over all For he is both good and mercifull and patient and saves whom he ought nor is here wanting to him the good effect of a just Judge nor is his wisdome diminish'd for he saves whom he ought to save and judges those that are worthy of Judgement yet is not his justice to be counted cruelty considering his foregoing and preventing goodnesse 2. This Opinion avoideth the imputation of Stoicall Fate which the 3. first cannot possibly avoid though they put it from them for they make mans salvation or damnation necessary by an externall and an antecedent necessity of a Decree of God But this Opinion placing Gods Decree after his foreknowledge makes mans salvation or damnation only infallible to Gods knowledge but free and contingent to man Gods knowledge as knowledge causing nothing and his Decree not altering or crossing but ratifying that which he knew would be the worke of Man working out his owne salvation by co-working with the Grace of God or working his owne damnation by forsaking his owne mercy 3. It avoideth the accusations laid against the fourth Opinion for it maketh the Election of God absolute definite inconditionall complete irrevocable and immutable It maketh God to chuse man and not man first to chuse God It hath no affinitie with Pelagianisme in the matter of Predestination at all nor in the matter of Grace unlesse this be Pelagianisme to hold that under the aydes of Grace the will is yet free to evill of which we shall dispute in the third part It maketh Predestination the root and cause of Calling justifying glorifying of faith repentance perseverance and of all the good that is in us which are the effects of Predestination and effect of the love of God predestinating them unto us 4. It ministreth no matter of despaire nor of Presumption but cherisheth both hope and feare Not of Despaire For 1. No man is decreed against but upon the foreknowledge of his owne refusall of life offered him 2. The Promises are generall and hee may truly thinke them to belong to him 3. There is sufficient Grace in the means of Conversion to remedy all the weaknesse or perversnesse that is in mans depraved nature He may hope therefore Not of Presumption For 1. No man is decreed for but with the foreknowledge of his owne acceptance of life offered him 2. The Promises of God are generall but they have conditions which he must be carefull to observe that will inherit the things promised 3. The Grace that is in the meanes of Conversion is not tyed unto them by any physicall connexion but is dispensed by the good pleasure of God who may offer and unite it to the World when and how long hee will or may withhold the influence of it and so harden or forsake the carelesse or the proud Hee may feare therefore 5. It ministreth as much sweet comfort to all godly persons that finde themselves walking in the wayes that leade to life and confirmeth their Faith of eternall salvation to be enjoyed through Christ and as fervently kindleth their love to God as any way or order of our Election conceived otherwise 6. Lastly it acknowledgeth the deepnesse of Gods judgements and the unsearchablenesse of his Counsels for who can tell why God by his Decree settled upon Peter rather than upon Judas why hee loved Esau lesse than Jacob why hee suffered one man to perish and not another when he was able out of the treasures of his wisdome and knowledge to have disposed their course calling and government to quite contrary ends who can tell a reason why hee distributed the gifts of Nature and of Grace so diversly why hee beareth some with so long patience and cuts off others in so great severity why some have so much some so little both of temporall and spirituall blessings Quis novit sensum Domini or who hath beene his Counsellour Or who hath first given unto him for of him and through him and to him are all things To whom bee glory for ever The end of the first Part. The Transition to the second Part. NOw having propounded that which I conceive to bee the Truth and commended it by comparison with other Opinions that seeme defective I have yet one thing more to doe necessary for the confirming and testifying of this truth against all exceptions either of haeresie in generall or of schisme at home in this Church of England I am therefore to shew how all the Articles or heads of Divinity that necessarily runne into this question being rightly declared doe cohere and consent to this Doctrine that wee may make it good which the Philosopher saith Ethic. 1. c. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am to declare then the Orthodox Doctrine both of the ancient Church and of the Church of England First of these things as Eternall Of Gods Knowledge Will Providence Predestination Election Reprobation These shall make a second Part. 2. Of these things as done in Time Of the Creation of the fall of Man the effects of the Fall the Restauration of Man his Vocation Conversion Of Grace Freewill Perseverance and of the last judgement which is commonly neglected and left out by them that dispute of these matters And these shall make a third part of this worke through God Goodnesse and assistance CHAP. I. Of Gods Knowledge ST James saith Acts 15. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Knowne from everlasting are unto God all his Workes S. Paul saith Rom. 8. 29. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom he foreknew he Predestinated S. Peter saith 1 Pet. 1. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the strangers Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father There be that interpret these two places rather by the Word Precognition than by the Word Prescience and tropically as to signifie approbation and love rather than Knowledge properly taken and they complaine of the ignorance of the Latines that understood not the Greeke and of the ignorance of the Greekes that understood not the Hebrew phrase in this word and that by the Word Prescience they occasioned the Pelagian Heresie of election upon prescience of workes So Pareus yet Origen is hee to whom they are beholden for this their interpretation one neither ignorant of Greeke nor Hebrew nor thought guiltlesse by them of giving occasion to Pelagius his Heresie But if it be their mindes by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so to include approbation as they would exclude 1. Foreknowledge properly taken I will fetch a poore Almanake to wipe away this Glosse by the common use of the word Prognostication 2. Next I will say that an Hebraism or Grammaticall quillet is too weake a thing to sway a cause of this weight and value 3. I say that it is very improbable that S. Paul and S. Peter being not in any poeticall or popular veine but in a sad and grave discourse doe use any figurative or improper term where most propriety and perspicuity and
the one and mercifully to the other and judge them all righteously But all these things understood from the first to the last from the beginning to the end of the world with every particular circumstance the same that now are under execution I say understood them as under condition and with supposition if it shall please the Soveraigne Lord to determine and decree to put them into being and into act were brought and presented to the wisdome counsell and will of God to allow or amend to approve or to alter or to decree and establish them for ever which after long and deep contemplation that we may still speak after our poore manner of Understanding it pleased the onely wise God and Lord of all upon them to pronounce this mighty word or decree Fiant let them be so This frame this Order these Causes with their Effects these benefits these Mercies these Judgements these Ends glory to some shame to others Let them be established and ratified to the glory of the divine wisdome justice Grace power and holinesse Amen Amen Amen said the blessed and eternall Trinity Thus the Will of God comming to his knowledge maketh the Decree of Predestination which Knowledge or Understanding alone doth not Of this Will of God we are further to consider an essentiall property of it and a necessary distinction The Property of the Will of God is to be free absolute independent to proceed out of no cause but out of himsefe in so much as even his occasioned will had liberty not to have taken the occasion from whence it followeth that the things predestinate cannot be causes or motives of their predestination neither are things predestinate out of Prescience of simple understanding such for therein all things were knowne yet but as possible and having no subsistence at all being as possible never to be they could not be movers of Gods Will to will them They are deceived therefore that think Predestination out of Prescience makes Gods will to depend on Mans Will or to be a conditionall or uncertaine Will nay a decree out of this Prescience of simple understanding concludes Gods Predestination to be as absolute free certaine infallible as his Omniscience is infallible and his Will free and his Power supreme or as any other way or manner of understanding this mysterie can conclude it The Distinction of the Will of God is that of Damascen out of Chrysostome into his Antecedent and Consequent Will That is his chiefe and primary Will proceeding out of himselfe or out of his owne goodnesse and therefore is called by Anselme The will of his Mercy This other is his occasioned will or the will of his Justice as the cause now standeth Out of the first proceedeth all the good of Grace and Glory which the reasonable creature receiveth Out of the second proceedeth all the evill of Punishment and Revenge for the evill of Chastisement may proceed from love and so from the first Will as good that an offender suffereth or endureth From the first of these floweth that part of Predestination which is to Life which decreeth to give those meanes and benefits which understanding knowes will be saving to such men if they be given them which is the very decree of Election From the second of these floweth the other part of Predestination which is to Wrath which decreeth to give but those meanes and benefits which foreknowledge understandeth will faile to be saving to some men through their extreme fault and to inflict Death upon them for their fault which is the Decree of Reprobation And thus much is enough of the Will of God Of Gods Dominion The third excellency in the Nature of God seene especially in his Predestination is his Soveraigne Lordship and Dominion called by the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 9. 21. whereby he hath right and power to disspose of his creatures at his pleasure yet with wisdome and justice according to his Nature and by which he is accountable to none for his so doing From hence an answer is given to any that shall aske a reason Why God allowed and alotted unto these men the meanes which he foreknew would bring them to Glory and setled the End Glory and Eternall life upon them and why he permitted any at all to perish or why these rather than others when he foreknew their Ends would be unhappy through their owne fault when he could have remedyed and have so disposed things out of the Treasures of his wisdome and knowledge whereby these also might have been saved and others that are saved might have perished The Answer I say to this is out of the Dominion of God that it was his high pleasure to have his Justice manifested as well as his Mercy and his Justice in these as his Mercy in those out of the same his pleasure without wrong or injustice to any with free frank bounty to others as Lord of his owne things Thus is that verifyed in God as the supreme Cause disposer and ruler of all then when all things were in contriving and ordering how they should be to have Mercy on whom he will and to Harden whom he will Rom. 9. that is not to helpe him farther whom he findes to faile under sufficient helpe already given him Here is to be seen that Masse or lump of Mankinde out of which the great Potter made Vessels to honour and to dishonour namely the whole race of men from the first man to the last under all circumstances accompanying every particular both on Gods part and also on Mans knowne and considered by the Naturall and simple understanding of God for then they were as a Lumpe without determined formes capable of any change or amendment which the great workmaster might please to have For as God by his Soveraigne power makes of the same Earth some peece gold some lead or baser stuffe so of Mankinde he made some to holinesse and honour some he permitted to be defiled and come to dishonour But with this difference that there his own hand did all as working upon a dead and senselesse matter here he worketh upon a living and reasonable creature whose Nature we must suppose and provide to be preserved in Gods working upon it for in comparisons as there must be some likenesse so the differences must be marked as the Nature of things compared doe differ else nothing is more fit to deceive with than a similitude Thus much for the Consideration of the Nature of God who did Predestinate there followeth the consideration of the Nature of Man who was Predestinated It pleased the most wise and omnipotent Creator amongst other his glorious works to conceive one more admirable and excellent than the rest To subsist of a mixt compound Nature of Spirit and of flesh By the flesh inferiour to the Angels by the Spirit superiour to beasts to whom he might say Be not as the Horse as the Mul◠that have no understanding For
the promise testifyeth against them that say God hath decreed afore to whom to give Faith and to whom to deny it out of the multitude of Mankinde fallen out of his owne pleasure that they asmuch as in them lyeth make God a Lyer and a Dissembler The last Caveat or direction is not much different from the former That in our doings that Will of God is to be followed which wee have expresly declared unto us in the Word for this Doctrine ariseth from the true and necessary distinction of the Will of God which is Deut. 29. 29. into secret and revealed and that of the Schoole into Signi Beneplaciti which some abusing by thinking that God may have another will secret and different about the same thing whereof hee hath a declared and revealed Will or that which is signifyed is lesse pleasing than that which is secret called Beneplaciti doe forsake or neglect his Will revealed to fulfill his Will secret which they count to be his onely Will As in this present matter when the Word of God revealeth it to be the Will of God that every hearer of the Gospell doe repent beleeve and be saved some man granting this to be Gods revealed Will and signifyed Will may notwithstanding imagine that God hath another secret Will and that of his good Pleasure which shall stand not to have him repent nor to beleeve nor to be saved And this imagination is commonly founded upon the Doctrine of Predestination which excludeth Prescience and makes God to proceede immediatly to his Election upon the consideration of the fall of Mankinde But against this our Article adviseth to follow in our doings the Will of God declared in his Word and this it doth not onely by way of advice as if it were at our liberty and onely the best and safest way but even out of necessary grounds For 1. First That which is secret and hidden can be to us no certaine ground to build upon for who knowes God will not give him leave to repent beleeve or bee saved 2. That there can be no secret Will of God contrary to his revealed and declared Will for this were to make God a Lyer but even these two secret and revealed have two divers Objects or of one Object yet divers times wherein they are placed As for Example That there shall bee a day of judgement is the revealed Will of God but when that day shall be is secret to us though determined and knowne to God these be two Objects that a day shall be and when that day shall bee Againe the Gospell of our Salvation before the World was was a secret counsell and Will of God but since the World was it hath beene revealed and opened to the Prophets and Apostles and is no more hidden but manifested the same thing in both but in two times in the one hidden in the other revealed being well-pleasing unto God while it was secret and not ceased to be so being signifyed and declared to the sons of men To conclude This expressed Will of God whereby hee commands all men that heare the Gospell to beleeve it Joh. 6. 29. 1 Joh. 3. 23. and whereby the disobedience of them that believe not is aggravated Joh. 3. 19. 2 Thes 1. 8. strongly perswadeth mee that the way to life is yet open and that Salvation is to be had untill that Commandement come nay untill it bee contemned and despised And that the God of Truth who useth simplicity and sincerity in all his sayings and who will overcome when hee is judged hath not made so much as any secret Decree not to give a man Faith nor Salvation whom hee commandeth to beleeve the Gospell before the consideration of this Commandement given and the disobedience thereto observed in mente Divinâ omnisciâ And therefore all Opinions and Imaginations of Predestination determined before the consideration of obedience or disobedience to the Gospell in the Church where the Gospell is preached are utterly to bee excluded which if I obtaine in this Discourse Habeo intentum and for this Appello Evangelium Appello hunc Articulum Ecclesiae Anglicanae FINIS Dr. POTTER His own VINDICATION Of Himselfe By way of Letter unto Mr. V. touching the same Points VVritten Julii 7o. 1629. LONDON Printed by J. G. for John Clark and are to be sold at his Shop under S. Peters Church in Cornhill 1651. The Preface to the Reader AFter the publishing of the former Treatise was concluded on the ensuing Letter very fortunately was met withall and by the advice of grave and serious men judg'd fit to be made publike as well for strengthning of our Evidence touching the Points in difference that where a single Testimony though never so pregnant is not able to carry the Cause there according to Gods owne Rule this Word of Truth might be established in the Mouths of two or more witnesses as also to let the World see how the Eyes of specially the most sharp-sighted in both Universities looked one and the same way and that those famous Sisters unanimously concentred in their Opinions even in those dayes when these Controversies were first ventilated As for the Occasion of this Letter you may be pleased to understand Dr. Potter having Preached at the Consecration of the late Bishop of Carlisle 150. Martii 1628. did afterwards Print his Sermon Anno 1629. which his ancient Friend Mr. V. having perus'd it seemes hee boggled at some passages therein yet with a friendly though somewhat vehement affection in a Letter hee expostulates with the Doctor touching his change of Opinion as hee conceived The Doctor for his friends satisfaction and to quit himselfe of inconstancy presently returnes him this modest yet very judicious and Rationall Answer And for the Readers Ease that hee may rightly understand and judge whether Mr. V. had any just cause of exceptiō against the Doctor those passages of the Doctors Sermon at which the exceptions were taken are herewith Printed as followeth For our Controversies first let mee professe I favour not I rather suspect any new Inventions for ab Antiquitate non recedo nisi invitus especially renouncing all such as any way favour or flatter the depraved nature and will of man which I constantly beleeve to be free onely to evill and of it selfe to have no power at all meerely none to any act or thing spiritually good Most heartily embracing that Doctrine which most amply commends the Riches of Gods free Grace which I acknowledge to be the whole and sole cause of our Predestination Conversion and Salvation abhorring all damned Doctrines of the Pelagians Semipelagians Jesuites Socinians and of their ragges and reliques which helpe onely to pride and prick up corrupt nature humbly confessing in the words of S. * Test ad Quir. lib. 3. c. 4. Cyprian so often repeated by that worthy champion of grace S. †Cont. dua◠epist Pelag. l. 4. cap. 6. Austine In nullo gloriandum est quandoquidèm nostrum
hee saw a fit occasion to open all these by separating some ex promiscua illa perditione quâ ad unum omnes pari mortis aeternae conditione obstricti erant the Scripture no where saith and hee himselfe that saith it dares not doe it but with this parenthesis interponente se hîc dilecto filio quos in illo voluit it would clearly appeare that the separation of man was not made upon the view of Mankinde corrupted no more than upon the view of the same uncorrupted but upon Christ interposing Himselfe God separating quos in illo voluit voluit autem credentes in ipsum This let mee expresse in the words of Alesius on John 17. 1. Cum filius Dei praevidisset genus humanum ruiturum in aeternum exitium propter peccatum factus est supplex aeterno Patri ecce interponente se hîc dilecto filio ac promeruit Pater ei daret universos qui credituri essent in ipsum ut eos servaret à tyrannide Diaboli morte aeternâ The Father never denyed the Son any thing which hee asked Psal 2. Aske of me and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance So by this the intercession of Christ hath obtained all that beleeve in him to bee given to him to deliver from curse and to bring to eternall Life and Salvation not their faith nor their works but Christs favour with his Father The last thing in the Definition is an illustration the predestinated to Life are accounted as Vessells made to honour This is taken out of S. Paul Rom. 9. 21. where you shall finde the Vessells made to honour to be also called Vessells of mercy vers 23. and the Vessells made to dishonour called Vessels of wrath vers 22. but mercy and wrath doe both presuppose sin Both so farre wide from the Apostle and our Article are the defenders of the first Opinion What sinne is it that is presupposed That 's now in the question Whether Originall sinne or sinne against Christ It seemes by the Apostle that Vessels of Wrath were such as God endured with much long-suffering which being despised hee then shewed his wrath and his power over them ver 22. which argued their sinne to be impenitency And Vessels of Mercy to be such in whom he maketh knowne the riches of his Glory but this is done in Christ above all Eph. 1. 6. 7. and 2 Tim. 2. 20. the very visible Church of Christ is the great house wherein are Vessels some to honour some to dishonour But the whole Chapter Rom. 9. deserves an especiall elaboration that together with the whole the similitude of the Potter and his lumpe and his Vessels might be openly cleared The summe is That whereas the Salvation of all those that are saved and the perdition of all those that perish is referred as it ought to be to the Will of God to his mercy to his love to whom he will inlarged and from whom he will restrained and that there is no resisting nor complaining against this Will that then God and his Will is to be considered as it is by the Apostle as the Universall and supreme Cause of all things and as the generall Mover Governour disposer of them through whose understanding judgement and allowance they have all passed and might have been otherwise disposed and other Events have proceeded out of them if God had willed And againe the Supreme Cause as such must not onely be considered as the chiefe and prime agent of things or as alone doing all but permitting other created Natures to use their properties faculties and freedomes and to governe them and to use them to such ends and uses as the wisdome of God his Justice his Mercy his Dominion shall judge fit to use them and apply them holily and righteously and according to Gods Nature God therefore in contemplation of his owne workes which he himselfe would doe and of his creatures of free nature what they would doe if he permit conceiving the issues would be diverse some good some evill out of his owne Soveraigne pleasure and power confirmed and ratified by an immutable decree those issues and their free causes that would bring them forth whereby he prepared some men to glory some men to destruction as unto ends but not without the intervent of their owne acts as well as of his who though he could have mended or altered any of his own workes or any of the other Creatures to other issues yet hee would not notwithstanding hee knew that letting things goe thus the greatest part of the Masse or multitude of Mankinde would goe into perdition and but a few in comparison would be transmitted to life and glory yet he rested in this purpose with as much blamelesse liberty as the Potter hath who makes of the same lumpe of Clay vessells for honorable uses and vessels for viler and baser uses For although there seeme a great deale of neerenesse betweene the Potter as a man an owner and his Clay and there come but few things betweene the Will and power of the one and the uses and End of the other as put case the aptnesse and inaptnesse of Clay to an end which yet the Potter could mend if hee list by cost and labour whereby the Potters power seemes to be more great and absolute yet it is most true that there is a great deale more of neerenesse betweene God and his Creature and though there come many more things betweene the Will of God and the End of his Creature yet is the infinite Knowledge Wisdome and Power of God that notwithstanding these many more things intervenient Gods Will is neerer to the End of his creatures than the Potters Will can be to the End of his Clay where so little or nothing come betweene Those then whom God chose in Christ and decreed to bring to Salvation by Christ upon supposition of his owne acts in giving Christ and his Spirit unto them and upon supposition of their acts in receiving Christ and obeying his Spirit these are Vessells made unto honour And againe those whom hee rejected and decreed to bring into everlasting destruction upon supposition of their acts in despising his Promises and inabusing his benefits given unto them those are Vessels made to destruction There is a necessity of such suppositions here because the Masse of Mankinde is not like unto the Masse of Potters earth rude reasonlesse and senselesse but is a free Creature whose nature is by the Ordinance of the Creator to worke out and to procure to it selfe its owne End good or evill good by working according to God seeking that good to men or evill by declining from or forsaking of God in his Worke and so failing of God hee falls into evill But because God was able to have altered or amended the whole or any peece of the Masse which happily the Potter is not alwayes able to doe in his Masse therefore God must needs bee acknowledged to have a