our vnderstanding than remoue our scruple where things from euerlasting haue such a doome which is not malleable either by change or reuocation For the Lord of hosts hath determined and who can disanull it and his hand is stretched out and who can turne it away Isay 14.27 Seeing then that election is from eternity and that not obnoxious to mutability or corruption we neither curtaile the elect of their primatiue glory nor of their number Which though they be a little flocke in respect of that herd and large droue of the damned yet in those sacred volumes of Gods diuiner Oracles we finde them numberlesse So Apoc. 7.9 These things I beheld and loe a great multitude which none could number of all nations and kinreds and people and tongues stood before the throne and before the Lambe cloathed with long white robes and palmes in their hands Whence those Factors for the Romish See would hew out a way to vniuersall grace making our election generall manifolde indefinite and would haue Christs death no lesse meritorious than propitiatory for the sinnes of the whole world A quaere long since on foot betweene Augustine and Pelagius and since in a fiery skirmish betweene the Calumist and the Lutheran out of whose mud and corruption there hath beene lately bred the Arminian a Sect as poisonous as subtill and will no Iesse allure than betray a flexible and yeelding iudgement For our own safety then and the easier oppugning of so dangerous a suggestion let vs examine a little of the extent bounds of this grace which Diuines cut into these three squadrons in Gratiam Praedestinationis vocationis iustificationis Gratia Praedestinationis is that of eternity the wombe and Nursery of all graces whereby God loued his elect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gratia vocationis a secondary grace by which God cals vs and by calling prescribes the meanes of our saluation And this grace hath a double prospect Either to that which is externall in libro Scripturae or creaturae where God did manifest himselfe as well by what he had made as by what he had written or to that which is internall of illumination or renouation of that in the intellect only which a reprobate may lay claime to of this in the heart which by a holy reseruation and incommunicablenesse is peculiar to the elect Gratia instificationis which is not a grace inherent but bestowed and stands as a direct Antipode to humane merit Yet not that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Schooles christen with a gratia gratis data any gift which God out of his free bounty hath bestowed vpon vs beyond our desert as Prudence Temperance and the like for in these the heathen had their share whose singular endowmēts haue made posterity both an admirer and a debter but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gratia gratum faciens a gift perfect and fanctified which doth so qualifie the receiuer that hee is not onely acceptable but glorious in the eyes of the bestower a◠Faith Hope the third sister Charity which no lesse reconcile than iustifie vs before God We conclude then that the externall grace which the creature affordeth vs is not limited to a priuate number but to all yet we denie the power and vertue of saluation in it We allow a sufficiencie of redargution for conuicting the heathen who when they knew God worshipped him not as God and therefore are both desperate and inexcusable Moreover the grace which the Scripture affor deth vs as it is not vniuersall so not of absolute sufficiency for faluation but onely in genere mediorum externorum as the Schooles speake because it doth prescribe vs the meanes how we may be saued but it doth not apply the meanes that we are saued Againe that grace of Illumination is more peculiarly confined and if by the beames of that glorious Sunne which enlightneth euery man that comes into the world we attaine to the knowledge of the Scripture yet the bare knowledge doth not saue vs but the application But the grace of regeneration is not onely a sufficient but an effectuall grace and as 't is more powerfull so 't is more restrained they onely partake of this blessednes whom God hath no lesse enlightned than sanctified and pointed out then sealed men inuested in white robes of sinceritie whose delinquencies though sometimes of a deepe tincture are now both dispēsed with obliterated not because they were not sinfull but because not imputed so inuolucrous and hidden are Gods eternall proiects that in those he relinquisheth or saues his reason is his will yet that as farre discoasted from tyranny as iniustice The Quare we may contemplate not scan lest our misprision grow equall with our wonder And here in a double ambush dangerously lurke the Romanist and the Arminian men equally swolne with rancor of malice and position and with no lesse violence of reason than importunitie presse the vertue of Christs death for the whole world Alas we combat not of the price and worth of Christs death but acknowledge That an able ransome of a thousand worlds but the ground of our duell tends to this whether Christ dying proposed to himselfe the saluation of the whole world We distinguish then inter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christi gratiam Christi The merits of Christ and the gracious application of those merits His merits are able to allay the fury of his incensed Father and reconcile vnto him the very reprobates but the application of those merits are restrained to the Elect for they onely are capeable of so great a blessednesse For proofe wherof we haue not only that venerable Bench and Councell of Fathers and Schoole-men but also a higher court of Parliament to appeale vnto the Registers and penmen of sacred Chronicles Euangelists Apostles which punctually insinuate Christs death onely for his own for his Church for his Brethren for those whose head hee was laying down his life for some and shedding his blood for some for his sheepe his little flock his peculiar Priesthood his tabernacle body spouse his Canaan Sion Ierusalem his Ambassadors Saints Angels in a word this Cuius vult The Elect. I 'le not beat your eares with a voluminous citation of text and Fathers I 'le draw only one shaft out of this holy quiuer and direct it to the Roman aduersary which if he shall repell or put by I 'le proclaime hereafter a perpetuall truce The maine and chiefe cause that impeld Christ to die was his loue Iohn 15. But Christ loued not all but his own Eph. 5. Therefore Christ died not for all but for his owne The Iesuite here retraicts and we haue none now left to encounter vs but the Arminian who like a cunning Fencer hath many a quaint flourish and with a false blow sometimes staggers not wounds his aduersary The part most in dangered is the eie of our Intellect and iudgement which he thus dazzels with a subtile nicety That Christ hath
reconciled to God by the death of his Sonne but where are we informed that we are elected through his bloud or praedestinated by his death Indeed in the 3 of Iohn 16. we finde a sic Dous dilexit God so loued the world that he gaue his Sonne So that not because Christ died for vs God loued and chose vs but because God loued and chose us therefore Christ died for vs. For so Rom. 5.8 God setteth out his loue towards vs that whilst we were yet sinners Christ died for vs. In matters therefore of election we acknowledge not a cause more classicke than the Cuius vult here specified He will haue mercy on whom he will Insomuch that in the parable of the housholder Matth. 20. I finde but a sic volo as a sufficient and iust cause of his designes I will giue to this last as much as to thee yet this Will so clothed with a diuine iustice that God is not said to will a thing to be done because it is good but rather to make it good because God would haue it to be done For proofe whereof a sweet singer of our Israel instances in those wonderfull passages of creation where 't is first said that Deus creâ—uit God created all things and the Valdè bonum comes aloofe he saw that they were all good and the morall portends but this That euery thing is therefore good because it was created and nor therefore created because it was good which doth wash and purge the will of the Almighty from any staine or tincture of iniustice for though that be the chiefe mover and director of all his proiects as the prime and peremptory cause doing this because hee will yet we finde not onely sanctitatem in operibus but justitiam in vijs The Lord is righteous in all his wayes and holy in all his workes Hereupon that great treasurer of Learning and Religion Zanchius in his 3 booke de Natura Dei and 4 chapter diuides betweene the cause of Gods will and the reason of his will That though there be no superiour cause of it yet there is a iust reason and a right end and purpose in it Morl. Clean. Lep. Hence S. Ierome Deus nihil fecit quia vult sed quia est ratio sic fieri God doth nothing because hee will but because there is a reason of so doing in regard whereof it is not simply called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the will of God but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the good willof God Ephes 1.11 So that in his sacred resolutions and designements though we meet sometimes with passages wound vp in darkened terrour the cause whereof wee may admire not scan yet the drift and maine ends of the Almighty haue been so backt with strength of a iust reason that we may rather magnifie his goodnesse than tax his power and applaud the calmnesse of an indulgent mercie than repine at the lashes of an incensed iustice Equitie and goodnesse are children of one burden both the lawfull issue of his will which though foule mouthes of libertines haue strangely bastardized making that the throne of tyranny which is the rule of iustice yet let them know that of Augustine to his Sixtus Iniustum esse non potest quod placuit Iusto To be God and to be vniust is to be God and not God So faire a goodnesse was neuer capable of so foule a contradiction and therefore as the same father prosequutes Iniquitatem damnare nouit non facere God knows how to iudge not to commit a crime and to dispose not mould it and is often the father of the punishment not the fact Hence 't is that the dimnesse of humane apprehension conceaues that oftentimes a delinquency in God which is the monster of our own frailty making God not onely to foreknow but predestinate an euill when the euill is both by growth and conception ours and if ought sauour of goodnesse in vs Gods not ours yet ours too as deriuatiue from God who is no lesse the Patron of all goodnesse than the Creatour and 't is as truly impossible for him to commit euill as 't was truly miraculous to make all that hee had made good And therefore Tertullian in his first booke de Trinitate makes it a Non potest fieri a matter beyond the list and reach of possibilitie that he should be Artifex mali operis the promoter enginer of a depraued act who challengeth to himselfe the title no lesse of an vnblemished Father than of a Iudge Our thoughts then should not carry too loftie a saile but take heed how they cut the narrow straights and passages of his will A busie prying into this Arke of secrets as 't is accompanied with a full blowne infolence so with danger Humilitie here is the first staire to safetie and a modest knowledge stands constantly wondering whilst the proud apprehension staggers and tumbles too Here 's a Sea vnnauigable and a gulfe so scorning fathom that our Apostle himselfe was driuen to his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O depth and in a rapture more of astonishment than contemplation he stiles it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 voluntatis suae mysterium or as Beza translates it Sacramentum the Sacrament and mysterie of his will being so full of vnknowne turnings and Meanders that if a naked reason hold the clue we are rather inuolued than guided in so strange a Labyrinth To enquire then the cause of Gods will were an Act of Lunacie not of Iudgement for every efficient cause is greater than the effect now there 's nothing greater than the will of God and therefore no cause thereof For if there were there should something praeoccupate that will which to conceiue were sinfull to beleeue blasphemous If any then suggested by a vaine-glorious enquirie should aske why God did elect this man and not that we haue not onely to resolue but to forestall so beaten an obiection Because he would But why would God doe it Here 's a question as guiltie of reproofe as the author who seekes a cause of that beyond or without which there is no cause found where the apprehension wheeles and reason runs giddy in a doubtfull gire Composcat se ergo humana temeritas August id quod non est non quaerat ne id quod est non inueniat Here a scrupulous and humane rashnesse should be husht and not search for that which is not lest it finde not that which is For as the same Father in his 105 Epist Cur illum potiùs quà m illum liberet aui non scrutetur qui potest iudiciorum eius tam magnum profundum sed caueat praecipitium Let him hat can descry the wonders of the Lord in this great deep but let him take heed he sinke not and in his answer to the second question of Simplician Quare huic ita huic non ita home tu quis es qui respondeas Deo cur isti sic illi aliter
dangerous a tortēt how are they o'rewhelmed at last and whilst they so ventrously climbe this steeper turrer throwned desperately into heresie For mine owne part I haue euer thought curiosity in diuine affaires but a quaint distraction rather applauding an humble yet faithful ignorance than a proud and temerarious knowledge And had some of the Fathers beene shot-free of this curious insolence they needed not haue retreated from former Tenents so much in deared posterity no lesse in the reuiew than retractation of laborious errors Amongst whom S. Augustine though since entituled Malleus Haereticorum shared not a little in the 83. of his Questions and 68. Where expounding our place of the Apostle would thus vindicate the Almighty from iniustice that God foresaw that in some Quo digni sunt iustificatione that in others Quo digni sunt obtusione so making God will to depend on a foreseene merit A position that doth not onely repugne the discipline of holy storie but thwarts the maine tide current of orthodox antiquity as in a fuller discourse we shall display anon and therefore in his 7. Booke de Praedestinatione Sanctorū cap. 4. he doth chastise his former tenents with 2 Deus non elegit opera sed sidem in praescientiâ That God did not elect lacob for foreseene workes but faith But because in saith there is as well a merit as in workes he once more rectifies his opinion in the first of his Retractations and 23 where he doth peach his sometimes ignorance and ingeniously declares himselfe that Nondum diligentius quaesiuit nec inuenit mysteria he had not yet throughly sifted that of the Apostle Rom. 11.5 That there was a remnant according to the election of grace which if it did flow from a foreseene merit was rather restored than giuen and therefore at last he informes his owne judgement and his Readers thus Datur quidem fideli sed data est etiam prius ut esset fidelis Grace is given to the faithfull but it is first given that he should be faithfull Hence Lumbard in his 1 booke 41 distinction pathetically Elegit quos voluit Deus gratuitâ misericordiâ non quia fideles futuri erant sed ut essent nec quià crediderant sed ut fierent credentes God out of the prerogatiue of his will and bounty of his goodnesse hath chosen whom he pleased not because they were faithfull but because they should be and not of themselues beleeuing but made so And therefore that Vt sim sidelis 1 Cor. 7.25 beares a remarkable emphasis I haue obtained mercie that I might be faithfull not that I was Here the Pelagian startles lately backt with a troope of Arminians takes head against this truth fancying and dreaming of certain causes without God which are not subsisting in God himselfe but externally mouing the will of God to dispose and determine of seuerall euents laying this as an unshaken principle Fidem esse conditionem in obiecto eligibili ante electionem That faith and obedience foreseene of God in the Elect was the necessary condition and cause of their election I intend not here a pitcht field against the vpstart Sectarie for I shall meet him anon in a single combat my purpose now is to be but as a scour or spie which discouers the weaknesse of his aduersary not stands to encounter And indeed both the time and place suggest me rather to resolue than debate and convince than dispute an errour That faith then or any praeexisting merit in the person to be elected was the cause of his election is neither warrantable by reason nor primitiue Authoritie For God could not foresee in the elect any faith at all but that which in after times he was to crowne them with and therefore not considerable as any precedent cause of election but as the effect and fruit and consequent thereof The primary and chiefe motive then is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephes 1.5 the good pleasure of Gods will which prompted of it selfe without any reference to praeexisting faith obedience merit as the qualities cause or condition of it hath powred grace on this man more than that Non solum in Christo Synod Dort sed per Christum And therefore as that late venerable Synode hath awarded it Non ex illis conditionibus facta est sed ad illas That election was not fram'd of these conditions but to them as to their effect and issue And if we commerce a little with passages of holy story we shall find that our election points rather to the free will of God in his eternall councell than to any goodnesse in vs which God foresaw so Acts 13.48 where we read of the Gentiles that many beleeued because they were ordained to eternal life and not therefore ordained because they formerly beleeued And if we will not suffer our minds to bee transported either with scruple or noueltie the text is open Ephes 1.4 He hath chosen vs before the foundations of the world were laid that we might be holy not that we were And in this very Chapter verse 23. The vessels of mercy are first said to be prepared to mercy then cald and therefore Saint Austin in his 86. Tract upon Iohn out of a holy indignation doth check the insolence of those Qui praescientiam Dei defendunt contra gratiam Dei Which in matters of saluation obscure and extenuate the grace of God with the foreknowledge of God for if God did therefore chuse vs because he did know and foresee that wee would be good he did not chuse vs to make vs good but wee rather chose him in purposing to be good which if it did carry any shew either of probabilitie or truth we might question our Apostle who in his 8 here and 29. no lesse perswades than proues that those which God foreknew he did predestinate to be conform'd to the image of his sonne and therefore God did not chuse vs because before election there was a conformitie in vs but because from all eternitie he did elect vs in time he made us conform'd to the image of his Sonne Whereupon St. Augustine in his fift booke contra Iulianum 3. chapt thus Nullum elegit dignum sea eligendo effecit dignum God in the choise of his Elect found none worthy but in the chusing made them worthy Moreover our election which is of grace as I yonder proued could not stand if workes and merits went before it Haec quippè non inuenit merita sed facit Grace doth not find works in vs but fashions them according to that of the Apostle 2 Thes 2.13 God hath from the beginning chosen you through sanctification of the spirit and not of works Nay some here so much abolish and wipe off all claime of merit that they admit not Christ as the meritorious cause of our election Indeed say they the Scripture is thus farre our Schoolemaster That we are iustified by the blood of Christ Synod Dort and