have some certain qualitie which in this Metaphor of the book of life plainly is answerable to their proper names You who have gone so far with them or after them are in danger to go further What irreligious principles they that plead for their libertie of will are forced to maintain I know not That you might soon have seen by that which follows there By Their libertie I mean such libertie as they plead for and such as cannot stand with certaintie of Prescience Say they For any one to exhort another to do that which he knoweth before hand he will not do is to dissemble such libertie as must be free not onely from coaction or compulsion but from necessitie of infallibilitie as to the event which necessitie is incident to things contingent and fortuitous for events necessarie contingent chanceable are called so and differenced so in respect of their second causes not in respect of the first or supreme cause for Quicquid est quando est necessariò est any thing that is must needs be so then when it is so That Saul after he was wearied with seeking up and down the countrey for his fathers cattel should on such a day and such an hour of the day meet with the Prophet Samuel was to Saul then when it came to pass as certain as that the sun should set that night or did rise that day that is it was most certain because it was present But to God all things are certain and present that shall be as certain to him though future as to us though present Socinus therefore was driven and if he had not been driven and enforced to it he would never have done it to denie and impugne Divine Prescience and that in order to denial of Divine Decrees and to maintain Quod non est certum non est scibile nec futurum whatsoever comes to pass and doth not certainly come to pass is not capable of being known no more than factum infectum fieri is capable to be done And the Socinians in Compendiolo Negant admissa infallabili omnium futurorm Praescientiâ refelli posse dogma de Praedestinatione and whether they speak reason or no Ger. Vossius can tell whose words are these Hist Pelag. c. 6. Th. 15. Nisi negarc volumus Deum praescire quid homo pro quibusque circumstantiis sit acturus fateri etiam COGIMUR Deum certis hominibus Gratiam praeparâsse quâ certo infallibiliter salventur aliis verò hujusmodi Gratiam non praeparâsse that is Unless we will say that God doth not foreknow what man will do upon such and such circumstances we cannot but of necessitie confess that he hath for some certain men prepared such grace whereby they shall certainly and infallibly be saved and not prepared such grace for others If Faith be Gods gift and if he will give it to whom he will give it this is that predestination which you endeavour what you can to fright the world withall That therefore which you call in this chapter a horrible errour and I called an irreligious principle you must fall to and defend by rational consequence unless you give over your horrible and irreligious manner of reviling Gods decrees I fear this Gentleman is so far from thinking that God did not know before that he thinks he decreed necessitated Adam to sin Would I follow his course in fastening upon him the sayings and judgements of other men of his minde I might finde passages enough to that purpose in many of them to render him and his opinions odious but Mr P. hath done it so fully that I shall but actum agere do what is done already and therefore I shall leave the Reader for that to him Although I do think that you have more minde to slander than cause to fear yet I will now tell you 1. I do not beleeve God did decree sin but I think you beleeve that he did decree the permission of sin 2. In those things which are decreed to come to pass Gods decree inferreth no necessitie upon inferiour causes or agents because he decreeth all things to come to pass according to their kinde natural agents to act naturally voluntarie agents voluntarily So of necessary contingent and casual agents I pray suffer your self to be informed a little better by Dr. P. Baro pag. 321. in explication of this position Dei Decretum pravae voluntatis libertatem non tollit Therefore I shall leave you for that to him But if you have so much leasure as to trouble your self about others and what it is that they think and that you would not be afraid there where no fear is I pray let all your fear in this matter be for them that call it A gross solecism to imagine that there should be one cause of the act and another of the obliquitie or sinfulness of the act and that think it is as impossible to separate the wickedness of the act from the act that is wicked as it is to distinguish the roundness of the globe from the globe that is round So that he which is the Authour of the one must be the Authour of the other also yet the Apostle Paul said Acts 17.28 In him we live and move Let it be for them who tell you it must be a Metaphysical head that can determine how God should work by evil instruments and not be guiltie of the evil and yet the Apostle said Acts 3.18 He hath So fulfilled Let it be for them that think he who withholdeth a thing which being present would hinder an event is the cause of that event and in whose power it is that a thing be not done to him it is imputed when it is done and he that withdraweth the light is the cause of that which followeth for want of the light And yet no man that hath his reason left entire to him can imagine that the sun which is all light having no darkness in it can be the cause when it setteth of the shadow of the night It is an easie matter to make any opinions seem odious to those men that are full gorged with prejudice against them Every thing feeds according to the kinde and constitution Torva leaena alupum scquitur I can tell of some who in the doctrines of the Church of England wherein they have been educated have been verie much confirmed by the matter and the manner of some mens writings against them And as for those men that take such pains to make the opinions you speak of to be odious I do wish and if it might be I would advise them that they would at last forbear and not please themselves in so odious a practise whether these opinions be true or false is uncertain it is at least probable that they are the Truth and upon these reasons First it because very many of these men by their own confession were of the verie same minde in these points of doctrine and held that
or belyed Bellarmine Now though I will not say to you mentiris pro. Bellarmino and set you on work to compare this with your other two above yet any one may plainly see how you have run your self a ground and are gravelled more ways than one for Bellarmines sake who yet will con you no thank and if you had done him any service he might thank me because for my sake it was that you became his Advocate CHAP. XXIII The Remedie to be general Sect. 1. THe Son of God did offer a full perfect and sufficient oblation and and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world That is as much as I desire or assert If you may have leave to interpret the words of the Article or Liturgie according to your own meaning and Doctrine and contrarie to the known meaning of the Church it is as much as you need to desire But where doth the Church of England teach that all sins proceeding from the first Adam are forgiven of due debt to the impenitent without further and particular application of Christs Death Windeck a Papist who wrote largely of the efficacie of Christs Death and mustered up 286 arguments to prove that he died for all men yet called puccius Execrabile monstrum who held that Christs Death was actually efficacious to procure justification and restore life to all men whatsoever until by new wickedness they rejected that life and drew a second destruction upon themselves and his opinion he calleth stultum paganicum paradoxon a foolish and heathenish paradox praesentissimum venenum a poisonous Doctrine that dispatcheth presently and killeth outright those that take it in I pray you therefore learn to distinguish between that Redemption which is universal and that which is particular belonging onely to such whom God doth choose and to whom he vouchsafeth the gift of saving faith Had you done so now you would have contented your self with those places of Scripture that shew Christ died for all and not confusedly and dangerously have added those places which speak of the justification vevification and salvation of beleevers as namely these two Rom. 3.23 24. All have sinned being justified freely by his Grace All have sinned and all are justified by his Grace Answ If all absolutely that have sinned be justified why should he restrain it v. 22. to them that beleeve The scope of the Apostle is this to prove that the Jews who thought well of themselves in regard of their excellencies and priviledges above others have nevertheless no other way to be justified and saved but even as the Gentiles are saved and that is by beleeving For because they have sinned as well as others and have no righteousness of their own more than others have they must be justified as others are by the righteousness of another Because all have sinned therefore all that are justified must be justified by Grace and none can be justified otherwise So also is the extent to be taken Rom. 11.32 God hath concluded them all in unbelief that he might have mercie upon all that is each people Jew as well as Gentile Rom. 5.18 By the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men to justification of life Answ The meaning is that as all that sprang from the first Adam as their head or root were guiltie of Death so all that belong to the second Adam are partakers of life the very next verse before there is a restraint to them that receive the abundance of Grace Gal. 3.22 The Scripture hath concluded all under sin that the promise might be given to them that beleeve Is it not the constant Doctrine of the Bible that the benefit Christs Death as to life and justification and forgiveness is limited to them that hear and to them that come To them that eat and drink of him to them that beleeve and to them that obey will nothing serve with you to mitigate and mollifie the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the rigidum and the aridum of the letter but that against reason against so many Parallel places and the generally received Doctrine of Christians the universalitie of mankinde must be intended It may be you regard the testimonie of Conradus Vorstius more than you do some others hear his words in his Commentarie upon the Epistle to the Romanes ch 5. v. 18. Apparet eos graviter errare qui ex hoc loco colligere conantur omnes omnino homines per Christi gratiam actu regenerari justificari nec perinde quenquam perire posse nisi qui acceptam gratiam malitiosè suâque impaenitentiâ atque incredulitate novam Dei indignationem sibi attrahere velit Quae sententia haud dubie valde periculosa est That is It is evident that those men are in a grievous errour that from this place endeavour to gather that all men whosoever are by Christs grace actually regenerate and justified and that none do perish but such as wilfully reject this grace and through unbelief draw upon themselves a second time Gods wrath and indignation which opinion out of all doubt is very pernicious Yet this opinion you contend for with all your might as if it were as true as the Gospel as if it were the very Gospel and as if all that gainsay it were hinderers of the Gospel Concerning the equalitie of Gods love towards men you refer me to your Essays where you say thus pag. 20. He may take his own libertie to give more or less as he pleases and yet deal equally and graciously with all Which is either a manifest contradiction or a sophistical ambiguitie Gods ways are equal that is just whether he give more or less yet are they not equal that is is alike to all because he giveth to one more than to another CHAP. XXIV Reasons why the remedie should be general HOW doth it appear that such holders of it love others seeing they are my adversaries for holding it because I hold it not in all things as they do Is enmitie to a man because he is not of their minde a signe of love For he says not they be my dissenting brethren but my adversaries God grant their other frames be righter for not he that commends himself c. I intended not to commend my self nor all that are of my minde in these matters but spake indefinitely of your adversaries if but some if but a few it is sufficient And I hope you will never infect your own partie with that dangerous point as you count it of Pharisaisme to say Non sumus sicut caeteri though now you are readie to censure us for this and to suspect us for the rest But as not he that commends himself is always the best no more is he that is the forwardest to censure others There is difference betwixt an adversarie and an enemie howbeit you by vertue of your trope called confusion do make them all one May not a man wage law against his friend and yet
the Law of Moses were matters hard to be understood by the Jews and in which were many perplexities yet were plainly delivered by the Apostle The impossibility of Apostates repentance and renovation was plainly taught yet attended with difficulties and wrested by the Novatians So is the final period of the world foretold in holy Scripture yet are there many obscurities about it and many errours The Resurrection of the dead is fully and manifestly declared and confirmed yet because it was hard to be understood and beleeved it was wrested to this sense as if it were already past whether interpreted of rising from the death of sin or any other way These particular doctrines now by me named are by divers diversly conjectured to be intended by S. Peter as well as that doctrine to which you apply his words Gods gracious and free Election likewise final Perseverance are evidently taught by the Apostle Peter 1 Epist ch 1. ver 2 and 5. as well as by the Apostle Paul Rom. 8.29 30. and in the chief part of the ninth chapter And because these things are hard to be yeelded to and hard to be received and because there be many things belonging thereto that are secret and unfathomable let not therefore that which is plainly taught be either denied or in such a manner interpreted and perverted that it amounts to a denial You and yours have so gone to work that to an ordinarie capacitie the chapter spoken of is made scarce intelligible You say God decreed not to choose particular persons but to choose all such as beleeve the promises of the Gospel and to refuse all such as seek justification by works whereas certainly had there ever been any such decree made then Paul had never been chosen who was a law-worker as you call it So were many of the Jews and Pharisees who yet were brought to life eternal And whereas the Apostle teacheth Election and Salvation to be Not of man that worketh willeth er runneth but of God that sheweth mercy you have so wrested it that now it is Not of man that willeth or worketh but of man that beleeveth and continueth in Faith and Repentance to his lives end And indeed if Election be of such as such who persevere in Faith and Repentance then is Election of workers in respect of their works namely Beleeving and Repenting and Persevering which are works all of them belonging to Gods law And thus have you overthrown your own doctrine which you have devised wherewith to overthrow the doctrine of S. Paul Sect. 12. It is one thing to look boldly another that it may do so Humane frailties hinder not Christian boldness But he that saith I may look boldly doth there-withall and in so saying look boldly indeed Now you made your book look boldly whether it might do so or no when you taught it to say in the Preface that it might look your worst Adversaries boldly in the face And although he that hath humane frailties may look boldly yet his humane frailties may not and if he saith they may he doth then justifie his frailties And thus much for your Preface or first Chapter CHAP. II. The word Creatours I Shall put him in minde where he may read it in Ainsworth upon Psal 149. The Christian Churches never forbad us to read Eccles 12.1 in the Hebrew tongue or to turn it into English according to its proper force or Idiome You have helped me where to finde the word in our language but that it is found in our Church I cannot admit for you know that Ainsworth was a professed Separatist from the Church of England It was somewhat boldly done of him to turn it so who yet in his Title professed to explain the Hebrew words but it was far more boldly done of you to learn the children at the very first to speak so As you have helped me to the notice of one so will I in lieu of him help you to the notice of another whom perhaps you have not yet observed or if you have I dare say you never before took notice of one of his places which he hath added to yours and Ainsworths It is Th. Br. of N. in a small tract published last year His fourth instance is in these words Eph. 2.12 And ye were without Gods in the world so it is in the Greek plurally but it is falsty tran slated God singularly as if there were but one God in the Trinity I hope there is a mean on this side the Tridentine Restraint without such libertie as many men affect who are afraid that they shall not be known but pass in obscurity and not be counted more learned and judicious than others are if they do not mend and alter something or other though it be without exception generally received and of long continuance AEneas Sylvius before he was Pope or Cardinal or Bishop was Secretary to Frederick the Emperour and having indited some letters at his first coming to the employment he sent the copy to a Bishop then living at the Court who procured him that preferment desiring him to examine it and alter what he should finde needed alteration who soon after returned him again his copie in sundry places blotted but no way bettered having put out divers words here one and there another placing such in their stead as were no way so fit and proper and when the Secretarie asked him the reason and what he misliked in those words that he thus corrected Atqui said the Bishop non vidisse me scripta tua suspectare poteras si nihil immutatum reperisses you would have thought I never read or perused your writing had you received it again just such as you sent it to me I could wish that those men who are forward to show their diligence and their skill in the learned languages or perhaps their ignorance as it hapned in the instance I now gave you by mending the vulgar version would innovate in matters of less moment for these be indeed above any profanae vocum novitates I know it is one thing to teach that such a point of Faith is implyed in such an Hebrew Idiom another thing to teach children and common people to use the plural number upon pretence of drawing the Church to the Scripture Christian Churches forbid not to read Eccles 12.1 in Hebrew but they are against rendring every word just as it is in that language as their practice doth plainly witness And would you indeed that the English Bible should begin in the same manner and with the same pretence that you began your Catechisme withall The Gods created heaven and earth I hope you would not and yet you are in the way to it And though you teach your scholars at your fourth Question to answer There is but one God yet if they be wonted to read or hear that word in the plural and be used so to speak will they not go near to forget your Answer in your Catechisme and
end of the controversie to be the surest which now they load with unworthy mockings and reproaches And if They were so then were their Teachers so likewise because it was for want of better companie that they changed no sooner Secondly because a verie great proportion of the Churches Christian heretofore and lately hath in the main and leading parts of the controversie gone that way which these now forsake and would perswade the world to follow them For the days of old let Ger. Vossius speak never suspected for a partiarie while he wrote his Historie unlelss it were for their side After all his search the brief of all he gives in is this De Histor Lat. in Cassiano Celeberrimi quique occidentalis Ecclesiae Doctores sequebantur Augustinum Prosperum Nec enim sudicio meo B. Augustinus prioribus Patribus repugnat sed quod de Praedestinatione priores ferè Patres praeteribant hoc addit Atque ubi illi de Gratia incautiùs essent locuti hoc explicat that is The most famous and most renowned Doctours that were in the Western Churches followed Augustine and Prosper neither in my judgement was S. Augustine contrarie to those Fathers that went before him but that which they omitted about Predestination he added and that which they uttered somewhat negligently and unwarily he explained It is true that Poelenburgh in confutation of Hornbeks eighth chapter Sum. Controv. produceth Vossius to the contrarie lib 6. Th. 8. testifying that all the Greek and Latine Fathers before Augustine held that those were predestinate who God foresaw would live well but he left out what follows because it made clearly against him Verùm intellexere praescientiam eorum quae homo esset facturus ex viribus Gratiae tum praevenientis tum subsequentis eóque antiquitatis ille consensus nihil vel Pelagianos vel Scmipelagianos juvat They understood the foreknowledge of what they would do by the strength of Grace their consent therefore nothing avails either Pelagians or Semipelagians For late ages Popish Schoolmen are generally for the upper way it is communis sententia against Massa corrupt'a as the object so witnesseth Estius in Epist p. 112. Yea the Remonstrants who were not of that opinion do testifie Apol. p. 63. There is no doubt to be made but the Popish Doctours and most of the Schoolmen were Patrons of that opinion For which their opinion Calvin wrote against them in divers places I name these Instit 3.23 § 2. Neque tamen commentum ingerimus absolutae potentiae quòd sicuti Profanum cst it à meritò detestabile nobis esse debet In Isai c. 23. v. 9. Commentumillud de absolut a potentia Dei quod Scholastici invexerunt execranda blasphemia est Opusc p. 1006. Commentum de absoluta Dei potentia detestabile est quia ab aeterna Dci supientia justitia separari non debeat potestas I shall thank you therefore if you can help me to understand the meaning of Hist Qu. part 1. pag. 38. where the doctrine of the Supralapsarians is said to be first broach'd by Calvin Surely those Papists could not follow him in that for which he reprehended them who were long before him And the Council of Trent goes no further than to forbid men to presume themselves to be of the number of the predestinate not denying the Decree but onely affirming it to be secret and hidden unless by special Revelation In Popish countreys ea opinio maximè viget saith the Preface to Castellio's pieces And if these opinions be so odious and pernicious what think you might be the reason why the Pope could be brought no sooner to declare against them And if a great partie of Papists do still hold them it is a great probability they are true because it concerns their advantage and worldly gain that they should not be true For what freedom of Grace doth gain that merit of works doth loose and merit it is that bringeth in their profit The learned Dr. J. by his Publisher was entituled The Divine with these two restrictions of his Rank and of his Age I may add a third of his partie and then his testimonie is without exception Pag. 3712. If as good a scholar as Bellarmine would take the pains to examine his opinion as strictly as he hath done Calvins touching reprobation it would quickly appear to be for qualitic the very same if not worse And the Church of England teacheth the Doctrine of Predestination yet knew it to be A dangerous downfall to carnal minds Artic. 17. I am not speaking now of the Truth or of the certaintie of these matters nor at this time perswading any man to be of this judgement touching these opinions whether they be certain or no or whether they be true or no this is certain they are probable to be true and that may be enougn to perswade men not to reproach them though they beleeve them not Prudentibus faith Sidonius cordicitùs insitum est vitare fortuita Wisemen use to be deeply rooted in this principle not to run a great hazzard or capital adventure upon any thing that is dubious and uncertain Good men out of a principle of conscience toward God will not engage against their Sovereign Prince and bad men if they be not too bad and forsaken of God dare not partake with them that are given to change because of the wrath of man foreseen as possible though against common expectation and because of that which vicissitude or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the turn of a present state and and posture may bring upon them The opinions furthermore which your Reader must be directed where he shall finde them made so odious besides the Authority of a most considerable part of Christians receive some probability from Gods dealing in this present world his ways being not like ours nor his thoughts like our thoughts therefore are his works rightly counted wonderfull Was there ever found any man who was well satisfied and contented with what God hath done and doeth upon earth unless it were by laying to heart that it was his doing I speak not now of Cato or Socrates but of David Solomon and Jeremy How many things come to pass contrary to mans wisdome yea which is more to our present purpose contrary to mans goodness that is to say the goodness that is in man and the goodness ness that ought to be in man And if there be so much left in this world to our admiration it is possible yea it is likely there is much more in the other Hic est fidei summus gradus saith Luther de servo arbitrio credere illum esse clementem qui tam paucos salvat tam multos damnat This is the highest degree of faith to beleeve that God is mercifull who yet condemneth so many and saveth so few And if we give allowance to our reason to come up so far as to keep even pace with our faith we may perhaps a