Faith for their recovery after notice taken of their impotency to rise again of themselves it seems an insulting mock and not a Call to say to sinners Turne repent believe and live unlesse there be some grace prepared for them whereby they may be able to repent and believe 2. Because it attributeth the Effect of obeying the Calling to the kinde of Calling it selfe and onely to one cause the operation of the Spirit as if many causes did not concur to produce an Effect and if any one faile the Effect faileth As if obedience to the Calling of God were not an Act of the will of Man under the ayde of the Spirit of God as if the ayde of the Spirit were never refused nor the Grace of God never received in vaine For though God be almighty and able to draw all second Causes unto his part and side yet he doth not use to disturbe or crosse the Nature of Causes nor the order of things which himselfe hath established 3. Because it maketh Gods Covenant to differ from all Covenants in humane affaires even in that which is essentiall to a Covenant yet this terme and title is borrowed from men the better to conceive of the Grace of God the duty of man In our Covenants each party hath something to performe and no one party doth all in a Covenant but by this distinction God is supposed both to provide infallibly to have the conditions fulfilled and also to fulfill his owne promises whereas all that he undertaketh for us is to make the conditions possible and not to be wanting in his helpe so far as is needfull for us Esay 59. ult And check me not that I am afraid to give too much to God lest I check you againe that you looke to be so much favoured as to be tyed to nothing Truth flattereth neither God nor Man Non est bonae solidae fidei c. T is not the part of a good and sound faith so to referre all things to Gods will and so to flatter every one by saying Nothing can come to passe without Gods permission that so we may imagine our selves are to doe nothing Tert. de Exhort Castitatis not far from the beginning CHAP. VIII Of Conversion THe Conversion of a sinner is the End which God seeketh in sending his Word and in Calling men Act. 3. 26. The Effect of Calling when it speedeth It may shortly be defined The Obedience of him that is called for it his part Vocantem audire obedire In Conversion there be two Termes A quo Ad quem From the power of Satan unto God Act. 26. 18. It is in all parts of Man In his Vnderstanding he is turned from darknesse to light In his Will from Idols of all sorts to serve the living God 1 Thes 1. 9. In his whole life from unrighteousnesse to Holinesse Rom 6. The Conversion of a sinner is also to be considered as Prima or Posterior The first is when a man of a naturall man is made a regenerate man and a member of Gods Church as the Gentiles called by the Apostles Act. 15. 3. Such were we all that are converted unto God having been first averted foolish disobedient deceived serving divers lusts Tit. 3. 3. The latter Conversion is when a regenerate man having committed iniquity and fallen into sin returneth unto God by repentance of that sinne Thus Peter that was foretold of denying Christ and that yet his faith should not finally faile was willed that he being converted should strengthen his Brethren Luk. 22. 32. See Bilson of supremacy pag. 278. 279. in 4. Next the Causes of our Conversion are to be considered without question Gods holy spirit working upon the heart of a sinner is the prime principall efficient powerfull Cause of his Conversion Turne us and we shall be turned Lam. 5. 21. in the beginning in the middle and in the end of it The word preached is the ordinary Instrumentall Cause Psal 19. 7. Adjuvant Causes are the Crosse that chastneth Jer. 31. 18. Blessings that draw and allure the prayers of others the holy example of others already converted c. But it is in question what part the Sinner himselfe who is the subject to be converted beareth in his owne Conversion being a living and reasonable Subject Whether he be active or passive in it when and how far whether he can further it or hinder it or whether it be possible for two supposed equally called one to be converted and not the other If so then whence this difference shall arise whether from God or from Man The determination of these questions cannot be cleare nor the manner of our conversion opened untill we have declared what is to be holden according to the Scriptures touching Gods free Grace and Mans freewill which we will indeavour to bring into more manifest light after so vehement Conflicts of the learned in all Ages which have raised clouds of obscurity to the losse of Truth amongst the strivers for it CHAP. IX Of Grace OF Grace and Freewill I will speak by Gods grace first severally then joyntly that so we may returne to the point of our Conversion to behold what be the parts of God therein and what of Man Of Grace I shall endeavour to declare the Thing the Distinctions the Necessity the Amplitude the Power and force thereof By Grace may be understood all that proceedeth from God out of free favour to an unworthy sinner tending to his Salvation yet here by Grace I will not understand the remaines of Nature as some light of Reason some sense of Conscience and the like though it was of Grace that these were spared and left to remaine in Man fallen Neither will I by Grace understand the Law describing the righteousnesse of works though the preacher of Grace doth use the Law to shew a sinner his Estate and to prepare him to Christ Nor will I understand the bare outward word of the Gospel though it be called Verbum gratiae Act. 20. 32. if not rather it be so called because the internall Grace of God goeth with it But by Grace I understand the internall Illuminations Teachings Motions Tractions Inspirations Operations Gifts of the holy Ghost merited by Christ to be given to the sinfull Sons of Adam in their fit time and order to the end to raise them fallen and to save them lost whence I shall call it with Saint August Gratiam Christi There is in man no merit of Grace for then grace were no grace there is only an occasion namely the wofull misery of Man which yet was in Gods pleasure to take as an occasion or to refuse it Even the good use of former Graces is no merit or cause of the giving of following Graces but the second are as freely given as the first for Gods good pleasure alone is the Author and Cause of that order and succession that is in graces in which he hath appointed to doe one thing in
order after another and not one thing for the sake of another If any thing be named Grace and tend not to mans recovery and Salvation or be not in some degree fit sufficient potent and available to further this work it is not to be esteemed worthy of the Noble and blessed name Grace The Distinctions of Grace The same Grace and power of Gods Spirit which in essence is no way diverse yet hath diverse denominations according to the diversities of relations and effects as the same Sunne first warmeth the Earth and then makes it fruitfull and beautifies it with flowers Quae enim in verbo pro ejus singulari divinae naturae simplicitate unum sunt unuÌ„ tamen effectuÌ„ in animâ non habent sed ad ejus varias diversas necessitates veluti diversa sese participanda accommodant Bern. in Cant. Ser. 85. The most antient and usefull distinction of Grace is that which we have in the tenth Article of our Church and in divers Collects of the booke of Common-prayer Into preventing following working coworking exciting helping Againe Grace is in Scripture set forth as standing without calling knocking Prov. 1. 20. Rev. 3. 20. Entred in inhabiting as in a Temple house 1 Cor. 3. 16. Againe God doth work in us these three things after these manners Bonum Cogitare sine nobis Velle nobiscum Perficere per nos Bern. de gratia libero Arbitrio Cornelius Muss 4. Ciner The Distinction of Grace into Sufficient and Effectuall is a frivolous distinction one member having too little the other too much to be found in rerum natura for how can that be a Grace or sufficient that never as such produceth any Effect but must have something more put to it in the entity of Grace to bring forth an Effect and then it loseth the name of Sufficient and winneth the title of Effectuall 2. What effect flowes except it be in miracles from one sole cause which is certaine and infallible and despising all other causes claimes to it selfe the title of Effectuall All Grace is in it selfe sufficient and efficient no lesse no more See Paulum Bennium de efficaci Dei auxilio purposely written to explode this distinction If there be a defect in the Effect it proceedeth from a defect in some other cause or the Subject or some other thing than from the defect of Grace Yet I will not stick to acknowledge Grace Effectuall to be well so called from the Event and as proceeding from Gods speciall mercy guided by his foreknowledge if that will satisfie their desires which affect this distinction Prevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continuall help that in all our workes begun continued and ended in thee we may glorifie thy holy Name and finally by thy mercy obtaine everlasting life c. Almighty God we humbly beseech thee that as by thy speciall grace preventing us thou dost put in our mindes good desires so by thy continuall helpe we may bring the same to good effect through Jesus Christ our Lord. Collect on Easter day The Necessity of Grace In the defence hereof Saint August deserveth highly of the Church of God against Pelagius who denyed the Necessity of Grace For Pelagius denying Originall Sinne and not acknowledging any losse to Adams posterity by Adams transgression but holding mankinde to be now as sound as the Creator made it he must needes by consequence hold Grace to be superfluous which the Church held was prepared to supply that losse and hath its whole occasion out of the Fall He then that confesseth the effects of Adams sinne as fully as any man cannot be counted of Kindred to Pelagius in sleighting the necessity of Grace I subscribe to S. Augustine pressing home that Text Joh. 15. 5. Without me you can doe nothing Lib. 2. cont duas Epistolas Pelagii c. 8. alibi Autor operis imperfecti in Matth. c. 7. Hom. 18. in illud Petite dabitur vobis c. Because the Commandements were greater than to be fulfill'd by mans strength he directs us to God to whose grace nothing is impossible and that rightly because 't is exceeding just the Creature should stand in neede of its Creators help Se Saint Augustine de Genesi ad literam lib. 8. cap. 12. Mâ—â—i autem adhaerere Deo bonum est c. It is good for me to stick close to God for neither is the Creature any such thing as that without his Maker he should be able of himselfe to doe any good thing But his chiefe good worke is to be converted to his Maker and by him continually to be made Just Godly Wise and Blessed c. As the Ayre light being present is not made a lucid Body like the Sun which gives light but onely becomes light because if it were made such it could not possibly be but that even in the absence of light it should continue lucid Even so man God being present with him is illightned but being absent is immediatly darkned from whom we depart not so much in distance of place as in forsaking him wilfully This is even like Gods owne a glorious power such as wrought in Christ when God raised him from the dead Eph. 1. 19 20. and 3. 20. Whence our Conversion is called a new birth a new creation the first Resurrection 1. For first the power to will that which is good is created in us againe as it was at the first 2. When this power is as it were in actu primo by that gift or Creation it is not brought forth in actum secundum by our selves alone using that power but by the helping and co-operating of the divine power here again as Bernard saith Conatus nostri nulli sunt nisi excitentur cassi sunt nisi adjuventur 3. Bee we never so willing The habits of faith or love are no more in our power than it is in the power of a blind man to give himselfe sight though he be most willing to see and say Lord that I may receive my sight or no more than it is in him that hath present within himself to will but to doe that which the law commandeth he findeth not Rom. 7. 18. except the Spirit help him Rom. 8. 3. So that after we are willing and ready to receive the mighty power of God worketh and giveth that which we desire For our prayers implythree things First That we want something and feele our want Second That we cannot help our selves to supply our want but therefore goe to another Third That he alone to whom we goe as supplyants we confesse to be able and ready to help us and therefore we goe to him This is that which Saint Paul teacheth Phil. 2. 13. exhorting them that received and obeyed the Gospel to worke out their Salvation having received the power to worke yet because they might feare their owne weaknesse and infirmity even in using the
is because both man hath neede of God and God is helpfull to man for the performing of Righteousnes For as Man can doe no good except he have Gods helpe so neither doth God worke any good in man except man be willing As neither the earth without seed fructifies nor seed without the Earth so neither man without God nor God without man doth worke righteousnesse in man Even as if hee had said If yee doe these things if yee pray for these things yee are children worthy of such a Father Now to try out the Truth let mee set forth into view foure Propositions 1. Without the Grace of God the will of Man can and doth both will and perform that which is good 2. Without the Grace of God the will of Man cannot will good but through Grace being once made able to will afterward without any further Grace it can alone both will and performe that which is good 3. By or through the Grace of God working on the will the will of Man can both will and performe that which is good and without grace it cannot will nor without further grace performe that which is good 4. By or through the Grace of God working on the will the will of man cannot but will cannot but performe that which is good The first Proposition of these is the Heresie of Pelagius detested by the whole Church of Christ The Second Proposition is the error of the Massilienses or Semipelagians And both these are against my first Principle or Maxime The Third Proposition holdeth out the light of Truth subjoyning the will of man to the Grace of God both in willing and performing that which is good and is the Doctrine of S. August in his setled judgement and the Catholick Doctrine of the Church The Fourth Proposition is the extreme opinion of S. August in his heat of disputation against Pelagius and the Massilienses and of many moderne Divines of force defended to support your Doctrine of the Order of Predestination without the prescience of all particular events putting onely the prescience of Adams fall But this fourth Proposition is destroyed by my two latter Principles or Axioms or they destroy'd by it Well said Nazianz. in the case of extreme Opinions about the Trinity Quid enim necesse est tanquam ramum omnino in aliam partem declinantem c. For what necessity is there as a bough declining altogether one way by force to bend it the other way and so by crookednesse to rectifie crookednesse and not rather to keep to the middle way and continue within the bounds of divine Piety but when I name the middle way I meane the Truth to which onely we so rightly direct our selves Orat. 17. Saint Augustine maintained through Grace such help was afforded to the predestinate that not onely they were not able to persevere without that gift but also through meanes of that gift could not chuse but persevere whereupon Saint Hilary writes to Saint Augustine His verbis Sanctitatis tuae ita moventur ut dicant quandam desperationem hominibus exhiberi That by such Speeches of his Sonne men were moved to say They held forth a kinde of Desperation unto men It were a labour worth the taking to compare the two Epistles of Prosper and Hilary with the two books of Saint Austin de praedest sanctorum and de bono perseverantiae wherein he laboureth to answer those two Epistles to see to what he maketh solid answer to what he faileth or what he slippeth untouched that is of moment sed hoc alias The Question then is betweene the third and fourth propositions and about the manner and measure of working Grace upon the Will or with it whether it be such as positâ gratiâ operante the Will may be Coworker or no as the third proposition affirmeth or whether positâ gratiâ operante the worke of Grace is such as the Will of Man cannot but be a Coworker as the fourth proposition maintaineth That is to say for the state of a question rightly put is almost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is said of an Oath Heb. 6. 16. the end of all strife whether the Grace of God be onely an efficient operant adjuvant prior cause and the Will also of Man an efficient prepared by Grace cooperant and collaborant second cause in the worke of our Conversion and every other good worke or whether the Grace of God be an effectuall prepotent invincible prevalent sole efficient that carries the Will to consent and obey willingly if that be willingly as it neither will nor can choose to doe otherwise For distinction sake I will call the grace meant in the third proposition Efficientem and the Grace meant in the fourth proposition Efficacem The issue will be that if Gratia Efficax do worke the Conversion and perseverance of a Christian then all in vaine I have disputed before de Praedestinatione secundum praescientiam which is therefore defended because it giveth place to freedome of Will proper freedome in our working out our Salvation which gratia Efficax utterly destroyes If Gratia Essiciens doe work our Conversion but not absolutely alone but with another co-worker which is free and Lord of its owne action and may faile in working then there must needs be prescience certaine of this contingent event or else Predestination shall not be certaine and then this doctrine of a sinners conversion will well stand with the doctrine of Predestination after foreknowledge of all contingences and this with that as all parts of truth ought to agree one with another The question in the usefull termes is as some love to speak whether grace be resistable which word though it be grounded upon Act. 7. 51. yet I had rather use words more frequent in the Scripture whether Grace can be disobeyed whether it can be in vaine whether a man can be wanting to the grace of God that hath him in hand to convert him or to worke in him some good as Act. 5. 32. and 6. Rom. 1. 5. and 10. 16. 2 Cor. 9. 13. and 10. 6. Gal. 3. 1. and 5. 7. 2 Thes 1. 8. To come to the Truth by a neere and compendious way Let me take that first which is given by an ingenuous and judicicious Adversary the Reverend professor Doctor Ward in his Clerum Phil. 2. 12. who yeildeth so much to the Truth and puts the question in so narrow a point as he seemes to me plainly to give over the cause which he would expugne See what hee grants pag. 9. after much spoken pro libertate Arbitrii Nos enim libere profitemur c. For we freely professe neither operating nor cooperating Grace neither in Conversion nor after Conversion doth take away from mans Will in the very exercise of its Elicite Act the power of Resisting or dissenting if he will For this Resistibility is naturall and borne with us insoparable from the Will it selfe as t is a naturall faculty
humane capacity as de ordine modo praedestination is in mente divina concordia gratiae liberi arbitrii cum praedestinatione But these Papers I hope shall make it manifest first that I leave things unsearchable unsearchd and stand with the Apostle in the selfe same place that he did admiring and adoring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 11. 33. I say in the selfesame place or the like not to cloak iniquity or absurdity imputed to the divine Majesty by O the depth c. Secondly that I search not at all into any thing by meere naturall light and humane reason which to do in these things were a presumption deserving precipitation but by the light of divine revelation in Gods holy word and therefore I have set for my title Appello Evangelium which is the opening of Gods Counsell so far as he is pleased to communicate to us And thirdly this I doe not onely by appealing to those Texts that directly and immediately speak of our Predestination and Election which may seeme hard and obscure but also to the openest and commonest places that are fundamentall principles of Christianity and the grounds of Catechisme which ordinary capacities and not great wits alone are able to understand and by which the fewer and harder Texts are to be enlightned and interpreted and not contrarily Irenaeus hath a right saying Multa male interpretari coguntur Lib. 5. qui Unum recte intelligere non volunt which hath hapned to many in our Age. That unum which they will not rightly understand is promissum Evangelicum universale in Christo redemptore vniversali which our Church professeth in her Articles and in her Catechisme which unum is the ground of all the Conclusions here maintained So that my studies have not been about some curious and superfluous questions separable from the body of Divinity and which might well have been spared but about the most essentiall parts and articles of that body and of their mutuall coherence and connexion the industrious search and examination whereof is so necessary and worthy a thing as I can hardly hold him worthy the name of a Divine that hath not laboured therein And as to my Opinions which unexamined may be presumed to be nothing else but either ancient or late condemn'd Heresies which imputation or very supposition no good man ought to beare with silence these leaves do undertake to shew that the apprehensions expressed in them are none of those old condemned Heresies nor of those late rejected Heterodoxes but the very Doctrine of the ancient Fathers of the Church builded upon the sense and letter of the holy Scriptures and consonant to the publike establish'd Doctrine of the Church of England contained in the bookes of Articles Common Prayer and Homilies which if I shall make good by cleare and undeniable evidence then I hope my good friends will hold me excused and cleared of any such crime as Heresie or semi-heresie or novelty and will take me for a true and sound member of the Church of England both in Doctrine and in Discipline from both which I feare there hath been made by many in this Church too great a defection and departure since the dayes of King Edw. the 6. when they were first established and since the primitive years of the happy reigne of Queen Elizabeth wherein they were ratifyed and strengthened with a second and oft-renewed judgement But the examination and tryall of all this I commit and submit to my ingenuous and loving friends and them and their studies to the goodnesse and grace of God our Father CHAP. I. The first Opinion THe first Opinion concerning the order of Divine Predestination and having these defenders Beza Piscator Whitaker Perkins and other holy and learned men is this 1. That God from all eternity decreed to create a certain number of Men. 2. That of this number he Predestinated some to everlasting life and other some he Reprobated to eternall death 3. That in this act he respected nothing more than his own dominion and the pleasure of his own will 4. That to bring men to these ends he decreed to permit Sin to enter in upon all men that the Reprobate might be condemned for sinne and that he decreed to send his Sonne to recover out of sin his Elect fallen together with the Reprobate This Opinion is rejected by many protestant Divines as by the reverend Divines of our Church that were at the Synod at Dort by Peter Moulin by Robert Bishop of Salisbury and others It is detested by the Papists and Lutherans it was it tha◠Arminius and his followers chiefly opposed in the low Countries It is charg'd To make God the Author of Sin To Reprobate men before they were evill To Elect men not in Christ who is sent after this Opinion to recover out of sinne those that were elected before they were considered as sinners This is that irrespective decree which Mr. Mountague disliketh because in it there is no respect had to any thing fore-known not so much as the fall of man much lesse Christ or Faith giving to God no fore-knowledge or no use of it at all in this act of his which the Scripture calls predestination Yet this Opinion doth well admonish us to remember the Dominion and Soveraigne power and will of God which must be seen and acknowledged in his predestinating of men according to that of the Apostle Rom. 9. 21. Hath not the Potter power over the clay and vers 15. Hee hath mercy on whom he will which we will be mindfull of in the fifth Opinion Under this Opinion are to be placed the nine Assertions concluded at Lambeth Nov. 20. 1595. which have been often required to be put into our Booke of Articles but yet could it never be obtained It is requisite therefore to set them down because they are not vulgarly knowne and to examine them what they meane and see how farre they are Orthodoxall or agreeing to our Articles And for their sakes that understand not the Latine tongue I will render them in English * Consule Articulos Lambethanos ab F. G. Ecclesiae Ministro nuper editos Articles approv'd by the right Reverend Lords John Lord Archbishop of Canterbury and Richard Lord Bishop of London and other Divines at Lambeth the 20. of Novemb. in the year 1595. 1. God from Eternity Predestinated some Men to life and some he Reprobated unto Death 2. The Moving or Efficient cause of Predestination to life is not the foresight of Faith or of perseverance or of good workes or of any thing which may be in the persons predestinated but onely the Will of Gods good pleasure 3. Of the predestinate there is a predefined and certaine number which can neither be increased nor diminished 4. They which are not predestinated to salvation shal necessarily be condem'd for their sinnes 5. True lively justifying Faith and the sanctifying Spirit of God is not extinguished doth not fall out doth
all Believers to bee so furnish'd with Gods Grace that they are able to persevere if they will be as carefull as they should be that the same men also may possibly fall away from Faith and Grace through negligence and security The Second denyes Believers to be able so to fall away from Faith and Gods Grace as to become in the state of damnation or perish but such as shall once truely believe shall alwayes so persevere in Faith and Grace that at length they may all attaine salvation The Third with St. Augustine makes Believers through the infirmities of the flesh and temptations to be able to depart from Faith and Grace or likewise to fall away but it addes those Believers who are call'd according to purpose and who are firmly rooted in a lively Faith cannot either totally or finally fall away or perish but by speciall and effectuall grace so to persevere in a true and lively Faith that at length they may bee brought to eternall life By this we may understand what Doctor Overalds minde was in the Conference at Hampton Court p. 41. 42. Richard Thompson hath the like cap. 4. De intercisione Justitiae For after hee had spoken of Christ given to redeeme and reconcile all unto God and of aides and meanes given whereby men may be actually reconciled hee addes page 17. Sed miserum genus humanum si vel sic à Deo relictum fuisset c. But miserable had been Mankinde if even so they had been left of God for great is the wickednesse of Man and every imagination of his heart is evil continually Therefore it must needs come to passe that either all of themselves should despise those riches of Gods goodnesse or if any should make use of them yet a while after they would loath them againe except the superabundant mercy of God had separated some to himselfe to whom hee had decreed from all eternity to afford an effectuall calling and finall perseverance in Grace taken according to his purpose others being passed by and left to the counsels of common providence whom in the end he would condemn for their impenitence and unbeliefe You know now this Opinion and the Author is to be commended for his integrity in opening the state of these questions and for comming on thus far neerer to the Truth than the former did in acknowledging 1. That Christ dyed for the sinnes of the whole World 2. That the promise of the Gospell is Universall 3. That a Grace sufficient is given common to all that hear the Gospell to believe and obey it 4. That Gods foreknowledge is extended not onely to the fall of the first man but the infirmity of all men in particular Whereupon for some men there was prepared by God a more superabundant and effectuall grace than for others 5. In that it endeavoreth to accord the first part of our 17 Article concerning an absolute Predestination with the latter part concerning the Universall promises The like good desire appeares in the Divines that were at Dort in their joynt Suffrage de Articulo 20 Thes 3. 4 5. But how congruous and happy this conjunction can be of two extremes into a third or how possible it is to accord those two parts of the Article without some other supposition than hath yet beene mentioned here I cannot hope ever to see it demonstrated Nay I am perswaded that these manifest Truths sounding in every part of the new Testament That Christ is given a Redeemer Universall That the Promises of the Gospell are generall That the Spirit of Truth and Power goes with them in the Preaching of them are able being rightly weighed utterly to overthrow all manner of frames whatsoever may be imagined of the order of the Divine Predestination which shall exclude the Divine Prescience proper prime and Universall such as the fifth Opinion will discover for since the Gospell presupposeth and acknowledgeth the fall of mankinde and all to be sinners and taketh its occasion therefrom since it calleth all men to reconciliation with God commands Repentance and Faith to all promiseth forgivenesse and life to all that believe in the Redeemer threatneth wrath and death to abide upon all that beleeve not Marc. 15. 15 16. and declareth that God will judge the World by Jesus Christ and by the Word of the Gospell Acts 17. 31. Joh. 12. 48. And since God will judge in righteousnesse man as a reasonable Creature of a Freewill The Gospel I say cannot admit a decree of predestination to life or death that shall be made upon contemplation of the fall and sinne of man antecedent to the Gospell or before contemplation of the 〈◊〉 or issues of the Gospell preached to the World which contemplation can be had before all time by no other power but the Divine foreknowledge CHAP. IV. The fourth Opinion THe Fourth Opinion is of Melanchton Hemingius and the Lutherans that follow the Augustan Confession and formulam concordiae The Remonstrants or Arminians and many Papists c. 1. That God decreed to create Man to permit him to fall and to send Christ to redeeme the World c. as in the third Opinion was said 2. That hee made a generall conditionall decree of Predestination under the condition of Faith and Perseverance And a speciall absolute decree of electing those to life whom he foreknew would believe and persevere under the meanes and aides of Grace Faith and Perseverance and a speciall absolute decree of condemning them whom he foresaw to abide impenitent in their sins This Opinion was condemned in the late Synod at Dort I mislike it for these reasons 1. Because a generall conditionall Predestination is none at all 2. Because the decree of speciall Election of such as believe no better declared than thus seemeth to make men choose God first rather than God to choose men 3. Because it maketh the decrees of justification and condemnation to bee the same with the decree of Election and Reprobation which must be distinguished as they are Rom. 8. 29. 4. Because it presenteth no more Grace given by God to the Elect than to the reprobate neither greater cause of thankfulnesse Yet this Opinion doth well to enlarge the objects of Gods foreknowledge and to extend it not onely to the fall of the first man but even to Christ to be manifested in the flesh and believed on in the World yea even to the last end of all men persevering either in Faith or Unbeliefe Agreeing with the Scriptures that buildeth Election upon foreknowledge at large simply and properly taken Rom. 8. 29. 11. 2. 1 Pet. 1. 1 2. and promiseth salvation to the believer but persevering to the end Thus have wee seene foure Opinions The Transition to the fifth Seeing then none of these foure give full satisfaction though some pieces of Truth be found in every one of them yet joyned with some inconvenience It were a work worth the labour to gather that truth out of them all that
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
c. And after pag. 27. Non hic queritur c. It is not questioned here simply whether God in the work of Conversion or in any other good worke doth move the Will resistibly for that we have affirmed formerly This is given then that Resistibility is never taken away See then secondly what remaines in Controversie De modo Resistibilitatis totalis est c. Touching the manner of Resistibility all question is made for this is that which we say when God by his effectuall Grace works in the Will Ipsum velle this Grace doth effectually produce Non-resistency and so for that time take away actuall resistance which is brought to passe by certaine knowledge and the prevalency of delight saith August Therefore doe we maintaine actuall resistence for that time to be certainly taken away because t is impossible such a resistence should consist together with effectuall Grace received in the Will Because these two things cannot co-exist together or be composed in the Will namely The Will to be wrought upon by effectuall Grace and the Will at the same time to resist which were as much as to say in the same Instant the Will not to resist and to resist or velle non resistere velle resistere Let us have leave a litle to search into this mystery De modo resistibilitatis tota lis est nay truly nulla lis est de modo resistibilitatis for resistibilit as est potentia resistendi actus now about resistibilitas the power there is no controversie for you grant neque innata neque adnata tollitur per gratiam in conversione here can be no question de modo resistibilitatis all must be de ipsa resistitentiâ or de modo non resistentiae for hoc est quod dicimus c. rem haud magnam dicitis Ideo enim contendimus c. de re minime dubiâ contenditis for is there any Remonstrant so silly to say Posit â gratiâ efficaci resistentiam ipsam manere that when the will doth actually yeeld that then it doth and can resist who beares a part in hac lite Plainly the State of the question is changed for the question of Contingency is not when things are in esse but before they were whether they were not possible to be otherwise Scholastici utuntur hîc erudita distinctione Quod fit consideratur duobus modis uno ut est jam in se extra suas causas hoc modo ipsum fieri transit in factum esse praesens in praeteritum proinde res illa non potest non esse dum est quia non potest non facta esse quae facta est Altero modo ut fluit à causa sive ut habet ordinem ad causam id est Quatenus est adhuc in manu causae atque hoc modo si causa est libera contingens potest res illa non esse contingenter est non necessario quia habet ordinem ad causam seu ut loquar cum Zabarella connexioneÌ„ cum causa non necessarium sed contingentem ita Goclenius The Question then of the Resistibility is before the very act of good or evill not in it It were sense I trow to say A regenerate man willeth sinne resistibly not in the very moment when he willeth it but because ere he willed it he could have resisted it so a Convert obeyeth Grace or willeth his conversion resistibly because ere he willed it he could have dissented Sinne is resistible though it be too late to resist when it is consented unto and Grace may be resisted though to say so is too late when it is accepted in the Will for to be received and then to be resistible cannot Coexistere 3. Againe granting that non resistentiam which is in the very act of consenting the question is still as doubtfull what is the Cause of this Non-resistance in cujus causae manu sita erat whether Gratia efficax be the cause or voluntas efficax for the selfe-same may be said of the Will that you say of Grace when the Will obeyeth it is impossible it should disobey or wil to resist No man can tell by the very act of obeying which is the cause of not resisting for put either of the two Grace or Will to remove resistance it is surely gone in the act of consenting And to me it seemes demonstrable that the Will is the proper cause that ends resistance or refuseth to resist First because that gratia efficax which you speak of so much is but nomen sine re there being no such Grace that can determine the Will but it destroyes it the nature of the Will being to determine it selfe Secondly because to resist and not resist are the proper acts of the Will as to convert repent beleeve are the immediate acts of man who converteth repenteth beleeveth and are not the acts of God though without his help and power they are not produced which is a plaine signe that man is later in the operation than God in the order of Nature by whom the act was terminated Our Church in the Homily of Salvation 1. tomo understands the matter thus First for the necessity of something to be done on our part for our justification to Gods mercy on his part and Christs satisfaction on his part concurs on our part a true and lively Faith in the merits of Jesus Christ which yet is not ours but by Gods working in us Secondly how it understands this Not ours but by Gods working in us a lâ—â—tle lower it declarerh Lively faith is the gift of God and not mans onely worke without God This might suffice sober wits that all confesse Gods grace to prevent to operate to helpe mans Will and the Will of man to have some office and part under the Grace of God though we were not able to expresse or declare the manner of the coworking God promiseth to Circumcise the Heart Deut. 30. 6. and Man is commanded to Circumcise his owne heart Deut. 10. 16. Jer. 4. 4. God promiseth to put a new spirit into man Ezek. 11. 19 and men are commanded to make them a new heart and a new spirit This promise and this commandement are both Evangelicall The promise supposeth and implyeth our utter impotency of our selves to doe these supernaturall acts and tendreth unto us the power assistance and operation of God to comfort and encourage us The commandment supposeth and implieth a power in us by the power of God to endeavour and to doe something towards these supernaturall acts and that they are our acts doth appear for that they savour of our imperfections from whence it is that we daily accuse our selves and complaine of the weaknesse of our faith the coldesse of our love the pride of our hearts though it be true that God hath given us faith love humility Why doe we not rather magnifie the gifts and graces of God but extenuate and disgrace them like
nothing without the Sonne being the chiefest peece in the Frame Secondly this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signifie the Purpose Decree Determination and Resolution of the Will of God to execute and to put into being the things whereof the plot which is in his minde is the patterne thus S. Paul taketh it 2 Tim. 1. 9. when hee joynes purpose and grace together Who hath saved us and called us with an holy calling not according to our workes but according to his purpose and grace given unto us in Christ Jesus before the World was or of both these together is the purpose of God consisting the Counsell and the Decree of God intending those things the order and course and forme wherof he hath in his Mind and his Power and lastly in his Will So that I may say with Vrsinus on Esai 14. Eventus rerum accuratissimè respondent consilio praevisioni Dei tanquam Archetypo So S. Paul would say all things come to passe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all things doe and fulfill the purpose of God This purpose is about Ends and Meanes to those ends and all circumstances accompanying them both in things of the order of nature and of the order of grace and about those things God will doe himselfe and those things hee will permit the Creature and all secondary Causes to doe And although in the whole frame or plot there be two parts or two wayes one that leadeth some to happinesse and another wherein some goe to their owne destruction and although the purpose of God runs upon them both as being not without his Counsell or his will yet in S. Paul that onely which is the way to happinesse to some as the more worthy and desirable part is called the purpose of God just as in the foreknowledge where although the wicked are not unknowne to God as ignorant of the men and of their workes yet the faithfull onely and the Elect are named and called those whom God foreknew because in them hee is pleased and delighted So it is in purpose that part onely of Divine disposition that bringeth unto happinesse is called Gods purpose because hee delighteth in the good of his Creatures and hath no pleasure in their death and destruction which is of themselves and not of him yet adjudged by him and decreed upon their rebellion And this may suffice for the opening of this Terme The Purpose of God As for the Adjuncts added by our Article to purpose as the everlasting purpose they are so cleer as they neede no further Explication than was made in the Analysis before Onely to the last we may adde a word By his Counsell secret to us Consilio nobis quidem occulto This Clause I would have reserved and kept in minde to prove that Doctrine which I delivered in the 18. Chapter of the third part of this worke That although there be revealed to us some hopefull signes of our Election and Predestination as it is witnessed in the next branch of this paragraph yet the very certainty of our Election or Predestination is a secret hidden in God and in this life unknown to us Come wee now to the outward Act or End purposed by God to his chosen viz. to bring them to everlasting Salvation This is terminus ad quem the end which Predestination intendeth as that which decreeth a perfect worke and leaveth not the issue uncertaine or contingent as unto God To this is added in the Article the terminus à quo from whence men are brought to Salvation from curse and damnation from which they are delivered And there is added the meanes by which they are both delivered from curse and brought to Salvation and that is Christ and lastly there is an Illustration As Vessels made to Honour Out of these words To deliver from curse is rightly collected by Robert late Bishop of Salisbury that the Church of England doth acknowlege them quos Deus in Christo elegit to be maledicto exitio liberatos nam privatum est non publicum Ecclesiae judicium quicquid aliter à quibusdam inconsideratè scriptum est So he in praefatione ad Lectorem In these quibusdam are no meaner men than Doctor Whitakers and Master Perkins who tooke this Article to speak for them Whom yet this learned Bishop saith have written aliter and inconsideratè the Article then hath not beene understood and so it may yet be not fully apprehended by great Praelates for likewise out of this that our Article saith with the Apostle that our Election is in Christ Doctor Carleton late Bishop of Chichester well collecteth that this Counsell of God had respect unto the corrupt masse of Mankinde for saith he the benefit we have by Christ appeareth not in the state of Innocency pag. 10. against the Appealer where the said reverend Bishop disputeth earnestly against them that teach Predestination to be a separation between men and men as they were found in the Masse of Mankinde uncorrupt which is the Doctrine the Appealer so much inveighed against as contrary to our Church in the 17 Article So that to mee it is strange the Bishop should bee so severe against the Appealer whith whom himselfe concurreth in the condemning of the same Novelty But more strange it seemes to mee that out of those words Chosen in Christ hee could collect the fall of Mankinde to be presupposed by God before the Counsell proceeded to Election and could not aswell collect now that Christ himselfe was presupposed to be sent into the World to be preached to be beleeved on or refused before God proceeded to Elect or to Reprobate man Seeing the first is collected more remotely that the Gift of Christ supposeth sinne and a curse from whence men had neede to be delivered by a Saviour But the second is expresly affirmed by the Apostle Hee hath chosen in Christ and so it may immediately be collected that wee were chosen not to Christ as to be sent but in Christ supposed as sent and we found Beleevers in him seeing the foreknowledge of God did aswell understand the issue and successe of Christ preached in the World that hee would be the occasion of the rising of many and of the sorer fall of many others as it understood the issue of the Creation of man of the Commandement given of the Tempter permitted that it would bee to the fall and corruption of all Mankinde It is very true that the Bishop of Salisbury saith Sect. 1. P. 2. That God looking upon the Masse of Mankinde defiled with sinne and guilty of eternall Death and Damnation did there see subesse ibi commoditatem evolvendi explicandi opes illas abyssos sapientiae suae justitiae misericordiae potentiae patientiae summa ut in illum gloria istustrium virtutum praedicatio redundaret but how to shew all this The Scripture saith by sending his Sonne to die for the World for therein are all these riches opened But that
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
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