Correct p. 227. (c) D. Twiss vindic Lib. de electione Digress 1. 2da c. à p. 151. ad 178. 3. If it were not apparently absurd to talk of means of Election Election being by vertue of one entire absolute eternal Decree of God which comprehends in it both end and meanes 4. Were it not so that Jesus Christ himself considered as Mediator were not himself predestinated and elected to be the head of the Elect and so no Elector or means of Election Rom. 3. 25. § 3. p. 64. 1. 11 12. I had never so little Logick as to say that any thing in man which is the Object could be the cause of Gods Decree but that man is the cause of his sin and of his punishment Answ 1. Why then hath he hitherto every where so fiercely pleaded for conditional Decrees of Reprobation grounded on or at least occasioned by sin as the conditio sine qua non the necessary the important condition which in this case is tantamount ' with a cause of the Decree 2. Why did he but just now tell us p. 63. That Christ is the meritorious cause of Election and what is Election but Gods eternal internal immanent Decree appointing some to obtain grace and glory 3. Doth he not know that if he were candid in this acknowledgement that then all Disputes betwixt him and the men he contends against would be ended who none of them all doubt but sin is the cause of the Execution of the Decree of Reprobation though it be not the cause of the Decree it self that Man is the cause of his sin and of his punishment too as here he himself doth speak That though Christ be not the meritorious cause of Election yet he is the meritorious cause of Salvation and of all those spiritual blessings which we are chosen or elected to (a) Dr. Ames no Arminian sure cites this out of Bellarmine with approbation save that he saith Tollantur merita nihil erit reprehensione dignum in hac distinctione prout à Bell usurpatur Ames Anti-Synod Dordrac Cap. 1. p. 15. Bellarmin's distinction in de Grat. et Lib. Arbitr Lib. 2. Cap. 14. Electio aeterna duobus modis considerari potest uno modo ut est intentio dandi gloriam alie modo ut est dispositio executionis quasi exequutio in mente divina Nam priori modo Electio est mere gratuita nullam praerequirit praevisionem operum bonorum Posteriori modo praeexigit praevisionem meritorum Non enim vitam aeternam sub ratione praemii Deus dare disposuit nisi eis quos bene operaturos esse praevidit Gloria in genere causae finalis prior est bouis operibus in genere autem causae effisientis priora sunt bona Opera quà m Gloria 4. Need he once more be shewed how that by this saying he hath given his Correct Copy and now this pretty Philanthropy of his a fair fall upon their backs Corrept Correct p. 144 145. The force of truth is often such as that it wrings a Confession from its otherwise most stubborn opposers § 8. 64. § 3. In his p. 121. he saith he knowes not any one either of the ancient or modern Orthodox Writers who will not readily yield that God did not absolutely decree the Reprobation positive of any Creature but upon praescience and supposition of wilful Rebellion and impenitence I will now take him at his word he is as perfect an Arminian as I have ever heard speak or else he confesseth he is not Orthodox In these few words he hath ruined himself and his cause for ever unless he will say that he is my Convert and the best of his Book a long impertinence he cannot escape by any service c. Mr. T. P. goes on tryumphing over me more or lesse to p. 68. Answ 1. It hath used to be said that Lapsus linguae non est error mentis the trip of a mans tongue is no error of his mind Claudius that dull and lasie Emperor catched not more at flies then this Gentleman doth at unwary syllables yet he hath not so much as discovered wherein the stumbles or trippings of my Phrases lye By what I do in that very p. 121. oppoâ—e in him which did confound Reprobation and damnation and much more by what Corrept Correct p. 113. and elsewhere I had distinctly set down my meaning was sufficiently expressed viz. that considering two things in Gods Decrees First actum volentis Dei the act of Gods Decree or the intention in it self considered Secondly rem decretam the thing decreed or the will to execute that Decree that the former is not grounded upon Praescience of any wilful Rebellion but that the latter is of which alone as is plain I speak in my Text p. 121. and my meaning is much the same with that which but just now I expressed out of Ames and Bellarmine 2. If the saying of this can make me as very an Arminian as ever he heard speak I dare be bold to say that as great Anti-Arminians as ever I heard of or ever set pen to paper have spoken as much I shall not need at large to quote Doctor Davenant Dr. Walaeus Dr. Rivet (a) Dr. Walaeus Contra Corvin in Quarto p. 30. 152. Bishop Davn. Animadvers p. 42 43 111. imò passim A. Rivet Disputat quintâ de Reprobatione Thes 8 9. c. Paulus Ferius a professed Supralapsarian Schol Orth. Cap. 28. Voluit quidem Deus non bealificare Judam sine ullo respectu peccati tamen non habuit voluntatem infligendi poenam nisi propter peccata quae in eo praevidit nay all the Sublapsarians who speak full out as high as this comes to and yet never commenced Arminian Doctors but let me only in the Margin refer him to multitudes of places out of Dr. Twisse (b) Doctor Twisse vindâ—c Lib. 1. p. 100. Certissimum est nobis Deum decrevisse ut non nisi nolentes atque impii perderentur verum hoc subjungimus hinc tantum sequi impietatem causam esse perditionis non autem decreti sive constitutionis divinae In eandem sententiam saepissime p. 332. Col. 2. Lib. 2. p. 11. col 2. Epist Dedic ad Reg. Bohem. p. 4. Lib. 1. 83. 99. and I dare be bold to say in a 100. places more c. and for the behoof of the English Reader I shall transcribe some few signal passages out of Dr. Twisse in his Answer to the Synod of Dort and Arles reduced to practise And very hard it will be for Mr. T. P. to prove Dr. Twisse to be an Arminian and yet to his sayings he must consent if he will not prove himself to say that any thing in man which is the Object can be the cause of Gods Decree p. 64. Dr. Twisse Synod of Dort and Arles p. 10 11. God did decree to damn no man but for sin is the unanimous consent of all our Divines
whilest both of them say according to what I represent p. 44. that in the matters debated about Predestination Election Free will the common man doth judge better by his reason which in that place can be no other then his natural Mother-wit and his senses viz. his five senses than some literate men meaning as Mr. T. P. interprets the matter p. 106. than Calvin and all who hold with him in so saying they must both of them needs oppose both the ancient and modern Church who ever thought these matters too high for natural reason or the five senses 2. That the Plerique or the most in Felic Turp his Text should even whilest he is a reproving me not to understand the Latine Tongue p. 106. be translated by only a few I do not conceive proceeds in him from want of Latin but either out of inadvertency or it may be for any thing I know to the contrary from want of honesty 5ly and lastly Although neither my self nor any opiniated as I am in the debateable matters need we are confident to be afraid of any thing which can be produced against out cause from any valuable Tradition or truly so called Right Reason yet would to God Mr. T. P. would perswade himself and his faction seriously to peruse what John Dallaeus quoted as making for him by himself p. 15. hath wrote about the use of Fathers in reference to the Controversies of our times and if they would but mind John Vedeliâ— his Rationale Theologicum and so keep within the bounds of truly Right Reason I make no question but these following and divers other Scriptures Rom. 8. 30 31. 9. 6. 11. Act. 15. 18. 2 Tim. 2. 19. Ephes 2. 10. Isa 59. 21. Joh. 13. 1. 17. 9. Heb. 13. 21. Phil. 2. 13. 2 Cor. 3. 5. Phil. 1. 6. Ephes 2. 8. 2 Thes 2. 13. and just consequences drawn from them would quickly determine the main matters in debate betwixt us If therefore he or any of his confident and most daring bragging party will needs be appearing again let them not fetch such terrible Cirquedroes as they do from the Antient Fathers before Austin and all after the Canonical Writers and from some crasie Reasons which they urge against plain Scriptures which serve for little but for the tyring of Writers Readers and Printers and I durst give them my word for it they shall meet with Answers to any thing they can say out of Holy Divine Writ though I should resolve to string up my pen verbum non amplius addere Let them try their valour and pelt us with no stones but what are taken from the Vallies of the Sanctuary and we will not by Gods Grace turn tayl to the stoutest of our Antagonists or fear that the head of our cause will ever be broken by them § 11. To his voluminous but monstrous § 28. About the Eternal Cause of punishment sins positive entity its having an Efficient Cause c. on which later he expounds himself from p. 110. to 121. but Contracts himself Chap. 4. p. 20 21. 33. § 1. Answ 1. As to the Title stuck up in the front of this § 28. p. 108 109. and again in the Reare of it from p. 118. to 121. our quarrel about it would quickly be at an end if by eternal punishment he would understand damnation of a finally sinful Creature and by the sole cause of it he would likewise with the Divines Bishop Hall and Bishop Davenant which he quotes p. 107. understand the sole meritorious Cause of its execution but if as may be justly suspected he do by the cause of punishment eternal understand the cause of Gods internal and eternal Decree of punishing men for their sins then first he speaks monstrously and absurdly whilest he would make Sin which sure is no older then man nay not so old and so not existing but in time to be the cause of Gods eternal Decree August Nihil majus voluntate Dei non ergo causa ejus quaerenda est Ench. ad Laur. c. 96. 2. He would make sin eternally foreseen but only potentially then existing to be more efficacious and causal then when it actually exists in time for this latter can only be the cause of Gods executing his decree of damnation but the former is the cause of his purposing or intendâ—ng of it A greater thing it is to be the cause of Gods purpose then to be the cause of the execution of that purpose 3. He spills all that Logick p. 64. which he doth pretend to when he saith that he had never so little Logick as to say That any thing in man could be the cause of Gods Decree 4. He must conclude That it was necessary for all us mortalls to be damned because from eternity the Lord could not but foresee that we should all be either Originally or actually sinful § 2. Though p. 107. he do stoutly deny that his Chap. 3. wherein he grants that every Reprobate is praedetermined to eternall punishment is at any Daggers drawing with his almost whole Chap. 2. where he strenuously disputes that God determines none to punishment yet 1. the thing is most evident for in his p. 17. Chap. 2. of his Correct Copy he saith expresly without any the least colour of limitation of that his saying that man himself is the sole efficient cause of his eternal punishment and again p. 21. that there can be no greater blasphemy then to bring Gods providence into the pedegree of death Secondly As for the only Salve which he hath for this sore Phil. p. 107. viz. that I leave out the terme respectively which he brings in lagging Correct Copy p. 32. First He should have brought it in sooner if he would have had me to have taken some more than ordinary notice of it and not have been so impudent as to write that he never said in his life that God determines none to punishment there makâ—ng a stop as M. B. doth when as in his Chap. 2. he saith nothing else without any stop 2. He should upon provocation have showed which I put him upon p. 135. of my Corrept Correct how the conditionality or absoluteness of it alters the case especially as to sin 's being the condition of Gods eternal Decree when as neither that or any other Conditions could ever be without Gods either decreeing to effect them in time or voluntary permitting that in time they should be wrought by others § 3. As for his vilifying of my Logick which he spends full two pages more upon p. 108 109. and ushers in with this lowd sounding I might almost say lowd lying expression that I will be tampering in matters to which in all likelihood and appearance I was never trained up First Possibly since my training up in that Art I may have lost more learning then yet it appeares that ever he had or was master of Secondly That forsooth our great Logician may appear a very great School-man
understands it in no other sense then the greatest School-men had with applause understood it in the Church before ever Calvin's eyes were open (e) See about this at large Thom. Bradward de causa Dei Lib. 1. c. 34. Si adhuc dicatur quod semper male sapit multis dicere Deum qualitercunque velle peccatum pro certo verum est hoc forsan secundum Hugonem non quiae quod dicitur non bene dicitur sed quia quod bene dicitur non bene intelligitur Utinam igitur acciperent Salem Sapientiae saperent intelligerent sapidam sano gustui veritatem scirentque nullum esse malum in mundo quod non est propter aliquod magnum bonum forsitan propter aliquod majus bonum cur ergo c. Thirdly About Gods impulse to sin which he often objects against Calvin Chap. 4. p. 44 45. passim and against Piscator Chap. 3. p. 133. That God doth drive or thrust men on unto wickedness Answ 1. Neither of them understand it in such a flagitious and unconscionable manner as he would have his credulous Readers believe that I hold it Phil. Chap. 4. p. 42. and had in Corrept Correct p. 61. l. 2. 3. spoken as he saith something to that purpose viz. that as we put spurs to a dul Jade to make him go faster so God doth stir up wicked men or dull sinners such as are but slow at sinning of themselves that they may sin so much the faster or with more mettle and become as it were gallopers in the carrier of sinning as if of themselves they were not infinitely too fleet but rather needed stirring up for in this case who sees nor that this kind of Impulsion would be altogether a contrary inclination to the parties stirred up and contrary to the scope for which as any body may see and read I brought the Simile of the dull Jade to prove that man in the Simile would not be Authour of the halting but of the going of the Horse 2. But Calvin and Piscator as they explain themselves understand it only of Gods natural agency of the act of sin and his Soveraign ordering and governing of sins oblâ—quity Heare them speaking together in Piscator's Aphorisms a true Epitome of Calvins Institutions Loc. 6. Thes 3. Though God by his providence do govern sin yet he is not the cause or Authour of sin because he delights not in sin but doth rather abominate it neither doth he sin or can he sin because he neither commands sin nor perswades to it nor doth he infuse any malice into sinners nor compel them unto sin and besides he directs all unto a good end 3. Neither of them nor the Correptory Corrector in the Simile which he carps at understand more if so much as his Arminius himself professedly grants against Perkins p. 176. I answer that I do by no meanes exempt from Gods efficiency the act which is not without sin committed by the Creature yea I profess openly that God is the cause of all acts which are perpetrated by the Creatures but that I do mainly desire this that that efficiency of God may be so explicated that nothing may be derogated from the liberty of the Creature nor that the guilt of sin be not ascribed to God that is that it may be showen that God indeed is the effector of the act but only the permissor of the sin yea that God is both the effector and permissor of one and the same act These later things are as much performed by Calvin Piscator and those who follow them as I think any body will be able to prove the matter to be capable of Fourthly and lastly What hath been said about other Phrases will serve for that of Coaction unto which add only Answ 1. Orthodox Writers use it very seldom Secondly Whensoever they do so they do mostly at the same time acknowledge they speak improperly because they understand it not of a Coaction which destroyes the will of man but rather of such a one as proceeds from the fierce Impetus and Inclination of a sinners will (f) Paraeus explains it well in his defence of Zwinglius against Bellarmine Qui cogit impellit nempe invitos cum intentione peccati is est causa peccati Qui vero cogit impellit volentes sponte ad opus malum ruentes non intentione peccati sed justi sui operis is quidem per se causa est boni operis quod intendit peccati verò causa vera unica est ipse impulsus sponte peccans ut si tu contra T. P. Cap. 4. p. 42. equum ultro claudicantem impellas ad motum tu quidem causa eris motûs quia nihil nisi motum intendisti claudicationis vero causa erit equus ultro claudicans c. in castigationibus ad Libros Bellarm. de Amiss grat Stat. peccat Thirdly They speak not any thing so harshly as Bellarmine himself doth after all his wranglings against Protestants when he saith that God doth draw yea torture the will (g) Bellarm. de amiss grat statu peccati Lib. 2. Cap. 13. Deus dicitur per quendam Tropum imperare at que excitare ad malum praesidet ipsis voluntatibus malis easque regit gubernat torquet flectit c. against whom it will concern Mr. T. P. not to be half so invective as he is against Calvin and the Reformed lest he should prove unthankful unto him for most of the Scriptures Reasons Authorities which out of him he hath produced in his Correct Copy and in this his Philanthropy in the mattâ—r of proving against Calvin c. that God is not the Authour of sin Fourthly When they come to explain themselves they do but deliver-in the current School Doctrine of all the Thomists (h) Alvarez Disp 2â— 9. Deus motione praevia efficaciter applicat voluntatem creatam ut liberè infallibilâ—ter operetur sicut etiam applicat alias causas secundas ut naturaliter operentur § 3. As to the third thing viz. why I need not to deliver in any more particulars by way of answer to what in my Corrept Correct I had brought in against his Decachord Correct Copy p. 9. 10. against which he is extremely Luxuriant Phil. Chap. 4. from § 33. to p. 37. to the end these few Reasons ought to satisfie any man First It cannot be done without needless Repetitions of what I have often upon several occasions delivered already 2. Neither my self nor any body else need to be over sollicitous what becomes of Dr. Twisse's or of my particular expressions when as otherwise our meaning in them is sufficiently made known so as none without wilfulness can be mislead by them Thirdly This taske hath abundantly yea redundantly been performed by many others I 'le name but a few of them and those who may most commonly be had Calvin against the Libertines David Paraeus in his Castigations
too p. 108. he quotes out of Biel Soncinas Scot Gabriel what any fresh man of a moneths standing in either University would and could as judiciously have quoted out of his greasie Jack-Seton Ramus Schibler Crucius Elementa Burgersdicii or any the most vulgar Logician 3. If it be an Adaequate definition of a Cause in general that it is that cujus vi res est then sure it cannot be very inadaequate to the efficient cause which hath as much if not more of causality in it in reference to the effect than any other cause can have which all derive their causality from the first efficient Cause 4. It savours of no great Logick or Metaphysicks either that in all his whole Discourse he seems not yet to have learned that there is a vast difference betwixt a Physical real working cause of any thing which I did therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of eminency call the Efficient Cause and a morally metaphorical working or Efficient Cause which in distinction from the former I did therefore call the meritorious Cause of punishment I never denyed man to be the meritorious efficient Cause of his punishment but I maintained God to be the chief Authour of his punishment as the Decreer of it the inflicter of it which his Chap. 2. Correct Copy plainly denies 5. Dr. Twisse sure may be allowed to have bin trained up to some Logick and Metaphysicks and not to have been the meanest Proficient in either yet there be upon several occasions divers places wherein he commits as great Solacisms in Logick as my self when he distinguisheth betwixt the Efficient and meritorious Cause But perchance I ought to remember that the greater Logician and Metaphysician Mr. T. P. owes the Doctor a reckoning for using a Logical Maxim Philan. Chap. 3. p. 67. after so ignorant a manner as if he learned Mr. T. P. Aquila non Captat muscas (a) Doctor Twisse Lib. Vindic. p. 273. Sit remissio pecatorum etiam Sancti Spiritus effectio sed in genere causae efficientis quod tamen nihil obstat quominus statuatur remissionem peccatorum esse propriam mortis Christi effectionem in genere causae meritoriae Sit Paulo post c. Quemadmod in eandem fermè sententiam Lib. 1. p. 26. Irrogatio paenarum pendet à Deo tanquam à causa efficiente Physica sed quis dubitat pendere etiam à peccatis creaturarum tanquam à causis efficientibus moralibus alioqui neque Salus nostra pendere dicetur à Christo quaterus est causa ejus meritoria Lib. 2. p. 62. de hoc ipso argumento Licet peccatum quà peccatum duntaxat à creatura sit hoc tamen nihil impedit quó minus Deus concurrat ad actum peccati idque determinando Creaturae voluntatem ad agendum c. Ruina exitii paenae ex Creatura est tanquam à causa meritoria à Deo veró tanquam à causa efficiente had but so used it when he was but a raw Sophister he had been hissed out of the Schools and no doubt the Doctor shall be well payed the next time Mr. T. P. comes from France unto which belike he did at first go as his Journies end before his thoughts did so much as run upon that Country till he took shipping at Dover § 4. § 4. But I must travail from this to what followes next at large about sins having a proper efficient Cause and a true positive entity p. 110 111. Chap. 4. 20 21. 33. In the handling of which I think it will abundantly be made evident that he is forsaken by all sound Divinity and Divines as well as of all true Logick and Philosophy if not to all common honesty in the misrepresenting the known Judgement of his adversaries In which that we may proceed the more distinctly not only because the matter is to admiration and astonishment by all confessed to be most abstruse to the most quick piercing eyes b but also because it is the last rotten guilded Pillar upon which all the rest in this gawdy flourishing Pamphlet doth rest I will walk in this method First I 'le represent what was that which he takes as an occasion for all this Discourse (b) Salvian de Gubernat Dei Lib. 3. Si quis ad omnes humanae rationis quaestiunculas responsum expectet audiat Salvian Possum quidem rationabiliter satis constanter dâ—cere Nescio secretum consilium divinitatis ignoro Sufficit mihi ad causae hujus probationem dicti Caelestis oraculum Deus á se omnia dicit aspici omnia regi omnia judicari Si scire vis quid tenendum sit habes literas sacras Perfecta ratio est hoc teâ—ere quod legeris Qua causa autem Deus haec de quibus loquimur ita faciat nolo à me requiras Homo sum non intelligo secreta Dei investigare non audeo ideo etiam attentare formido quia hoc ipsum genus Sacrilegae temeritatis est si plus scire cupias quam sinaris Sufficiat tibi quod Deus à se agi ac dispensari cuncta testatur August in Psal 148. Si nos non intelligimus quid quare fiat demus hoc providentiae ipsius quia non sit sine causa non blasphemabimus Quum enim caeperimus disputare dâ— operibus Dei quare hoc quare illud non debuit sic facere male fecit hoc ubi est laus Dei perdâ—disti Halle-luia Omnia sic considera quo modo placeas Deo laudes artificem Quia si intrares in officinam fortè fabri ferrarii non auderes reprehendere folles incudes malleos Da imperitum hominem nescientem quid quare fit omnia reprehendit Sed si non habeat peritiam artificis habent saltem considerationem hominis quid sibi dicit non sine causa hoc loco folles positi sunt Artifex novit quare et si ego non novi In officina non audet vituperare fabrum audet reprehendere in hoc mundo Deum Secondly I 'le show what the Opinion of the best reformed Churches and of her most eminent Doctors is in this matter and particularly what Dr. Twisse understands by Efficax decretum in the matter of sins permission Thirdly Evidence how horridly wicked abâ—urd and foolish M. T. P's Opinion is which in this Section and else-where he doth maintain Fourthly I will by Gods help take off the Objections which make him so insolent and scornful against the Orthodox § 1. About the occasion taken for his Scriblings from p. 110. and up and down elsewhere about Gods agency in or about sin the positiveness or privativeness of it its efficacious permission c. All this long talk which fills up by far more than half of all that which is upon any just account argumentative in this his Philanthropy was occasioned by what Correct Copy p. 14. he talks of Gods permitting of sin only