against the stream of Gods absolute Will If all men are to choose and withall to execute the will of God and that it is Gods will the greatest part shall be damn'd it will then be a duty in the greatest part of men to go industriously to Hell And to do good will be a vice because it tends Heaven-wards and so to the Crossing of an absolute irreversible Decree Which since I have considered I have lesse wondred then I was wont at the conclusion of Carpocrates that the very worst of Actions are out of duty to be performed And that the soul shall be punisht with its imprisonment in the body untill she hath fill'd up the number of her iniquities according to that Text Mat. 5. 29. Which we call Iniquities but they Duties And so indeed they would be if every thing in the world the means as well as the end were absolutely ordain'd and by consequence effected by God blessed forever who can ordain nothing but good And such sin and Hell must be exceeding good if they could possibly be ordain'd by as absolute a decree as the Heavens and the earth the water and the air of which God said they are very good Secondly Gods Revealed will being that all should repent and his Secret will being that very few shall it followes thence That it is his will that his will should not be done And that God hath one will which is the same with the Devils and that when a Reprobate saies in the Pater noster thy will be done he vehemently prayes for his own Damnation Which things as they were falsly objected in France against S. Austin so Prospers way to excuse him was to make protestations against any such Tenent as unconditional Reprobation He sayes the very things in his Masters vindication which I have said in my own And cals the sequels of that opinion which he disowns most sottish blasphemies and not only prodigious but Devilish lies But he denies not that such ill consequences will follow upon the bold assertion of irrespective reprobation which he does therefore very distinctly and very earnestly disclaim And he doth so much speak the very minde of S. Austin that he seems sometimes to speak out of his mouth too it being hard to say whether the Answers to the Objections of Vincentius do truly belong to the Master or to the Scholar they being inserted in both their Works And that which is called Prospers by Vossius is ascribed to S. Austin by Ludovicus Lucius If I have made any unfriendly or injurious inference I will instantly retract it upon the least conviction that it is so But truly the Reasons which I have given have serv'd to confirm me in my adhaerence to my second Inference Which I yet farther prove by the the remaining votes of Antiquity For though my former Citations are all to this purpose yet I will not repeat them but adde some others perhaps more fully and indisputably to the number 32. * And first I will set down the Confession of Mr. Calvin That the Schoolmen and Ancients are wont to say God's Reprobation of the wicked is in praescience of their wickednesse but he professes to beleeve with one more modern that God foresaw all future things by no other means then because he decreed they should be made or done Nor ought it saith he to seem absurd That God did not only foresee but by his will appoint the fall of Adam and in him of his posterity The Ancients he confessed were quite of another minde but because he addes dubitanter and would have it thought that S. Austin was for his turn I will set down some of their words and begin with Austins 33. No man is chosen unlesse as differing from him that is rejected Nor know I how it is said that God hath chosen us before the foundation of the world unlesse it be meant of his praescience of faith and good works Iacob was not chosen that he might be made good but having been seen to be made good was capable of being chosen If S. Austin was so distinctly for Conditional Election and in those very works too which he afterwards writ as very sufficient to confute Pelagius he was infinitely rather for Conditional Reprobation As any man knows that knows any thing of him and may be seen in the same book to Simplician Esau would not and did not run For if he had he had attained by the help of God unlesse he would be made a Reprobate by a contempt of his vocation It seems unjust that without the merits of good or evil works God should love one and hate another Wicked men had no necessity of perishing from their not being elected but they were therefore not elected because they were foreseen to be wicked through their own wilful prevarication God foresaw that they would fall by their own proper will and for that very reason did not separate them by election from the sons of perdition God is the creator of all men but no man was created to the end that he may perish 34. I have given the more Testimonies out of Prosper because he is known to have been the Scholar and vindicator of S. Austin And to produce their suffrages is to imply all the rest They having been the only Ancients whom their contentions against Pelagianism made to speak sometimes to the great disadvantage of their own opinion as they do not stick to confesse themselves And we ought in all reason to take that for their Iudgement which we finde delivered by themselves by way of Apologie and vindication But though I need not I will adde some others He therefore brought the means of Recovery to all that whosoever perisht might impute it to himself who would not be cur'd when he had a Remedy whereby he might Even they that shall be wicked have power given them of Conversion and Repentance God's love and hatred arises from his praescience of things to come or from the quality of mens works If the day is equally born for all how much rather is Jesus Christ When every man is call'd to a participation of the gift what is the reason that what God hath equally distributed should by humane interpretation be any way lessen'd * The fountain of life lies open to all Nor is any man forbid or hindred from the right of Drinking Let D. Twisse himself be heard to speak in this matter and that against Piscator both Antiarminians Damnatio est Actus Iudicis procedere debet secundum justitiam vindicativam at ne vestigium quidem Iustitiae apparet in Damnatione Reproborum He speaks of absolute irrespective Reprobation which Piscator set up Nam justitia neminem damnat nisi merentem At esse reprobum nequaquam significat mereri Damnationem Sola Damnatio peccatoris splendere facit Dei Iustitiam Twissus in vind. Gr. de Praed. l. 1. Digr. 1. 4.
is the form of making Covenants betwixt God and man every where throughout the Scripture and according to the fulfilling or not fulfilling of the Condition the Righteous Iudge of all the world proceeds to sentence Which that we may not so much as doubt of He by a merciful Anthropopathia is pleased to speak like one of us I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it and if not I will know There is an expression of God to Eli 1 Sam. 2. 30. which shewes his will sometimes is either not absolute or not immutable I said indeed that the House of thy Father should walk before me forever But now the Lord saith Be it far from me Which words do not argue any ficklenesse in his Will but demonstrate his Promise to have been conditionall there was an If impli'd though not expressed and so it appears by the very next words This is also the style that is used in the New Testament If thou shalt confesse with thy mouth the Lord Iesus and shalt beleeve in thine heart c. thou shalt be saved From whence it followes that if thou shalt not confesse with thy mouth nor beleeve in thine heart c. thou shalt be damn'd If we forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive your trespasses If we suffer we shall also reign if we deny him he also will deny us I will cast her into a bed and them that commit fornication with her into great tribulation except they repent Rev. 2. 22. If ye beleeve not that I am he ye shal dye in your sins Joh. 8. 24. In a word the very end of Christs coming into the world was to save us from our sins Mat. 1. 12. to redeem us from all iniquity Tit. 2. 14. He came to deliver us indeed out of the hand of our enemies but to the end that we might serve him in holinesse and righteousnesse all the daies of our lives Luk. 1. 44. 45. Now the end we know is the prime condition the greatest requisite of all which to neglect without repentance is the true Cause of condemnation for so runs the sentence of our Saviour Mat. 25. 41. Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire Why for what Reason He gives the true reason in the next verse not because ye were Reprobated by an absolute Decree not because ye were ordain'd to be vessels of wrath by a meer irrespective and inexorable will but because I was hungry and ye gave me no meat because I was thirsty and ye gave me no drink Which yet they could not have given him if it had not been given them from above to give From which and a thousand such Texts besides I do thus state the matter betwixt me and my self That no man is infinitely punisht by an unavoidable necessity but for not doing his Duty nor because he cannot but will not do it Impossibility is not a sin and therefore no man is punisht for not doing that which it is impossible for him to do It was the cruelty of Adonibezek to cut off mens Thumbs and then to make it their task to gather up meat under the Table A greater cruelty in Pharaoh to require a Tale of brick where he gave no straw Whereas the master we serve will render to every man according to his works With him there is no respect of persons But whatsoever a man soweth that shall he reap And therefore let us not sin under pretence that all we do is by an absolute Decree an opinion brought amongst other Merchandise out of Turkie into Christendome and would be rooted out in the next Reformation for every such sinner is his own worst Satan he seeks out death in the errour of his way and puls upon himself Destruction with the works of his hands Other proofs out of Scripture and perhaps to some more convincing will be found interweaved in my followlowing proofs 23. I must next confirm this truth by Reason and because this Reason will be manifold I will make it my endeavour to be brief in each Whereof the first shall be taken from the nature of punishment which as before I signified does praesuppose a sin sin does imply a breach of Law and this again does imply at once a rational and a voluntary agent Which seems to me to be the Reason why God is not offended with the Cruelty of the Bear or with the Pride of the Peacock or with the Theevery of the Fox This is the reason why the Earth does not sin by breeding Thornes and Thistles against its primitive Institution For the ground cannot be punisht and was not cursed for its own but for Adam's sake Gen. 3. 17. 18. And lastly this is the Reason why the Tower of Siloe was not Damn'd for committing murder Man is an Agent very capable of a Law and so of sin and so of punishment and is therefore punisht not because he could not but because he could help it by that goodnesse of God which would have led him to Repentance if he had not despis'd the riches of his goodnesse Man is punisht because he would sin and not because he could not but sin 24. My second Reason is taken from the nature of a Covenant which ever implies a Condition now when the first Covenant was broken God immediately made a second not with a part but with all mankinde And this is observable in the Title of our Gospel {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which though we render the New Testament we might better render the New Covenant which cannot be without Conditions Heaven and Hell are set before us the performance of Faith and Obedience is that important condition without which as the former will not be had so cannot the latter be avoided 25. My third Reason is taken from the unlimited Generality whereby Promises and Threats Rewards and Punishments Exhortations and Dehortations are exhibited to all The Gospel is commanded to be preached to all and it is published in writing that all might read and beleeve Baptisme Repentance and Remission of sins are commanded to be offered to all in general even to them that refuse both the Word and the Preachers Who when they are refus'd and not before are to shake the Dust off their feet for a Testimony against them Now preachings would be vain and exhortations would be deceitful if life and death did not depend upon submitting or refusing to be amended by them 26. My fourth Reason is taken from the Degrees of Damnation Some shall be beaten with many stripes and some with fewer some shall have a lesse and some a greater Condemnation It shall be worse for Chorazin then for Tyre worse for Bethsaida then for Sidon worse for Capernaum then for Sodom worse for the Iewes then for the Ninevites which is not because one had a greater Necessity of
of certain death to Hezekiah do put this quite out of all scruple for the first was not destroyed and the second did not die at that determinate time when God had threatned they should Of which no reason can be given but that Gods Purposes and Decrees and Threats were conditional on supposition of their Impenitence he threatned to destroy and therefore on sight of their Repentance he promis'd to preserve And from hence it is natural to argue thus Is God so merciful to bodies and is he lesse merciful to souls Does he decree temporal Iudgements conditionally because he is pitiful and will he decree Eternal ones absolutely meerly because he will Is he so unwilling to inflict the first death and will he shew his power his absolute power in the second Did he spare the Ninevites in this life because they were penitents and will he damn them in the next because they were Heathens by his peremptory Decree Is he milde in small things and severe in the greatest Is there no other way to understand those Texts in the 9. to the Romans then by making those Texts which sound severely to clash against those that sound compassionately Is it not a more sober and a more reasonable Course to interpret hard and doubtful Texts by a far greater number more clear and easie then perversly to interpret a clear Text by a doubtful one or an easie text by one that 's difficult which is to shew the light by the darknesse Or if some Texts have two senses if some Texts are liable to many more must we needs take them in the worst and that in meer contradiction to the universal Church If I had no other Argument against an absolute Reprobation this one were sufficient to prevail with me That that Father of mercies and God of all consolation who spareth when we deserve punishment did not determine us to punishment without any respect to our indeservings He that had mercy upon wicked Ahab meerly because of his Attrition did not absolutely damn him before he had done either good or evill before the foundations of the world were laid He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men Lam. 3. 33. much lesse doth he damn them for his meer will and pleasure When God doth execute a temporal punishment upon such as already have deserv'd it he comes to it with reluctation {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and therefore cals it his * strange work a work he loves not to be acquainted with a work which he doth sometimes execute because he is Iust but still * unwillingly because he is compassionate And he therefore so expresses it as we are wont to do a thing we are not us'd to and know not how to set about How shall I give thee up Ephraim how shall I deliver thee Israel how shall I make thee as Admah how shall I set thee as Zeboim Mine heart is turn'd within me my Repentings are kindled together I will not execute the fiercenesse of mine anger for I am God and not man Now that God doth professe to afflict unwillingly and many times to repent him of the evil which he thought to do unto his people is a demonstrative argument of his Conditional decrees in things Temporal and by a greater force of Reason in things Eternal 30. My eighth Reason is taken from the little flock which belongs to God and the numerous herd which belongs to Belial Which would not have been if they had both been measur'd out by a most absolute Decree For when it pleas'd the Divine goodnesse to suffer death upon the Crosse for all the sins of the world the every drop of whose bloud had been sufficiently precious to have purchased the Redemption of ten thousand Adams and ten thousand worlds of his posterity he would not yeeld the major part unto his Rival Rebel the black prince of Darknesse reserving to himself the far lesser portion and all this irrespectively meerly because he would He would not absolutely determine such a general Harvest of Wheat and Tares as freely to yeeld the Devil the greater crop He would not suffer his Iustice so to triumph over his Mercy who loves that his Mercy should rejoyce against Iudgement It was not for want of a new Instance to shew his Power or his Iustice for they were both most eminent in the great Mysterie of Redemption Much greater Instances and Arguments then an Absolute Decree as I could evidently shew if I were but sure of my Readers patience My ninth Reason is taken from the Reprobation of Angels which was not irrespective but in regard to their Apostasie as is and must be confessed by all who place the object of Reprobation in massâ corruptâ For the overthrowing of which tenent in all the Sublapsarians Dr. Twisse himself does thus argue Si Deus non potuit Angelos reprobare nisi ut contumaces ergo nec homines nisi ut in contumaciâ perseverantes De Praedest Digres 4. 4. c. 2. 31. My tenth Reason is taken from the Absurdities which have and still must follow if Gods eternall decree of mans misery is not conditional but absolute And those absurdities are discernible by this following Dilemma Let Dives be suppos'd to be the man that is Damn'd It is either because he sins or meerly because God will have it so If for the first Reason because he sins then sin is the Cause of his Damnation and consequently before it From whence it followes that Dives is not Damn'd meerly because God will have it so but that God will have it so because he sins Which plainly shewes the Conditional Decree But if it be said that it is for the second Reason meerly because God will have it so then that absolute Decree to have it so doth either necessitate him to sin damnably or it does not First if it does then how can Dives be guilty of that thing of which Gods absolute Decree is the peremptory Cause Or how can that be guilt which is necessity Dives could as little have cherisht Lazarus as the Tower of Siloe could have spared the Galilaeans if his will had been no more free then that Tower had a will And secondly if it does not necessitate him to sin damnably then Dives who is Damn'd might possibly have not been damn'd From whence it follows That Dives is not Damn'd absolutely but in regard to his sins Which had they not been his choice they had not been his but his that did choose them And it is a Contradiction to say a man chooses any thing without a free will or by an absolute necessity which is whether he will or no Besides if God did absolutely decree the end which is Damnation and consequently the means which is final impenitence these Absurdities would follow First it would be a Reprobates duty to be damn'd And to endevour his salvation would be a sin Because 't were striving