lesse transmitted to Constantinople Set those aside and what holinesse can Tiber challenge above Rhene or Thames Let fooles be mocked with these fancies but you whom God hath indued with singular judgment and understanding in all things will easily resent the fraud and see that there is no more reason why the English Church should conform in opinion to the Romish were the Doctrines equally indifferent then the Roman Church to the English They are but the several limms of one large and universal body and if in respect of outward order there have been or may be acknowledged a precedency yet in regard of the main substance of truth we cannot admit of any dependance on any Church under Heaven Here that which is the purer from Error and corruption must take the wall maugre all the loud throats of acclaming parasites yea so far must we needs be from pinning our faith upon the sleeve of Rome as that we cannot without violence offered to our own consciences but see and say that there is no particular Church on Earth so branded by the Spirit of God in the Scriptures as Rome In so much as the best abbettors and dearest fautors of that See are glad to plead that Rome is St. Peters and St. Johns Babylon we blesse God for standing on our own feet and those feet of ours stand upon the infallible grounds of the Prophets and Apostles of Primitive Creeds Councels Fathers and therefore we can no more deceive you then they can deceive us The censure that the enemies of our Church cast upon it is not untruth but defect they dare not but grant what we say is true but they blame us for not saying all is true which they say now that which we say was enough to serve those antient Christians which lived before those lately devised additions the refusal whereof is made haynous and deadly to us how safe how happy is this erring Let my soul be with those blessed Martyrs Confessors Fathers Christians which never lived to hear of those new Articles of the new Roman faith and I dare say you will not wish yours any other where there can be no danger in old truths there can be nothing but danger in new obtrusions But I finde how apt my pen is to over-run the bounds of a letter my zeal of your safety carries me into this length the errors into which these seducers would lead you are deadly especially upon a revolt your very ingenuity I hope besides grace will suggest better things to you Hold that which you have that no man take your crown My Soul for yours you go right so sure as there is a heaven this way will lead you thither go on confidently and cheerfully in it let me never be happy if you be not you will pardon my holy importunity which shall be ever seconded with my hearty prayers to the God of truth that he will stablish your heart in that eternal truth of his Gospel which you have received and both work and crown your happy perseverance such shall be the fervent apprecations of Your much devoted Friend Jos Exon. RESOLUTIONS FOR RELIGION WHereas there are many loud quarrels and brabbles about matter of Religion this is my firme and steadfast Resolution wherein I finde peace with God and my own Soul as being undoubtedly certain in it self and holily charitable to others and that in which I constantly purpose God willing as to Live so to Dye 1. I do believe and know that there is but one way to Heaven even the True and Living way Jesus Christ God and Man the Saviour of the World 2. I believe and know that this way however it is a narrow and straight way in respect of the World yet hath much Latitude in it self So as those that truely believe in this Son of God their Saviour though they may be mis-led into many by-pathes of small errors yet by the mercy of God are acknowledged not to be out of the main high way to eternal life 3. I believe and know that the Canonical Scriptures of God are the true and unfailing Rule of our Faith so as whatsoever is therein contain'd is the infallible Truth of God and whatsoever is necessary to be believed to eternal Salvation is therein expresly or by clear and undoubted consequence contein'd and so set forth as it neither needeth farther explication nor admits of any probable Contradiction 4. I believe and know that God hath ever since the creation of Mankinde had a Church upon Earth and so shall have to the end of the World which is a Society or Communion of Faithful men professing his Name against which the gates of Hell shall never be able to prevail for the failing thereof 5. I believe and know that the consenting voice of the successions and present universality of faithful Men in all times and places is worthy of great authority both for our Confirmation in all truths and for our direction in all the circumstantial points of Gods service so as it cannot be opposed or sever'd from without just offence to God 6. I believe and know that besides those necessary truths contain'd in the Holy Scriptures and Seconded by the Consent and Profession of all Gods faithful ones there may be and ever have been certain collateral and not-mainly importing verities wherein it is not unlawful for several particular Churches to maintain their own Tenets and to dissent from other and the several members of those particular Churches are bound so far to tender the common Peace as not to oppose such publiquely received truths 7. I do confidently believe that if all the particular Churches through the whole Christian World should meet together and determine these secondary and unimporting truthes to be believed upon necessity of Salvation and shall enact Damnation to all those which shall deny their assent thereunto they should go beyond the Commission which God hath given them and do an act which God hath never undertaken to warrant Since there can be no new Principles of Christian Religion however there may be an application of some formerly received Divine truthes to some emergent occasions and a clearer explication of some obscure verities 8. I do confidently believe that God hath never confin'd the determination of his will in all questions and matters pertaining to Salvation or whatsoever controversies of Religion to the breast of any one Man or to a particular Church or to a correspondence of some particular Churches so as they shall not possibly err in their Definitions and Decrees 9. I do confidently believe that the Church of Rome comprehending both the head and those her adherents and dependance being but particular Churches have highly offended God in arrogating to themselves the priviledg of infallibility which was never given them and in ordaining new Articles of faith and excluding from the bosome of Gods Church and the Gates of Heaven all those which differ from her in the refusal of her late bred
can deny all the doubt is whether the man can know that he doth thus believe that he shall continue so to believe And why should there be any doubt in either of these I am sure for the first the chosen vessel could say I know whom I have believed 2 Tim. 1. and speaks this not as an extraordinary person an Apostle but as a Christian therein affirming both the act of his faith and the object of it and his knowledg of both for whiles he saith I know whom I have believed he doth in effect say I know that I have believed and I know what I have believed God my Almighty Saviour is the object of my faith my faith layeth sure hold on this object and I know that my faith laies undoubted hold on this happy object I know whom I have believed and why should not we labour to say so too Some things the Apostle did as a singular favorite of Heaven of this kinde were his raptures and visions these we may not aspire to imitate other things he did as an holy man as a faithful Christian these must we propose for our examples and indeed why should not a man know he believes What is there in faith even as we define it but knowledg assent application affiance receiving of Christ and which of these is there that we cannot know Surely there is power in the soul to exercise these reflexe actions upon it self As it can know things contrary to the fanatick scepticke so it can know that it knowes These inward acts of knowledg and understanding are to the mind no other then the acts of our sensitive powers are unto our senses and a like certain judgment passeth upon both as therefore I can know that I hear or that I see or touch so can I no lesse surely know that I do know or understand And the object doth no whit alter the certainty of the act whiles a divine truth goes upon no lesse evidence and assurance why may not a man as well know that he knowes a divine truth as an humane The like is to be said of those other specialties which are required to our faith Our faith assents to the truth of Gods promises what should hinder the heart from knowing that it doth assent Do not I know whether I believe a man on his word Why should I not know the same of God when an honest man hath by his promises ingaged himself to me to do me a good turne do not I know whether I trust to him whether I make use of that favour in a confident reliance upon the performance of it the case is the same betwixt God and us Only we may be so much the more infallibly assured of the promised mercies of our God by how much we do more know his unfailingness his unchangeableness Yea so fecible is this knowledg as that our Apostle chargeth his Corinthians home in this point 2 Cor. 13.5 Prove your selves whether ye be in the faith Trye your selves know ye not your own selves that Christ Jesus is in you except ye be Reprobates what can be more full To be in the faith is more then to believe it intimates an habit of faith that is more then an act Now what proof what tryal can there be of our faith if we cannot know that we have faith Surely a tryal doth ever presuppose a knowledg If a man did not know which were good gold to what purpose doth he go to the Test Now how dwells Christ in us but by Faith So may they so must they know Christ to be in them that if they have him not they are reprobates And if they know not they have him they can have no comfortable assurance against their reprobation See then how emphaticall and full this charge is He saith not Guess at your selves but prove and try your selves He saith not do ye not morally conjesture but do ye not know He saith not whether ye hope well but whether ye be in the Faith And that not of the Faith of Miracles as Chrysostome and Theophilact nor of a Faith of Christian profession as Anselme but such a Faith as whereby Christ dwells in our hearts He saith not Lastly unless ye be faulty and worthy of blame but unless ye be reprobates The place is so choakingly convictive that there can be no probable elusion of it The shift of Cardinal Bellarmine wherein yet he would seem confident is worthy of pity that the place hath no other drift but to imply the powerfull presence of Christ amongst the Corinthians strongly confirming the truth of his Apostleship whereby if there were any faith at all in them except they were given up to a reprobate sense they must needs be convinced of the authority of his Ministery for what was this to their being in the faith whereof they must examine themselves or who can think that to be in the faith is no more then to have any faith at all Neither doth the Apostle say that Christ is among you but in you neither could the not knowing of Christs presence amongst them by powerfull Miracles be a matter of reprobation so as this sense is unreasonably strained to no purpose and such as no judicious spirit can rest in and this act of our knowledg is taken for granted by him that works it in us And indeed what question can there be of this act when God undertakes it in us The Spirit of God witnesseth with our Spirits that we are the Sons of God Rom. 8.16 Can any Man doubt of the truth of Gods Testimony Certainly he that is the God of truth cannot but speak truth now he witnesseth together with us Yea but you say though he be true yet we are deceitfull and his Spirit doth but witness according to the measure of our receit and capacity which is very poor and scant yea and perhaps also uncertain Take heed whosoever thou art least thou disparage God whiles thou wouldst abase thy self he witnesseth together with us The Spirit of truth will not witness with a lying Spirit were not therefore that witness of ours sure he would check us and not witness with us Now what witness can he give with us and to us if we do not hear him if we do not know what he saies if we cannot be assured of what he testifies Let no Bellarmine speak now of an experiment of inward sweetness and peace which onely causeth a conjecturall and not an unfailing certainty The Man hath forgot that this Testimony is of the Spirit of adoption whereby we do not seem Sons but are made so and are so assured and that it is not a guess but a witness and Lastly that there can be no true inward peace out of mere conjectures Yea here is not onely the word of God for it but his seale too and not his seale only but his earnest what can make a future match more sure then hand and seale and here we have them
both 2 Cor. 1.22 Who hath sealed us Lo the promise was past before vers 20. and then yet more confirmed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vers 21. and now past under seale 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vers 22. Yea but the present possession is yet more and that is given us in part by our received earnest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Earnest is a binder wherefore is it given but by a little to assure all In our transactions with Men when we have an honest Mans word for a bargain we think it safe but when his hand and seale infallible but when we have part in hand already the contract is past and now we hold our selves stated in the commodity what ever it be And have we the promise hand seale earnest of Gods Spirit and not see it not feel it not know it Shortly whom will we believe if not God and our selves No Man knowes what is in Man but the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Man that is in him as St. Paul to his Corinthians Ye have heard Gods Spirit hear our own out of our own mouth Doth not every Christian say I believe in God c. I believe in Jesus Christ I believe in the holy Ghost I believe the Communion of Saints the forgiveness of sins and life Everlasting And doth he say he believes when he believes not or when he knows not whether he believe or no what a mockery were this of our Christian profession Or as the Jesuitical evasion commonly is is this only meant of an assent to these general truthes that there is a God a Saviour a sanctifyer Saints remission salvation not a special application of these several articles to the soul of him whose tongue professeth it Surely then the devil might say the creed no less confidently then the greatest Saint upon Earth There is no Devil in hel but believes not without regret that there is a God that made the World a Saviour that redeemed it a blessed Spirit that renewes it a remission of sins an eternal Salvation to those that are thus redeemed and regenerate and if in the profession of our faith we go no further then Devils how is this Symbolum Christianorum To what purpose do we say our creed But if we know that we believe for the present how know we what we shall do what may not alter in time we know our own frailty and ficklenesse what hold is there of us weak wretches what assurance for the future Surely on our part none at all If we be left never so little to our selves we are gone on Gods part enough there is a double hand mutually imployed in our hold-fast Gods and ours we lay hand on God God laies hand on us if our feeble hand fail him yet his gracious and omnipotent hand will not fail us even when we are lost in our selves yet in him we are safe he hath graciously said and will make it good I will not leave thee nor forsake thee The seed of God saith the beloved disciple Joh. 3. remaines in him that is born of God so as he cannot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 trade in sin as an unregenerate not lose himself in sinning so as contrary to Card. Bellarmines desperate Logick even an act of infidelity cannot marr his habit of faith and though he be in himself and in his sin guilty of death yet through the mercy of his God he is preserved from being swallowed up of death whiles he hath the seed of God he is the Son of God and the seed of God remaines in him alwayes That of the great Doctor of the Gentiles is sweet and cordiall and in stead of all to this purpose Who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I am fully perswaded that neither Death nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other Creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ â—esus our Lord. Rom. 8.39 O divine oratory of the great Apostle Oh the heavenly and irrefragable Logick of Gods Pen-man it is the very question that we have now in hand which he there discusses and falls upon this happy conclusion That nothing can separate Gods elect from his everlasting love he proves it by induction of the most powerfull agents and triumphes in the impoâ—ence and imprevalency of them all and whiles he names the principalities and powers of darkness what doth he but imply those sins also by which they work And this he saies not for himself only least any with Pererius and some other Jesuites should harp upon a particular Revelation but who shall separate us he takes us in with him and if he seem to pitch upon his own person in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet the subject of this perswasion reacheth to all true believers That nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord Us not as it is over-stretched by Bellarmine and Vasquez indefinitely for those that predestinate in generall but with an implyed application of it to himself and the believing Christians to whom he wrote The place is so clear and full that all the miserable and strained Evasions of the Jesuiticall gainsayers cannot elude it but that it will carry any free and unprejudiced heart along with it and evince this comfortable truth That as for the present so for the future we may attain to be safe for our spirituall condition What speak I of a safety that may be when the true believer is saved already already past from death to Life already therefore over the threshold of Heaven Shortly then our faith may make our calling sure our calling may make sure our election and we may therefore confidently build upon this truth that our calling and election may be made sure Now many things may be done that yet need not yea that ought not to be done This both ought and must be indeavored for the necessity and benefit of it This charge here as it implies the possibility so it signifies the convenience use profit necessity of this assecuration for sure if it were not beneficiall to us it would never be thus forceably urged upon us And certainly there needs no great proof of this For nature and our self-love grounded thereupon easily invites us to the indeavour of feoffing our selves in any thing that is good this being then the highest good that the Soul of Man can be possibly capable of to be ascertained of Salvation it will soon follow that since it may be done we shall resolve it ought it must be indeavored to be done Indifferent things and such as without which we may well subsist are left arbitrary to us but those things wherein our spirituall well-being consisteth must be mainly laboured for neither can any contention be too much to attain them such is this we have
in us Implying that so doth our mouth and stomach receive the bread and wine as that in the mean time our souls receive the flesh and the blood of Christ now the soul is not capable of receiving flesh and blood but by the power of that grace of faith which appropriates it But that we may clearly apprehend how these Sacramental acts and objects are both distinguished and united so as there may be no danger of either separation or confusion that which followeth in the consecratory prayer is most evident Hear us O merciful father we beseech thee and grant that we receiving these thy creatures of bread and wine according to thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christs holy institution in remembrance of his death and passion may be partakers of his most blessed body and blood who in the same night that he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he brake it and gave it to his disciples saying Take eat this is my body which is given for you do this in remembrance of me What more can be said what come we to receive outwardly The Creatures of bread and wine To what use In remembrance of Christs death and passion what do we the whiles receive inwardly we are thereby made partakers of his most blessed body and blood by what means doth this come about By virtue of our Saviours holy institution still it is bread and wine in respect of the nature and essence of it but so that in the spiritual use of it it conveyes to the faithful receiver the body and blood of Christ bread and wine is offered to my eye and hand Christ is tendred to my soul Which yet is more fully if possibly it may be expressed in the form of words prescribed in the delivery of the bread and wine to the communicant The body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for thee preserve thy body soul into everlasting life and take and eat this in remembrance that Christ dyed for thee and feed on him in thine heart by faith with thanksgiving c. No gloss in the world can make the words more full and perspicuous So do we in remembrance of Christs death take and eat the sacramental bread with our mouths as that our hearts do feed upon the body of Christ by our faith And what is this feeding upon Christ but a comfortable application of Christ and his benefits to our souls Which is as the prayer next following expresses it Then do we feed on Christ when by the blessed merits and death of our blessed Saviour and through faith in his blood we do obtain remission of our sins and all other benefits of his passion and are fulfilled with his grace and heavenly benediction Or if we desire a more ample commentary upon this sacramental repast and the nourishment thereby received the prayer ensuing offers it unto us in these words We most heartily thank thee for that thou hast vouchsafed to feed us which have duely received these holy mysteries with the spiritual food of the most precious body and blood of thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ and dost assure us thereby of thy favour and goodness towards uâ— and that we be very members incorporate in thy mystical body which is the blessed company of all faithful people and be also heirs through hope of thy everlasting kingdome by the merits of the most precious death and passion of thy dear Son This then is to feed upon Christ Lo the meat and manducation and nourishment are all spiritual whiles the elements be bodily and sensible which the allowed homilies of the Church also have laboured in most significant termes to set forth Thou must carefully search and know saith the first sermon concerning the sacrament Tome 2. what dignities are provided for thy soul whither thou art come not to feed thy senses and belly to corruption but thy inward man to immortality and life nor to consider the earthly creatures which thou seest but the heavenly graces which thy faith beholdeth For this table is not saith Chrysostome for chattering jayes but for Eagles who fly thither where the dead body lieth And afterwards to omit some other passages most pregnantly thus It is well known the meat we seek for in this supper is spiritual food the nourishment of our soul a Heavenly refection and not earthly an invisible meat and not bodily a ghostly substance and not carnal so that to think without faith we may enjoy the eating drinking thereof or that that is the fruition of it is but to dream a gross carnal feeding basely abjecting and binding our selves to the elements and creatures whereas by the advice of the council of Nice we ought to lift up our minds by faith and leaving these inferiour and earthly things there seek it where the son of righteousness ever shineth Take this lesson O thou that art desirous of this table of Emissenus a godly father That when thou goest to the reverend communion to be satisfyed with spiritual meats thou look up with faith upon the holy body and blood of thy God thou marvel with reverence thou touch it with the mind thou receive it with the hand of thy heart and thou take it fully with the inward Man Thus that homily in the voice of the Church of England Who now shall make doubt to say that in the Sacrament of the blessed Eucharist Christ is only present and received in a spiritual manner so as nothing is objected to our senses but the Elements nothing but Christ to our faith and therefore that it is requisite we should here walk with a wary and even foot as those that must tread in the midst betwixt profaneness and superstition not affixing a deity upon the Elements on the one side nor on the other sleighting them with a common regard not adoring the Creatures not basely esteeming their relation to that Son of God whom they do really exhibit to us Let us not then think it any boldness either to inquire or to determine of the manner of Christs presence in the Sacrament and confidently to say that his body is locally in Heaven spiritually offered to and received by the faith of every worthy communicant upon Earth True it is that in our Saviours speech Joh. 6. to believe in Christ is to eat his flesh and to drink his blood even besides out of the act of this Eucharistical supper so as whosoever brings Christ home to his soul by the act of his faith makes a private meal of his Saviour but the holy Sacrament superadds a further degree of our interest in the participation of Christ for now over and above our spiritual eating of him we do here eat him Sacramentally also every simple act of our faith feeds on Christ but here by virtue of that necessary union which our Saviours institution hath made betwixt the signe and the thing signified the faithfull communicant doth partake of Christ in a
prejudice as that which proceeds from an heart sincerely devoted to truth and peace The Judge of all hearts before whom I stand knowes with what honest intentions to the wellfare of this noble Church with what freedom from all partiall affections with what indignation at these unseasonable troubles with what zeal of the common tranquillity I put my hand to this too necessary if thankless task Who can tell whether God did not purposely send me to be a witness of these quarrels abroad that I might be able to speak a word in season for their appeasing at home That we may distinguish the parts without any aspersion I shall crave leave to call the followers of the Tenet of the Synod of Dort Defendants The other which vary from these following the steps either of acute Arminius or of our learned and judicious Bishop Overal Opponents The Netherlands are out of our way in this quarrell yet for the neerness both of the place and cause let us touch there in our passage Now then let us take a short survay of the particular differences and call each part to the nearest verge of an accord The first is the point of predestination concerning which three things are wont to be questioned 1. The motive or ground 2ly The object 3ly The order of it Neque fidem neque infidelitatem causam esse impulsivam decreti Dei sed liberrimam Dei voluntatem volentis hujus misereri illius non misereri damus tamen fidem infidelitatem conditiones esse sine quibus nec hunc salvare nec illum praeterire ex puro puto beneplacito visum fuit Deo Epist Remonstr ad ext p. 38. For the first both parts hold there is no other impulsive cause of Gods Decree of Election or reprobation then the free will and pleasure of the Almighty Only the one part holds that Gods decree looks at faith and infidelity as conditions in those who are to be chosen or refused The other easily graunts that no Man is elect but the believer no Man reprobate but the rebellious and unbeliever although they will not put these as forerequired conditions into the act of Gods decree Why should the meer supposall of a condition be worth their quarrell since it is yielded on all hands that in Gods decree of our justification he looks at our faith as a necessary condition required thereunto without any derogation to the perfect freedom of that his gracious decree If faith may be graunted not to be in our own power but that it is the gift of God there can no main inconvenience follow upon this Tenet that God in our election had an eye to our qualification with that faith which he would give us An quisquam dicere audehit Deum non praescisse quibus esset daturus ut crederent aut quos daturus esset filio suo ut ex iis non perderet quenquam Aug. de bono persev c. 14. Prius si dicant Deum in nobis fidem perseverationem operari nihil est cur nobiscum certent sequitur enim Deum in homine non potuisse plus boni praescire quam ipsemet in 〈◊〉 electo suo efficere decrevit Contra Rem in Colloq Hag. p. 26. Thus the Belgick Defendents if they grant say they that God works in us faith and perseverance there is no cause why they should contend with us for it followes that God could not foresee more good in Man then he decreed to work in him as his elect one Quaestio est non Utrum Deus cum hominem eligit c. Sed an cum confideraverit ut jam credentes dono gratia Dei c. Now hear how close the opponents profess to come The question is not saith Corvinus one of their learnedst Authors Whether God when he chose Man considered him as who by the power of nature without the help of grace should believe but whether God considered him as now believeing by the guift and grace of God This is it saith he which Arminius teaches who acknowledges faith to be the pure pute guift of God Hoc dicit Arminius qui fidem agnoscit purum putum Dei donum Jo. Ar. Corvin advers Tilen p. 32. Would we not now think both parts agreed The Defendents do but desire that faith may be graunted to be the meer guift of God The Opponents profess to graunt it what do they now pretend to stick at a needless scruple Equidem Arminius agnoscit fidem Dei donum esse sed donum in eligendo praerequisitum non ex electione sed alia Dei voluntate datum ibid. Corv. p. 54. How faith is granted to be a fruit of Election to Grace see Remonstr scripta dogmat Declar. Sent. 1. p. 9. Faith is considered say the Opponents as a guift of God but whether proceeding from his election or from another will of his this saith Corvinus is the question But why should this question trouble their peace or what can this subtlety afford able to countervail a publick unquietness while it is agreed by them that God foresees nothing in us but the faith of his own giving let the Schools care for the rest Some will perhaps suspect a secret fraud in this so liberal graunt of the Belgick Opponents that faith is the meer gift of God and some will perhaps imagine that it might be a word which dropt casually from their tongue whereof they might after repent Fidem esse Dei donum potentia ejus in nobis effici millies in in eadem collatione confessi sumus Jo. Arnol. resp ad notas Bogermani part 2. c. 7. But for this latter let Johnnes Arnoldi their best advocate speak for all That faith is the gift of God and is wrought in us by his power we have saith he a thousand times confessed in our conference at the Hague For the other I take not upon me either their procuration or their patronage This work were both busy and impertinent much perplexed traverse of consequences affirmed and denyed goes to this task Let it be their part to make good their protested sincerity in that assertion which for peace sake I gladly report from them at the best and this peece of the quarrell shall receive a fair mitigation Only I must needs say that in the contentions of brethren it is far more equall to receive their own best constructions then to urge and obtrude upon them disavowed implications Surely there is need both of wisdom and Charity in the discerning of opinions concerning this point To hold that faith is the gift of God as that is given to all them whom God foresaw would dispose themselves by the good use of their freewill to receive it and who should improve the powers of nature to their utmost is no better then Pelagian whose exploded word was of old that grace is given according to merit To hold that faith is so the gift of God as that it is therefore only not given
to all because all will not receive it for that God calleth all and gives unto all men sufficient helps to believe if they will and goes no further and therefore that according to the prevision of our free co-working with this sufficient grace his decree determines of us is but somewhat better then Pelagian To hold that faith is so the gift of God as that he doth not only give common and sufficient helps to men whereby they are made able to believe if they will but so works in them by his grace that they do by the power thereof actually believe and conceive true faith in their soul This is fair and Orthodoxe And even to this do the Belgick opponents professe to come up in their late dogmatical writings Electionis vero quae ad gratiam est fructus c. Beneficio illorum mediorum quae per gratiam suppeditantur homo non tantum potens redditur ad credendum sed actu etiam credit fidem concipit c. Beneficio illius solius gratiae in omnibus qui credunt ea ingeneretur efficiatur Remonstr Scripta Dogm Declar. Sent. circa 1. Artic. which how fitly it holds suit with their other Tenents let it be their care to approve unto the Church of God I am sure an ingenuous constancy to this position might be a fair advantage taken for peace For the Second the question is upon what point of Mans Estate we should fasten the decree of predestination whiles the one part holds Man falne the object of this decree The other Man believeing or incredulous What reason is there this should raise so loud a strife since we do willingly wink at the rest of the differences of like nature concerning this point For there are fix several opinions about the object of predestination whiles some take it to be Man indefinitely and commonly considered Others hold it to be Man that was to be created Others Man as he was creable fallable saveable others Man created but as in his pure naturalls Others Man falne which is the most common Tenet Lastly others man as believeing or disobeying the call of God Luc. Irelcat Cal. Be Why should these two last be brought upon the Stage with so much profession of hostility whiles the other four are passed over by a willing connivency on all hands and the Authors of them whose reputation so small a mote is not thought worthy to disfigure go away with meet honour in the Church of God There is none of the four first which upon some straining may not yield harsh and unpleasing consequences and yet are let go without the mischief of a publick division I must boldly say reserving my judgment concerning this point to my self that if this supposed faith may be yielded the meer guift of God as formerly I cannot discern any so dangerous inconvenience in this branch of the opinion as should warrant the breach of the common Peace As for the order what do we brawling about our own conceits We all know there is but one most simple Act of God in this his decree wherein therefore there can be neither precedency not posteriority If we now for our understandings sake shall so express this one act of God as that whiles we vary in the explication we are confounded in our own senses what do we but fight with our own shadowes That God requires faith as necessary to Salvation is graunted of all but in what place it comes into his decree there is the doubt One part makes four distinct acts of Gods decree wherein the generall purpose of mercy to Mankind through his Son Christ Jesus to save believers and the guift of necessary means for the attaining of faith comes before the speciall decree of saving those particulars whom he foresaw would believe repent persevere and contrarily the other makes fewer decrees in a contrary order placing the decrees of particular election to life before the ordination of the means tending thereunto So as faith and perseverance issue from this speciall decree of chusing individuall persons to life Why should we be distracted in the abstractions of our own making and not rather rest silent and wondring in the acknowledgment of the simplicity of that one act of the infinitely wise God who doth Uno intuitu see Man creable created falne redeemed believeing which our shallow capacities shall in vain labour to comprehend Surely it were the better posture of our hands to have one of them laid upon our lips the other lifted up for admiration then to imploy them in buffeting each other for an invincible ignorance or misprison of that which our finite nature can never admit us to know O God what do we search or quarrell to miss those wayes of thine which are past finding out Quod aiunt contra Rem Deum ab aeterno certas quasdam personas segregasse ut eas per Christum perque fidem in ipsum salvaret non quia praevideret illas credituras sedâ—ex mera tantum gratia secundum beneplacitum suum sed hoc decretum Dei esse aeternum immutabile c. Haec descriptio ita laxa est ut etiam nostrum pedem addmittat Colloq Hag. p. 81 Remonstr vindic 1. Art That we may consider all these joyntly together that God hath set apart certain particular persons to save them by Christ and by faith in him not because he foresaw they would believe but of his meer grace only according to his good pleasure and that this decree is eternall and unchangeable is agreed on by both sides This description the Belgick Opponents grant to be so wide a shooe that it will serve their foot also Sed si personas certas vel singulares intelligant tanquam singulares ac perinde extra Christum fidem consideratas id vero pernegamus Rem ibid. p. 83. Contra Rem Neque nos unquam diximus singulares illas personas quas Deus ab aeterno elegit plane extra Christum fidem esse consider and as ut qui semper rotunde professi sumus merita Christi fidem in ipsum in electione ista singularium personarum adeo spectari haberi pro mediis quibus eos Deus statuit ad salutem perducere Colloq Hag. contra Rem pag. 140. And why then should either part seek or care for any other Last Surely a Christian needs not either search or know any more Now comes in a Scholasticall quirke to trouble the peace of Mens hearts and brains Whether God have set apart these certain singular persons as persons singular without all respects to any other considerations or whether his decree lookt at them as invested with those qualities which he meant to give and foresees as given Doubtless to make Men capable of Salvation there is faith repentance good works perseverance in good actually required of God But these necessary dispositions are ranged under the execution of Gods decree These he requires these he gives these he
works these he decrees to worke in his why should we be scrupulous in what place they come into the holy purposes of God which we graunt cannot be missing in our way to Heaven Why do we not rather labour to be such as he requires that we may injoy what he hath promised and pre-ordained for us What say the Belgick Defendents Neither did we ever say that those singular persons whom God chose from all eternity were to be considered without respect to Christ and faith in him but have ever roundly professed that the merits of Christ and faith in him are considered of God in this election of individual persons as means whereby he hath decreed to bring them to salvation see then how narrow this difference is God hath decreed by these means to bring men to salvation yet these fall not into his decree of ordinary choice to salvation they are in the execution of his decree and in the decree of his execution they are not in the decree of his election Let these be undoubted truths as they are yet what need the souls of quiet Christians be racked with so subtile questions It well befits the Schooles to examine these problemes but for common Christians it doth not so much concern them to enquire how the order of Gods decree stands in our apprehension of that one simple act of the divine understanding or will as how it is in respect of the execution Here comes in our main interest in these eternall Councills of the Almighty which drawes from us a due care and indeavour to be capable of this promised salvation and to avoid the wayes of death Could we be perswaded to take more from that speculation and to add more to this practise it would be much happier for us Neither is this election according to the Plea of the opponents made ever the more uncertain by this prerequisition of our faith since they profess to teach it supposed in our election not as a condition whose performance God expects as uncertain but as a guift which God according to his eternall prescience foresees in Man present and certain as the decree of sending Christ into the World did not depend upon a conditioned and uncertain expectation of what Man would do or would not do but upon the infallible notice of God who foresaw Man as presently sinning or falne so as the election of God is not suspended upon the mutability of Mans will but upon the infallible certainty of the foreknowledg of God to whose eyes our faith and perseverance is not more doubtfull then future and whose prescience hath no less infallibility then his decree If therefore God may have the sole glory of this work in the guift of that faith which he foresees and our election hazards no certainty as they profess to hold what is there that should need to draw blood in this first quarrell But what need I labour to reconcile these opinions which have no reason to concern us The Church of England according to the explication of R. B. Overall goes a mid-way betwixt both these For whiles the one side holds a generall conditionall decree of God to save all Men if they believe and a particular decree of saving those whom he foresaw would believe and the other side not admitting of that generall conditionate decree only teaches a particular absolute decree to save some speciall persons for whom only Christ was given and to whom grace is given irresistiblely all others being by a no less absolute decree rejected our Church saith he with St. Austin maintaineth an absolute and particular decree of God to save those whom he hath chosen in Christ not out of the prescience of our faith and will but out of the meer purpose of his own will and grace and that thereupon God hath decreed to give to whom he pleaseth a more effectuall and abundant grace by which they only not may believe and obey if they will but whereby they do actually will believe obey and persevere without prejudice to the rest to whom he hath also given gracious offers and helps to the same purpose though by their just fault neglected What can the Synod of Dort in this case wish to be said more Indeed with all he addeth a general conditionate will of God or a generall evangelical promise of saving all if they do believe since God doth will and command that all men should hear Christ and believe in him and in so doing hath offred grace and salvation unto all declaring how well these two may agree together That first God hath propounded salvation in Christ to all if they believe and hath offred them within the Church especially a common and sufficient grace in the means that he hath mercifully ordeined if men would not be wanting to the word of God and his holy Spirit and that to ascertain the salvation of man he hath decreed to add that especiall effectuall and saving grace unto some Neither of which truths can well and safely be denyed of any Christian Only the sound of a generall and conditionate will perhaps seems harsh to some ears whereto yet they should do well to inure themselves since it is the approved distinction of worthy Orthodox and unquestionable Divines Deum velle quaedam absolute manifestum esse literae sacrae confirmant etenim voluit mundum creari c. Eundem Deum velle quaedam conditionaliter docent itidem sacrae literae vult enim omnes salvari si velint implere legem aut in Christum credere proinde illam priorem voco absolutam voluntatem hanc vero posteriorem conditionalem Opusc p. 291. Caeterum illud tamen verum est Deum velle omnes homines salvos fieri voluntate scil revelata conditionali nimirum si velint in Christum credere ejus legi servandae studere hac enim voluntate nemo a salute cognitione veritatis excluditur c. ibid. pag. 285. Zanchius in his book de praedest Sanct. hath it interminis with a large exposition That God willeth some things absolutely saith he it is manifest and plainly confirmed by Scriptures so he absolutely willed the world should be created and governed so he absolutely willed that Christ should come into the World and dye for the salvation of his elect he wills also absolutely that the elect shall be saved and therefore perfomes to them all things that are necessary to their salvation that the same God willeth some things conditionally the Scriptures also teach us For God would have all men to be saved if they would keep the Law or believe in Christ and therefore I call that first an absolute will this latter a conditional And in the next leaf to the same purpose he saith it is also true that God would have all men to be saved in his revealed and conditionate will scil if they would believe in Christ and carefully keep his law for by this will no man is excluded from