he the Lord knoweth Now who doubts but that our doctrine of justification by faith and not by workes may be an occasion to some to abuse the grace of God unto wantonnesse such there were even in the Apostles daies but what Shall we therefore renounce that doctrine I am not yet come to the tempering of the manner of proposing this doctrine I have more to say before I come to that What difference is there in harshnesse between these doctrines If ye doe not believe therefore ye doe not believe because God hath ordained you to destruction and this If ye doe not believe therefore ye doe not believe because God hath not regenerated you Let any man shew how a doore is open to slothfulnesse more by the one then by the other especially considering the ground of all is mans inability to believe without this grace of God effectually preventing and working him unto faith Now this doctine is plainly taught and that particularly of certain persons to their faces Ioh 8. He that is of God heareth Gods word ye therefore heare them not because ye are not of God The phrase to be of God I interpret here of regeneration but both Austin of old and our Divines of late doe interpret of election and so it is precisely the same with the Preaching of reprobation in his true colours as this Author interprets it and passeth this censure upon it as opening a doore to liberty and profanenesse which may I confesse well be occasionally to carnall men or to men possest with prejudicate opinions yet here it appears plainly to be in effect the same with that which our Saviour himselfe Preached But take this withall as it may be an occasion of slothfulnesse so it may be a meanes to humble men and beat them out of the presumptuous conceit of their own sufficiency to heare Gods word to believe to repent and the like and thereby to prepare them to look up unto God and to waite for him in his ordinances if so be as the Angell came downe to move the waters in the poole of Bethesda to make them medicinable so Gods spirit may come downe and make his word powerfull to the regenerating of them to the working of faith and repentance in them And I appeale to every sober mans judgement whether to this end tended not the very like Doctrine and admonition proposed by Moses to the Children of Israel in the Wildernesse Deut. 29. 2 3 4. Ye have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh and all his servants and unto all his Land The great temptations which thine eyes have seene those great miracles and wonders Yet the Lord hath not given you a heart to perceive and eyes to see and eares to heare unto this day For is it not Moses his purpose to set before their eyes how little they have profited in obedience and thankfulnesse unto God and amendment of life by all those great workes of his in the way of mercy towards them and in the way of judgement towards the Egyptians And what was the cause of all this but the hardnesse of their hearts and the blindnesse of their eyes and to what end doth he tell them that God alone can take away this hardnesse of heart and blindnesse of mind which hitherto he had not done Might he not seem to justify them in walking after the hardnesse of their hearts by this and harden them therein by this Doctrine of his like as this Author casts the like aspersion in part upon the like Doctrine of ours Yet Moses passeth not for this so he might set them in a right course to be made partakers of Gods grace and that by the ministry of the Law to humble and prepare them for the grace of God which is the Evangelicall use of the Law And it is remarkable that in the first verse of this Chapter these words are said to be the words of the Covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the Children of Israel in the land of Moab beside the Covenant which he made with them in Horeb. Wherefore seeing the Covenant made in Horeb was the Covenant of the Law it followeth that this Covenant is the Covenant of grace and these words are the words of the Covenant of grace which is plainly expressed in the next Chapter v. 6. And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart and the heart of thy seed that thou maiest love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soule that thou maiest live And what is the usuall preparation hereunto but to humble men by convicting them of sinne and of their utter inability to help themselves and that nothing but Gods grace is able to give them an heart to perceive and eyes to see and eares to heare But yet because we doe not speake in the same measure of the spirit and of power as Moses and our Saviour did therefore we labour to decline all harshnesse as much as lyeth in our power where we see occasion is like to be taken of offence Therefore first as touching this discourse of Calvins If you believe not therefore it is because you are already destinated unto damnation I say this is untrue more waies then one First if he conceives destination unto damnation goes before Gods decree to deny faith this I utterly deny and have already proved that in no moment of reason doth the decree of damnation precede the decree of denying grace Therefore Gods decree to deny them grace is rather the cause why they believe not then the decree of damnation Secondly whether we take it of the one or of the other or of both yet the proposition is utterly untrue For it doth not follow that because a man doth not as yet believe therefore God hath decreed to deny him faith and because he hath so decreed therefore he denies him faith For he that believes not to day may believe to morrow Saul was sometimes a persecutor of Gods Church but was it at that time lawfull to conclude that because he did not then believe therefore he was destinated unto damnation so that the reason indeed is either because God hath not decreed at all to give them faith or because the time which God hath ordained for their conversion is not yet come This is so cleare that Calvin himselfe were he alive would not gainsay upon consideration Neither doth he justify this discourse but only saith we must be more wise then so to discourse to our Auditors But this Author in saying this is to set downe our doctrine of reprobation in its colours delivers that which is shamefully untrue and nothing sutable with our doctrine More necre to the matter we should say rather That like as therefore a man heareth Gods word because he is of God that is as I interpret it because he is regenerated of God so therefore men heare them not because they are not of
new like as a man regenerate is called a new man though as he hath the same members of his body nor more nor lesse so he hath still the same faculties and passions of the soule no more nor no lesse but these faculties are better seasoned these passions are better ordered and in like sort these members of the body are better employed then they were before before they were made weapons of unrighteousnesse unto sinne now they are made weapons of righteousnesse unto God Rom. 6. 13. Thirdly let us enquire whether by this pretended enlivening of the will common to all men there are any new habits engendred For that is the most probable And so we commonly say that in regeneration besides the receiving of the spirit of God to dwell in our hearts which is a great mistery there are certaine habits whereby our naturall powers are elevated unto supernaturall objects and thereby fitted to performe supernaturall acts and these are but three and accordingly but three sorts of supernatuall acts and commonly accounted the three Theologicall vertues Faith Hope and Charity And all morall vertues which for the substance of them in reference to their acts whereby they are acquired and which they doe bring forth are found in naturall men doe become Christian graces as they are sanctified by these three and as their actions doe proceed from these By faith we apprehend things beyond the compasse of reason by hope we wait for the enjoying of such things which neither eye hath seen c. And by charity we love God whom yet we have not seene even to the contempt of our selves Now I presume they will not say that these habits of Faith Hope and Charity are bestowed upon all and every one by that fained universall grace of theirs And what other habits they doe or can devise I have had as yet no experience neither am I able to comprehend And indeed faith doth not leave a man in indifferency to believe or no nor hope to wait or no nor charity to love God or no but they doe all dispose the heart of man to believe only to wait upon God only to love God only they being the curing of infidelity and despaire hatred of God or rather the removing of them yet but in part as regeneration in this life is but in part there being still a flesh in us lusting against the spirit Gal. 5. 17. Thus we may maintaine that albeit every man hath power to believe if he will and repent if he will a will to believe and a will to repent being the greatest worke in the work of grace I meane the renovation of the will and making it willing to that which is good though it requires strength also to master the lusting of the flesh whereby it growes simply and absolutely potent to doe every good thing without any effectuall impediment from within yet neverthelesse till this renovation be wrought by the hand of God we may well say there is an utter impotency morall to doe any thing that is good and pleasing in the sight of God whereby they cannot believe they cannot repent they cannot be subject to the law of God And if to Preach this doctrine be to breed sloth to drowne men in carnall security and to countenance carnall liberty then our Saviour did breed sloth c. when he told his hearers plainly He that is of God heareth Gods words ye therefore heare them not because ye are not of God Ioh. 8. 47. As likewise when he Preached unto them in this maner No man can come to me except the Father which sent me draw him Ioh. 6. 44. And the Evangelist also in saying He hath blinded their eyes and hardned their hearts that they should not see with their eyes nor understand with their hearts and should be converted and I should heale them Ioh. 12. 40. And none more then Moses when he tells the people of Israel in the Wildernesse saying Ye have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh and unto all his servants and to all his land The great temptations which thine eyes have seen those great miracles and wonders yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive and eyes to see and eares to heare unto this day Yet this Author confesseth that our Saviours hearers and Moses his hearers many of them might be Godly men but no thankes to this doctrine of theirs that they were so the true and naturall genius whereof to wit of Christs doctrine and Moses his doctrine for it is apparent that it is the same with ours in this particular we now speake of is to breed sloth to drowne men in carnall security and to countenance carnall liberty but to some thing else either to Gods providence who will not suffer this Doctrine for his own glory and the good of men to have any great stroake in their lives or to mens incogitancy who think not of reducing it ad praxim or drawing conclusions out of it but rest in the naked speculation of it as they doe of many others or lastly to some good practicall conclusions which they meet with in Gods word and apply to their lives as they doe not the former deductions such as these are Be ye holy as I am holy without holinesse no man shall see God Spectatum admissi risum teneatis amici Yet I pray restraine that and give your sorrow course rather in beholding such prophane aspersions cast upon the holy Doctrine of Christ his Prophets and Apostles as if thereby sloth were bred and men drowned in carnall security and carnall liberty countenanced We are of another mind for Wisedome is justified of her Children we observe the wisedome of God herein to prevent the greatest illusions of Satan and such Doctrines as stand in most opposition unto grace The morality of Heathen men was admirable yet were it farre greater we conceive no greater opposition unto grace then to look for justification by it In the next place we conceive there is no greater opposition unto grace then for a man to arrogate unto himselfe ability to doe that which is pleasing in the sight of God Our Saviour hath said Iohn 15. 4. that As the branch cannot beare fruit of it selfe except it abide in the Vine so neither can wee except we abide in him So that either all the World must be engrafted into Christ or else it is not possible they should bring forth sweet grapes Yet these men will have all and every one to have their wills enlivened and enabled to will any spirituall good whereby they shall be excited Is this doctrine of theirs fit to humble them and not rather to puffe them up with a conceit of their own sufficiency Is not our doctrine farre more fit to humble us and to what other end tendeth that of Moses The Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive eyes to see and eares to heare unto this
which he will and proper in the thing whereto he sends it And remove all vaine grounds of apprehensions of terrible things against themselves What if a great many be reprobated from grace and shall never have any part in Christ it doth not follow that this afflicted soule is any of them what one is there of the children of God which was not sometimes dead in sinne and if pangs of childbirth goe before the delivering of a child into the world of nature why should it seeme strange that pangs of childbirth are suffered before a man be brought forth in to the world of grace And these feares and terrours wherwith this poore soule is perplexed may be unto her as pangs of childbirth to bring her forth into a new world We say that by Gods Word we are to conceive that ye are elected upon our faith and repentance Thus Paul concluded the election of the Thessalonians 1 Thess 1. 3 4. And 2 Thess 2. 13. Thus Melancthon would have us seeke it but by the Arminian doctrine it is in vaine to seeke after it for as much as none can find it We acknowledge that as our Saviour saith Few are chosen therefore we admonish every one to strive to enter in at the straight gate This was our Saviours exhortation delivered by way of answer to a question made unto him by his Apostles Whether there were but few that should be saved We teach that Christ hath died for the people of God for the elect of God for his Church for his body not only to make satisfaction for sinne and to procure salvation for them in case they believe but to procure also the Holy Spirit for them to make them believe and repent c. And this is wrought by the word which is the sword of the spirit We take not the course he obtrudes upon us We make no such distinctions for the consolation of the afflicted as he faignes We deale plainly and spare not to professe that albeit salvation is open to all that believe and that by the ordinance of God yet that no man is able of himselfe to believe or repent for as much as the Scripture testifies that all are dead in sinne in the state of nature and led captive by the Divell to doe his will and that the very Law of God doth strengthen sinne such being the course of mans corruption that the more he is forbidden this or that the more it provokes him to transgresse taking occasion by the law to work in mans heart all manner of concupiscence this is our course to beat downe the pride of man and beat out of him all conceit of ability to doe any good as of himselfe and so to cast him downe at the feet of Gods mercy Yet God is able by his grace to quicken him and being brought up in the Church of God wherein is the balme of Gilead able to heale our waies be they never so sinfull and that that is administred not according to the vile workes of men as if they had any power to prepare them for the participation of Gods grace but of the meere favour and good pleasure of God Who calleth as the Apostle speakes 2 Tim. 1. 9. with an holy calling not according to our own workes but according to his own purpose and grace And that for the merits of Christ who hath merited not only pardon of sinne and salvation for all that believe but faith also and regeneration for all his elect and being as we are members of Gods Church we have no cause to despaire but sooner or later God may call us as continually he doth some or other and we know not how soone our turne may come And as for Gods purpose touching the performance of the condition of faith we plainly professe That God purposed to give faith and repentance only to his elect according to that Act. 13. 48. As many believed as were ordained to everlasting life And Acts 2. last God added daily to his Church such as should be saved Now heare I pray their doctrine on the other side which set out our manner of consolation devised most ridiculously at their own pleasure so to expose our doctrine to scorne Doth God purpose to bestow faith and repentance upon any other besides his elect This they must avouch if they contradict us and that he purposeth to bestow it on all and every one but how Not absolutely on any that is not according to the meere pleasure of his will how then Surely conditionally to wit according to mens workes that so not Semi-Pelagianisme only but plain Pelagianisme may be commended unto Gods Church for true Christianisme And what is that worke in man whereupon God workes faith or repentance in them Surely the will to believe the will to repent So that if all men will believe will repent then in good time through Gods grace they shall believe they shall repent and if this be not to crowne Gods grace with a crowne of scornes as Christ himselfe was crowned with a Crowne of Thornes I willingly professe I know not what it is We utterly deny that God hath two wills one contrary to the other We acknowledge that in Scripture phrase Gods commandement is called his will as This is the will of God even your sanctification 1 Thess 4. 3. But this is not that will of God which the Apostle speakes of when he saith Who hath resisted his will Rom. 9. 19 For his will of commandement is resisted too oft But the will he speaketh off there is the will of Gods purpose and decree whereof the Psalmist speakes saying Whatsoever the Lord will that hath he done both in Heaven and earth Now suppose God command Abraham to sacrifice his sonne Isaack and yet decrees that Isaack shall not be sacrificed both which are as true as the word of God is true yet there is no contradiction For as much as his commandement signifies only Gods will what shall be Abrahams duty to doe not what shall be done by Abraham On the other side Gods decree signifies what shall not be done by Abraham Now what contradiction I pray is there betweene these It is Gods will that it shall be Abrahams duty to sacrifice Isaack but it is not Gods will that Isaack shall be sacrificed by Abraham for as much as when Abraham comes to the poynt of sacrificing Isaack the Lord purposeth to hold his hand In like manner God commanded Pharaoh to let Israell goe It was his will then that it should be Pharaohs duty to let Israel goe but withall he toâ—d Moses that he would harden Pharaohs heart that he should not let Israel goe whereby it is man iâ— est that God decreed that Israel should not be dismissed by Pharaoh for a while and that as is signified in the Text to make way for his judgements to be brought upon the land of Egypt whereby God meant to glorify himselfe as in the sight of Pharaoh and of his
the heart of his servants that I might worke these my miracles in the middest of his realme Here we have plaine enforcements those of great power used by the Lord yet still the Lord continues to harden Pharaoh's heart and professeth as much not fearing the censure of any vile wretch to cast upon him the imputation of imposture throughout the whole course of his ministery And the truth is all the learned concurre in distinguishing between Voluntas praecepti voluntas propositi and count it absurd to inferre the purpose of God or his will to have such a thing done from his commanding it though this command be joyned with exhortation expostulations wishes or whatsoever other emphaticall expressions all which the learned conclude under Praeceptum as a signe of God's will And the Pelagians of old urged it no farther then as God's precept backt with what exhortations and enforcements soever thence to conclude that man had power to yeild obedience but not to conclude it was God's will it should come to passe and to impute desires unto God in proper speech which never are accomplished what an unscholasticall course is it even as much as to deny him to be God and to bereave him of his blessed condition by frustrating him of his desires Whereas the time shall come that the Elect of God shall be so blessed as to have no desire of theirs in vaine Neither doth the objectour introduced by St. Paul breake forth into any such blasphemy as to charge God with any imposture in hardning whom he will when neverthelesse the ministery of the word hath course with them as well as with any other but rather proposeth it as a thing unreasonable that God should complaine of mens disobedince when himselfe hath hardned their hearts whereby it comes to passe that it cannot be that they should obey God as they ought For who hath resisted his will Yet we know what answer the Apostle maketh to stop the mouthes of all such as call God to an account for his procedings But ô man who art thou who disputest with God Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it why hast thou made me thus Hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lumpe to make one vessell unto honour and another unto dishonour And wilt not thou allow as much power unto God over thee or over the matter whereof thou wast made as the Potter hath power over the clay Proud man thinks himselfe able enough to believe to repent Now God by his passionate expressions in the Prophets discovereth the vanity of this proud conceit and laboureth by their little profiting by all these patheticall moving courses to manifest the strength of man's corruption And when they will not learne and receive this instruction by his workes he tells them the plaine truth of it to their faces Ye have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and all his servants and unto all his land The great temptations which thine eyes have seen those great miracles and wonders Yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive nor eyes to see nor eares to heare unto this day Is this the course of imposture when he tells them to their faces that albeit he commands them exhorts them expostulates with them and expresses formes of desire of their obedience in his word yet except God gives them an heart they cannot perceive except God gives them eyes they cannot see except the Lord gives them eares they cannot heare What can be more plaine dealing then this Like as our Saviour no lesse plainly told the Jewes to their face He that is of God heareth God's words ye therefore heare them not because ye are not of God Yet was he earnest and patheticall enough in exhorting them to repentance by the ministery of Iohn the Baptist by his own ministery Ierusalem Ierusalem that killest the Prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee how often would I have gathered thy children together as an hen gathereth her chicken under her wings and ye would not Behold your habitation is left unto you desolate For I say unto you ye shall not see me henceforth till that ye say Blessed is he that commeth in the name of the Lord. I come to this Author 's Prosopopey for the truth is his Rhetorick surmounts his Logicke whereat I wonder not a little O ye Reprobates once most dearely beloved in your father Adam But where hath he found in any of our Divines that Reprobates were at all beloved in our father Adam We all hold Reprobation to be as antient as election which St. Paul testifies to have been before the foundation of the world And to ordaine to damnation I should think is to hate rather then to love and this ordination divine was from everlasting And the Scripture hath taught us that the divine nature is without variablenesse or shadow of change He speakes in the language of his own Court when he talkes of sealing up under invincible sinne and misery The Scripture speaks of sealing unto the day of redemption by God's holy spirit which gives them assurance that they are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation That God will deliver them from every evill work preserve them to his heavenly kinngdome But no such spirit is given to Reprobates to assure them of their damnation so to seale them up under invincible sin misery They are under the power of Satan but he hath neither power nor authority to assure them of their damnation And albeit this Authour fashions a discourse to reprobates as if they were a sect well known Yet we are so farre from knowing who they are that they are in our opinion neither known to themselves nor known to Satan no nor to God's holy Angells unlesse he reveale it unto them If we should have any cause to addresse our selves to Reprobates which kind of case and occasion is incomprehensible by me we should describe them no otherwise then thus O ye who are not only for the present under the power of Satan and so are all God's elect before the time of regeneration but will continue vassalls unto him even unto death going on from sinne to sinne and never breaking them off by repentance but continuing to despise the goodnesse of God leading thereunto Now this being only in reference to the time to come I cannot speake to any in present under this forme absolutely but hypothetically For none are Reprobates to us but such who finally persevere in impenitency Therefore I cannot exhort them to amend their lives under the stile of Reprobates but as such who although they are under the power of sinne and Satan may for ought I know belong to God's election and in good time come out of the snare of Satan And because the ministry of the word is the only meanes whereby God brings men unto
to have abstained from many of those foule sinnes yea from all of them wherewith God doth upbraid them albeit to abstaine from any sinne in a gracious manner be a worke of Gods speciall grace which he affords not according to mens workes which way tends all this eager but superficiary discourse but according to his own purpose and grace 3. Hosea 11. 8. God represents as it were a conflict within him between his mercy and justice and his mercy hath the glory of the day But wherein To spare them though their sinnes deserved at his hands that he should make them as Adma and Zeboim as Sodome and Gomorrah He would rather shew himselfe to be as he is God and and not Man And wherein But in this man may pardon his enemy but cannot change his heart it is otherwise with God he can both pardon our sinnes and change our hearts and to this purpose he becomes our Lord and our God and walkes in the midst of us as the holy one of Israell to sanctify us as it followeth in the same place of Hosea v. 10. They shall walk after the Lord he shall roare like a Lyon viz. In such expostulations comminations c. but the issue shall be gracious for when he shall reare then the children of the West shall feare that is feare unto him as Hos 3. 5. That is come flying unto him and to his goodnesse with feare like Birds scared from one place fly with greater speed to another so conscience affrighted with sense of sinne and apprehension of Gods wrath shall fly from his wrath unto his mercy to his goodnesse whereof God shall make unto them a full representation in David their King that is in Christ as in whom we behold the glory of Gods grace with open face and trepidare in Latine is found to be of the same signification with festinare And v. 11. Is manifested as much as where it is said They shall feare as a sparrow out of Egypt and as a Dove out of the land of Egypt and I will place them in their houses saith the Lord. That is come flying unto the Lord with feare As for that Math. 23. 37. O Jerusalem how oft would I c. This is of another nature as being delivered by Christ the sonne of God made under the Law who as in his manhood he might entertaine such desires in proper speech so by the Law of God was bound to desire the conversion of his brethren as well as any other Prophet or man of God or minister of his word But such confusion becomes this discourse right well In all this he saith there is little sincerity if there be a secret resolution that the most of these towards whom those wishes chidings and commiserations are used shall be unavoydably damned But what if but one of them towards whom these are used by a secret resolution shall be unavoydably damned is there sincerity enough in these courses divine Sureif this resolution concerning the unavoydable damnation of the one doth not prejudice Gods sincerity neither shall such a resolution concerning the damnation of two or of two hundred or thousands or the most any way prejudice sincerity divine But this kind of discourse is spread all over this Treatise like a scab only to worke upon vulgar affection where judgement is wanting to observe the frothy condition of it And whereas he saith that in all this God aliud animo vult aliud verbis significat its most untrue as to every one should be made manifest according to the right understanding of it had he been pleased to accommodate it severally and shew what that is which God signifies by his word and what that is which he willeth in his heart And indeed as in the poynt of Gods commandement I have shewed there is no colour of contradiction between it and Gods purpose but only according to this Authors superficiary interpretation For to command a thing is only to will that it shall be our duty to doe it notwithstanding which it is apparent God may purpose not to give grace to worke the doing of it So in every one of the rest had he instanced as it became him and shewed wherein the guile consisted the absurdity of this crimination might have been made as manifest as in this That which he conceales and which he would have his readers rather take to themselves than shew himselfe clearely to stand to the maintainance thereof seems to be this that every one hath power given him to believe to repent to change his heart yea to regenerate himselfe but it sticks in his teeth and he dares not speake it out plainly Only he keepes himselfe to Gods resolution concerning mans unavoydable damnation yet we maintaine not that any contingent things come to passe unavoydably that were utterly against the nature of a contingent thing which is to come to passe so as joyned with a possibility of not coming to passe And as for damnation in particular we acknowledge it throughout to be avoydable by repentance and not otherwise unto men of ripe years And as for repentance we say that there is no man but may repent as long as he lives through grace so that in the issue the maine poynt to be debated herein is whether every man living hath such a grace given him as whereby he may repent But upon this poynt though his whole discourse be grounded thereupon yet is he content to say just nothing least their shamefull and most unconscionable courses in dishonouring the grace of God should be discovered and brought to light But consider in a word or two as touching this universall grace which they make to consist in the inabling of the will to will any goodthing whereunto they shall be excited If such a grace be universall then every one hath power to believe and power to repent But this is untrue for the Apostle telleth us of some that they cannot repent Rom. 2. 4. of the naturall man that he cannot discerne the things of God and that they are foolishnesse unto him and while they seeme foolishnesse unto him is it possible that therein he should discerne the wisdome of God 1 Cor. 2. 14. our Saviour tells us of some that they cannot believe Ioh. 12. 46. and tells others to their face saying How can you believe when ye receive honour one of another and seeke not the honour that comes from God only Ioh. 5. 44. Likewise of them that are in the flesh Saint Paul saith They cannot please God Rom. 8. 8. 2. It is the habit of faith that inables us to believe so that if all men have power to believe it must be confessed that all men have faith but the Apostle saith Fides non est omnium 2 Thes 3. 2. Tit. 1. 1. he saith it is electorum like as Austin professeth Habere fidem sicut habere charitatem gratiae est fidelium de praedest Sanct. cap. 5. 3. Whosoever hath power to
many more of the like sort What the true use and end of these gifts of nature and grace is the Scripture doth plainly and particularly shew us First for the gifts of nature we find that they are bestowed on all that have them for the encouraging and enabling of them to serve God and save their soules for Act. 14. 16 17. the Apostle saith that God even in these times wherein he permitted the Gentiles to walke in their own wayes and with-held from them the light of his holy word did give unto the people of the world raine from Heaven and fruitfull seasons filling their harts with food and gladnes by these not leaving him selfe without witnesse which implyes that he gave them these good things make himselfe known unto them and so that he might draw them to glorify him according to their knowledge of him Acts. 17. 26. The Apostle saith directly that men are therefore made and placed in this world and appointed to their severall times and dwellings that they may seeke God and finde him that is that they may serve him and save themselves for what is it to seeke God but to serve him And what is it to finde God but to enjoy his face and favour here and in Heaven Caelum quippe terra mare omnisque creatura quae videri intelligi potest ad hanc praecipue disposita est humani generis utilitatem natura rationalis de contemplatione tot specierum de experimentis tot bonorum de perceptione tot munerum ad cultum dilectionem sui imbueretur authoris implentis omnia spiritu Dei in quo vivimus movemur sumus They are the words of Prosper therefore is every creature made and ordained especially that mankind which is indued with knowledge and ability to discourse might by the sight of soe many goodly sorts of creatures and the rast of so many blessings be drawne to the love and service of his and their maker And a little after in the same Chap. he saith Quod ergo in Israel per constitutionem legis et prophetica eloquia gerebatur hoc in universis nationibus totius creaturae testimonia et bonitatis Dei miracula semper egerunt looke of what use the law and Prophets were to the Israelites of the same use were the gifts of creation and providence to the Gentiles God intended not to doe to the Gentiles as the Manichees say he dealt with the Iewes to feed them and fat them up with more outward blessings as so many hoggs and swines with husks and acornes but to draw them up by these to an exspectation of better things and a carefull endeavour to please God that soe they might obtaine them The end of all creatures and of all created gifts bestowed upon man is subordinate to the end of man mans end is to glorify God on Earth and to enjoy perpetuall society with him in Heaven And their end is to encourage and direct man to atchieve that high and noble end which his Creator hath appointed him TWISSE Consideration HEre we have a roaving discourse I must pick out of it what I can to draw it up to some sense of argument the ground of all the pith and substance of it is two places in the Acts and two passages out of Prosper The first out of Acts 14. 16 17. God in times past suffered all the Gentiles to walke in their own waies neverthelesse he left not himselfe without witnesse in that he did good and gave us raine from heaven and fruitfull seasons filling our hearts with food and gladnesse Now as for the first verse of these he is content to say nothing at all thereof neither to deliver what those wayes were nor in what sense God is said to suffer them to walke therein which yet may easily be cleared by comparing it with what is delivered Acts 17. 30. Where the times preceding the Gospell are called times of ignorance The times of this ignorance and this agreeth with the comparative difference made between Jewes and Gentiles Psal 147. 19. He sheweth his words unto Iacob his statutes and judgements unto Israell v. 20. He hath not dealt so with any Nation and as for his judgements they have not known them So that by the wayes of the Gentiles I understand the wayes of Ignorance and these are no other than the wayes of darknesse and can bring forth no better fruit than the works of darknesse according to that of the Apostle Ephes 5. 8. Ye were darknesse but now are light in the Lord walke therefore as children of the light And againe the night is passed the day is at hand let us therefore cast away the workes of darknesse and put upon us the armour of light And as for Gods suffering of them to walke in those wayes that is expressed in another phâ—ase Acts 17. 30. thus And the times of this ignorance God winked at and the meaning thereof appeares by the Antithesis in the adversative following thus But now he admonisheth every man every where to repent Thus formerly he dealt with the Jewes giving them a law and sending Prophets from time to time to call them to obedience to repentance but such were not his gracious proceedings with the Gentiles But give we him leave to follow his own advantage God left not himselfe without witnesse in sending raine and fruitfull seasons So it was in most places I know none but Egypt excepted and that is to be excepted not only by evidence of Phylosophicall inquisition after the cause thereof in that question Utrum Aegyptus sit impluviata but by evidence out of Gods word Deut. 11. 10 11 12. The land whether thou goest to possesse is not as the Land of Aegypt from whence ye came where thou sowedst thy seed and wateredst it with thy foot as a garden of hearbs but the land whither ye goe to possesse it is a land of mountaines and vallies and drinketh water of the raine of heaven This Land doth the Lord your God care for the eyes of the Lord thy God are upon it from the begining of the yeare to the end of the yeare Yet had they fruitfull seasons by the inundation of Nilus but this was not so apt to dispose them to take notice of a divine providence as the common course of fructifying the Land by raine But yet the whole world in the frame thereof was sufficient evidence of the Eternall power and Godhead Rom. 1. 20. and Psal 19. 1. The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy worke And albeit Aristotle the greatest of Philosophers maintained the eternity thereof without beginning yet he confesseth ingeniously in his Book De coelo that all that went before him maintained mundum genitum esse neither was his discourse of power to raze out that naturall instinct hereof which seems to be graven in the hearts of men and was the chiefe ground of that universall acknowledgment
be as ready to worke it in themselves 3. And now I come to this Authors third Topick place of consolation drawn from the universality of the Covenant of grace Now this is as strange as any of the former or rather much more and when the Covenant of grace is so much enlarged we have cause to feare that it is confounded with the Covenant of Workes And indeed if it were true as some of this sect professe namely that there is an universall grace given to al for the enlivening of their wills wherby they are enabled to will any spirituall good whereunto they shall be excited and to believe if they will and from the love of temporall things to convert themselves to the keeping of Gods Commandements if they will I see no reason but that the Law is able to give life though the Apostle supposeth the contrary and the way is as open unto man for justification by the workes of the Law as it was unto Adam in the state of innocency And if the Covenant of grace be universall and ever was for that I take to be this Authours meaning then God was no more the God of Abraham and of his seed then of all the World nether was the people of Israel more the Lords portion then any other Nation of the World yet Moses was sent unto Pharaoh in their behalfe with this Message Thus sayth the Lord Israell is my sonne my first borne wherefore I say unto thee Let my sonne goe that he may serve mee if thou refuse to let him goe Behold I will slay thy sonne even thy first borne Ex 4. 22 23. Thus God accounts them albeit they were miserably corrupted with Idolatry as it appeares Ez 20. 6. In the day that I lift up my hand upon them to bring them forth of the Land of Egypt 7. Then sayd I unto them Let every one cast a way the abominations of his eies and defile not your selves with the Idolls of Egypt for I am the Lord your God 8. But they rebelled against me and would not heare me for none cast away the abominations of their eyes neither did they forsake the Idolls of Egypt then I thought to poure out mine Indignation upon them and to accomplish my wrath against them in the midst of the Land of Egypt 9. But I had respect unto my name that it should not be polluted of the Heathen So he proceded in despite of their sinnes to carry them out of the Land of Egypt and brought them into the wildernesse and gave them Statutes and Judgments and his Sabaths v 10 11 12. But they rebelled against him in the Wildernesse whereupon he thought againe to poure out his indignation upon them in the Wildernesse to consume them v. 13. But he had respect unto his name v. 14. amd his eie spared them and would not destroy them v. 17. And againe when their Children provoked him by rebelling against him whereupon he thought of powring out his Indignation upon them v. 21. Neverthelesse he withdrew his hand and had respect unto his name v. 22. Then as touching the generation of that present time he professeth he will rule them with a mighty hand v. 33. And the issue thereof is no worse then this I will cause you to passe under the rod and bring you into the bond of the Covenant v. 37 And againe marke with what a gratious promise he concludes v. 43. There shall ye remember your wayes and all the workes wherein ye have been defiled and ye shall judge yourselves worthy to be cast of for all your evills which you have committed 44. And ye shall know that I am the Lord when I have respect unto you for my names sake and not after your wicked waies nor according to your corrupt worke O yee house of Israel saith the Lord God Here is the peculiar fruit of the Covenant of grace to master their iniquities to bring them unto repentance and to deliver them from the dominion of sinne and Satan If God performe this Grace to all and every one throughout the World then is the Covenant of grace universall and all and every one are under it but if there be few very few over whom sinne hath not the dominion then certainly very few are under the Covenant of grace For the Apostle plainly signifyeth this to be the fruit of the Covenant of grace where he saith Sinne shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the Law but under grace Rom 6. 14. And the like we have Heb. 8. 8. I will make with the House of Judah a new Testament 9. Not like the Testament that I made with their fathers in the day that I tooke them by the hands to lead them out of the Land of Egypt For they continued not in my Testament and I regarded them not saith the Lord. 10. For this is the Testament that I will make with the House of Israell after those dayes saith the Lord I will put my Lawes in their mind and in their heart I will write them and I will be their God and they shall be my people 11. And they shall not teach every man his neighbour and every man his brother saying Know the Lord for all shall know me from the least of them to the greatest of them 12. For I will be mercyfull unto their unrighteousnesse and I will remember their sinnes and their iniquities no more According to this Covnant proceed those gratious promises whereof the Scriptures are full I have seen his wayes and I will heale them Es 57. 18. I will heale their rebellions Hos 14. 5. The Lord will subdue our iniquities Mich. 7. I will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your children to love me with all your heart and with all your soule Deut 30. 6. I am the Lord your God which sanctify you c And therefore these comforts which here are so much magnified as only and fully sufficient for the releeving of an afflicted soul in the hour of temptation are but so many lies to speake in the Prophets phrase that this Author holds in his right hand and if through the illusions of Satan he take hold of them they may cast him into a dreame like unto the dreame of an hungry man who eateth and drinketh and maketh merry but when he awaketh his soule is empty For all these comforts so magnificently set forth have no force save in case a man believe them now if a man believeth our doctrine can assure him of Everlasting Life and so of his election which the Arminian cannot For we teach that which our Saviour hath taught us He that believeth in the Son hath Everlasting Life and he that obayeth not the Sonne shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth upon him But as for the performing of faith they leave that unto man together with Gods concurrence And in like sort for the maintenance of their faith they teach a man to put
the Gospell as appeareth by the objection following Why then doth he complaine For who hath resisted his will And albeit the Saints of God expostulate with him in this manner Why hast thou caused us to erre from thy wayes and hardened our hearts against thy feare Yet we know that God takes no pleasure in disobedience or in the hardnesse of any mans heart nor can be the Authour of evill with Sir Francis Bacons distinction in the booke formerly mentioned by this Authour Non quià non Author sed quià non mali So that albeit he hardens whom he will unto disobedience in the prophet Esayes phrase causeth men to erre from his wayes Yet the Lord himselfe we know is righteous in all his wayes holy in all his workes though we are not able to dive into the gulfe and search out the bottome of his judgments and no marvaile For they are unsearchable Yet we make no question but through Gods mercy convenient satisfaction may be found without any such shaÌ„efull course of dismeÌ„bring scripture and taking notice only of such passages as represent Gods displeasure against sin sinners and dissembling all other passages which drave Austin to confesse occulto Dei judicio by the secret judgement of God fieri perversitatem cordis the perversity of mans heart hath its course much lesse by setting theÌ„ together by the eares And I nothing doubt but the issue will be on the part of such as are of this Authours spirit either wholly to deny originall sin or so to emasculate the vigor of it as to professe that it is in the power of maÌ„ to cure it or notwithstaÌ„ding the strength of it to beleive repeÌ„t if he will which though they preteÌ„d to be wrought by a certain universal grace Yet I nothing doubt but we shall be able to prove that such a power is mere nature and no grace Be it so that wicked men in their wicked courses do chose the things that God would not Who would thinke that this Author who makes such a florish should content himselfe with such beggarly arguments or that the world should be so simple as to be terrifyed with such scar-crowes For is it not apparent that in scripture phrase there is voluntas praecepti a will of commandement as well as voluntas propositi a will signifying Gods purpose and decree So theÌ„ though they chuse the things that God willed not in reference to his will of commandement yet it might be Gods will that is his purpose that even such sinnes should come to passe For was it not the will of God that Pharaoh should not let Israel goe for a while Did he not harden him to this purpose that so he might make himselfe knowne in the land of Egypt by his judgemeÌ„ts did he not reveale this to Moses to the coÌ„fort of the childreÌ„ of Israel keepe theÌ„ from despaire in conteÌ„plation of the obstinacy of Pharaoh's spirit when they were assured that God had an haÌ„d in hardening Pharaoh to staÌ„d out And doth not Bellarmine professe that maluÌ„ fieri permitt sin Deo bonuÌ„ est it is good that evill should coÌ„ to passe by Gods permission And shall it be unbecoÌ„ing the divine nature to will that which is good And where is it that Bellarmine affirmeth this even there where he opposeth the same Doctrine of ours which this Authour doth but with more learning an 100 fold then this Authour betrayeth and withall carryeth himselfe with farre more ingenuity For he takes notice of those places of Scripture whereupon our Divines do build and accommodates himselfe to aswer them by some intepretation that he thinks good to make of them which this Authour doth not 2. But what if there be no such text as this Authour builds upon For looke what the word is used in the originall Ps 5. 4. the same is used Es 66 4 Now that in Ps 5. 4 This Authour renders not that wouldest not iniquity but that hast no pleasure in iniquity And why then shall not that Es 66. 4. be accordingly rendred thus They choose the things wherein I had no pleasure or wherein I had no delight and not as he expresseth it the things that I would not Hereupon I imagined our Enlish tranlation had thus rendred it but consulting that I found the contrary For thus they render it They choose the things wherein I delighted not It is true the Geneva renders it thus But doth it become him to preferre and follow the Geneva translation before the last and most authenticall translation of the Church of England In like manner the practise of Geneva must be of authority to cry us downe in the point of the morality of the fourth commandement Were not the man well knowne to be sound at heart his favourites might well suspect him to praevaricate in making so great a cry and yet yeilding so little wooll In the next place he alleadgeth that of Iames. Let no man say when he is tempted that he is temptedof God For God tempteth no man But every man is tempted when he is drawen away with his owne concupiscence Now Peter Martyr on the first to the Romans deales at large upon this place and disputes strangely indiscoursing of Gods providence in evill I would this Authour had taken the paines to answer him at least that he might performe somewhat tanto dignum hiatu worthy of the great gaping he makes It is true Bellarmine hath taken him to taske after a sort in his eigth chapter of his second book de Amiss gratiae statu peccati And I have replyed upon Bellarmine at large in my Vindiciae in that large digression wherein I take Bellarmine to taske in that book of his whereunto I referre the Reader Yet to say somewhat of this place befor I passe It is apparent that the Apostle in this place doth not so put off from God the workes of tempting as to cast it upon Satan but onely so as to shew that whatsoever the divine providence is there about either by the ministry of Satan who is God's minister in hardening men to precipâ—tate courses I Kings the last or otherwise yet still the sinner is unexcusable for as much as he is then only tempted effectually For so it is to be understood otherwise it were not true as it appeares in the case of Joseph tempted by his Mistris when he is drawen away by his own concupiscence It is true the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and pride of life is not of the Father but of the world they are the members of that body of sin which we brought with us into the world This is propagated unto us all by naturall generation Holy Iacob the Son of holy Isaak a Patriach of holy Rebeccah a Prophetesse was borne in sin as well as Esau and Seth as well as Cain and this seemeth to be called the image of Adam
Egyptians so in the sight of the children of Israel and of the bordering Nations No contradiction at all in this no more then Gods word is found to contradict it selfe And nothing but ignorance makes our adversaries so bold as to impute contradiction to us in this We grant willingly that God did intend that most should never believe and repent For as much as he intended to deny the gift of faith and repentance unto most as it is apparent he doth neither dares any Arminian deny it Only they feigne that God would give faith and repentance unto all in case they would prepare themselves which not only includes manifest Pelagianisme but over and above ends in non-sense as I have but erst and often times before made as cleare as the Sunne Gods eternall rejection of many thousands which is impossible to be avoided for how is it possible that what was from everlasting should be avoyded by man or Angell who are brought forth in time not to have been from everlasting though it be all one with the answers of the tempted and is contradictory to the comforts which this Author deviseth out of his own braine and proposeth too in a most colluding manner as before I have shewed and withall not so well sorting with the manner of comforts which he feignes and at meere pleasure obtrudes upon us which yet he cannot evacuate without betraying the shamefull nakednesse of his cause when denying God to bestow the gift of faith and repentance absolutely on whom he will and according to the meere pleasure of his will he is driven to manifest how he takes sanctuary in Pelagianisme maintaining the grace of faith and repentance to be conferred by God on men according to their workes and that in a most unsober manner as I have shewed at large yet notwithstanding is this eternall decree of God concerning the rejection of man nothing contrariant to better grounds of consolation ministred by our doctrine then any can be ministred by Arminians as who doe not so much as undertake to minister better comfort to any then such as is common to them with Reprobates But as for all those that are brought up in the Church of God who we can assure them that there is no cause excepting guilt of that sinne which is unto death or which is against the Holy-Ghost why any of them should conceive themselves to be Reprobates nay the affliction of conscience being the most ordinary meanes whereby God doth prepare men for a comfortable translation out of the state of nature into the state of grace they have cause to conceive comfort in this that these feares and terrours may be as pangs of child-birth to deliver their souls into the world of the sons of God and this vally of Achor a doore of hope this Bethany a house of sorrow or mourning the high-way unto the vision of Peace as Bethany was commonly taken by our Saviour in his way unto Jerusalem For conclusion we have heard a strange cracking of thornes in this but all proves but a squibbe their best light of consolation goes out in an unsavoury snuffe of Pelagianisme Let us remember though Thunder and Earth-quakes and Lightning have their course in the vaine imaginations of men yet God is still and ever will be in the small voyce of his word Let us give Gods truth the glory of our consolation As for Errour and that dangerous errour in defacing the glory of Gods grace let us never seeke any comfort therein and let them that love it take what comfort in it they can I doe not envy them but rather pitty them I would their hearts served them to have compassion upon them selves DISCOURSE SECT IV. SEcondly it leaves a Minister weake grounds only and insufficient to quiet the tempted and therefore it makes him unable to comfort His grounds that are left him are insufficient because they cannot convince and make it evident to the understanding of the tempted that he is not that which he feares i. e. a Reprobate out of temptation probabilities will uphold a mans hopes as they did Manoahs wife Judg. 13. 22 23. If the Lord would kill us he would not have received a burnt offering at our hands nor shewed us all these things because men are not so mistrustfull then but in temptation men are very suspitious and incredulous like Jacob who would not be perswaded that Joseph was alive and a great man in Egypt till he saw the Chariots that were sent to fetch him thither Gen. 45. 25. And like Thomas who would not believe that Christ was risen till he saw the print of the nailes and speare Iohn 20. 25. They will not believe any thing that is said for their comfort till it be made so apparent that they have nothing to say to the contrary My selfe have known some who in their temptations have often put their comforters to their proofes to their protestations nay to their oathes too before they would believe their words of comfort And in this temptation men are so strongly possest with a feare of the greatest evill in the World eternall rejection from God that they will not easily without manifest conviction believe the contrary But such grounds as these a Minister that holds absolute reprobation hath not he can say nothing that is able to make it appeare infallibly and unavoydably to the tempted that he is no absolute reprobate All that he can say is Be of good comfort you are a believer you are a true repenting sinner therefore no reprobate for faith and repentance are fruits of election and arguments of a state contrary to that which you feare But this the tempted will deny he will say that he is no believer c. And how will the Minister convince him that he is He must prove to him by the outward acts of faith and repentance for they are only apparent to him that he doth repent and believe but this proofe is not demonstrative doth not convince him because opera virtutum simulari possunt the externall acts of saith repentance or any other grace may be counterfeited The Devill may seeme to be an Angell of light Wolves may goe in Sheepes cloathing Judas may make the World believe by his Preaching and following Christ that he is a true Apostle And Simon Magus though he remaine in the gall of bitternesse and bond of iniquity may be thought by his receiving of Baptisme to be a true believer And so may any Hypocrite by some exterior act of faith and repentance cosen the best discerner of spirits among men and gaine the opinion and esteeme of a true penitent and believer Actions externally good or good in appearance may be evill indeed for want of a good rule a good manner a good end some other good circumstances with which an action which is good must be cloathed For bonum non oritur nisi ex integris and so by consequence cannot certainly prove the man that doth