the Gospell according to that Mar. 1. Repent ye and believe the Gospell Now to believe the Gospell is one thing the summe whereof is this That Jesus Christ came into the World to save sinners but to believe in Christ is another thing which yet this Author distinguisheth not though it appears by the course of his argumentation that he draws to this meaning and that in a particular sense which is this to believe that Christ died for them as appears expressely in the latter end of this Section And no marvaile if this Author carry himselfe so confidently in this being as he is armed with such confidence But I am glad that in one place or other he springs his meaning that we may have the fairer flight at him to pull down his pride and sweep away his vain considence though we deale upon the most plausible argument of the Arminians and which they think insoluble My answer is first Look in what sense Arminius saith Christ died for us in the same sense we may be held to say without prejudice to our Tenet of absolute reprobation that all who heare the Gospell are bound to believe that Christ died for them For the meaning that Arminius makes of Christs dying for us is this Christ dyed for this end that satisfaction being made for sinne the Lord now may pardon sinne upon what condition he will which indeed is to dye for obtaining a possibility of the redemption of all but for the actuall redemption of none at all Secondly But I list not to content my selfe with this therefore I farther answer by distinction of the phrase of dying for us that we may not cheat our selves by the confounding of things that differ To dye for us or for all is to dye for our benefit or for the benefit of all Now these benefits are of a different nature whereof some are bestowed upon man only conditionally though for Christs sake and they are the pardon of sinne and Salvation of the Soule and these God doth conferre only upon the condition of faith and repentance Now I am ready to professe and that I suppose as out of the mouth of all our Divines that every one who hears the Gospell without distinction between Elect and Reprobate is bound to believe that Christ died for him so farre as to procure both the pardon of his sinnes and the salvation of his soule in case he believe and repent But there are other benefits which Christ by his obedience hath merited for us namely the benefit of faith and repentance For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulnesse dwell Col. 1. And He hath blessed us with all spirituall blessings in Christ that is for Christs sake and God works in us that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ and therefore seeing nothing is more pleasing in Gods sight on our part then faith and repentance even these also I should think God works in us through Jesus Christ and the Apostle praies in the behalfe of the Ephesians for peace and faith and love from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ that is as I interpret it from God the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost as an efficient cause and from the Lord Jesus Christ God and Man as a meritorious cause thereof Now I demand whether this Author can say truly that t is the constant opinion of our Divines that all who heare the Gospell whether Elect or Reprobate are bound to believe that Christ dyed to procure them faith and repentance Nay doth any Arminian at this day believe this or can he name any Arminian that doth avouch this Nay doth himselfe believe this If he doth not if he cannot shew any Arminian that doth with what face can he charge this opinion upon us as if we should extend the obligation to believe much farther then the Arminians doe whereas usually they criminate us for not extending it so farre as we should And indeed there is a main difference between these benefits and the former For as touching the former namely pardon of sinne and salvation God doth not use to conferre them but conditionally to wit upon the condition of faith and repentance But as for faith and repentance doth God conferre them conditionally also If so then let them make known to us what that condition is on mans part and whatsoever it be let them look unto it how they can avoid the making of grace to wit the grace of faith and repentance to be given according unto works But if these graces are conferred absolutely and Christ dyed for all to this end that faith and repentance should be conferred absolutely upon all then it followeth manifestly herehence that all must believe and repent and consequently all must be saved So that not only Election as Huberus that renegate faigned must be universall but Salvation also Thus have I given in my answer distinctly to that which he delivered most confusedly Fourthly I come to the scanning of the particular opinion of Zanchy namely that every one that hears the Gospell whether elect or reprobate for so I suppose it proceeds to wit only of them who heare the Gospell though this Author takes no consideration of that neither but hand-over-head laies about him like a mad man is bound to believe that he is elect in Christ and will trye whether I cannot reduce that opinion of his also to a faire interpretation And here first I observe Zanchy is not charged to maintain that every hearer of the Gospell is bound to believe that he is elect in Christ unto faith and repentance but only to salvation that puts me in good heart that Zanchy I shall shake hands of fellowship in the end and part good friends Secondly I distinguish between absolute-Election unto Salvation and election unto Salvation-absolute The first only removes all cause on mans part of election the latter removes all cause on mans part of salvation By cause of salvation I mean only a disposing cause such as faith repentance and good works are as whereby to expresse it in the Apostles phrase we are made meet partakers of the inheritance of the Saints of light Now albeit Zanchy maintains as we doe that all the elect are absolutely elected unto salvation there being no cause on mans part of his election as we have learned yet neither Zanchy nor we doe maintain that God doth elect any unto salvation absolute that is to bring him to salvation without any disposing of him thereunto by faith and repentance Now to accommodate that opinion of Zanchy I say it may have a good sense to say that every hearer is bound to believe both that Christ dyed to procure Salvation for him in case he doe believe and that God ordained that he should be saved in case he doe believe where beliefe is made the condition only of salvation not of the Divine ordination and the confusion of these by the Arminians doth usually
them to be a good man or to have the grace of faith repentance or any other truly planted in his heart Which being so I say that the Minister cannot by the eternall acts and fruits of faith and repentance which he seeth come from him make it evident to the tempted for the silencing of all replies that he is without doubt a true believer and a true repentant and consequently no reprobate For still the tempted may say You may be deceived in me for you can see not a whit more in me then hath been seen in many a Reprobate If this be all you can say to prove me to be none I am not satisfied I may be a Reprobate nay I am a Reprobate and you are but a miserable comforter a Physitian of no value This that I say Piseator doth ingeniously confesse where he saith that no comfort can possibly be instilled into the soules of Reprobates afflicted with this temptation Whence it followes that the greatest part of men must beare their burthen if they fall into this trouble as wel as they can the Gospell cannot afford them any sound comfort 2. That the elect in this case may be comforted but it must be this way viz. by their feeling of the burthen of sinne and their desire to be freed from it by Christ which proofs as I have said are but only probable not infallible arguments of a mans election and therefore unsufficient comforts And in the end of the same Thesis where he saith That a man should reason thus with himselfe Grace is offered to some with a mind of communicating it to them therefore it may be that I am in that number he implyes that the doctrine of absolute Reprobation which teacheth this communication of grace to some few only affords but a fieri potest a peradventure I am elected for a poore soule to comfort himselfe withall TWISSE Consideration IN the last place we are to consider how truly he affirmeth that our doctrine leaveth a Minister none but weake grounds and those insufficient to quiet the tempted And whereas he saith We cannot conceive and make it evident to the understanding of the tempted that he is not that which he feares a Reprobate we willingly acknowledge it For not to be a reprobate is to be an elect Now how can any Arminian convince and make it evident to the understanding I doe not say of the tempted but of one that is a believer and walkes on comfortablely in the wayes of Godlinesse is he I say able to convince such a one and make it evident unto him that he is one of Gods elect I doe not think they dare professe that they presume they can or make it evident to their owne understanding that themselves are of the number of Gods elect How unreasonable then is this course to require of us to convince a man that acknowledgeth neither faith nor repentance in him for this is the condition of a man tempted as himselfe fashioneth it and to make it evident to his understanding that he is an elect and no reprobate when himselfe cannot convict him that believeth of this no nor their owne consciences neither notwithstanding all their confidence that they alone are in the right way of salvation Was there ever heard a more unreasonable course then this Againe to feare to be a reprobate or least he be a Reprobate is one thing to perswade himselfe that he is a Reprobate and to despaire thereupon is another thing We say and that according to our Doctrine that there is no cause why any man who hath not sinned the sinne unto death the sinne against the Holy Ghost should perswade himselfe that he is a Reprobate and despaire thereupon we doe not say there is no cause of feare In as much as he hath no evidence of his election there is just cause to feare but then againe seeing he neither hath nor can have any evidence of his reprobation excepting the guilt of the sinne against the Holy Ghost he hath every way as good cause to hope And for the comforting of such a one I would make bold to tell him that there is more hope of such a one as himselfe then of those who goe on in the wayes of their owne heart and in the light of their owne eyes without all remorse and check of conscience without feare or wit not considering that for all these things God will bring them to judgment And towards such I would think it fit to use all meanes and motives to make them feare The Apostle seemes to me to take the like course with better men then such even with such as went on in a faire and comfortable profession of Gospell namely to make them feare and suspect themselves as when he saith Prove youre selves whether you are in the faith examine your selves Know ye not that Christ is in you except ye be Reprobates 2 Cor. 13. 5. And for good reason for as Paul was jealous over the Corinthians with a Godly jealousy for feare least as the Serpent beguilde Eve through his subtilty so their minds should be corrupt from that simplicity which is in Christ 2 Cor. 11. 2 3. And in like manner entertained feare least when he came he should not find them such as he would and that he should be found unto them such as they would not c. 2 Cor. 12. In like manner I should think it is good for a man to be jealous over himselfe with a godly jealousy least their minds should be corrupt their wayes corrupt more then they are a ware of and there upon give themselves to the examining of themselves and to the searching and trying of their wayes whereunto the Holy Ghost exhorts us Lament 3. 40. And there is good comfort to be taken in such a jealousy such a feare such a course For we find that the spirit of bondage making us to feare is the forerunner of the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father Rom. 8. 15. Certainely they are in better case and nearer to the Kingdome of God then such as feare not yet is their no cause of despaire for as much as the elect of God had no evidence of their election before their calling Nay after their calling they may be much afflicted with the feares and terrours of God thinking themselves to be in worse case then indeed they are David found cause to pray that God would restore him to the joy of his Salvation yet Bertius would not say that David was fallen from grace and that propter graves causas yet who hath written more eagarly to maintaine that Saints may fall away from grace then Bertius But this Author beares before him such a spirit of confidence as if he would have all men ordered by his rules When Manoahs Wife Judg. 13. 22 23. discourseth thus If the Lord would kill us he would not have received a burnt offering at our hands nor shewed us these things He
speaks of the necessity of it unto salvation or that many thousands are now adaies regenerated without any Sacrament of regeneration That the Spirit of God is the efficient cause of Regeneration I think no Christian doubteth but this Author maketh the Baptizing with Water to be an efficient also as when he saith Baptisme is appoynted to be a means of Regeneration to all that are Baptized and not only so but that it doth effect it also in all that doe not put an obstacle in the way to hinder it I acknowledge willingly that Baptisme materiall is an instrument to wit both as a signe as a seale But that it is an instrument in any other kind of operation than belongs to a signe and seale I have not hitherto learned out of the word of God And as I remember Arminius was sometimes challenged for Heterodoxy about the Sacraments and withall that his Apology was this he never ascribed any other efficacy unto the Sacraments than is denoted under the tearmes of Signes and Seales but no marvaile if a degenerated condition hath seized on any that such proficiunt in pejus and grow more and more degenerate The phrase used here in calling Baptisme a means of regeneration sounds harsh in my eares we commonly say and it is the doctrine of our Catechisme that a Sacrament is an outward and visible signe of an inward and invisible grace now this grace in Baptisme I take to be the grace of regeneration and is it a decent expression to say that the signe of Regeneration is the means of Regeneration As for Baptismus spiritus the Baptisme of the spirit that is the very working of regeneration but Baptismus fluminis the Baptisme of water that is the administration of the outward signe and seale of the grace of regeneration The word Preacheth forgivenesse of sinnes to all that believe so doth the Sacrament of Baptisme but the word Preacheth this to the eare the Sacrament to the eye The word assureth it for it is Gods word the Sacrament assures it for it is Gods seale but neither of these worketh the assurance without the spirit of God and as for the working of Faith it selfe I have read that Faith comes by hearing I no where read that Faith comes by the being Baptized And sure I am when men of ripe yeares came to be Baptized they were first Catechumini then competentes and none admitted unto Baptisme unlesse the word had formerly brought them unto faith The Apostle calls Baptisme the laver of regeneration by the Rhemists translation the fountain of regeneration by the former English translation the washing of regeneration by the last but whereas this Author dignifies it with this title because it doth effect regeneration in all that doe not put an obstacle in the way to hinder it if this Author shall prove it while his head is hot we shall give that credence to it as it deserves in the mean time it stands for a bold affirmation let him take his time to make it appeare to be sound the Rhemists upon the place have this note As before in the Sacrament of holy Orders 1 Tim. 4. 2 Tim. 1. So here it is plaine that Baptisme giveth grace and that by it as by an instrumentall cause we be saved Master Fulkes answer is this Here is no word to prove that Baptisme giveth grace of the worke wrought but the Apostle saith that God hath saved us by the renewing of the Holy Ghost which is testified by the Sacrament of Baptisme marke I pray the office of Baptisme in Master Fulkes judgement to testify the renewing which is Sacramentally the laver of regeneration not by the worke wrought but by the grace of Gods spirit by which we are justified So speaketh Saint Peter and explicateth himselfe 1 Pet. 3. 21. Baptisme saveth us not the washing of the flesh of the body but the interrogation of a good conscience And because I know no obstacle that an Infant can put to hinder the effect of it for I suppose the obstacle must be rationall and Infants are not come to the use of reason to performe any rationall act which may prove any rationall obstacle therefore it seems this Authors opinion is that all who are Baptized in the Church are regenerate this indeed was the profession of Master Mountague before he was Bishop and was answered by Bishop Carelton as touching the best firmament of his opinion the Book of our Common-Prayer where the Child Baptized is said to be regenerate that is to be understood Sacramento tenus which is Saint Austins phrase and which he distinguisheth from truly regenerate And Bishop Usher in his History of Gotteschaleus alleadgeth out of the Author of the imperfect work upon Mathew Hom. 5. this sentence Eos qui cum tentati fuerint superantur pereunt videri quidem filios Dei factos propter aquam Baptismatis revera tamen non esse filios Dei quia non sunt in Spiritu Baptizati As also out of Austin De Unitate Ecclesiae cap. 19. Visibilem Baptismum posse habere alienos qui regnum Dei non possidebunt sed esse donum Spiritus Sancti quod proprium eorum est tantum qui regnabunt cum Christo in aeternum And lastly out of the same Austin as he is alleadged by Peter Lombard l. 4. Sent. dis 4. Sacramenta in solis electis efficere quod figurant All this is to be found in that Book of Bishop Usher p. 188. Besides many more pregnant passages are collected by him for the same purpose And not to charge him with authority only but with some reason when Saint James saith Jam. 1. 18. Of his own will he hath begotten us by the word of truth what I pray is here meant by the word of truth Is it not the Gospell to wit The Preaching of Christ crucified Now consider to whom doth he write but to the twelve Tribes that is to the Christian Jewes such as were begotten to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ as Saint Peter speakes writing also to the Jewes If then these Jewes were regenerated by the Preaching of the Gospell surely they were not regenerated by Circumcision and if regeneration were not necessarily annexed to the Sacrament of Circumcision amongst the Jewes then neither is it necessarily affixed to the Sacrament of Baptisme amongst the Christians For our Divines doe usually maintaine against the Papists that the Sacraments of the Old Testament were as effectuall to the Jewes as the Sacraments of the New Testament are effectuall unto us Christians It is true Baptisme is ordained that those which doe receive it may have the remission of their sinnes but not absolutely but conditionally to wit in case they believe and repent as appears both in that place Acts 2. 38. and Rom. 4. 11. And Baptisme as a Seale doth assure hereof only in case they believe and repent and therefore none of ripe years were admitted unto Baptisme untill
Augustini quisque teneat De me intelligo quemlibet ante uterum matris pradestinatum vel ad vitam vel ad mortem quod nunquam quisquam nisi in horâ mortis cognoscere potest Ego sum ex numero damnatorum ergo Deo nunquam asscribi possum Hoc certo credatis rectum esse quod Paulus Rom. 9. scribit Misereor cujus misereor Discedo ad lacus infernales Deo vos commendo cujus misericordia mihi negata est Et addit Major haec verba Hic est fructus perversae doctrinae de praedestinatione hominum Concerning which relation give me leave to observe somewhat 1. Here is no such thing as this Author relates that Hosuanus should say that man by Calvin and Austins opinion is not dealt withall secundum bona or mala opera and indeed this deciphering out of Austins and Calvins opinion is notoriously untrue neither as touching occultiores causae of mens eternall conditions as indeed it is apparent that in the way of a cause meritorious there is no other cause of damnation then sinne and in the way of a disposing cause no other cause of salvation then faith repentance and good workes And as touching the efficient cause of both none is or can be the cause thereof but God But as touching the cause why God gives grace to one and denyes it to another wee willingly confesse there is no cause thereof but the meere good pleasure of God In like sort of absolute cast-awayes here is no mention no nor of Vas formatum ad ignominiam nor any such saying of himselfe that he was none of the worst 2. Here is no mention made of the cause moving him hereunto as this Author pretends but only 't is said that it proceeded of desperation And though Major adds as a Coronis his censure that Hic est fructus perversae doctrinae de praedestinatione hominum yet I hope his censure is no Oracle with us no nor with Lutherans neither for I find him branded by Osiander in his Ecclesiasticall History And though he were of Austins and Calvins opinion in this poynt of predestination and did despaire yet it followes not that this doctrine moved him to despaire Suppose the conceit of being a reprobate moved him hereunto might it not move him hereunto according to the Arminian tenet as well and according to any tenet provided they doe not believe that God hath as yet decreed nothing or if he hath that his decrees may be recalled And then again by our Doctrine of Predestination it cannot be concluded of any man that he is a reprobate while he lives Nay this seems contrary to his own opinion which was this that no man can know whether he be predestinate to life or death till the houre of his death and his death was not brought upon him but wrought by him And as it was in his power not to have killed himselfe so was it in his power not to believe that he was a reprobate by this opinion of his Then again what moved him to conceive that he was a reprobate is concealed all along Now the conscience of sinne committed against the Holy Ghost may make a man conceive he is a reprobate of what opinion so ever he be concerning reprobation And as I take it That famous Doctor of Germany whom Goulartius mentioneth remaining then at Hall in Swabe was no Calvinist of whom he reports out of the History of Germany That having oftentimes turned his Conscience some times toward God some times toward the World having inclined in the end to the worser part said and confest publiquely that he was undone and fell so deepe into despaire as he could neither receive nor take any comfort or consolation so as in this miserable and wretched estate of his soule he slew himselfe most miserably It was not the doctrine of Predestination or Reprobation brought him unto this And though a man hath not sinned against the holy Ghost yet a conceit of such a sinne may drive a man unto this or of blasphemies in an inferior degree when God gives a man over unto the power of Satan as Gaulartius makes mention by his own experience of another desperate man whom he had heard who being exhorted to turne from the too vehement apprehension of Gods justice unto his mercy which was open unto him He answered very coldly you say true God is God but of his children not for me his mercy is certain for his elect but I am a reprobate a vessell of wrath and cursing and I doe already feele the torments of Hell When they did exhort him to call God his Father and Jesus Christ his Sonne My mouth saith he doth speake it but my heart hath horrour of it I believe that he is the Father of others but not of mee When they did lay before him that he had known God heard his word and received his Sacrament yea but he added I was an hypocrite and guilty of many blasphemies against God And then he returned to his ordinary discourses I am a vessell prepared to wrath and damnation I am damned I burne The same Goulartius reports out of the History of the times of a Learned man at Lovaine called Master Gerlach Who had profited so well in his studies as he was one of the first amongst the learned of that time And that being touched with a grievous sicknesse he sighed continually and feeling himselfe to draw neer his end he began to discover the ground of his sighes speaking such fearfull words as desperate men are accustomed to utter crying out and lamenting that he had lived very wickedly and that he could not endure the judgement of God for that he knew his sinnes were so great as he should never obtain pardon so as in this distresse he dyed oppressed with grievous and horrible despaire What this wickednesse of his was in speciall it seems he concealed it might be horrible enough though done in secret yet no just cause of despaire unlesse it were the sinne against the holy Ghost The like is recorded of M. Iames Latomus one of the chiefe Doctors of the University of Lovaine being one day out of countenance in a Sermon before the Emperour Charles the Fift returning ashamed and confounded from Brussells to Lovaine and did so apprehend the dishonour that he fell suddainly into despaire whereof he gave many testimonies in publique the which did move his friends to keepe him close in his house from that time unto his last gasp Poore Latomus had no other speech then that he was rejected of God that he was damned and that he hoped for no mercy nor salvation as having malitiously made warre against the grace and truth of God He dyed in this despaire neither was it possible for any friends or Physitians to make him change his opinion 3. If this story of Hosuanus be a truth I like his condition the worse for not giving any reason moving him to this desperation and
we acknowledge of predestination both in the way of a meritorious cause on Christs part and in the way of a disposing cause on our part For God we say hath predestinated to bestow upon us both grace and glory for Christs sake where Christ is made a meritorious cause of grace and glory but not of the act of predestination And farther we say that God hath predestinated to bestow glory upon us as a reward of grace as a reward of faith repentance and good workes and to this purpose it is said that God by his grace doth make us meet partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light Coloss 1. 12. But as for the bestowing of grace on any we say there is no cause thereof on mans part For he hath mercy on whom he will Rom. 9. 18. and he hath called us with an holy calling not according to our workes but according to his own purpose and grace 2 Timoth. 1. 9. Now let us apply this to reprobation which is the will of God as well as predestination and if there can be no cause of predestination quoad actum Praedestinantis because there can be no cause of the will of God quoad actum volentis Who seeth not that by the same reason there can be no cause of reprobation quoad actum reprobantis And if it be a mad thing to maintain that merits are the cause of predestination quoad actum praedestinantis it must be as mad a thing to maintain that any merits of the creature can be the cause of reprobation quoad actum reprobantis And this doctrine Aquinas applies expresly to Reprobation it selfe upon the 9. Rom. Lect. 2 da at the end of these words Praescientia peccatorum potest esse aliqua ratio reprobationis but how ex parte actus reprobantis nothing lesse but rather ex parte effectus and what effect not the denying of grace but only as touching the inflicting of punishment thus Praescientia peccatorum potest esse aliqua ratio reprobationis ex parte paenae quae praeparatur reprobatis in quantum scilicet Deus proponit se puniturum malos propter peccata quae à seipsis habent non à Deo And farther we prove this both by cleare evidence of Scripture and cleare evidence of reason and thirdly by as cleare a representation of their infatuation that oppose this doctrine and particularly of the Author of this discourse First by cleare evidence of Scripture Rom. 9. 11. Where the Apostle proves that Election stands not of good works by an argument drawn from the circumstance of the time when that Oracle The elder shall serve the younger was delivered together with the present condition of Jacob and Esau answerable to that time thus Before the children were borne or had done good or evill it was said to Rebecca The Elder shall serve the Younger Therefore the purpose of God according to Election stands not of good workes Now look by what strength of reason the Apostle concludes this of Election by the same strength of argumentation may I conclude of reprobation in proportion thus Before the Children were borne or had done Good or Evill it was said to Rebecca The Elder shall serve the Younger therefore the purpose of God according to reprobation stands not of evill workes that is like as good workes are not the cause of Election so evill workes are not the cause of Reprobation to wit quoad actum reprobantis as touching the very act and eternall decree of God it selfe Secondly observe I pray whether my reason be not as cleare If God upon the foresight of sin doth ordain a man unto damnation thus I am content to propose it in the most rigorous manner then this is done either by necessity of nature or by the constitution of God Not by necessity of nature as it is confessed and the cause is evident for undoubtedly he could annihilate them and so he can the holiest creature that lives as all sides confesse Therefore it must be by the constitution of God but neither can this hold For if so then God did constitute that is ordaine that upon the foresight of sin he would ordaine men unto damnation Where observe that the act of divine ordination is made the object of divine ordination as much as to say he did ordaine to ordaine or he did decree to decree Whereas the objects of Gods decrees are alwaies things temporall as for example We say well God did decree to create the world to make man out of the earth to send Christ into the World to preserve us to redeeme us sanctify us save us But Gods ordination or decree is an act eternall and cannot be the object of his decree or ordination I challenge all the Powers of darknes to answer this and to vindicate the Tenent which I impugne from that absurdity which I charge upon it if they can O but some will say it 's very harsh to say that God of his meer pleasure doth ordain men unto damnation I am content to doe my endeavour to remove this scandall out of the way of honest hearts yea and out of the way of others also First therefore consider is it fit to resist the evidence of divine truth because it is harsh to mens affections Secondly Wherein consists this harshnesse Is it in this that nothing is the cause of Gods decree and will nothing temper the harshnes of it unles a thing temporall as sinne be made the cause of Gods will which is eternall and even God himselfe But let us deale plainly and tell me in truth whether the harshnes doth not consist in this That the meer pleasure of Gods will seems to be made the cause not of Gods decree only but of damnation also as if God did damne men not for sin but of his meer pleasure And this I confesse is wondrous harsh and yet no more harsh then it is untrue though in this jugling world things are so carried by some who will both shuffle and cutt and deale themselves as if we made God of meer pleasure to damne men and not for sin which is a thing utterly impossible damnation being such a notion as hath essentiall reference unto sin But if God damne no man but for sinne and decreed to damne no man but for sinne what if the meer pleasure of God be the cause of this decree what harshnes I say is this As for example Zimri or Cosby perished in their incestuous act and gave up both lust and ghost together so going as it were quick to Hell never fearing the judgements of God untill they felt them If we say God decreed they should be cut off in this sin of theirs and be damned for it What hatshnes I pray in this though God made this decree of meer pleasure For is it not manifest he did For could he not if it had pleased him have caused them to outlive this sin of theirs and given them space for repentance and
cause in man any way moving him either in its own nature or by divine constitution moving him to bestow this grace on any So the Apostle 2 Timoth. 1. 9. God hath saved us and called us with an holy calling not according to our workes but according to his own purpose and grace And indeed we being all found dead in sinne what could be found in one to move God to bestow the life of faith and repentance upon him more then upon another And if any such thing were found in man moving God hereunto then should grace be bestowed according unto works that is in the Fathers phraise as Bellarmine acknowledgeth according unto merits which was condemned 1200 years agoe in the Synod of Palestine and Pelagius himselfe was driven to subscribe unto it otherwise they had condemned him also But as touching the conferring of glory God doth not bestow this on whom he will finding men equall without any moving cause thereunto even in man For though there be no moving cause hereunto in man of its own nature yet there is to be found a moving cause in man by constitution divine whereby God is as it were moved to bestow solvation on some and not on others For God hath made a gracious promise that whosoever beleeveth and repenteth and continueth in faith and repentance unto death shall be saved and whosoever beleeveth not and repenteth not shall be damned So then though men are equall in originall sinne and in naturall corruption and God bestowes faith and repentance on whom of them he will curing their corruption in whom he will yet when he comes to the conferring of glory men are not found equall in morall condition and accordingly God cannot be said on like manner to bestow glory solvation on whō he will For he hath tyed himselfe by his own constitution to bestow solvation on none but such as dye in thestate of grace Yet I confes some say that God bestows solvation on whom he will in as much as he is the author of their faith repentance bestows these graces on whō he will yet certainly there is a different manner in the use of this phraise of bestowing this or that on whom he will For when God bestowes faith and repentance he findes them on whom he will bestow it no better then others But when he comes to the bestowing of glory he findes them on whom he bestowes that farre better them others Now we come to the things decreed in reprobation and these are two 1. The denyall of the grace of regeneration that is of the grace of faith and repentance whereby mans naturall infidelity and impenitency is cured 2. The denyall of glory and the inflicting of damnation The first of these to wit the denyall of grace mentioned is made to whom he will And it must needs be so in ease God gives this grace to whom he will And the Apostle professeth that as God hath mercy on whom he will so he hardneth whom he will And as God denies this grace to whom he will so did he decree to deny it to whom he will Yet there is a difference considerable For albeit God hardneth whom he will by denying unto them the grace of faith and repentance yet notwithstanding like as it is just with God to inflict damnation upon them for that sinne whether originall or actuall wherein he findes them when the ministry of the word is afforded them so likewise it cannot be denied to be iust with God to leave their infidelity and impenitency wherein he finds them uncured But yet because God hath not made any such constitution namely that whosoever is found in infidelity and impenitency shall be so left and abandoned by him therefore he is properly said as to cure it in whom he will so to leave it uncured in whom he will finding them all equall in originall sinne and consequently lying equally in this their naturall infidelity and impenitencv So wee may iustly say there is no cause at all in man of this difference to wit why God cures infidelity impenitency in one and not in another but it is the meer pleasure of God that is the cause of this difference And if any list to contend hereabouts we shall be willing to entertaine him and conferre our strength of argumentation on this point 2. But as touching the denyall of glory and inflicting of damnation which is the second thing decreed in reprobation there is alwaies found a cause motive yea and meritorious hereof to wit both of the denyall of the one inflicting of the other And God doth not proceed herein according to the meer pleasure of his will that by reason of his own constitution having ordained that whosoever continueth finally in infidelity in profane courses and impenitency shall be damned And albeit on the other side it may be said in some sence as formerly I have shewed that God saves whom he will in as much as he is the author of faith which he bestowes on whom he will yet in no congruous sence can he be said to damne whom he will for as much as he is not the author of sinne as he is the author of faith For every good thing he workes but sinne and the evill thereof he only permits not causeth it And lastly as God doth not damne whom he will but those only whom he finds finally to have persevered in sinne without repentance so neither did he decree to damne or reprobate to damnation whom he will but only those who should be found finally to persevere in sinne without repentance Now let us apply this to the Article we have in hand which is this The moving cause of reprobation is the only will of God and not the sinne of man originall or actuall and for the explication hereof according to that which hath been formerly delivered We say that reprobation doth signify either a purpose of denying grace as above mentioned or a purpose of inflicting damnation And each may be considered either as touching the act of Gods decree or as touching the things decreed We shew how the Article holds or holds not being differently accommodated 1. As touching the things decreed 1. As touching the deniall of grace We say That God decreed of his meere good pleasure to deny unto some the grace of faith and repentance for the curing of that naturall infidelity and impenitency which is found in all without any motive cause hereunto found in one more then in another 2. As touching the inflicting of Damnation We say That God decreed to inflict damnation on some not of his meer pleasure but meerly for their finall perseverance in sinne without repentance 2. As touching the very act of Gods decree We say Nothing in man could be the cause hereof but the meer pleasure of God as Aquinas professeth it a mad thing to devise in man a cause of divine predestination as touching the act of God predestinating as I have
yet are driven to devise what may be said to excuse them as in the very point of Free-will they desire to excuse Chrysostome Sixtus Senensis Bibliothâ—â— lib. 5. annotat 101. Uel dicendum est sicut etiam Annianus in Praefatione Commentariorum Chryjostomi in Math. annotavit Chrysostomum interdum naturae nostrae vires plus aequo extulisse ex contentione disceptandi cum Manichaeis Gentilibus qui hominem asserebant vel naturâ malum vel fati violentia ad peccandum compelli Nay what think we of Vossius himselfe from whose labours it is and nothing of their own that our Arminians would seem to breath so much Antiquity This Vossius professeth they mistake him that taketh him to be of any other opinion in the poynt of predestination then Austin was of De Historicis Lat. lib. 2. cap. 17. Yet doth he acknowledge that Austin did reject the opinion of the Ancients both Greeks and Latines who went before him in the point of predestination Histor Pelag. pag. 655. Patres Graeci Latinorum illi qui ante Augustinum vixerunt ipseque aliquandiu Augustinus verba Apostoli interpretari solent de electione quorundam ad salutem secundum fidem pietatem praevisam aliorum reprobatione aeterna ob praescientiam malorum operum quae in vita acturi essent Sed Augustinus here comes in the Adversative rejectâ hâc opinione existimabat Apostolorum loqui de quorundam electione ad vitam aliorum item praeteritione non habitâ vel in his vel in illis ratione sive bonorum sive etiam malorum quae personalia forent And which is more then this Pag. 653. professeth a third interpretation of that passage Rom. 9. 11 12 13. differing both from Austins interpretation and from that of the Fathers Greeke and Latine that went before him and makes it disputable which is truest though this third opinion hath no footstep amongst the Ancients and thus he carrieth himselfe notwithstanding all the pretence of his reverence of Antiquity And to vindicate Austins interpretation as well as the rest from countenancing absolute reprobation he calls in to help at a dead lift the doctrine of the Jesuits concerning Scientia Media And I desire upon no better termes to contend then this in Scholasticall Divinity whether this doctrine be not a most unsober invention without all ground And whereas Vossius acknowledgeth Austins opinion to be for the absolutenesse of election and he professeth himselfe to be of Austins opinion I dare appeale to any learned Divines sober judgement whether this doctrine of Scientia Media doth not equally justify the absolutenesse of reprobation as the absolutenesse of election Yet after all this I would not have any think that I reject any of these ancient Fathers that seem to be most opposite to Austins opinion in the point of predestination I think they may be fairely and Scholastically reconciled without acknowledging so much difference between them as Vossius maketh and that by such an interpretation as sometimes is admitted by Vossius himselfe of his own phraise of his own distinction though he dreames not of the applyable nature of the same to the will of God in predestination His distinction is of Voluntas Dei antecedens voluntas consequens and this he makes equivalent to that other distinction of the will of God to wit Absoluta Conditionalis Now this Conditionall will of God he interprets not quoad actum volentis but quoad Res volitas Like as Doctor Jackson professeth in expresse termes that the former distinction of voluntas antecedens consequens is to be interpreted namely quoad res volitas and not quoad actum volentis Now according to this construction there is no difference between them and Austin nor the least impediment to the making of the will of God both in predestination and reprobation to be most absolute For though sinne be acknowledged to be the cause of the will of God in reprobation quoad res volitas that is in respect of the punishment willed thereby this hinders not the absolutenesse of reprobation quoad actum reprobantis And unlesse we understand the Fathers thus we must necessarily charge them with such an opinion whereof Aquinas is bold to professe That never any man was so madde as to affirme to wit that any merits should be the cause of Predestination quoad actum praedestinantis And why so to wit because predestination is the act of Gods will and there can be no cause of Gods will quoad actum volentis Now who seeth not that by the same reason there can be no cause of divine reprobation quoad actum reprobantis for even reprobation is the act of Gods will as well as predestination and every way it must be as madde a thing to devise a cause of reprobation quoad actum reprobantis They did all generally agree saith this Author upon the contrary conclusion Now the contrary Conclusion to absolute and unavoidable reprobation is to maintain conditionall and avoidable reprobation but this is not the contrary conclusion here specified by this Author but rather that damnation was avoydable such is his loose discourse whereas there is no question at all concerning damnation whether it be conditionall or absolute We all confessing that like as salvation is not ordained to befall any man of ripe years but upon the performance of faith and repentance and finall perseverance therein so damnation is not ordained to be the portion of any but upon their finall perseverance in sinne In like sort as touching the possibility of salvation not one Divine of ours that I know denyes the possibility of any mans salvation while he lives in this World Doctor Jackson indeed hath an opinion that a man may proceed so farre in sinne in this life that the doore of repentance may be shut upon him Wee have no such opinion We acknowledge that as God calls some at the first houre so may some be called at the last houre of the day yea the Thiefe upon the Crosse yea inter Pontem Fontem In a word We say plainly that it is possible for any man at any time to be saved by grace giving repentance without repentance none can be saved which is I presume without question between us In like sort it is possible for any man to repent provided that God be pleased to give him repentance and whether God will give him repentance or no we know not Therefore the Apostle instructs Timothy after this manner The servant of the Lord must not strive but must be gentle towards all men apt to teach suffering the evill instructing them with meeknesse that be contrary minded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if at any time God may give them repentance that they may acknowledge the truth and come to amendment out of the snare of the Devill of whom they are taken Prisoners to doe his Will Here is clearely an acknowledgement of a possibility of repentance
have I received this from three severall hands of Arminians each giving the same interpretation of it as if it were called a strange work because it is alienum a naturâ Dei I know none but Papists doe justify them in this interpretation in my judgement a most unreasonable exposition the Lord taking unto himselfe the execution of judgement as his peculiar saying vengeance is mine and I will repay And Magistrates are but Gods Ministers for this And he professeth his delight in this as well as in the execution of mercy It is true he doth not inflict judgement without cause for that were not a work of judgement in proper speech but of power and absolutenesse rather as in turning a holy and innocent creature into nothing And in that respect he is said not to afflict willingly sinne alwaies deserving it Mercy is of another nature and supposeth free grace though I find little or no notice this Author takes of this throughout his discourse Neither doe I find that he or any Arminian acknowledge that the change of a mans heart is wrought in a man of the meere grace of God without any motive cause in the creature Neither doe all Papists concurre in this interpretation for Lyra and Burgensis are together by the eares hereabouts and our Divines as Junius and Piscator doe render it opus insolens terribile an unusuall and terrible judgement interpreting it of bringing the Babylonians upon them so strange a worke that they should wonder at it And as Moses foretold that God should bring upon them Wonderfull judgements Deut. 28. So the Prophet Abakuk sets it forth in like manner Abak 1. 5. Behold among the Heathen and regard and wonder and marvaile for I will worke a worke in your daies you will not believe it though it be told you For loe I raise up the Caldeans that bitter and furious nation which shall goe upon the breadth of the Land to possesse the dwelling places that are not theirs And Jer. 19. 3. Behold I will bring a plague upon this place which whosoever heareth his eares shall â—ingle For seeing Gods lawes are strange things unto them Hos 8. 12. God would bring such judgements upon them that should be as strange unto them And in the same phrase it is said that destruction is to the wicked and strange punishment to the workers of iniquity Job 31. 3. Yet be this granted him it is nothing to the purpose For be it never so deere unto God yet if he restraineth his chiefe mercy which consists in changing the heart whereof this Author seems unwilling to take any distinct notice only to the Elect called accordingly in Scripture vessells of mercy in distinction from vessells of wrath which are the Reprobates this nothing prejudiceth the absolutenesse of reprobation And as for the frequent exercise thereof we read Zeph. 3. 5. That every morning God bringeth his judgements to light and as for the mercy which consists in regenerating man which alone is to the present purpose it is apparent that it is farre lesse frequently shewed then the contrary judgement in obduration And certainly the vessells of mercy are by farre fewer then the vessells of wrath and as for temporall mercies the more frequent they are the worse where the spirit of regeneration is wanting through the corruption of man that makes him thereupon the more obdurate The vanity of the next as touching the amplitude of the objects whereto mercy is extended though this alone is to the present purpose I have already sufficiently discovered it being apparent that in Scripture phrase only the Elect are counted vessells of mercy and all the rest vessells of wrath As there be examples of Gods long suffering and patience so we have fearfull examples of the suddainesse of Gods judgements taking Men and Women away in the very act of sinne Thus the Israelites in the Wildernesse when the flesh of Quailes was in their mouth the heavy wrath of God came upon them and sent them to the graves of lust Zimri and Cozbi perished in their incestuous act and gave up both lust and ghost together Balshazzar a King cut off in his drunken revells to make good the Prophecy of Isaiah The night of my pleasures hath he turned into feare unto me And in like manner the wrath of God seazed upon Herod in his pride But above all this appears in Gods dealings with his Angells who sinned once and fell for ever without all hope of recovery And as for Gods sparing a man in case God gives not repentance what will be the issue but filling up of the measure of their sinnes For to speak in Austins language Contra Julian Pelag. lib. 5. cap. 4. Quantamlibet praebuerit patientiam nisi Deus dederit quis agit paenitentiam Now the case is cleare God gives repentance to a very few who are in Scripture called vessells of mercy which nothing at all prejudiceth the absolutenesse of reprobation 5. Of the riches of Gods mercies to his children we nothing doubt but what doth this prejudice the absolutenesse of reprobating those whom he never meaneth to make his children But here it is to be suspected that this Author accounts all and every one the children of God for forthwith he confounds this notion with the notion of creatures quite contrary to the most generall current of Scripture not of the New Testament only which teacheth us that we are the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus Gal. 3. and if children then heires even heirs of God and heirs annext with Christ Rom. 8. But of the old Testament also Gen. 6 2. The sonnes of God saw the daughters of men that they were faire c. Exod. 4. 22. Thou shalt say to Pharaoh thus saith thè Lord Israel is my Sonne my first borne wherefore I say let my Sonne goe that he may serve me if thou refuse to let him goe behold I will visit thy Sonne even thy first borne Deut. 14. 1. Ye are the children of the Lord your God 2. Thou art an holy people to the Lord thy God and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a precious people to himselfe above all the people that are upon the earth That of the Hen though we give him liberty to amplify her naturall affections as one of the most affectionate Females among unreasonable creatures yet doth it nothing profit him for it represents Gods love appropriated to his Children which nothing prejudiceth the absolutenesse of his power reprobating others Nay rather as it justifies his absolutenesse in electing them if we consider the meere grace of God to have made the difference as the Scripture sheweth Deut. 7. 7. The Lord loved you because he loved you and Deut. 9. at large he beats them out of all conceit of any righteousnesse in them moving the Lord to plant them in the Land of Canaan so by consequent it justifies the Doctrine of absolute reprobation also for as much as the Apostle
so as if we maintained that God ordained them to be damned absolutely and for the meer pleasure of God concealing the only cause for which God ordained that they should be damned namely for the wilfull transgression of Gods holy Commandements Only the giving and denying of the grace of regeneration the giving of faith and repentance for the curing of that naturall infidelity and impenitency that is found in all and the leaving it uncured by denying faith and repentance this indeed we maintain to be absolute according to that of Saint Paul he hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardneth Rom. 9. 18. Now dare any of them deny faith and repentance to be the gift of God They doe not they dare not only of late they have come thus farre as to deny that Christ merited faith and regeneration for any Secondly inquire whether God gives faith and repentance to some and denyes it to others of his meere will and pleasure or because he finds some good works in the one which he finds not in the other Here is the criticall poynt we defend no other absolutenesse of election and reprobation but such as depends wholly on this namely that God finding men equall in corruption hath compassion on some giving them faith and repentance which he denies unto others All other absolutenesse of Election and Reprobation besides that which we undertake by cleare demonstration to deduce herehence we utterly renounce Neither can our adversaries be so grossely ignorant as not to perceive that this is the criticall poynt of these controversies the resolution of the truths wherein will set an end to all contention about Election and Reprobation Why then doe they not deale plainly and try their strength in this whereby they should carry themselves fairely and ingenuously and deale above board For here alone is that absolutenesse of God in execution which we maintaine but here they are not so prone to shew their hornes this argument is not so fit for the raising of clamours and Tragedies And hating the truth of God as touching his soveraignty over his creatures to have compassion on whom he will and to harden whom he will as also the prerogatives of his grace to work us effectually to that which is pleasing in his fight and that in whom he will also yet not daring plainly to deliver their mind in this as wherein they are found most absurd and encumbred with shamefull contradictions therefore by the back dore as it were they hope to discredit it and by opposing the absolutenesse of Reprobation to supplant and undermine the Doctrine of Gods free grace And not content with this they miserably corrupt our doctrine also in the poynt of absolute Reprobation drawing it to this as if not reprobation only but damnation also were made absolute by us and that God damned men not so much in the way of justice for their sinne as of his own meere pleasure At length to come to the third particular of his reply 3. And that is this that howbeit some things in Scripture which are peculiar to the Gospell are above our understandings and must without hesitation be believed yet many things there have their foundation in nature and may be apprehended by the light of nature and amongst these the justice of Gods waies is one as hath been shewed Isai 5. 3. and Ezek. 18. To this I answer That the waies of God mentioned Isai 5. 3. is only in his expecting fruits after so great pains that he had taken in husbanding his vineyard And Ezek. 18. consists only in rendring unto men according to their waies Neither doth it follow that because the justice of God doth plainly appeare in these particulars therefore it doth appeare as cleerely or comprehensively in all others Is there no difference between the waies of God there mentioned and the waies of Gods justice mentioned in other place as namely in causing the Sonnes of Achan to be stoned to death with Achan himselfe for his Sacriledge in drowning the old World not sparing the very Infants and sucklings and for their conspiracy against Moses and Aaron causing the earth to swallow up not Dathan and Abiram only but their Wives and Children and all that they had So in consuming Sodom and Gomorrah with fire And as for the punishing of of sinne this is no peculiar truth of the Gospell I had thought the Gospell in the proper nature thereof had been above reason altogether and no way capable of demonstration And as for the justice of God must not this suppose him to be a free agent Or was this known to Aristotle by all the light of nature whereunto he attained We that believe him to be a free agent and withall the creator of all are ready to demonstrate that it is in his power to doe what he will with his creature and that not only to annihilate him though never so holy but to inflict what paine soever upon him yea even the torment of hell fire which Medina acknowledgeth to have been Communem omnium Theologorum sententiam viz. that this he can doe ut Dominus vitae mortis as I have shewed in my Vindiciae graciae Dei and by variety of arguments proved it more then once in two severall digressions which this Author pretends to have seen yet answereth not one of them And as for justice divine toward the creature whereupon this Author doth with such confidence discourse both Vasquez and Suarez Jesuits in other poynts concerning Gods justice are miserably at odds yet joyntly concurre in this that all iustice Divine doth presuppose the free determination of Gods will Now because I find this Gentleman so conceited of the purity of his rationall faculty and the power thereof as to require that all interpretation of Scripture should veyle bonnet to the soveraignty thereof I purpose to try his ability this way for the expediting of certain arguments about the absolutenesse of Gods decrees in generall and particularly of the decree of Reprobation Therefore to combate with him on his own ground and in his own element I dispute thus 1. No temporall thing can be the cause of that which is eternall but the sinnes of men are all temporall whereas Reprobation is eternall therefore the sinnes of men cannot be the cause of Reprobation If it be said that sinne is not made the cause of reprobation but as it exsists in Gods foresight and so not so much sinne as the prescience of sinne is the cause of reprobation I reply that this device cannot stand viz. that the prescience of sinne should be the cause of reprobation and that for this reason The cause of reprobation whereof we enquire is of the nature of a meritorious cause But the prescience of God can no way be said to be a meritorious cause thereof Science and prescience are causes of Gods works in the kind of an efficient Physicall not in the kind of an efficient morall such as are
and meanes another and therefore dissembles This is so evident that some maintainers of absolute reprobation doe not deny it but ascribe unto God Sanctam Simulationem duplicem personam duplicem voluntatem a Holy counterfeiting a double face a double will by which they offer extreame injury unto God for tolerabilius est saith Tertullian duos divisos quam unum versipellem Deum praedicare It is more tolerable to set up two Gods then a double and deceitfull God If this be granted Iesuits have no cause to be ashamed of their equivocations nor Polititians of their Holy water and crafty dissimulations men need not be afraid to cogge and lye and deale deceitfully one with another but are â—ather to be commended for their courtship and complements and false-heartednesse because in this they doe but imitate God to whom whosoever they be that come nearest they are the best But howsoever some doe inconsideratly ascribe such things to God the most I know would tremble to entertaine such thoughts and therefore the more horrible it is to lay such things to the charge of the Almighty the farther I take this opinion to be from all truth and honesty TWISSE Consideration GOD he saith by our Doctrine is made full of guile in his passionate wishes that even these men might repent that repent not The guile I guesse consists in this that God hereby makes shew that he would have them to repent when yet indeed he hath no such will To this I answer that by the same reason he might conclude that God carrieth himselfe with guile in taking unto himselfe eyes and eares and hands and heart for hereby he makes shew that he hath the members of a man But to this we answer that this shew is only unto them that understand that properly which is to be taken figuratively so that it is not the word of God so much as the weaknesse of men in understanding it that casts this colour For these things indeed are spoken only per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is a metaphoricall kind of speech And if God takes liberty to conforme himselfe to the members of our body may not he take as great liberty to conforme himselfe to the passions of our minds and to assume unto him the passions of feare wrath and jealousy joy sorrow and such like Isai 63. 8. For he said surely they are my people Children that will not lye so he was their Saviour yet what followeth in the next verse save one But they rebelled and vexed his holy spirit According to the course of this Divines superficiall consideration a man might conceive that God is subject to errour and improvidence as well as man for God said surely they will not lye but it appeared by the event that they did lye So that hereupon we are driven to conclude that the former passage is delivered per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in conformity to a mans judgement who promiseth unto himselfe better obedience from his child for the time to come then afterwards he finds In like sort God in his passionate wishes conformes himselfe to the condition of man who useth this sometimes as a means to worke impression upon his child to be more carefull to order his conversation towards his parents And this being apt to work upon a child though but naturally ingenuous why may not God use this course nay if he should not use this course he could not be said to doe all for his vineyard that could be done in the way of outward husbandry So that passionate wishes are but a passionate kind of exhortation God through us doth beseech you saith Paul we pray you in Christs stead to be reconciled unto God 2 Cor. 5. 20. Yet neverthelesse the same Apostle professeth that the Gospell was a savour of death unto death to some 2 Cor. 2. 15. Now the Gospell includes all these and such like patheticall admonitions And hereby God doth effectually signify how much he delights in the obedience of the creature and in the glorifying of his mercy in their salvation But yet this mercy of God in giving the grace of obedience is not shewed indifferently towards all but only to some even whom the Lord will Rom. 9. 18. And this consideration drives us to interpret such passionate wishes not properly but figuratively For whereas the Lord saith Deut. 5. 29. Oh that there were such an heart in them to feare me Who can deny but that God could give them such an heart if it pleased him And the same Moses professeth of these very people of Israell that God had not given them such an heart for the space of 40 years Deut. 29. 4. you have seen the great temptations and signes But the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive nor eyes to see nor eares to heare unto this day and Jerem. 32. 40. He makes promise of giving it to some I will put my feare in their heart that they shall never depart away from me In like sort whereas the Lord saith Isai 48. 18. Oh that thou hadst hearkened unto my commandements Psal 81. 13. Oh that my people had hearkened unto me and Israel had walked in my waies who doubts but that it was in the power of God to work them hereunto by boaring their eares and circumcising them by regenerating them and so making them to be borne of God that so being of God they might heare his words Iohn 8. 47. As also to put his own spirit within them and cause them to walke in his statutes and keep his judgements and doe them Ezek. 36. 27. 2. In his expostulations in that Isai 5. 3. What could I have done more for my vineyard What doth this signify more than that more could not be done But how In the way of outward Husbandry conforming himselfe to an husbandman that hath planted a vineyard For can it be denied but that God could have made them fruitfull had it pleased him and though Paul plants and Apollo watereth yet Is it not Gods peculiar office to give the encrease Is it not he that worketh in us every good thing that is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ Heb. 13. 21. Is not he both the Author and finisher of our faith Was it not he that gave repentance unto Israell Acts 5. 31. And to the Gentiles Acts 11. 18. And must we not waite with our hearers if so be God may give them repentance 2 Tim. 2. 25. And as for that of Jerem. 2. 32. Can a Maid forget her Ornament or a Bride her attire yet my people have forgotten mee And have I been a Wildernesse unto Israell or a land of darknesse Is not this exprobration of their unthankfulnesse just and without guile unlesse God doe actually change all their hearts Yet this might be a means and also was and is and ever shall continue to be a means to bring Gods people to repentance And undoubtedly the worst of them had power
It may be thou maist have experience of the same power of divine grace to bring thee to faith also and to repentance therefore seeing Gods Word is the only meanes to worke faith waite daily at his Gates and give attendance at the posts of his doores and doe not prescribe unto him or say with Joram Shall I wait upon the Lord any longer though it be longere he calls thee yet it may goe never a whit the worse with thee for that for sometimes it falleth out that the last are first and the first last and the commendation that Austin makes of the Theef's faith upon the Crosse is remarkeable De orig animae lib. 1. cap. 9. Tanto pondere appensum est tantumque valuit ap ud eum qui haec novit appendere quod confessus est dominum crucifixum quantum si fuisset pro Domino crucifixus Tunc enim fides ejus de ligno floruit quando discipulorum marcuit nisi cujus mortis terrore marcuerunt ejus resurrectione reviresceret Illi enim desperaverunt de moriente ille speravit in commorientem Refugerunt illi authorem vitae rogavit ille consortem poenae Doluerunt illi tanquam homines mortem credidit ille regnaturum esse post mortem Deseruerunt illi sponsorem salutis honoravit ille socium crucis Inventa est in eo mensura Martyris qui tunc in Christum credidit quando defecerunt qui futuri erant Martyres 2. From the Comedy I come to the Tragedy I meane the story of Spira Sleidan saith of him that Incredibili ardore caepit complecti puriorem doctrinam cum indies magis magisque proficeret non domi tantum apud amicos quid sentiret de singulis dogmatis verum etiam passim apud omnes explicabat Tidings hereof coming to the Popes Legat then at Venice John Casa Arch-Bishop of Beneventum he convents Spira who confesseth his errour before him intreats pardon and promiseth obedience for time to come The Legat not contented with this commands him to goe home and publiquely to revoke his errour Sleidan writes no more here of but this Accipit ille conditionem licet etiam tum inciperet ipsum paenitere facti tamen urgentibus amicis qui non ipsius modo sed conjugis etiam liberorum facultatum ipsius spem totam in eo positam dicerent obtemperavit Osiander writes that pessimo consilio obsecutus abnegando veritatem caelestem perrexit eamque publice ut haeresin blasphemavit abjuravit The distresse of conscience which overtooke him hereupon is notorious the issue whereof was to end his woefull dayes more woefully in despaire But nothing more strange then his discourses and meditations in the midst of this his desperate condition As for the particulars following 1 Touching the greatnesse of his sinne and that he was taken off from that by the example of Peter I find no such thing neither in Sleidan nor Osiander nor in Goulartius but rather in this latter who makes the largest relation thereof taken out of the discourse of one Henry Scringer a learned Lawyer who was then at Padua who did see and many times talke with this poore Spira I find that which makes to the contrary namely that the sinne which he laid to his owne charge was the sinne against the Holy Ghost And no example I trust neither of Peter nor any other was sufficient to take him off from despaire in such a case 2. And as for the discourse here suggested of his absolute reprobation which he opposed against their comforts ministred unto him no mention thereof neither in Sleidan nor in Osiander nay Osiander writes that he was wish'd to revoke doctrinam Lutheranam and this was it which he did as he sayeth blaspheme as an heresy and abjure Goulartius indeed relates how he conceived himselfe to be reprobated of God as justly he might in case he judged himselfe to have sinned against the Holy Ghost And as for that which is here set down in Latin of him that is a Reprobate namely that necessario condemnabitur though his sins be small few that nihil interest multa an pauca magna an parva sint quando nec Dei misericordia nec Christi sanguis quicquam ad eos pertinet Neither Sleidan nor Osiander nor Goulartius makes any mention of it And therefore I wonder not that he neither followeth Sleidan nor Osiander much lesse that he followes not Goulartius He cites Caelius secundus and Calvin as his Authours and some others that wrot thereof to their friends but names them not as neither where it is that Caelius secundus makes mention of it or in what booke of Calvin it is found I imagined it might be in his Epistles I have spent some houres in searching therein from the yeare 1545 to the yeare 1663 and can find nothing concerning it Now Goulartius wrote since Caelius secundus and Calvin and Sleidan and his relation is large and it semes he inquired in to it somewhat better then they that went before him And thus he relates it out of the discourse of Henry Scringer a Lawyer of Padua who saw Spira at that time and divers times spake with him In a small towne of the territory of Padua called Civitelle there was a Learned Lawyer and advocat a wise and very rich man and an honourable father of a family called Francis Spira who having sayd and done divers things against his conscience to maintaine himselfe and his charge observe by the way he delivers the cause only in generall concealing the speciality it being so strang a testimony and evidence against the Romish Religion being returned to his house he could never rest an houre not a minut nor have any ease of his continuall anguish And even from that night he was so terrified and had such horrour of his actions as he held himselfe for lost For as he himselfe did afterward confesse he did set plainely before his eyes all the torments all the paines of the damned and in his soule did heare the fearfull sentences being drawne before the judgment seat of Jesus Christ a fearfull example to all Apostates The next day and so following he was not seene to resume any courage but his spirits were strangely troubled and the terrour tooke from him all rest and appetite This accident was so greivous to his friends as some repented them much that they had beene the cause of so great an inconvenience by their intreaties Others thinking it did proceed from some cholerick or melancholy humour were of opinion to send him to Padova to be Physicked by the Learned Physitians revived by honorable company and setled by the coference of Learned men there to some of which he was well knowne His Wife and Children with some of his familiar friends did accompany him and he was lodged in one of the chiefe houses Frisimilega Bellocat and Crassus famous Physitians did visit him and give him Physicke with singular
issues doe justly befall them because they abhorre to professe that God causeth us to walke in his statutes and to keepe his judgements and doe them The course that Junius took to quiet her conscience who thought she was damned for neglecting to goe to Masse by proving unto her that the Masse was a meere wil-worship was faire and reasonable but the course this Author takes to comfort an afflicted soule I have shewed to be most unreasonable Absolute reprobate hath a different sense according as it is differently applyed If applyed unto damnation or the denyall of glory we utterly deny that either the one is inflicted or glory is denyed absolutely but meerely upon supposition of sinne But applyed to grace we willingly confesse that God doth absolutely give the grace of regeneration the grace of faith and repentance to whom he will according to that of Saint Paul He hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardneth Rom. 9. 18. compared with Rom. 11. 30. Where to shew mercy is apparently to bring men unto faith neither can it have any other sense Rom. 9. 18. being set in opposition to hardening and in reference to the objection rising therehence in the words following Thou wilt say then why doth he yet complaine for who hath resisted his will v. 19. And while this Author denies that faith and repentance are given according to the good pleasure of Gods will which is to give them absolutely he must be driven to confesse that they are given conditionally and if a man will take any comfort therehence he must be acquainted with the condition which yet this Author undertaking the office of consolation upon this ground doth from the first to the last conceale as if he feared to discover the shamefull nakednesse of his cause which I have adventured to display and whereof I desire the indifferent reader would judge So that indeed this discourse is a new snare rather to entangle a poore soule in sadnesse and heavinesse inextricable fowler-like then any true office of consolation where she may escape as a bird out of the first snare of the Fowler by breaking it and delivering her Indeed these grounds of hope and comfort a Minister cannot make use of that holds absolute Reprobation What sober man would expect he should but such a one is never a whit the worse comforter for that For as for these grounds I have already discovered them to be voyd of all truth of all sobriety For if men be not absolutely Reprobated from the grace of faith and of repentance but conditionally For as for the denying of glory or inflicting damnation we utterly deny that God hath decreed that they shall have their course absolutely according to the meere pleasure of his will having made a Law according whereunto he purposeth to proceed therein it became this Author performing the part of a Comforter on this ground to make knowne the condition which he utterly declineth And with all I have shewed the reasons of his carriage thus in Hugger Mugger to wit that their shamefull Tenets might not breake forth and be brought to light We abhorre to say that God gives the grace of faith and repentance according to mens workes Wee abhorre to say that God workes in men the act of believing and repenting provided they will believe and repent or that he workes in them the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 velle of every good worke modovelint But our comsolations proceed as I have shewed in this manner If any man man doth believe and repent we can assure such a one by our doctrine that he is an elect of God this Arminians by their doctrine cannot as who maintaine that a true believer may fall a way from grace and be damned which is to hold the soules of the best children of God upon the rack of feares and terrours and tortures continually and make them walke as it were upon pinacles of the Temple for they have no assurance of stedfastnesse but in their owne wills to keepe them from dropping into Hell fire which burneth under them If men doe not believe and repent we will enquire into the cause of their feares grounds of their apprehentions that they are Reprobates and shew that they have no just cause for such apprehensions whether it be the conscience of their sinne or want of faith that doth affright them For as much as the holiest meÌ„ living before their calling had as great cause to be affrighted as they yet had they thereupon conceived themselves to be Reprobates this had been but an erronious conceit If perhaps it be not the conscience of sinne in generall that affrights them but rather the conscience of some sinne in speciall which they conceive to be a sinne unto death or a sinne against the Holy Ghost which they conceive to be unpardonable we will conferre with them thereabouts and try whether they understand aright the nature of that sinne and endeavour to scatter those mists of illusions in this particular which Satan hath raised desiring to swallow them up in desperation if it doe not prove to be a sinne against the Holy Ghost we will set them in a course to get the spirit of faith and of repentance For albeit God alone can give them yet seeing his Word is a Word of power even a voyce that pearceth the graves we willperswade them to give themselves to be wrought upon by Gods Word and we will pray for them who yet want spirit to pray for themselves And albeit they cannot prepare themselves in a gratious manner to the hearing of Gods Word yet let them come and when they are come let his Word worke yet if forthwith we have not that comfortable experience of Gods goodnesse towards us let us not give over to wait at the lords gates and to give attendance at the posts of his doore Give him leave to be the Master of his own times let us not prescribe unto him We know his course is to call some at one houre of the day some at an other and at the very last hour he calleth some This is the way of consolation that we take We doe not take any such course as this Author at his pleasure obtrudes upon us that God would have all to be saved and that Christ died for all I have allready set forth this Authors collusions in his triple universality of Gods love Christs death and and of the Covenant of grace We rather will exhort him to believe and herein we will take such course as God in his Word hath directed us unto and we will pray unto God that his Word may be as the raine that cometh downe and the snow from Heaven returneth not thither but watereth the earth and maketh it bring forth buâ—d hat it may give seed to the sower and bread to him that eateth So his Word may be that goeth out of his mouth it may not returne unto him voyd but accomplish that
born My answer was that it was spoken according to the judgment of man though indeed erroneous and that after this manner phraseologies of Scripture doe proceed I there shewed Now this Authour hereupon spared not to professe that if this were true he would turne Atheist I wisht that Friend of mine to whom he spake this to perswade him the next time he met with him to enquire and consider well whether Maldonat the Jesuite doth not imbrace the same interpretation And indeed if such protestations would carry it this Authour would prove a very potent and formidable adversary I have seen the like under his own hand namely this As Plutarch said of the old heathens who sacrificed men that they might pacifie their gods that it had been better with Diagoras to say There is no god then to think that God is such a one that delights in the blood of men And hereupon he adds this Protestation I protest unto you I think it less dishonourable to the blessed Trinity to say with the Atheist there is no god then to feigne such a God as the decree of Reprobation maintained by the Contraremonstrants maketh him to be This man I find is resorted unto and consulted with by the Arminians as if his judgment were an oracle and I willingly confesse he deserves to be in some great place unto them and no place in my judgmentmore fit then to be unto the à protestationibus Yet I doe not prescribe but leave it to their discretion to prefer him as they think good but how comes it to passe that here he is silent in reviving the reproaches he cast upō my answer to the Scripture before mentioned Is it because Maldonat the Jesuite hath been since found by him to embrace the same interpretation And he is loath to fall so foule in censuring such as he is Yet here he falls foul on me for professing my approbation not of Schoole-men but of Austin's discourse This makes me call to mind what was delivered of him sometimes by a London Minister as that he should perswade a young Divine to study Bellarmine as also what censures others have passed upon some writings of his And it hath been my hap to see under his own hand such a counsaile as this givē to a friend of his These things have I represented unto you the rather because I would give you occasion to learne that in your younger dayes which I have learned by late and long experience in my selfe and that in these two things First in reading Bellarmine and other adversaies to our Church I have divers times noted such speeches in them as to my thinking involved contradiction or had shew of absurdity or might either give advantage to our selves or breed prejudice unto them but when afterward I came in cooler blood to weigh the words better and to consider the circumstances more narrowly I found that I did mistake their meaning and that an itching desire to find an advantage made me to take shadowes for substance And the like mistake in my selfe I observed when I read the fathers or the Scriptures ready to interpret every thing either in favour of mine own cause or in prejudice of the adversaries And concludes sententiously thus Nimirum ita est ingenium nostrum facile credimus quae nimium volumus If such be the genius of this Authour though he thinks not good to spare me for Austin's sake yet methinks he should spare me for Richardus sake or at the least for Maldonat's sake This calls to my remembrance an Epigramme which D. Hoskins my chamber-fellow in New-Colledge sometimes made upon the fleas that sore troubled him as he lay in his bed And the conclusion was thus But if ther 's nothing that can slack Your rage and your correction Yet ô remember you are black And spare me for complexion So we proceed Sect. 5. To the first part of this reply namely that it is more desirable to be in hell then to be nothing I oppose three things 1. The speech of our Saviour concerning Judas Woe be to that man by whom the Sonne of man is betraied it had been good for that man if he had never been born Two things especially are set forth in these words of our Saviour First the misery of Judas the betraier of the Lord. Woe be c. Secondly the greatnes of his misery It had been good c. It is as much as if the Lord had said Judas the traitour shall be damned and therefore so woefull will his condition be that it had been good and happy for him if he had never received a being good in earnest as the Interpreters doe generally expound it not in the opinion and esteem of weak minded faint-hearted-men only as some few understand it For first let it be granted that Scripture speaketh of things sometimes according to men's opinions yet without reason to fasten such an expostiō upon any Scripture is to doe as dunces doe in the Schooles who being not able to answer a place in Aristotle wherewith they are charged shift it off and say loquitur ex aliorum sententiâ he speaks according to the opinion of others 2. This scripture cannot in reason be thus expounded First because it is an argument and ground by which Christ declareth the truth and greatnesse of the misery of Judas Woe to the man c And why woe Because it had been good c. But it were no argument to shew his woefull estate by to say that it had been good for him that he had never been born in the opinion of men who mistake the case but not in truth 2. because this exposition would teach and encourage men to be Atheists and Epicures In the second of Wisdome we read how voluptuous men doe stirre up one another to enjoy the good things that are present to fill them selves with wine and ointments to leave some token of their jollity in every place and to practise all manner of wickednesse And what is their motive a false perswasion that their soules shall dye with their bodies and that they should have noe being after death If this conceit would flesh them thus in their opinions and voluptuous courses how freely and eagerly may we thinke would they pursue their carnall and sinfull delights if they could be but once perswaded that after all their pleasure they should be in better case then if they had noe being Secondly I oppose common consent Where shall wee pick out a man but will say if he speak from his heart that he were better to vanish into a thousand nothings then to be cast into hell What is the reason why men are so afraid of hell when they are touched to the quick with the conscience of their ungodly lives and the expectation of eternall vengeance that with Job they curse their birth day and wish an hundred times over that they had never been or might cease to be that so they might
after his fall Behold I was shapen in wickednesse sayth David and in sin hath my Mother conceived me And except a man be borne againe he cannot see the kingdome of God This though a mystery yet is nothing strange to us whom God in mercy hath reserved unto these times or grace But it was very strange to Nicodemus a Ruler in Israel This hath been the condition of man ever since the fall of Adam and arising merely from the withdrawing of God's spirit from him and that most justly upon their first sin in tasting of the forbidden fruit So that even this condition proceeded originally as from the sin of our first parents in the way of a meritorious cause so from the just judgment of God taking his holy Spirit from him which God was not bound to doe as appeares by this that by vertue of the Covenant of grace which he hath made with us in Christ he doth not take his spirit from us though too often we sin againsthim No not from David notwithstanding those foule sinnes committed by him at appeares by his prayer unto God that he would restore him to the joy of his salvation signifying therereby that he had lost that And that God would not take his holy Spirit from him manifesting hereby that still he retained that And considering that God proceeded with Adam herein in the way of judgment Austine acknowledgeth Concupiscence to be a punishment of sinne as well as sin and a cause of other sinnes in his fifth book against Iulian the Pelagian cap. 3 As for that of Siracides say not thou God hath caused me to erre As it is true that no man must cast the blame of sinning upon God think himselfe blamelesse So it is as true that in consideratioÌ„ of our own inability to staÌ„d of our selves prones to fall eveÌ„ to fall away like water spilt upoÌ„ the ground that cannot be recovered containe it selfe it cannot but it may easily becontained the Church doth sometimes expostulate with God such is the liberty and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he vouchsafeth unto his Children in an holy manner saying Wherefore hast thou caused us to erre from thy waies and hardened our hearts against thy feare Not that this he doth infundendo malitiam by infusing malice into them but non infundendo gratiam by not infusing such grace into them as to preserve them from sin For as Martha said unto Iesus Lord if thou had'st been here our brother Lazarus had not dyed So may we say if the streÌ„gth of thy grace had been operative in us we had not sined in this or that particular It is true God hath not need of the sinfull ma much lesse of his salvation or damnation But if he will of mere pleasure manifest his own glory either in the way of mercy pardoning or of justice punishing he must permit sin to enter into the world forbeare that providence whereby as he did keep the Elect Angells so he might have kept man also from sinning As for the reasons of pâ—oâ—s Antiquity to prove that God cannot be the Authour of sin they are very needelesse in this controversy between us our adversaries the question between us not being thereabouts but rather about the manner of God's providence Our Adversaries so denying him to be the Author of evill as withall they deny him to be the Authour of any good in the actions of men We on the contrary take care so to maintaine that God is not the Author of sinne that withall we maintaine that he is the Author of all good both morall and naturall and much more supernaturall Yet as I have considered the seven reasons of Bellarmine to this purpose collected out of the Antients so I am content to take into consideration the three reasons produced by this Author 1. As touching the first to manifest how superficiarily and absurdly he carieth himselfe therein observe the wildnesse of his reasoning besides all rules of sobriety If God sayth he be the Author of sinne then he is worse then the Devill because the Devill doth only tempt and perswade to sinne and his action may be resisted Let all the Universities of the world be judge between us of the shamefull irregularity of this discourse His syllogisme is hypotheticall for the first proposition is hypotheticall and conditionall Now all such syllogismes by the rule of all Schooles must proceed either from the negation of the consequent to the negation of the antecedent or from the affirmation of the antecedent to the affirmation of the consequent but no such processe is made here And indeed it should be framed thus to inferre the proposition undertaken to be proved If God be the Authour of sin then he is worse then the Divell but God is not worse then the Divell therefore he is not the Authour of sin But this Authour disputes after no such manner But his affection carrying him all along to cast some foule aspersion on our Doctrine in some particular or other and being withall in heat of passion he doth most shamefully involve and entangle himselfe And indeed quite besides his present purpose he aimes only at this to prove that our doctrine concerning God's powerfull and effectuall decree doth more make God the Authour of sin then the Devill which is utterly aliene from that he proposed in this place Yet I am willing to doe him this favour to help a lame Dogge over the stile and to expedite him in this Argument whereof he cannot so dext'rously deliver himselfe though quite besides the purpose Thus therefore the argument should proceed according to his irregular intention If God doth will and procure sins by a powerfull and effectuall decree which cannot be resisted then is God worse then the Devill But by the doctrine of our Divines God doth will and procure sins by a powerfull and effectuall decree which cannot be resisted therefore by the doctrine of our Divines God is worse then the Devill Thus have I endeavoured to bring this argument to some shape which had no tolerable proportion before Now let me shew the corrupt nature of it that the Reader may discerne what spirit he breathes that is the Authour of it in a mixture both of ignorance and abominable profanenes And first I begin with the major proposition And here first let the Reader judge whether it be not this Authours opinion that God doth will and procure sin by some decree though not by a powerfull and effectuall decree that cannot be resisted For otherwise did he acknowledge every will of God as it signifies his decree to be powerfull and effctuall and irresistable what need he cumber his Reader with such unnecessary Epithites cast in like lumber only to trouble the course of disputation Now if he grants that God doth will and decree sin by a powerfull and effectuall decree 1. He must contradict himselfe For formerly he cited Es 66. 4 to prove that men in wicked courses
That which necessitateth the will to sinne is as truly the cause of sinne as that which forceth it because it maketh the sinne to be inevitably committed which otherwise might be avoided and therefore if the Divine decree necessitate man's will to sinne it is as truly the cause of sinne as if it did inforce it 3. That which necessitates the will to sinne is more truly the cause of the sinne then the will is because it overruleth the will and beareth all the stroke taketh from it ' its true liberty by which it should be Lord of it selfe and disporser of ' its own acts and in respect of which it hath been usually called by Philosophers and Fathers too 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a power which is under the insuperable check and controule of no Lord but it selfe It overruleth I say maketh it become but a servile instrument irresistably subject to superiour command and determination And therefore is a truer cause of all such acts and sins as proceed from the will so determined then the will is For when two Causes concurre to the producing of an effect the one a principle overruling cause the other but instrumentall and wholly at the Devotion of the principall then is the effect in all reason to be imputed to the principall which by the force of ' its influxe and impression produceth it rather then to the subordinate and instrumentall which is but a mere servant in the production of it We shall find it ordinary in Scripture to ascribe the effect to the principall Agent It is not ye that speak saith Christ but the Spirit of my Father that speaketh in you I laboured more abundantly then they all yet not I but the grace of God which was in me And I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me saith St. Paul Gal 2. 20. In these and many other places the effect or work spoken of is taken from the instrument and given to the principall agent Which being so though man's will worke with God's decree in the commission of sinne and willeth the sin which it doth yet seing what the will doth it doth by the commanding power of God's Allmighty decree and so it doth that otherwise it cannot doe the sin committed cannot so rightly be ascribed to man's will the inferiour as to God's necessitating decree the superiour cause 4. That which makes a man sinne by way of necessitie that is with and not against his will is the cause of sin in a worse manner then that which constraineth him to sinne against his will As he which by powerfull perswasions drawes a man to stab to hang to poison himselfe is in a grosser manner the cause of that evill and unnaturall action then he that by force compells him because he maketh him to consent to his own death And so if Gods decree doe not only make men sin but sin willingly too not only cause that they shall malè agere doe evill but malè velle will evill it hath the deeper hand in the sinne God determines the will to sinne by necessitie though not by compulsion this he obtrudes upon our Devines as their opinion but quotes none is it likely that he who quotes Beza to shew that in his opinion God doth not only permit sinne but will sinne And Calvin to shew that a man's mind is blinded volente jubente Deo would not quote some or other of our Divines to prove that which he obtrudes upon them If his common place booke could afford him any such quotation out of any one of them to shew who they be and where they say that God determines the will to sinne by necessity though not by compulsion Was there ever the like crimination made against any without naming them that say so and the place where and their own words Or hath this man or any of his spirit deserved any credit to be trusted this way The very phrase of determining in Latine is no word of course with our Divines in this argument It is the phrase of the Dominicans But doe they say that God determines the will to sinne I doe not thinke he can produce one of them that expresseth himselfe so unscholastically so absurdly Alvarez saith that God by his effectuall decree predetermineth second causes to worke He saith that God doth predetermine the will to the act of sinne as it is an act That the first root of contingency is the will of God Then to what doth God determine the will in their opinion Is it to the act only and not to the manner of its production Namely to produce it voluntarily and freely Nothing lesse though this Authour counts it his wisdome to conceale this God by his omnipotency doth cause that man whose heart he moves to will and will freely Againe God's generall concourse is a divine immediate influence into second causes whereby they are foremoved applyed and determined to worke every one according to the condition of its nature The naturall cause naturally the free cause freely as I have professedly delivered Disput 18. 23. And that in such sort freely as they can choose to doe otherwise if they will and that in the very instant wherin they doe what they doe But come we to consider his answer 1. Touching that which he saith of the Ancients he gives us his bare word for it as touching the confounding of necessitie and compulsion yet Bernard I confesse willingly in talking of liberty from necessity understands by necessity coaction He saith farther that those Ancients did deny that God did necessitate men to sinne least they should grant thereby that God is the Authour of sinne But I doe not thinke he can shew this phrase of necessitating the will any way to be found among the Ancients what he hath touched before I have considered what he shall intimate hereafter I hope I shall not let it passe unsaluted And the truth is to necessitate hath such an Emphasis with it as to perswade that whatsoever a man is necessitated to do that he doth by constraint against his will And it is a rule commonly received that Voluntas non potest cogi The will cannot be forced which is most true as touching Actus eliciti the acts of the will inward and immediate and not so of actus imperati acts outward and commanded But Bradwardine who alone useth this phrase among'st School-Divines takes it in no such sense but only for an effectuall operation of God upon the will moving it to worke this or that not necessarily but freely which this Authour most judiciously dissembleth all along for desparing to prevaile by true and substantiall information of the understanding perturbundis affectibus suffuratur by a corrupt proposition of his Adversaries tenet hopes to worke distast upon the Readers affections Bradwardines position is this God can after a sort necessitate every created will to ' its free act and to a free cessation vacation from act and
as sinne is no worke of God but the permission of it is his worke and his meanes not to this end that he may punish it but he doth both permit it and punish it for the manifestation of his glory in the way of justice like as he doth also permit sinne in others not to pardon it but he both permits sinne and pardons it to manifest his glory in the way of mercy 3. I come to the consideration of the speciall indignities wherewith God is loaded by this our doctrine as this Authour pretendeth 1. And indeed is God's wisedome and providence so strong as that he is able to find meanes to glorifie his justice without the permitting of sinne For God hath no other hand in sinne as sinne but of permission to the substance of the act he cooperates as a cause efficient as all confesse For of what justice doe we treat in this argument Is it of justice remunerative or justice vindicative Was it ever heard that permission of sinne was required to make way for God's justice remunerative Or is it possible that way can be made for the manifestation of Gods justice vindicative in Scripture called God's wrath unlesse sinne be permitted to enter For though he hates it yet this Authour confesseth that God permits it as without whose permission it could not enter into the world Sect 6. In the last place this Authour helps himselfe with a phrase of God's appointing men to commit it which he obtrudes upon us thinking to make the ballance on his part the heavier not considering that words are but wind We say the horrible outrages committed upon our Saviour God foredetermined to be done And told David that he would give his wives unto his neighbour who should lye with them before the Sun And that it was his will that the Kings should give their Kingdome to the Beast this we deliver according to God's word whereas all this our opposit's discourse is quite besides the word of God as if he would have us take his absurd conceits in steed of oracles And doth he not know that Austin sometimes sayd that Iudas electus est ad prodendum sanguinem Domini Iudas was chosen to betray his Master Or will he answer that he was the first that said so 2. To the second I have already answered and that at large in my answer to M. Hoord in the preface and second Section There I have shewed how that it was merely devislish policy in Tiberius to move him to take this course to make way for a grand child of his own to bring him to the imperiall throne This moved him to seeke the death of Germanicus his two Sons whom Augustus made him to adopt as successours in the empire lest the putting of them to death without cause might provoke the people to mutiny against him therfore by cunning contrivances he caused them to be provoked to revile him that so he might have some cause to justifie his destroying of them which yet he did not by any publique execution he was loath to come to that for feare of raising some tumult thereby Fame necavit he famished them Now how hath Satan possessed the heart of this unhappy Divine thus to blaspheme the holy one of Israell by comparing his waies to these abominable courses of Tiberius not fearing lest his tongue rot in his head while he is uttering of them Cannot God take the life of any man from him be he never so innocent and that what way he will even by punishment if it please him For is it not of God's mere mercy that he promiseth Not to famish the soule of the rightous As for provoking courses is it not apparent by these our opposites confession that to all the provoking courses in the world God doth concurre and that as an efficient cause of every action And accordingly he did concurre with these provoking courses used by Tiberius And did not God professe that he would provoke the Israelites by a foolish people and by a foolish nation he would anger them How did Shimei provoke David by railing upon him And how did David interpret it The Lord saith he hath bid him to curse David Not that he gave any such command in proper speech but by his secret providence brought this to passe using to this purpose the vitious disposition which he found in Shimei but caused it not And observe what Austin speakes in the like case of his mother Monica exercised with the opprobrious speeches of her servant Quid egisti Deus meus unde curasti unde sanasti Nonne protulists durum acutum ex alterâ animâ convitium tanquam medicinale ferrum ex occultis provisionibus tuis uno ictu putredinem illam praecidisti My God what diddest thou how diddest thou cure her how recover her Diddest thou not bring forth an harsh and sharp reproch out of an others heart as a medicinall instrument in thy secret providence and with one stroke pared away all that rottenesse Thus Adonibezek when his thumbes and great toes were cut off by his enemies he acknowledged that God had done to him as he had done to others And Solomon testifies that every man's judgment commeth of the Lord. If every man's judgment then surely unjust judgments and not just only And although they are unjust as they proceed frō man yet are they just as they proceed from God Like as the parricide of Adramelech Sharezer committed upon their Father Senacherib the Lord takes unto himselfe when he saith I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land Yet what was David the worse for Shimei's cursing neither would he thereby be urged to requite evill for evill upon his subjects the more inexcusable were the Sons of Germanicus for reviling their Prince Tiberius though never so much provoked thereunto Neither was this fact of Tiberius a fruit of Hypocrisy which is the counterfeiting of holines justice was pretended indeed not holines that through feare For the wicked man is continually as one travelling with child A sound of feare is in his eares The cunning contrivances that Tiberius used are specified by this Authour but he doth not specifie the cunning contrivances that God useth by our opinion as he obtrudes upon us Belike he was to seek of thē yet we expresse God's providence herein by no other termes then the word of God it selfe doth suggest unto us Namely of blinding the mind of giving over to strong illusions of hardning the heart of giving over unto their hearts lusts unto vile affections unto a Reprobate mind To all which is required no other thing then the not curing of that naturall corruption and habituall vitious disposition which is found in the wicked whether in the way of luxury or in the way of uncharitablenesse and malice or in the way of ambition pride And secondly the administration of congruous occasions unto this their corrupt disposition which Arminius
described to wit as having their understandings purged from prejudice and false principles undoubtedly like as the Church of Rome when they have once brought the matter hitherto that the last resolution of faith must be made into the voyce of the Church are confident enough that when the question is made of the voyce of the Church where that is to be found they shall undoubtedly be able to carry it for the Church of Rome So these Arminians or Socinians rather when they have once brought the matter to this passe that the last resolution of our faith must be made into the judgement of mens understandings purged from prejudice and false principles and that the question beginneth to be made of understandings thus purified where they are to be found they will be so favourable to themselves as to conceive that such understandings are to be found no where but amongst the nation of the Arminians or at least among such whose judgements are naturally inclined towards their Tenets But is this a decent course to rest in the judgement of any mans understanding whereas the soundnes of his understanding is not nor cannot be discerned but by the strength of his argument and again considering the judgement of man is miserably corrupted in such sort as that the things of God seem foolishnesse unto them Is it not much fitter that we should judge of every mans understanding by Gods word which cannot erre rather then judge of the meaning of the word by the understanding of man Let any man use his understanding in opening and interpreting the word of God unto us and clearing the meaning thereof unto us as much as he can by reason by argument by demonstration but still let it be indifferent for any to judge in what congruity his interpretation stands with the Text it selfe and no mans judgement to be a rule of Faith unto others Before he goes off from this he gives another description of those whose judgements must be the rule of the right interpretation of Scripture to wit such as stand indifferent to the entertainment of any truths Now this seems to me to be as poore as the former or rather much poorer For this indifferency as I take it is in respect of affections now albeit a man may be thus disposed in respect of his affections yet he may be of a very weak judgement as for example I have heard of a good man that was sometimes wavering about the poynt of Ceremonies yet very willing to receive information and therefore conferres with both sides as well such as held them lawfull in the use as with those that held them unlawfull and still was carried every way with the force of their reasons who conferred with him for the present Then again suppose the indifferent were most fit to judge where shall we find those indifferent persons or who shall give rules and what rules according whereto to proceed in this our inquisition Again who are to be presupposed in likelihood to be the more indifferent then such as have not hitherto been versed in these controversies and is it fit that they who have been many years versed in them should stand to the judgement of those who are little or nothing exercised therein Lastly is the creature fit to judge of the Soveraignty of his creator or being conceived of the freedome of his own will to judge how farre it is reasonable God should have power over his will and no farther When the Apostle calls upon the Corinthians to judge whether that which he wrote unto them were the commandements of God or no whom doth he call unto this office Doth he call any other but such as are spirituall If there be any amongst you that is a Prophet or spirituall let him know that these things are the commandements of God 1 Cor. 14. He doth not say if there be any amongst you that hath his understanding purged from prejudice and false principles let him know that these things which I write unto you are the commandements of God And the same Apostle tells us that the things of God are spiritually to be discerned 1 Cor. 2. 14. Yet it is remarkable that he appeals to the judgement not of the best only but the worst also in this but something qualified I confesse to wit provided that they stand indifferent to the entertainment of any truths Marke it well of any truths and who are these Not possessed with the entertainment of any Truths but indifferent to the entertainment of them I say who are these The regenerate or unregenerate Here I am at a stand not knowing which way to take But it may be this is spoken only in reference to our Doctrine of absolute Reprobation But of whatsoever it be spoken let him give instance in either or in both it seems he is indifferent to have it take place either way for he proposed it of best and worst But why should he presuppose an unregenerate man to be indifferent to the entertainment of any truth Whereas the Apostle professeth of a naturall man that he cannot know the things of God and he gives the reason of it because they are spiritually discerned and formerly said that they were foolishnesse unto him Yet I willingly confesse the Doctrine of absolute Reprobation is very harsh to the judgement and affections of carnall men and such as we had never embraced had it not been for the word of God which plainly professeth that election is not of good works and that by such an argument as whereby it is manifest 1. That election is as well proved not to be of faith as not of works 2. That reprobation is not of evill works yet the harshnesse hereof is nothing like so much appearing in its proper colours as upon their deciphering and blazing of it who are as zealous for making election to be upon foresight of faith and works though this latter member they are loath to have the World take notice of as they are opposite to the absolutenesse of reprobation Now whereas before I have shewed that there is a great deale of difference between absolute election unto salvation and election unto salvation absolute And that not one of our Divines doth maintain that God doth elect men unto salvation absolute but to obtain salvation upon their faith and repentance and finall perseverance therein In like sort there is as great difference between absolute reprobation unto damnation and reprobation unto damnation absolute And if none of our Divines doe maintain that God ordains any man of ripe years to obtain salvation otherwise then upon their faith and repentance and finall perseverance how much lesse doe they maintain that God ordains any man unto damnation otherwise then for his sinne and finall perseverance therein without repentance Whereas these enemies of the grace of God as Saint Austin sometimes called the Pelagians to make their cause more plausible to the affections or carnall men carry the matter