unto the Reader to judge as he shall think most agreeably And to confesse a truth unto you it is but lately I came to this order following the rigorous Tenet before as seemeth most consonant to reason though harsh to mens affections and being but lately fallen upon it I am apt to conceive that something may be wanting to the full clearing of the truth in this point a way whereunto I hope I have opened yet if you shall think it inconvenient I shall be content to pretermit it wholly and leave out all my digressions of this argument or any other II. Now touching Angels I pray let not ought that I have written make you sorry for ought that you have delivered touching the election of Angels And doe not you conceive of me amisse as if I did conceive you to harbour any ill opinion thereabouts For I professe I doe not neither have you given me any cause yet from nine yeeres of age I have known you The first time I wrote of that I onely said it seemed strange unto me my reason was because I never knew any either by writing or otherwise Protestant or Papist sound in maintaining mans election by grace but that in like sort he maintained the election of Angels to be of grace And whereas you professed otherwise onely as an opponent I conceived you did it but as my selfe or any other Schollar will doe to try the uttermost of anothers strength with whom we dispute But when the second time you wrote hereon you professed to doubt whether Arminius acknowledged any election at all of Angels that seemed to me as strange because I am perswaded that no Arminian or Lutheran denieth the election of Angels though like enough they are apt to fashion it according to their opinion of the election of men As for the construction of that place in Timothy touching the elect Angels I could not ascertain my selfe in what sense it might be conceived to proceed without acknowledging their election and I was loath to divine at random Now as you expresse your selfe herein more particularly so will I particularly make answer First I grant that a conditionall decree is no election But seeing it is impossible but God should foresee on whose part the condition would be performed and on whose part not herehence it followeth that God must accordingly Elect the one and Reprobate the other and so there must be acknowledged even an election of Angels after their manner Like as the Arminians beside that conditionall predestination of men you speake of doe acknowledge a precise election of some upon foresight of their obedience and reprobation of the other upon foresight of their disobedience Touching the exposition of that 1 Tim. 5. 21. I have consulted Hemingius a man as erroneous in the point of election as any Lutheran yet he interpreteth the place thus Hos Electos ad discrimen Reproborum vocat I grant it denotes the dignity of their persons but still in respect of choice as when we say a choice Book a choice Jewell as much as to say which a man would make choice of and preferre before many so the Elect Angels are so called in respect of choice which choice to my understanding can have no congruous reference but to the choice of God It is true we have nothing like such Scripture evidence touching the election and reprobation of Angels as of Men. But whereas in these points both Scripture evidence and light of Christian reason doe concurre so the light of Christian reason doth make it as evident on the part of Angels as on the part of man namely that nothing can possibly be the cause of Gods will or predestination quoad actum volentis or praedestinantis And Aquinas as you have heard professeth That never any man was so mad as to professe that any thing without God could be the cause of predestination quoad actum praedestinantis and herein you your selfe agree Now touching Austin I am glad you have lighted upon him I do â—bâ— not but he shall perswade you in this point though I could not And first I will accommodate an answer to your allegations Secondly I will endeavour to shew clearly his opinion in this point Your first allegation is Caeteri autem per ipsum liberum arbitrium in veritate steterunt but your selfe perceive it might be answered that this might be delivered inclusa gratia speciali And it may be proved that this phrase of speech doth not exclude speciall grace for in the same Chapter it is afterwards said of man thus In quo statu recto ac sine vitio si per ipsum liberum arbitrium manere voluisset Here you must not exclude speciall grace in this case For si manere voluisset undoubtedly this will of his had been wrought by speciall grace as Austin manifesteth in the chapter following For he distinguisheth of two graces or two adjutories the one was ut posset pernianere si vellet the other was ut vellet quod potuit his words are these est in nobis per hane Dei gratiam in bono recipiendo perseveranter tenendo non solum posse quod volumus veruns etiam velle quod possumus Quod non fuit in homine primo unum enim horum in illo fuit alterum non fuit Namque ut reciperet bonum gratiâ non egedat quia nondum perdider at ut autem in eo permaneret egebat adjutorio gratiae sine quo iâ emnino non posset acceperat posse si vellet sed non habuit velle quod posset nam si babuisset perseverasset But you bring a second place to prove that Angels could have stood by their free-will secluding speciall grace and that is this Credimus Dominum Deum sie ordinasse Angelorum hominum vitam ut in ea prius ostenderet quid posset eorum liberum arbitrium deinde quid posset suae gratiae beneficium justitiaeque judicium I grant the Angels had power to stand if they would and power to fall if they would and this power was manifested in the standing of the one and in the fall of the other But herehence it followeth not that therefore the act of standing was not of Gods grace But you will say the benefit of grace was afterwards manifested And I answer that grace was the grace of confirmation opposite to the Obduration of the evill Angels which grace of confirmation though it were manifested after the obedience of the good Angels consisting in assurance that they shall never fall yet herehence it followeth not that their standing was not by grace though that grace whereby they stood was different from that grace whereby they were confirmed for before their obedience so they stood as that withall they might fall but since their obedience they now so stand that they cannot fall Now for Austins opinion hereabouts it is plaine enough from other places De civ dei lib. 12. cap 9. aut minorem
OF All those weighty parcells of Gospell truth which the Arminians have chosen to oppose there is not any about which they so much delight to try and exercise the strength of fleshly reasonings as that of Gods eternall decree of Reprobation partly because the Scripture doth not so abound in the delivery of this Doctrine as of some others lying in a more immediate subserviency to the obedience and consolation of the Saints though it be sufficiently revealed in them to the quieting of their spirits who have learned to captivate their understandings to the obedience of Faith and partly because they apprehend the Truth thereof to be more exposed to the riotous opposition of mens tumultating carnall Affections whose help and assistance they by all meanes court and solicite in their contests against it Thus the Author of the Book entituled Gods love to Mankind being desired to render a reason of the change his Faith in passing over to the Tents of the Arminians he drawes forth only this one poynt to make shew of for the hinge of his alteration Many Learned men know with what applause that Book of his was received and divulged by that whole Generation which had then wrapped up the ball of the Errors promoted by it in the gilded covering of Preferment and carried it away before them They being by providence removed from that station and conjunction unto Power whence they had their effectual influence on the Earth God foresaw if he may be allowed to foresee what reinforcement upon other hands their Abominations would receive and therefore in his tender love made provision for his Church before hand as by others so in especiall by the renowned Author of this Treatise whose paines herein intended by him for the conviction of them with whom after much forbearance God intended to take another course are now seasonably brought to light to stop the mouthes of another Generation risen up in their steed enemies of Gods Soverainty and Grace untill He shall be pleased to deale otherwise with them God is not moâ—â—ed that which men sow they shall reap It is well known what spheare this Learned Author moved in how farre elevated above any possibility of my reaching the least esteeme to him or his labours This being desiâ—ed by my worthy and Learned friend the Publisher to expresse my thâ—ughts upon its perusall I shall take the boldnesse to say that this Treaâ—ise of our Author comes not any whit behind the choycest of thosâ— other eminent Workes of his wherein in this cause of God he faithfullâ— served his Generation I doubt not but it will appeare to the Readeâ— that he hath dealt with the Adversaries of the Truth in their chiefest â—olds advantages and strengths putting them to shame in the calumnyes and lyes which they make their refuge IOHN OWEN Vicecan Oxon. The Riches of Gods Love unto the Vessells of Mercy CONSISTENT WITH His Absolute Hatred or Reprobation Of the Vessells of Wrath. OR AN ANSWER UNTO A BOOK ENTITULED Gods Love unto Mankind Manifested by Disproving His Absolute Decree for their Damnation IN TWO BOOKES The First being a Refutation of the said Booke As it was Presented in Manuscript by Mr HORD unto Sir NATH RICH. The Second being an Examination of certain Passages inserted into M. HORDS Discourse formerly Answered by an Author that conceales his Name but was supposed to be Mr MASON Rector of Andrews-Undershaft in London By that Great and Famous Light of Gods Church WILLIAM TWISSE D. D. And Prolocutor of the late Assembly of DIVINES Whereunto are annexed Two Tractates of the same Author in Answer unto D. H. The one concerning Gods Decrees Definite or Indefinite The other about the object of Predestination TOGETHER WITH A Vindication of D. TWISSE from the exceptions of M r JOHN GOODWIN In his Redemption Redeemed By HENRY JEANES Minister of God's Word In CHEDZOY Rom. 9. 20. O Man who art thou that repliest against God shall the thing formed say to him that formed it why hast thou made mee thus v. 21. Hath not the Potter power over the clay of the same Lump to make one vessell to honour and another unto dishonour OXFORD Printed by L. L. and H. H. Printers to the University for Tho Robinson Anno Salutis M. DC LIII TO THE WORSHIPFULL And his Honoured Uncle MICHAEL OLDISWORTH Esquire And a Member of the PARLIAMENT Of the Common-wealth of ENGLAND SIR I Have often heard you professe a deep dislike of the unnaturall vanity of the English Nation in preferring strangers in all callings above such of their own Country men as farre surpassed them And of this unjust partiality no profession hath tasted in a greater measure than that of Divinity for of our Ministers such whom God hath best fitted with parts and Learning for the discussing of controversies have been so undervalued in comparison of some Forraine Divines whose Learning was little better than systematicall as that they languished in their private studies and had dyed in obscurity unlesse the fame of their great abilities had been eccho'd over unto us by the generall applause of all Christendome Nay this sometimes hath not awakened us unto a due estimation of them D r Ames was looked upon abroad as one that amongst Protestant writers had few either superiors or equalls for subtilty in Logick and Scholasticall Divinity and yet he dyed an exile from his Native Soyle so that his Tombe might have had that inscription upon it which Scipio by his will appoynted to be on his Ingrata Patria ne ossa mea quidem habes Unthankfull Country thou hast not so much as my Bones Of how great reputation this our Author was beyond the Seas I had rather you should heare from the able and judicious Rivet than by mee who am censured by some who I am sure much overvalue their own judgements to have too high and admiring thoughts of him Rivet in his Epistle prefixed unto a late Book of D. Twisses against Arminius and Corvinus c. will assure you that The most Learned men in the whole Christian World even those who are of the adverse party doe confesse that there was nothing yet extant more accurate exact and full touching the Arminian Controversies than what was written by D. Twisse As also That he if any one hath so cleared and vindicated the Orthodoxe cause from objected absurdities and the calumnies of adversaries as that out of his labours not only the Learned but also those who are least versed in controversies may find enough whereby to disentangle themselves from the snares of Opposites Indeed there is none almost that hath Written against Arminianisme since the Publishing of any thing of D r Twisses on that Subject but have made very honourable mention of him and have acknowledged him to be the mightiest man in these Controversies that this Age hath afforded And yet this Worthy and able Combatant for the Truth and Cause of God was here at home designed unto Ruine as
I have found in a Manuscript under his owne Hand This I grant was by the Canterburian Faction but withall I could tell strange Stories of the neglects that were heaped upon him by some who were I believe Zealous I am sure forward Sticklers for a Reformation These Men me think should blush at the ingenuous Testimony which Bishop Hall though dissenting from him about Church Goverment gave of his eminent worth in a Letter of his to M r W. S. by way of Approbation of a small piece of D r Twisses Entituled The doubting Conscience Resolved c. The Doctor ever declined conference by word of Mouth as out of modesty so because he thought the more deliberate way of the Pen to be quieter and fitter too for the bolting out of the Truth And hereupon he spake not much in the late Assembly of Divines at Westminster This some who talked their shares interpreted as an Argument of the former weaknesse or at least present decay of his intellectualls But as Sophocles when his Sonnes brought him into question for Dotage is reported to have recited a Tragedy of Oedipus Coloneus which he had last written and had in his Hands and to have demanded whether that seemed the Verse of a Dotard or no. So our Doctor could have stop'd the Mouths of these bold censurers by Publishing very Masculine and Vigorous pieces that he Penned in even his most declining Age. I may wish but I doe not expect to Live so long as to see any thing Published touching this Argument more convincing the adversary than this Elaborate and Weighty Discourse and yet some who are Perk'd up into places unto which their parts and gifts bare no proportion have very lately bespattered it as lame imperfect and I know not what But the best of it is this their detracting from it is not likely to be any disadvantage to it for it was so farre from working that mischievous effect which it seemes they intended as that it begat in those who heard it and unto whom it was afterwards reported only an admiration and a serious indignation at the immodest impudence of such raw young men who are no better skill'd in Polemicall Divinity then the mock Councel of the Great Duke of Muscovie are in State affaires which is made up of the gravest and seem liest men of all Musco and the adjoyning Citties richly apparrelled out of the Wardrope which to sorrainers not knowing this fraude appeare so many Princes and Noble men but indeed are meane and unqualified persons and of no more ability than so many pictures in a fairewrought hanging that serve only to cover a Wall But I appeale from the rash and unrighteous censures of these presumptuous Novices unto your more knowing and candid judgement who as you highly reverenced this our Author whilest living so have you ever since his death borne a zeale unto his memory and therefore I am assured that this Book of his will find with you not only a favourable but also a gratefull acceptation and the same confidence I have concerning all rationall Learned and Orthodoxe men unto whose reading I commend it and that unto the blessing of the Almighty and so I rest Your deeply Obliged And most Humbly devoted Nephew HENRY JEANES TO THE READER IN the days of our Henry the 8 th the whole Convocation offered unto S r Thomas Moore the sum of foure thousand pounds at the least thereby to recompence in part the paines and travailes he had taken in writing for the defence of the Romish faith which my Author miscalls the true Catholicke Faith Now the undertakings of S r Thomas Moore for the Popish cause are not worthy to be named the same day with the performances of Doctor Twisse against the enemies of God's grace both Jesuites and Arminians I was therefore I confesse transported with a just both sorrow and indignation when I could not prevaile with any though I solicited diverse to adventure upon the Printing of this following Worke of his without a large supply towards the the charge thereof a His Latine Workes have rendred him so renowned in forraine Churches as that they have looked upon him as the Bradwardine of the Age. The States of West-Friezland unto whom he was no otherwise known than by his Answer to Arminius his Book against Perkins offered him the greatest preferment that a Minister in that Country is capable of viz. the place of a Professor of Divinity in the University of Franeker and took order for defraying the charges of his journey and transportation of his family and were this Book that I now present unto thy view unto which there is not in the English Tongue any peere for solidity and accuratenesse in Scholasticall Divinity translated into Latine I am perswaded that Outlandish Divines would have such an estimate of it as S t Jerome had of certaine Bookes of the Martyr Lucian written with his own hand which he valued as a precious jewell or as Beza had of a Commentary of M r Rollocke upon the Romans and Ephesians concerning which he wrote unto a friend that he had gotten a treasure of incomparable value It was therefore very strange unto me that there should be any knowing and sober persons who should either despaire or doubt of the acceptation thereof But my wonder would have been swallowed up of a greater amazement if I had known that of which I was since by a good hand informed that this active unwearied and victorious Champion of Gods grace lived in great want even whilest he was Prolocutor of the late Assembly of Divines Nay which is stranger yet that he was slighted by some of his owne calling who if they had not much forgotten themselves would seeing they swam in all plenty have imitated in some degree at least that forementioned example of the gratefull munificence of a Popish Convocation unto S t Thomas Moore D r Ames in his Preface to the Diocesans Tryall of that Worthy Divine M r Paul Baine tells us that the said M r Baine was all his life after his silencing pressed with want not having as he often complained unto his Friends a place to rest his Head in which me thought saith D r Ames was an upbraiding of the Age and place where he lived with base Regardlesnesse of piety and learning If I should apply the like censure unto those that neglected this our Author the Glory of his Age and Ornament of his Nation I should not be over bitter He is now above any recompence to be made unto him in his owne Person by us but we may expresse a gratefull Memory of him as unto his Children so unto the Issue of his minde His Bookes I speake not only for the entertainment of those that are Extant but for bringing into the light those Pieces that lye in the Hands of his Children which are likely to be Buried in Dust and Perpetuall Oblivion If I had but halfe that Interest in great Personages which
rather a fiction of the remnants of the Pelagians wherewithall to reproach the doctrine of S. Austin in the poynt of Predestination Thus have I examined this Authors pretence of the Novelty of our Tenent I come to the consideration of that which followes DISCOURSE The Second Motive IT S unwillingnesse to abide the Tryall I find that the Authors and Abettors of it have been very backward to bring it to the Standard not only when they have been called upon by their Adversaries to have been weighed but also when they have been intreated thereto by their chief Magistrates who might have commanded them A shrewd argument mee thinks that it is too light In the Disputation at Mompelgard Anno 1586 held between Beza and Jacobus Andreas with some Seconds on both sides Beza and his company having disputed with the Lutherans about the person of Christ the Lords Supper c. When they came to this Point did decline the sifting of it and gave this reason among others that it could not then possibly be disputed of sine gravi eorum offendiculo qui tanti mysterii capaces non sunt without the great scandall and hurt of the ignorant and unacquainted with these high mysteries The Contra-Remonstrants also in their Conference with their Adversaries at the Hague in the year 1611 could not be drawn to dispute with them about this point but delivered a Petition to the States of Holland and Westfrizland that they might not be urged to it resolving rather to break off the Conference then to meddle with it In the Synod likewise of Dort in the year 1618 and 1619. the Remonstrants were warned by the President of the Synod ut de Electione potius quà m de odiosâ Reprobations materiâ agerent that they should rather dispute of the point of Election then the odious point of Reprobation Can this Doctrine be a truth and yet blush at the light which makes all thing manifest especially considering these things 1. That Reprobation is a principall Head of Practicall divinity by the ill or well stating of which the glory of God and good of Religion is much promoted or hindered 2. That there is such a necessary connexion between the points of Election and Reprobation both being parts of predestination that the one cannot well be handled without the other 3. That Reprobation was the chief cause of all the uproares in the Church at that time 4. That it was accused with open mouth and challenged of falshood and therefore bound in justice to purge it selfe of the crimination 5. That it may easily be defended if as some say it be such an apparent truth for Nihil est ad defendendum puritate tutius nihil ad dicendum veritate facilius saith S. Hierom. The striving to lye close and hide it selfe though perhaps it be not so infallible yet it is a very probable argument of a bad cause Truth covets no corners but is willing to abide the tryall whether in men or in doctrines David knowing his heart to be without guile offers himselfe ready to the Lords tryall Search me o God and know my heart try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me And our Saviour tells us that Every one that doth evill hates the light and comes not to the light least his deeds should be reproved but he that doth truth comes to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God As S. Paul saith of an Heretick he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 selfe condemned and so may we say of Heresy and untruth it condemnes it selfe and by nothing more then by refusing the Touch-stone He is to be thought an empty Scholler who is loath to be opposed and his gold to be light and counterfeit that will not have it touched and weighed and these Opinions to be but errours which would so willingly walk in a mist and dwell in silence when it concernes the peace of the Church so much to have them examined TWISSE Consideration VVHo are these Authors of this Doctrine who here are said to have been backward to bring it to the standard Is Beza those Authors whereof was he the Author Was it the doctrine of predestination as proceeding of the meer pleasure of God and not upon foresight of mans faith and works Is it not apparent that this was the doctrine of Austin 1200 years agoe and that in opposition to the Pelagians and Semi-Pelagians Or was it the doctrine of reprobation as not proceeding upon the foresight of sinne but of the meer pleasure of God Is this Author so ignorant as not to know what are the conclusions of Alvarez in the question Whether there be any cause of reprobation on mans part Lib. 10. de Auxil disc 110. pag. 866. 1. His first Conclusion is this Reprobation whereby God decreed not to give unto some everlasting life and to permit their sinne is not conditionate but absolute neither doth it presuppose in God foresight of the deserts of reprobates or of their perseverance in sinne unto the last period of their life 2. His next Conclusion is In the Angells that fell there is no cause of their reprobation on their part as touching the whole effect thereof but before any foresight of their future sinne God pro sua Voluntate of his meer will did reprobate some of them and suffered them to fall into sinne 3. The third Infants departing in Originall sinne alone there is no cause on their part of reprobation if they be considered in comparison with others which are not reprobated and the like is to be said proportionably of men of ripe years 4. The fourth Not only comparatively but absolutely there is no cause of reprobation Therefore neither sinne actuall nor originall nor both of them foreseen by God was indeed the meritorious and motive cause of the reprobation of any as touching all the effects thereof and the proofe hereof he prosecutes at large 5. Reprobation as touching the last effect thereof presupposeth in signo rationis the foresight of sinne originall or actuall for which a reprobate is damned Marke it well He does not say as the cause for which God decrees his damnation but as the cause for which a reprobate is damned And Aquinas whose followers the Dominicans are expresseth this doctrine in this manner and that more Scholastically and accurately then Alvarez Praescientia peccatorum potest esse aliqua ratio reprobationis ex parte paenae quae praeparatur reprobatis in quantum scilicet Deus proponit se puniturum malos propter peccata c. in Ad Rom. 9. Sect. 2. in fine that is Prescience of sinnes may be some reason of reprobation on the part of punishment to wit in as much as God purposeth to punish wicked men for their sinnes Where sinne is evidently made the cause of damnation and that by vertue of Gods purpose but by no means the cause of the
of the number One of the Souldiers was billeted in an old Widdowes house and another being a Goldsmith told him and another consort of theirs he had a devise to put mony in all their purses for he knew how to make a Rex-dolar of three-pence sylver and in that Widdowes house they would ply their businesse very securely To work they went and casting plates of Tinne to the quantity of one of those Dolars and stamping them full and faire this Gold-smith with the quantity of three pence silver sylvered them over very fairely and least they should seem too light hangs them up in the chimny in a bagge that the smoak might bring them to the sadder hew Thus having met with a mine of Sylver in their lodging one is imployed as a Merchant-man to goe to the Staple of Cloth and he laies out their coyne in cloth whereof afterwards they made good silver indeed at length one of them paying a debt of his to a Dutchman in Delfe in one of these Rex-dolars he found the Dutch to betray some suspicious gestures and interpretations upon the coyne That was a faire warning to an intelligent man of armes and hereupon they get them packing ing away with all speed and home they come and make themselves merry with the relation In like sort these Remonstrants shew a great deale of Tinne and trash in these argumentations and they have not so much as three pence silver to colour it therewithall to cheat the World if they will be cheated But they hope the colour of some dishonour by their adversaries doctrine redounding unto Christ will be taken for a peece at least of good silver I confesse I am somewhat the more merrily disposed at this time For being taken off from the midst of a sentence by the courteous invitation of a Gentleman to come unto him to his Inne He was pleased to entertaine me with such good discourse that it did not a little refresh my spirits His reaches were after new discoveries for the advancement of learning and endoctrinated me more in one halfe hower then seventeen years study in the University For whereas I never learned there more causes then foure he was pleased to acquaint me with nine which I took some pains to learn without book and they were these Matter Forme Workman Will Power Time Finding out Accident End And most courteously offered himselfe to enlarge on every one of them but having left off at a broken sentence I was desirous to return to my studies Theologicall and to let those Philosophicall progresses alone But I protested unto him seriously that he had informed me more in the number of causes in a short space then Oxford had done in many years he entreated I would consider of them and I promised I would and conferre of them too with all the Schollers I companied with which he took in very goo part and so I took my leave And finding my spirit not a little elevated with this recreation I resolved forbearing my usuall time of supper to follow these studies close that night which truly fell out very happily For one of those causes being found out otherwise called Invention as for Judgement I doe not remember that it was admitted into the number I made use of it very happily in finding out or discovery of the foppery of these Remonstranticall argumentations Now I proceed to the second Question as more seasonable to the present occasion And here first they begin with their former artifice making infidelity on the part of reprobation answerable to faith on the part of election which is most untrue as formerly I shewed Only the not curing of infidelity by the grace of faith is made by us subordinate to reprobation as the curing of naturall infidelity by the grace of faith is made by us subordinate to election But they goe on as in shaping our Tenent at pleasure so in basting it with their very liberall censures as absurd and execrable in such sort as the bare commemoration of it they take to be sufficient to represent the horrour of it and to confute it and this they commit to the judgement of all the faithfull of Christ And indeed their best strength lyeth in setting forth their Adversaries doctrine in such colours as the Devill is painted with And in this particular they conceive good hope no doubt that propitious Readers will conceive hereby that the infidelity of man is made by their Adversaries the work of God as well as Faith Whereas it is well known that there is so little need of working men to infidelity that all being borne in sinne and corrupted and estranged from the life of God through the fall of Adam infidelity is as naturall and hereditary to a man as any other corruption And it is as well known and undeniable that none can cure it but God by faith but this he cures in whom he will by giving Faith to whom he will and if he refuse to cure it in any that and that alone is enough to make him a vessell of wrath that so Gods glory may be manifested upon him in the way of justice vindicative But come we to their Arguments 1. The first is this If Infidelity followeth Reprobation unto destruction then God cannot in justice destroy Reprobates for their infidelity For there is no greater injustice then to destroy a man for that that followeth necessarily upon reprobation which is the work of God To this I answer 1. According to mine ordering the decrees divine Secondly according to the Contra-Remonstrants Tenent in ordering them 1. According to my ordering of the decrees divine In no moment of nature or reason is the decree of damnation precedent to the decree of permitting infidelity or leaving the infidelity of some men uncured to wit by denying them faith by denying the grace of regeneration But the decrees of creating all in Adam of permitting all to fall in Adam in bringing all men forth into the World in the state of Originall sinne of leaving this originall sinne uncured in them and last of all of damning them for their sinnes are decrees not subordinate but coördinate as decrees de Mediis tending joyntly to one supream end which is the manifestation of Gods glory upon them in the way of justice vindicative as also to shew the riches of his glory upon the vessels of mercy whom he hath prepared unto glory to wit by beholding in others that miserable condition which through Gods meer grace and goodnesse they have escaped 2. According to the Contra-Remonstrants Tenent I answer 1. Many of them doe not maintaine that infidelity is consequent to the decree of damnation but in the foresight of God precedent rather as appears by the Brittish Divines their Theses De Reprobatione and Alvarez professeth the same The denyall of grace and so the permitting of naturall infidelity to remain uncured they make consequent as it seems to a negative decree of denying glory And
themselves God took not that pleasure in them as to give them his custodient grace to keep them from withdrawing themselves which grace and that out of his good pleasure he afforded unto others But this grace comes in no account throughout with this Author like unto the Remonstrants who would have no other notice taken of any other counsell of God then that whereby he decreeth to save believers and damne unbelievers But if you call them to enquire of Gods decree to bestow the grace of Faith and repentance upon some and not on others as whether it proceeds absolutely or conditionally they usually lend a deafe eare to this whereby it is as cleare as the Sunne what estimation they make of the grace of regeneration of the grace of Faith and of repentance and after what manner they give God the glory of it By the way observe I pray how he makes the state of man in being a reprobate consequent to his withdrawing himselfe which undoubtedly is a Temporall act and accordingly the act of Reprobation whereby a man is denominated a reprobate to be meerely Temporall and consequently such an act must election be also viz. not eternall but Temporall Still he keepeth himselfe in his strength of confusion as most advantageous for him as in saying God forsakes no man till by actuall sinnes and continuance in them he forsaketh God But albeit God forsaketh no man as touching the inflicting of punishment untill man commits actuall sinne and continueth therein impenitently yet before this God did forsake him as touching the denyall of this grace custodient from sinne and the denyall of the grace of repentance to rise out of sinne which yet he grants to many as in shewing mercy to whom he will like as whom he will he hardneth and so accordingly cures in some that naturall infidely and hardnesse of heart wherein we are all borne and leaves it uncured in others Now consider we his argument following which is this If God reject no man from salvation in time or in act and deed till he reject God then surely he rejected no man in purpose and decree but such a one as he foresaw would reject and cast off God Now this argument not one of our Divines deny not only as it is applied to reprobation but neither doe we deny it applied unto election For we willingly professe that like as God bestowes salvation on none but such as he then findes believers penitent and given to good works in like sort wee all professe that God decrees to bestow salvation on none but such as he foreseeth will believe repent and become studious of good works Like enough many doe wilfully dissemble the true state of the Question between us others ignorantly mistake it The question is not whether God decrees to bestow salvation on such as he foreseeth will believe and reject those from salvation whom he foreseeeth will not believe but of the order of reason between these decrees of God and the foresight of obedience the one side and disobedience on the other that is whether like as faith repentance and good works in men of ripe years doe precede their salvation as disposing causes thereunto so the fore-sight of faith repentance and good works precede election as disposing causes or prerequisites thereunto In like manner on the other side whether as finall perseverance in sinne precedes damnation as the meritorious cause thereof So finall perseverance in sinne as foreseen by God precedes reprobation as the decree of Damnation as the meritorious cause thereof So that the argument here mentioned which is all his strength in this place rightly applyed must runne thus Faith repentance and good works actually existent precede salvation as the disposing causes thereunto therefore faith repentance and good works foreseen precede election as the disposing causes thereunto and what is this but as good as in expresse termes to professe that election is of faith repentance and good works though it be in direct contradiction unto Saint Paul professing in terminis to speak in this Divines language that the purpose of God according to election is not of works So on the other side Finall perseverance in sinne precedes damnation as the meritorious cause thereof therefore finall perseverance in sinne foreseen precedes the decree of damnation as the meritorious cause thereof And then what is to make reprobation to be of evill works if this be not Whereas Saint Paul look by what arguments he proves that election is not of good works viz. because before Jacob and Esau were borne or had done good or evill it was said of them the Elder shall serve the Younger by the same argument it is equally evident that Reprobation is not of evill works Yet we acknowledge an exact conformity between Gods decrees and the execution thereof because like as God damnes no man but for sinne so he decreed to damne no man but for sinne where sinne is in each place made the meritorious cause of damnation not of the decree of damnation And like as God bestowes salvation on no man of ripe years but by way of reward of faith repentance and good works so he decreed to bestow salvation on no man of ripe years but by way of reward of faith repentance and good works where faith repentance and good works are in each place made the disposing causes to salvation but not to election There was never any so madde saith Aquinas as to say that merits are the cause of predestination as touching the act of God predestinating and Why but because so is the cause of predestination to be enquired into as the cause of Gods will is enquired into but formerly he had shewed that there can be no cause of Gods will as touching the act of God willing Now let every one judge whether the act of reprobation be not as clearly the act of Gods will as the act of predestination and consequently whether it be not equally as mad a course in Aquinas his judgement to devise a cause of reprobation as to devise a cause of predestination on the part of Gods will And no marvail for the act of Gods will is eternall all the works of the creature are temporall Then the act of Gods will is God himselfe for there is no accident in God and therefore they may as well set themselves to devise a cause of God as a cause of Gods will His phrase of casting off is ambiguous if it signifieth the denyall of salvation it followeth disobedience if it signifieth the deniall of grace it precedes disobedience in what kind soever 3. Our velle and facere are both temporall in God it is otherwise for his deeds are temporall and may admit the works of men precedaneous thereunto but his resolutions are his decrees and they are all eternall and can admit no work of man precedaneous thereunto yet is God as just in the one as in the other For like as he damnes no man but for
understandings purged from prejudice and false principles 5. My fifth argument is this If sinne be the cause of Reprobation that is of the decree of damnation then either by necessity of nature or by the constitution of God not by necessity of nature as all that hitherto I have known confesse But I say neither can it be by the free constitution of God for mark what a notorious absurdity followeth hence and that unavoidably namely that God did ordaine that upon foresight of sinne he would ordaine them to damnation marke it well God did ordaine that he would ordaine or God did decree that he would decree In which words Gods eternall decree is made the object of Gods decree Whereas it is well known that the objects of Gods decrees are meerely things temporall and cannot be things eternall we truly say God did decree to create the World to preserve the World to redeeme us call us justify us sanctify and save us but it cannot be truly said that God did decree to decree or ordaine to ordaine for to decree is the act of Gods will and therefore it cannot be the object of the act of Gods will Yet these arguments I am not so enamoured with as to force the interpretations of Scripture to such a sense as is sutable hereunto presuming of the purity of my understanding as purged from prejudice and false principles I could willingly content my selfe with observation of the Apostles discourse in arguing to this effect Before the Children were borne or had done good or evill it was said the elder shall serve the younger therefore the purpose of God according to election stands not of works In like manner may I discourse Before the Children were borne or had done good or evill it was said the elder shall serve the younger therefore the purpose of God concerning Reprobation stands not of works And like as hence it is inferred that therefore election stands not of good works so therehence may I inferre that therefore reprobation stands not of evill works 6. If sinne foreseen be the cause meritorious of reprobation then faith and repentance and good workes are the disposing causes unto election For therefore evill works foreseen are made the meritorious cause of reprobation because evill works exsistent are the meritorious cause of damnation And if this be true then also because Faith and Repentance and good workes are the disposing causes unto salvation then by the same force of reason faith repentance and good workes foreseen must be the disposing cause unto election But faith repentance and good workes foreseen are not the disposing causes unto election as I prove thus 1. If they were then the purpose of God according to election should be of faith repentance and good works which is expressely denyed by the Apostle as touching the last part and may as evidently be proved to be denied by him in effect of the other parts also by the same force of argumentation which he useth as for example from this anticedent of the Apostles before the Children were borne or had done good or evill it no more evidently followeth that therefore the purpose of God according to election is not of workes than it followeth that the same purpose of God according to election is not of faith nor of repentance For before they were borne they were no more capable of faith or of repentance than of any other good works And undoubtedly faith and repentance are as good works as any other 2. If God doth absolutely work faith in some and not in others according to the meer pleasure of his will then it cannot be said that faith foreseen is the cause of any mans election For in this case faith is rather the means of salvation then salvation a means of faith and consequently the intention of salvation rather precedes the intention of faith than the intention of faith can be said to precede the intention of salvation And to this the Scripture accords Acts 1348. As many believed as were ordained to everlasting life making ordination to everlasting life the cause why men believed answerable hereunto is that Acts 2. last God added daily to the Church such as should be saved and that of Paul to Titus according to the faith of Gods elect So that according to Pauls phrase fides est electorum but according to the Arminians Doctrine the inverse hereof is a more proper and naturall predication as to say electio est fidelium But God doth absolutely work faith in some men according to the meer pleasure of his will denying the same grace to others which I prove 1. By Scripture Rom. 9. 18. God hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardneth compared with Rom. 11. 30. Yee in times past have not believed but now have obtained mercy where it appears by the Antithesis that to find mercy is to believe that is to obtain the grace of faith at the hands of God in Saint Pauls phrase 2. By cleare reason for if it be not the meer pleasure of Gods will that is the cause hereof then the cause hereof must be some good workes which he finds in some and not in others whence it manifestly followeth that God giveth grace according unto works which in the phrase of the ancients is according to merits and for 1200 years together this hath been reputed in the Church of God meere Pelagianisme 2. I further demand what that good worke is whereupon God workes it in one when he refuseth to worke it in another Here the answer I find given is this that God doth work in man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 velle credere modo velit Now of the absurdity hereof I appeale to the very light of nature and let all the books that ever were written on this argument be searched and let it be enquired whether ever any did expresse themselves in the manner of so palpable and grosse absurdity as wherein the act of willing is made the condition of it selfe whence it followeth evidently that it must be both before it selfe and after it selfe for the condition must allwaies exsist before the thing conditionated Yet they are driven upon these rocks of absurdities in spight of their teeth so shamefull is the issue of their discourses who in hatred of Gods truth revealed in Gods word and in a proud conceit of their own performances in the way of argumentation dare prescribe rules to all others how to carry themselves in the interpretation of Scriptures as namely to be so warie as that they doe not deliver any thing repugnant to understandings purged from prejudice and false principles as if the word of God supposed them that are admitted to the studying thereof to have their understandings already purged from prejudice and false principles not that it is given by God for this very end namely to purge our understandings for what is the illumination or opening of the eyes of the mind other than the purging of
but to draw them up by these to an expectation of better things and a carefull endeavour to please God that they might obtain them But what blessings had the Gentiles more than common blessings doth he particulate any And as for the expectation of better things than the things of this world whereunto he pretends God doth draw them hereby what oracle hath he for this Prosper in the Book wherein he insists hath nothing at all of any possibility of knowledge of God unto salvation arriveable unto by the meere contemplation of the creature neither have I found any such Oracle throughout the Nation of the Arminians Nay he professeth plainly that that knowledge of God which is attaineable by the contemplation of the creature is not sufficient unlesse he enjoy the true light to discusse the darknesse of mans heart De vocatione Gent. l. 2. cap. 6. his words are these Tam acerbo natura humana vulnere sauciata est ut ad cognitionem Dei neminem contemplatio spontanea plenè valeat erudire nisi obumbrationem cordis vera lux discusserit And the Apostle more than once professeth of the Gentiles that they were without hope And the tast of the powers of the world to come seemes to be by the Apostle ascribed to the word of God as the cause of it Heb. 6. Yet 't is true the Heathen had odde notions of a condition after death as many as believed the immortality of the soule but where I pray was it upwards in heaven or downewards rather under the earth as Styx Phlegeton and the Campi Elisii yet Cicero looks upwards I confesse in his Tusculans questions but yet he goes no farther than the starres and this was their expectation of better things though Adrian an Emperour and a Schollar too bemoans himselfe that he knew not what should become of his poore soule Animula vagula blandula Hospes comesque corporis Quae tu abibis in loca nec ut soles dabis jocos horridula rigida nudula But this Author most confidently supposeth that these better things are manifest by the creatures by the contemplation whereof he might attaine to the knowledge of them and then I doubt not but he might entertaine a hope to attaine them provided he carefully endeavoured to please God which this Author conceaves to have been very possible and therewithall knew what that was by doing whereof he might be sure to please God And all this he obtrudes upon his Reader by a most dissolute course without one crumme of reason for it In like sort he discourseth very confidently of the end of man without distinction of any relation hereof as if the end of man were equally known as well by light of nature as by revelation of Gods word Solomon telleth us That God made all things for himselfe even the wicked against the day of evill Was this known to the Gentiles by the light of nature Not one of all the Philosophers of old acknowledged the Worlds creation out of nothing and who ever manifested any such faith among them as of enjoying a perpetuall society with God in heaven But it may be they all erred in interpreting the book of nature aright and understanding the language thereof concerning this poynt of faith This Author may doe well to cleare the World of this errour and that out of the book of the creatures and then proceed to interpret unto us therehence a generall resurrection also And if he could find Christ there too togeather with the Incarnation of the Sonne of God and his death and passion resurrection and ascension and sitting at the right hand of God to make request for us and our justification by faith in him togeather with regeneration also and the generall judgement then no doubt though the Gospell should continue to be a scandall to the Jewes yet surely through the incomprehensible benefit of his comfortable atchievements it should continue no longer to be foolishnesse unto the Gentiles only our faith should then cease and be turned into sight before we are brought to the seeing of the face of God And yet I see no great need of Christ if it be in the power of an Heathen man to know what it is to please God and to have an heart to please him For certainly as many as know what it is to please God and have an heart to please him God will never hurt them much lesse damne them to hell Yet the Apostle telleth us that they that are in the flesh cannot please God but whether this Author thinks Heathens to be amongst the number of them that are in the flesh I know not But I little wonder when an Arminian spirit of giddinesse hath possessed him if he proceed to the confounding not only of the Law with the Gospell but heathenisme also such as might be with Christianity But suppose a man might attaine to as much knowledge by the meere contemplation of the book of nature as we doe obtain by the Revelation of Gods word yet we that conceive the knowledge of Gods word to be no impediment to the absolutenesse of reprobation must needs find our selves as much as nothing streightned herein by this Authors roaving discourse as touching the generall providence of God in his works as long as that of the Apostle he hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardneth shall stand and be received for the word of God we shall never want ground for maintaining the absolutenesse both of election by the one and by just proportion of Reprobation also by the other For so long as God doth absolutely and according to the meere pleasure of his will decree to have mercy upon some by giving them faith and repentance for the curing of their infidelity and hardnesse of heart this is very sufficient to maintain the absolutenesse of election unto grace and if God doth absolutely and according to the meere pleasure of his will decree to harden others by denying them the grace of faith and repentance so to leave their naturall infidelity and hardnesse of heart uncured this shall be as sufficient to maintaine the absolutenesse of Reprobation from grace As for election unto salvation though the decree thereof can admit no cause yet we say that God by this decree doth not decree to bestow salvation on any man of ripe yeares but by way of reward of faith repentance and good workes as for the decree of Reprobation from glory and to damnation though the decree hath no cause yet we say that God by this decree doth not decree to inflict damnation on any but for sinne unrepented of only I confesse that as touching the interpretation of those words of Saint Paul He hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardneth I doe not know how it may be charmed by good witts least it may seem repugnant to some reason gathered by contemplation of the creatures for some affect such a
case we produce the same act of willing and doing that which is good is this to worke in us both the will and the deed Consider I pray is it not true that God is as ready to concurre with us to any sinfull act in case we will concurre with him and doth he not concurre with man to the produceing of any sinfull act in case man at that time doth produce it And will any sober man say that this is also for God to worke in him both the will and the deed of every sinfull act And why might we not say so if God workes it only by concourse Lastly to worke in us both the will and the deed provided that man will concurre to the working hereof not otherwise is this to worke it according to his good pleasure and not rather according to mans good pleasure And how I pray or in what sence doth he say that God by his providence will not suffer this doctrine to have any stroke in our lives For if he suffers it not then he hinders it let it therefore be made appeare how he hinders it To concurre with us if we will concurre with him in the producing of any act of Godlinesse is this to hinder our carnall security If so then to concurre with us to the producing of any sinfull act is to hinder our Godlinesse Surely to give power whereby men are enabled to doe any spirituall good if they will is not to hinder carnall security for such a power is given to all by universall grace yet this doth nothing hinder the carnall security of many thousands Or doth he hinder it by exciting us to the contrary Yet if this doctrine as we conceive be apt to drowne us in carnall security how can he be sayd to hinder us from it For either the doctrine must yeeld to such excitations exhortations from carnall security or such exhortations must yeeld to the doctrine especially considering what Austin sayth that if there be any difference betweene docere and suadere or exhortari yet even this doctrinae generalitate comprehenditur And for incogitancy which is a second device pretended as the cause why this doctrine doth not expose us to carnality is it not incredible these poynts being so much ventilated by them as none more The Church of God having been exercised with none more as I think these hundred yeares that men should not think of or consider of those dangerous consequences in manners as these doe forge in their own braines And as for the last imputing our Godlinesse to some good practicall conclusions may I not justly say that if ever any man wrote with the spirit of giddinesse this Author deserves to have a chiefe place amongst them For compare his answer to the second objection with this There he saith such dissolute conclusions as these following doe arise out of this doctrine of ours If I be chosen I must of necessity believe and be saved If I be cast off I must as necessarily not believe and be damned what need I therefore take thought either way about meanes or end Now will it not as well follow what need I therefore take thought of holinesse of obedience For even these are as good practicall conclusions Believe and thou shalt be saved Repent and thou shalt be saved and whosoever bebelieveth not shall be damned As these Be ye holy as I am holy Without holinesse no man shall see God If ye consent and obey ye shall eate the good things of the Land And by the way observe I pray with what judgement he calls them practicall conclusions whereas all save two of them are exhortations rather then conclusions And those two to wit Without holinesse no man shall see God and Godlinesse hath the promises both of this life c. I should take them to be principles rather then conclusions Whether simple men doe apply their braines to ponder and consider this doctrine or no I know not but certainly the learned and Godly maintainers of it have had cause enough to ponder it and consider it throughly and have given evidence enough of their thorough consideration of it yet have they fetcht no such sequells out of it If simple men doe and our adversaries be of the number of them and content themselves with such simplicity yet is it not enough for us that the Apostle doth not the holy Apostle S. Paul but expressely enforceth the contrary there from namely that because of God worketh in us the will and the deed according to his good pleasure therefore it becomes us to worke out our Salvation with feare and trembling Now which of us doe most exactly concurre with the Apostle in mainning that God doth worke in us both the will and the deed according to his good pleasure I am very well content that all the World both wise and simple both Learned and unlearned may judge 2. As touching the second First let us consider how the objection is shaped Secondly as it lies with what judgement and sobriety it is impugned 1. It is true men are absolutely elected or absolutely rejected but we content not our selves with generalities wherein as Aristotle hath observed doe lurke many equivocations Neither doe we delight in confounding things that differ Election and rejection or reprobation and in generall the will of God may be considered either Quoad actum voluntis as touching the act of God willing or as touching the things willed Of this distinction this Author takes no notice It is fit for some and advantagious to fish in troubled waters Now as touching the act of God willing both Aquinas hath proved that there can be no cause thereof and withall professeth that never was any so mad as to say That merites can be the cause of predestination quoad actum praedestinantis as touching the act of God predestinating And Bradwardine hath curiously disputed this way that no will of God is conditionall to will quoad actum volentis And Piscator against Vorstius hath proved the same after his way and by variety of demonstration this way may be convinced as in part I have shewed in this discourse both on the part of election and on the part of reprobation And both D r Jackson in his booke of Providence professeth that the distinction of Voluntas antecedens and consequens or antecedent and consequent will in God is to be understood quoad res volitas as touching the things willed as much as to say non quoad actum volentis And Gerardus Vossius drawing the distinction of will antecedent and will consequent unto the distinction of will absolute and will conditionall applyes it only quoad res volitas and so interpriteth Fathers discourse thereof And of a conditionall will gives this instance God will have men to be Saved in case they believe where faith is clearely made the condition of Salvation a temporall thing the condition of a temporall thing not the condition of Gods will to
doth obtrude upon us that Manoahs Wife had no faith but only a probability of this that is his glosse yet this acceptation of a burnt offering at their hands was manifested by no lesse then a miracle and the difference between Abels offering and Caines offering is laid downe to be this that The Lord had respect to Abel and to his offering but unto Cain and to his offering he had no regard Gen. 4. 4 5. And Davids prayer for acceptation and finding favour at the hands of God is set downe in this manner amongst other particulars Let him remember all thine offerings and turne thy burnt offerings into ashes Psal 20. 3. Yet why should he conceive that Manoah and his Wife were not in temptation and that a very sore one strēgthened with the expres word of God namely that No man can see God live which in these days was generally received amongst thē applyed by thē in this particular For Manoah said unto his Wife we shall surely dye because we have seen God could a probability to the contrary put by such a temptation as this How was the great Prophet Esay exercised with this when he cryed out Woe is me for I am undone because I am a man of polluted lipps and dwell in the midst of a people of polluted lipps for mine eyes have seen the King and Lord of Hosts What temptation hath he that thinkes himselfe a reprobate like unto this excepting still the guilte of that sinne which is unto death What ground of Scripture can they represent to prove that they are reprobates as those Ancients had ground for this that they must dye who had seen God It is one thing to be in temptation it is an other thing to yeeld to the temptation and to be overcome with it and that upon no ground which yet this Author confounds as a course very propitious for his turne and suitable with the part that he acteth As for Jacob the cause was this he that now enjoyed as it were the death of Joseph for many yeares his sonnes pretending they knew not what became of him yet brought his Coat imbrued with bloud unto their old Father who there upon conceived some evill beast had devoured him and who could expect that at the first hearing he should believe now the report of the same sonnes to the contrary especially considering how those brethren of Ioseph were astonished when Joseph himselfe told them saying I am Joseph doth my father yet live for the text saith his brethren could not answer him for they were astonished at his presence And though Iacob at the first believed not the report they made to be true yet neither is it said or likely that he believed it to be false But the Text saith his heart failed him denoting a condition betweene hope and feare as the Geneva noteth in the Margent As for Thomas his incredulity which he ascribeth unto a temptation he may as well ascribe the infidelity of Turkes Jewes unto a temptation The person tempted here represented doth not say I hope as Thomas did Except I see in his hands the print of the nailes and put my finger into the print of the nayles and put my hand into his side I will not believe it And what power doe Arminians attribute unto temptation doe they ascribe more unto it then to the operation of God which with them extends no farther then this as touching grace then to excite them to believe which yet they may resist if they will And may they not also resist the Divells temptations if they will Especially considering that in perswading them that they are Reprobates the Divell proceeds upon no ground which is not common to every one of Gods elect when he saith They will not believe any thing that is said for their comfort till it be made so apparent that they have nothing to say to the contrary It seemes this Author hath had some extraordinary experience of the condition of persons tempted I had thought the condition of persons not tempted only but giving way to the temptation had been for the most part unreasonable untill it pleaseth God to bring them to their right wits and like as feares property is to betray the succours that reason offereth so is the Devills practice to take them off from attending that to they cannot answer and holding them to their uncomfortable conclusions in despight of the weaknesse of their own premises and strength of contrary principles Excepting the case of finning against the Holy Ghost which was the case of Francis Sptra and accordingly his conclusions were most true as his premises strong and his comforters had little or nothing to say to the contrary And in such a case the only course to quench the fiery darts of desperation is to enquire diligently about the matter of fact whether he hath committed any such sinne as he layeth to his charge and thereupon to discourse of the nature of that sinne which is commonly called a sinne unto death and not only so but a sinne against the Holy Ghost which our Saviour pronounceth to be unpardonable and the Apostle signifieth as much when he saith that in such a case there is no more sacrifice for sinne but a fearfull expectation of fire And it may be this Authors discourse runneth with reference to such examples as this of Spira but fashioned at pleasure to serve his turne as formerly he did set down the story out of Coelius Secundus Calvin as he said but without any quotation of the place where But to enter upon a comparison between their doctrine and ours and that upon supposition of this rule delivered by him I say first that by our doctrine we can make it so evidently appeare that the tempted hath no ground at all to conceive himselfe to be a reprobate whatsoever his condition be except guiltinesse of the sinne against the Holy Ghost I say we can make it so evident that neither he nor any Arminian can say any reasonable thing to the contrary not denying but that they may say enough to the contrary in an unreasonable manner And my reason is because whatsoever his condition be it is no other then is incident to one of Gods elect Secondly I say as touching the Arminian doctrine two things The first is this There is no condition of man so holy in this life as whereby any man can have any assurance by Arminian doctrine that he is an elect of God and consequently no reprobate much lesse can they give any assurance to any man in the time of temptation as this Author speakes of it that he is no reprobate The Second is this Arminians can give assurance to no man that he is no reprobate for as much as all their grounds of comfort are common to the reprobate as well as to the elect wherehence it manifestly followeth that their doctrine can afford no better comfort then a reprobate
multiplied and advanced which in the issue comes to this that their condition is as comfortable as any reprobates condition throughout the world whether Cain's or Ishmael's or Esau's or Doeg's or Iuda's or the Grand Senior among the Turkes or the whole guard of his Janisaries for God's love is towards all Christ's redemption extends to all and the Covenant of Grace belongs to all And what comfortable creatures must these needes be upon so various and comfortable considerations And the whole Nation of the Arminians are herein inferiour to none of them all And though they will not be so saucie as to promise unto themselves perseverance in the state of grace yet they will be so bold as to promise both to themselves and to all their Proselites perseverance in this estate of consolation nothing inferiour to any Reprobates consolation in the world But the mischiefe is that hence it followes that the consolation of any of God's children whether Abraham Isaack Iacob David or Solomon Prophets Apostles Martyrs the blessed Virgin Mary nor any other excepted was never greater then the consolation of the wicked'st Christian that ever lived whether prophane or hypocriticall Provided he did believe these mysteries of Arminian godlynes namely that God's love is towards all Christ dyed for the redemption of all and lastly that the Covenant of Grace belongs to all for these are the sweet and precious flowers of consolation that grow in the gardens and writings of these Divines to the astonishment of the world in considering the power and efficacy of Satan and that even in the Church of God so many should be given up to so strange delusions He doth not know what satisfaction that learned Gentleman his friend hath received by these reasons nor I neither for I am not privy to the least satisfaction he hath received But on the contrary rather how he hath found the vilenesse of these Remonstranticall Tenets discovered and the vanity of all supports used to underprop them Sure he is They have given good content to others give we him leave to be liberall in his owne commendations we doe not know how farre he dwells from neighbours yet no marvaile if they give good content to many who have been seasoned with the like speculations I have seen a manuscript with this inscription A survey of the new Platforme of Predestination the method of it is much like to this and it ends with a dialogue in the point of consolation as if both Authours had dipt their pen in the same inck-pot And now to heare and see Demogorgon himselfe play his part and explicate his Mountebanck sacultie in displaying the strength of his Opobalsamum as he did of his Catholicon whom the Frenchman brings in his Satyre Mennippised no marvaile if they are well perswaded that no Pandora can equall that for vniversalities of graces when in the meane time they all fall short of that unum necessarium which yet like enough they are ready to forsweare and professe they will turne open Atheists rather then believe it still he keeps himselfe upon the commendation of his Proselite which cannot but reflect some sweet content upon himselfe who is the Engineer and perhaps the Spirit that animates him and sets him on worke For if the man such prayses have What then shall he that inspires the knave He commends the Author for perspicuitie in writing and modesty and he wisheth that whosoever undertakes to answer it fully will performe the like For my part I cannot change my stile but my desire is I may discover their fopperies as perspicuously as I can and I hope nothing to faile in performance like enough the Authour of the preface as well as the Authour of the discourse desires to be gently handled and that he calls modesty yet when a man will have his horse to be well curried it is not for want of love to his horse but because the condition of his horse requires to be so dealt withall I thanke God I never projected any immodest carriage never could any adversary move me so farre But as an excellent footeball-player of our House who would lay any man on his backe handsomly without hurt and he was a Bishop's Sonne being desired to shew any other how to doe the like answered with protestation that he never proceeded by any rules but as he found his opposite so he Coped with him In like sort as I find my adversarie so I deale with him for the present as the Condition of his carriage to my seeming deserves and if I handsomly lay his opinions on the ground without doing him any harme methinkes I should be rather loved then hated of my very enemies for this As for the present my Opposite seemes to have a care of my credit for the gaining whereof he chaulkes me out a way to wit by writing perspicuously and modestly without voluminous vagaries about impertinent things This he delivers very gravely and demurely which is in my judgment very ridiculous and if I doe expresse it and answer it as it deserves I think I should carry my selfe decently in answering him according to his ridiculous condition and telling him that he doth not well in shewing such charity towards his adversary which the world will be apt to interpret as proceeding from a cowardly disposition The Spaniards at the Fort of Brest when Sr John Norris went forth in hunting of the hare and his hounds pursued the hare into the very Fort they tooke his hounds and hanged them up over the wall not in spite of so renowned a Generall but to represent their feareles condition and that they looked for no favour at his hands Magnanimitie not malice moved them unto this which magnanimitie might strike feare into their Enemies though it did not who tooke the Fort though it cost them deare I write with a purpose to expose my selfe to the censure of the world as they shall find cause but I regard not the censures of an Adversary especially in such a cause which Bradwardine Stiles The cause of God against Pelagius And truly I confesse I get something by this very phrase of my Adversaries Voluminous vagaries about impertinent things which makes me conclude that certainely both this Author and his Interpolator have seen my answer to M r Hord's Treatise wherein I have some vagaries I confesse to refresh my Spirit upon emergent occasions For being taking of from my studies to see a stranger who desired my companie I was suddenly instructed in a new learning of Nine causes who never was accquainted with above 4. before in the Universitie and one of the nine was finding out of which I made good use upon my returne in finding out the Sophestry of the Remonstrants in certaine Arguments of theirs This liberty of Spirit to refresh my selfe and my Reader it may be this Author spites whereas I am perswaded I should take no offence on his part for the like But it may be his gravity transports
nostrum Dei per praevenientem gratiam nostrum per subsequenteÌ„ liberam voluntatem The good that we doe is both God's worke and ours of God by Grace preventing ours by free will following To this Remigius answers and first he saith Hincmarus discoureseth after such a manner as if a good worke were partly God's worke and partly ours And againe as if the beginning of a good worke were God's but the effect thereof of man's free will although as he Hincmarus doth endeavour to temper this speech of his by the addition of grace not by the fulnesse of it gratiae adjunctione non etiam plenâ—tudine by the adjunction of grace not also by the fulnesse of it So he should have done saith Remigius cum verè totum sit Dei seeing indeed the whole is God's worke As the truth it selfe saith without me ye can do nothing And the Apostle what hast thou that that thou hast not received whence the blessed and glorious Martyr Cyprian hath so defined it saying we must glory in nothing seeing nothing is ours and concludes thus Bonum itaque nostrum totum Dei est quia totum est ex Deo nihil boni nostri nostrum est quia nihil boni nostri est ex nobis Therefore our good workes are holy God's and noe good of ours is ours because it is not of us and to reconcile this seeming contradiction in calling it our good yet denying it to be from us he concludes thus omne bonum nostrum totum Dei est donando totum nostrum est accipiendo Every good thing of ours is wholy God's in as much as he gives it and it becomes ours full and whole for as much as we receive it Fulgentius is plaine for it to lib. 1. ad Monium pag. 6. These whome God foresaw would dye in sinne he decrees should live in endles punishment I may take in Saint Austine and Prosper also who are judged to be the Patrons of he absolute Decree as it is set downe in the Sublapsarian way even they doe many times let fall such speeches as cannot fairely be reconciled with absolute Reprobation I will only cite Prosper for Saint Austine speakes in him he discoursing of some that fall a way à Sanctitate ad immunditiem from holinesse to uncleannesse saith they that fall away from holinesse to uncleannesse lye not under a necessity of perishing because they were not predestinate but therefore they were not predestinate because they were knowne to be such by voluntary praevarication Not long after speaking of the same men he saith Because God foresaw they would perish by their owne free will therefore he did not by any predestination lever them from the children of perdition And againe in his answer to the twelvth objection he hath these words God hath not withdrawne from any man ability to yeeld obedience because he hath not predestinated him but because he foresaw he would fall from obedience therefore he hath not predestinated him They are I confesse the wordes of Fulgentius in the 25 chapter of his first booke ad Monium and in the very next chapter he doth expresse himselfe in this manner on the point of predestination unto glory praedestinavit illos ad snpplicium quos à se praescivit voluntatis malae vitio decessuros praedestinavit ad regnum quos ad se praescivit misericordiae praevenientis auxilio redituros in se misericordiae subsequentis auxilio mansuros He predestinateth those untopunishment whom he foresaw to be such as would depart from him through the fault of a naughty will and he predestinated to the kingdome those whom he foresaw to be such as would returne unto him by the help of mercy prevenient and would persevere in him by the helpe of grace subsequent So that upon the same ground he may as well deny predestination unto salvation to be absolute in the opinion of Fulgentius as predestination unto damnation Now Vossius in his preface to the Pelagian Historie having first confessed that all Antients agreed in this That God did not ordaine any other unto eternall salvation then such who by his mere gift of grace should have the beginning of faith and good will and persevere in that which is good as it was foreseen by him In the next place acknowledgeth that Austine and Prosper and the Authour of the booke de vocatione Gentium and Fulgentius unto this common opinion of Catholiques did adde this That this praescience Divine did flow from God's absolute Decree to save them This I say Vossius writes though I see no cause to regard his judgment in this Argument His distinction is very well knowne of will absolute and will conditionall which will conditionate he examplifies thus as when God will have salvavation conferred upon a man in case he doth believe what one of our Divines doth deny a conditionall will in this sense in reference to salvation Now what one of the Antients the Pelagians excepted can this Authour produce that doth affirme any such will to be in God for the bestowing of faith upon a man For to maintaine this were in plaine Termes to maintaine that it was the will of God that grace should bestowed according unto workes But if the grace of God be bestowed merely according to the good pleasure of God as Saint Paule saith God hath mercy on whom he will By this it is aparent that this decree is absolute and consequently that predestination is absolute And thus Austine coupleth together the doctrine of the bestowing grace not according unto workes And his Doctrine of predestination as inseparable each to be granted or denied together with the other Because this Authour pretends it to be needles to cite Austine and sufficient to cite Prosper adding that Austine speakes in him to wit after he was Dead such is this Authours jugling course with his Reader therefore I will represent Austine himselfe proposing the objection made by the Massilienses against Austin's doctrine of predestination as it was sent unto him by Prosper and then answering it not leaving it unto Prosper to answer for him See the objection sed aiunt ut scribitis neminem posse correptionis stimulis excitari si dicatur in conventu Ecelesiae audientibus multis It a se habet de praedestinatione definita sententia voluntatis Dei ut alii ex vobis de infidelitate accepta obediendi voluntate veneritis ad fidem vel accepta perseverantia maneatis in fide c. But they say as ye write that none can be stirred up by the Goad of correption if it be said in the Congregation in the hearing of many such as touching predestination is the determinate sentence of the will of God that some of you receiving an obedient will shall come from infidelitie unto faith or receiving perseverance shall continue in the faith But the rest who continue in sinfull delights therefore you have not risen because the succour of
be such a God A Morall efficient is twofold being only of a moveing nature to move others to doe somewhat as namely either by perswading or by meriting or deserving He that perswades moves an other to doe some what he that meriteth thereby moves another either to reward him or punish him Now to walke in the light of this distinction and not to please our selves by walking in darknesse though God be the prime principall and invincible cause of man's damnation in the kind of a cause efficient physicall which should not seeme strange to an ordinary Christian who knowes full well that vengeance is God's peculiar worke as the Iudge of all the world and that he delights in the execution thereof yet this hinders not but that man may be the cause of his own damnation in the way of a meritorious cause justly deserving it Omnis poena Deum habet Authorem All punishment hath God for the Authour of it This is a principle acknowledged both by the Arminians and Vasquez the Jesuite but never is punishment inflicted on any by the hands of God save on those who formerly have deserved it Consider we farther as touching the severall kinds of causes formerly mentioned if the question be which is the principall Aristotle answereth that this is not confined to any one kind of them somtimes the materiall cause somtimes the formall cause somtimes the efficient somtimes the finall cause is the demonstrative cause the cause propter quam the cause by vertue where of the effect hath its existence but this peculiar and speciall cause is described thus It is that whereby satisfactory answer is made to the question demanding why such a thing is Now in execution of punishment or condigne vengeance this satisfactory answer is made by representing the meritorious cause never by representing the efficient cause as for example if it be demanded why such a malefactor is executed upon the gallowes no sober man will answer because the Sheriffe cōmanded it to be so or because the Judge would have it so but because he robd upon the high way or committed some criminall fact or other which is capitall by the lawes of our land and to be punished with hanging upon the gallowes In like sort if question be made why devills or wicked men are damned is it our doctrine to referre the cause hereof to the mere pleasure of God Doe not all confesse that God inflicts damnation upon thē merely for their sinnes and transgressions wherein they have continued unto death without repentance Yet we acknowledge that God could have taken them off from their sinnes while they lived if he would by giving them repentance as he hath dealt with us and that merely of his free grace For we willingly confes that our sinnes are our owne but our faith is not our repentance is not When I say our owne I meane in respect that they are of our selves otherwise we acknowledge both faith and repentance to be our owne accipiendo in asmuch as we receive them but they are God's gifts and so they are his dando in asmuch as he gives them as Remigius speaketh Now what is become of this Authours pompous discourse Is it not the like the cracking of thornes in the fire making a great noise but the light of distinction like fire sets an end unto it and makes it appeare in its owne likenesse and proves nothing but a squib For albeit God in his decree makes the damnation of reprobates to be necessary and unavoidable yet seeing he makes it not to fall on any but for their sinnes what colour of dishonour unto God in ordaining that Iudas shall necessarily and unavoidably be damned for betraying the Sonne of God and afterwards most desperatly murthering himselfe If hereupon he could no more avoid his damnation then Astionax could the breaking of his neck when the Grecians tumbled him downe from the tower of Troy will any man that is not bereaved of common sense make strange of this It is true God did appoint both Iudas and all other wicked persons that never break off their sinnes by repentance unto destructiō of his own voluntary disposition For God workes all things according to the counsaile of his will and if it pleased him he could annihilate them upon the fresh foot of any sin or after they have suffered the vengeance of hell fire as many yeares in hell as they lived here in sinne yea and the devills in hell as Origen was of opinion and the Jewes at this day are of the same by Sir Edwin Sandes his relation whether this Author be of the same or not I know not And lastly we willingly confesse that the decree of God was antecedent to the deserts of men for reprobation is as antient as election and election was made before the foundation of the world if we believe Saint Paul rather then any other who either by word or deed doth manifest himselfe to be of a contrary opinion Still damnation is inflicted by God only for sinne and in degree answerable unto their sinnes and only because of their sinnes as a meritorious cause thereof though God makes use of it to his owne ends and the manifestation of his owne glory as Solomon professeth namely that God made all things for himselfe even the wicked against the day of evill And Saint Paul tells that as the Lord suffereth with long patience the vessells of wrath prepared to destruction that he might shew his wrath and make his power known So likewise another reason hereof he specifies to be this That he might declare the riches of his glory upon the vessells of mercy which he hath prepared unto glory For when we shall behold the unspeakable misery brought upon others by reason of their sinnes how rich will God's glory appeare unto us when we consider that had it not been for his free grace delivering us from sinne we had been swallowed up of the same sorrowes And thus Alvarez writeth disput III. The glory of God's mercy in his elect and in like manner the manifestation of divine justice on Reprobates is truely and properly the finall cause why God did permit sinnes both in Reprobates and Angells And he proves it out of this passage of Saint Paul So Aquin 1 p. pag. 23. art 5. This is the reason saith he why God hath chosen some and Reprobated others that representation might be made of Gods goodnesse towards the Elect in the way of mercy pardoning them and on the Reprobates in the way of justice punishing them And Alphonsus Mendoza a Scotist concurres with them in this and we see they make Saint Pauls doctrine their foundation And indeed albeit at the day of judgment there will be found a vast difference between the Elect and Reprobates the one having departed this life in the state of faith repentance the other in infidelitie and impenitency in such sort as God will bestow on his elect
eternall life by way of reward and inflict eternall death on the other by way of punishment yet in conferring the grace of regeneration of faith and repentance upon the one and denying the same graces unto the other the Lord carrieth himselfe not according to mens workes but merely according to the pleasure of his owne will shewing mercy on whom he will and hardning whom he will in which respect he is said to make men in what condition he will as Rom 9. 20. Shall the thing formed say to it that formed it why hast thou made me thus Though indeed he makes but one sort of them after a new fashion leaving the other in the state of naturall corruption wherein he findeth them And likewise is compared by the same Apostle to a Potter who out of the same lump makes one vessell unto honour and an other unto dishonour But to returne I have I trust sufficiently shewed that in all this which he hath delivered when things are rightly understood and duely considered ther 's nothing found alien from the holy nature of God no more then it is repugnant to his holy nature to decree and execute vengeance condigne vengeance even the vengeance of damnation on men for their sinnes in such sort that it shall unavoidably overtake all those that breake not off their sinnes by repentance before their death Nothing more agreeable to Scripture nor to the nature of God revealed unto us in holy Scripture then this and consequently nothing more agreeable to Christian reason But as for naturall reason God forbid we should make that the rule of our faith as concerning the resurrection of the dead and the powers of the world to come the rewards of heaven and the torments of hell where the worme never dieth and the fire never goeth out And may it not seeme very strange that a Christian and a Divine and one magnified by the Arminian party for great abilities should undertake to prove this doctrine to be contrary to Scripture to the nature of God and to sound reason Well let us proceed to observe how well he performes what he undertakes And here he saith 1. That the Scripture makes man the principall nay the only cause in opposition to God of his owne ruine We answer the Scripture makes man the only cause of his owne ruine in the meritorious cause thus man's destruction is of himselfe But this nothing hinders God from being the cause why vengeance destruction and damnation are executed upon man for he is the God to whom vengeance belongeth he delights as well in shewing judgment as in shewing mercy Indeed did we maintaine that God damnes the Reprobate whether man or Angells of his mere pleasure this Argument of his were seasonable We know full well that God of his free grace shewes mercy but judgment only upon provocation and herein he proceeds slowly too for he is slow to wrath and easie to be intreated Yet God's afflicting is not alwaies for sinne neither doth it alwaies proceed in the way of punishment when we suffer for Christ we have cause to rejoyce that he counts us worthy to suffer for his name neither were the afflictions of Iob brought upon him for his sinnes but for the tryall of his faith and to make him an example of patience to all succeeding generations and as for that of Ezech I will not the death of the wicked It is the usuall course of men of this Authours spirit thus to render the wordes whereas our last English translation renders them thus I have noe pleasure in the death of the wicked Now as a man may will that wherein he takes noe pleasure as a sick-man takes a bitter potion sometimes for the recovery of his health so God may will that wherein he takes noe delight And whether it be meant of first or second death it cannot be denied but God wills it for he workes all things according to the councell of his owne will Then againe if we consider the infliction of death as an execution of judgment God not only willeth this but delights therein also as it is expressed That of Prosper is nothing to the present purpose we treating here of the cause of damnation not of sinning we say God is the God to whom vengeance belongeth not to whom sinne belongeth Besides sinne as sinne hath noe efficient cause at all but defficient as Austine hath delivered many hundered yeares agoe It is true it is in Gods power to preserve any man from any sinne it is in his power to take any man off from any sinfull course by repentance if he will but he is bound to none he hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardeneth and in all this he is not culpable In the next place he tels us It is contrary to God's nature but what To damne men for their sinnes neverbroken offby repentance for all our divines maintaine that God is Authour of damnation to none but such and to such God is not mercyfull nor gratious nor suffers them any longer nor shewes any goodnesse towards them while they lived he did yea much long suffering and patience inviting them thereby to repentance yea and by his word also inviting many but after they dye in sinne therewithall an end is sett to the dispensation of Gods gracious proceedings with them Much lesse doe we deny him to be good and mercifull and of great kindnesse to all that call upon him For Gods mercy doth not exercise it selfe by necessity of nature but by freedome of will yet he heareth the cry of Ravens and not a Sparrow falleth to the ground without the providence of our heavenly father and the very Lyons roaring after thir prey doe seeke their meat at the hands of God These mercyes are temporall but as for spirituall mercyes for the working and cherishing of Sanctification these are not extended unto all but to some only even to whom he will And accordingly the elect of God are called vessels of mercy Yet to the execution of damnation on any he proceeds not till after death and stayes no longer so slow to wrath he is towards the worst and no more slow to the best of them Who is a God like unto thee saith Micah that taketh away iniquity here this Authour out of wisdome maketh a stoppe leaving out that which followeth and passing by the transgressions of the remnant of his heretage That restriction belike he did not so well brooke but having leapt over that he is content to take in that which followeth he retaineth not his wrath for ever because mercy pleaseth him to witt towards the remnant of his heritage of his people But I hope nought of this can hinder God from being the Authour of damnation to all that dye in sinne without repentance without any prejudice to his holinesse though he retaineth wrath for ever against them We come to his reason which he calls soūd saying that it
hell hath a being and by consequent something that is good If therefore God may take away a man's being that is innocent and turne him into nothing for his pleasure much more may he torment him in hell I am glad to see my name so often remembred by this Authour in his margent for a long time I desired to know his way by certaine evidence for I would not suffer my selfe to be carried away with rumours and withall I found some contradiction in the relations I received from different persons but at length I was so happy as to see it under his own hand and there to observe not his judgment only but the strength of his affections also Now let the Reader observe the cunning carriage of this Authour and how farre off it is from all ingenuitie For what I discourse being drawne thereunto by Arminius his excursions that this Authour obtrudes upon me as if the defence of the cause I tooke in hand had drawn me thereunto notwithstanding that I have professed the contrary For thus I write l. 1. pag. 1. De electione Sect 4. pag. 127. In the canvasing of this section Arminius runs out at large saving that most of these things which here he heapes up are aliena and nothing pertinent to the present purpose as pertaining rather to the decree of reprobation then to the decree of election And a little after I write thus Hence it is that Arminius expatiates and transfers his disputation from the point of election to the point of Reprobation too unseasonably Yet wisely affecting the incolumity of his wavering cause By that right saith he which God hath over his creature he cannot ordaine any man to the suffering of pain without the foresight of sinnne To wit that his cause might stand upright and that this examiner might omit nothing that tends to the making of his opinion plausible with his propitious reader it was needfull that he should make use of some such transition though never so unreasonable but seeing such are the wiles and artifices of our Adversaries to confound all Scholasticall method it shall not be unseasonable for me to weigh what he delivers as briefly as I can Therefore after I had refused Arminius on that point where he denyes that God can doe that injustice which he can doe by power after this manner I enter upon a new digression concerning this point Hitherto have I followed Arminius in his extravagants For M. Perkins hath not proceeded so farre as to affirme that God hath power to afflict an innocent creature neither hath his Adversaries objected any such thing unto him as justly inferred from ought delivered by him So that all such have well hardened their foreheads who faigne that our opinion cannot well subsist without the help of so horrid and so harsh an assertion to wit That it is better to be miserable then not to be at all It is true some may conceive that though this were a truth it were to be suppressed rather then affirmed by reason of the harshnesse of it Let every one consider aright that I undertake the defence of M. Perkins and it is he that hath uttered this harsh assertion namely That God can inflict hell paines without any demerit in the creature out of Cameracensis And it stood me upon to defend M. Perkins so farre as I had reason for it Now finding the maine argument whereby Arminius maintaines the contrary to that other yet more harsh proposition to be most unsound and even this assertion which sounds most harsh in the eares of many not only to be maintained by Austine himselfe and and divres Schoole-Divines but answered by many arguments the solution whereof was never expedited by any have I deserved so sharply to be censured for representing all this in the way of justifying M. Perkins whose defence I undertook against Arminius 1. My words are these translated God can annihilate the holiest creature which Arminius confesseth how much more is it in his power to afflict an innocent creature and that for ever considering that not only according to Schoole-divines but also according to Austine yea according to the truth it selfe it is more to be desired to have being under any pain then to have no being at all And afterwards I propose not one argument of mine own for the justifying of this but only represent the discourse of Austine hereupon as it is analized by Durandus that Schoole Divine Now why are not the School-men censured as men speaking unreasonably and against common sense Nay why is not Austine censured as one that had rather speak unreasonably and against common sense then lay downe the conclusion which he hath once undertaken to maintain as well as my selfe Yea and much more considering that the discourse proving this is Saint Austin's and had I not added on the by these four words etiam secundum ipsam veritatem there had been no place at all for any censure to be past upon me If a man finding himselfe convicted by Austin's discourse shall confesse that what he writes is true is it equity to censure him as one who had rather speak unreasonably and against common sense then lay down the conclusions which formerly he hath undertaken to maintain When in the mean time no censure is at all passed upon Austine who alone is the player of the game he that stands by professing only in his judgment he playes his game well 2. If Austine hath spoken unreasonably and against common sense how comes it to passe that this censurer hath not taken the paines to represent unto the world the unreasonablenesse of his argument This authour spends his mouth frankly in censuring but takes no paines to free his Reader from errour by solving arguments produced by Austin for the proofe of that wich this Authour conceives to be an errour 3. Nay he doth not so much as answer that one argument which here is proposed by me An argument which the Scoole-men use as sufficiently convincing the truth as Durandus and Ricardus Yet considering the unreasonable condition of such adversaries who take no course to convince or confute their opposites but imperiously to cry them down I have taken the paines to call to an account both Austin's arguments and others proposed by Schoole-Divines and to devise with my selfe what answer might be made unto them so to performe that for my adversaries which they shew no hart to performe for themselves and I was borne in hand that such a digression of mine should be extant long ere this 4 Yet by the way I wonder not a little that one thing is pretermitted For if I mistake not this very Authour is the man that heretofore hath been very full mouthed in censuring not so much the doctrine it selfe as a certain answer I made to an argument brought out of Scripture against it namely from those words of our Saviour It had been better for that man if he had never been
willed by him but only on some things Divina volunt as non omnibus sed quibusdam necessitatem imponit And in the body of that question thus he writes The distinction of things necessary and contingent proceeds from the distinction of God's will For when a cause is effectuall and powerfull to worke the effect followeth the cause not only so farre as to be brought to passe but also as touching the manner of its coming to passe Therefore seing the will of God is most effectuall it not only followeth that those things come to passe which God will have come to passe but that they come to passe after the same manner also after which he will have them come to passe Now God will have some things come to passe necessarily and some things contingently that there may be an order in things for the perfection of the world And therefore for the producing of some effects he hath fitted causes necessary which cannot faile by which effects are brought forth necessarily And for the producing of other effects he hath fitted causes contingent such as may faile in working from which effects are brought to passe contingently So that upon suspicion that God doth will a thing that thing shall certainly and infallibly come to passe but how Not allwaies necessarily or contingently And that certaine and infallible eveniency of things is called also necessity in the Schooles but not necessity simply but only upon suspicion which may well consist with absolute contingency But to make the point yet more cleare Let us distinctly consider the things decreed For they that have an evill cause delight in confusion and feare nothing more then the light of distinction Now the things decreed by Reprobation are either deniall of Grace which is joyned with the permission of sinne Or damnation for sinne according to that on Aquinas Reprobation includes the will of permitting sinne inflicting damnation for sinne Now both the permission of sinne and damnation of God's part are his free acts and therefore come to passe freely But upon supposition that God will deny a man Grace it is impossible that such a man should have grace Secondly secluding grace there is noe actuall transgression for which a man is damned but may be avoided man having power for that naturally though naturally he have noe power to performe every good act The reason is because amongst good acts some are supernaturall as the acts of the three Theologicall vertues Faith Hope and Charity But noe sinfull act is supernaturall all such are naturall Now it is confest on all hands that notwithstanding man's corruption by reason of originall sinne yet he hath still power and free will to performe any naturall act and accordingly he hath free power to abstaine from it So that Iudas had free will to abstaine from betraying his Master After he had betrayed him he had free power to abstaine from destroying himselfe so that as these sinnes of his for which he was damned were avoidable by him in like manner his damnation for these sinnes was avoidable And allbeit God had determined that Iudas by Divine permission should betray his Master and destroy himselfe according to to that of Austin Iudas electus est ad prodendum sanguinem Domini Iudas was ordained to betray his master And that of the Apostles jointly Of a truth against thy holy Son Iesus both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and people of Israell were gathered to doe what thy hand and thy counsell had before determined to be done Acts 4. 28. Yet herehence it followes only that it was necessary to wit upon this supposition namely of the Divine ordinance that these things should come to passe namely both Iudas his betraying of Christ and Herods mocking of him and Pilates condemning him and the peoples crying out away with him together with their preferring of Barrabas a murtherer before him and the Souldiers crucifying him But how came it to passe Not necessarily but contingently that is in this Authours phrase evitably and avoidably inas much as it was joyned with an absolute possibility to come to passe otherwise Nor with a possibility only but with a free power in the agents to have forborne all these contumelious carriages of theirs towards the son of God For both Iudas had free will to abstaine from betraying him and Herod with his Herodians could have abstained from their contumelious handling of him and Pilate from condemning him and the Preists and people from conspiring against him and the Souldiers from crucifying him only they had no power to abstaine from all or any of these vile actions in an holy manner as no man else hath power to abstaine from any evill in a gracious manner without grace Yea without the Grace of regeneration which alone plants in us both faith in God and a love of God to the very contempt of our selves and no performance of any good or abstinence from any evill is acceptable with God unto eternall life unlesse it proceed from this faith and this love That which is here produced out of Marlorate is a strange speech and such as I never read or heard from any before and such as whereof I can give no tolerable construction And is it fit that every extravagant passage that is found in any Writer of ours should be brought forth to charge our doctrine with It were a fitter speech for a Papist who maintaining the absolutenesse of Reprobation doth withall maintaine an apostacy from grace which we do not If Marlorate had any such opiniō he sings therein to himself to his own Muses What Divine of ours maintains that God hath decreed to damne any man otherwaies then by way of punishment for sin continued in unto death without repentance Had he spoken of Good works morall only it is true any hypocrite is capable of them and none taste deeper of Damnation then hypocrites But as for the worke of true faith true repentance it is the generall profession of our Divines that as faith and the spirit of repentance once given never faile so they shall infallibly bring a man unto everlasting life and free him from condemnation But any thing serves this Authors turn to vent his stomack And I am perswaded there is not one more of all our Divines that he can shew to concurre with Marlorat in this And if there were is it fit their improvident inconsiderate expressions should be cast in their teeth that avouch them not but rather conceive them to be void of all sobriety Brentius apud Marloratum in illud Ioh. 15. 2. Omnem palmitem in me non ferentem fructum tollet c. Caeterum haec sententia occurrit curiositati carnis quae solet argutè magis quà m reverenter de praedestinatione disserere pro suo ingenio colligere nullum à Domino ad vitam aeternam electum posse damnari etiamsi pessimè vivat Nullum item à Domino