omnia quaerendum puto inquâ—t quid sit peccatum substantia aliqua an omnino substantia carens nomen quo non res non existentia non corpus aliquod sed perperam facti actus exprimitur Et adjungit credo ita est si ita est quomodo potuit humanam debilitare vel mutare naturam quod substantia caret finely agreed Pelagius questions if sin be not a substance how it can defile the soul and Mr. T. P. asks how it can damn the soul and that here-hence Austin concludes Cap. 21. Ibid. that the very name of Jesus is extinguished ut omnino frustra putetur Vocabis nomen ejus Jesum Quomodo enim Salvum faciet ubi nulla est agritudo peccata quippe substantiae non sunt secundum istum vitiare non possunt His Theological Consolator Boethius who hartned him so much in his Apostatizing from Calvinisme (b) Correct Copy p. 48 49 c. Sinner Impleaded Boethius de Consolat Philosoph Lib. 4. Quidquid à bono deficit esse desistit quò fit ut mali desinant esse quod fuerant Sed fuisse homines adhuc ipsa humani corporis species ostentat quare versi in malitiam humanam quoque amisere naturam c. though he did only afford them Philosophical Consolation when this Boethius as T. P. also somewhere maintains at large that bad and vitious men are not so much as men doth he mean that they be pure nothings Hob-goblings Chimaeraes men in the Moon or in some new Atlantis or Utopia 3. He hath had time and wit enough to have learned that though sin be nothing positive yet it is something privative and is sounded alwayes in that which is really something as in a subject act c. Malum habitat in alâ—eno fundo (c) Augustin in Enchirid. Cap. 14. Si bonum non esset in quo malum esset prorsus nec malum esse potuisset quia non modo ubi consisteret sed unde oriretur corruptio non haberet nisi esset quod corrumperetur It is therefore horrid for him to subjoyn that according to us men are eternally punished for just nothing in the World when as he knowes that we all say that men are punished for just nothing that is good naturally or morally but for that which morally is stark-staring naught viz. for their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Transgression of Gods Law Object 2. p. 110. If wicked man is no more then the deficient cause of sin he is not so much the cause of it as God himself in their account who say He absolutely wills that sin should fall out Corrept Correct p. 78 79 73. 196. 54. Answ 1. God neither is nor possible can be the deficient cause of sin because it is absolutely impossible that he should in agendo deficere be deficient in his actions (d) J. mer. P. lect de Eccles p. 80. Si quid fit boni Deo efficiente id fit nempe author omnis boni est effecitque in suis velle perficere Si quid mali fit non fit deficiente sed non faciente Deo Nam de ficere certè vel culpam vel imperfectionem causae denotat quorum neutrum in Deum cadere potest whereas man is both the efficient Cause though not the supreme of the act of sin and he is the sole deficient and in that respect the sole cause of what is properly sinful 2. As for the Argument he brings from Gods absolute willing that sin shall fall out id est the event of sin for that I do only understand in the expressions which he mentions I had need to meet with Readers of extreme false memories and of most disingenuous hearts as not willing to turn to the very places which he objects if I should suspect them to stand in need of more than hath been said in my Corrept and in this defence of it The sum of all which amounts but to that Dilemma which for my Adversaries use I have set down out of Austin in the Margin (d) August Enchirid. ad Laurent Cap. 100. Deus permittit ait ille peccatum volens aut invitus non certè invitus quia id esset cum tristitia sic majorem haberet si volens permittet permâ—ssio est genus quoddam voluntatis Contra Jul. Pelag. Lib. 5. Nos certè si cos in quos nobis potestas est ante oculos nostros perpetrare scelera permittamus rei cum ipsis erimus Quam vero innâ—merabilia ille permittit fieri ante oculos suos qua utique si noluisset nulla ratione permitteret and unto which I am confident no living man shall ever meet with any solid answer from its greatest Anti-Augustinian opposers 3. Man in all his actings is and ought to be under some known revealed Law Deut. 29. 29. God is tied to no such Lawes whose holy will is the only Law of his proceedings 4. If God should have no agency in and about the acts of sin we were to discharge him of all Soveraign power and gubernation of all things He were wholly to cease from all action about the most of actions which are committed in the World 5. Man in sinning useth not to seperate the act from the sinfulness adhering to it nor is it his place to bring light out of darkness to sin that good may come thereof as it is proper to God efficaciously to permit sins yet without sin for glorious ends Gen. 50. 20. Isa 10. 5 6 c. Object 3. p. 112. If this point be so abstruse that Mr. B. doth not understand it Why doth he talk that into the universe of Readers which is arrant Gibbrish to himself but if it is not so abstruse who doth he talk of and on affirming and denying the very same thing Ex. gr in his p. 79. he saith the sinning Creature is the sole efficient cause of his sin yet in his p. 55. he said that sin hath no efficient cause Again p. 79. he saith that sin 's very being is consisting in deficiency Answ 1. The abstruse point of Divine permission of sin need not to be arrant Gibbrish to Mr. B. and yet for the profundity of it may be but a little understood by him But if Mr. T. P. Jâ—b 4. 12. do so perfectly understand it as to find no abstruseness in it he understands Horresco referens more than Christ considered as mere man upon Earth did Matth. 11. 26. more than his holy deep Apostle St. Paul Rom. 11. 33. more then the Psalmist 77. 19. more then the deepest Doctors that ever had the handling of it Which of them with Austin saith not Lib. 5. advers Julian Pelagian Quis non ista Judicia contremiscat quibus agit Deus in cordibus etiam malorum hominum quicquid vult reddens tamen eis secundum merita ipsorum Idem tractatu in Johannem Non ergo fratres ad hanc penetrandam altudinem ad
A Necessary Vindication Of the Doctrine of PREDESTINATION Formerly asserted TOGETHER With a full Abstersion of all Calumnies cast upon the late Correptory Correction by one who highly pretends to Philanthropie whilest he doth most inhumanely and barbarously traduce his Neighbour as also most Reformed Authours By William Barlee Rector of Brock-hole in Northamptonshire August de orig animae L. 2. C. 2. Valde sunt noxia prava diserta quia hominibus minus eruditis eo quod diserta sint videantur esse vera Idem Serm. ad fratres in Eremo Propter nos Conscientia nostra sufficit nobis propter vos fama nostra non pollui sed polleri debet in vobis Tenete quod dico atque distinguite Duae sunt res Conscientia Fama Conscientia necessaria est tibi Fama proximo tuo Qui fidens Conscientiae suae negligit Famam suam crudelis est maxime in loco isto positus de quo dâ—cit Apostolus scriâ—ens ad dâ—scipulum suum Circa omnâ—s teipsum bonorum operum praebe exemplum LONDON Printed for George Sawbridge at the Bible on Ludgate-Hill 1658. To the very Reverend my much Honoured Friend John Conant D. D. Dr. of the Chair in Oxford and the most worthy Rector of Exeter Colledge there SIR I Have thus long purposely forborn to give you particular thanks for your most respective incouraging Letters with which you were pleased to grace me whilest I was labouring in this my work because I thought it to be my bounden duty for to do it by offering in a more open way the whole of it unto you so soon as ever it should be finished You stooped exceedingly low when you thought any of my former labours extremely vilified by some worth your perusal but much lower when you could find any thing in them worth your Commendation It is easie to be discerned that the altitude of your parts and place which latter is not so much an honour to you as it is honoured by you have not made you supercilious against those of a far lower form both in gifts and station Most modest Sir let him without your indignation say it and be believed in it who yet was never so sordidly unhappy and trusts never shall be as for self-ends to be a Spaniel to the gallantest of men that I hardly know any mere individual alive upon the face of the Earth unto whom under God I would more desire to approve all my Travaiâ—s or by whom I would more willingly be censured for any of my miscarriages about them than by your self and that because of those transcendent excellencies of vast Learning of unfaigned piety of graceful gravity mixt with sweet moderation which every one who knowes you will blesse God for appearing to be in you far sooner than with any the least ostentation you will own them to be in your self Upon this account and score alone it is that I make it my humble and earnest request unto you that you would take full liberty most freely and boldly to censure whatsoever you shall in this or in any former work find enormiously peccant against either the grounds of true learning or against the holiness or goodness of the cause defended by me or so much as all circumstances duly pondered cast up against the parts place or person of my Adversary The more severe Critick you shall prove against me in case of my demerits the more I will promise perpetual thankfulness unto you and upon a clear discovery amendment of all faults to the utmost of what my Antagonist by way of satisfaction can wish for from my hands Indeed by the exuberancies of my passions against him here and there and as yet I think not without just cause it may easily be discerned that I am not much transported with that vulgarly taking Opinion that now adayes English Hereticks are only to be killed with kindness but if any but from a too obvious and facile a mistake of my style shall so far mistake the Temper of my affections towards any thing that is commendable and extremely gallant as many things are in the parts of my Adversary he puts a foul Sophism upon himself and miserably mistakes me I should be full sorrowful if any should value more what is prayse-worthy in him then my self or any be more solicitous of every thing he ought to set a prise upon as upon his soul his fame his very outward safety than my self All my grief about him the Lord he knowes I speak truth â—n it is that being what he is as to dâ—vers rare excellencies he should in the imploying of them be so little Christ's and in him Ours Let him but once I will not say by a number of holy â—alis cumsit utinam noster esset humble learned unbiassed Orthodox Divines but even by one such be declared to be free from being a back-friend to true Religion in tâ—e purity and power of it to be no studious Calumniator of the greatest Luminaries in the Church to be no underminer of necessary Reformation and then I will promise him to make if need be upon my knees an open penance for all the wrongs which it shall appear I have done him Till then I must think it no unreasonable thing to beg of strangers that they would allow me to know my Adversary neer hand better then others can do at a distance and to call to my mind what I have long since learned Amicus Plato amicus Socrates sed magis amica veritas I am sory that in this 2d reply by his fierce appearing against almost all sorts of Reformers antient and modern he hath enforced me more largely to appear against him in my Apologetical first part of the work than at first I had projected If the present age do not I wish after ages never may feel how necessary it was for me so to do Sure I am some very Learned and good men have thought it worth their pains elaborately to lay open the designs of such as are of his party and whose steps he is ambitious to follow in the loading of the best Reformers with foul Calumnies If any be otherwise minded by an easie Transition from the first part Hippol. Fronto contra commentat H. Grotii Sam. Maresius contra eundem multis voluminibus to the second which are therefore purposely kept distinct they may relieve themselves from any thing the present use whereof they may not know In the second part of this my work which is purely Doctrinal I trust you will find some care taken in the management of the truth in the making good of all former Charges brought in against the Adversary in the answering of any thing considerably material and Argumentative If all be not done so exactly as I could have wished it or as the Gravity of the Cause doth require I cannot be blamed for want of endeavours to do it but for want of skill and power In magnis voluisse
cause and head of our Election c. Answ Doubtless our Authour is frequently disposed to pretend amazement at my doings and yet without all peradventure when he never shakes or shivers at all Cum frigidus nullus obstruit praecordia sanguis He doth it without once changing colour for else 1. when I did but say that he gives out Faith and I might rather have said good works of all sorts to be the cause of Election for them in all his writings he rather delights to name than Faith he could have had no reason of complaining I specified not what kind of causes he took them to be I only said he took them to be causes And I trow he will grant me that Causa sine qua non or conditio sine qua non which even p. 39. whilest he disputes against me he grants Faith and good works to be of Election are in their kind to be reputed Causes 2. Whilest in the very next lines to the words which I have transcribed he doth out of § 55. of his Correct Copy quote it that good works are required as a necessary condition though very unworthy to be the cause of our Election 3. I will leave it to understanding Readers to judge whether this necessary condition which here he talks of amount not to somewhat more then a bare antecedent or a mere Causa sine qua non The rather because in other places he calls it the important coâ—â—â—tion without which Election cannot be had Nay that which p. 70. of his Correct Copy the very page which I had quoted against him makes the difference betwixt the Elect and Reprobate and that because as there he speaks as well as elsewhere those who are in Christ by faith are better then those who are out of Christ by infidelity who therefore are chosen when as others are left yea that without which it would be unjust for God to elect any man Correct Copy p. 71. Justification precedeth Election because no man is elected unless he differ from him that is rejected p. 69. Correct Copy whatsoever is justly decreed may be justly executed as it is decreed If he decreed to save any without regard or respect of their being such he might actually save them without respect to their being such So that â—e needed not so thrasonically to have boasted of his logical skill against me whom he looks upon and represents p. 63. as a meer ignaro in these matters to distinguish p. 63. betwixt the Cause propter quam res est for which a thing is and the necessary condition sine quâ non est without which it is not whilest in his own mentioned expressions he doth sufficiently confound them 3. Though he do very often times gull us as p. 70. Correct Copy Philanthrop Chap. p. 80. with good words that God makes the difference and crowns his own gifts in us c. yet how will it be possible for him to put any good sense upon these words who every where teacheth that these previous dispositions are precedent to Election that we are not choâ—en to Faith and good works and perseverance in them but that we are by Gods choosing foreseen to have them He likewise maintains Correct Copy p. 69. That God no otherwise executes his Decrees then he made them and ergo if in our first and eternal Election there were respect had to our faith good works and perseverance in them then suâ—e when in time he doth call us effectually Rom. 8. 28. which most Divines use to call our temporal Election from 1 Cor. 1. 26 27. he doth in like sort chuâ—e us for our Faith good works perseverance c. and all this sure will make them to be somewhat more then Causa sine qua non or conditio sine qua non even such things as being performed according to what the Judge requires do move his will to bestow Election as a reward upon us as I have told him that one of his dear Remonstrants speaks (a) Nic. Grevinchov contra Ames p. 24. Contendo naturae legum ac conditionum praescriptarum omninó conveniens esse ut voluntas Judicis à conditione postulatâ praestitâ moveatur ad praemium Just as the Massilians of old Prosper in Resp ad 8. dubium Genuens Ipsa Electorum Praedestinatio non est nisi retributio Et evidenter Faustus Lib. 2. Cap. 3. Praescientia gerenda praenoscit post modum praedestinatio retribuenda praescribit Illa praevidet merita haec praeordinat praemia praescientia ad potentiam praedestinatio ad justitiam pertinet Philanthr p. 66. Reprobation is said to be an act of Justice and good works c. are the important condition without which Election will not be had 4ly Who that observes how often in the Correct Copy and elsewhere Mr. T. P. doth consound the Decree of Election with the Decree of Salvation will believe that Mr. T. P. makes Faith and obedience c. only to be necessary prâ—cedents unto life and Salvation and that he doth not also take them to be Causes of Salvation if not directly meritorious yet in some more then ordinary way procuring and causing Salvation Mind the drift of his Discourse against the Solifidians Sinner Impleaded from p. 332. to 337. 5ly If he will maintain that there is any the least Analogy betwixt his Doctrines of Election and Reprobation then as every where he maintains sin to be the meritorious Cause of Reprobation what reason hath he to deny that Faith and obedience are the meritorious Causes of Election which is opposite to Reprobation 6ly Who can believe that all in haste Mr. T. P. will in heart differ whatsoever in words he may seem to do from what he doth after his fashion most solemnly quote out of Prosper Austin Melancthon (b) Phil. Chap. 3. p. 77 Saints whom for his own turn he will elsewhere be thought to adore who as he saith did all agree That Gods Predestination was accordâ—ng to foreknowledge so as he made some Vessels of honour and some of dishonour even for this cause because he foresaw their several ends of what wills they would be and what would be their actions under the assistance and help of grace Mark that Prosper in these words speaks neither his own or Austins sense but that of the Massilians or Semi-Pelagians Is there any thing in the genius of any of Mr. T. P's singular Doctrines which should move him to enter a dissent from these sayings § 2. As for what he adds of Christs being the means and the meritorious cause of our Election Answ There might be some reason to take some more then ordinary notice of it 1. If he had made it his business as well to have proved it as after Arminius and others to have dictated it 2. If he would have thought it worth the while to have confuted any of Dr. Twisse his large Discourses against it unto which I had about it referred him in my Corrept
c. And accordingly Tilenus himself when he was on our side took exception against Arminius his stating the Decree of Predestination and Reprobation according to our Opinion to proceed citra omnem considerationem resipiscentiae sidei in illis an t impentitentiae infidelitatis in hisce i. e. without all consideration of Repentance and Faith in those or of impenitence and infidelity in these And this that Rev. Dr. further proves p. 11. out of Piscator and out of the Contra-Remonstrants in the Conference at the Hague c. So opposing his Adversary p. 38. and 39. he had these words Secondly He aggravates it by the circumstance of the least consideration of sin which we are said to deny to have place in Reprobation whereas Divine consideration hath no degrees at all whereby it may be capable of greater or lesse a fair answer to what Mr. T. P. hath p. 6. Sin hath degrees in man but Divine consideration hath no degrees at all To come nearer to the point to discover their jugling in stating our Tenet most calumniously Consider I pray do any of our Divines maintain that God did ordain to dimn any man but for sin and by positive Reprobation in my p. 121. I meant nothing or could mean nothing but damnation It is apparent they do not all acknowledging that like as God doth damn no man but for sin so doth he ordain to damn no man but for sin And a little after to add one thing more not for their sin which they sinnedin Adam only but for those very actual sins and transgressions which they are guilty of And if any thing can be spoken yet more plainly in the same Book p. 40 41. having spoken of Election he speaks thus about the decree of Reprobation The like distinction is considerable on the part of Reprobation which also is the will of God in a certain kind I say we must distinguish in this Decree the act of Gods decreeing and the things decreed by him And these things are of a different nature and so different that look what alone is the cause of the act that alone is the cause of one thing decreed by it but not so of the other As for example the things denyed by Reprobation are 1. The denyal of Grace 2. The denyal of glory together with the inflicting of damnation As touching the first of these look what is the cause of Reprobation as touching the act of God reprobating that and that alone is the cause of the denyal of Grace viz. that of Faith and Repentance to wit the mere pleasure of God But as touching the denyal of glory and inflicting of damnation God doth not proceed according to the mere pleasure of his will but according to a Law which is this whosoever believeth not shall be damned And albeit God made that Law according to the mere pleasure of his will yet no wise man will say that God denies glory and inflicteth damnation on men according to the mere pleasure of his will the case being clear that God denies the one and inflicts the other merely for their sins who are thus dealt withall Thus far that great Arminian Maule Dr. Twisse unto all which as a signal conclusion let that noted place be added Vind c. Lib. 2. p. 75. Nunquam mihi contigit incidere in quempiam è nostris asserentem impios Creatos esse ad gloriam Divinae Justitiae in eorum suppliciis demonstrandam ob dcretum Dei sed signanter hoc fieri passim profitentur ob peccata ipsorum impiorum non quod peccata impiorum dicant esse causam creationis sed quod peccata hominum tam in executione quà m in intentione Dei constituant causam damnationis ipsorum c. § 4. As for what he subjoynes next p. 65. against the distinction betwixt Reprobation Positive and Negative there is no real difference betwixt not choosing and refusing or betwixt not saving and damning in Gods Decree c. Answ 1. I trust Mr. T. P. notwithstanding all the many Proselytes which he glories his Correct Copy to have gained him (a) Phil. Chap. 3. p. 55. is not become so absolute a Dictator in the Church as to be able by some few scrats of his pen to overthrow a distinction so solemnly and so long received as I could show if need were at large this to have bin by Austin by multitudes of Schoolmen one of which is not afraid to question any mans prudence who shall deny so plain a thing (b) Pennot Lib. 7. §. 10. Quis tam imprudens qui dicat voluntatem excludendi efficaciter aliquem à fine voluntatem permittendi illum pro sua libertate deficere à fine non esse voluntates distinctas by his beloved Arminius himself or by all sorts of Neotericks Secondly Though in Gods decrees who is purus putus actus there be no multiplicity of acts one succeeding the other as in men yet ex parte rei and to us poor mortalls there must needs as to the matter be conceived as great a distinction betwixt these two as there would be betwixt an Earthly Judges leaving a Prisoner in Goal or not preferring of him at Court and his adjudging of him to the Gallowes for his fellonie § 5. As for the tedious Dilemma with which in the same page 65. he would fain gravel me upon occasion of what I had wrote p. 197. in defence of Calvin A. 1. Any wise body will easily perceive that none but a very absurd man would have put it seeing in that place I have no occasion at all nor do not make any the least use of the distinction betwixt Reprobation positive and Reprobation negative only I have occasion to distinguish Gods eternal Reprobation from the first Adams and the Angels temporal Apostacy And of the first I say with Calvin that Gods secret will was the sole cause but of the latter that Adam and the Angels sinful wilâ—s were the cause See Calvin de praedest p. 711. 2. Any body if he will but turn to what I wrote Corrept Correct p. 195 196. in defence of Calvin will easily discover Mr. T. P's unreasonable thriftiness in sparing to give any Answer to no lesse then four of my Replies against what he had said against Calvin and in nibling only a little at the fifth by the intrusion of a most unseasonable Dilemma for the making whereof here there was no other occasion given him then what he was pleased to take from his own working wormish fancy 3. Seeing Mr. Calvin whensoever he hath occasion to speak of Gods Decree of leaving Angels or the first Adam to themselves so as not to have decreed them that efficacious Grace by which they would certainly have preserved themselves from falling and did only afford them that sufficient Grace by which they might have stood if they had so willed the Lord gave them only posse stare vel non peccare si vellent
viderunt quod id quod non est à se nec potest à se manere in esse multo minus potest agere à seipso cum actus malus secundum conversionem ad materiam sit simpliciter actus egrediens à potentia activa perfecta secundum naturam ideo concluserunt quod non egreditur ab eo nisi secundum quod movetur à causa prima alioqui sequeretur duo principia esse Thirdly If Mr. T. P. like not of this latter then he must inevitably maintain if he will but stick to his Thesis First That God is the Authour of sin Or else he must speedily renounce the very first Article of his Christian Creed and say that God did not make Heaven and Earth and all real things visible and invisible therein that in him Act. 17. 28. we do not live move and have our being that every good and perfect gift is in its kind is not from God Iames 1. 17. 2. He must hold that there be thousands and millions yea thousands of thousands myriades of myriades of actions in the World which are not wrought by God are independent from him and stand not at all in neâ—d of his Concurse A Tenent which the boldest Jesuite in the World would tremble to admit into his Creed (e) Suarez De Concursu motione Auxiliis Dei. Lib. 2. Pro prio reali influxu concurret Deus ad actus Liberi arbitri ut reales actus sunt etiam si saepissimè intrinsece mali sint nam cum hi actus sint verè res effectus reales necesse est ut saltem illam dependentiam à Deo habeant quae omnibus causarum secundarum effectibus Generalis omnino necessaria est Thirdly It will follow that the more sinful acts any commits the more he is a Creator a kind of an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a God of himself Fourthly Do he what he can to the contrary in spite of him it will follow that God since the fall never did or doth concur with any the best action that ever the holiest Saint being a meer man did act for unto the best of their holiest performances as they come from them something of sinful infirmity doth ever cleave Their very Righteousnesses in some respect are as filthy rags Fifthly It will overturn all Divine Praescience of sins and as I once told him in my Corrept Correct p. 142. Qui tollit praescientiam tollit Deum Deity it self is overturned if praescience And how can that be foreknown by God which is in no sense praedetermined by him in which he hath at all no hand and yet it is Ens positivum Sixthly and lastly It is an Opinion first most contrary to holy Scripture which when it speaks most properly of sin it speaks of it as of a Privative not as of a Positive thing under the notions of vanity emptiness darkness Anomy no Profit no good no knowledge c. 2. To Austin who most strenuously pleads that sin hath no cause Efficient but only Deficient (f) August Lib. 12. De Civitat Dei Cap. 7. The Discourse is most remarkable and answers to many of Mr. T. P's objections Nemo quaerat efficientem causam malae voluntatis Non enim est efficiens sed deficiens quia nec illa effectio est sed defectio deficere namque ab eo quod summe est ad id quod minus est hoc est incipere habere voluntatem malam Causas porrò defectionum istarum cum efficientes non sint ut dixi sed deficientes velle invenire tale est ac si quisquam velit videre tenebras vel aut audire silentium quod tamen utrumque nobis notum est neque illud nisi per oculos neque hoc nisi per aures non sane in specie sed in speciei privatione Nemo ergo ex me scire quaerat quod me nescire scio nisi forte ut nescire discat quod scire non posse sciendum est 3. As were easie to be proved To School-men of all sides and parties 4. To his honoured beloved Father Jac. Arminius himself so that as my forementioned cordial friend whom I mentioned but a while agoe wrote well to me when he told me both learnedly wittily that Mr. T. P. is the first who gave sin this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mr. T. P's Invention is extraordinary I think I may therefore now well conclude this third thing in the words which our Authour useth against me only professing a dislike to the word unfortunate (g) Te facimus fortuna Deam coeloque locamus c. is fitter for an Ovid then for a Christian Austin disputes notably against it in his books de Civit. Dei Lib. 4. c. 18. Lib. 5. Cap. 1. c. Austin puts himself to a pennance for having named it Retractat Lib. 1. Cap. 1. Poenitet me nominâsse fortunam cum vide am homines habere in pessima consuetudine ut ubi dici debuit Hoc Deus voluit dicere Hoc voluit fortuna Sic Cap. 2. Lib. 1. Retract Not only Charity but good Nature forbids the farther prosecution of so unfortunate a Writer whose great store of unskilfulness may to help excuse him § 4. As for the fourth thing proposed the Solution of Objections produced in defence of his own Opinion and in opposition to ours spits and dashes of Answers will serve against them the strength and force of them being already broken by what hath been thus far said Object 1. p. 110. Where there is no efficient there is no effect that is to say There is nothing Answ 1. In this and in all the rest of his Objectâ—ons doth he not clearly contradict himself (a) Sinner Impleaded p. 178. when of sin he saith elsewhere that it was no part of Gods Creation which is most true but how then comes sin to have a Positive Entity Is not every Positive Entity a Creature he goes on We find it not among the works of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 set down or comprized in the first Chapter of Genesis He indeed made the Heaven and the Earth but it was Wisdom Chap. 1. 14. to that end that they might have their being Ergo then God gave being to every positive being or thing but he gave no being to sin Ergo sin as such hath no positive being as here he pleads 2. It 's pittiful when a man shall so flurt and flounce against his Neighbour for want of Logick and Metaphysicks and yet have so little of either as not to be able to distinguish betwixt a negative non ens or nullity and betwixt a privative in subjecto Capabili as betwixt a blind man and no man a poor man and no body And in this to â—o he is but too like Pelagius who concluded because sin was no substance Ergo it could not corrupt the soul Pelag. apud Aug. Lib. de nat grat c. 19. Ante