humane capacity as de ordine modo praedestination is in mente divina concordia gratiae liberi arbitrii cum praedestinatione But these Papers I hope shall make it manifest first that I leave things unsearchable unsearchd and stand with the Apostle in the selfe same place that he did admiring and adoring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 11. 33. I say in the selfesame place or the like not to cloak iniquity or absurdity imputed to the divine Majesty by O the depth c. Secondly that I search not at all into any thing by meere naturall light and humane reason which to do in these things were a presumption deserving precipitation but by the light of divine revelation in Gods holy word and therefore I have set for my title Appello Evangelium which is the opening of Gods Counsell so far as he is pleased to communicate to us And thirdly this I doe not onely by appealing to those Texts that directly and immediately speak of our Predestination and Election which may seeme hard and obscure but also to the openest and commonest places that are fundamentall principles of Christianity and the grounds of Catechisme which ordinary capacities and not great wits alone are able to understand and by which the fewer and harder Texts are to be enlightned and interpreted and not contrarily Irenaeus hath a right saying Multa male interpretari coguntur Lib. 5. qui Unum recte intelligere non volunt which hath hapned to many in our Age. That unum which they will not rightly understand is promissum Evangelicum universale in Christo redemptore vniversali which our Church professeth in her Articles and in her Catechisme which unum is the ground of all the Conclusions here maintained So that my studies have not been about some curious and superfluous questions separable from the body of Divinity and which might well have been spared but about the most essentiall parts and articles of that body and of their mutuall coherence and connexion the industrious search and examination whereof is so necessary and worthy a thing as I can hardly hold him worthy the name of a Divine that hath not laboured therein And as to my Opinions which unexamined may be presumed to be nothing else but either ancient or late condemn'd Heresies which imputation or very supposition no good man ought to beare with silence these leaves do undertake to shew that the apprehensions expressed in them are none of those old condemned Heresies nor of those late rejected Heterodoxes but the very Doctrine of the ancient Fathers of the Church builded upon the sense and letter of the holy Scriptures and consonant to the publike establish'd Doctrine of the Church of England contained in the bookes of Articles Common Prayer and Homilies which if I shall make good by cleare and undeniable evidence then I hope my good friends will hold me excused and cleared of any such crime as Heresie or semi-heresie or novelty and will take me for a true and sound member of the Church of England both in Doctrine and in Discipline from both which I feare there hath been made by many in this Church too great a defection and departure since the dayes of King Edw. the 6. when they were first established and since the primitive years of the happy reigne of Queen Elizabeth wherein they were ratifyed and strengthened with a second and oft-renewed judgement But the examination and tryall of all this I commit and submit to my ingenuous and loving friends and them and their studies to the goodnesse and grace of God our Father CHAP. I. The first Opinion THe first Opinion concerning the order of Divine Predestination and having these defenders Beza Piscator Whitaker Perkins and other holy and learned men is this 1. That God from all eternity decreed to create a certain number of Men. 2. That of this number he Predestinated some to everlasting life and other some he Reprobated to eternall death 3. That in this act he respected nothing more than his own dominion and the pleasure of his own will 4. That to bring men to these ends he decreed to permit Sin to enter in upon all men that the Reprobate might be condemned for sinne and that he decreed to send his Sonne to recover out of sin his Elect fallen together with the Reprobate This Opinion is rejected by many protestant Divines as by the reverend Divines of our Church that were at the Synod at Dort by Peter Moulin by Robert Bishop of Salisbury and others It is detested by the Papists and Lutherans it was it tha◠Arminius and his followers chiefly opposed in the low Countries It is charg'd To make God the Author of Sin To Reprobate men before they were evill To Elect men not in Christ who is sent after this Opinion to recover out of sinne those that were elected before they were considered as sinners This is that irrespective decree which Mr. Mountague disliketh because in it there is no respect had to any thing fore-known not so much as the fall of man much lesse Christ or Faith giving to God no fore-knowledge or no use of it at all in this act of his which the Scripture calls predestination Yet this Opinion doth well admonish us to remember the Dominion and Soveraigne power and will of God which must be seen and acknowledged in his predestinating of men according to that of the Apostle Rom. 9. 21. Hath not the Potter power over the clay and vers 15. Hee hath mercy on whom he will which we will be mindfull of in the fifth Opinion Under this Opinion are to be placed the nine Assertions concluded at Lambeth Nov. 20. 1595. which have been often required to be put into our Booke of Articles but yet could it never be obtained It is requisite therefore to set them down because they are not vulgarly knowne and to examine them what they meane and see how farre they are Orthodoxall or agreeing to our Articles And for their sakes that understand not the Latine tongue I will render them in English * Consule Articulos Lambethanos ab F. G. Ecclesiae Ministro nuper editos Articles approv'd by the right Reverend Lords John Lord Archbishop of Canterbury and Richard Lord Bishop of London and other Divines at Lambeth the 20. of Novemb. in the year 1595. 1. God from Eternity Predestinated some Men to life and some he Reprobated unto Death 2. The Moving or Efficient cause of Predestination to life is not the foresight of Faith or of perseverance or of good workes or of any thing which may be in the persons predestinated but onely the Will of Gods good pleasure 3. Of the predestinate there is a predefined and certaine number which can neither be increased nor diminished 4. They which are not predestinated to salvation shal necessarily be condem'd for their sinnes 5. True lively justifying Faith and the sanctifying Spirit of God is not extinguished doth not fall out doth
and practice but of curious and carnall men and such as lack the Spirit of Christ to whom also these evills doe betide of despaire and security and therefore this would be shunn'd and avoyded as he that loves his safety would shun to walk upon or gaze from some high and deep downfall One point in this comparison needeth some more full Explication for it may be questioned whether the Article meanes that these different Effects of comfort or downfall doe proceed onely from the difference of the persons that doe consider being either pious or curious carnall or spirituall having the Spirit of Christ or lacking the Spirit of Christ or doe flow also from the difference of the things considered viz. either of Predestination or Election in Christ or the sentence of Gods Predestination There are that make no difference betweene these two and so to them the difference that the Article moteth must arise onely from the difference of the persons considering one and the same Doctrine of Predestination But I may bee bold to put a difference betweene the things considered aswell as betweene the persons considering because the Article doth so so for curious and carnall persons c. The Article doth not say it is a dangerous downefall namely the consideration of Predestination and Election in Christ as keeping the same subject whereof hee had spoken before as comfortable but it substituteth another subject to have continually before their Eyes the Doctrine of Gods Predestination that is a dangerous downefall and not the other And to mee it should seeme incredible that either the Article should say or that Doctor Bancroft should say That the sound full and whole Doctrine of Predestination and our Election in Christ such as is here delivered in the former paragraph should be a dangerous downfall even to carnall men and even them that lack the Spirit of Christ For although it be true that the fruit and comfort of this and many other Divine truths bee reaped onely by godly persons when they are come to have the Spirit of Christ c. And it be true also that our curiosity and carnall affections bee great impediments to the right conceiving and judging of Divine truths yet it is as true that every necessary Doctrine is in sacred Scripture so fully perfectly and coherently delivered and ought to be therefore fitly deduced by the Church that of it selfe it have no aptnesse to become a praecipitium even to carnall men and such as have not the Spirit of Christ since the Scripture was not written to be reade onely of them that doe already in humility beleeve it and are filled with the Spirit of Christ but even by naturall men having onely ordinary humane judgements and to taste of the things of God What then is it that the Article saith hath so much as a likelyhood of a downfall to the curious and carnall To have continually before their eyes the sentence of Gods Predestination what is this Sentence The bare and naked Sentence that very decree it selfe in generality That God hath Predestinated some men to life and hath reprobated some to death such is the first of the 9. Assertions at Lambeth without any mention or consideration of Christ of faith of Gods Prescience or any other of his Attributes This naked Sentence without any thing of the order or manner how this decree is concluded or come unto is that praecipitium that exceeding height from whence the Devill doth or may thrust men curious carnall into despaire or security laying all their religion upon Predestination If I shall be sav'd I shall be sav'd This is that which Bancroft calleth a desperate Doctrine pag. 29. of the Conference The selfe-same for substance methinks I find expressed by Hemingius in his Syntagm loco de praedest whom I beseech you heare with a little patience 1. De aeternâ praedestinatione rectè erudir◠ecclesiam summoperè necessarium est nam ut nulla doctrina uberiorem consolationem piis conscientiis afferre solet quam doctrina praedestinationis rectè explicita ita nihil periculosius est quam rectâ praedestinationis ratione aberrare 2. Nam qui à verâ deflectit in praecipitium fertur unde se recipere non potest 3. Sunt quidam qui cum audiunt nostram salutem in Dei electione proposito sitam esse modum verum haud observant somnia Stoica fabulas Parcarum fingunt quibus seipsos miserè implicant alios perniciosè seducunt vide Thes 4 5 6 7. 4. Modus autem praedestinationis verissimus est quem Paulus nobis commonstrat cum ad Ephes scribit Elegit nos in Christo 1. 9 10 11. in hoc modo conditio fidei includitur Nam cum fide inserimur Christo ejus membra efficimur ideo electi quia Christi membra sumus The Sentence therefore of Predestination without the Modus is Praecipitium but the Modus in Christo is the fountain of all comfort and hope and godliness which maketh this matter of so much worth to contend for The true Modus Praedestinationis divinae Now I come to the period of the second Paragraph and the whole Article Furthermore we must receive Gods promises in such wise as they be generally set forth unto us in holy Scripture and in our doings that Will of God is to be followed which we have expresly declared unto us in the word of God This part of the Article Bishop Bancroft shewed King James at Hampton Court pag. 29. line 19 20. as the Doctrine of the Church of England touching Predestination and it was there very well approved Moreover the Kings most excellent Majesty that now is in his Declaration commanding that all farther curious search be layd aside willeth that these disputes be shut up in Gods promises as they be generally set forth unto us in the holy Scripture as if the generall promises of God were the surest principles to determine all these doubts and differences by and they rest safely that rest in them The Authority of this Article together with other like passages in our Catechisme and Homilies constrained our divines that were at Dort to deliver in secundo Articulo these Theses for the third and fourth 3. Deus lapsi generis humani miseratus misit filium qui seipsum dedit precium redemptionis pro peccatis totius mundi 4. And for the fourth Thesis In hoc merito mortis Christi fundatur universale promissum Evangelicum juxta quod omnes in Christo credentes remissionem peccatorum vitam aeternam reipsâ consequantur which they confirme by Mark 16. 15. so that this part of the Article though it be the last yet it is not the last in worth and use For whereas it saith Furthermore we must receive c. It intendeth to give farther remedy against the harme which may be taken by curious and carnall persons from the Sentence of Predestination had continually before their Eyes Which
over all For he is both good and mercifull and patient and saves whom he ought nor is here wanting to him the good effect of a just Judge nor is his wisdome diminish'd for he saves whom he ought to save and judges those that are worthy of Judgement yet is not his justice to be counted cruelty considering his foregoing and preventing goodnesse 2. This Opinion avoideth the imputation of Stoicall Fate which the 3. first cannot possibly avoid though they put it from them for they make mans salvation or damnation necessary by an externall and an antecedent necessity of a Decree of God But this Opinion placing Gods Decree after his foreknowledge makes mans salvation or damnation only infallible to Gods knowledge but free and contingent to man Gods knowledge as knowledge causing nothing and his Decree not altering or crossing but ratifying that which he knew would be the worke of Man working out his owne salvation by co-working with the Grace of God or working his owne damnation by forsaking his owne mercy 3. It avoideth the accusations laid against the fourth Opinion for it maketh the Election of God absolute definite inconditionall complete irrevocable and immutable It maketh God to chuse man and not man first to chuse God It hath no affinitie with Pelagianisme in the matter of Predestination at all nor in the matter of Grace unlesse this be Pelagianisme to hold that under the aydes of Grace the will is yet free to evill of which we shall dispute in the third part It maketh Predestination the root and cause of Calling justifying glorifying of faith repentance perseverance and of all the good that is in us which are the effects of Predestination and effect of the love of God predestinating them unto us 4. It ministreth no matter of despaire nor of Presumption but cherisheth both hope and feare Not of Despaire For 1. No man is decreed against but upon the foreknowledge of his owne refusall of life offered him 2. The Promises are generall and hee may truly thinke them to belong to him 3. There is sufficient Grace in the means of Conversion to remedy all the weaknesse or perversnesse that is in mans depraved nature He may hope therefore Not of Presumption For 1. No man is decreed for but with the foreknowledge of his owne acceptance of life offered him 2. The Promises of God are generall but they have conditions which he must be carefull to observe that will inherit the things promised 3. The Grace that is in the meanes of Conversion is not tyed unto them by any physicall connexion but is dispensed by the good pleasure of God who may offer and unite it to the World when and how long hee will or may withhold the influence of it and so harden or forsake the carelesse or the proud Hee may feare therefore 5. It ministreth as much sweet comfort to all godly persons that finde themselves walking in the wayes that leade to life and confirmeth their Faith of eternall salvation to be enjoyed through Christ and as fervently kindleth their love to God as any way or order of our Election conceived otherwise 6. Lastly it acknowledgeth the deepnesse of Gods judgements and the unsearchablenesse of his Counsels for who can tell why God by his Decree settled upon Peter rather than upon Judas why hee loved Esau lesse than Jacob why hee suffered one man to perish and not another when he was able out of the treasures of his wisdome and knowledge to have disposed their course calling and government to quite contrary ends who can tell a reason why hee distributed the gifts of Nature and of Grace so diversly why hee beareth some with so long patience and cuts off others in so great severity why some have so much some so little both of temporall and spirituall blessings Quis novit sensum Domini or who hath beene his Counsellour Or who hath first given unto him for of him and through him and to him are all things To whom bee glory for ever The end of the first Part. The Transition to the second Part. NOw having propounded that which I conceive to bee the Truth and commended it by comparison with other Opinions that seeme defective I have yet one thing more to doe necessary for the confirming and testifying of this truth against all exceptions either of haeresie in generall or of schisme at home in this Church of England I am therefore to shew how all the Articles or heads of Divinity that necessarily runne into this question being rightly declared doe cohere and consent to this Doctrine that wee may make it good which the Philosopher saith Ethic. 1. c. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am to declare then the Orthodox Doctrine both of the ancient Church and of the Church of England First of these things as Eternall Of Gods Knowledge Will Providence Predestination Election Reprobation These shall make a second Part. 2. Of these things as done in Time Of the Creation of the fall of Man the effects of the Fall the Restauration of Man his Vocation Conversion Of Grace Freewill Perseverance and of the last judgement which is commonly neglected and left out by them that dispute of these matters And these shall make a third part of this worke through God Goodnesse and assistance CHAP. I. Of Gods Knowledge ST James saith Acts 15. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Knowne from everlasting are unto God all his Workes S. Paul saith Rom. 8. 29. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom he foreknew he Predestinated S. Peter saith 1 Pet. 1. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the strangers Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father There be that interpret these two places rather by the Word Precognition than by the Word Prescience and tropically as to signifie approbation and love rather than Knowledge properly taken and they complaine of the ignorance of the Latines that understood not the Greeke and of the ignorance of the Greekes that understood not the Hebrew phrase in this word and that by the Word Prescience they occasioned the Pelagian Heresie of election upon prescience of workes So Pareus yet Origen is hee to whom they are beholden for this their interpretation one neither ignorant of Greeke nor Hebrew nor thought guiltlesse by them of giving occasion to Pelagius his Heresie But if it be their mindes by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so to include approbation as they would exclude 1. Foreknowledge properly taken I will fetch a poore Almanake to wipe away this Glosse by the common use of the word Prognostication 2. Next I will say that an Hebraism or Grammaticall quillet is too weake a thing to sway a cause of this weight and value 3. I say that it is very improbable that S. Paul and S. Peter being not in any poeticall or popular veine but in a sad and grave discourse doe use any figurative or improper term where most propriety and perspicuity and
the lowest and first gifts of the Spirit what bee the highest and the last words of sense as Tasting Hearing Seeing are not used in the Scriptures to expresse a little superficiall conceit of things Spirituall quasi primoribus labris gustasse but rather the full clear certaine deepe apprehension of them See Job 34. 3. Psal 34. 9. Joh. 6. 40. Joh. 8. 56. 47. Et alibi passim From hence it is that the renewing of these men againe by Repentance is so hard or impossible that fell from so great an height whereas to be renewed after lesser faults is ordinary How will these Divines of the Schoole satisfie weake ones and our common Christians of the Country in whom they shall not finde so much as these things which they call initialls how will they perswade them that they are in the state of Regeneration and have that justifying Faith whereof they say Believers may be assured or will they exclude them out of the rank of Believers 3. I oppose S. Augustines judgement in this which must not bee refused by any replyer De corrept grat cap. 8. Mirandum est quidem multumque mirandum c. It is to be wondered at and very marvelous that God should not give Perseverance to some of his Children whom hee hath Regenerated in Christ and to whom hee hath given Faith Hope and Love when as he forgives so great wickednesse to other strange Children and makes them his Sonnes by conferring his Grace upon them c. The thing that S. Augustine admireth is Cur illos Deus c. why God should not then snatch away those his children which have lived faithfully and godlily out of the danger of this present life lest their evill inclinations should worke a change in their mindes And hee refers this to the inscrutable judgements of God most wisely and holily But his Opinion is that if these men had dyed in that time when they lived justly and piously they had beene saved therefore their faith was more than begun they were more than seeming Christians they were truly justifyed and sanctifyed and then fit for the Kingdom of Heaven 4. Lastly I maintaine and prescribe this to be the publike Doctrine of the Church of England by Law established and first Heare King Henries Protestations in the Booke before praised In the Article of Justification If after our Baptisme it chance us by our Spirituall enemies to be overthrown and cast into mortall sinne then is there no remedy but for the recovery of our former estate of justification which wee have lost to arise by Penance wherein proceeding in sorrow and much lamentation for our sinnes c. we must have a sure trust and confidence in the Mercy of God that for his Son our Saviour Christs sake he will yet forgive us our sinnes and receive us into his favour againe and so being thus restored to our Justification we must goe forward in our battaile aforesaid Againe a little after And it is no doubt but although we be once justifyed yet we may fall therefrom by our own Freewill and consenting to sinne and following the desires thereof For albeit the house of our conscience be once made cleane and the foule spirit be expelled from us in Baptisme or Penance yet if wee wax Idle and take not heed hee will returne with seven worse spirits and possesse us againe This I allege not for it selfe but for the affinity our 16. Article made in Edw. 6. hath unto it as a Child of the same Fathers Article 16. Of Sinne after Baptisme Not every deadly Sinne willingly committed after Baptisme is Sinne against the Holy Ghost and unpardonable wherefore The place for penitents Artic. Edw. 6. The grant of repentance Artic. Eliz. Is not to be denyed to such as fall into Sinne after Baptisme After wee have received the holy Ghost we may depart from Grace given and fall into sinne and by the Grace of God we may rise againe and amend our lives And therefore they are to bee condemned which say They can no more Sinne as long as they live here or deny to such as truly repent Place of forgivenesse Eliz. The place for Penitents Edw. 6. This Article my Opponents would bee well contented it had nought against them though it were not for them But I hope to evince it to be so far against them that while it standeth they must needs be Heterodox in the Church of England that preach or publish that Opinion which is now so prevalent every where This I shall doe by three wayes 1 By the Concession and Confession of their own friends that have complained of this Article 2. By Analysing the Propositions and scanning the Literall and Grammaticall sense to which wee are bound to keepe us both by the Law of learning and by the Declaration of K. Charles prefixed to our Articles 3. By Paralleling our 16th with the 12th Article of the Augustane Confession from whence it was taken and with other Doctrine of our Church in the Booke of Homilies 1. For the first The Authors of the second admonition to the Parliament pag. 43. lin 30. doe accuse some Bishops then as suspected of the Heresie of Pelagius and for Freewill not onely they are suspected say they but others also Then they adde And indeed the Booke of Articles of Christian Religion speaketh very dangerously of falling from Grace which is to be reformed because it too much inclineth to their Error So they There were then some Bishops that held this Error of falling from Grace as it was counted by these Authors who count also the Article too much inclining to their error But a wiser learneder man than they in the Conference at Hampton Court 1. Jacobi made it his first motion pag. 24. That the Articles of Religion concluded 1562. might be explaned in some obscure places and enlarged where some things were defective for example whereas Article 16. the words are these After wee have received the Holy Ghost we may depart from Grace Notwithstanding the meaning be sound saith hee yet he desired that because they may seeme to be contrary to the Doctrine of Gods Predestination and Election in the 17th Article both those words might be explained with this or the like addition yet neither totally nor finally So thâ—n if this Article did not speake dangerously of the falling from Grace and seeme to contradict the 17th Article this motion was needlesse And in truth so it was and so judged for nothing was done to the explaining or enlarging of the Article neither is there any contradiction betwixt the 16th and 17th Articles and the addition of finally totally would have quite subverted not have explained the sense and scope of the whole as I will demonstrate in the two places 2. For the second way by Analysing the Propositions c. thus I proceede The Title is of Sin after Baptisme Cleerly it is not the scope of any part of this Article as some would
moderation for you doe oppose it with a very good courage but not with so good successe All the Reasons which I have couched in my Sermon stand still very firme all unshaken and almost all untouched For my part I honour Truth with all my heart next after God or rather as I doe God himselfe who is the God of Truth and I shall esteeme him my dearest friend that shall at any time conquer my errours with evidence of Truth for that conquest shall be my happinesse and victory Any errour abuseth the understanding but an errour in Religion corrupts it in Faith poison it How happy and glad shall I be to be purged of all such rust and poyson But I am a Christian and rationall and still I must repeat it I cannot be convicted but with Scripture or reason either of these the latter being grounded on the former will command my assent but I cannot be chidden or frighted or forced into an Opinion one good Argument swayes mee more than twenty Declamations Falsehood is fearefull and loves to goe disguised to walke in a mist and because it smels ill to be trimmed with all the flowers of Rhetorique Truth hates nothing more than Masquing shee loves and longs to appeare in her naked native Beauty and after the most rigorous scrupulous examination remaines still the same Let me entreat you to looke over againe that Passage of my Sermon which offends you marke well what I say and upon what grounds See whether my Margent doe not make good every Particularity in the Text where it is doubtfull by particular and pertinent authorities After tryall if you please to informe mee where I have faulted I doe here seriously promise you to cast the first stone at my selfe and to publish my owne Retractation after the most imitable patterne but never yet imitated of the most learned and modest Bishop of Hippo But if you will without Reason S. Augustine without fault reject and reprobate my Opinion Ex mero beneplacito ex absolutâ voluntate as you know who sayes that God Almighty did with the most part of innocent Mankinde this I cannot thinke of you my Learned Wife Just and Mercifull Friend You say the Arminians are Heretiques we may not be at Peace with them The matters controverted are fundamentall essentiall To this I need say no more for I have said enough in this Letter and in my Sermon to prove the contrary and I doubt not your second thoughts will perswade you to unsay it If you persist then let me tell you all the Learned in Christendome of our owne Party even the late Doctors of the Synod are your Adversaries and very lately as I have heard in the Low Countries a learned Synod of Contra-Remonstrants did purposely dispute this Point and conclude with my assertion giving other reasons why the Remonstrants remaine banished And instead of many Arguments I will leave you one whereon to meditate which likewise makes very much for my maine intentions The Arminians dissent from us onely in these foure questions The Lutheran Churches maintaine against us all these foure questions and moreover a number of notable dreames and Dotages both in matters of ceremony and doctrine amongst others you remember their absurd ubiquity and consubstantiation Now notwithstanding all their foule corruptions yet I presume you know for its apparent out of publique records that our better-reformed Churches in England France Germany c. by the advice of their worthiest Doctours Calvin Bucer Beza Martyr Zanchus Vrsin Pareus have still offered to the Lutherans all Christian Amity Peace and Communion and desired them conjur'd them to joyne all together the right hands of Fellowship though those virulent fiery Adders of Saxony would never give eare to the voice of those wise charmers But professe to this day a perpetuall foehood and immortall Hostility against us Although in Polonia the Lutherans and Calvinists being of a better Temper have long lived in a heavenly and brotherly concord and communion both of them retaining their old opinions Now say good Master V. what think you doe the Lutherans erre fundamentally or not if so then they have no union with God nor connexion with Christ the head with what Conscience then could our Churches and worthies offer them their Communion and desire it If not how then doth the Arminian erre fundamentally since the Lutheran maintaines the same Opinion with many more and worse And againe with what Conscience can the Arminian properly quà talis be rejected out of our Communion when the Lutheran who is as bad and farre worse is invited to it and would very joyfully be admitted Solve me this Riddle but Solve me it substantially and Solidly Et eris mihi magnus Apollo You tell me Beza calls Origens errour turpissimum errorem but by the way that 's not latine for a damnable Heresie and that Sixtus Senensis when he had mustred his Fathers rejects their Opinion and you aske me what I thinke of Trew and Carelesse in the booke of Martyrs All this very impertinently In that place I enquire not what Beza or Calvin or Sixtus senensis thought nor whether the old Fathers were deceived these enquiries were not to my purpose But can you deny but that these writers testifie that many learned pious catholique Bishops of the old Church taught Praedestination for foreseene faith or works And suppose them herein to have erred as for my part I doubt not but they did though upon other grounds than the bare assertion of Calvin Beza or Senensis yet can you deny that notwithstanding this errour and others they were then and still since accompted holy catholique Bishops Doe you not beleeve them to be with God and thinke you not as I doe that whosoever should involve them in a capitall censure as none of your Authors doe but speak reverently of them all should be grossely and wickedly uncharitable Grant me but these things which none can deny and I desire no more I have enough to make good my words For Trew and Careles it seemes you thinke Trew was Careles and Careles was Trew And to tell you my mind I think so too But remember this that both of them were Martyrs or Confessors and so neither erred fundamentally By consequent my discourse is true yours againe impertinent But the Arminians conspire with the Romanists Ergo no Peace no truce with either I will pleade for neither of them but for my selfe First the ground of your inference is weake Excuse me if I cannot reject an Opinion eo ipso without farther conviction than onely because they of Rome approve of it For what doe not they and doe not we with them anathematize the Anti-trinitarians Arians Nestorians Eutichians c. Secondly if you looke againe into your Bookes and consider well you will confesse that the Church of Rome makes more against the Arminians than for them The prime controversie on which all the other are but Appendences is that touching the
in himselfe but in all his posterity because God held him not as one person but as the whole nature of mankinde untill such time as he was come into that state in which God thought it best to governe the race of mankinde to the end of the World whereto hee foreknew that he would soone come namely the state of sinne and misery needing grace and mercy No doubt God in justice might have here rejected and condemned for ever not onely the greater part but the whole of mankinde for this Apostacy from him as hee did the Angells that fell But the Scripture testifieth greater grace Rom. 5. 12. 16. deinceps Jeremy 3. 1. Tu autem fornicata es cum amatoribus multis tamen revertere ad me dicit Dominus ego suscipiaÌ„te verba Domini sunt Non est fas suspendere fidem saith Bern. 84. in Cantic applying that to every sinfull soule which Jeremy applies to Israel and I may well to all mankinde in Adam after whom God call'd Adam ubi es And to the same purpose heare what the confession of the Church of England saith in the tenth Article The condition of man after the fall of Adam is such that hee cannot turne and prepare himselfe by his owne naturall strength and good worth to Faith and calling upon God wherefore we have no power to doe good workes pleasant and acceptable to God without the Grace of God by Christ preventing us that he may have a good will and working with us when wee have that good will CHAP. V. Of Gods Government of Man under the Covenant of Grace THe third act of Execution of Gods Eternall Counsell was the Restauration of man fallen For the most Wise and Mighty God having created the World for Man and Man for happinesse in the fruition of himselfe would not suffer either the whole destruction of his Creature or the frustrating of his end though he pleased to permit the depraving of his Creature and to forsake one ill succeeding way to take a better for the attainment of this end Irenaeus lib. 3. c. 33. Omnis dispositio salutis quae circa hominem fuit c. The whole ordering of Salvation touching Man was wrought according to the good Pleasure of the Father so as God should not bee overcome nor his skill impair'd for if that man who was made of God to live here losing life being wounded by the Serpent which had deprav'd him should not againe returne to life but be wholly swallow'd up of death God had beene overcome and the Serpents craft had conquer'd the Will of God Hence God that foreknew before all time the fall of Man hee Dâ—creed in mercy to spare and preserve some degrees of his Imâ—ge in Man and so did and to suspend the Exâ—cution of some effects of his fall else hee had dyed presently or lived a mad or brutish creature that hee might be a subject possible to be repayred and capable of healing God in wisdome and goodnesse chose rather so to doe than to destroy him and wholly make him anew Moreover out of the same Wisdome and Goodnesse hee had Decreed to supply another way that which was lost and so bring Man back from the gates of Hell and to set him in a new and faire way to Heaven This his thought magnum cogitatum Patris as Tertul calls it from everlasting was now in due time the time of Mans misery revealed namely soone after the fall For this Gospell in effect was preached unto him That God would send his owne Sonne made of a woman that should dissolve the workes of the Devill and by See the Homily of the Nativity death overcoming him that had the power of death should deliver man from bondage and restore unto him righteousnesse and life Gen. 3. 15. Gal. 3. 16. Heb. 2. 14. Now what by the remaines of Gods Image left in man what by the supply that God would make by his gracious help miserable man fallen was reputed by God a fit person once againe to be a party in a Covenant A Covenant of new Conditions suiting to the state of a sinner but tending to the same Ends righteousnesse and life This new Covenant is called the Covenant of Grace 1. because it was freely made with man a sinner utterly unworthy to have any more communion with God Secondly Because in it the righteousnesse and salvation of man is wrought in him rather by God than by himselfe being more in receiving than in giving in beleeing than in doing Yet hath it the nature of a true Covenant both parties having something for either to performe God to send his Sonne and his spirit to releeve the miseries and wants of man and to forgive sinnes to impute righteousnesse and to give life to such as obey his Sonne and his Spirit This part of God in the Covenant the Prophet Jeremiah speaketh of cap. 31. ver 33. and 't is repeated Heb. 8. 8. Man to humble himselfe for his sins to God his Creator to beleeve in Christ his Redeemer and to yeeld himselfe to be led by the holy spirit his Sanctifyer This part of Man in the Covenant the whole Gospell speaketh of requiring Repentance and faith and new obedience Act. 20. 21. Here are 2. things affirmed which may seeme to require proofe 1. That the Covenant of grace was made with all mankind 2. That God supplyeth by his spirit whatsoever is needfull to the keeping of this Covenant on the behalfe of Man who is confessed impotent in himselfe through his former fall These 2. shall by Gods assistance be sufficiently proved hereafter under the heads of Calling Commission Grace Free-will Now let these suffice as prescriptions for the Truth 1. That we find here in the day of the first publishing of the Covenant all mankind in Adam and Eve receiving the promise of the Gospel at the same time that they received their penances which we see to be universall to all their Seed it is therefore probable that promises should be taken as universall since the wise doe say Ampliandi favores 2. That we find left after the fall Remaines of some part of the Image of God as life understanding of good and evill liberty of Will in naturall and civill things conscience accusing or excusing c. which though they were given at first by Creation and so belong to nature yet the staying of them to remaine in man after his fall was of Grace both to make him capabâ—e to contract and covenant withall and also to be some beginnings and principles in order to his Restauration but since these alone are not sufficient to make him able to rise againe or to recover righteousnesse or keep the new Covenant of the Gospel of himselfe and these remaines it is decent to think of God who doth nothing imperfectly and who in Covenanting is no hard Master That he would supply by his spirit whatsoever was needfull more to the keeping of that new
he would make him a reasonable Creature and so a free Creature not free to be under no superiour or to be absolute and sufficient in himselfe to himselfe and independent on any other for this belongs onely to God himselfe but in such things as he should will or nill the Nature of his will to be free and at liberty to choose or refuse this or that to be the Master and owner of his owne Acts to be thereby capable of righteousnesse or of Sinne of doing good or evill of obedience or disobedience and thence a Subject of praise or punishment of bounty or of Justice which no Creature could properly be that is not free in Will and loose and at liberty from all kinde of Necessity This perhaps may be said to be true of the first man Adam in his Creation but since his fall that freedome of man is to all kind of things decayed and to things Spirituall utterly lost which being granted yet this is to be added That God who knew and permitted this fall and losse knew also how to provide and to prepare graces of his powerfull Spirit to restore and supply that which was lost and how to give a new Commandement or make a new Covenant with man fallen fit and proportionable to the impotent will of Man and to those graces of his Spirit which he would be ever ready to supply either preventing man or working in him or assisting helping protecting preserving him as need shall require So that this Noble creature still might hold and keepe the place and ranke of a free Creature For we may not think that the wisdome of God made such an one to shew him to the Angels and to the world and ever after to have banished him out of the world or to have admitted so notorious a defect in this Universe that there should not be found in it the noblest Nature of things here below above a day or two in the very infancy of the world and ever after men should all either be necessarily evil or necessarily good after the Maniches heresie seeing God created man to be the Subject of his righteous Judgement The old saying therefore must be remembred If there be not the Grace of God how shall God save the world If there be not Freewill in Man how shall God judge the world Grace is to be defended so as we doe not subvert the freedome of mans Will and the Freewill of man is to be defended so that we doe not evacuate the Grace of God To conclude with uniting the consideration of these two Natures together of God and man in our conceiving the Order and manner of the divine Predestination Seeing the Nature of a free creature is the Subject and the roote of most contingency in the world and the Natural knowledge of God or his simple Understanding is the infallible foreknower of all future contingents even conditionall if God please to create such a free Creature it followeth from hence that a just Decree before all time what shall become of every free Creature in the end of time cannot possibly be conceived by us to have beene made but as proceeding from that infallible foreknowledge which is in God of every mans workes since he will render to every man according to his workes And againe because the same Decree doth proceede from a Soveraigne Lord whose Will is absolute who will be debtor to none but will have all debtors to him it followeth againe that the foreknowlege out of which the Decree proceedeth can be no other after our manner of Understanding than that of Gods Naturall simple understanding of things when they were but as possible before any Decree was made that they should be created or come into being To which knowledge when the omnipotent will of God adjoyned it selfe an infallible an unchangable Decree was made that things should be such as they are now Necessary or Contingent Meanes or Ends Causes or Effects such as foreknowledge had apprehended them and understood them so that the Salvation of every man who is saved is from God and the Perdition of every man that perisheth is from himselfe To God onely wise the Gracious and Righteous Lord be all Honour Glory and Dominion for ever Amen Irenaeus lib. 2. cap. 34. Sufficiant quae dictasunt Nec enim oportet quod dici solet universum ebibere mare eum qui velit discere quoniam aquâ— ejus salsa est CHAP. XXI An Analysis to the 17th Article Confessionis Anglicanae TO make manifest how perfect a consent the fifth Opinion hath with the Confession of the Church of England in the 17 Article which is of Predestinated and Election and to shew who are worthy to be accounted Heterodox from the Church I most humbly crave leave to Analyse and explicate the said Article In doing whereof I desire the judicious Reader to consider with mee three things 1. The Scope and Intent of the Article 2. The Parts and Paragraphs with their Connnexion 3. The lowest and particular termes in every part and that in their literall and Grammaticall sense as wee are commanded by His Majesties Declaration and according to those places of Scripture from whence the termes are taken so religiously as nothing could be better 1. The Scope of the Article is 1. To establish an Unity of Doctrine in the high point of Predestination and Election among the members of this Church 2. To direct them to the right use of this Doctrine and to prevent abuses 2. The Parts and Paragraphs distinguished to the Eye in most Editions are two The first from the beginning to these words They attaine to everlasting felicity This hath respect chiefly to the First end the establishing of the sound Doctrine of Predestination The second beginneth at these words As the Godly consideration c. and reacheth to the End This hath respect chiefly to the Second To direct the Church in the direct use of this Doctrine and to avert abuses and scandals 3. The lowest and particular termes will come to be considered in their own places as they lye in every Paragraph The first Paragraph that concerneth Doctrine hath two Branches The first the Definition of Predestination The second the Description of the Execution and Manifestation thereof The first branch the Definition is set downe in these termes Predestination to Life is the Everlasting purpose of God whereby before the Foundation of the World was layd he hath constantly decreed by his Counsell secret to us to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of Mankinde and to bring them by Christ to everlasting Salvation as Vessels made to Honor. Here be two things to be considered The thing defined The Definition The thing defined is Predestination to life which very terme admits another Predestination which is to death though the Article say nothing expresly of it or of Reprobation Not as if God decreed nothing what to doe with wicked men or
nothing without the Sonne being the chiefest peece in the Frame Secondly this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signifie the Purpose Decree Determination and Resolution of the Will of God to execute and to put into being the things whereof the plot which is in his minde is the patterne thus S. Paul taketh it 2 Tim. 1. 9. when hee joynes purpose and grace together Who hath saved us and called us with an holy calling not according to our workes but according to his purpose and grace given unto us in Christ Jesus before the World was or of both these together is the purpose of God consisting the Counsell and the Decree of God intending those things the order and course and forme wherof he hath in his Mind and his Power and lastly in his Will So that I may say with Vrsinus on Esai 14. Eventus rerum accuratissimè respondent consilio praevisioni Dei tanquam Archetypo So S. Paul would say all things come to passe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all things doe and fulfill the purpose of God This purpose is about Ends and Meanes to those ends and all circumstances accompanying them both in things of the order of nature and of the order of grace and about those things God will doe himselfe and those things hee will permit the Creature and all secondary Causes to doe And although in the whole frame or plot there be two parts or two wayes one that leadeth some to happinesse and another wherein some goe to their owne destruction and although the purpose of God runs upon them both as being not without his Counsell or his will yet in S. Paul that onely which is the way to happinesse to some as the more worthy and desirable part is called the purpose of God just as in the foreknowledge where although the wicked are not unknowne to God as ignorant of the men and of their workes yet the faithfull onely and the Elect are named and called those whom God foreknew because in them hee is pleased and delighted So it is in purpose that part onely of Divine disposition that bringeth unto happinesse is called Gods purpose because hee delighteth in the good of his Creatures and hath no pleasure in their death and destruction which is of themselves and not of him yet adjudged by him and decreed upon their rebellion And this may suffice for the opening of this Terme The Purpose of God As for the Adjuncts added by our Article to purpose as the everlasting purpose they are so cleer as they neede no further Explication than was made in the Analysis before Onely to the last we may adde a word By his Counsell secret to us Consilio nobis quidem occulto This Clause I would have reserved and kept in minde to prove that Doctrine which I delivered in the 18. Chapter of the third part of this worke That although there be revealed to us some hopefull signes of our Election and Predestination as it is witnessed in the next branch of this paragraph yet the very certainty of our Election or Predestination is a secret hidden in God and in this life unknown to us Come wee now to the outward Act or End purposed by God to his chosen viz. to bring them to everlasting Salvation This is terminus ad quem the end which Predestination intendeth as that which decreeth a perfect worke and leaveth not the issue uncertaine or contingent as unto God To this is added in the Article the terminus à quo from whence men are brought to Salvation from curse and damnation from which they are delivered And there is added the meanes by which they are both delivered from curse and brought to Salvation and that is Christ and lastly there is an Illustration As Vessels made to Honour Out of these words To deliver from curse is rightly collected by Robert late Bishop of Salisbury that the Church of England doth acknowlege them quos Deus in Christo elegit to be maledicto exitio liberatos nam privatum est non publicum Ecclesiae judicium quicquid aliter à quibusdam inconsideratè scriptum est So he in praefatione ad Lectorem In these quibusdam are no meaner men than Doctor Whitakers and Master Perkins who tooke this Article to speak for them Whom yet this learned Bishop saith have written aliter and inconsideratè the Article then hath not beene understood and so it may yet be not fully apprehended by great Praelates for likewise out of this that our Article saith with the Apostle that our Election is in Christ Doctor Carleton late Bishop of Chichester well collecteth that this Counsell of God had respect unto the corrupt masse of Mankinde for saith he the benefit we have by Christ appeareth not in the state of Innocency pag. 10. against the Appealer where the said reverend Bishop disputeth earnestly against them that teach Predestination to be a separation between men and men as they were found in the Masse of Mankinde uncorrupt which is the Doctrine the Appealer so much inveighed against as contrary to our Church in the 17 Article So that to mee it is strange the Bishop should bee so severe against the Appealer whith whom himselfe concurreth in the condemning of the same Novelty But more strange it seemes to mee that out of those words Chosen in Christ hee could collect the fall of Mankinde to be presupposed by God before the Counsell proceeded to Election and could not aswell collect now that Christ himselfe was presupposed to be sent into the World to be preached to be beleeved on or refused before God proceeded to Elect or to Reprobate man Seeing the first is collected more remotely that the Gift of Christ supposeth sinne and a curse from whence men had neede to be delivered by a Saviour But the second is expresly affirmed by the Apostle Hee hath chosen in Christ and so it may immediately be collected that wee were chosen not to Christ as to be sent but in Christ supposed as sent and we found Beleevers in him seeing the foreknowledge of God did aswell understand the issue and successe of Christ preached in the World that hee would be the occasion of the rising of many and of the sorer fall of many others as it understood the issue of the Creation of man of the Commandement given of the Tempter permitted that it would bee to the fall and corruption of all Mankinde It is very true that the Bishop of Salisbury saith Sect. 1. P. 2. That God looking upon the Masse of Mankinde defiled with sinne and guilty of eternall Death and Damnation did there see subesse ibi commoditatem evolvendi explicandi opes illas abyssos sapientiae suae justitiae misericordiae potentiae patientiae summa ut in illum gloria istustrium virtutum praedicatio redundaret but how to shew all this The Scripture saith by sending his Sonne to die for the World for therein are all these riches opened But that