est qui in Christo non est Christianus non est haec sunt profunda submersionis vestrae ne quisquam putaret saltem parvum aliquem fructum posse à semetipso se ferre non ait quia sine me parum potestis facere fed nihil potestis facere sive ergo parum sive multum sine illo fieri non potest sine quo nihil fieri potest What say you why deceive you your selves not maintainers but easters downe of freewill from the heights of pride through the voids of presumption into drowning deeps men pleasing theÌ„selvs of corrupt minds and concerning the faith reprobate for it is your sentence that man of himselfe does justice But the truth contradicts and says the branch cannot bring forth fruit of it selfe unlesse it abide in the vine If there be any sense in you bee amazed for who ever thinks hee can bring forth fruit of himself is not in the vine who is not in the vine is not in Christ who is not in Christ is not a Christian These are your drowning deeps and lest any should think that at lest he might of himselfe bring forth some little fruit hee sayes not without mee you can bring forth a little fruit but you can doe nothing Whether therefore it bee little or much it cannot bee done without him without whom nothing can be done This for our impotencie to all spirituall good For our perversnesse and proclivitie to all spirituall evill Mans will is perverse and bent to all evil see Gen. 6.5 God saw that every imagination of mans heart was only evill continually Jer. 7.5 The heart is deceitfull above all things and desperatly wicked who can know it Rom. 7.14.18 I know that in mee that is in my flesh dwelleth no good for I am sold under sin Ephes 2.5 Wee were dead in sins and 5.8 Yee were sometimes darknesse Ezek. 48.4 I know that thou art obstinate and thy neck is as an iron sinew and thy brow is brasse Zachary 7.12 They made their heart as an adamant stone lest they should heare the Law All good in man commeth only from grace The third ground that God alone works all our works in us that our Illumination ConversioÌ„ c. flows froÌ„ him alone see Ephes 2.10 Wee are his workmanship created in Christ Iesus to good works Psal 5.10 Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit with in me 2 Cor. 4.6 God who commanded the light to shine out of darknesse hath shined in our hearts Phil. 2.13 It is God who worketh in us both to will and to do of his own good pleasure Ezek. 36.26 A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh and I wil put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes 1 Chron. 4.7 Who maketh thee to differ from another and what hast thou that thou hast not received Why doest thou glory as if thou hadst not received it We may see this doctrine of Scripture avowed often by all Christian Writers especially by Augustine and Bernard against the Pelagians Heare some few of their sayings The 1 tels us k Libero arbitrio male utens homo se perdidit ipsum nam cum libero peccaretur arbitrio amissum est liberum arbitrium Liberum arbitrium ad diligendum Deum primi peccati granditate perdidimus magnas liberi Arbitrii viâ—es homo cum crearetur accepit sed peccando amisit per velle malum recte perdidit posse bonum qui per posse bonum libere elegit velle malum Peccato Adae liberum arbitrium de hominum natura periisse non dicimus sed ad peccandum valere in hominibus subditis diabolo ad bene autem pieque vivendum non valere nisi ipsa voluntas hominis Dei gratia fuerit liberata ut velimus sine nobis operatur cum volumus sic volumus ut faciamus nobiscum cooperatur tamen sine illo vel operante ut velimus vel cooperante cum volumus ad bona pietatis opera nihil valemus Certum esi nos velle cum volumus sed ille facit ut veâ—imus de quo dictum est Deus in nobis operatur velle nos operamur sed Deus in nobis operatur operari hoc nobis expedit credere dicere hoc est pium hoc est verum ut sit humilis submissa confessio detur totum Deo Tutiores vivimus si demus totum Deo non autem nos illi ex parte nobis ex parte committimus Bernard Non partim gratia partim liberum arbitrium sed totum euidem hoc totum illa sed ut totum in illo sit totum ex illa Quid igitur ais agit liberum arbitrium Respondeo breviter salvatur tolle liberum arbitrium non erit quod salvetur tolle gratiam non erit unde salvetur opus hoc sine duobus esse non potest uno à quo sit altero in quo vel cui sit Deus autor est salut is liberum arbitrium tantum capax est dare illam nisi Deus nec capere vales nisi liberum arbitrium Man abusing free will lost both himselfe and it For when by free will sinne came free will was lost through the greatnesse of the first sin wee lost freedome of will to love God Man in his CreatioÌ„ received a great strength of free will but by sin did lose it by willing of evill justly have we lost power to good who by power to good freely did chuse to will evil We say not that by Adams sinne free will is lost but that in men subject to Satan it serves only for sinning and is not able to make any live well and holily except the will of man it self by the grace of God bee made free God without us makes us to will when we wil and will so that we doe hee works with us yet without him both making us to will and working with us when wee will we have no power to do any good or pious work It is certain we will when we will but hee makes us to will of whom it is said God works in us the will Wee worke but God in us works the work It is good for us both to believe and speak thus this is piety this is truth that there may be a humble and submissive confession and all be given to God Wee live more safely when wee give all to God and doe not commit our selves partly to him and partly to our selves Bernard Not partly grace and partly free will but both the one and the other is all But so that all is done in the one and all from the other What then wilt thou say does freewill I answer shortly it is saved take away free will
and there shall bee nothing which can bee saved take away grace and there shall bee nothing whereby to save This work without two cannot bee the one in which the other from which it may be done God is author of salvation free will only the subject therof none can give it but God nothing can receive it but free will Our second proposition The efficacious grace of God in mans conversion is insuperable by mans will which the Arminians professe most to oppose to wit that free wil nor naturall corruption does never is never able to overcom the motions of the Spirit of God when he purposes to call efficaciously and convert John 6.37 All that the Father giveth me shall come to mee 8.45 Everyone that hath heard and learned of the Father commeth unto me Rom. 8.30 Whom hee hath called them he also justified also who have efficacious grace these have the spirit of Christ and who have Christs Spirit are Christs members Againe not only the will of man doth ever obey Gods efficacious calling but it must doe so for the efficacie of Gods call stands in the removing of all the perversnes and stubbornes that is in the will in making the heart new soft and pliable to the Call in making us will and believe Phil. 1.29 Vnto you it is given not only to believe but to suffer Phil. 2 13. God worketh in you to will and to doe Ezek. 36.26 A new heart I will give to you a new spirit will I put in you I will take away the stony heart and give you a heart of flesh Thirdly GOD in mans conversion employes his strong and mighty power which the Devill the World and the Flesh cannot overcome being the far stronger Ephes 1.19 That yee may know the exceeding greatnesse of his power to us ward who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when hee raised him from the dead 1 John 4.4 Yee have overcome them for greater is hee that is in you then hee that is in the world Matth. 12.29 How can one enter into a strong mans house and spoile his goods except he first binde the strong man and then he will spoyle his house Fourthly The Creature cannot hinder its own Creation nor the dead man his owne quickning nor the child his own generation nor the darknesse it s owne illumination nor the white paper the writing on it selfe nor the blind eye the restitution of its light nor the weake person the draught of a strong hand Now Scripture oft compares the action of the Spirit converting a soul to a creation a new life a regeneration an illumination c. Fifthly if the will of man could overcome the efficacious working of the Spirit of God then could the Decree of our Election and Salvation be made altogether uncertain and oft be made null by the repugnance of mans will and the victory of our wickednesse over the best and most efficacious will of God but this were against Scripture Esay 14.24 The Lord of Hosts hath sworn surely as I have thought so shall it come to passe and as I have purposed so shall it stand the Lord of Hosts hath purposed and who shall disanull it 2 Chron. 20.6 In thy hand is there no power So that none is able to withstand thee Rom. 9.29 Who hath resisted his will 8.30 Whom he hath predestinated them he also glorified The Fathers go here the Scriptures way have some passages of Augustine cited by Bellarmine himselfe m Deo volenti salvum facere nullum hominum resistit arbitrium sic enim velle aut nolle in volentis aut nolentis est potestate â—t divinam voluntatem non impediat nec superest potestatem non est dabitandum voluntati Dei voluntatem humanam resistere non posse provisum est infirmitati voluntati humanae ut indeclinabiliter inseparabiliter ageretur ideo quantumvis infirma non deficeret nec adversitate aliqua frangeretur No will of any man resists God when hee hath a minde to save For to will or nill is so in the power of him that wils or nils that they doe not hinder the will of God nor overcome his power doubtlesse the will of man is not able to resist the will of God God has so provided for the weaknesse of mans will that it should be led indeclinably and irresistably so that how weake soever it is it should not fall nor by any opposition be broken The fifth Article stated THe question of perseverance is stated diversly The fift Article stated the Arminians now and many Jesuits do maintain a possibility to fall away from grace totally and finally in all persons so long as they live the most of the Papists grant that those who are elected cannot fall away finally but after all interruptions there must bee a returne to grace and that in them there is a necessity of salvation yet they say that many of the regenerate and truly faithfull may fall away even finally There is a kinde of Arminians who follow Joannes Gerhardus Vossius who put a degree of faith and grace from which there is no deficiency albeit from the estate of faith essentially true and from regeneration they teach falling totally and finally against all these wee teach that God makes to persevere and goe on to the end not only the elect but all the faithful and that not only those who are rooted in a high and excellent degree of faith but all whosoever have the least measure of true saving faith who are regenerate justified sanctified in all these God keeps in some heat in the smoaking flax puts under his hand when they fall raises them ever up again and leaves not the building he hath once grounded till hee hath crowned it with the Capstone The necessity of perseverance proved from Mat. 24.29 That thus it is many Scriptures make evident Matth. 24.29 Hee shall shew great signes and wonders that they shall seduce if it were possible the very elect here the Elect cannot possibly be seduced all the wonders of Antichrist the most pregnant meanes that men and Devils can use to make the elect fall away doe not prevail for it is not possible that such should be so seduced as to fal clean away from Christ Jer. 32.39 The second from Ier. 32.39 I will give them one heart and one way that they may feare me for ever and I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turne away from them to do them good but I will put my feare in their heart that they shall not depart from me Here God promises to all the faithfull to all those with whom the new Covenant is made that they shall get an heart from God to feare him not for a time but for ever that hee will make with them an everlasting Covenant that shall never be broken on either side he assureth not only for
altogether bee frustrate of their wishes The scope and parts of this Treatise wee have subjoyned a short and plain opposition from the Word of God against the Articles of Arminius which were the first and yet are the most avowed deviations of these men The errours of Poperie are better knowne and the field is so large that if I once entred into it there would bee no hope of going through so quickly as these times of businesse and dispatch doe require For the cleering of Arminianisme to the mindes of the Simple whose eares so carefully these bygon yeares have beene debarred from hearing anything which might discover the vilenesse of it wee will first deduce a short history of this Heresy as King James oft did call it and then by Scripture evert the grounds of all the Articles thereof Arminius was a late preacher of Holland Who Arminius was mininister first at Amâ—terdam and then professour of divinity at Leiâ—en a man of very great â—gine in his outward â—onversation almost unâ—lameable but much â—iven to Innovation and â—elfe conceit The Noâ—elties which mainly he â—â—ved were divers erâ—ours of our old Counâ—â—yman Pelagius which â—â—e Jesuites in his time â—â—d revived After that the Spirit of God had banished the Heresies of Arrius Nestorius Macedonius and Eutyches which SataÌ„ in their persons had raised against the persons of the Trinity against the nature person of Christ Pelagius a Scottishman did oppose not the nature nor the person but the grace of God against him the Lord raised Augustne who by the force of Scripture beat the Heretick in all his errours yet there were some relicts of that subtile Heresie after Augustines death which set up the head both in the Eastern and Western Churches sometimes more sometimes lesse In the days of Remigius and Hincmarus great was the trouble that the Semipelagians made in Germany and France as we see in the cause of Goteschalcus set downe by Gerhardus Vossius but much more honestly by Primate Vsher From that time there was not much dinne about these questions When hee came to be infected with errour till after the yeare 1590 when Molina a Spanish Iesuit began to renew many of the Pelagian errors about Grace and Freewill Election and Reprobation and such heads Against him Alvarez a Dominican at Rome did oppose at length This fire betwixt these two Orders began to burn first in Spain and then in West Flanders from Lovan the Iesuit Lessius blew over the reik to Amsterdam where Arminius was Preacher the flame burning in his wanton Engine brake out first openly in a Treatise against Perkins golden Chain thereafter he did spread his errours where ever hee might Being called to the Vniversitie of Leiden to succed good Iunius for sometime hee was quiet but at once with all diligence he infected not only the youth in the University but by them very many Ministers over all the Land His petulant wit was not content to broach these remaynders of Pelagianisme which Molina and his followers professed but beside hee fell on many moe dangerous novations at last began to like much of Vorstius and Socinus tenets This fire in the Holland Church burnt boldly in the time of the Truce with Spaine and was likely to threaten their estate with ruine in the time of peace more than the Spanish sword had done in all their wars When Arminianisme was crushed in Holland So long as Arminius lived there was no remedy when God had killed him the evill grew no lesse some Statesmen and Court Ministers for their own ends did hold these errours on foot the wel-minded people cryed stil for a general Assembly as the only help of their Schismes the Arminians by might and maine set themselves against the meeting of a Synod as the certaine ruine of their Party so long as their Patron Barnavelt lived they got the Assembly shifted but when that Traitors head was stricken off King Iames our blessed Prince had advised often the States and halfe by threatnings commanded them at last a generall Assembly was called at Dort not only of Divines and ruling Elders from all the Provinciall Synods of the Netherlands but almost from the whole Reformed Churches there the most excellent Synod being met that Christendome had seen for some hundred years the Arminian Questions were handled at leisure from November to May and all that was needfull was cleerly decided That labour was so blessed by God that the Land which through the Arminian Schisme and Errours was at the point of ruine since that time hath had peace from these turbulent Schismaticks But here the pity When Arminianisme did take root in Britain Britain whose waters mainly had slakened that fire abroad began at once to be scorched at home by some sparks of that flame The hopes of the Arminians in England were but small so long as K. James did live for that good Prince both in word and writing did threaten to burne these Hereticks if any of them should appeare in his Dominions see his Declaration against Vorstius yea so long as Abbot was in grace at Court the Arminians kept a low fayle but after that his Successor even in his owne time had come in favour that unhappy Sect under the patronage of Mountagu and White 's learning began to spread far and neare yea at last silence in a publike Edict was enjoyned to their opposers and all favours conferred on those who had skill and will to promote that Cause many evident disgraces poured on well deserving men for no other reason but their Anti-Arminian spirit All this time our Church was free of these evils but so soon as the advancers of Arminianisme at the English Court began to intermeddle with the affaires of our Kingdome at once these men were eyed who inclined that way prime places were put into their hands for no other vertue the World could discern in them but their boldness to let out their inclination towards the Arminian Errour This way of advancement being perceived incoÌ„tinent many among us set their hearts towards that art which was likeliest in haste to promote their fortunes The British Arminians decline to Popery but the Belgick to Socinianisme It is to be remarked that the Arminian spirit in Holland leads men to hell another way then here in Britaine there the Arminians with great boldnesse running after Vorstius Socinus with a marvellous petulancy fell to brangle the Trinitie of the Divine persons yea the simplicity of the Divine nature it self But that Devill finding this his rashnesse to revive openly Manes Arrius did make people abhorre him and flee away hee became more wary so that among us hee lets these old condemned Heresies alone and goes another way to work Hee leads by a new method to the errours of Antichrist A Netherlandish Arminian will scorn the superstitions the Idolatries the Tyrannies of the Romish Church but is much inclined after Vorstius