Animals but by Gods immediat power in maner aforsaid 9. The Soul being not produced simply by Natures power nor made of meer corporal matter transcends the common condition of al corporeal Creatures and is in it self immortal having God the extern efficient to produce it 10. The Soul being propagated from Parents is polluted with Natures stain contracted from Adams sin which is derived from Parents to Children with the whol Man as the adequat subject of it yet God in no fault sith our Souls are not corrupted by him but from our Parents and our selfs If any cannot conceiv how one Soul produceth another which is the hardest knot let him consider how it can be united to a Body and organized with it which wil allay the difficulty For if Angels hav aereal bodies as many Antients deem or at least are not pure Spirits compared to God muâ—h more may Mens Souls hav such a spiritual composure as meerly resembles Matter and form in Bodies which may wel accord with the maner of propagation prespecified and no way repugn the Souls divine essence If this way oppugn Reason yet 't is safer then that which repugns Religion By this Card our Author sailing betwixt Scilla and Charybdis Conclusion discovered Pachinus a middle Promontory in Sicil as Columbus did Cuba viz. that as the Sun is external efficient in the general generation of al Sublunars beside their internal particular principles so is God in the special production of every Mans Soul beside the peculiar Parents Souls working virtualy in the seed as his pretended premisses prov Which he farther confirms thus 1. Ther is no diametral Conformation difference between Soul and Body but they may be naturaly coupled together For though the Soul be not visible yet hath it a spiritual substance not simply pure but the lowest degree of Spirits prone to unite with corporeal natures and so may be propagated with them as united to them 2. Every Nature the more excellent 't is hath a neerer union with the first Being on which it depends and is more immediatly moved by it whence it folows that the Soul being more excellent and neerer to God then any corporal Creature in which he works more immediatly then others after they are made so he doth in the first production of it 3. Nothing is generated but hath som extern efficient Caus which in Coporeals is the Celical bodies whence 't is said the Sun and Man be get a Man as the Sun and Lion a Lion But the Soul being a Spirit and made at first by God can hav no other extern efficient sav the same immediat power So it may more truly be said God and Man generat the Soul God as efficient and Parents as his procreant instruments to produce what how and when he pleaseth according to his eternal Decree Nor is it absurd that Man hath two extern efficients but rather an honor that God and Nature concur to his generation 4. Mortality proceds not from natural generation but divine malediction for had not Man sinned his Body should be eviternal so wel as Soul Ergo if it were compounded and generated in a corporal way which is not so yet it folows not to make it mortal 5. Whatever hath being immediatly from God cannot be annihilated but by his immediat power which is the tru caus of immortality Hence the Body being produced soly by Natures power doth dy or perish yet the Soul produced by immediat act of the Deity can never dy but by the same power which gav it life Thus it appears that though the Soul be produced as aforesaid yet is it immortal sith 't is neither made of corporal matter nor generated in meer natural maner Nor is God faulty though we be sinful sith being wholy in Adam and actualy one with him our whol Nature is so defiled and Gods pure ordinance in producing Souls depraved that a total corruption passeth in the very conception and we stained with original sin at our very first being To cleer the Case he frames som objections against this middle way 1. Ob. If the Soul be resolved into a first principle of Adams Soul whence al are derived as Mixtils are into Elements it must needs be mortal as al such are Ergo 't is not so derived or els 't is mortal Sol. The comparison is unlike for Mixtils are compact of Elements into which they resolv but Mens Souls not compounded of Adams no nor Bodies nor one of another but of the same nature and so simple as his Nor doth it folow if the Soul be compounded like Elements it must inevitably be mortal for death and corruption coms not from composition or propagation but meerly from malediction for sin the wages wherof is death 2. Ob. If God cooperats with Man in producing Souls he no less rests from his works then in jugial creating them of nothing for the thing is the same and terms little differing Ergo this novity of a middle way to make God the external efficient is very vanity and of no validity Sol. Here is no creation of nothing but production of a thing from former principles Nor doth it repugn Gods creatifie rest to concur in other works of providence government and the Souls spiritual acts nor in assisting its production as an extern efficient which tends only to preserv Mankind specialy sith it hath no mediat maner in ordinary cours of nature sav only Gods immediat concurrence in extraordinary maner 3. Ob. If Man cannot generat his like without Gods special extraordinary help he is in this behalf inferior to Beasts as Traductists urge against Creation Ergo c. Sol. Not so for Beasts beget also by the Heavens help as exterior efficients If then Mans Soul for excellence hath a far sublimer supercelical efficient And he acts so much in generation of his like as other Creatures doo in theirs 't is rather a dignity abov al then any disparagement at al. So this exception holds against jugial creation wherin Man no whit concurs which may seem a derogation but not against natural propagation 4. Ob. If God be immediat extern efficient of our sin-polluted Souls by natural propagation he is Author or accessary to sin rather then by creation Ergo c. Sol. Nothing less for he is only external efficient of the Soul not of sin which coms from corrupt Parents who supply the internal matter of the whol Man wherin sin consists sith generation is not of Parts but Persons it being his just ordinance in nature That as the Tree is so shal the fruit be Sith then he made Man perfectly good at first to beget Children perfect like himself who prevaricated and polluted al his Progeny or Posterity God performs his part stil to confer his efficient power in the perpetual production of Mankind And as he first infused his Soul so he stil concurs in producing it though not in the same sort yet sin is meerly accidental in respect of
Mankind so by propagation al Mankind proceds out of one and as that sin overspreads the whol Man so both parts being infected must needs be propagated Again as this sin is seated specialy in the Soul so 't is chiefly propagated according to Natures cours Hence three points rest to be proved 1. That original sin passeth only by propagation as Scriptures universaly testify By one man death passed upon al becaus al sinned in him and 't is imputed to his Posterity becaus al were in him as the Root or Stock and al descend out of him so his sin becoms ours both by imputation and propagation but by the first becaus of the last For 't is not anothers sin imputed which is not ours but that made ours by propagation actualy which before was only potentialy This is cleer by the Antithesis between the first and secund Adam as in one al dy so in Christ shal al be made aliv The one being Root of Mankind in whom al are by Nature the other Head of the Elect in whom they are al by Grace Such then are deceived as deem Adams sin only imputed like Christs righteousnes sith this last is the Creators voluntary Institution and work of meer Mercy but the first a necessary operation of the Creature and work of Justice So the Antithesis holds tru thus As in Christ we fulfilled the Law suffered death and attained salvation being members of his Body by Grace So in Adam we eat the forbiden fruit becam Satans bondslaves and were in state of damnation being al members of his Body by Nature So Christ derivs his righteousnes to his Children by spiritual regeneration as Adam did his sin to al Men by natural generation Ergo as Christs righteousnes is not imputed but by means of regeneration wherby we becom members of his Body So Adams sin cannot be imputed but by generation wherby we descend from him as his members If Adams sin be simply imputed becaus we are Men as he was who received or lost for himself and al Mankind then must it be imputed to Christ as Man so wel as to us which is not so for our sinning in him and being sinfully propagated from him makes us liable which Christ was not becaus sanctified in the womb by the holy Ghost at first conception but al els derived from him and his sin to us through one anothers loins 2. Original sin cannot be propagated unles the whol Man and both Parts be which necessarily flows from the premisses for except the whol Man descends from him the whol cannot be infected sith neither Soul nor Body alone is the subject of sin but the Person Or if the whol be not the subject 't is not properly sinful The Law likewise is given to the whol and the Person punished or rewarded 3. The whol Man cannot be propagated unles the Soul be sith the whol consists of its parts To say the Soul coms from Adam quoad existentiam unionem non quoad essentiam is sly Sophistry not real or rational for then Man contributs but the worst part not the whol nor half Nor is it tru that Adam is caus of the union but rather God if he creats the Soul Nor if the Soul be infused can any tel how long time after conception during which space the Woman works alone But if the whol Man be said properly to proced from Adam becaus the body doth much more may it be verified to com from God becaus the Soul doth so the union rather to be ascribed to God as the noblest suprem Agent then to Man the baser and inferior If then the whol Man and both parts be not propagated it results that we were in Adam wherin we are not viz. the Person that we sinned in him without that without which he could not sin viz. the Soul That the whol Man was in Adam yet never cam from him That we lost in him which we never had of him viz. original righteousnes That he shal stil be ful of Souls which he never had That the whol person proceds from him yet not that which makes the whol 4. Christs Soul was not created but his whol Humanity taken from the Virgin for his birth life death are curiosly and circumstantialy recorded by the Evangelists but no Soul creation which they would not omit being so pregnant a proof that he was without sin if it was created pure Nor is any Souls creation since Adams specified in Scripture Christ is caled the seed of the Woman and Davids seed according to the flesh which imports the whol Humanity as opposed to his Deity but if his Soul was created the imputation of Adams sin to al Men must be likewise lâ—able to him as Man Ad hereto That the Soul and Body as 't is in al others were conceived at once for the divine Nature being immediatly united to the Soul and by it to the Body the Soul must be produced in the moment of conception with the Body or els the Deity was first united to a brute Body which is brutish to imagin The truth is his Soul being united with the Body into one Nature at first conception becam one Person with the eternal Word by a miraculous working of the holy Ghost who purified the Womb that the Birth becam exempt from sin So his whol Humanity Soul and Body was deduced from Adam and separated from the Virgin by the holy Ghost But a Soul cannot be produced by Natures ordinary cours no more then a Body without concurrence of both Sexes Souls yet being performed by supernatural power 't is a tru Soul and so is the Body both which joined in one Person make a perfect Man as Eve was a very Woman though taken out of Man and Christ tru Man taken only out of Woman For in Mans quadruple production â—â— a duple concordance Adam made immediatly by God without Man or Woman Eve mediatly out of Man without Woman Christ immediatly out of Woman without Man but al els mediatly by both 'T is said the holy Ghost sanctified part of the Virgins substance assumed by the Godhead to make Christs Person which terms are tru if wel understood For by part of hir substance is meant the whol Nature or both parts not Body only whereof his Humanity was framed By sanctifying is not meant clensing that portion from sin but consecrating it to that holy purpos indowing it with gifts fit for so divine union yet was it free from sin or rather never sinful by reason of this union For al substances were created exceeding good and depend immediatly on God Nor is sin essential to Mans Nature but accidental cleaving to the person by Adams fal and not properly in the substance of Human Nature Nor are evil actions or affections stiled simply sinful but the Man sith sin consists not in any pravity of matter but in the corrupt Wil or intent of the dooer Nor is ther any Law to punish parts or substances
not most part lying in laps predecreed to Reprobation Som slily expound the word World for a World of Elect or Beleevers only which is no wher so taken but either for al Men or al living in som certain place or at som certain time sans distinction of good or bad Or if it be any wher restrained 't is applied to wicked Men wedded to this World Yet if it be somwher limited to the Elect 't is not so here for then the words would bear a sensless sens God so loved the Elect that whoever beleevs in his Son should not perish which imports two sorts of Elect som that beleev and shal be saved others which beleev not and shal perish but Beleevers and Uunbeleevers saved and damned includ al Mankind which S. John cals elswher the whol World as an exposition of the former S. Paul 1 John 2. 2. 1 Tim. 2. â— saith God wil hav al Men to be saved and com to the knowledg of the truth Ergo his wil is that al shal hav the means of knowledg and be saved but none shut up under unbeleef Som by Al understand al sorts of Men but not al particulars in ech sort which is a silly shift Indeed 't is somtimes so taken but not here as the context shews for in the first vers a duty is injoined to make praiers and supplications for al Men and then a motiv annexed God wil hav al to be saved The duty extends to every particular we must in charity pray for al even Tyrans Persecutors prophane Persons Ergo the motiv intends al individuals or els reacheth not home to inforce the duty Others answer That God intends al to be saved by his reveled Wil but millions damned by his secret O beware of ascribing two several Wils to God who is no dissembler sith one must needs be good the other bad For if his Word be his reveled Wil and repugnant to his secret Mind or meaning it must be untru or simulatory and consequently a ly S. Peter saith The 2 Pet. 3. 9. Lord would hav none perish but al com to repentance Som fully it That he means only the Elect or Beleevers but the context flatly contradicts it For the next preceding words speak of patience or long-sufferance toward Men which must be Reprobats rather who dy in their sins as the same Apostle tels That Christ in spirit preached to the spirits which in Noahs dais 1 Pet 3. 19 20 were disobediens and now in prison or Hel for it Yea Reprobats are the most proper objects of his patience as S. Paul saith He useth much patience and long-suffering to them that Rom. 2 4. go on in sin that he might lead them to repentance Again he suffers Rom 9 22. with long patience Vessels of wrath prepared not decreed to destruction See Isai 5. 2. Isai 65. 2. So S. Peters words intend Reprobats so wel as others or rather them then others that God wil hav none to perish by his power or pleasure except by their own fault or folly This is confirmed by som conditional passages If thou seek him he wil be found but if then forsake him he wil cast thee off So God said to Cain If thou doâ— wel shalt thou not be accepted but if thou doo il sin lies at dore S. Paul saith The just shal liv by faith but if any draw back Hebâ— 1â— 38. my soul shal 〈◊〉 no pleasure in him By which conditions 't is clear that God forsakes no Man simply considered in the fal til he first forsakes him The result is That he rejects none by previous Decree sav such as he foresaw would cast him off by continuance in sin and contempt of Grace For Gods acts in time are regulated by his Decrees before time as 't is said He works al according to Eph. â— â—â— the Counsil of his Wil. For ther is an exact conformity betwen the Rule and thing squared by it therfore whatever God doth in the World he purposed before the World and by actual casting Men off when they grow rebellious or impenitent we may be sure he decreed to doo it for foreseen rebellion and impenitence Som obscure Texts may seem to favour the Opinion of free pleasure as Men mis-interpret them which by presupposing prevision are rightly reconciled But S. Austins rule is we must not contradict plain places becaus we cannot comprehend obscure And Tertullian teacheth that a few places are to be understood after the current sens of most part and not contrary to it as in this case for the most part it seems to be 2. It crosseth som chief Attributs of God Mercy Justice 2 Reason Truth Holines which are his perfections wherby he exerciseth his acts among Men conform to them For they are the same in God with thos virtues in Men but infinitly differing in degree sith what is just tru holy or merciful in Men is superlativly so in God Els cannot Man be properly made after his Image nor renewed in Regeneration after the same or made Col. 3. 10. partaker of divine Nature but 't is commanded Be ye perfect Mat. 5. 48. as your havenly Father is perfect and holy as I am holy Nor is soveraign power or dominion an Attribut moraly good in it self sith it may be shewed in cruel unjust acts so wel as contrary But our good God is Justice in the Abstract and wil not exercise it tyrannously contrary to his other Attributs 1. Now absolut Reprobation repugns his Holines making him the chief caus of sin in most Men sith he brings them into a state of sin which they cannot decline For al are guilty of Adams transgression and Natures corruption yet not by natural generation so much as by divine Ordination as Calvin â— 3. Inst â— 23. â— 7â— faith Al Men are held under guilt of eternal death in the person of one Man which cannot be ascribed to any natural caus but must com from Gods wonderful Counsil who would hav it so Doctor Twiss saith the same The guilt of Original sin is derived only by imputation the stain only by propagation and both meerly by Gods free constitution So saith S. Bernard Adams sin is anothers becaus we knew not Serm. 1 Dom. â— past 8. Epiâ—â— of it yet ours too becaus by Gods just though secret Judgment reputed ours This agrees with reason for if we incur guilt of the first sin and Natures corruption only as being in Adams loins when he sinned then are we guilty of al his other sins being virtualy or potentialy in his loins after the fal so wel as before But Scripture intitles only the first sin which entred the World and invaded al Mankind Yea Children should be guilty of al their Progenitors specialy the next Parents sins as being in their loins when they sinned more immediatly then in Adams yet Children partake not their Parents guilt nor punishments unles they hate
God like them and imitat their Exod. 20 5. sins God swears that the Proverb The Fathers hav eaten Ezek 18 2 c. sour Grapes and Childrens teeth are set on edg shal be used no more the Soul that sins shal dy But if a Man be just and doo right he shal surely liv The Son shal not bear his Fathers iniquity nor Father his Sons but the Soul only that Sins shal dy Wretched would be our case on whom the ends of al the World are com if children should be guilty of al their Progenitors sins or liable to their plagues and punishments who can bear it Yet 't is asserted that God decrees to leav Reprobats in this impotent irrecoverable condition affording no ability to rise from sin by Grace which Decree he executs in time of his Free-wil and Pleasure leaving them under a necessity of sinning by the act of absolut Reprobation both Negativ which is a flat denial of Grace and Positiv which is a preordination of them to endless torments Som grant common Graces to Reprobats but not sufficient to sav them So saith Lubbert God reveles not the way of salvation to Reprobats nor givs Faith and Regeneration but leavs them in sin and perdition Nor doth afford them any sufficient means of salvation with an intention of saving them Thes two Positions that God necessitats Reprobats to sin and leavs them in the snds make him chief Author of al their sins for a Caus of the Caus is Caus of the thing produced Causa Cauâ—â— â—â—â— Causa Causati whether Negativ or Positiv acts Ergo if God be chief Caus of their impenitence by want or withdrawing supernatural Grace he is tru caus of their sin according to the saying He that forbids or hinders not what is in his power bids and furthers it as they say God doth effectually wil it 'T is a poor pretext that God by withdrawing his Grace is only accidental not a direct proper caus of their sins For an accidental is when the effect is beside the Agents intention or expectation as if one in digging his ground finds gold But when an effect is expected intended or contrived the caus cannot be caled accidental as a Pilot witholding his care or skil from a Ship when he knows it wil perish by such neglect is caus of casting it away So if God detains Grace necessary not as ignorant what wil insu but precisely determins Reprobats ruin by their impenitence he becoms a tru direct caus of their sins which no wiles of wit sav among their partial poor blind Disciples can possibly decline 2. It opposeth Gods Mercy which is his Nature in the Abstract See Exod. 34 6. Mat. 7. 11. Mat. 23. 37. 2 Cor. 1. 3. Eph. 2. 4. 1 Pet. 1. 2. 1 John 4. 16. But such matchless Mercy cannot stand with a peremptory Decree of absolut Reprobation which if God doth of free pleasure he is rather a Father of Cruelties then Mercies and a Destroier then Saviour What Parent wil destin their Children to eternal death and torments for one only offens and that not committed by them but by others and imputed to them Is Gods Mercy abundant if limited to a few Elect scarsone of a hundred shal be inevitably saved Ponder thes points duly 1. That Adams sin is personaly none sav his but a sin of Nature not committed or consented to by any of his posterity which is derived by traduction but made the sin of Nature by Gods arbitrary imputation not ordinary generation 2. That God as 't is generaly beleeved pardoned Adam who freely committed it Can it then stand with his Mercy to punish others for the same sin not perpetrated by them 3. That his only Son was sent into the John 1. 29 World and suffred death for the sins of the World which might suffice to satisfy his wronged Justice for al Mankind and open a way of salvation to every Man without respect of persons But to damn a world of Reprobats by free Decree only to shew his dominion no way savours of Mercy for he is far crueler to them then any Creature els or to the very Devils who are damned for their own personal pride and rebellion but Reprobats by an absolut Decree for anothers crime The one know their doom and expect it but the other are deluded with hope and made beleev the matter is in their own hand so that if they perish 't is not for want of Mercy in God but oâ— wil in themselfs Yet by their doctrin al depends on the peremptory punctilio of Gods arbitrary absolut Decree So Devils are in better case becaus they are not injoined to beleev in Christ nor to repent fast and pray as Reprobats are Nor punished the more for not beleeving as Men are In al which regards their condition is far more ruful then cursed Fiends who are made the tormentors over them Concerning other Creatures the very basest hav a being though despicable which is better then no being Yet who would not wish if he might chuse to be resolved into nothing then in such doleful direful condition yea that they had been Toads or Serpents then Men Or what Parents wil procreat if they be perswaded they shal beget Children Fire-brands for Hel and Slavs to Satan yet not for their faults nor hav they power to help it Let Prosper shape the period He which saith God wil not hav al to be saved but a few predestinat persons only he speaks harshly of Gods high inscrutable Grace Som say Gods Mercy by this absolut Decree is sufficiently shewed to the Elect and Justice to Reprobats but the one is clothed with partial respect of persons and the other clouded with extrem rigour or severity as shal appeer 3. It is incompatible with divine Justice See Ps 145. 17. Prov. 16. 11. Isai 5. 3. Ezek. 18. 25. but the absolut decreâ— of Reprobation cannot consist with it sith it makes God punish the righteous with rebellious and innocent Men with bad Angels For Antelapsarians say expresly That God decreed Mans Fal or Fate considered without sin and therfore innocent Postlapsarians vouch the same by consequent That he lais a necessity on every Man to be born under original sin decreeing to Reprobat most part for that sin so they make God to doo 〈◊〉 3 Inst c. 23. § 7. 23. by two acts which their brethren impute to one Calvin contests That God may with equal Justice decree Men to damnation the first way so wel as the last for al are made guilty of Adams sin by Gods Decree only why then not he by the same Thes kind Patrons of divine Justice wil seem to stumble at a straw and leap over a block why els wil they not grant that of one Man which they doo of al hence we may see what to judg of this opinion That God cannot justly ordain Men to destruction sans consideration of sin for which is greater to impute another
but the chief charms are reserved for the Children to be Baptised as appeers in their Ceremonies The like are used in Mariage Visitation of the Sick extrem Unction consecrations of Churches and Church-yards to expel Phantasms Faieries and imaginary Spirits al which belong to the Kingdom of Darknes being effects of our natural ignorance Another error is from misinterpreting the words eternal Life everlasting Death and secund Death of which three in order Adam had an estate to liv for ever not by nature in himself Eternal Life or any part of his but by eating the Tree of Life which he had leav to doo so long as he obeied God but was thrust out of Paradise so soon as he sinned lest he should feed theron and liv for ever Now Christs death is a discharge of sin and restitution of Life eternal to al the faithful who beleev in him and to them only Yet the general doctrin of Divines is that every Man hath eternal life by nature of his immortal Soul so that the flaming Sword at entrance of Paradise may hinder him from tasting the Tree of Life but not from immortality which God bereaved Nor shal he need Christs sacrifice for recovery of the same sith not only the faithful or righteous but the wicked and Heathen shal enjoy eternal Life without Death much less a secund everlasting death To salv or shadow this they say by secund everlasting Death is meant a secund everlasting Life but Torments which is a figure never used sav in this very case Is not secund Death an eternal being both of Body and Quaere Soul in Hel-fire under Satan This tenet of the Souls immortality is founded on som obscure places of the new Testament which yet in a different sens of his own mint are cleer enough and unnecessary to Christian Faith For suppose when a Man dies nothing remains but his Carcas cannot God who made clay a living Creature by his word rais it again by another word Yes but not to the same life which vanished to nothing wheras the Soul being immortal persists identical Soul in Scripture stil signifies either Life or a Living Creature and Body jointly with Soul a Body alife As God saith Let the Waters produce Reptile animae viventis the creeping thing with a living Soul we translat that hath life Again God created Whales omnem animam viventem in English every living Creature but of Man God made him of dust and breathed in his face the spiracle or breath of life factus est Homo in animam viventem and Gen. 8. 21. Man was made a living Creature So God said when Noah cam out of the Arc I wil no more smite omnem animam viventem Deut 12. 23. every living Creature Eat not the Blood for 't is the Soul or Life But if Soul signified a substance immortal existing after separation from the Body it may be said of any other Animal so wel as Man Is it said of any other that God having made the Body of Quaere Earth breathed into his face spiraculum Vitae the Spirit of Life Which al interpreters expound of creating and infusing the Soul together He goes on the Souls or Lifes of the Faithful which being accidents that annihilated when the Bodies died must be new made are by Gods special Grace not of their own Nature to remain in their raised Bodies for ever after Judgment Wher 't is said in the new Testament that any shal be cast Body and Soul as if they were distinct Quaere parts into Hel-fire it imports Body and Life how can Life be cast being a bare accident That they shal be cast alife into Rev. 19 v. 20. Gehenna So 't is said The Beast and fals Prophet were both cast alife into a Lake of fire burning with Brimstone This dark doctrin of the Souls subsistence after separation opens a sluce to let in the superstitious superstructures of Purgatory and Indulgences Ghosts or Goblins and Exorcisms invocating of Saints yea Heaven and Hel too with som others For Men before Christs coming being taught from the Greecs Demonology that Mens Souls were distinct substances which after separation must subsist somwher by their own Nature the Doctors of the Church long doubted wher they resided til the general Resurrection supposing they lay under the Altars but finding that Martyrs Souls of them slain for Gods word if they hav Souls why not others Quae c. Lay under the Altar the Church of Rome for their profit Rev. 6 9. erected Purgatory Surely they doo al for profit to maintain their pomp pride power and prodigality Beza to prov Gods Kingdom began at Christs Resurrection Mat. 16. 28. and continues stil urgeth his words Verily I say to you som of them which stand here shal not tast of death til they hav seen Mat. 16. 28. Marc 9. 1. Luk. 9. 37. Gods Kingdom com with power Ergo either Gods Kingdom cam shortly after and is now in this World or els som then standing by Christ are yet alife Sol. This is a darke difficil place which provs nothing necessarily but if Gods Kingdom began at Christs Resurrection why doo we stil pray thy Kingdom com Therfore 't is not meant therof Yea after his Resurrection the Apostles asked Wilt thou now restore the Kingdom of Israel He answered 'T is not for you to know the time or season which the Father hath put in his own power but ye shal receiv power by the holy Ghosts coming on you and shal be my Witnesses in Jerusalem in al Judea and utmost part of the Earth So he told them his Kingdom was not com nor shal they foreknow when 't is to com Christ said to Peter of John If I wil that he tarry Joâ—n â—1 v. 22. til I com what is that to thee Which bred a beleef that he should not dy yet the truth of it was neither confirmed nor confuted by thos words but left as a dark saying and so must this Howbeit sith Christs transfiguration is the next Act handled by al three Evangelists haply he cals that Gods Kingdom which som ther should see being a representation or vision of his glory and Majesty as he shal com in his Kingdom which cannot be proved to begin til the day of Judgment Wher is it proved that any terren Kingdom shal commence Quaeâ—e then Then shal the Faithful rise with glorious spiritual Bodies inlifened and becom Christs Subjects in his Kingdom wher they shal not eat drink marry as they did in their natural Bodies but liv happily in their individual Persons for ever The elect then alife shal be suddenly changed and their Bodies made spiritualy immortal but Reprobats shal rise to receiv punishment yet not eternaly in their individual Persons nor can any place prov it As after the Resurrection the Elect shal be restored to Adams estate before he fel so Reprobats shal be in the
before he decreed to creat or permit him to fal or to send his Son for a ransom if he should fal upon which he contrived the whol work of Mans Redemption This pure prescience being previous to Predestination in order of Nature according to our weak apprehension yet al coeternal to God did not look to the mass of Mankind as to be created incorrupt nor as lapsed in Adam Nor to Christ beleeved or not beleeved on but beyond al to the first middle and final estate of ech particular person and universal of al Men. 2. Of Vision which is of things to be doon in time with al acts and events therof which depend on his free Wil and Pleasure Aquinas speaks of both God knows al things which neither are were or ever shal be by his simple understanding but the rest that hav bin are or shal be after what sort soever by the science of Vision This distinction Zanchy Junius and other learned Reformists approv to be authentic in the very terms 4. Gods power or Omnipotence who can doo what he wil which agrees to his Nature is duple 1. Absolut wherby he can do al that he wil and more then he wils 2. Actual by which he doth what ever he wil and hinders what he wil not hav doon in Heaven and Earth with al things therin whos Majesty ruleth and reigneth over al Creatures visible or invisible nor could ever any resist his power or defeat his providence 5. Gods Wil which comprehends his Lov Mercy Goodnes Truth Justice Wrath Patience Holines c. first willeth himself as chief Soveraign good and in himself al other good things freely which are out of himself Hereby he decrees for Decree is no Attribut but an Act of his Wil joined with power and prescience what of thos infinit things presented by his understanding shal com into being For Knowledg is his Counsilor but Wil King and both himself who works al according Eph. 1. 11. to the Counsil of his Wil as S. Paul saith By it he orders al things causing or allowing what shal be in what maner Rom. 9. 18 19. and to what end Hence S. Paul ascribes al to it as suprem universal caus into which al inferior are resolved as the prime spring This is absolut and independent for til God passed his Decrees al things were known but as possible if he would giv being or not Ther be other distinctions of divine Wil according to several objects as that of Sign and good pleasure used in Schools but to giv God a duple different Wil in himself secret and reveled as if he willed openly in his word to sav al yet decrees to reprobat most part in his hidden Counsils is most abhorrent For he is a God of Truth no Lier Dissembler or Mocker using simplicity and sincerity in al his sayings which are yea and Amen Nor wil he make general promises in his Gospel to al Beleevers yet bar them by a clos clandestine decree of his secret Wil that they shal not beleev but it hath divers objects or one placed in divers times as 't is his reveled Wil ther shal be a day of Judgment yet he concels the time So the Gospel of Salvation was his secret Counsil before the World began but since opened to the Patriarchs Prophets Apostles c. which can no more be caled his hidden Wil. Indeed 't is said Secret things belong to God but the reveled to us Deut. 29. 29. and our Children which provs a diversity of objects but no duplicity of Wils warning us only to attend what is reveled in his Word as his general promises prescribed and not pry into his privy purposes to inquire who are elect or who reprobats lest like Thales in gazing at the Stars we fal into the Pit for this is a perilous precipice of carnal presumption 6. The Gospel is a manifestation of Mans Redemption by Jesus Christ which God first reveled in Paradise that the Womans seed shal break the Serpents head Next to Abram at Haran that in his seed al families and Nations shal be blessed Then to Moses in Egypt and the Wildernes when God instituted the Passover and several Sacrifices as Types or Figures of the holy Lamb slain before the World for the Worlds sins Afterward to the Prophets And lastly to the Evangelists who wrot our Saviours whol life death after his Incarnation or appeerance in the flesh which is the mystery of our Redemption 7. Gospel Grace is Gods free Mercy offered to al lapsed Mankind whoever wil beleev in his Son repent their sins and persever to the end shal be saved Which promiss must be preached and published to al sorts sans respect of Persons as he is no respecter nor delights in the death of a sinner For Man hath som liberty of Free-wil stil left if revived or quickned by Grace to obey or resist receiv or reject the motions of Gods Spirit 8. Gods Decree is duple 1. Primary Proceeding from his Omnipotence wherby he eternaly willed to creat the World in du time and to giv Man made after his Image absolut Free-wil Decretum 1 Absolutum 2 Conditionâ—tum without restraint any way 2. Secundary Depending on his Omniscience wherby foreseing Adams fal as he did the evil Angels Rebellion he in meer Mercy ordained a remedy to send his only begotten Son to be a Sacrifice for al but with condition of beleef in him and tru repentance for sin both which are equaly eternal flowing from the Fountain of the Deity who willeth what he wil and doth what he willeth Hence proceds Predestination which is his secundary conditionat Decree depending on Prescience wherby he freely elects som to lif being al liable to death in Adam and rejects or passes by the rest to perish in their disobedience 9. Sin is of two sorts 1. Original so caled by S. Austin contracted from our first Parents 2. Actual committed by al particular persons The remedy of one is Baptism into Christs faith either by personal confession as in those of tipe age or by their Sureties sponsion as in Infants The other is cured or clensed by repentance through the merits of Christs death whos blood by tru faith in him purgeth from al sin 10. God eternaly Decreed to creat al things in time indued with several Natures and to make Man a free Intelligent Creature like Angels who gav one only prohibitiv precept upon pain of death which foreseing in his pure prescience he would violat or prevaricat both to his own and Posterities perdition if justice be executed as it must necessarily be by a just God He by his knowledg of Vision decreed secundarily in meer Mercy to send his Son to salv al that shal believ in him and use such means of faith repentance and obedience as are prescribed in the Gospel 11. God commands no more of Man then he givs power or ability to perform as Adam had by Nature and al
others by Grace if then he requires since Mans fal faith repentance obedience and perseverance to work out our salvation by his Grace certes he givs ability to beleev repent obey and persever by cooperating with it but doth not cross-bar it by any contrary decree which were meer mockery far from Mercy for if one ly on the ground bound hand foot 't is mockery to bid him rise or run away but mercy to loose or let him go The Case is quadratly semblable and aptly applicable Our good God is no mocker but al Mercy nor respecter of persons but receivs al that cal on him 12. God delights not in the death of a sinner but would hav al to be saved he hath spoken it who wil not beleev him so wel as beleev in him But if he hath absolutly and peremptorily decreed from which is no appeal nor repeal that Man shal sin and consequently dy he delights in his death and wil hav but a few saved Hath he made him according to his own Image purposly to make him the wrechedest of al Creatures Surely his Wil and Decree is to reward every Man according to his works Thes twelv stones thus laid like Josuas twelv stones paralel to Jos 4. 20. Israels twelv Tribes set up in Gilgal for a memorial of Jordans retroversion for a fair foundation the fabric wil be the better finished but becaus Mr. Plaifer wel versed in this point hath handled it at large in his Appâ—liâ— Evangelium the chief contents shal be sincerly abstracted or abbreviated and applied to common capacities sans ambiguity He reckons fiv dissident Opinions touching the order of 1 Opinon Predestination 1. Calvin Beza Piscator Whitaker Perkins c. hold that God eternaly Decreed to creat a set number of Men wherof he elected som to everlasting life and reprobated the rest to eternal death of his free wil pleasure only to shew his Grace Goodnes or Mercy on the one and his Justice Power or Dominion on the other To which end he Decreed sin should enter on al that he might justly punish most part for sin and to send his Son for redemption of the Elect in Mercy by free Grace This peremptory position is generaly condemned by Papists Refutation Lutherans Arminians and divers Reformed Divines as perilous and erroneus becaus it makes God the prime Author of sin rejecting Men before they were evil by an antecedent absolut Decree without respect to Adams future fal but elects som before they are considered as sinners sans respect to the ones faith or the others failing as if prescience had no place in Praedestination 2. The Synod of Dort Peter Moulin and many English 2 Opin Theologists defend That God eternaly decreed to make Man holy and good giving him perfect Free-wil but foreseing he would by Satans tentation fal into sin if he hindred it not decreed to permit it and out of this lost lapsed lump chos a certain number to salvation suffering the rest to perish in sin whom he passeth by of free pleasure but punisheth for just demerits Yet decreed to send his Son to redeem or sav the elect and his Spirit to cal or sanctify them that they may be glorified The first sort are stiled Supralapsarians having no respect to Adams fal decreed to send his Son so they grant prescience in order to preced Decree This opinion freeth Gods justice on Infants dying unbaptised which the first doth not who hav no other desert of death but original sin This Tenet is scarce veritable or warrantable which Refut to defend divine justice supposeth mankind corrupted before any Decree of election passed which seems needless becaus ther be good and bad Angels without any corruption or fal and Christ was not in the lapsed lump yet as man elected to life It also supposeth Original sin to be caus of Reprobation which is remitted to many Reprobats condemned for actual sins as Doctor Whitaker avers it likewise teacheth that Christ is sent to sav the elect only as dying for them alone who are to be caled by the Word and Spirit but Reprobats being outwardly caled who are barred from obeying are more deeply condemned for refusing it yet hav no power to embrace it which is harsh doctrin 3. Doctor Overald a late learned Bisshop coined a new 3 Opin Tenet That God decreed to creat man good but foreseeing his fal appointed his Son to dy for al and to cal men by his Word offering Salvation to al with common suffiâ—ient Grace to work Faith by the ordinary means if they be not wanting to themselves but knowing our infirmity that none would beleev by the common Grace decreed to ad a more special effectual to whom he pleased being chosen according to his purpos wherby they shal not only be able but actualy and necessarily beleev being drawn by the Father irresistibly This is plausible but scars solid for that common Grace Refut which savs none is not Gospel Grace offered to al nor deservs that name nor indeed is any such sith it never produced the effect Nor can a special superabundant Grace be it sith 't is rejected by none to whom 't is offered but tru Gospel Grace is received by som and refused or resisted by others Thes three Opinions infer a kind of despair into mens minds becaus none shal be saved by that special Grace given to a few according to Gods secret purpos which whether he intends to giv or not the general promises cannot assure to any Soul 4. The Lutherans with som Papists maintain that God decreed 4 Opin to make Man a free Creature but permit him to stand or fal and to send his Son upon foresight of his fal for redemption of al by a general conditionat Decree of Faith Repentance Perseverance with a special absolut of electing such as he knew would beleev and persever under the means but to pass by and damn the rest whom he foresaw incredulous and impenitent making Prescience or Prevision the occasion on which his Decrees proced This is faulty in som points 1. Becaus ther is no such general Refut conditionat Predestination 2. Becaus the special Decree of Election makes Men chus God first rather then God them which is preposterous 3. Becaus the Decree of Justification and Condemnation is confounded with election and Reprobation which S. Paul distinguisheth 4. Becaus it allows no more Rom. 8 19. Grace given to the Elect then Reprobats nor greater caus of gratitud Yet this opinion rightly extends the objects of Prescience not only to Adams fal but to Christ Incarnat and beleeved on in the World to the last end of al that shal persever in Faith or unbeleef This sutes with Scripture which builds Predestination on Foreknowledg simply and properly taken at large promising salvation to al beleevers which shal persever to the end Thes four opinions ech of which hath som peeces of truth giv great light to this
the flesh and make God to decree sin efficatiously with an energetical working wil blaming thos that refer ought to Gods prescience only Permission properly is an act of Gods consequent judiciary Wil by which he punisheth Men for abusing their freedom in committing sins day by day which they might hav declined and 't is caled his long-suffering proceding to punish with a slow unwilling pace See Ps 81. 11 12. Ezek. 18 39. Rom. 1. 21 24. Rev. 22. 11. but Permission by them intended is an act of Gods antecedent Wil exercised on innocent men lying under no guilt whom he eternaly preordains to sin and punishment So tru Permission about whomever exercised is only not to hinder them from faling which are able to stand and supposeth a possibility in the party permitted to sin or not but in their sens 't is a withdrawing or with-holding of Grace needful to shun sin and so infolds an absolut necessity of sinning as the fal of Dagons hous folowed Sampsons plucking down the Pillars which supported it So Maccovius saith Permission is a subtraction of divine assistance necessary to prevent sin so Dr. Whitaker Permission is a privation of that aid which bâ—ing present would hav prevented sin So Pareus That help which God witheld from Adam made that he could not so use his indowments as to persever which he saith is the doctrin generaly defended by their side So their Permission of sin being a subtraction of necessary Grace is equivalent to an actual effectual procuring and woking of it for a deficient caus in things necessary is truly efficient so this devise is a very figleaf to cover the ugly nakednes of their Opinion Others consider two things in every evil act 1. The matter 2 Devise or Entity wherof God is Author 2. The form or Obliquity which proceds from Satan as in a lame Hors This distinction halts wors then the Hors nor holds in al Answer sins sith in many the very acts are sinful as Adams eating the forbidden fruit and Sauls sparing Agag which in others had not bin sin NOE wil it serv their turn for they make Gods Decree caus of al thos means which lead to damnation therfore of sinful actions as sinful and not as bare Entities sith they deserv death not as simple actions but as transgressions of the Law As to their sly Simile that Master or Owner who shal first resolv to kil his Hors and after lames him that he may hav color to doo it is cruel to his Beast and Author both of his halting and death so if God first decree to cast Men into Hel and then bring them into a state of sin that he may effect his purpose justly he must needs be Author of sin so wel as the actions to which it cleavs sith he intends destruction Thes are horrid aspersions Som coin a third evasion that the Wil is determined to an 3 Devise object two wais 1. By compulsion against its inclination so God forceth no Man 2. By complying with its natural appetit or liking So God may lead a Man to what he would yet not be Author of sin but only necessitats it When Men sin 't is tru they cannot chuse and as tru they wil not but sin so 't is not Gods Decree but their own wicked Wil which is caus of their sin and death The Fathers and School-men make Compulsion and Necessity Answer al one denying that God necessitats any to sin for then he is Author of it so wel as if he compeld Men sith therby it must inevitably be committed which els might be declined Nay what necessitats the Wil to sin is more the caus then the Wil it self becaus it overruleth and bears most sway bereaving al tâ—â— liberty to dispos it s own acts which should be free Lord of it self For the Necessitater is Commander Comptroler and Compeller but the Wil a servil instrument determined by divine Decree from which al such acts rather proced then from Mens wicked Wils When two Causes concur to produce an Effect one principal overruling the other instrumental at the principals devotion the Effect is ascribed to the influx or impression of the former and not to the later which is only a subservient Servant See Mat. 10. 20. 1 Cor. 15. 10. Gal. 2. 20. wher the work is wholy imputed to the principal Agent Adams Wil in innocence was whit paper or a clean-Table equaly inclined to good or evil So if God decreed his Fal as Supralapsarians say that necessity was a coaction but al others by depraved Nature are disposed to evil yet determined by divine decree both Elect and Reprobats Wils Though then Mans Wil works with Gods Decree in sinning yet siâ—h it doth it by the commanding power of his irresistible Decree the sin cannot so rightly be attributed to Mans Wil the inferior as to Gods Decree the superior Caus Yea that which makes a Man sin by necessity with and not against his Wil is caus of his sin in worâ— sort then he which constrains him against his wil as he that by powerful perswasion draws one to kâ—l himself is more gâ—osly the caus of his self-homiciâ— then he who inforceth him to it becaus it makes him consent to his own death So if Gods Decree makes Men sin and willingly too which is both to act and wil evil he hath a deeper stroke in the sin Another shift is suggested that sin is considered as sin and 4 Devise so God doth not destinat Men to it Or as a means to manifest his Justice and so he doth decree to punish it yet is not the Author of sin This is a silly slide for a good end cannot justify an il actions Answer Both end matter and maner too must be good els the act is evil If a Man shal steal to giv Alms as Robin Hooa did or commit whordom to beget Children for the Church as the Harlot did which was mother to three famous School-Doctors or the like be his end never so good he sinneth hainously sith 't is a violation of Gods Majesty and directly opposit to divine Good as S. Paul saith We must not doo evil that good may insu If then God willeth evil for ends never so Rom. 3. 8. good yet sith he decrees it with a powerful necessitating Wil he is Author of it For sin simply is a means of punishment If then he wils it as a means of punishment he wils it as simply sin by an absolut Decree Absit omen This Position loads him with three indignities 1. Want of Wisdom which must needs be weak if he can find no way to glorify his Justice but by bringing in sin which his Soul hates that he may manifest it in punishing 2. Want of sincerity or plain dealing as Tiberius purposing to destroy Drusus and Nero sons to Germanicus provoked them to revile him that so he might justly put them to death So if God appointing Men to eternal
holy Land but Jerusalem the City of general worship more holy the Temple holier and Sanctum Sanctorum holiest of al places A Sacrament is a separation of som visible thing from common use consecrated to Gods service for a sign of our admission Sacrament into his Kingdom or a commemoration of the same Circumcision was the sign of admission in the old Testament Baptism in the new but the commemoration in the one was eating the Pascal Lamb once annaly to mind them of the night when they were delivered from Egypts temporal bondage and celebrating the Lords Supper in the other wherby we are remembred of our deliverance from sin and Satan by our Saviours crucifixon The Sacraments of admission Circumcision and Baptism are used but once to every one becaus we are admitted no oftner but thos of commemoration Passover and the Lords Supper often reiterated becaus we must be often minded of our deliverance and allegiance Ther be other Consecrations which in ample acception may be stiled Sacraments as the word implies a sacred institution for Religious uses as Ordination Matrimony and many mo but as it imports an Oath Promiss or Covenant of Allegiance to God thos precited are soly so named A Common-wealth cannot possibly consist wher any sav the Soveraign hath power to giv greater rewards then life or inflict Chap 38. grievouser punishments then death but sith eternal life excels temporal and endless torments exced death of nature 't is worthy to be wel weighed of al that wil obey Authority to avoid the calamities of confusion and civil war what is meant in Scripture by eternal life and endless torment as also for what offenses and against whom committed Men are to be eternaly tortured and for what actions to enjoy everlasting life Adam had enjoied it in the terren Eden Paradise for ever had he not broken Gods commandment to eat the forbidden fruit who had the Tree of Life allowed to eat but so soon Eternal Life Gen. 3. 22. as he tasted the one God thrust him out of the Garden lest he should take of the other and liv for ever So if he had not sinned he should liv on Earth perpetualy but mortality seized on him and al his posterity for this first sin Sith then he forfeted eternal life by sin he who is to cancel that forfeture must recover it by righteousnes which Christ Jesus did by satisfying for the sins of al that beleev in him and so recovered life eternal lost by Adam to al beleevers So saith St. 1 Cor. 15. 21 22. Paul sith by Man cam death by Man cam also the Resurrection of the dead for as in Adam al dy so in Christ shal al be made alife Touching the place wher Men shal enjoy eternal life the precited Texts seem to set it on Earth for if al forfeted it in earthly Paradise by Adam they shal enjoy it on Earth by Christ els the comparison were not consonant nor complet So saith David God commanded the blessing on Zion Ps 133 3. even life for evermore So St. John to him that overcometh Rev. 2. 7. I wil giv to eat of the Tree of Life in the midst of Gods Paradise Rev. 21. 2. 10. This was the Tree of eternal life on earth Again I saw the holy City new Jerusalem coming down from God as a Bride adorned for his Husband As if he should say new Jerusalem Gods Paradise or rather the Church Christs Spous shal descend from Neaven at Christs next coming to Gods people and Acts 3. 11. not they ascend to it So the two Angels in whit clothing said to the Apostles looking at Christ ascending This Jesus who is taken up from you into Heaven shal so com as you see him go up into Heaven As if they had said Glossa corrumpit textum he shal com down to govern them under his Father eternaly on Earth he coms to Judg not to Rule and not take them into Heaven This conforms to the restauration of Gods Kingdom began under Moses which was the Israelits Politic Mat. 12 30. government on Earth Christ saith In the Resurrection Men neither marry nor giv in mariage but are as the Angels in Heaven This describes eternal life like that which Adam lost at point of mariage For sith Adam and Eve if they had not sinned had lived on Earth eternaly yet could not continualy propogat Progenies becaus if immortals should immortaly procreat as Men doo now the Earth in short space could not afford Foot-room to stand on much less food to sustain them How then can a new created Earth except extended to Quaeâ—e iâ—finit immensity contain al Mankind which are unimaginable multituds born and to be born since the Creation Thes with sundry such quirks surpass the reach of reason to resolv The comparison betwen life eternal lost by Adam and recuperated by Christs victory over death holds thus that as he lost it by sin yet lived long after so a faithful Beleever recovers it by Christ though he dy 〈◊〉 natural death for a long time even til the general Resurrection for as death is counted from Adams condemnation not execution so is life reckoned from the absolution not from the Resurrection of thos elected in Christ Jesus Such are his specious speculalations favouring of singularity That Men after the Resurrection shal liv eternaly in Heaven Ascention into Heaven caled by St. Paul the third Heaven is not evident in Scripture by the Kingdom of Heaven is meant Gods Kingdom who dwels in Heaven which was Israels People whom he ruled by Judges Prophets and high Priests as Lieftenents til they rebelled and required a mortal King like other Nations So when our Saviour by his Ministers shal perswade the Jews to return and accomplish the fulnes of Gentils ther shal be a new Kingdom of Heaven becaus God whos Throne is Heaven shal be King yet it folows not that Man shal ascend to his seat of happines or higher then his Footstool No Man John 3. 13. hath ascended into Heaven but he that cam down from it even the Son of Man that cam down from Heaven Wher note that thos are St. Johns words not Christs as al the rest were who was not then in Heaven So David saith Thou wilt not leav Ps 16. 10. my Soul in Hel nor suffer thy Holy one to see corruption which St. Peter provs to be spoken of Christs Resurrection not of Acts 2 31 34. himself becaus David is not ascended into Heaven If any answer 't is tru they shal not ascend in bodies til the Resurrection but their Souls enter Heaven so soon as they dy As Christ confirms Who provs the Resurrection by Moses words Luk 20. 37 38. at the bush when he cals the Lord the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob who is a God of the living not of the dead This cannot be construed of the Souls immortality sith Christ ther
the day thou eatest thou shalt dy the death infolded an implicit Covenant for al his Posterity to be liable therto as Traitors Children are tainted Hereof Saint Paul saith As by one Rom. 5. 12. man sin entred into the World and death by sin so death went over al men sith al hav sinned viz. in him and by him for when the Parents eat sour grapes the Childrens teeth were set on edg and the whol race of man liable to duple death damnati S. Bernard antequam nati forlorn before born 3. The Soul sinned in consenting and lusting the Body in tasting and eating so both are guilty 4. Neither Soul nor Body apart is the adequat subject of sin but both united or the whol man the Body subjectum a quo of derivation the Soul in quo of inhesion the whol de quo of predication to whom al accidents of both parts are denominatly ascribed 5. It cannot properly be stiled sin til the Souls infusion becaus the Embryo is inanimat and imperfect but the rational Soul must first animat yet it can be stiled sin For whatever is not capable of Gods Image as seed is not is not liable to its privation becaus the habit and privation belong to the same subject 6. The Principium a quo is derived by seed from Parents begetting a depraved disposition in Man wherto a polluted womb ads more fuel which by the Souls union breaks forth into a flame and sets the whol hous on fire both parts together corrupting and being corrupted by a kind of emanation So before 't is infused we are said to contract sin from Parents as Infants draw diseases Stone Gowt Lepry c. that is the impression or inclination only 7. This sin is no simple privation as blindness which deprivs sight for ever but potential only including a positiv propension therto 8. Ther be three degrees of purity 1. Absolut of God 2. Subordinat according to the creatures capacity of Angels and Man in innocence 3. Comparat when being created pure they decline from it So our Souls being formed subordinatly pure soon degenerat by natural concupiscence being in respect of Adam and Angels less pure becaus procliv to sin 9. The maner of imparting it from Adam to al Posterity is rather to be beleeved saith Doctor Whitaker then inquired and better inquired then explored but easier explored then expressed For its nature is most arcane and the conveiance much more obscure 10. Parents Souls work to frame the whol compound Man not by giving being to the new Soul but by preparing a place to unite it with the Body So they may be said to concur in its production cuasaly by disposing the Body to receiv it not formaly by procreating it as Peter Lombard and his School Sectators define Thes are their curious Cautions and best bulworks of defens yet al too little To the Question Why God sends a pure Soul into a polluted prison They say becaus she hath a natural necessary pronenes therto being ordained to unite with a Human Body and both guilty of Adams sin For 't is not created a simple Spirit to subsist by it self but in the Body with relation to it which being derived from Adam draws the guilt of his sin by that preparation and union without carnal traduction so she becoms guilty both privativly and positivly yet God no Author Actor nor Abettor therin This sin then folows creation by accident for at Adams Souls infusion was mens sana in corpore sano but in every union since is sin So we must distinguish between Gods making and Adams marring for he creats every Soul in substance sound but concupiscence which S. John sais is not of the Father 1 Joh. 2. 16. creeps in instantly by Gods desertion sith every Soul even before 't is infused is virtualy guilty of Adams fal as he was Father and Fountain of al Mankind both in morals and naturals becaus God covenanted either explicitly as Cumel contests or implicitly as Sotus saith that he should stand or fal for himself and al his Of-spring by his proper power of unrestrained Free-wil The Schoolmen dissent diversly whether original sin be positiv privativ or mix'd If positiv whether Re or Ratione whether God doth necessitat the act or entity and Man the defect or obliquity whether he pacted explicitly with Adam or implicitly only but such subtle nicities shal be left to the Schools Zanchy the best Patron of Soul-creation ads mo Propositions 〈◊〉 2. de Hom. â—reat c. 5. 1. That God decreed al things eternaly to be executed in time and creats no mo nor fewer Souls then predecreed and as they becom stained by union 2. That his Decrees are just and immutable nor is it unjust to unite pure Souls with sin-tainted Bodies 3. Though he made al Decrees at once in respect of himself yet must they be effected or executed successivly in respect of the things as his decree to permit sin and deriv it by one to al Mankind subservs to the decree of Election and Reprobation 4. When Adam received integrity he had it as the root of al whence his righteousnes is stiled original and we were created in him just after Gods Image 5. His disobedience and fal was semblably ours becaus the Precept Thou shalt not eat belongs to al in him the Stock-father 6. His transgression being the Head is justly imputed to us as Members and the coruption of Nature or proclivity to evil inflicted as the penalty thereof This Saint Paul plainly proclaims in the Antithesis betwixt Adam and Christ whos Rom. 5. 15. righteousnes wherby we are justified hath two parts 1. The Grace or gift which with remission of sins by his obedience is imputed ours 2. Regeneration or Renovation of Nature as the effect So original sin is Adams disobedience imputed to us together with its guilt and corruption of Nature not only a sin but a punishment on al which sinned by his fal 7. When the Soul is said to be stained by union with the Body 't is not meant properly by any Physical impression but so soon as both are united a man is formed to whom the guilt of Adams sin is instantly imputed and by it a propension to al evil inevitably folows becaus the Command and Commination was given to al Mankind in Aâ—am Thus he is driven to decline sins inhesion inferring that the Soul is not infected by the Body as Wine by a muâ—y Cask but by union of both a Man is born Adams son to whom his disobedience is only imputed but the corruption or contagion imposed as a puâ—â—shment by divine decree and not by any action of the Body This is a kind of Gallimaufry how sound let Divines define but certainly original sin is inherent in the principles of Nature like Gehezais lepry in al Adams Progeny and not imputativ only Hinc lolium infoelix â—vae hinc oriuntur aâ—verbae Hence baleful tares doo sprout From hence
him who is neither Author nor accessary but 't is propagated in generation by the first Mans fal or fault through the loins of perpetual posterity one from another It rests to present som gleanings gathered from the said Corollary Treatis which tends to this Theory 1. Creation is a metaphysical production of a Thing out of Nothing immediatly by God so the first Chaos caled Heaven and Earth was made of meer nothing and the rest mediatly out of it but Adams Body of Earth mediatly and his Soul immediatly of nothing by a middle way of Production 2. Propagation is a Natural act or faculty wherby a living Creature begets his like for continuance of the Kind this is the proper perfection of every Animal Vegetant Sentient Intelligent being the most excellent faculty ingrafted in Nature by Gods special charge and blessing of Increas and multiply which is duple 1. Equivocal when Plants or Animals are bred of putrefaction as Weeds Magots Eeles c. 2. Univocal when ech Animat brings its like as Wheat Wheat Whale a Whale Eagle an Eagle Lion a Lion Man a Man This is doon by the seed of generation which contains the whol Nature to continu the Species for ever wheras Individuals are al mortal or momentany So Mans seed Natures quintessence containing the whol Kind is lodged in a place fit for propagation of another conspecifical which generation being Mans perfection he cannot be said propagat either part but the whol or a third consisting both of Form and Matter Hence our propagation from Adam is a deduction of the whol Man according to Natures cours in turning our potential being into act which derivs his Nature to us but if the Soul be fetch'd from Heaven and Body from Earth how shal both ends be brought together or what shal this mix'd action be caled Simple Creation it cannot be nor pure propagation but a Mungrel like a Mule For Creation and Propagation differ divesly 1. One is Gods work by himself of meer nothing wrought by his sole Word and Wil the other Natures of som preexistent matter according to ech Creatures kind by Gods ordinance setled in Nature 2. That is doon in an instant by an infinit essence which requires no time this by previous preparations or gradual perfections which take time tho the very conception is acted in a moment 3. One is performed without any motion or mutation but in the other the same matter is changed or varied into several forms 4. In the first things are not made of one substance with the Creator but in the last both hav the same substance 5. In Creation privation preceds the habit power act and darknes light but in Propagation contrary habit foregoes privation as sight blindnes act power and light darknes The Reasons that Mans Soul cannot be propagated by cours of Creation are thes 1. It impugns Gods Justice to put a 1. Reason pure innocent essence into a condition to be instantly damned for anothers sin which it must be if an Embryo dies before born and baptised To this 't is said the new Soul is guilty by union which is a greater aspersion on divine Justice but no salvo for if it be in no fault why shal it be guilty and punished for Adams fal If it be replied That God so eternaly Decreed this farther aggravats nor doth it appear that he so Decreed which to aver without warrant is most hainous for if he Decreed as Supralapsarians harshly hold that al should sin and suffer death in Adam 't is requisit to be by just means which if it may be doon by Traduction rather then Creation yea by that way and not this then is that to be counted Gods Decree Can Justice it self deal unjustly surely in equity is no iniquity God promiseth and proclameth that a faultless Child shal not suffer Ezek. 18. 20. for his Fathers guilt why then shal a good Soul be so deeply punished for anothers sin to whom it is scars kin sith Adam that sinned was no simple Soul but a Man 2. If the Soul be immediatly created pure it cannot be polluted by a Body which of it self is not the subject of sin nor can defile a spiritual substance being the first mover of al acts in the Body and it should rather sanctify that then be stained by it So it may better be defended that we hav original righteousnes becaus the Soul coms from God then original sin becaus the Body coms from Adam If it should be granted that the Soul is polluted by yeelding to bodily lusts yet this is actual sin not original corruption Nor can it com from a pure created Soul To this 't is said That at the instant of Creation God bereavs al supernatural gifts for Adams laps which though it put not evil into the Soul yet original sin necessarily flows or folows This seems uncouth that God shal at once doo and undoo or make and mar so soon as 't is made or giv goodness and take it away instantly Nay if it be created in infusing 't is void of supernatural gifts and so cannot be deprived of what it never had But if it be created without thos gifts which to us are supernatural he creats it evil as al Men are without such nor can a Soul be good without them If then God makes it so that it must needs be evil he makes it evil sith he makes it that it cannot be good Yet if al the premisses be conceded 't is never the neer to salv original sin sith this is not to sin in Adam but to becom sinful for him So it results that the Soul if created good cannot possibly contract Adams sin nor can al Mens wits or wiles cleerly shew how a Soul created pure can be polluted and al shifts hitherto devised are silly Cobweb Lawns pervious to every ey The last refuge that it coms neither by Soul nor Body but by union of both sith by it we becom Sons of Adam and so his sin made ours is Mr. Calvins curious conceipt but scars satisfactory For it is a spiritual Lepry which hereditarily infects the whol Man with al parts and powers If then the Soul at first union be pure and Body polluted the Child shal be half holy and half sinful Or if both be clean at first how can union make both or either unclean for when two good are conjoined both becom better Hence som say Adams sin is only imputed not inherent and so we only reputed corrupt Indeed Christs righteousnes is realy ours by imputation and a voluntary institution as a Covenant of Grace differs from ordinary Justice in cours of Nature sith 't is free to shew mercy without caus but not to punish without du desert Nor can this sin be justly imputed to al unles the whol Man be propagated for 't is a real infection of the whol Nature both Body and Soul 3. As by Gods Ordinance original sin passeth from one to al
deep dark mystery for the first 1 Pet. 1. 1 2 holds forth Gods power or dominion The next his Mercy and Justice The third his Truth and special Grace The last his Wisdom and Prescience Yet al with S. Paul acknowledg his Judgments inscrutable and waies past finding out the depth Rom. 11. 32. wherof none can fathom 5. Arminius startle not he is no Bugbear but a lat learned 5 Opin Protestant Professor at Leyden after Junius taught That God by his infinit intellect knew al things as possible to be if he would giv them being and among al conceived this visible World with al Mankinds race from first to last every one in order government and event yet only as possible if he pleased That som things might be necessary som voluntary som Causes som Effects som as ends som as means som his own acts som of free Creatures som good som evil som as rewards som as punishments That he knew how to order and vary al or any part or person so as other effects or ends might be produced then thes now extant if he otherwise willed But deemed it good for manifestation of his Power Wisdom Justice Mercy to put this Worlds frame and order of Mankind then only as possible in execution or being That he foreknew if he should doo it som particular persons would by this order of means be brought to eternal life and others by neglect or disorder go to perdition through their own fault if Justice be doon upon them That foreknowing al he determined of his absolut Wil and Pleasure to say Fâ—at and execut al which he intended in du time and in so doing predestinated som to life som to death eternaly In reference wherto S. Luke stileth the Elect such as are ordained to eternal life and S. Jude cals Reprobats Acts 13. 48. thos that were of old ordained to condemnation Under Jude vers 4. this order is comprised the Creation of Man righteous permission of his fal correction of his fault means of redemption by Christ caling and converting of a sinner his Faith Repentance Perseverance Blessings Chastisments Trials and what els is found in order of any Mans salvation or aversions and aberrations from that order wherby Men com to perdition Hence Predestination is defined to be a Preparation of Gods Definition benefits wherby al are delivered which are freed Or as Fulgentius fuller the preparation of Gods Works which in his eternal Providence he foreknew he would doo either mercifully or justly Here two things are to be observed in the Decree of Predestination 1. An act of Gods understanding in respect of things not in being caled Prescience which in order of Nature preceds al Decrees as prespecified 2. An act of his Wil which is proper to Predestination for God works according to the Council of his Wil as S. Paul speaks Thes two acts Eph. 1. 11. 1 Pet. 1. 1 2. Rom. 8. 28. being coeternal hav priority of order only not of time and Prescience put as the first link by S. Peter and Paul This Tenet of simple Prescience previous to Predestination advanceth al Gods Attributs more then the four former 1. His Wisdom and Knowledg in foreseing not only his own Works but thos of free Creatures and al circumstances of each how to govern them for his glory in permission of sin and obedience or resistance of Grace that he may judg the World righteously 2. His power in creating and governing al things bringing light out of darknes life out of death happines out of misery 3. His goodnes in making al good and overcoming evil with good 4. His universal Grace and Mercy in preparing a waâ— of Redemption for al Men who were becom slavs to sin and Satan and ordaining means to apply or accomodat the same 5. His truth in extending his promises to al that shal keep the Covenants or Conditions for he is truth who speaks no other then as he ordains nor intends otherwise then as he speaks 6. His Justice in punishing al that use not the rectitud of their Nature or benefit of Redemption offred 7. His special Grace or singular lov in confirming them as he did the good Angels whom he foresaw would use his Grace if it were given in embracing the means which should bring them to Glory shewing less Grace to thos whom he foresaw would fail by their own incredulity ingratitud or obstinacy whom he could hav cured by bettering his benefits but decreed to make Vessels of wrath by their own deserts 8. His dominion and soveraign Lordship in that being suprem Ruler he orders al after his free pleasure chusing or refusing whom he wil becaus they wilfully forsake him as Irenaeus saith the Father excels in Wisdom becaus he savs whom he ought and judges such as are worthy of judgment to be counted cruelty considering his foregoing preventing goodnes 9. It excluds Stoical Fate which the three first Opinions making Mans salvation or damnation necessary by an antecedent absolut Decree cannot possibly decline wheras this by placing it in order after Prescience makes both infallible to his knowledg which as simple science is no caus but free and contingent to Man who must work out his salvation by coworking with divine Grace or incur damnation by refusing his Mercy extended to al. 10. It makes Gods Election absolut immutable and irrevocable wherby he chuseth Man and not contrarily but the fourth opinion is liable to thes imputations 11. It diverts despair on the one side which too many fal into supposing themselfs decreed to damnation and prevents presumption on the other which som confiding too far on infallable certitud of salvation and final perseverance hav becom their own Butchers to accelerat their glory as may be shewed by sundry instances in both kinds 12. It ministers much matter of comfort to the Godly which walk in the wais leading to life confirming their saving Faith in Christ and lov toward God Lastly It magnifies the deepnes of Gods Judgments and inscrutablenes of his Counsils for who can conject why he loved Jacob and hated Esau or decreed to elect Peter and reject Judas or savs one and suffers another to perish who could dispose them to contrary ends al which proceds from his Prescience sith none is rejected but upon prevision of refusing life offered and ther is sufficient Grace in the means of conversion to Remedy the weaknes or perversnes of depraved Nature Nor is any decreed to salvation but upon foreseen readines to accept life offered and Gods general promises hav conditions which Men by his Grace must observ on their part if they wil partak the benefit For God decreeing to make Man a free Creature in al his Corollary actions and foreseing his fal wherby he forfeted that liberty of Wil for himself and Posterity in al spiritual supernatural Graces permitted Men to use or abuse it in al other matters of this life Natural Moral Civil
fal Let the Touchstone try the truth 'T is impossible Heb. 6. 4 5 6. saith S. Paul for thos who once being illightned tasted of the heavenly Gift and partaked the Holy Ghost and tasted Gods good Word and powers of the World to com if they shal fal away to renew them unto repentance He speaks not of non Entities nor of Novices but such as were illightned and tasted the heavenly gift Gods good Word and powers of the World to come and partaked the Holy Ghost which metaphors of Sens tasting seing c. imply in Scripture no slight superficial sens of spiritual things So S. Peter If after they hav escaped the 2 Pet. 2 20 21 22. Worlds pollutions through knowledg of the Lord Jesus they be again intangled and overcom the laâ—ter end with them is wors then the beginning For it had bin better not to hav known the way of righteousnes then having known to turn from the holy Commandments delivered to them But it hapned to them according to the tru Proverb the Dog returned to his vomit and the washed Sow to hir walowing in the mire To escape the Worlds pollutions through knowledg of our Lord Jesus is no smal fruit of the Spirit but a ful cleer certain fruition whence it is so hard or impossible for such as fal from so great a measure of Grace to be renewed by Repentance but from De Cor. Gr. c. 6. lesser lapses ordinary S. Austin saith 'T is much to be marveled why God givs not perseverance to som of his Children whom he regenerated in Christ and gav Faith Hope Lov when he forgivs so great wickednesses to others and confers the grace of Sons on them he wonders why God did not snatch such away as lived Godly from the evil to com lest their il inclinations should caus a change So he holds if thos Men had dyed while they lived justly and piously they had been saved Ergo their Faith was more then initiated and they more then outside Christians As God first cals Man before he folows so Man first fals from God before he forsakes who is stil ready to receiv al into Grace upon tru repentance So saith our sixteenth Article After we hav received the Holy Ghost we may depart from Grace and fal into sin and by Gods Grace rise again and amend our lifes Therfore they are to be condemned which say they can no more sin so long as they liv here or deny to tru Penitents place of forgivnes Touching the terms of faling totaly and finaly it is certain only to Gods Prescience but unknown to us for the Faithful may fal and God alone knows whether they wil repent or rise again but we must stil work with fear and trembling If they cannot fal why doth Christ bid us pray Lead us not into tentation but deliver us from evil or why doth our Liturgy say Suffer us not at last hour for any pains of death to fal from thee For the Elect thos of Dort grant that a Regenerat faling into grievous sins is not actualy reconciled til he repent but in state of damnation and unapt to enter into Gods Kingdom but they ad 1. Though the Regenerats so sinning be guilty yet they shal be in Gods purpos absolved Tru So they were before they beleeved 2. That God deals not with them in rigour No more doth he with many Reprobats falen from Faith whom he would bring to repentance by long suffering 3. That they hav not lost Jus ad Regnum but usum Juris as a Lepet loseth the use of his hous not right But similituds are no sound Arguments Hath an Elect committing murder jus ad Regnum then S. Paul speaks fals I tel you they that doo such 1 Cor. 6. 9. things shal not inherit Gods Kingdom but al that hav right James 2 10. shal inherit 4. That their universal Justification is not made void by sinning surely their absolution from former sins is not frustrated but this new sin which makes them Sons of wrath and guilty of the whol Law needs Absolution and Justification from it But universal Justification is no remission of sins past present and to com For what need then Repentance 5. That their state of Adoption remains immovable Tru In Gods purpos not in act but that they may fal 6. That som seeds remain by which Life may spring again It may for sooner then in an habituated Sinner Yet this alters not the Case if he be guilty of death no more then a Noblemans crime who hath many friends to beg his life S. John saith Whoever is born of God 1 John 3 9. commits not sin for his seed remains and he cannot sin becaus born of God Hence Calvinists infer if Gods seed remain in a Regenerat and he cannot sin deadly then can be no intercision of his Justification Certes his scope is not to prov that thos born of God cannot fal from righteousnes to sin or that a Member of Christ cannot becom the member of an Harlot by Adultery and he that hath bin the member of an Harlot becom the Member of Christ by Repentance But he means that to be born of God and commit deadly sin cannot consist nor can any be a Member of Christ and an Harlot at once being Asystats S. Jerom writing against Jovinian who abused this Text as Men doo now interprets thus S. John saith He that is born of God commits not sin becaus ye should not sin not that ye cannot but so long as ye commit not sin ye are Gods Children yea such as persist his Sons cannot sin For ther is first a faling from God before we fal into sin sith thos two cannot cohere Tertullian tels how som say They hav God sure enough in Heart and Mind yet shew no sign in their actions and so commit sin thinking their fear and Faith safe as if they committed Adultery yet deemed their chastity not impaired or poisoned their Parents thinking to doo God good service Thus while they continu in sin notwithstanding their fear they shal be cast into Hel notwithstanding their Faith Bishop Ridley saith S. John means He cannot sin so long as Gods seed abides in him but Faith Hope and Charity cannot stand with evil living nor without good Works David while he stood guilty of a duple crime could not be in state of Regeneration nor Peter til he repented his denial Yet som say it was salvo amore fide becaus as we are born but once so we are new born no oftner This metaphor holds not for S. Paul saith Litle Children of whom I travel in birth again til Christ be formed in you meaning so oft as we fal into hainous sins we must stil be renewed by Repentance but Men wil expound Scripture as they list As to the certainty of Perseverance Election Salvation this concerns not God whos knowledg is infallible and purpos immutable but us while we liv here
For deciding or defining wherof weigh thes three conclusions 1. That a Beleever being in present state and use of holy means tending to salvation and out of tentation in the peace of a good Conscience through Faith in Christ may by the testimony of the Holy Ghost hav a comfortable assurance of Salvation which begets trusty fervent lov and thankfulnes to God specialy when he is neer the end of his race or point of death So S. Paul by inspiration saith I am now ready to be offred up I hav sought a good 2 Tim 4. 6 7 8. fight finished my cours and kept the Faith Henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of righteousnes This place Lutherans press against Papists who wil hav al by doubting and none certain of his present condition no not at best But he that hath right knowledg of God tru Faith stedfast Hope lifely Lov and awful Filial fear with an holy trade of Life he may rejoyce in God with comfortable confidenre and affiance of perseverance to the end 2. That for time to com specialy when we hav probably a long race to run and divers dangers of wild wonton Youth to pass we cannot hav infallible certitud of future or final persevering but must confide in Gods Grace 1 Cor. 10. 13. and Goodnes that he wil assist if we apply al our indevors to De Civ c. 11. 12 continu in it Hereof S. Austin speaks We cal them blessed whom we see liv wel with hope of future immortality and without such crimes as make shipwrack of Conscience who though they may rely on the reward of Pe severance yet are not sure of persevering For who knows certainly he shal continu in doing righteousnes to the end except he be assured by som revelation from him who is not pleased in his just secret judgment to inform al touching this point though he deceivs none S. Ambros thus David saith not I offer the sacrifice De bono moâ—â— c. 3. of Prais but wil offer shewing or signifying that to be a perfect sacrifice when every one freed from the fetters of this Body shal stand before the Lord and offer himself a Sacrifice For before death can be no perfect Prais nor can any be truly extold in this life when his latter times are so incertain S. Bernard Serm. 1 in Seâ— tuag also Who can say I am one of the Elect predestinat to Life or in the number of Sons sith we hav yet no certainty but we may be comforted with hopeful affiance and not tormented with despair or doubting for som signs or marks are given that such may be sure they are Elect which hav them for this caus 't is necessary to be stil in awful fear and humbled under Gods hand sith we know in part what we are at present but not what we shal be which is impossible to know therfore Let him that stands take heed lest he fal for presumption is so perilous as desperation 3. That certitud of salvation cannot be infallible in this life as S. Austin attests What De Cor. Gr. 13. Beleever so long as he livs in this fleshly Tabernacle can presum to be predestinat 't is needful to be conceled in this life wher puffing up is to be shunned sith so great an Apostle was buffeted by Satan lest he should be puf'd up Many such things are spoken for the usefulnes of this secret lest any shal presume for even he that runs wel may fear sith 't is hid whither he shal go Much more he vents to the same effect For Gods Promises in Christ are certain but made with conditions so that we may miss of the end if we fail in the means to fulfil our Covenants sith no Man shal be crowned til he fight it out and the battel ended triumph not before the victory Gods Decrees are known soly to himself but secret to us who must rely on the Promisses by performing the Covenants If we may be fully assured of tru Faith that it cannot fail but we shal infallibly persever to the end through al frailties and tentations then Gods Counsil is not secret to som nor his Decree unknown which is high presumption to arrogat or affirm sith we must stil work it out with fear and trembling This is a Cavaliers Creed or confidence in the point of final perseverance and salvations infallible certainty who holds the middle betwixt two extrems of despair and presumption but had rather be a meek humble Publican then a proud presuming Pharisee Lord be merciful to me a sinner and grant me Grace to continu in thy fear til the end 17. The last Judgment is the execution of al Divine Decrees 17 Last Judgment concerning Men For Predestination of the ends is a foreknowledg and approbation of the last Judgment to Life or Death which execution shews the Decree as a building being erected and finished declares the Architects plot or devise for this Judgment exhibits the consecution of thos ends So if we grant as we must that God proponed an end viz. the glory of his Mercy or Bounty in giving som life eternal and glory of his Power and Justice in inflicting eternal death on others he hath attained his end in the last Judgment So if we admit Note as we must that God prescribed means for Men to aspire or attain to eternal life or for lack therof to incur everlasting death thos ends are executed also in the same Judgment Rom. 6. 23 Howbeit if we grant as we doo that Life is given both as a 2 Tim. 4. 8. Rom 9 21. 22. Bounteous Gift and reward of Righteousnes as also that eternal Death is imposed both as the wages or punishment of sin and a demonstration of Gods soveraign dominion yet with Justice and Equity No ordinary understanding can conceiv how a Decree of thes things could be made from eternity without Prescience siâ—h Life is a reward and Death a punishment which no Justice can prepare without foreknowledg of good or evil deserved This is cald simple or natural Intelligence as Life is a Gift of Gods free goodnes and Death a Declaration of his dominion being both an attainment of his own glory Hence 't is cleer that Prescience which is Gods first highest simple Understanding is to be put in the definition of Predestination which too many separat or dis-join Let Prosper decide this point If we consider al Men together Epâ—gâ— 28. wherof som may be saved in Mercy others damned in Truth al the Lords wais are distinguâ—shed by the end but if we look only on the Saints thes wais are not discerned for Truth is not distinguished from Mercy nor contrarily sith the Saints beatitud is both from reward of Grace and retribution of Justice So he makes eternal Death a retribution of Justice which cannot eternaly be decreed without Prescience of sin which Calvinists ground on Gods pure pleasure as Lord over his
Creatures without respect to foreknowledg But for Election to Life being his free Gift they more confidently ascribe to his meeâ— Wil without Prescience which they hav more color for if the Saints glory were only a Gift of Grace and not also a retribution of Justice But God makes it a retribution of Justice upon foresight of their laboring to attain the end and a gift of free Grace too knowing what wil bring them to happines if he grant them thos benefits wherby he shal also attain his end even the glory of his free Lov in giving eternal life to whom he wil which is the tru harmony This Judgment being ex praeteritis Predestination must be ex praevisis for the judg ordained by God is the Lord John 5. 22. Jesus that al may honor the Son as they doo the Father John 3. 19. becaus as the Father created so the Son redeemed Mankind even the universality The grand crime for which the World shal be judged is that Men loved darknes more then light and John 12. 48. Christs Word shal judg him at last day whoever rejected or contemned Marc. 16. 16. Christ Since the Gospel is preached the rule of judging is He that beleeveth and is baptised shal be saved he that 2 Thes 1. 7 8. beleeveth not damned Which S. Paul more fully explicats When the Lord Jesus shal be reveled from Heaven to recompence 2 Cor. 5. 10. thos that hav suffred for his truth and in flaming fire take vengeance on them that know not God nor obey his Gospel The severity of this Judgment to render vengeance the specification Rom. 2. 16. of persons we must al appear before his seat the assignation of causes to be judged the very secrets of Mens hearts with the maner of judgment when such as hav sinned without the Law shal perish without the Lâ—w having a Law written in their hearts but thos that hav sinned in the Law shal be judged by the Law semblably such as hav not obeied the Gospel shal be judged by it Al this argues that original sin which is one just caus of death shal be alleged against al who hav no other caus of condemnation but this as Infants which dy having not this sin purged by the Laver of Regeneration either in act or vow of the Church but to lay it unto them that liv to ripe yeers of knowing God obeying the Gospel or haply had forgivnes of sins sealed by Baptism this seemd strange to Doctor Whitaker that any shal be Reprobated for sin remitted so 't is strange that any should be condemned for such sins as he was not Reprobated for sith the sentence of Reprobation is the hardest and heaviest that can be which draws with it the sentence of Condemnation Surely such sins as the wicked shal be judged of at last are the same they were Reprobated for at first being Jude v. 4. eternaly foreseen specialy their final impenitence and inobedience els what needs this exact differencing of Causes or how are the guilty more burdned to hear their several crimes if al be rejected in the common Case of Mankind lapsed and unable to rise having no Saviour to dy for them nor Spirit to cal them nor help to heal them but are excluded or debarred by Gods absolut irrespectiv Decree God wil overcom in Judgment yet not by pleading his Soveraign power or Prerogativ and silencing Men with his dominion els was Abram too bold to expostulat Shal not the Worlds Judg doo right but by Justice and Equity rewarding every one according to his works els he would not put himself on trial Judg I pray between me my Vineyard what more could I doo then I hav doon God wil Isai 5. 3. convince the ungodly putting them to silence and shame by their own stubborn ingratitud against his abundant Goodnes Patience and long suffering not by his own plenipotence or Prerogativ Sadolet to an Objection We being born of corrupt original are by Nature made to perdition that thos whom God passeth by and caleth not might hav no just caus of complaint answers thus I conceiv that Christ Jesus sitting in Judgment for his Father on them whom he hath conâ—emned wil not so pass or pronunce Sentence sith ye proceded from Adams corrupt loins and contracted your Parents guilt doo I condemn you to endless torments but wil say Go ye cursed into everlasting fire for ye saw me hungry and fed me not c. which are not the common sins of al Mankind but particular faults of ech several person which shal be alledged and wherby they shal be judged lest in that sharp torture and grief they presume to ask Mercy of God who denied it to their poor Brethren begging it Mr. Plaifer handles al thes deep points at large wel worth a serious survey which are here succinctly summed up and conduce much to the main subject If any mislike his Tenets as many of different Judgments wil let them seek satisfaction of him who can best resolv al scruples But if I hav misprised any material circumstances through insciousnes not wilfulnes let me bear the blame who undertake to be his faithful eccho Now for fuller application and farther addition take what folows in a more confused maner To found Predestination on Prescience of simple Intelligence best consorts with al conditions consequents and circumstances therof wherby al divine Attributs are best accorded and advanced the sole scruple rests which Opinion best agrees with the Holy Ghosts tru meaning For al Sects arrogat to sens the Scriptures best if they may be Judges or Interpreters to preach the Gospel purest if faith be given to their bare words and to administer the Sacraments sincerest if their new cuts daily varied may pass for current coin as three main marks of their Church caled the little Flock when al others censure or condemn them for fals Teachers as every one doth ech other and al tort or distort Gods Word to serv turns Howbeit for trial of truth the chief Texts shal be brought to test or touchstone for Prescience these places are pregnant S. James saith Known unto Acts 15. 18. God are al his works from everlasting S. Peter To the Elect 1 Pet 1. 2. Rom. 8. 29 30. according to the foreknowledg of God the Father S. Paul Whom he foreknew he predâ—stinated whom he predestinated he caled whom he caled he justified whom he justified he glorified Again Blessed be God who hath blessed us in al heavenly things Eph. 1. 3 4. through Christ as he hath chosen us in him before the Worlds foundation Ergo we are eternally Elect by Faith in Christ foreseen which preceds Predestination To conceiv rightly the maner and order of this high mystery according to Gods Mind reveled in his Word we must consider somthing of his Nature who predestinats and therin revere his infinit â—intellect just Wil matchless Mercy and soveraign Dominion with
Ezekiah hearing imminent death denounced praied with tears and had his life prolonged 15. yeers Jonah from God threatned destruction to Ninive within 40 dais yet upon repentance they were preserved Contrarily sundry exemples are current of such as hav bin cut off for their sins so was the whol stock of mankind except 8. Persons in the universal Deluge so al the Israelits except Josua and Caleb were buried in the Desart so Corah Dathan and Abiram with their families were swallowed quick of the Earth beside many mo To Jobs place prâ—cited he answers that it means not the term of particular Mens lifes but in general of mankind that his time comparatly is very short being cycled within a smal circle of moneths and dais In which sens it runs parallel with that of Moses The dais of our yeers are 70 and Ps 90. 10. if by reason of strength Men com to 80 yet is their life but labor and sorow for 't is soon cut off and we fly away So David Ps 39. 5. saith Lo thou hast made my dais as an handbreadth and my age is nothing before thee verily every Man at his best state is altogether vanity Nor doth Job shew by what maner of ordinance or decree God made that definition of dais and moneths but most probably refers to his infallible prescience of every Mans future demeanor upon the Hypothesis of his good or il use of Freewil Ob. 'T is objected That it matters not whether Gods prescience preced his preordination of any future event and so founded upon prevision or els be subsequent to Preordination which is the basis of prevision for it folows both wais that the term of life is intransibly fixd sith divine Prescience can no more be defeated then decree Sol. Indeed Prescience whether it preced or succed Decree is ever certain precise or infallible in event by necessity of consequence not of consequent that is from the Hypothesis or conditionality tho not from the efficacy or causality For if God infallibly foâ—eknows as he doth that the period of Mans life shal be by such means or maner then it wil assuredly be so yet his prenotion hath no influence on our actions as the Schools say For divine Prescience Prescienâ—e is duple 1. Antecedent to Preordination whos Object is a future thing without any previous Decree hereby God eternaly foresaw al things to com both necessary by the impuls of natural causes and future contiâ—gâ—nts depending on Freewil sans relation to any after Decrees Hereof Rabbi Isaac Bar Sesac saith God from eternity disposed al mundan affairs and foresaw al effects which should ensu in time even the action of Freewil whether to be doon or not Hownbeit Man doth not any thing in time becaus God foreknew it but contrarily becaus Man wil doo this or that in time therfore God eternaly foreknew it would so com to pass 2. Subsequent to Gods Decrees which hath for its Object a thing to com and presupposeth it so fully as the former together with the maner or Order of its futurition as fixd and stable being so constituted by an antecedent preordination This last is also duple 1. Conditionat That if a Man being born of a sound durable constitution shal observ good courses tending to health and use fit remedies against maladies God foresees he shal liv long but if he take contrary courses God foreknows he shal be subject to diseases and dy untimely 2. Absolut wherby God certainly knows that such a Man wil chus a prudent cours of life and fit means to prevent or cure diseases wherby he shal liv long in health or that another wil liv intemperatly or neglect means and shorten his dais Both which suppose a certainty of divine Prescience touching the precise period of every mans life as also the order or maner of its futurition and al concurring causes Among which the most energetical is the right use or abuse of hâ—s own Freewil in whos power it was to prolong or abbreviat that term forward or backward so far is Gods prenotion or prevision from excluding a temperat diet and phisical remedies that it necessarily includs it els God foreknows he wil be accessary to shorten his own dais like a Fâ—lo de se For if Man hath no Freewil to use or refuse sitting means Gods Prescience is uncertain sith it determins nothing but presupposeth al nor doth he by any Decree subsequent to Prescience preordain that this or that Man shal recover of such or such a sicknes unles he shal use the means ordained by divine providence but if he wilfully or negligently rejects it he hastens his own Catastrophe The result of al is that God foresees al things and the maner of means how they wil com to pass yet doth neither caus nor compel any necessity of the event Next for the absolut Decree of Predestination their main arguments shal be mustered up together Ob. S. Paul saith The children being not yet born nor having Rom. 9. 11 12 c. doon good or evil that Gods purpos according to election might stand not of works but of him that caleth it is writen Jacob have I loved but hateâ— Esau For he saith to Moses I wil have mercy on whom I wil So ' tâ—s not of him that willeth or runneth but of God that sheweâ—h mercy For he hath mercy on whom he wil and hardens whom he wil as he did Pharaoh to shew his power in him Thou wilt â—ay â—hâ—n why doth he yet find fault for who can resist his Wil nay but O Man who art thou that repliest against God Shal the thing formed say to the Former why madest thou me so Hath not the Potter power over his Clay of the same lump to make one Vessel of honor and another to dishonor What if God to shâ—w his wratk and make his power known endured with long suffering the Vessels of wrath prepared for destruction and to manifest the riches of his glory on the Vessels of mercy which he had prepared to glory Isaiah crieth though Israel be as the Sea sand a remnent only shal be saved Ergo al depends on Gods absolut antecedent Decree of pure pleasure Sol. The Lutherans refer al to simple Prescience whereto they stick like limpets nor is any warrant in holy Writ for absolut irrespectiv Decree or to exclud Prescience from Gods proceedings but this place of S. Paul is one of which S. Peter speaks that Many misunderstand to their condemnation God loved Jacob and hated Esau before they did good or evil but not before he knew what both would doo for Men are prius dâ—mnati quam nati sed non quam noti God knew Adam the root and al particular branches of Mankind what their affections actions and ends wil be so wel for matters of this life as that to com if he should Decree to creat them and passed permissiv Decrees accordingly He knew Moses and David would be Men after his own
is drawn by his own concupiscence 1. John 2. 16. S. John tels us That the lust of the flesh lust of the ey and pride of life is not of the Father but of the World This Tenet makes God wors then the Devil whos tentation may be resisted but Gods powerful effectual Decree cannot be frustrated Prosper saith If this were charged on the Devil he may in som sort cleer himself sith he can compel none to sin what madnes then is it to aspers that on God which cannot justly be imputed to Satan Tertullian saith He cannot be accompted Author of sin who is Avenger and Condemner of it nor can he be a just holy God saith S. Basil nor Judg of the World if he decree sin sith 't is al one to say God is Author of sin and to aver he is not God The defenders disclaim this Tenet in direct terms being so harsh to Christian ears but deliver it in truth by necessary consequence For they avouch the Decree of Reprobation to be absolut and inevitable nor can Reprobats be saved tho they doo al the works of Saints sith God created them to this very purpos that they should sin els he could not attain his principal ends to manifest his mercy in saving the elect and execut his justice in damning Reprobats who are eternaly decreed to sin even to death Thus say Piscator Marlorat Zanchy and many mo This is by cleer consequents to make God the Author of sin which is ordinarily imputed to thos who hav not such interest or influence in production of it as this assertion ascribes to God The Devil is caled the Father of lies and semblably of al sins 1. John 3. 8. 10. els as sinners are stiled his Sons and sin a work of the Devil which the Son of God cam to loos Yet the Devil only egs or excites Men by outward suggestions and inward tentations to sin which is al he can doo but if God necessitats by his absolut Decree and after determinats by his powerful secret working in Mens Souls and disposing or overruling their Wils that they cannot but sin and perish he doth infinitly more then barely suggest intice or perswade which is horrid to imagin So wicked Men are reputed Authors of their sins becaus they plot purpos chuse and commit them as immediat Agents but if God overrules their projects and purposes by an uncomptrolable decree that they must needs doo as they doo and dy tho they would fain doo otherwise and be saved he is chiefly the Author and they only secund Actors or subordinat Instruments under him Haply they hav free power in it self but no free use to doo as they list sith God determins their actions by his Omnipotent Wil. Evil Counsilors and Allurers to sin are also esteemed causers and punished with others which commit crimes by their instigation as Jâ—zabel was guilty of Nabaths murder for counsiling and contriving it but they say God doth even inforce it by an Almighty Decree which cannot be resisted therfore he is much more the chief author and actor then meer abetter or accessary If a King shal procure a Subjects ruin by plotting his offens as Henry 7. is said to seek Edward Earl of Warwicks destruction by contriving his escape out of London Tower al men wil charge him as Author of his crime and death much more God if he design the sin and damnation of Reprobats So saith Moulin who wil not abhor a King that to hang a man by Law plots to make him a Thief or Murderer that he may seem to doo it justly For he shal not only make an innocent wretched but wicked too and destroy him for that offens wherof he is Author So dissembling Tiberius decreeing Sejanus Daughter to death caused the Hangman first to deflower hir because their Laws forbad Virgins to be strangled yet was he chief Author both of hir rape and ruin If then God Decrees to damn millions upon millions and shal caus or permit the Devil first to defile them that he may justly destroy them is not he the chief caus of their sins so wel as sufferings Al Men grant God to be sole Author of Mens conversion and salvation yet doth he no more in procuring it then thes Men ascribe to him in reprobation and damnation For he absolutly and antecedently from eternity decreed to sav the elect and by irresistible means to work faith repentance and final perseverance for their salvation and accomplishment of his Decree semblably he peremptorily decreed as they say to damn Reprobats leading them on by an insuperable power and immutable providence from sin to sin til they hav made up a ful measure and in fine inflicts vengence for acting what he appointed What difference then in thes courses or why shal not God be reputed Author of the ones sins so wel as of the others salvation The Fathers held it a parallel case an therfore made sin an object only of Prescience bending their Arguments against this perilous position of an absolut antecedent irrespectiv irresistible inforcing Decree of Reprobation Dr. Vsher relating the Church â—â—st of Gotâ—â—sâ— p 138. of Lyons answer to Seotus against Gotteschalc hath thes words whoever saith ther is a constraint or necessity of sinning laid on any Man he grosly and grievously blasphems God making him to be the Author of sin nor can al the quaintest wits in the world avoid it Howbeit to shew fair play and scan this point at ful al their Defenses Devises Shadows Similituds Evasions and Elusions shal be amply agitated and aptly answered 'T is said ther is a duple Decree 1. Operativ by which God 1 Devise positivly works his purpos and this would infer him to be the Author of sin 2. Permissiv by which he only Decrees to let it com to pass and this doth not make him Author of sin which is al that they maintain If it be al 't is wel let that be tried Answer Indeed God permits al sin els could be none if he would effectualy hinder it as he left Adam in the hand of his own Alâ—s 14 16. counsil to stand or fal So he suffred the Nations to walk in their own wais And stil suffers al Men to slide into sundry sins not becaus he stands in need of sin to set forth his glory but becaus he is suprem moderator of al knowing how to bring good out of evil and specialy becaus he made Man as Tertullian tels a free creature undetermined either way in his actions til he determins himself and may not be hindered from sinning by Omnipotence becaus he ordained otherwise Nor doth a permissiv Decree caus sin being meerly extrinsecal to the sinner which hath no influence on it If they intend nothing els in good earnest then a bare permission 't is granted but their main conclusion fals to ground and the debat at an end Heâ—ce their chief Coryphees reject this distinction as a fiction of
perdition decrees they shal sin that so they may be damned he dissembles like that Tyran and destrois them under colour of Justice for such sins as he draws them into appointing it as a means of their ruin 3. Want of Mercy as if he delighted in blood who rather then he wil not destroy Mens Souls decrees them to liv and dy in sin that he may destroy them Justin Martyr saith of Pagan Princes They feared Apol. l. 2 lest al should be just that they might hav none to punish which is the property of Hang-men rather then good Princes far be such foul enormities from the God of Truth and Father of Mercies Thus we see Causa patrocinio non bona pejor erit 7. It overthrows Religion and good Government 1. Becaus 7 Reason it makes sin no sin in deed but only in Opinion The Proverb is Necessity hath no Law and Creatures or actions swaied by it are free from Laws Lions are not forbid to prey Birds to fly or Fishes to swim nor any thing to doo its kind sith 't is Natural or Necessary they can doo no otherwise But Laws are given to Rational Animals which hav liberty of Wil yet not to such as hav no use of Reason nor to Men that can use it sav in thos actions that are voluntary For none is forbid to hunger thirst sleep weep laugh c. becaus thos actions and affections are necessary being trangressions of no Law and 1 John 3. 4. consequently no sins as S. John concluds Justin Martyr saith if it be destiny as the Fathers cal absolut Necessity that Men are good or bad they be neither good nor bad So Virtu and Vice wil seem nothing but in opinion only which is great Injustice and Impiety For to what purpos was the Son of God made Man and a Sacrifice for sin Why was Ministry ordained or Heaven and Hel appointed Faith the Word Sacraments and al Religious Rites are meer Fables if sin be nothing 2. Becaus it bereavs al conscience of sin for if it pleas or profit Men why shal they fear the perpetration which they cannot shun or why weep and mourn having sinned if they be necessitated sith sin is an effect of that irresistible Decree or nothing tears may be so wel spared as spent 3. Becaus it cancels the guilt of sin sith no fatal offences can justly be punished either temporaly or eternaly but Deut. 22. 25 26. Necessity must bear the blame God gav a Law If a Maid be forced to incontinence she shal not dy being rather a sufferer then sinner Tertullian saith The reward of good or evil cannot justly be given to such as are so by necessity and not freely So Nemo sit fato nocens S. Jerom Wher necessity swais ther is no place for retribution So S. Austin We place Mens nativities under no constellations that the Wil may be freed from al hand of Necessity So Epiphanius If Stars impose a necessity of sinning they may with more Justice be punished then Men shal it then be said that Gods Decree doth the same Prosper saith Gods Judgments cannot be just if Men sin by his Wil or determination So Fulgentius 'T is great Injustice if God punish one whom he doth not find but makes an Offender Epiphanius refuting the Pharees who held the Souls immortality and resurrection of the Body together with fatal necessity saith 'tis meer madnes to grant a Rusurrection and day of Gods righteous Judgment yet to say ther is any fatality or necessity in Mens actions for how can they cohere which implies that God necessitats none to sin or damnation Nor can his Judgments be just if Men be held by the Adamantin chains of necessity under the power of sinning teach or preach in words what any can to the contrary For by that position al our actions are Gods Ordinances and imaginations branches of his eternal Decree yea al events in Kingdoms and Stats necessary issues of divine Destiny which wil makes al pillars of Piety and Principles of Policy totter or tumble to ground the best Laws cannot restrain one sin the greatest rewards promot one Virtu the powerfullest Sermons convert one sinner the humblest devotions divert one Judgment nor the strongest endeavors effect any more then what wil be doon without them Gods Decree doth al in al. Prosper saith Whoever holds that Men are urged to sin or damnation by Gods Predestination as by inevitable necessity he is no Catholic Thes Men preach clean contrary in shew and dehort from sin with terrible threats of vengeance sed eui bono if Men by Decree be necessitated to doo it and hav no possible power to decline it Lazarus at Christs cal cam forth but being bound could not walk til he was loosed and let go Nor can Men repent or com to Christ so long as they ly fastned with the fetters of necessity under a fatal Decree deprived from al power of Free-wil til they shal be set at liberty by Gods cooperating Grace The Arausican Council saith That any are predestinat to sin by divine power we not only not beleev but with greatest detestation denounce Anathema to such if any be as will beleev so great an evil which shal shut up this point The Sublapsarians or Disciples of Dort Synod who like Lapwings hide their heads thinking the whol Body safe suppose Sublapsarians censured themselvs more flight-free from scandal then Antelapsarians hold That God looking on the lost lump of forsorn Mankind in Adams foreseen Fal decreed of free pleasure to send his Son in time to say som Elect Vessels by Ordinances prescribed in the Gospel but to leav the rest in the suds of their sins to perish everlastingly This Tenet shal be more pointly touched or taken in task which is faulty in many manifest respects 1. It repugns sundry pregnant places of holy Writ As I 1 Reason liv saith the Lord I hav no pleasure in a sinners death but that Ezek 33. 11. the wicked turn from his way and liv Ergo he doth not decree of free pleasure they should perish He delights not in the death of wicked Men much less of Innocents liable only to Original sin to seal up so may millions of millions under it vincible damnation meerly to shew his soveraign dominion Saint Rom. 11. 2. Paul saith God hath shut up al under unbeleef that he might hav mercy on al Here are two Al 's of equal extent al Unbeleevers and al Objects of Mercy implying that Gods wil is to hav mercy on al Unbeleevers if they wil turn from infidelity If then every Man is under Mercy God hath no antecedent John 3 16 7 18. Wil to exclud som from al possibility of obtaining it God so loved the World as he gav his only begotten Son that whoever beleevs in him should not perish Ergo he loved al lying in the lump of sin sending his Son to be a Saviour but hated
sin to one and punish him for it with eternal death or to ordain Men to perdition simply without looking at sin but they say he may doo the one without wrong to Justice Ergo the other So saith Doctor Twiss If God may decree Men to Hel for Adams sin derived to them by his sole constitution he may so justly doo it without any such ordination Indeed 't is al one to decree a Mans misery as to involv him in a sin which shal make him miserable but neither is just nor agreeable to the Judg of the World Is it justice to require Faith in Christ of thos to whom he hath by flat decree denied it Yet so they fain God to doo For Zanchy saith Every Man sans exception even Reprobats is bound to beleev that he is chosen in Christ to salvation or els he sins grievously as Christ saith The Spirit shal convince the World of sin becaus they beleeved not in me This they generaly hold yet absolut Reprobats John 16 9 cannot justly be bound to beleev becaus barred by divine Decree and hav no power to doo it shal any be tied to impossibilities If al be immutable more Medorum their endevor is vain and al preaching vain For 't is not Gods serious Wil they shal beleev whom he doth not furnish with necessary power but rather the contrary that they shal not beleev The Devils hav no part in Christ or the new Covenant and therfore not bound to beleev in the one nor punishable for transgressing the other no more can God justly require Faith of Reprobats or destroy them for not beleeving if they hav no more part in Christ or the Covenant then Devils which wil make the doctrin that Christ died for al Men a flatâ—ly What can be more injust then to punish Men for omitting to doo which his own Decree makes impossible for them to perform Som answer that Gods Decree is just tho it seem hard to 1 Defens Mans erring understanding This is fals and the contradictory tru that nothing is truly Answer just which human understanding purged from prejudication hath in al places and persons judged unjust becaus God by Natures light and general notions of good and evil of just and unjust imprinted in Mens hearts sufficient ability to judg in such cases If a Man bids his Son or Servant to eat and punish him for not eating yet resolvs he shal hav no meat may we not say he is unjust both in the precept and punishment Semblably 't is in God sith Virtues in Men are but the Image of his perfections being in substance the same tho infinitly differing in degrees God cals Men to be judges of his wais and Ezek. 18. 25. works judg ye hous of Israel are not my wais equal and yours unequal The high mysteries of Christs Incarnation birth by a Virgin resurrection of the Body and such like which are proper objects of Faith God never offers to Mens trial but rather derides those which presume to judg them by Reason becaus they be supernatural and Man no competent judg by natural understanding but he makes him judg in the equity of his Decrees and Wais who is able to discern what is just in divine acts Others say the Scriptures define thes Decrees to be 2 Defens Gods Wil which is the rule of righteousnes Ergo they must needs be just This Rule is much abused by the Patrons of absolut Reprobation Answer for Gods Wil is no rule of justice to himself as if things were just becaus he wils or works them but his justice is rather a rule of his Wil and Works who decrees and executs becaus they agree to that justice which dwels in the divine Nature So S. Jerom saith God commands nothing sav what is honest but doth not make things honest which are abominable implying that he doth not wil a thing and so make it good but willeth it becaus 't is antecedently good So Zanchy makes Gods justice antecedent to his wil and therfore the rule of it rather then regulated by it nor can God wil ought which is not just in it self So Gods Wil is no rule of justice to himself but to us who must square al our thoughts words and works by it as suprem rule of them Nor are thes absolut decrees of salvation and damnation any parts of his reveled Wil in Scripture which to assert is to beg the question This is al their ground to gain credit as al sects use to doo but a fals foundation unles they may sens it as they list For absolut Reprobation repugns right reason and begets absurdities which no Truths doth sith sundry truths are reveled in holy Writ abov reason but none contrary to it Faith and Reason Scripture and Nature are Gods excellent gifts which never diametraly differ tho ther is a disproportion betwen them if then absolut Reprobation be unjust it cannot be justified by Scripture Therfore to say Gods Wil is the rule of Justice and this a part of his reveled Wil both which propositions are untru is but a sly evasion and colorable collusion They say farther That God is not bound to restore Men power 3. Defens to beleev having lost it by their own fault as a Master is not tied to renew his Servants stock having misimploied it 'T is tru God is bound to none being a most free dispenser Answer of his own favors wher what and to whom he wil sith none is afore hand with him Who hath given to him first and it shal not be recompenced again Yet is he conditionaly bound both by decreing being liable to his own Ordinance or els should be mutable by promising which is a kind of debt â—ith 't is just to perform and by giving Men a Law to keep which without supernatural Grace they cannot When God commanded his Creatures to increas and multiply he gav them a generativ faculty when Christ bad the lame Man rise and walk he added ability to his lims so when the suprem Law-giver imposeth a Law he givs the people power to keep it els he becoms a hard Master as the evil Servant stiled his reaping wher he sowed not being the tru proper caus of transgressing it When God gav Adam a spiritual Law to obey he conferred such strength answerable to doo it as S. Austin saith he had a power or possibility not to fal tho not such as he could not fal To apply al If God entred into a new Covenant with Men which he needed not and required obedience of al promising eternal life to thos that observ it and everlasting death to such as disobey then no doubt he is bound to restore ability of beleeving unto al nor can justly punish the disobedient without it no more then a Magistrat having put out an Offenders eys can require him to read and put him to death for not reading so 't is injustice in God to punish such for not beleeving
had never been born or had being and cursed his birth day Som say he spake out of human passion in the present sens of his pain yet any being is better then none A â—illy shift surely he preferred the loss of al being before such a wretched being as 't is usualy said 't is better dy once then be stil dying and Salâ—mon Eccles 4. 1 2 3 thinks the same Yea Christ in this very case saith of Judâ—s Wo to that Man by whom the Son of Man is bâ—traâ—â—d it had Mat. 26. 24. bin good for him he had never bin born As if he should say the Traitor shal be damned therfore it had been happy if he never had received life He speaks not according to Mens opinions as Dunses being put to a non plus say of Aristolâ— Loquiturix aliorum sententia but realy Wil not every one chuse to vanish into a thousand nothings rather then be intolerably tortured in body for ever or afflicted with the gnawing worm of Conscience But the fear of annihilation can never doo what the terror of Hel doth For carnal Epicures excite one another to enjoy the present pleasures presented upon a fals perswasion that they shal hav no being after death How much more then would they walow in sin and sensuality if they conceived to hav a being in Hel better then no being at al But ungodly livers sensible of Hel tremble at the thought of it as the most terrible of al terrors and somtime refrain from their darling sins which fear of being annihilated could never doo Seneca speaking of one who so feared death as he desired to L. 17. Epist Ep. 107. endure any extremity if he might liv cals it a most sordid wish becaus in al evils he feared that which was the end of al evils even the privation of his being So certes they must be conceived and censured sensless stocks or stones who think a tormented being in Hel a lesser or lighter evil then no being at al. Sir Fr. Bacon refuts this Mathematical Position as he cals it that ther is no proportion between somthing and nothing therfore the degree of privation is greater then that of diminution wherto he excepts that 't is fals in sundry cases specialy this of Hel wher a total privation far excels a diminution Som evils and pains haply being but smal or short are less then annihilation and one had better bear them then lose his being becaus he may afterward attain so many desirable things as wil more then countervail his sufferings but if his torments be many and matchless yea endless too that he cannot joy in the good which remains leaving no more but a poor comfortless entity it were ten thousand times better for him to hav no being The ground of this reply 'T is better to be then hav no being is a sly sophism a non distributo ad distributum tru in som cases but not in al particulars S. Jerom expounding Christs words of Judas saith They plainly import that 't is better hav no being then an everlasting tormentful being The result is That the unavoidable damnation of so many millions cannot be absolutly or antecedently intended by God with out high in justice For Plutâ—rch speaking of Pagans who to pacify their Gods fury sacrificed Men Women Children saith It had been far better to deny the being of any God as Diagoras with others did then confes he delights in Mans blood so we may say 't is better be an Atheist and deny God then make him a Soul destroier Eusebius speaks against Pagans cruel Gods If they had any spark of goodnes they would be disposed to doo good and desire to â—av al Men but not delight in their slaughter and concluds them to be Devils or evil Spirits becaus they would doo good if they were good as the Evil use to doo evil To end al Prosper saith God created al Men but none for this end to be damned the reason why we are created is one and why damned another Al which premisses considered let none confide or presume A Christian Cavâ—at too far on the certitud of Election that he shal infallibly persever til the end but stil work out his salvation with fear and trembling Nor let any diffide or despair upon denunciation of Gods absolut Decree that he is rejected or Reprobated but rely on his general Promises and use the means prescribed in the Gospel stil laboring by praiers and tears for farther degrees of divine Grace wherby he shal be saved infallibly rather then any overweening presumptuous Pharisee sith the end is attained by the means I profes my self no Divine nor fit to handle such high Theological Theories but hav only gleaned or gathered som scattered ears of Corn from several fields brought into one Barn that every one may take what he likes best To say with Supralapsarians That God decreed Mans Fal Summary of free pleasure to shew his power is perilous To define with Sublapsarians That God upon foresight of Adams fal elected a few and reprobated the rest without respect to his Prescience of their obedience or disobedience no less erroneous To hold with Doctor Overald That God offers sufficient Grace to al but more abundant effectual to the Elect frivolous sith the want of efficacy is in every self So to maintain with the common Lutherans That God from foreknowledg of every Mans works decreed to sav som of free Mercy and pass by the rest to perish in their sins is obnoxious to exceptions becaus it makes him an accepter of persons But to assert That God upon simple Prescience of Adams fal and every Individuals demerits in receiving or refusing Grace if he should creat them decreed the means and maner of Redemption with the Covenants or Conditions prescribed and proclamed in the Gospel which seems most veracious to conspire best with al divine Attributs In fine Prescience of pure simple Intelligence preceds al Divine State of the Theorem Decrees in order of Nature wherby God regulated the whol work or Mystery of Predestination both concerning Angels and Mankind But his knowledg of Vision or Seing folows his Wil and Decree Which if Calvinists intend by excluding it from Election and Reprobation their Tenets may in som sort seem tru or tolerable touching pure pleasure but then 't is nihil ad Rhombuâ—â— sith the first only of simple Prescience hath place in Predestination and not the last of Vision So thos doleful discords betwixt Brethren are slight Sciomachies with Ghosts and Goblins grounded on mutual mistakes of ech other while Lutherans say God founded al his Decrees on pure Prescience and Calvinists refer it to his free pleasure without respect of Vision or Prevision Dicere nil superest hic terminus ultimus esto Nought more rests to disclose Be this the last perclose Scire praeit sed velle suo venit ordine certe Decretum sequitur velle perenne Dei To
obey God rather then Men. Brav Men by their own report but doo not al Sects say the same like the Pharisee who praied O God I thank thee 1 am not as other Men Now hear Luke 18 11. their Eulogies of the Disciplin T is the only band of unity bane of Heresy punisher of sin cherisher of righteousnes pure perfect and ful of goodnes ordeined for Gods honor the Peoples health and al Nations happines The most beautiful order of Government substantial form of Christs Regiment and best Gold to build Gods Church which wil make hir a chast Spous bright as the morning fair as the Moon cleer as the Sun and terrible as an Army with Banners The establishing of this Presbytery is the ful placing of Christ in his Kingdom and Scepter wherby he ruleth among Men caled by St. Paul The ground pillar of truth It is the blade of a shaken sword in the Cherubins hand to keep the Tree of Life and chief Throne of al excellence wherin God sits The Temporal Empire is a subaltern under-Court to decide Causes by dictat direction or mandat of the Ecclesiastic Consistory which is Keeper or Overseer of the Civil The Spiritual Jurisdiction so far excels the secular in degree or dignity as ouâ— Soul surpasseth the Body or Heavenly blessings transcend Earthly benefits Such Ministers as prefer Civil Magistrats to Ecclesiastic flatter them lucre and belly fare but the Presbyterial Consistory is Christs Tribunal from which is no appeal wherto the mightiest Monarchs are liable being al Sheep equaly subject to their Shepherds 'T is the safest Shield for a State to prevent Sedition and Rebellion to cut off contention and Law-suits to draw divers from other Trades to study Divinity restoring Men from blindnes to sight darknes to light prophanenes to purity and piety Then wil be unity in the Church when can ye tel if al Sects stil swarm so Papists quail Anabaptists wail and Atheists fail but the People shal find perfection of Justice the Nobility be righted and the Commons comforted then wil God cloth our Priests with salvation and satisfy the Poor with Bâ—ead His Saints shal shout for joy and al ends of the Earth fear him Sir Thomas Mores Vtopia is a meer Anarchy compared to this peerless Polity of Presbyterial parity But their somtime best beloved Brethren Brown Barow Greenwood vilify them and deprav that Disciplin ten times more then thes boasters magnify both whos derogations detractations and defamations for modesty sake shal be superseded to shun scandal slander and scurrility Two Questions were of old debated by Divines chosen on Upshot both sides 1. Whether the word Bishop was ever used in any Church for every Pastor and Presbyter or for one only who ruled both Priests and People within his precincts 2. Whether the name Elder was ever taken in the new Testament or by the Fathers for meer Laics or Ministers only the resolution of both which shal be referred to the premisses which every Man having perused may easily decide or determin to avoid prolixity and Tautology Presbytery is of divine right as instituted by Christ in caling Summarâ— and sending seventy Disciples to preach and confirmed by the Apostles in Ordeining Elders every wher so is Episcopat of equal right on the same score of Christs chusing twelv Apostles and their substituting Bishops to succed in Government but Presbyterial Polity without Prelats by a motly mixture of Ministerial and Laical Elders is a meer novity devised for a shift by Mr. Calvin in case of necessity when the Genevans had expelled their Soveraign Bishop and were destitut of Ecclesiastic Disciplin This is irrefragable verity in point of fact maugre al contradiction Thes three foregoing Theses are transacted too tediously but in the first Traduction of every particular Soul from Parents in the secund Gods Prescience of simple Intelligence which in Order of Nature preceds al Decrees in the third a joint Government of the Head with the Body which is monstrous to sever them wil salv al scruples that can be objected or imagined which no other way can possibly promiss or perform Quale sit a Mundi genesi per secula Cleri Continuum regimen praevia scripta probant What Church-rule from the Worlds birth stil hath bin Through al times may by previous proofs be seen Antistes Caput est Cleri sed Presbyteratus Seâ—uâ— Corpus Episcopii Jâ—s utriusque patet A Bishop is Clergies Head but Presbytry Both's right is cleer Body of Episcopy Historia haec recitat qua recta Ecclesia forma Praesidibusque quibus tempus in omne fuit How through al times the Church was governed And by what Rulers in Story is rehersed Spirituale fuit Regimen pro more Monarchae Aliteâ— Sic Deus instituit Christus idemque tulit Church Goverment was set in Kingly frame So God ordain'd and Christ upheld the same Saera Dei Coetus Politia est condito ab Orbe Aliâ—â— Vsque ad Apostolicos rite redacta dies Gods Churches Regiment from the Worlds Creation Is rightly drawn down to th'Apostles station Presbyteris in Clero ascitus Episcopus omni 〈◊〉 Semper Apostolico jâ—re supremus erat Bishops in al Clergies were set Superior To Priests by Apostolic right stil Inferior Schismatisi suncti rite Haereticique vocantur 〈◊〉 Qui male Praelatis opposuere suis Al that oppos'd their Prelats wrongfully Are Schismatics and Heretics cal'd justly THESIS IIII. Praedictiones de Messia Predictions of Messias THer be manifold manifest Prophecies in the old Testament of the Messiah or Saviour of the World stiled by Jacob Shiloh of whos coming in the â—â—â—sh the Prophets foretold which was fulfilled in the fulnes of time Wherupon the Jews ever since expect his glorious reign on Earth like a King in great extern pomp as Mahometans vainly look for their Pseudoprophets return and Millenars apply it to Christs secund coming with his Martyrs and many eminent Saints raised from death which shal reign with him here victoriously 1000. yeers at whos first approch the Jews shal be converted and acknowledg him their tru Messias Al which predictions concerning Messiah to com were accomplished in and by Christ at his first coming to suffer for the sins of Mankind nor is any els to be expected til his last coming to general Judgment as shal evidently appeer by comparing thirty two Prophecies with St. Matthews Parallels in the Table subscribed Isai 7. 14. Mat. 1. 23. Mich. 5. 2. Mat. 2. 6. Isai 11. 1. Mat. 2. 15. Jer. 31. 15. Mat. 2. 18. Judg. 13. 5. Mat. 2. 23. Isai 40. 3. Mat. 3. 2. Isai 9. 1. Mat. 4. 15. Levit. 14. 4. Mat. 8. 4. Isai 53. 4. Mat. 8. 17. Isai 61. 1. Mat. 11. 4. Isai 42. 1. Mat. 12. 17. Jonah 1. 17. Mat. 12. 40. Isai 6. 9. Mat. 13. 14. Psal 78. 2. Mat. 13. 35. Isai 35. 5. Mat. 15. 30. Isai 62. 11. Mat. 21. 5. Zech. 9. 9. Mat.
then the Sun are shadowed with death Thos Ears inured to heavenly Harmony are filled with scofs and scorns Thos Lips that spake as never Man did are wet with Gal and Vineger Thos hands which swaied Heavens Scepter cary the Reed of reproch and are fastned to the Tree Thos Feet to which al powers of Hel were a Foot-stool are nailed to the Foot-stool of the Cross That whol Body conceived by the holy Ghost is scourged wounded mangled yet al this but the outside of his sufferings but the innner part or Soul of his pains is so far beyond thos sensitiv torments as the Soul surpasseth the Body or Gods wrath Mans malice What the infinit sins of innumerable Men committed against an infinit Majesty deserved in infinit durance al this he in a short space of his Passion suffred or susteined which made him cry My God my God why doost thou forsake me he was affrighted with terrors perplexed with griefs distraught with both It was not so much for millions of Men to despair as for him to fear yet never was any so afraid of Hel as he of his Fathers wrath for our sins and in our steads Thus his Incarnation Nativity Birth place Life Death Burial Resurrection Ascention sitting at Gods right hand with many mo circumstanees of Judas treason and reward the Jews rejecting him and crucifying among Theefs were al divinely foretold of the Messias to com and directly fulfilled in or by Christ to whom only they fitly and fully agree For he is the Womans Seed which should break the Serpents head and in whom al Nations of the Earth shal be blessed The other testimonies touching the time and truth of Messias coming that he shal be of Davids linage born of a pure Virgin perfect God and Man yea a Spiritual eternal King no Temporal or Terrestrial make up a cloud of witnesses to convince the Jews that Jesus Christ is the only tru forepromised Messiah to whom be rendred al Glory Honor Prais and Power for ever Al which might be infinitly inlarged but for brevity omitted Supplementum Pietatis In the Practise of Piety THe Souls Soliquy at end of the Practis of Piety in contemplation Conclusion of Christs Passion shal shape a Catastrophe to thes divine Meditations What hast thou doon sweet Saviour to be betraied by Judas sold to the Jews and led bound as a Lamb to the slaughter What evil didst thou commit to be openly arraigned falsly accused and unjustly condemned what was thy offens or whom didst thou ever wrong to be so pitifully scourged with whips crowned with thorns scoffed with flouts buffeted with fists and beaten with stafs Lord what didst thou deserv to hav thy face spit on thy hands and feet nailed thy self lifted up on a cursed Tree to be crucified with Theefs to drink Gal and Vineger yea to hav thy innocent heart pierced with a spear and pretious blood spilt before thy blessed Mothers eys sweet Saviour how much wast thou afflicted to endure al this when I am so affrighted or amazed but to think of it which made thee cry as if God had forsaken thee being al for Mans sake forsaken of God I inquire for thy offens but can finde none no not any guile in thy mouth thy Enemies are chalenged and none dare rebuke thee of sin the Officers sent to apprehend thee testify That never Man spak like thee thy suborned Accusers agree not in their witnes the Judg publicly cleered thy Innocence his wife warned him by a dream that thou was 't a just Man and he should doo no injustice to thee the Centurion confessed thee of a truth to be the Son of God the Theef hanging with thee justified thee to hav doon nothing amiss What then Lord is the caus of thy cruel ignominy passion and death 'T is I am the caus of thy sorows my sins of thy shame my iniquities of al thy sufferings I committed the fault and thou art plagued I guilty and thou punished I deserved death and thou crucified O the depth of Gods lov and unmeasurable measure of his Mercy the wicked transgressed and the just apprehended the guilty escaped and Innocent arraigned the Malefactor acquited and Harmless condemned the Servant did the sin and Master bore the stroke I committed the crime and thou hangedst on the Cross O Son of God who can condignly express thy lov commend thy pity or extol thy prais I was proud and thou humbled I obstinat and thou obedient I ate the forbidden fruit and thou hangedst on the cursed Tree I plaid the Glutton and thou fastedst I tasted the sweetnes of the Garden and thou drankest the biternes of Gal fond Eve smiled when I laughed but blessed Mary wept when thy heart bled and died Now gracious Lord sith thou hast indured al this for my sake what shal I retribut for al thy benefits I ow already for my Creation more then I am able to pay being bound with al my powers to lov and adore thee If I ow my whol self for creating me of nothing what shal I render for giving thy self to redeem me at so deer a ransom when I was wors then nothing Surely Lord if I cannot pay such thanks as I ow for who can pay thee who givest thy Graces without respect of merit or regard of measure 't is the abundance of thy Blessings which make me a Bankrupt being so far unable to pay the principal as I cannot satisfy any part of the interest For Lord thou knowest since the loss of thy Image by our first Parents fal that I cannot lov thee with al my might and mind as I should therfore as thou first didst cast thy lov on me being a Child of wrath and lump of the lost World so now I beseech thee shed abroad thy Grace through al my faculties and affections that though I can never pay such merit of lov as thou meritest yet I may repay in such maner as thou deignest to accept in Mercy that in truth of heart I may lov my neighbour for thy sake and thee abov al for thâ—ne own sake Let nothing be pleasant to me which doth not pleas thee suffer me not to be a cast away whom thy pretious blood hath bought Let me never forget the ineffable benefit of my redemption whitout which it had bin better never to be then to hav any being Sith then thou hast vouchsafed thy holy Spirits assistance suffer me Heavenly Father who art Father of Spirits by thy Sons mediation to speak a few words in the ears of my Lord. If thou despisest me for my iniquities as I deserv yet shew Mercy for thy Sons merits who suffered so much for me Behold the mysterie of his Incarnation and remit the misery of my transgression so oft as his wounds appeer in thy sight let my sins be hid from thy presence so oft as the rednes of his blood glisters in thy eys let my sin be blotted out of thy Book The lust of my
flesh provoked thee to wrath O let his chastity procure thy Mercy that as my pollution seduced me to fal so his purenes may reduce me to thy favour My disobedience deservs sharp revenge but his obedience merits much more Mercy for what can Man deserv to suffer which God that made Man cannot merit to be forgiven When I ponder the greatnes and grievousnes of his Passion I see the saying tru That Jesus Christ can into the World to sav the chiefest sinners Darest thou then O Cain cry thy sins are greater then can be forgiven thou liest like a murderer the Mercies and merits of one Christ are sufficient to sav millions of Cains if they wil beleev and repent For al sins are finit but Gods Mercies and Christs Merits infinit therfore O Father for his bitter death and bloody passion pardon al my sins deliver me from the vengeance they hav deserved and let his merits make me partaker of thy Mercies My importunity shal never ceas to cal and knock with the Man that would borow the Loafs til thou open the gate of thy Grace If thou wilt not bestow the Loafs yet Lord vouchsafe the Crums of thy Mercy which shal suffice thy hungry Hand-maid Lastly sith thou requirest nothing but to lov thee in truth of heart wherof a new Creature is the truest outward testimony and 't is so easy for thee to make me such as bid me be so Creat in me O Christ a new heart and renew a right spirit within me then shalt thou see how mortifying old Adam and his corrupt lusts I wil serv thee as a new Creature in a new life after a new way with a new toung new words and new works to the glory of thy name and gaining of other sinful Souls to the Faith by my devout exemple Keep me for ever dear Saviour from Hels torment and Satans tyranny So when I shal leav this life send thy holy Angels to carry me as they did Lazarus Soul into thy Kingdom receiv me into that most joiful Paradise which thou promisedst to the penitent Theef who at last gasp so earnestly begged mercy and admission into thy Kingdom Grant this O sweet Saviour for thy names sake to whom I ascribe as is most du al Prais power and glory for evermore Postscriptum sacratum A very pious Postscript THis Appendix is annexed chiefly to the premisses out of Mr. Henry Smiths Arrow against Atheists to this effect The main marks of Messiah to com were manifested in Christ alone specialy how the Jews should not know or acknowledg Psal 12. 22 Isâ—i 53. 3. him but reject and refuse him to the end he might be doon to death for Mans salvation according to Gods determinat Decree For if they had received him as the tru Messias surely he had not bin so But becaus they denied derided and put him to death doubtless he was so Al particular Promises and Prophecies pointing out the Messiah were fulfilled in him or by him as that the Womans seed should break the Serpents head that a Virgin should bear him the Birth place Bethleem al Infants thereabouts slain for his sake Kings to adore him with presents of Gold and other gifts he should be presented at Jerusalem for the greater glory of the secund Temple fly into Egypt and be caled thence a Star should shew his coming into the World John Baptist caled Elias becaus he cam in his Spirit and Power should go as a Messenger or Usher to prepare the way before him and cry in the Desart that he should be poor abject and despised of Men preach with al humility and meeknes of spirit doo many miracles and heal al Diseases be slain for Mens sins betraied by his own Disciple which dipped in the dish with him be sold for thirty silver peeces with which a Potsherd field must be bought the Traitor to be cut off and another take his Office he should ride into Jerusalem on an Asses Foal be apprehended arraigned beaten buffeted scourged spit on his hands and feet nailed his side pierced he to drink Vineger and be crucified among Malefactors his cloaths divided and lots cast for his Coat but not a bone broken he should rise from death the third day ascend into Heaven and sit at his Fathers right hand as a Conqueroâ— Al which were pointly verified in him or perfectly performed by him The time of Messias coming concurs soly in Christ for Daniel foretold how in the fourth Monarchy the eternal King Dan. 2. 39 44. shal com and build Gods Kingdom through the World which befel under Augustus Caesar founder or establisher of that Agge 2. 8. Empire Agge foreshewed that the desired of al Nations shal com and the secund hous filled with greater glory then the first for Herod built and beautified it outwardly in great pomp and Christ graced it inwardly with his glorious presence yea Malachy Mal 3. 1. saith He shal com during the secund Temple and Daniel Dan 9. 26. That it shal not be demolished til Messias be slain who foretold its destruction Jacob told his Sons That the Scepter shal not Gen 49. 10. depart from Juda til Shiloh com which is the Gentils expectation Al which circumstances completly cohere with Christs first coming in the appointed time He must be an everlasting Psal 89. 3. 4. King for God saith I hav sworn to David my Servant I wil prepare thy Seed for ever and build up thy seat to al generations which cannot sort to Solomon for his Kingdom was rent by Jeroboam and after suppressed by Nabuchodonosor nor can the words for ever be applyed to any temporal King but eternal which must descend from Davids loins and linage This Premist Jer. 23 5 6. God confirms saying Behold the dais com that I wil rais up to David a righteous seed he shal reign a King to doo judgment and justice on Earth in his dais Juda shal be saved and Israel dwel safely and this is the name men shal cal him Our just God To whom can this consort sav to the Son of God caled Catexockâ—n the Son of David who was his Father in the flesh and bore his type or figure Hence Ezekiel and Hose stile the Messiah David Ezâ—k 34 33. Hos 3. 5. being to descend of his seed I wil set over them a Shepherâ— even David my Servant he shal be their Shepherd and I wil be their God and my Servant David a Prince among them Now becaus the Jews look for Messias to be a Temporal King to reign in Judea and subdu their Enemies as Chiliasts deem or dream he shal doo at next coming with his Martyrs the confutation of their fond conceipt wil be a strong confirmation of the contrary For their expected time of the Messias as the Mahometans of their fals Prophet is long ago expired yet no such Terren King ever reigned ther and it repugns Scripture Daniel cals him An eternal King and
proper soly to himself but spiritual communion common to al the Faithful We beleev Adam was a tru Man yet not begot by Man nor born of Woman but formed by God of the Virgin Earth as Irenaeus cals it And Eve a very Woman yet had no Father nor Mother but made of Adams rib Why then can any doubt that Christ was a tru Man though not begot by Man but framed of Davids seed in the Virgins womb by the holy Ghost for 't is fit sith the first Adam was moulded by Gods hand the secund should be made by the same without Mans concurrence that he might hav a semblance or similitud of production like the first Thus Gods Son becam the Son of Man of David of Abram of Adam why then doo we not beleev that the Sons of Adam and Abram folowing the Adoption shal becom the Sons of God For 't is stranger that God should be made Man in shape of a Servant to suffer death on Earth then that Man shal be exalted to reign in Heaven yet the first is doon why then doth any diffide of the last sith he died not in vain The next to Abram compriseth ten Fathers Sem Arphaxad 2 Sect. Salah Heber Peleg Reu Sarug Nahor Terah Abram but Luke superads Cainan after Arphaxad from the septuagints version however crept in by Transcribers mistake not found in Moses Canon which is the sole foundation of authentic Note authority Here note that of Noahs three Sons Mankinds sires or stock Fathers after the Flood God chos Sem the secund to be Christs Father after the Flesh who tho Sem had sundry Sons yet passing by al selects Arphaxad and contracting his Covenant into narower lists or limits confines it to Hebers family being content to be caled the God of Gen. 9. 26. 27. Sem which is the first time he is named the God of one more then another Yet let not us of Japhets linage be danted or dismaied but rely on his promiss pacted with Sem to perswad Japhet to dwel in his Tents or allure his posterity to embrace the Covenant made with Sems family which is since fulfilled For he dwelt in Sems hous from their first being a Nation under Moses abov 1600. yeers and in Japhets from their union into Christ abov 1600. mo having visited us also in the ends of the Earth So though our Parents be not among Christs Progenitors after the Flesh which is the Jews privilege by natural generation yet being united by Faith we com of him by spiritual affinity through the Grace of regeneration from which they are excluded without tru repentance and reception The third to David includs thirteen Fathers Isaac Jacob 3 Sect. Juda Pharez Ezram Aram Aminadab Naasson Salmon Booz Obed Jesse David Wher mark how 't is said Jacob Note begot Juda and his Brethren not Abraham begot Isaac and his Brethren to shew that al Abrahams Sons tho Circumcised belong not to the Covenant nor did God chuse their Posterities to be his Church or peculiar People as he did Jacobs Sons and their Seed For to them pertained the Adoption Glory Rom. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Covenant giving the Law Gods Service and Promisses What a Prerogativ is this Al Jacobs issu partake of external Adoption not so al Abrahams to import that Gods caling is free being Debtor to none Therfore such as are outwardly caled should be much more thankful for his mercy sith he hath passed by so many of Adams and Japhets families far more famous then us with whom he deigned to Covenant remembring that sundry are externly Adopted which are not elected by Grace Here is a doubt or demand why Thamar who subtly Question sought seed by Incest of her Father in Law Juda Rahab by Nation a Canaanit by Conversation a Courtezan and Bathsheba guilty of Adultery with David if not accessary of hir Husband Vria's death are numbred among Christs carnal Mothers but Sara and Rebecca renowned for conjugal chastity omitted Three special reasons are rendred 1. To humble the Jews Answer who greatly gloried to be Abrahams Of-spring but folowed not his Virtues deeming their prosapy a sufficient patrociny for al vices to which end their Parents crimes are purposly pourtraied that al may know how tru Nobility lies not in preemmence of Blood or Birth but the Graces of mind and Mens personal maners which make a Man Hence Nazianzen replied to one that upbraided his mean discent my Parentage perhaps is a reproach to me but thou to thy Progenitors 2. To comfort poor penitent Sinners for Christ cam not as a Judg to chastise Mens misdeeds but a Phisition to cure our maladies who assumed our Nature to clens us from sin 3. To set forth Christs great Glory who took no holines from his Ancestors for if they al had excelled in piety it had bin litle for him to be holy but discending from sinners yet born sinless he is manifested to be the chief high Priest holy Heb. 7. 26. harmless undâ—filed seperat from sinners and higher then the Heavens Therfore Papists pretending his honor in asserting the blessed Virgin to be conceived sans sin doo indeed dishonor him as if he had holines of Nature from hir and could not be born sinless unles she had bin so conceived Cannot the holy Ghost discern Davids seed from sinful contagion Yes he sanctified and separated it from sin to make it the Lords Body St. Bernard blamed the Chanons of Lyons for instituting hir Fest of sinless conception taxing it as presumptuous novity and termed it Mother of temerity Sister of superstition and Daughter of levity For 't is Christs peculiar perogativ who must sanctify al to be conceived free from sin Hence he concluded that the glorious Virgin wil gladly want such honor wherby sin seems to be advanced and fucatious sanctity introduced Another point to be pondered is that Salmon begot Booz by Rahab a Canaanit and Booz Obed by Ruth a Moabit both Gentils yet Christs Mothers which may comfort Gentils That God is no Accepter of persons but whoever Gab. 3. 28. Acts 4. 12. cals on his name the only Name under Heaven Christ Jesus shal be saved The fourth to Zerobabel Records a Role of Fathers wher 4 Sect. Matthew draws a line by Salomon Luke by Nathan his whol Brother Here a doubt occurs how Christ could descend from both Which is resolved that the Jews provided if a Man died Issuless his Brother or next Kinsman must marry his Wife to rais up seed Now Solomons race ended in Jeconiah the 1 Chron. 3. 17. eighteenth after him who died Childless as Jeremy foretold yet 't is said he had Sons meaning Successors For Salathiel Son to Neri steps in as Heir stiled by Matthew Jeconiahs Son viz. Legal and Regal For they reckoned a duple descent 1. Natural by direct generation one from another 2. Legal by collateral succession of next Kin. Hence grew the Evangelists several intentions Luke drawing Christs
cleer'd wee see THESIS VII Christi regnum in terra Christs millenar reign THis is a very dubious dogmat or difficil debat raised Preamble in the Apostles dais which som Orthodox Fathers defended but others decried and detested the chief grounds wherof on both sides shal be sincerely delivered specialy from Rob Baily a Scot on the Negativ part and Joseph Mede a most learned Divine for the Affirmitiv Tros Tyriusque mihi nullo discrimino agetur Cerinthus a prime pestilent Heretic hatchd this Cockatrice Pedigree which Papias an Apostolic Man fostered and Justin Martyr much favored whos steps other primitiv Fathers specialy Lactantius mor or less folowed yet in after ages the Catholic Church and som Oecumenic Councils condemned it So it lay long buried in obscurity or oblivion til som late Anabaptists and Independents their Allies raked it out of grav Howbeit al Protestants rejected it since revicton til Alsted returning from Transylvania renewed som parts of this poison which Piscator a Man more heady and humorous then judicious swalowed but they disagree in divers points as Sectists use to doo Thes laid the foundation but Mr. Archer advanced the main fabric which Mr. Burroughs in his London Lectures on Hosea pressed as a most comfortable Article of Christian Religion to be instilled into the hearts of al tru Beleevers Sundry other Sectators published or proclamed it with Trumpets who like Presbyterians which wherever they find Elders named think it rings a peal for their motly Disciplin wrest the one thousand yeers mentioned by David Peter and John to Christs millenar reign in person on Earth before or at the general Judgment straining Scriptures to serv their turn Cerinthus to justify his invention fathered it on St. John as Fiction if Christ whispered it to his best beloved Disciple not to be divulged for an Apostolic Tradition nor is it probable that if John received it as a secret he would revele it to that vile Heretic whom he so hated that seing him com into a public Bath instantly left it bidding his Disciples com off lest the hous fal on them which befel accordingly on Cerinthus and his folowers with som others crushing them to death That John imparted it to him is a fond fiction but whether he delivers it in the Apocalyps a grand question The Chiliasts teach that Christ in his Human glory shal Positions com from Heaven into Palestin som say A. 1655. now at hand or 1695. at farthest wher the Jews from al parts shal resort to rebuild Jerusalem and folow him as the tru Messiah who is to reign with al his Martyrs and som select Saints raised from death one thousand yeers before the general Resurrection During which Millenium he shal go in person to subdu al stubborn Nations except a few lurking in corners Then shal the Church of convert Jews and Gentils liv peacably from any Enemy and free from sin without the Word Sacraments or other Ordinances in al Worldly delights eating drinking getting Children and enjoying al lawful pleasures til thos yeers expire at end wherof the Infidels remaining in numberless Troops shal besiege new Jerusalem but Christ with fire from Heaven shal destroy them al and immediatly descend to the last Judgment at general Resurrection of good and bad according to their works Master Burroughs in his Treatis Chap. 37. cald Moses choice speaks thus If the opinion be tru which I dare not deny of Christs coming to reign a thousand yeers on this Earth before the last Day ther are riches of glory prepared for the Saints here els cannot I expound many places of Scripture specialy Rev. 20. 5 6 7. The rest of the dead lived not again til the thousand yeers were finished which is the first Resurrection blessed and holy is he which hath part therin on such the secund death hath no power but they shal be Priests of God and of Christ to reign with him a thousand yeers this is usualy interpreted of rising from sin to Grace and reigning with Christ for ever in Heaven but cannot be the true meaning for this reign must be before the Judgment day sith Satan must Rev. 20. 7. be loosed at end of it O then the riches of glory which thos that suffer for Christ shal hav being to be raised and reign with Christ For 't is said I saw Thrones and they sat on them and Rev. 20. 4. Judgment was given to them and I saw the Souls of them that were beheaded for the witnes of Jesus and Word of God which had not worshiped the Beast nor his Image nor received his mark on their forheads or hands and they reigned with Christ a thousand yeers so the more any suffer for opposing Antichrist the more glory shal they have when Christ coms to reign on Earth for I am confident he shal reign personaly * Marâ— thaâ— I wil not say in his flesh as others aver but spiritualy far more gloriously then he hath doon Thus he but more plainly in his Comment on Hosea yet he needs an Interpreter to shew how Christ can reign personaly if not in the flesh which is never separat from his person or how far more gloriously then yerst for he cam not first to reign Tho. Goodwin transcends the Talmudists that at Christs coming to reign the Lion shall feed with the Kid the Leopard and Lamb Serpent and Child shal so sympathize as not to hurt one another mans life shal be so long as an hundred yeers old shal seem a Babe with like fancies as fabulous Poets or Romanzers devise but L. 7. de divine praemio A model of the Millenium without divine warrant only they are taken from the smooth Pen-man Lactantius who being intoxicat with this conceipt thus descants The Son of God shal com to judg both quick and dead but when he hath abolished wickednes and restored the Saints to life he shal liv with men and rule them righteously a thousand yeers then those alife shal multiply infinit generations exceding Methuselahs age whos ofspring shal be holy and dear to God the rest to be raised shal rule over the living as Judges and al Gentils shal not be destroyed but som reserved to Gods victory that the just may triumphantly subdu them in perpetual servitud as the Israelits did the Gibeonits At that time the Prince of Devils Author of evil shal be bound in chains a thousand yeers when righteousnes shal reign that no hurt be perpetrated against Gods people the just shal be gathered from al the Earth and when judgment is ended the holy City shal be in midst of the Earth wher God shal abide with the reigning just then shal darknes be dispeld from the world and the Moon shal shine as the Sun never to be lessned but Sun seven fold brighter then now the Earth shal shew hir fecundity and bring forth fruit freely the Rocks and Mountains shal destil Hony Wine shall flow
without torture of Body and Mind in which sens it shal endure for ever unquenchable and the torments endlesss Yet it folows not that he so cast in shal so endure or resist it as to be eternaly burnt and tortured but never dy or be destroied Yea tho many places prov everlasting fire and torments into which Men may be cast successivly one after another for ever yet none assert that any individual Person shal perennaly abide or endure therin but he shal hav an everlasting secund Death For when Death and the Grav Hel hav delivered up the Rev. 20. 13 14. dead in them and every Man judged according to his works Death and Hel shal be cast into the Lake of Fire this is the secund Death Hence 't is cleer that every Reprobat condemned at general Judgment must suffer a secund Death after which he shal dy no more But what is meant by Mind so oft iterated if not Mans Quaere Soul The jois of eternal Life are comprised in Scripture under Eternal Life the name of Salvation or being saved which signifies to be secured either respectivly against special evils or absolutly from al as want sicknes death Now becaus Man was made immortal or immarcescible and fel from it by sin it results that to be saved from sin is to be freed from al evil and afflictions acquired by the same Ergo Remission of sin and Salvation from death and misery is al one As when Christ Mat. 9. 2 5. cured a Paralytic Man saying Friend be of good cheer or comfort thy sins be forgiven the Scribes said within themselfs he blasphems but he asked whether 't is easier to say thy sins be forgiven or arise and walk Yet he used that form of speech to shew he had power to remit sins which implies that 't is al one to the saving of the sick to say thy sins are forgiven or rise and walk For sith death and misery are punishments of sin the discharge of it releaâ—eth the other two being absolut Salvation such as the elect shal enjoy after the Judgment day by Christ Jesus favor who for that caus is caled our Saviour Touching particular Salvations from enimies or miseries 't is needless to treat but becaus the general Salvation must be in the Kingdom of Heaven ther is great debate or difficulty about the place Becaus Kingdom is an Estate ordained by Men for security Kingdom of Heaven against enimies and want it seems this Salvation which sets forth our Kings glorious reign by conquest not a safety by escape shal be on Earth For wher we expect Salvation we must look for Triumph Victory and Battle in order which cannot be supposed in Heaven and wher els we must serch the Scriptures Isaiah largely describes it To be at Jerusalem Isai 33. 20. c. a quiet habitation a Tabernacle not to be taken down The Saviour is Our Lord Judg Lawgiver King The condition of the saved is The People that dwel therin shal be forgiven their iniquities By this 't is cleer that it shal be in Jerusalem wher God shal reign at Christs next coming and fil up the Salvation of Gentils which shal be received into his Kingdom for ever Isai 66 20 21. Isaiah more expresly declares it That the Gentils who had any Jews in bondage shal bring them from al Nations on Horses Charets and Litters to Jerusalem the place of Gods John 4. 22. worship As our Saviour told the Woman of Samaria that Salvation is of the Jews or begins at them As if he should say ye worship God but know not by whom he wil sav you we know it shal be by one of Juda and not a Samaritan This Rom. 1. 16 17. St. Paul explains The Gâ—spâ—l is Gods power of Salvation to every one that beleeveth to the Jew first and also to the Greec Joel 2. 30 32. So Joel describing the Judgment day saith God wil shew wonders in Heaven and Earth Blood Fire and Pillars of smoke wherto he ads In Mount Zion and Jerusalem shal be Salvation Obad. v. 17. c. So saith Obadiah On Mount Zion shal be deliverance and holines Jacobs hous shal possess their possessions which he particularly points out by The Mount of Esau Land of Philistins fields of Ephraim Samaria Gilead and Cities of the South concluding thus The Kingdom shal be the Lords On the other side no plain pregnant place provs the Saints Ascention into Heaven sav that 't is caled the Kingdom of Heaven which was becaus he governed the Israelits by commands sent to Moses from and after sent his Son as he wil again thence or els that his Throne is Heaven and Earth his Footstool but that his Subjects or Servants shal sit so high as his Throne or abov his Footstool sutes not with the glorious Majesty of so great a King Al thes Kickshews of arguing from similituds which he Answer derides in others are soon satisfied that his subjects shal not sit on his suprem Throne as Coequals or Coordinats but only dwel as Princes Servants doo in their Palaces in his holy John 14. 2. Hous of Heaven This saith Christ hath many mansions being infinity it self wheras not a tithing paâ—â— of Mankind can possibly find place to stand on a new Earth or finit world Three Worlds are specified in Scripture 1. The old before Noahs flood wherof St. Peter speaks 2. The present of 2 Pet. 2. 5. which Christ saith My Kingdom is not of this World 3. That to com of it St. Peter saith We according to his promiss look for new Heavens and Earth which is that World wherin Christ coming in the Clouds with great glory shal send his Angels to gather the Elect from the four Winds or utmost parts of the Earth to reign over them under his Father everlastingly Thus he But wher is the World to com taken for a Real material Quaere World as the other two be 'T is not Cosmos or Mundus venturus but Seculum vita vel Aevum futurum the Time Life or Age to com Nor is ther any warrant in al Gods word for thos last words that Christ shal reign over the Saints â—iz on Earth under his Father everlastingly but that they shal reign with him 1000. yeers as Chiliasts contest Touching Understanding he saith 't is only imagination Understanding raised in Man or any Animal that can imagin by words or signs which is common to Man and Beasts As a Dog by use understands his Masters cal or check with sundry strange tricks by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 calture so doo divers other kinds yea som 〈◊〉 to speak but understanding peculiar to Man is not only to know one anothers wil but his thoughts or conceptions by the consequents of things Names into affirmations â—eâ—ations and other forms of speech of which he wil treat elswher For Witchcraft he holds it to be no real power yet are
even tru Philosophy against Laws but Ecclesiastics who are subject to any State hav no proper right to govern but al what they assum to doo is meer usurpation tho they gild it with the gloss of Gods right Tully tels that one Cassius a Roman Judg if the Witnesses could not make cleer a crime would ask the accusers Cui bono what profit the Prisoner expected by the fact For no presumption so evidently declares the guilt of an Author as the gain which he shal get by the action So in the foresaid cases it must be inquired what gain glory or greatnes accrued to any by holding the same 1. That the Church militant on Earth is Gods Kingdom of glory or Land of Promiss not that of Grace which is but a Promiss of the Land thes benefits arise to the Clergy that the Priests Pastors or Prelats acquire as Gods public Ministers or Teachers of the People a right to govern the Church and consequently the Common-wealth both being the same Persons Hence the Pope prevailed with al Christian Princes subjects to beleev that to disobey him in spiritual causes was to oppose Christ himself whos Vicar he was as St. Peters successor which in effect is to usurp an universal Monarchy over al Christendom For tho the Christian Emperors at first constituted them suprem teachers in al their Dominions under them by the title of Pontifex Maximus or cheif Prelat yet when the Empire was divided and after dissolved he easily induced People being his Subjects already to adore him as Christs Viceroy in the Church as his Kingdom of Glory so it may be presumed that he having the best benefit by this universal Monarchy was author of that Theory Afterward when Princes Stats and Churches rejected the Popes universal power the civil Soveraigns should hav reserved their right before they let it go as England in effect did sav that the Clergy maintaining their function under them to be Gods right seemed to usurp if not a Supremacy yet an independence on civil power yet seemed only acknowledging a right in the King to suppress the exercise of their function at his pleasure Indeed wher the Presbytery prevailed tho they abandoned many Romish Doctrins yet this that Christs Kingdom is already com and began at his Resurrection is stil retained Yea they claim power to excommunicat Kings as ordinary Sheep of their Fold and be sole Moderators in al matters of Religion wher they rule as the Pope chalengeth it over al Christians For to excommunicat a Soveraign is to repâ—l him from al places of public service and resist him by the Sword as they did in Scotland So to excommunicat any privat Person without the Soveraigns leav is to bereav his lawful liberty and usurp unlawful power over their Brethren To uphold this spiritual Soveraignty non minor est virtus 1 Infallibility quam quaerere parta tueri they use many Engins 1. To perswade that the Pope in his Pontifical Chair or public capacity cannot er so Presbyters would be beleeved in Pulpits 2. That Bishops hav not their right immediatly from God 2 Suoâ—ection of Bishops nor mediatly from Soveraigns but soly from the Pope that they may side with him upon al occasions wheras Presbyterians shuffle off Prelats to usurp their power 3. That al Clergy-Men Seculars and Regulars are exempt 3 Exemptions of the Clergy from power of Civil Laws who wil be protected by the State yet pay no part of public expens to prop their power nor are liable to penalties the Presbyterians wish it to themselfs 4. That their Priests must be stiled Sacerdotes Sacrificers 4 The Name Sacerdotes which was the Israelits title both of their civil Magistrat while God was King and public Ministers afterward which with makâ—ng the Lords Supper a Sacrifice puts People in beleef that the Pope hath the same power over al Christians which Moses and Aaron had over Israel both Civil and Clerical the Presbyters are intitled Elders who were chief Assistants to the Apostles 5. That Marriage is a Sacrament which givs the Clergy 5 Mariage a Sacrament authority to judg the lawfulnes of it and consequently what Children are legitimat Presbyterians pretend no proper right in this kind sav only to hav the father at Baptism testify the child to be his own which is of no great use 6. That Priests may not marry which assures the Popes 6 Priests Celibat power over sundry Princes for if a King be a Priest as many Soveraigns are Prelats he cannot marry nor transfer his Regal right to Posterity without the Popes special dispensation Presbyters are no way guilty herin who marry twise thrise or four times 7. That auticular Confession is a Sacrament wherby they 7 Auricular Confession acquire better intelligence of Princes purposes and Peoples projects in the Civil State then thes possibly can of their subâ—leties stratagems or machinations in the Ecclesiastic Polity here the Presbyterian parallel ceaseth 8. That to Canonize Saints and declare Martyrs pertains soly 8 Saints Canonization to the Pope which assures his power among simple sottish people who wil obstinatly oppose their Soveraigns either hostily or proditoriously even to death if the Pope Excommunicat or pronounce them Heretics and Enimies to the Church 9. That divers doctrins Transubstantiation Penance Absolution 9 Doctrins remitting and retaining sins greatly ratify this spiritual Monarchy among the vulgar 10. That the devise of Purgatory justification by external 10 Purgatory works and sale of Indulgences doo chiefly inrich the Clergy the subtraction wherof excited Luther to revolt from the Pope who conferred the Indulgences of al Germany on his Sister 11. That by Demonology Exorcisms and other bug Bear 11 Demonology Rites they keep or think they keep people the more under their girdle as doubtless men stand in more aw of them 12. That Aristotles Philosophy Metaphisics Physics Ethics 12 School poâ—nts Politics precited and School Divinity taught in every University erected or regulated by the Popes authority keep al thos errors from being detected and make men mistake Ignis fatuus of vain Philosophy for his very Light of the Gospel So that Roman Quaere Cui bono descries the Pope to be principal Author or Fautor of thos dark doctrins from which Good Lord deliver us Ther be three knots on Christian liberty 〈◊〉 Knots untied 1. That which the first Presbyters knit who assembling to agree what they should teach and binding themselfs to teach nothing against their assemblie Decrees deemed People obliged to folow their doctrins and forsook ther company then caled Excommunication if they refused 2. That which Presbyters of the chief City or Province got on Parochial Ministers caling themselfs Bishops or Prelats Is Quâ—â—e it not the same office or order which Saint Paul first conferred on Titus and Timothy to reside over al Presbyters in Crete and Ephesus compare them no Eg can be
fit matter wil serv as sundry Plants propagat sans Seed and som Animals of putrefaction 28. Summarily the Souls vegetant in Plants and sentient Summary in Animals whether general wherby they becom Plants and Animals or special specifical which distinguish them into Kinds are only the nobler Temperament of more activ qualities in a subtler matter whether propagated of Seed or other wais ingendered but no substances This needs no other proofs then thos already alleged to refute the Substantiality of Forms but why Man 's Soul should be a substance rather then Beasts many of which are so intelligible and docible as most of simple People witnes the dancing Hors cald Asinago no satisfactory reason can be rendred in nature sav only som dark places of Scripture The result of al is that no substance ever dies or perishes for matter is invariable and al Forms of Inanimats together with the Vegetant and Sentient Souls meer mortal accidents or temperaments only Mans Soul is a substance or Spirit infused or inspired at first by God which is immortal and livs of it self for ever Thes are his Principles of new Philosophy touching the origin of Forms and Souls which let every one relish as his palat affects Now to answer Objections Ob. If the Soul be only a Temperament every natural Body that hath a tempered Crasis shal be Animat but 't is not so Ergo a Soul is no Temperament Sol. This Argument consists of meer affirmativs in the secund Figure and therfore is a filthy Paralogism but every Temperament of Inanimats is not fit for a Soul Ob. A Temperament is changed according to age place and diet but a Soul is not so changed Ergo 'tis no Temperament Sol. Forms are changed or varied gradualy as foreshewed but in the argument is a duple error 1. That it doth not distinguish betwen a total essential and partil gradual change of Temperament for in the total is not only a mutation but corruption of the Soul and makes nothing to purpose in the partil is a change more or less which doth not vary or alter the kind as a tender young Plant being removed from its natural Soil to a Forren grows better or wors without changing the kind yet the unity of Form remains with an alteration in the degrees of perfection 2. That a transition from other Animals to Man is improper for if his Bodily temper change yet the Soul being a distinct substance varies not but in al els Soul and Temperament are one Ob. If the Soul be a Temperament ther be in Animats so many Souls as Tempers one of the rind and wood in Trees another of Flesh and bones in Animals but in every Animat is one only Soul Ergo 'tis no Temperaments Sol. The Peripatetics place two Souls at least in every Animat and three in Animals but divers forms in Inanimats essentialy distinct so according to them 't is no absurdity to grant plurality of Souls yet is ther no plurality of substances but diversity of Temperament Ob. If the Soul be but a Temperament of humors and spirits it could not bridle the Bodies passions or perturbations but it doth and is not led by them Ergo c. Sol. This is tru in Mans Soul which somtimes bridles or moderats passions and somtimes yeelds to them but in no other Animats whos Soul not only folows but is Temperament it self Ob. That can be no Accident or Temperament from which the noblest faculties and functions of imagining remembring and perceiving or judgin â—ensitiv objects proced but Beasts Souls hav such operations remblable to Mans Ergo they are not Accidents Sol. Al such operations are meerly Organical in a material subject and depend on it the Organ is a pure cleer activ Animal spirit sited in the Brain as the seat of Sensation which Spirit is not only the Organ but first Principle therof For in al Animal Spirits two things are found viz. matter and mixture of lifely qualities matter is the first Subject and Organ of Sens qualities the first caus or origin and in both commixd consist al the faculties of apprehension imagination and memory which Brutes hav Thes Spirits are the sole Instruments of al Sensation but no substance useth or ruleth them being the first caus of Sens That which they cal Soul must be either material or immaterial if material 't is either purer then the Spirits which cannot be sith they are purest or viler and impurer but 't is absurd to grant that to the baser which is denied to the best if immaterial let them answer al arguments alleged against Forms Ob. 'T is abov or beyond the power of purest matter indued or invested with most exquisit qualities to judg remember desire shun c. but Brutes Souls doo al this Ergo c. Sol. 'T is not nor is it more strange that such effects should proced from the Temperament of Brutes Brains then doo other admirable properties as in the Magnet and many mo simples from Inanimats Temperament which is weaker then Animals Thes are magnalia Dei Gods wonderful works which Men must admire not inquire Lastly he treats of Mans Souls origin which was first in intention Upshot and sole scope of this Subject or Speculation touching whos essence that 't is a rational immortal substance or spirit none but Atheists or Sadduces wil doubt but of the origin is much dispute Som deem they were al created eternaly and reserved in blessed Seats or Stars til they be incorporated into Bodies Som that they be created by Angels Som that they be generated by the Soul of the World and made of Celical Substance Som that they consist of Elements Som that they are framed of Gods own substance Som that they be produced by the Heavens as an extern Efficient Som that they propagat successivly one from another Som that they are continualy created and infused in the Body by God like Adams first Soul which is the common Tenet Thes two last Opinions rejecting al the rest as futilous and frivilous he debats more freely and fully which he that lists may contemplat but being before abundantly agitated in the first Thesis shal be suppressed or superseded Touching the Vegetativ and Sensitiv Souls 't is probable they Censure are a meer Temperament of qualities or life it self nor doth Scripture them to be substances but they vanish or perish with the Bodies like forms of Inanimats and new ingendred or educed from the power of matter by the efficient Caus For God made al Creatures in their kinds intire Bodies at once both Plants and Animals but Created Man in his own Image thâ— Body first of Dust or Earth from the previous preexistent Chaos like other Creatures into which he breathed the Spiracle or Spirit of Life even a Rational Soul being far more divine and immortal then the rest as al Orthodox writers agree Hence 't is said Man becam a living Soul meaning that his Soul should liv for ever as he had doon in Body too had he not eaten the forbidden fruit contrary to Gods command upon pain of temporal and eternal death yet afterward in mercy he ordained a remedy that the Womans Seed even Christ our blessed Saviour should bruis the Serpents head by dying for the sins of al such as shal penitently beleev in him Peroratio ad Theologos A Conclusion to Divines Haec quicunque legent Medici Theoremata sacra Censuras rigidas parcite ferre precor Who shal a Phisitions sacred Theses read I pray spare to giv Censures ful of dread Nunc opus exigitur Laus Patri debita summo Christo incarnato Spirituique sacro The work 's now doon to God the Father du prais To Christ incarnat and th' holy Ghost alwais ALLEUIA
Thes Texts tend al to the Registry of Gods simple Prescience and Providence which tho they be no causes of any effects yet are certain in the events and cannot be frultrat but make nothing for absolut Decree of a prefixd period to our dais Dr. Charlton debats this point acutly and accuratly part wherof shal be decurted God the giver of life sole moderator but not Author of death for al natural motion proceds from one first mover God whence S. Paul saith In him we live mov Acts 17. 28. and hav our being The term Life is taken either for the period of every Mans dais caused by a sensible decay or dissolution of al ligaments which chain the Soul to the Body or by an extinction of his vital flame upon consumption of the Radical fuel when no preternatural causes interven to anticipat the dissipation of that elementar temper on which Lifes subsistence necessarily depends or els for the end of every Mans Life in general by what means or whensoever be it by diseases or violent accidents without respect to the gradual decay and consequent cessation of natural temperament in old age From the first acception arise 2. Questions 1. Whether this term of Life circumscribed by a natural deflux of the Body which is a kind of mature facil faling away of Natures ligaments like ripe Apples be definitly fixd by divine Ordinance to leav every in dividual in his own moderation without prescribing or procuring that this decay of temperature should hav more or less duration then what may naturaly occur from the more or less durability therof 2. If Life be thus fixd by Gods decree not to prolong it beyond the point of its natural durability whether he can without altering his own established cours of Nature being moved by Mens praiers or pitty as he added 15 yeers to Ezekiahs dais correct thos depravities procured by excess sicknes or other extraneous means and so hinder the dissolution therof That is whether if God hath predetermined that none shal exced the term to which the durability of his individual temper or strength of constitution may probably extend his special Providence doth not permit that the temperament may be vitiated impaired or ruined by putrefactiv destructiv preternatural causes obvenient and so not hold out to that point of time which otherwise by its primigeneous nativ condition it might hav reached unto For the secund acception of Life in general by what means of dissolution soever sicknes surfeit shipwrack suffocation famin war wounds or other-wais this question occurs whether the immature pâ—â—eâ—natural period therof be so precisely prefixd that no Human prudence or providence can prevent or prolong it nor fortuitous accidents accelerat or prevert it In brief whether the Catastrophe of ech Mans life be prefined in the Book of Fate or Divine Decree Life is said to be fixd in a duple sens 1. In respect of som absolut Decree antegredient to Gods Presâ—ience of al secund instrumental causes so that Man cannot possibly prorogue it beyond or fal short of that fatal term 2. In respect of som conditionat Hypothetic Decree whos alteration or accomplishment is superseded by the electiv liberty of mans Wil either as guided by supernatural light of divine Grace to pursu the real tru good or seduced by delusion of its own sensual judgment to wander in the devious tracts of error and so chus seeming fals Good Now it skils not whether this conditionat Decree be grounded on certain prenotion of al concomitant circumstances and corollary relations concerning Mans election of adhering to good and evil Objects and his consequent virtuous or vicious cours of life Or whether it be made without any such infallible prenotion or volition yet with a positiv deliberat sentence certainly to be executed in du time when the right use or abuse of Freewil shal be fulfilled Hence arise 3. Opinions 1. Som hold the term of every 1 Opinion very Mans life with al causes and clauses conducing to be flatly fatal or immovable by Gods irresistible Wil and Decree according to the vulgar saying his time is com this is a Stoical devise used as a spur to excite magnanimous spirits against dangers of death that every Mans destiny is writ with invisible indeleble characters in his forhead which al Mahometans maintain doctrinaly and many Christians ignorantly But 't is in it self impious if not blasphemous to confine Confut. Gods chief attribut of infinit Omnipotence within the definit lists laws or limits of secund causes and it derogats from the liberty of Mans wil leaving nothing in his power to elect or eschew nor to act or shun For if Fatal necessity be defended al our actions shal be but so many accomplishments of ineluctable Destiny and results of Counsil the decrees of Fate so al human pruâ—ence is palpable folly 〈◊〉 study of Wisdom painful vanity and al Laws meer tyranny siâ—h thâ—y injoyn only what must hâ—vâ—in doon otherwise or restrain what would els be checked by coercing fatality Thus shal al praâ—ers be fruitless vows hopelâ—ss exhortations to good needless dâ—hortations from evil frivolous and acts of piety or devotion superfluous with a â—â—yriod of other incongruâ—ties appendent if absolut fatality be admitted which is inconsistent to the rules o. Reason and Râ—ligion 2. Others assert a fixed fatality of every Mans life 2 Opin a posteriori not to be extended beyond the natural condition of each particular constitution but not a priori sith it may be contracted or abbreviated as 't is commonly but simply said one may shorten tho not exced his time appointed by divine Dâ—cree Certes God made no such absolut decrees for the length Confut. of any Mans life but leavs every Man free to be his own Carver in al temporal mundan affairs 3. Divers defend that Mans life may be lengthned or 3 Opin shortned more or less of what it usually is in most Men by the right use or abuse of means according to Gods prenotion or Hypothetic determination leaving the means to every mans Freewil This is perpendicularly proved by many plain places and Confirmat pregnant instances extant in holy Writ but none that hav any color for a fixed fatal period Salomon saith The Prov. 10. 27. fear of the Lord prolongeth dais but the wickeds yeers shal be shortned For God promiseth long life to them that honor their Parents and generaly to al such as shal keep his Commandements Yea he said to Salomon If thou wilt 1 Kings 3. 14. walk in my wais as thy Faâ—her David did I wil lengthen thy dâ—is And David definitly saith Bloody and deceitful Men shal Ps 55. 23. Ps 102. 24. Ps 6. 4 5. Ps 30 Ps 8â— not liv out half their dais Again Take me not away in the midst of my dais The like he praied in sicknes That God would not cut off the thâ—ed of his Isâ— and givs thanks for preserving him from death