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
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
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
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
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
the righteousnesse of God in him 2 Cor. 5. 21. thereby reconciling us unto God vers 19. he died to reconcile us unto God in the body of his flesh through death that we might be holy and unblameable Colos 1. 21 22. to purge our sins Heb. 1. 3. to obtaine an everlasting redemption for us Heb. 9. 12. so that if Christ by his death obtained what he did intend he hath purchased for us not only a possibilitie of salvation but holinesse righteousnesse reconciliation with God justification freedome from the guilt and condemning power of sin everlasting redemption eternall life and glory in heaven Thirdly I appeale unto the consciences of all Christians First whether they doe not suppose the very foundation of all their consolation to be stricken at when they shall finde those places of Scripture that affirme Christ to have died to take away our sins to reconcile us unto God to put away or abolish our transgressions to wash and regenerate us perfectly to save us and purchase for us an everlasting redemption whereby he is become unto us righteousnesse and redemption and sanctification the Lord our righteousnesse and we become the righteousnesse of God in him to be so wrested as if he should be said only to have done something which these things might happily follow Secondly whither they thinke it not a ready way to impaire their love and to weaken their faith in Christ when they shall be taught that Christ hath done no more for them then for those that are damned in hell that be their assurance never so great that Christ died for them yet there is enough to be laid to their charge to condemne them that though God is said to have reconciled them unto himselfe in Christ Colos 1. 19 20. yet indeed he is as angry with them as with any reprobate in the world that God loveth us not first but so long as we continue in a state of enmitie against him before our conversion he continues our enemy also so that the first act of friendship or love must be performed on our part notwithstanding that the Scripture saith we were reconciled unto God being enemies Romanes 5. vers 10. Thirdly Whither they have not hitherto supposed themselves bound to beleeve that Christ died for their sins and rose for their justification do they not thinke it lawfull to pray that God would bestow upon them grace and glory for Christs sake and to beleeve that Iesus Christ was such a Mediatour of the new Covenant as procured for the persons Covenanted withall all the good things comprehended in the promise of that Covenant I will not further presse upon this prevarication against Christian Religion only I would desire all the lovers of Iesus Christ seriously to consider whether these men doe truly ayme at his honour and advancing the dignitie of his merit and not rather at the crying up of their own indeavours seeing the sole cause of their denying these glorious effects of the blood of Christ is to appropriate the praise of them unto themselves as we shall see in the next Chapter These charges are never to be waved by the vanitie of their sophisticall distinctions as of that of impetration and application which though it may be received in an Orthodox meaning yet not in that sense or rather non-sense whereunto they abuse it viz. As though Christ had obtained that for some which shall never be imparted unto them that all the blessings procured by his death are proper to none but pendent in the aire for them that can or will catch them whereupon when we object that by this means all the efficacie of the merit of Christ is in our own power they readily grant it and say it cannot otherwise be let them that can receive these monsters in Christianitie for my part in these following contradictory assertions I will choose rather to adhere to the authoritie of the word of God then of Arminius and his sectaries S. S. He made him to be sinne for us who knew no sinne that we might become the righteousnesse of God in him 2 Cor. 5. 21. He loved his Church and gave himselfe for it that he might present it unto himselfe a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such things Ephes 5. 26 27. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himselfe 2 Cor. 5. 19. When thou shalt make his soule an offering for sin he shall see his seed he shall prolong his dayes and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand Isa 53. 10. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant iustifie many for he shall beare their iniquities vers 11. Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many Heb. 9. 28. By his own blood he entred in once into the holy place having obtained eternall redemption for us vers 12. He hath reconciled you in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblamable Colos 1. 22. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousnesse for the remission of sins c. that he might be iust and the iustifier of him that beleeveth in Iesus Rom. 3. 25 26. Who his own selfe bare our sins in his own body on the tree that we being dead to sinne should live unto righteousnesse by whose stripes we are healed 1 Peter 2. 24. Lib. Arbit The immediate effect of the death of Christ is not the remission of sins or the actuall redemption of any Armin. Christ did not properly die to save any one Grevinch A potentiall and conditionate reconciliation not actuall and absolute is obtained by the death of Christ Corvin I beleeve it might have come to passe that the death of Christ might have had its end though never any man had beleeved Corvi The death and satisfaction of Christ being accomplished yet it may so come to passe that none at all fulfilling the condition of the new covenant none might be saved idem The impetration of salvation for all by the death of Christ is nothing but the obtaining of a possibilitie thereof that God without wronging his iustice may open unto them a gate of mercy to be entred on some condition Rem Coll. Hag. Notwithstanding the death of Christ God might have assigned any other condition of salvation as well as faith or have chosen the Iews following the righteousnesse of the law Grevin Why then the efficacie of the death of Christ depends wholly on us true it cannot otherwise be Rem Apol. CHAP. X. Of the cause of faith grace and righteousnesse THE second part of this controversie is in particular concerning grace faith and holinesse sincere obedience to the precepts of the new Covenant all whose praise we appropriate to the most high by reason of a double interest First of the merit of Christ which doth procure them for us Secondly of the holy Spirit which works them in us the death of Christ is their
all this discourse concerning the meritorious cause of Salvation with their shutting out of Christ from being the onely one and absolutely necessary meanes to bring us unto heaven to make us happy this is the last Pile they erect upon their Babylonish foundation which makes the Idol of humane selfe-sufficiencie every way perfect and fit to be sacricrificed unto untill these proud builders to get materials for their owne Temple laid the Axe to the root of Christianitie we tooke it for grounded that there is no salvation in any other because there is none other name under heaven given unto men whereby we must be saved Acts 4. 12. Neither yet shall their nefarious attempts frighten us from our Creed nor make us be wanting to the defence of our Saviours honour but I shall be very briefe in the consideration of this Heterodoxie nothing doubting but that to have repeated it is fully to have confuted it in the judgement of all pious Christians First then they grant salvation to the ancient Patriarches and Iewes before the coming of Christ without any knowledge of or faith in him at all Nay they deny that any such faith in Christ was ever prescribed unto them or required of them It is certaine that there is no place in the Old Testament from whence it may appeare that faith in Christ as a Redeemer was ever enioyned or found in any of them say they joyntly in their Apologie the truth of which assertion we shall see hereafter onely they grant a generall faith involved under types and shadowes and looking on the promise as it lay hid in the goodnesse and providence of God which indirectly might be called a faith in Christ from which kinde of faith I see no reason why thousands of heathen Infidels should be excluded agreeable unto these assertions are the Dictates of their Patriarch Arminius affirming that the whole description of the Faith of Abraham Rom. 4. makes no mention of Iesus Christ either expressely or so implicitely as that it may be of any one easily understood and to the testimonie of Christ himselfe to the contrary Ioh. 8. â—6 your father Abraham reioyced to see my dayes and he saw it and was glad he answereth he reioyced to see the birth of Isaac who was a type of mee a goodly glosse corrupting the text Secondly what they teach of the Iews that also they grant concerning the Gentiles living before the incarnation of Christ they also might attaine salvation and be justified without his knowledge for although saith Corvinus the Covenant was not revealed unto them by the same means that it was unto the Iews yet they are not to be supposed to be excluded from the Covenant of grace nor to be excluded from salvation for some way or other they were called Thirdly they are come at length to that perfection in setting out this staine of Christianitie that Bertius on good consideration denied this proposition that no man can be saved that is not ingrafted into Christ by a true faith and Venator to this question Whether the only means of salvation be the life passion death resurrection and ascension of Iesus Christ answereth no thus they lay men in Abrahams bosome who never beleeved in the sonne of Abraham make them overcome the serpent who never heard of the seed of the woman bring goats into heaven who never were of the flock of Christ never entred by him the doore make men please God without faith and obtaine the remission of sins without the sprinkling of the blood of the Lambe to be saved without a Saviour redeemed without a redeemer to become the sons of God and never know their elder brother which prodigious errour might yet be pardoned and ascribed to humane imbecillitie had it casually slipt from their pens as it did from some others but seeing it hath foundation in all the grounds of their new doctrine and is maintained by them on mature deliberation it must be looked on by all Christians as an heresie to be detested and accursed For first deny the contagion and demerit of originall sinne then make the Covenant of grace to be universall and comprehend all and every one of the posteritie of Adam thirdly grant a power in our selves to come unto God by any such means as he will appoint and affirme that he doth assigne some means unto all and it will naturally follow that the knowledge of Christ is not absolutely necessary to salvation and so down fals the preheminence of Christianitie its heaven reaching crown must be laid levell with the services of dung-hill gods It is true indeed some of the ancient Fathers before the rising of the Pelagian heresie who had so put on Christ as Lipsius speaks that they had not fully put of Plato have unadvisedly dropt some speeches seeming to grant that divers men before the Incarnation living 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the dictates of right reason might be saved without faith in Christ as is well shewed by learned Causabon in his first excercitation on Baronius but let this be accounted part of that stubble which shall burne at the last day wherewith the writings of all men not divinely inspired may be stained it hath also since as what hath not been drawn into dispute among the wrangling Schoolemen and yet which is rarely seene their verdict in this particular almost unanimously passeth for the truth Aquinas tels us a story of the corps of a heathen that should be taken up in the time of the Empresse Irene and her sonne Constantine with a golden plate on his brest wherein was this inscription Christ is borne of a virgin and I beleeve in him oh Sun thou shalt see me againe in the dayes of Irene and Constantine but the question is not whether a Gentile beleeving in Christ may be saved or whether God did not reveale himselfe and his Sonne extraordinarily to some of them for shall we straighten the brest and shorten the arme of the Almighty as though he might not doe what he will with his own But whether a man by the conduct of nature without the knowledge of Christ may come to heaven the assertion whereof we condemne as a wicked Pelagian Socinian heresie and thinke that it was well said of Bernard that many labouring to make Plato a Christian doe prove themselves to be Heathens and if we looke upon the severall branches of this Arminian novell doctrine extenuating the precious worth and necessitie of faith in Christ we shall finde them hewed off by the two edged sword of Gods word First for their denying the Patriarchs and Iews to have had faith in Christum exhibendum moriturum as we in him exhibitum mortuum it is disproved by all Evangelicall promises made from the beginning of the world to the birth of our Saviour as that Gen. 3. 15. The seed of the woman shall breake the Serpents head and Chap. 12.
it be advanced above its owne or be by inherent habituall grace Divine Theologicall vertues differing even in the substance of the act from those morall performances about the same things to which the strength of nature may reach for the difference of acts ariseth from their formall objects which to both these are divers must have another principle and cause above all the power of nature in civill things and actions morally good in as much as they are subject to a naturall perception and doe not exceed the strength of our owne wils this facultie of Free-will may take place but yet not without these following limitations First that it alwaies requireth the generall concurse of God whereby the whole suppositum in which Free-will hath its subsistence may be sustained Matth. 10. 29. 30. Secondly that we doe all these things imperfectly and with much infirmitie every degree also of excellency in these things must be counted a speciall gift of God Isa 26. 12. Thirdly that our wils are determined by the will of God to all their acts and motions in particular but to doe that which is spiritually good we have no knowledge no power Secondly that concerning which I gave one speciall instance in whose production the Arminians attribute much to Free-will is Faith this they affirme as I shewed before to be in-bred in nature every one having in him from his birth a naturall power to beleeve in Christ and his Gospel for Episcopius denies that any action of the holy Spirit upon the understanding or will is necessarie or promised in the Scripture to make a man able to beleeve the word preached unto him So that it seemes every man hath at all times a power to beleeve to produce the act of faith upon the revelation of its object which grosse Pelagianisme is contrary First to the doctrine of the Church of England affirming that a man cannot so much as prepare himselfe by his owne strength to faith and calling upon God untill the grace of God by Christ prevent him that he may have a good will Artic. Secondly to the Scripture teaching that it is the worke of God that we do beleeve Ioh. 6. 29. It is not of our selves it is the gift of God Ephes 2. 8. To some it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdome of heaven Matth 13. 11. And what is peculiarly given to some cannot be in the power of every one To you it is given on the behalfe of Christ to beleeve on him Phil. 1. 29. Faith is our accesse or coming unto Christ which none can do unlesse the Father draw him Ioh. 6. 44. and he so draweth or hath mercy on whom he will have mercy Rom. 9. 19. and although Episcopius rejects any immediate action of the holy Spirit for the ingenerating of faith yet Saint Paul affirmeth that there is no lesse effectuall power required to it then that which raised Christ from the dead which sure was an action of the Almightie Godhead That we may know saith he what is the exceeding greatnesse of his power to usward who beleeve according to the working of his mightie power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead Ephes 1. 19 20. So that let the Arminians say what they please recalling that I write to Christians I will spare my labour of further proving that faith is the free gift of God and their opposition to the truth of the Scripture in this particular is so evident to the meanest capacitie that there needs no recapitulation to present the summe of it to their understandings CHAP. XIII Of the power of Free-will in preparing us for our conversion unto God THE judgement of the Arminians concerning the power of Free-will about spirituall things in a man unregenerate meerely in the state of corrupted nature before and without the helpe of grace may be laid open by these following positions First That every man in the world reprobates and others have in themselves power and abilitie of beleeving in Christ of repenting and yeelding due obedience to the new covenant and that because they lost not this power by the fall of Adam Adam after his fall saith Grevinchovius retained a power of beleeving and so did all reprobates in him he did not loose as they speake at the Synod the power of performing that obedience which is required in the new covenant considered formally as it is required by the new covenant he lost not a power of beleeving nor a power of forsaking sin by repentance and those graces that he lost not are still in our power whence they affirme that faith is called the worke of God only because he requireth us to do it now having appropriated this power unto themselves to be sure that the grace of God be quite excluded which before they had made needlesse they teach Secondly That for the reducing of this power into act that men may become actuall beleevers there is no infused habit of grace no spirituall vitall principle necessary for them or bestowed upon them but every one by the use of his native endowments doe make themselves differ from others Those things which are spoken concerning the infusion of habits before we can exercise the act of faith we reiect saith the Epistle to the Walachrians That the internall principle of faith required in the Gospel is a habite divinely infused by the strength and efficacy whereof the will should be determined I deny saith another of them Well then if we must grant that the internall vitall principle of a supernatural spirituall grace is a meere natural faculty not elevated by any divine habit if it be not God that begins the good work in us but our own free-wils let us see what more goodly stuffe wil follow one man by his own meere indeavours without the aid of any received gift makes himself differ from another What matter is it in that that a man should make himselfe differ from others there is nothing truer he who yeeldeth faith to God cōmanding him maketh himself differ from him who will not have faith when he cōmandeth they are the words of their Apologie which without question is an irrefragable truth if faith be not a gift received from above for on that ground only the Apostle proposeth these questions who made thee differ from another or what hast thou that thou hast not received and if thou hast received why boasteth thou as if thou hast not received the sole cause why he denies any one by his own power to make himself differ from another is because that wherein the difference consisteth is received being freely bestowed upon him deny this and I confesse the other will fall of it selfe But untill their authoritie be equall with the Apostles they would do well to forbeare the naked obtrusions of assertions so contradictory to theirs and so they would not trouble the Church let them take all the glory unto themselves
and yet Chapter 36. vers 36. He affirmeth that he will doe this very thing that here he requireth of them 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 give you an heart of flesh and I will cause you to walke in my statutes c. In how many places also are we commanded to feare the Lord which when we doe I hope none will deny to be a performance of our dutie and yet Jerem. 32. 40. God promiseth that he will put his feare in our hearts that we shall not depart from him Thirdly those two against which they lay particular exceptions faith and repentance are also expresly attributed to the free donation of God he granteth unto the Gentiles repentance unto life Acts 11. 18. and of faith directly it is not of our selves it is the gift of God Ephes 2. 8. To which assertion of the holy Spirit I shall rather fasten my beliefe then to the Arminians affirming that it is no gift of God because it is of our selves and yet this hindereth not but that it may be stiled Our most holy faith Iude 20. Let them that will deny that any thing can properly be ours which God bestoweth on us the Prophet accounted them not inconsistent when he averred that God worketh all our workes in us Isa 26. 12. They are our workes though of his working the Apostle laboured though it was not he but the grace of God that was with him 1 Cor. 15. 10. He worketh in us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of his good pleasure Philip. 2. 13. and yet the performance of our dutie may consist in those acts of our wils and those good deeds whereof he is the Authour so that according to Saint Austins counsell we will still pray that he would bestow what he commandeth us to have Fourthly 1 Cor. 4. Who made thee differ from another or what hast thou that thou hast not received Every thing that makes us differ from others is received from God wherefore the foundation of all difference in spirituall things betweene the sonnes of Adam being faith and repentance they must also of necessitie be received from above In briefe Gods circumcising of our hearts Colos 2. 11. His quickning us when we are dead Ephes ◠1. 2. Begetting us anew Iohn 1. 13. Making us in all things such as he would have us to be is contained in that promise of the New Covenant Jerem. 32. 40. I will make with them an everlasting Covenant that I will not turne away from them to doe them good but I will put my feare in their hearts that they shall not depart from me and is no way repugnant to the holy Scripture declaring our dutie to be all this that the Lord would have us and now let all men judge whether against so many and cleere testimonies of the holy Ghost the Arminian reasons borrowed from the old Philosophers be of any value the summe of them all you may finde in Cicero his third Booke De Natura Deorum Every one saith he obtaineth vertue for himself never any wise man thanked God for that for our vertue we are praised in vertue we glory which might not be were it a gift of God and truely this in softer termes is the summe of the Remonstrants Arguments in this particular Lastly observe that this errour is that which of all others the Orthodox Fathers did most oppose in the Pelagian heretiques yea and to this day the more learned Schoolemen stoutly maintaine the truth herein against the innovating Iesuits with some few of the testimonies of the Ancients I will shut up this discourse It is certaine that when we doe any thing we doe it saith Saint Augustine but it is God that causeth us so to doe and in another place Shall we not account that to be the gift of God because it is required of us under the promise of eternall life God forbid that this should seeme so either to the partakers or defenders of grace where he rejecteth both the errour and the sophisme wherewith it is upholden So also Coelestius Bishop of Rome in his Epistle to the Bishops of France So great saith he is the goodnes of God towards men that he will have those good things to be our good duties he cals them merits according to the phrase of those dayes which are his owne gifts to which purpose I cited before two Canons out of the Arausican Councel and Saint Prosper in his Treatise against Cassianus the Semipelagian affirmeth it to be a foolish complaint of proud men that Free-will is destroyed if the beginning progresse and continuance in good be said to be the gifts of God and so the imputation of folly wherewith the Arminians in my first Quotation charge their opposers being retorted on them by this learned Father I referre you to these following excerpta for a close S. S. Circumcise the fore-skinne of of your hearts and be no more stiffe necked Deut. 10. 16. And the Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart and the heart of thy seede Chap. 30. 6. Make you a new heart and a new spirit O house of Israel Ezek. 18. 31. A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you Chap. 36. 36. If you will feare the Lord and serve him then shall you continue following the Lord your God 1 Sam. 12. 14. And I will put my feare into your hearts that ye shall not depart from me Ierem. 32. 40. He hath wrought all our workes in us Isa 26. 12. He worketh in us both to will and to doe of his good pleasure Philip. 2. 13. He hath blessed us with all spirituall blessings in him Ephes 1. 3. To you it is given in the behalfe of Christ to beleeve in him Philip. 1. 29. The bloud of Christ purgeth our consciences from dead works to serve the living God Heb. 9. 14. Lib. Arbit This is most certaine that that ought not to bee commanded which is wrought in us hee foolishly commandeth that to be done of others who will worke in them what he commandeth Rem Apol. It is absurd to affirme that God either worketh by his power or procureth by his wisedome that the elect should doe those things which God requireth of them Episcopius Faith and conversion cannot be acts of our obedience if they are wrought by God in us Rem Col. Hag. That God should require that of us which himselfe will worke in us is a ridiculous action scarce fit for a stage Rem Apol That saying of Augustine that God crowneth his owne gifts in us is not easily to be admitted Ibid. There is nothing more vaine and foolish then to ascribe faith and regeneration to the merit of Christ Idem CHAP. XI Whether Salvation may be attained without the knowledge of or Faith in Christ Jesus I Shall shut up