Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A17306
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A plea to an appeale trauersed dialogue wise. By H.B.
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Burton, Henry, 1578-1648.
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1626
(1626)
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STC 4153; ESTC S106969
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84,171
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122
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praedestinating without any respect or preuision of their workes as a grand error which hee chargeth Caluin with neither would I willingly or wittingly conceiue or coniecture of the Appealers extended sense otherwise than by himselfe is not onely intended but clearly enough expressed as may be seene in his 7. chapter 1. part in sundry places But for Master Caluin wee haue sufficiently cleared him from the Appealers calumny notwithstanding hee spend a great part of his said 7. chap. in heaping vp testimonies of Fathers and all vpon a false surmised ground and so all to no purpose except to vent I would to cure the ouerflowing of that humour of the Gall which hath caused his Appeale to bee all ouerspread with the yellow yea with the blacke Iawndise For Master Caluin holds with Saint Augustine Gods election to bee out of the corrupt masse and reprobation of the rest already condemned by that sentence of death In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye the death But for the Appealers owne opinion concerning Gods decree of election and praedestination it may not be passed by in silence First hee saith There must needes first bee a disproportion before there can bee conceiued Election or Derelection What he meaneth by disproportion hee tells a little after namely betweene those who now condemned in Adams laynes God did forsee would accept of deliuerance offered them in and by Christ and the rest whom he foresaw would reiect this deliuerance His very words are God out of his mercy c. stretched out to them that is to all now condemned in Adams loynes deliuerance in a Mediatour the Man Iesus Christ and drew them out that tooke hold of mercy leauing them there that would none of him So that by the Appealers saying here no pradestination without a disproportion conceiued to goe before and this disproportion betweene the parties to be elect and reprobate is discouered by Gods preuision of both their workes hee foreseeing that the one would receiue and accept grace offered and the other refuse it vpon which preuision the Appealer would build Gods decree of prâ—destination and election an opinion no lesse gracelesse then groundlesse and if I should call it in plaine termes most impious and blasphemous against Gods pure glory and preciourgrace although I should doe the Appealer no wrong in it yet I should raise a Waspes nest about mine eares But wee must not feare to speake the truth and to oppose such blasphemy because of mens mischieuous and no lesse boundlesse then groundlesse malice especially in such a case wherein Gods glory is so deepely ingaged This opinion of the Appealer is very plausible to flesh and blood for mans pride would still be arrogating something to it selfe and be a fingering of one of Gods speciall peculiars his glory This was that poison which the Serpent infused and breathed into our first Parents Eritis sicut Dii c. Yee shall bee as Gods selfe-wise and selfe-sufficient And this poyson wee haue all sucked in with our Nurses milke wee will be at least fellow-sharers with God in the worke of our saluation O this pleaseth vs well Saint Augustine himselfe confesseth that hee was once of this opinion that God elected men out of his preuision and foresight of their faith c. But this he imputeth to his ignorance in his yonger yeares and therfore in his riper iudgment and further insight into the mystery of God hee retracteth his opinion in his first booke of Retractations cap. 23. yet our age wanteth not gray heads and white heires who with their grâ—â—nâ— wits will rather approue of the opinion of young then the iudgment of old Saint Augustine and to retract his Retraction Now for this opinion of Gods Election ruled by his praescience or premission of workes if we seeke some eminent authoritie and venerable antiquity for it S. Augustine can best resolue vs. For the Antiquitie of it wee haue Saint Augustines time for authoritie the Pelagian heresie Praesciebat ergo c. He foreknew then saith the Pelagian who would be holy and immaculate by their free-will and therefore in that his praescience whereby he fore-knew they would be such he Elected them before the foundation of the world Which opinion of Pelagius now reviued by our Appealer and his S. Augustine answereth most divinely from the Scriptures Intueamur ergo c. Let vs therefore peruse the words of the Apostle and let vs see whether God did therefore chuse vs before the foundation of the world because we would become holy and immaculate or that we might be so Blessed be God saith he and the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ who hath blessed vs in all spirituall blessings in heavenly places in Christ according as he hath chosen vs in him before the foundation of the world that wee should be holy and without blame before him in loue Non ergo quia futuri eramus sed vt essemus He chose vs not therefore because we would be such but that we might be such Nempe certum est c. For it is certaine for it is manifest that therfore we would become such because he chose vs predestinating vs that we should become such by his grace And marke saith he what the Apostle addeth Secundum plâ—citum c. According to the good pleasure of his will lest in so great a benefit of the grace of God we should glory in the pleasure of our owne will And much more doth this holy man sweetly apply to the same purpose out of that heavenly Chapter the first to the Ephesians whereof he saith Nimis longum est de singulis disputare It were too long to traverse every circumstance And he concludes Cerâ—itis autem proculdubio c. You see then doubtlesse you see with what evidence of Apostolick eloquence this grace of God is defended against which humanie merits are advanced as if man gaue something first that he should bee recompensed Elegit ergo c. God therefore chose vs in Christ before the foundation of the world praedestinating vs vnto the Adoption of sonnes not because we would of our selues become holy and blamelesse but bee elected and praedestinated vs that wee might be such And this he did according to the good pleasure of his will that no man should glory of his owne but of Gods good will towards him Out of this purpose of God is that calling which is proper to the Elect to whom all things cooperate for good because according to his purpose not their owne they are called to be Saints c. And to cleare this point yet more he induceth an obiection of some who though aduersaries in part to the Pelagians yet they would impute Praedestination to Gods praescience in regard of faith The Pelagians say they are of opinion that receiuing once the commandement of God wee become holy and immaculate of our selues by our free will which God foreseeing did
speech of the Appealer you giue mee occasion to call to minde a flat contradiction of his in that place to what he had said before cap. 2. his words as I remember bee these Doth Arminius â—â—intaine touching finall perseuerance that sometime the called and elect of God the chosen â—â—â—s and iustified by faith such as Peter was though they doe full totally for a time shall yet recouer necessarily againe and not fall away finally or for euer If this be Armenianisme and so his conclusion then therein he to wit the Appealer holdeth with Arminius Yet in his foresaid forth Chapter hee contradicts himselfe and saith that the recouery of such is possible not certaine and necessary Is he such an enemy to perseuerance as himselfe will not perseuere longer in his owne opinion Or rather will he be an Arminian by holding with Arminius a totality of the elect falling from grace for a time with a necessuit of their recovery than an orthodox Christian while he alloweth onely a possibility but no certainty and necessity of recouery Oportet Appellatorem esse memorem But for the Appealers two instances of Dauid and Peter I deny that they fell totally Fall they did both and that fearefully yet not totally Neither of them Is there no other kinde of fall not a third yes there is a fall whereby a man gets some hurt in a limbe as Mephebosheth did and there is a fall whereby a man breakes his neck as it befell old Eli and there is a fall wherein a man is strucke stone dead for the time as befell 〈◊〉 Now if by Elies break-neck fall may be exemplified the finall falling away and by Eutychus his fall the totall falling for the time why not as well by Mephebosheths fall may we conceiue of such a fall of Gods Saints as whereby they may bruise or breake some limbe and not necessarily with Eutychus so to fall from the third lost as falling totally to be strucke stoned ad or with Eli to breake their necks by falling away finally and irrecouerably as Lucifer that fell from the third heauen Now we say that the fall of Dauid and Peter was like that of Mephibosheth whereby they did breake or bruise a limbe the fear whereof they might carry to then graue though by Gods â—yle and wine of grace and mercy they were â—fâ— soonees receiued and recouered Againe a member brused or broken or put out of â—oynt ceaseth not instantly to be a member of the body nor is it by and by cut off from the body vnlesse it be incurable and endanger the whole Immedicabile vulnâ—â— ensâ— reeidendum est ne part sincera trabatur as that incurable sinne against the holy Ghost and that committed with a high hand with a full concent and malicious contempt of the blood of the couenant c. as that Heb. 6. which sinne is impossible to be renewed by repentance such a grangreend member is cut off Now Dauid and Peter were the members of Christ they were wounded by a greeuous stroake of sinne yet such as was curable and so during the maladie they were not cut off from Christs body but still continued members though sicke for the time not totally fallen or cut off The Prophet Dauid himselfe inspired by Gods Spirit sets downe a notable and manifest difference betweene fall and fall hee saith of the righteous of the â—â—stified by faith of the elect Though he fall he shall not be vtterly be cast downe for the Lord vpholdeth him with his hand Though hee fall therefore the righteous may fall yet though he fall he shall not be vtterly cast downe therefore he shall not fall totally or finally not totally for that is to be vtterly cast downe for the time at least Not finally for that is to be vtterly cast downe to wit for euer But if by beeing vtterly cast downe the Appealer would haue not the totall fall meant but the finall let him remember that as he saith in one place he is of the minde with Arâ—imius that the elect may fall totally from grace for the time so he saith in another that their recouery is possible not certaine and necessary Contrary to Dauid here who saith Hee shall not be vtterly cast downe not finally fall away if the Authour will restraine it to that but he shall certainly recouer And he adds a strong reason For the Lord vpholdeth him with his hand If the Lord vphold him with his hand then how can he either fall finally or yet totally which in either were to be vtterly cast downe The manner of speech seemes to be taken from a father holding his sonne in his hand and to 〈◊〉 his childe see his owne weaknesse to make him vse the more warinesse for the time to come suffers him to fall yet so handles the matter as with his hand he preserues him â—rom being vtterly cast downe And as Lyranus saith on this place Huius autem manus suppositio est diuinae gratiae conseruatio thâ— putting vnder of Gods hand is the preseruation of diuine grace Obiect But some will obiect that according to the same glosse of Lyranus in that place this fall is meant of a veniall sinne not of a mortall such as Dauids and Peters sinne was To which I answer first that the word for fall in the originall signifieth such a fall as when a man falleth prostrate or flat vpon the ground not to slip as men account of a veniall sinne but to fall downe all along And for veniall sinne we know there is no sinne committed by any servant of God but through Christ vpon repentance it is veniall yea Dauids sinne and Peters sinne for they were both pardoned And veniall is that which may be pardoned And there is no sinne be it never so small in mans conceit but it is mortall deserving death eternall As Adam sinne in eating the forbidden Apple which to a carnall mans conceit might seeme to be but a veniall sinne as the Pope accounted it in comparison in stealing of the his Peacocke But first for Davids sinne it was grievous indeede yet sinne is to be weighed not so much by the Act of the sinne as by the affection of sinning Dauid and Ahab both committed the like sinne of murther the fact was the same but not their affections Ahab sold himselfe to worke wickednesse Dauid not so Ahabs humiliation procured the delay of his punishment onely not the remouall of his sinne Deus dâ—stulit paenam non abstulit culpam But Dauid vpon his peccani heard The Lord hath put away thy sinne Saint Chrysostome compareth Dauids case in lusting after Batâ—sheba to a sea-storme fore afflicting the Martiners for the time so that he suffered a vehement perturbation of his passions during the temptation not knowing well what he did though his brittle Barke of carnall lust and humaine frailtie went to wracke yet the gulfe of a