken from the analogy of humane electio● to that of divine because man may ●ay must if he will choose rationally finde a difference in the object whom he prefers for that by virtue of his choice he cannot make it a whit better then he findes i● erga so God must in his choice and by vertue of it not make ●ut finde a difference proba scilice● cons●quent●am I might wonder (k) Even a popish Aquinas could have taught you better v. Thomam 1 2 q. 2 3. ar●ic 4 V●luntas D●l qua vult bonum alicui dilig●nao est causa cur illud b●●um ab co prae allis hab●atur probe enim observat D. Rivet disp 3. de p●aedestinat thes 10. Notandum esse electionem dil●●●anem aliter in nobi● ordinari quam in D●o e● quod voluntas in n●bis diligendo non causat bonum sed ex bono praeexistente incitamur ad diligendum ideo eligimus aliquem quem diligimus unde dilectio praecedit electionem in nobis in D●o autem est è converso our Saviour could not hit upon this when he said John 15. 16. You have not chosen me but I have chosen you and ordeined you not because he di● find or foresee fruit but that by v●rtue of their election they should go and bring forth fruit and that then fruit should remaine That the Logicall Apostle Paul should be so dogmatically contrary to this Rom. 9. 11 18. that he should keep such a coile with his v. 20. Man who art thou that thou repliest against God That the beloved Disciple so often in Christs bosome as Christ had been before in his Fathers bosome should have heard neither tale nor tidings of this when he wrote John 1. 4 10. that herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to bee a propitiation for our sins But I ceased to wonder when I considered that none of these blessed ones had ever sate at the feet of any Arminian Gamaliels 2. The sequell of it seems to be co●roborated with a saying out of that very same book of Austins ad Smplic of which you had formerly made a very simple use nor are you yet in your dealings with Austi●● come to your much commended retraciation p. 51. what Austin cast out by way of argumentation in concertatione whilst he was as some where he hath it (l) As we have seen before and often since in Epist Hilar. ex lib. exposit qua rund proposit Epist ad Romanos lib. de persev sanct cap. 18. Yea your Vessius confesseth as much Histo● Pelag. 655. And so much you might have learned out of Damascen quo●ed by your selfe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in conflict● de gratia libertate you produce as his victorious conclusion in determinatione 2. Whilst you and your St Andrew with you from whom you had this quotation and almost your whole 57. Section for which hee is therefore most worthily shining in your margin p. 70. take up that for which Austin himselfe did beshrew himselfe very often and yet all this while p 70 you would make us believe that man hath no matter to boast though God never choose him till he hath persevered to the last gasp in faith and obedience Mira sed non vera canis 4. Your fourth Argument at length and not in figures proposed from 71. to 73. Sect 58 hath nothing in it but what for the most part even by me hath been often confuted you impose upon your readers but prove nothing As for what you say about the respectivenesse of Gods counsell as it relates to Christ p. 71. Counsell as it implies consultation and debates cannot properly be ascribed to God 2. It might relate to Christ as head of the predestinate or the chief yea the only meritorious cause and means of the executing of praedestination yet be no meritorious cause of the decree it selfe The praedestinate were chosen in Christ not because they had faith obedience but that they might obtein them for Christs sake The rest about the intentionality of Christs merits universall grace and redemption Christs invitations warnings c. we have found and dealt with all so often as that I have not a mind to salute them now as hasting to my wonted rest But as for that which you now

own will therefore he did ab aeterno decree to permit it for otherwise he could by confirming grace have hindered and prevented the committing of it as well in all Angels as in some as well in Adam as in Angels and that without any violence offered to their nature at all Gen. 20. 5. Gen. 31. 7. 1 Cor. 10. 13. neither can there be given any cause out of God himselfe and the counsell of his owne will leading and inducing him rather to permit then hinder it He did decree to permit it in order to his own glory which is the supreme end and therefore by him absolutely willed because the being thereof by his unsearchable wisdome and power was ordinable thereunto He may out of that common and equall masse wherein he did decree to permit it decree in some in whom he did permit it to pardon it and on them to shew free mercy in others to punish it and in them to shew due and deserved justice the one having nothing to boast of because the grace which saves them was Gods the other nothing to complaine of because the sinne which ruines them is their owne He may by this huge discrimination of persons who were in their lump and mass equall and in themselves indiscriminated shew the absolute soveraignty which he hath over them as the Potter over his clay He may by his most sweet and yet most powerfull efficacie work the graces of faith repentance new obedience and perseverance in the wils and hearts of those on whom he will shew mercy giving them efficaciously both to will and to doe of his own good pleasure and leave others to their own pride and stubburnness his grace being his own to do what he will withall And I say once againe in all this there is neither modest nor immodest blasphemy 1. Gods glory is dearer to him then all the things in the world besides are or can be 2. Every attribute of God is infinitely and absolutely glorious and the glory of every one of them infinitely deare unto him 3. Whatever is infinitely and absolutely glorious in God he may by an absolute will and purpose decree to shew forth the glory thereof in his works without fetching an antecedent Reason ab extra from without himselfe leading and inducing him to make such a decree 4. The subject on which God is absolutely pleased to manifest the glory of his mercy and justice as to mankinde is massa perdita 5. Out of this mass of lost or lapsed mankinde he hath ex mero beneplacito chosen some unto glory and salvation for the manifestation of his free and undeserved mercy and passed by others leaving them under deserved wrath for the manifestation of his justice 6. That such and such particular persons out of the same equally corrupted mass are chosen and others are rejected belongeth unto the deep and hidden counsell of God whose judgements are unsearchable and his waies past finding out to whose soveraignty it appertaineth to forme out of the same lump one vessell unto honour and another unto dishonour to shew mercy on whom hee will shew mercy and to pass by whom he will pass by 7. God doth so absolutely will and decree ab aeterno the manifestation of the glory of his attributes in his works as that withall he purposeth that the temporary execution of those eternall and absolute decrees shall finally be in materia apta disposita for such a manifestation 8. All those intermediate dispositions between the decree and the execution thereof whereby the subject is fitted for such manifestation of Gods glory if they be gracious they are by Gods eternall will decreed to be wrought and accordingly are in time effectually wrought by himselfe and his grace in and with the will of the creature If they be evill and sinfull they are in his eternall purpose permitted to bee wrought and are in time actually wrought by the deficient and corrupt will of the creature and being so wrought are powerfully ordered by the wise and holy will of the Creator to his glory 1. So then God did ab aeterno most absolutely wil and decree his owne glory as the supreme end of all consulting therein the counsell of his owne will and not the wils of any of his creatures 2. In order unto that supreme end he did freely elect some Angels and some lapsed men unto blessednesse for he might do with his own gifts what hee would himselfe 3. In order to the same supreme end he did leave some Angels and some lapsed men to themselves to their own mutability and corruption not being a debtor unto any of them 4. But he did not ordaine any creature to absolute damnation but to damniaton for sin into which they fal as they themselves know by their own wils whereof they are themselves the alone causes and authors Gods work about sinne being only a willing permission and a wise powerfull and holy Gubernation but no actuall efficiency unto the formall being and obliquity thereof I am sorry I am led on by mine own thoughts thus farre into your proper work But here I stop I was glad to see two Orthodox and sound Axioms stand before the book of your Author as the basis of his superstructure Two men of quite different judgements in these very arguments I finde to have done so Prosper cont Collat. c. 14. before The one Cassianus the Collator of whom Prosper hath these words Catholicarum tibi aurium judicia conciliare voluisti quibus de praemissae professionis fronte securis facile sequentia irreperent si prima Liv. decad 3. lib. 8. placuissent Which words of his bring into my mind a saying of the Historian fraus fidem in parvis sibi praestruit Ang de grat Chr●sti cap. 39. ut cum operae pretium sit cum magna mercede fallat and the censure of Austin upon Pelagius Gratiae Vid. Savilii praefat ad lectorem Andr. Rivet Grotian discuss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sect. 8. Sect. 11. Voss Hist Pelag lib. 1. cap. 26. vocabulo frangit invidiam offensionem declinat The other the famous Arch-Bishop Bradwardine whom learned and good men will honour notwithstanding the hard censure passed by Hugo Grotius upon him who premiseth two Hypotheses as the ground of that profound work of his de causa Dei I will have so faire and just an opinion of your Author as to beleeve that he did this in candor and integrity following therein rather the learned example of Bradwardin then if Prospers censure may be taken the artifice and cunning of Cassianus yet because this is a course which may by the credit of true principles draw the lesse cautelous and circumspect Readers to consent to deductions not naturally consequent upon them It is requisite as for writers as Pliny adviseth saepius respicere titulum so for Readers to follow the Apostles counsell to prove all things and hold fast that which is

and then they set dogs upon them so you transform the holiest and ablest of your adversaries into modest or immodest blasphemers who are for the Ligonem Ligonem of Gods being the author of sin and then you set the bandogs of your rhetorick upon them But how sharp soever your shield I trust the two edged sword of Gods word will be able to cut it all in pieces Heb. 4. 12. Sect. 3. p. 2. AS for your private conference I had thought that you had not been at all for private divine Conventicles and not having been at it I cannot guesse much how much or how little it was for edification but since the breaking of it up from the report which here you make of it and I have otherwise heard of it me thinks I may gather these notes 1. That because you thought your first draught conteining the sum of your conference to bee so inconsiderable as not so much as to vouchsafe it a reading over before you did part with it out of your hands You have made it impossible for your selfe with reason to make such invectives as every where you do against the Transcribers of your scrible for how can you now tell that some did not honestlie write according to what they found you to have writtē before them without any of the least adding to or detracting from your first Copy 2. It is somwhat strange that you who are a publicke Preacher and provided of a publick place to divulge any wholsome sound doctrine in which it cannot be gainsaid and what have you to do with any other should yet in a time wherein Liberty enough in all Conscience is given and taken to and by those who do but pretend to Liberty of Conscience be so shie to owne what you teach should in meer points of Religion be so much for Conjurations of greatest secrecie p. 3. for whispers and murmurs nay for a readinesse of going with your owne hands to the fire with your papers rather then to the Light p. 4. as if your owne conscience did tell you that they were very fit to be burnt for hereticks Aliquid in this sure latet quod non patet veritas est temporis filia dies diem docebit * See how like the Pelagians you are in this apud August Epist 104 105. Sunt qui occultius penetrant domos quod in aperto jam clamare metuunt in secreto seminare non quiescunt c. 3. That by what I know and have heard and could tell further if need were you were in the way of gaining close proselytes to you not so happy in that other Gentleman you mention as you were in tripping up of the heels of the first whom you felled to the ground as the report goes by a strange long-winded syllogisme with which you begin your first papers If ever you get beyond sea againe you must not cry victoria for gaining all you ever conferred with unlesse you will doe it with as little veritie as Dr Weston at St See Dr Featlies Praeface to the Protestant Relation Nostra damus cum verba damus quia fallere nostrum est Omars did glorie that the Bishop of Calcedon had made the Earle of Warwicke to become a good Romane Catholicke Sect. 4. p. 3 4. 1. IF you did not after your wonted fashion feed us with empty spoons put us off with meer words and bare pretensions of your inability to fathome the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Apostle or the Abysse of the Psalmist you would Calvin instit lib. 3. c. 23. 7. not p. 24. so tartly and sarcastically have gibed at Calvin for calling the decree about the permission of Adams fall and the consequents of it horribile decretum in no other sense as its evident then because upon the consideration of it it did affect him with some awfull horrour that would in very deed have well becommed you were your head of a thousand times deeper reach then it is to have been strucken with a reverentiall and amazing silencing pause at the mysterious gulfe of divine predestination seeing both the Apostle and the Psalmist and all humble modest Divines with them and Austin (i) August ad Laurent c. 99. ad Rom. 9. Hoc loco quidam stulti putant apostolum in responsione defecisse inopiâ reddendae rationis repressisse contradictoris audaciam Sed magnum habet pondus quod dictum est O homo tu quis es Et in talibus quaestionibus ad suae capacitatis considerationem revocat hominem Verbo quidem brevi sed reipsâ magna est reddita ratio Idem eodem lib. cap. 98. Nunquid iniquitas apud Deum absit iniquum enim videtur ut sine ullis honorum malorumve operum meritis unum Deus diligat oderitque alterum Qua in re si futura opera vel bona hujus vel mala illius quae Deus utique presciebat vellet intelligi nequaquam diceret non ex operibus sed diceret ex futuris operibus eoque modo istam solveret quaestionem immo nullam quam solvi opus est faceret quaestionem willinglie confesse themselves to be at a stand about the severall mysterious waies of executing those decrees which the ever holie wise God takes in the course of his providence 2. But he that runs if he be but reading of your book in his hand may easilie perceive that in your doctrines about this matter you are but too n●er allied to that proud haughty and daring generation I meane now of the Jesuits Arminians and Socinians who think it high scorn that any thing about this mysterie should baffle or give check to that which they take to bee the Lydius Lapis for the trying of all doctrines viz. their Recta Ratio And pray according both to you and them what depth according to meer naturall reason is there in it for to allow God the sole assignment of the conditions upon which he wil Elect and Reprobate 2. Or for to maintain that it was fitting for him to make finall faith or infidelity the conditions of those decrees as finall legall obedience or disobedience and yet this is the ne plus ultra of the deepest Bathos of your predestination by which have you not turned it into a fordable shallow for any child to wade through 3. And why seeing you doe in these trim publick papers of yours give out faith and infidelity to be the causes of Election and Reprobation p. 70. doe you so much as seem to denie p. 56. what you had strenuouslie asserted in your uncorrected Copy p. 11. that when two are equally called whereof the one converts himselfe the other miscarries it is not God but man that puts the difference (k) August in Iohan. 6. Quem trahat quem non trahat quare illum trahat illum non trahat noli velle judicare si non vis errare Can you assigne a cause of the

Arguments for conditionall election and that he had been tampering to have tripped up the heels of some others whom he found somewhat too tough for him As to this present Correct Copy it is to me somewhat more then probable that in the behalfe of reprobates for which he pleads in 4 whole Chapters having over-heated and overstudied himself hee was willing to tell the world that he had not much studied that point of election but however was resolved to maintein it to be conditionall because he had sped so wel in opposing absolute reprobation Egregiam verolaudem vitulâ tu dignus 2. Having by a matter of 12. or 14. lines which I think is the summa totalis over-spoken himselfe p. 56. in the commendation of grace and having before it p. 51. professed himselfe to be much for retractations he doth by no lesse then five reasons in this fifth Chapter of his retract or do pennance for his over lavish expressions for it is not possible that his concessions there p. 55 56. should bee consistent with his stedfast beliefe p. 68. as he saith divulged in this Chapter How can all those good things spoken there be given us by speciall grace and yet all along in this Chapter be presupposed as conditions of that election by which they be all conveied How can God by his grace as he saith p. 56. make us to differ and yet here p. 70. presuppose the difference made before he elects us 3. The whole Chapter crawles as much with reall yea even with verball Pelagianisme and Massi●●anisme as hath been shewed before in the parallell as ever Egypt crawled with lice Exod. 8. 7. The very punctum apex Pelagianismi was in this saying (f) Aug. de praedestin Sanctorum cap. 18. Praesciebat ergo ait Pelogianus qui futuri essent sācti immaculati per liberae voluntatis arbitrium ideo eos ante mundi const●tutionem in ipsa sua praescientia qua tales futuros esse praescivit elegit Now followes the answer of Austin Elegit nos in ipso ut essemus sancti immaculati non ergo quia futuri eramus sed ut essemus nempe certum est nempe manifestum est ideo quippe tales ●ramus futuri qui elegit ipse praedestinans ut tales per gratiam ejus essemus The Lord said the Pelagian did foreknow who should be holy and ūblameable by the liberty of their freewill and therefore hee did in his prescience whereby hee did foreknow that they should be such choose them Unto which Austins answer unto the point upon the place was that God did not choose us because we were holy but that we might be so for therefore were we to become such because he praedestinating did choose us that by his grace we might be such 4. The whole Chapter throughout disallowes all absolute grace or grace absolutely bestowed for without the least haesitation or the least indication of any limitation the man Mr T. P. stedfastly believes p. 68. that Gods decree of election from all eternity was not absolute and irrespective but in respect unto and praescience of some qualification without which no man is the proper object of such a decree and p. 7● the Scripture gives as none but conditionall promises So that now if as is most true we be but ca●led according to purpose Rom. 8. 29. with a holy calling not according to workes of righteousnesse which we have done 2 Tim. 1. 9. If made Gods workemanship created unto all manner of good workes Eph. 2. 10. If faith Eph. 2. 8. If repentance be but the gifts of God Acts 11. 18. Mr T. P. such is his skill can give us a reason and cause and condition for all this viz. because man repents believes before hand before he be chosen to them (g) From hence as Bishop Carleton wel against Montacutis examinat what can follow but this that God giveth these graces in respect of these graces which were to runne giddy in a circle Impii ambulant in circulo just as the Massilians had done before Comment in cap. 21. ad Timoth. Cur non impletur ●jus voluntas ●ed in omni conditione sensus est conditio latet Vult ●nim Deus omnes homines salvos fieri sed si accedant ad eum non enim sic vult ut nolentes salventur sed vult ipsos salvari si ip●i velint A thing somewhat worse then that of the Pelagian that grace is given secundum merita operum according to the merits of good workes 5. All the five reasons labor of one incurable disease viz. of a way of argumentation from the order of Gods intentions in the making of the decree to the order of the execution of it And thus as to the generall flawes which are as warp and woofe uti vora vibiam sequitur to this Chapter There needs then the lesse to bee said to the five following arguments from p. 69. ad 71. The first page 69. hath the last mistake as a leproste in the head in the very front of it And though the good man had so oratorially declaimed against a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in divinity p. 23. yet he here fiercely runnes upon it whilst he makes the sequel God doth not in time bestow upon those of ripe years eternal life before the actual existence of faith repentance obedience c. ergo he did not so much as intend election before the foresight of them Of the wildnesse of this sequell pray let the reader see Dr Twisse in his answer to Mr Hoard p. 44. 2. The first proposition of his syllogisme is absolutely false unlesse it be understood of grown rationall persons with exception of all Christian infants dying before or presently after baptisme of all Christian naturall fools dumb and deafe persons who have no explicite formed faith repentance or obedience 3. The sequell from the justice of the decree to the justice of the performing of it without faith and repentance in the most is most ridiculous for the decree of election is an act of Gods soveraigne power and liberality whereby he resolves to give grace and glory to whom he pleaseth Rom 9. 18. The actuall collation of eternall life or glory is so an act of grace Rom. 6. 23. as that the Lords own promises and Christs merits considered it is an act of remunerative justice 2 Thes 1. 6 7. 4 (h) Bp Carletons Exam. p. 92. the 3. proposition that Peter was not glo●ified without respect to his ●aith obedienc● and repentance wee grant the reasons because salvation glorification are in the nature of a reward Now the Scripture witnesses that God will reward every man according to his workes The n●cessary condition which you speake of in the foot of this argument p. 69. and the merits which you would seem to renounce in the tail or close of your last p. 73. in despight of all that you have pleaded or can plead to the contrary will