admonition doe otherwise Among creatures indued with reason and liberty lawes are given to none but such as can use their principles of reason and freedome Fooles mad-men and children are subject to no law because they have no liberty To men that can use their liberty lawes are not given neither but in those actions which are voluntary No man is forbidden to be hungry thirsty weary sleepy to weepe tolaugh to love or to hate because these actions and affections are naturall and necessary the will may governe them but it cannot suppresse them And so if to deale justly to exercise charity c. with their contraries be absolutely and antecedently necessary too whether this necessity flow from a principall within or a mover without we are as lawlesse in these and in the other Now if necessity hath no lawâ— then actions in themselves evill if under the dominion of absolute necessity are transgressions of no law and consequently no sins For sin is a transgression of the law This that I say hath been said long agoe For Justin Martyr speaking against destiny hath these words If it be by destiny that is by absolute necessity For that the Fathers doe generally call by the name of destiny that men are good or bad they are indeed neither good nor bad A speech like to this he hath a little after It would seem if this be so that vertue and vice are nothing but things are judged to be good or bad by opinion only which as good reason teacheth is very great injustice and impiety And surely well might he say so For to what purpose was the Son of God made man and being man made a sacrifice for sinne Why was the ministry of the word and Sacraments ordained To what end are heaven and hell propounded Why are exhortations disswasions or any other meanes to hinder men from sin applied if sin be nothing but a mere opinion Christ the Christian faith the word and Sacraments and whatsoever according to the Scriptures hath been done for the applying of the pardon of sinne are all but mere fables nay very impostures if sinne be nothing And by consequence it is no matter at all whether men be Christians Jewes Turkes or Pagans of what religion or whether of any religion at all Now whether tendeth this but to the ovethrow of religion 2. Because it taketh away the conscience of sinne Why should men be afraid of any sinne that pleaseth or may profit them if they must needs sinne Or what reason have they to weep and mourne when they have sinned seeing they have not sinned truly because they sinned necessarily The Tragedian saith when a man sinneth his destiny must beare the blame Necessity freeth him from all iniquity Sins are either the faults of that irresistible decree that causeth them or no faults at all If either then sorrow feare or any other act of repentance whatsoever may as well be spared as spent This conceit being once drunke in religion cannot long continue For the affections have been the strongest planters and are the surest upholders of it in the world Primus in orbe Deos fecit timot. I come to the consideration of the second inconvenience wherewith our doctrine is charged And that is nothing inferiour to the former to wit The overthrow of true religion and good goverment among'st men With what judgment these are termed inconvenices I am to seeke and I wonder what mischeifes are greater then these inconveniences But I come to consider how well he makes good his charge 1. If sinne be no sinne certainely the opinion must be erroneous that conceives it to be sin I had thought there had been no predication more true then that which is Identicall We are taught that sinne is a trangression of God's law That the wages of it in the just judgment and decree of God is no lesse then death even everlasting death both of body and soule That God sent his own Son and made his soule an offering for sinne that so he might set him forth a propitiation for our sins through faith in his blood But let us see this Authour's reason to prove his crimimination He begins with an axiome that Necessity hath no law and hereupon he doth expatiate with his instances too too impertinently a course which Bellarmine takes not whom yet I have answered on this very argument in my Vindiciae least of all doth he offer to make any reply upon any parcell of my answer unto Bellarmine Now this axiome is not applied to Agents unreasonable but only reasonable by them who treat thereof As in case a man be driven to steale to relieve naturall necessity yet all confesse that a man is not only unexecusable but also not to be pitied if he hath brought this necessity upon him And never any sober man that I know denied stealth to be a free action for all this It is true Lyons are not forbidden to prey nor fishes to swimne nor bruit creatures to doe according to their kind For they are unreasonable and consequently not capable of command otherwise then by spurre or goad or the like nor capable of admonition in like sort children afore they come to the use of reason are not capable of admonition As neither mad men are nor fooles such as we call naturall But this Authour is none such For then his wit would not serve him for opposition as it doth It is true likewise that as man is made after the Image of God not as touching his part vegetative nor as touching his part sensitive but only as touching his part reasonable consisting of an understanding whereby he is enabled to know his superiours and their commands and admonitions and of a will whereby he is able to performe obedience both inward and outward it having command over all parts of the body to set them in motion whereupon if their Lord command them to come they come if to goe they goe if to doe this they doe it As the Centurion signified to our Saviour the readinesse of his servants to doe their Masters commands At length he comes to conclude that if to deale justly to exercise charitie c. with their contraries be absolutely antecedently necessary too whether this necessity flow from a principle within or a mover without we are as lawlesse in these as in the other by these he meanes acts of the soule rationall by the other he meanes acts of the soule vegetative or sensitive Now we utterly deny that any of these are absolutely necessary Nay we deny that any thing is of absolute necessity but the being of the Divine nature and the internall emanations thereof which constitute the distinction of persons in the Trinity For albeit some Agents created are Agents necessary working necessarily yet the works which they bring forth are not of absolute necessity because they may be hindred in their operations either by Angells as some of them or
lamentable ends to which he had from eternity appointed them and so by good consequence it makes the pure and holy God to be unholy and ascribes unto him farre greater cruelty then can be found in the most bloudy and barbarous Tyrant in the World Suetonius in the life of Tiberius one of the veryest Butchers of all the Roman Emperours reports of him that having a mind to put the two sonnes of Germanicus Diusus and Nero to death Variâ fraude induxit ut concitarentur ad convitia concitati perderentur He used cunning contrivances to draw them to reproach him that so he might cover his cruelty in their death under a pretext of justice And a little after he saith of the same Emperour that because it was not lawfull among the Romans to strangle Virgins he caused certain little maides to be deflowred by the Hangman that so they might afterwards be strangled This cruelty of Tiberius exceeded the bounds of humanity and yet it comes as short of that which this way laies to the charge of God as a temporall death comes short of an eternall and the power of man in drawing men to offend comes short of that irresistable power which the Almighty is able to use in the producing of sin Besides it takes from men all conscience of sin and makes sin to be no sin We use to say Necessitas non habet legem Necessity hath no law Actions in themselves evill if an absolute necessity bear sway in them are transgressions of no law and consequently are no sin for sin is a transgression of the law and men when they doe them they have no reason to be forry for them The Tragoedian could see this where he saith Fati ista culpa est Nemo fit fato nocens when one evill action is done the doer is not in fault but the decree that necessitates him to doe it It takes away likewise from good and evill actions that defect which they naturally carry with them of Rewards and Punishments as Saint Hierome tells us Liberi arbitrii nos condidit Deus nec ad virtutes nec ad vitia necessitate tranimur alioqui ubi necessit as est nec damnatio nec corona est Where necessity domineers there is no place for retribution and therefore none are drawn by the adamantine chains of necessity to virtues or vices but left free to the choyce of their own wills When Zeno his servant was punished by him for a fault that he had done he told his Master out of his own grounds that he was unjustly beaten because he was Fato coactus peccare constrained so to doe by his undeclinable destiny and certainly if malefactors could not chuse but play their rude prankes they could not be justly punished for them For all just punishments suppose a possibility of avoyding those offences of which they are the punishments TWISSE Consideration THis Authors pretence being only to oppose that Tenent which maintaines that the decree of denying grace and glory and of inflicting damnation doth not presuppose the foresight of final perseverance in sin you may well marvaile to what purpose this comes in about the different condition of man considered by God either as before the Fall or after the Fall in Adam it being a question of another nature and meerly Logicall to wit about the ordering of Gods decrees of Creation Permission of the fall of Adam giving or denying Grace Salvation or Damnation The resolution whereof depends upon the right distinction of these decrees in reference to the end and to the means tending to that end For this being Resolved according to the rules of Divinity the order between them must consequently be determined according to the rules generally received in the Schooles namely thus The intention of the end is first then the intention of the means so that if Salvation be the end and Creation and Permission of Adams Fall and Raising therehence by Faith and Repentance to be the means it must be confessed that the decree of Salvation must be first then the decree of Creation permission of sin and of raising out of sin So if the damnation of any be the end that God intends and creation and permission of sin and of finall perseverance therein be the means it must be acknowledged that the decree of damnation was before the decree of creation c. But if salvation and damnation be no ends intended by God but means rather as well as creation and permission of all to sin in Adam together with the raising of some therehence and leaving some therein tending to some farther end namely the Manifestation of Gods glory in a certain kind as the Scripture together with manifest reason doth justify For God being the supreame efficient must necessarily be the last end And even there where the word of God doth testify that God created the wicked against the day of evill it doth therewithall give to understand that what is signified by To the day of evill doth not denote the end of Gods actions that before being expressed to be God himselfe God made all things for himselfe not for acquiring ought unto himselfe for he is so perfect that nothing can be added unto him but for the manifesting of his own most glorious nature so that if God be pleased to manifest his glorious beneficence on man in the highest degree and that in the way of mercy mixt with justice this end requires and bespeaks both creation no glory at all being manifestable without this and permission of sin otherwise it could not be manifested in the way of mercy and satisfaction for sin otherwise this mercy could not be mixed with justice exactly and faith and repentance otherwise the good which God intends could not be bestowed by way of reward and last of all Salvation under which we comprehend the highest and most blessed condition that the nature of man continuing a meere man is capable of And herehence we conclude that in case the end is such as hath been specified and all these actions following congruous means tending to that end therefore the decree of manifesting Gods glory as above specified is first with God and secondly the decree of the means which means although they are many materially yet they come all under one formall notion of means tending to a certain end which according to the severall parts thereof bespeaks them all and consequently they are all to be considered as making up the object of one formall decree called the decree of the means and the intention of none of them is before another but all intended at once as means tending to that end which is first intended In like manner if God shall be pleased to intend the manifestation of his glory in Man or Angell in the way of justice vindicative the means necessarily required hereunto are Creation Permission of sin and Damnation unto punishment and all three makes up the object of one formall
naturall unto us all had Adam continued in his originall integrity But I am content to let that passe only whereas he saith that by such a law the Allmighty law-giver binds himselfe to his creatuees to give them such power as may enable them to keepe that law I think rather if any obligation had place in this case it were rather to maintaine the power already given them than to give it For every law-giver rather presupposeth ability of obedience in them to whom he gives a law then first gives a law and then gives ability to performe obedience thereunto And certainly God first created man after his owne image before he gave him any law to be a rule of his obedience unto his creatour So I take the multiplying vertue was given to his creatures in their creation before he said encrease and multiply In the curing of the lame man his word indeed was a word of power like as when he said let there be light and there was light For though it goe under the forme of a command yet it was not so properly a command which is to command obedience as the going forth of vertuous efficacy to create like as that also Ezek. 37. O ye dry bones heare the voyce of the Lord. And undoubtedly the strength of obedience given unto Adam preceded Gods command for his abstaining from the fruit of the tree in the midst of the Garden He had in his creation given him posse non cadere not non posse cadere the event manifested as much and it is as true according to the same Austin that God gave him posse stare si vellet not velle quod potuit But that God is bound to restore any such power unto mankind which they have wilfully lost is boldly avouched but let us consider how Scholastically it is proved 1. The first reason hereof is because God hath vouchsafed to enter into a new Covenant of Peace with men when he needed not To this I answer that God hath entred into a new Covenant with men is an indefinite proposition as touching the persons included in this Covenant and being not in a necessary matter but contingent this Covenant proceeding meerely from the good pleasure of God it hath no more force than to signify that God hath vouchsafed to enter into a new Covenant of peace with some men which we wilingly grant but not with all neither doth this proposition enforce any such meaning And that God hath not entred into a new Covenant with all I prove by these reasons 1. As many as are under the Covenant of grace sinne shall have no dominion over them Rom. 6. 14. Sinne shall not have the dominion over you for you are not under the law but under grace But sinne hath the dominion over too many even over the most part of the world as we find by lamentable experience therefore too many even the most part of the World are not comprised under the Covenant of grace 2. The covenant of Grace doth covenant on Gods part not only to give salvation upon condition of faith and repentance but for Christs sake to renew mens natures also and to give them faith and repentance As appears by diverse passages of Scripture Jer. 31. 31. Behold the dayes come saith the Lord that I will make a new Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah v. 32. Not according to the Covenant that I made with their Fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt the which my Covenant they brake though I was a Father unto them But this shall be the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those daies saith the Lord I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people Ezek. 36. 26. A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your bodies and will give you an heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes and ye shall keep my judgements and doe them Ezek. 20. 23. I will surely rule you with a mighty hand c. 37. And will cause you to passe under the rod and bring you into the bond of the Covenant Isai 57. 18. I have seen his waies and will heale him Hos 14. 5. I will heale their rebellions I will love them freely And that faith it selfe and repentance is the gift of God who hath taken upon him by his covenant of grace to be our Lord and our God to sanctify us is manifest by diverse pregnant passages of holy Scriptures 2. I come to his second reason And in that Covenant he requires obedience at mens hands even at theirs that perish God in his covenant of Grace requires obedience unto salvation but of his free grace undertakes to regenerate them and work them to obedience but how Agreeable unto their rationall natures that is by admonition instruction exhortation that is to work faith and repentance by exhorting and perswading them unto repentance And because this he performes by his Ministers to whom he hath not revealed who they are whom he hath chosen therefore he commands them to Preach indifferently unto all perswade all exhort all unto faith and repentance whereof also he makes this use even towards reprobates that whereas they are naturally confident of their ability to doe as much as any other and as Austin saith dicere solet humana superbia si scissem fecissem The Lord by his Ministry takes from them this excuse so that unto all that heare is this truth delivered whosoever believeth and repenteth shall be saved and thereupon every one is exhorted in the name of the Lord to believe and repent But God resolveth to worke faith and repentance in none but those whom he hath chosen according to that Acts 13. 48. As many believed as were ordained to everlasting life And withall the Doctrine delivered in the Gospell is such and so confirmed as may justly make them inexcusable that doe not believe when it shall appeare that many a vile legend they are apt to believe and in the mean time despise Gods holy Oracles by divine Authority many waies confirmed unto them 3. It is most true eternall life is promised to every on that obeyeth and keeps Covenant with God but God over and above worketh some unto obedience unto faith and repentance bestowing these gratious giftes on them even on whom he will when he hardeneth others even whom he will Rom. 9. 18. 4. He punisheth the disobedient with eternall death true but acording unto what Covenant Not according unto the Covenant of grace that is only a Covenant for Salvation but according unto the Covenant of the law the Covenant of works Whereas herehence this Author inferres that the most free God
contrary vices And therefore they turne not their backs from these meanes but industriously embrace and prosecute them 1 Iohn 3. 3. Every man that hath this hope in himselfe purifyeth himselfe even as he is pure Esay 38. 5. When Hezechiah had received that promise from God of an addition of fifteen years to his life he did not therefore neglect the use of medicines or meat but that this promised event might be brought into act he applyed for the cure of his body the plaister which was prescribed unto him by the Prophet The Apostle doth altogether reiect this consequence of carnall security imputed to this Doctrine and that with a kind of indignation Rom. 6. 1. Shall we continue in sinne that grace may abound God forbid How shall we which are dead to sinne live any longer therein As if S. Paul would intimate unto us not only the incongruity but also the impossibility of such a sequel 2. As touching the event true it is that any the most wholsome truth of God may be perverted by the abuse of men But upon this doctrine we cannot acknowledge that there groweth any such inconvenience no not de facto that is in the event it selfe Let us take a view of the reformed Churches in which this confidence of perseverance and inviolable adoption is believed and maintained Doe we find that thereupon the bridle is let loose unto ryot That piety is trampled downe We give thankes unto God through our Lord Jesus Christ that amongst ours who enjoy this full perswasion of spirituall comfort and are confident that there is an inheritance which cannot be lost laid up for them in Heaven there is not found lesse care of Godlinesse nor lesse endeavour so farre forth as mans infirmity will suffer to live an unblameable life then is to be found among any sort of these who pinne their perseverance on their own free will and will not grant it to flow from any foregoing election of God This may suffice for answer to the generality of the crimination From the generality he descends to specialties And in the first place he urgeth It takes away hope and feare He beginnes with hope and enlargeth himselfe in the commendation thereof out of Scripture By this hope of Heaven did our Saviour stirre up himselfe to endure the crosse and despise the shame Heb. 12. He could not alleadge a more pregnant passage to cut his own throat and mortify the vigour of his argument For in this place it depends upon such a notion of hope as signifies only a possibility of obtaining a future good and not a necessity of obtaining it as afterwards himselfe accommodates it and so he will have the hope which here he insists upon such as is mixed with feare as if our Saviour were in doubt of obtaining a Crowne of glory By this he heartned his Disciples to suffer for his sake Math. 5. 12. Rejoyce and be glad for great is your reward in heaven Here also we have no hope mixed with fear whereupon he heartens them but the very assurance of faith grounded upon Christs promise and what greater assurance then this The like promise for assurance of faith is made Math. 10. 32. And indeed hope in the Scripture phrase though in these places there is no mention thereof is but an expectation of enjoying that whereof we have a certain assurance by Faith The object of faith being Verbum rei of hope res verbi as Luther is said to distinguish them Such is the hope signified by our looking for the Saviour Phil. 3. 20. For therefore we look for him because we are perswaded by the assurance of faith that he shall come and that as a Saviour unto us as there 't is expressed in these words Who shall change our vile bodies and make them like to his glorious body Such is the hope mentioned Col. 1. 5. as grounded upon their true knowledge of the grace of Christ v. 6. And upon their Faith v. 4. For upon believing we rejoyce with joy unspeakable and glorious 1 Pet. 1. And this joy is in hope of the glory of God Rom. 5. 2. Of the same nature is that hope Tit. 2. 13. So Abrahams looking for a City whose builder and maker is God Heb. 11. 8 9 10. But was not this hope of his grounded upon assurance of faith to enjoy it So Moses his seeing of him that was invisible was by the eye of faith And the scope of that whole Chapter is for the commendation of faith a faith therefore they had of a better resurrection and the certainty hereof was the certainty of faith Now let every sober reader judge which of our doctrines doth more tend to the justifying of a certainty of salvation the Arminians or ours That which followeth of the Husbandmen Merchants Souldiers is farre of another nature their hopes of their ends have no ground of faith many times it comes to passe that spem mentita seges though aliquis pendens in cruce vota facit yet most commonly it proves but a vaine hope Merchants many times prove bankrupts and Souldiers when they are most erected with hope of victory doe sometimes most shamefully take the foyle What a proud message did Benhadab send to Ahab 1 King 20. 10. The Gods doe so to mee and more also if the dust of Samaria be enough to all the people that follow mee for every man an handfull But Ahab answered him saying Let not him that girdeth his harnesse boast himselfe as he that putteth it off At the battle of Lipsich upon Tillies defeating of the Duke of Saxony word hereof was dispatched with post hast to the Emperour together with some of the Dukes Ensignes and scoffes upon the Duke himselfe they were confident of beating Sweden and that so all Germany should be theirs but herein that old Lad reckoned before his host the same Post brought heavy newes to Vienna at length of a great discomfiture to the Imperialists and of the victorious Army of the King of Sweden Yet a hope not only upon weake but sometimes upon very vaine grounds stirres up the spirit how much more upon certain grounds of good successe as that of the Apostle Rom. 6. Sinne shall not have the dominion over you for yee are not under the Law but under grace therefore let not sinne raigne over you as much as to say Play the men fight valiantly the Lords battailes against sinne and Satan for yee shall have the victory in the end The feare of Hell is a curbe to hold men in from wickednesse I willingly confesse but the knowledge hereof is not naturall but by revelation divine which to carnall men who live by fight is of little force Witnesse the story of the Welch-man who robbing an honest man upon the high way and being told by him that he should answer for it at the day of judgement saist thou me so quoth the thiefe and wilt thou trust me till that day then give me thy
himselfe confesseth to be the worke of God's providence in his Theses of providence and which in Scripture phrase is stiled the leading into temptation against which our Saviour taught his disciples to pray Thirdly the giving them over to the power of Satan And lastly God's generall concourse in moving all creatures to worke agreably to their natures necessary things necessarily contingent Agents contingently and free Agents freely But my answer to this I have prosecuted at large in more sheets then here are leaves in my answer to M. Hoord 3. As for want of mercy we willingly confesse according to the tenour of God's word as this Authour delivers himselfe without all respect thereunto that God shewes no mercy in hardning them For to harden in Scripture phrase is opposite to God's shewing mercy And as he is bound to none so he professeth that He will shew mercy on whom he will shew mercy and will have compassion on whom he will have compassion And this the Apostle takes hold of in prosecuting the doctrine of election and concludeth from hence in part in part from God's hardening of Pharaoh that God hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardeneth by hardning meaning such an operation the consequence whereof is alwaies disobedience as appeares by the objection derived therehence in the words following Thou wilt say then why doth he yet complaine now he complaines only of disobedience For who hath resisted his will Manifestly implying that when God hardens man unto disobedience it is his secret will that he shall disobey Like as when God hardned Pharaoh that he should not let Israel goe It was God's secret will that he should not let Israel goe for a good while Secret I say in distinction from the will of command which is alwaies made knowne to them who are commanded But it pleased the Lord to make this will of his knowne to Moses though it was kept secret from Pharaoh yet afterwards he told Pharaoh to his face by his servant Moses saying And indeed for this cause have I appointed thee to shew my power in thee and to declare my name to all the world though Pharaoh believed it not as appeares by that which followeth yet thou exaltest thy selfe against me and lettest them not goe But this Authour together with M. Hoord goeth by other rules which his own fancy suggest's unto him he will have God's love and mercy extended to all and every one Christ's redemption to extend to all and every one the Covenant of grace to comprehend all and every one and upon these universalities he grounds his transcendent consolations whence it comes to passe that Abraham the father of the faithfull was of no more comfortable condition then the grand Signior among the Turkes And the grand Siginior had as good grounds of consolatiō as Abraham himselfe Yet this not shewing of mercy on the vessells of wrath prepared unto destruction tends to the greater demonstration of his mercy on the vessells of mercy prepared unto glory As the Apostle testifies Ro 9. 23. And let this Author tell Saint Paul if he thinks good That this is the disposition of hang-men rather then of good Princes And this is the perpetuall tenour of this Authour's discourse to conforme God's courses to the conditions of courses humane Man is bound to shew mercy on all God is not God is free to pardon whom he will man is not If we permit men to sinne in case we can hinder them we shall be guilty with them but how innumerable are the sins committed in the world which if God would hinder could never be committed As Austin discourseth lib. 5. contra Iulian Pelag cap. 4 In nothing did Nero's cruelty shew it selfe more then in prolonging the lives of men that he might torment them the more What then Shall we taxe God for crueltie in keeping mens bodies and soules alive for ever in hell fire to torment them everlastingly without end See what a doore of blasphemy is opened against the just God that will doe no iniquity by this Authour 's unshamefast discourse By this let the indifferent Reader judge of this Authour 's present performance withall take notice of that which himselfe hath dissembled all along touching his own tenet namely that of every sinfull act committed by the creature God is the efficient cause as touching the substance of the act as for the sinfulnesse thereof we hold it impossible that God can have any agency at all therein or any culpable deficiency forasmuch as he neither doth ought which he should not doe or after what manner he should not nor leaves undone ought which he should doe or after what manner he should doe all which are incident to the creature who is subject to a law but not at all to the Creatour who gives lawes to others but himselfe works according to the counsell of his own will in all things The summe is whatsoever we deliver as touching God's secret providence in evill we have expresse scripture for us nothing but pretence of carnall reason against us which when it comes to be examined is found subject to manifest contradiction both as touching their feigning things future without the decree of God And as touching their conditionall decrees and conditionall concurrences ours is not in any particular The greatest shew of contradiction on our parts is in the point of necessitie and libertie Now to cleare this as others have taken paines so have I in my Vindiciae proving divers and sundry waies that these two doe amically conspire to wit the necessitie being only upon supposition the liberty and contingency simply so called only it is not to be expected that there should be no difference between the liberty of the creatures and the liberty of God the Creator Or that the creature in her operation should be exempt from the operation of God The second cause exempt from the motion of the first whereunto this Authour addresseth not the least answer As for the difference which this Authour puts between the upper way and the lower in making God the Authour of sinne compare this with Arminius his profession Namely that the same twenty reasons which he objected against the upper way may all of them be accommodated against the lower way all of them admitting of the same distinctions which this Authour invades to cleare God from being the Authour of sinne The second inconvenience Section 1. The second inconvenienceis the overthrow of true religion and good goverment among men To this this opinion seemeth to tend for these reasons 1. Because it maketh sinne to be no sinne indeed but only in opinion We use to say necessity hath no law creatures or actions in which necessity beares sway are without saw Lyons are not forbidden to prey birds to fly fishes to swimme or any bruit creatures to doe according to their kinds because their actions are naturall and necessary they cannot upon any
the understanding from prejudice and false principles and how miserable these aeriall disputers doe betray themselves and manifest how they are transported with prejudice and corrupted not with false only but grosse principles by this it may appeare in part I come to the consideration of his reply to the second answer which here he represents DISCOURSE SUBSECT V. SEcondly it is answered that God is not bound to restore men power to believe because they once had it and have lost it through their own fault as a Master is not bound to renew his Servants stock if he have wasted it by his bad husbandry But this answer doth yet satisfy me as little as the former for I grant that God is simply and absolutely bound to no man he is agens liberrimum a most free dispenser of his own favours both what he will and to whom he will but yet he is conditionally determinavit seipsum he hath bound himselfe to give supernaturall abilities to men by three things 1. First Decernendo the Almighty is eternally subject to his own decree or else he would be mutable and therefore what gifts soever he hath decreed to men he is bound to give them by vertue of his decree 2. Secondly Promittendo We use to say promise is debt it is justice to performe what it was free to promise and whosoever he be that promiseth and payeth not is guilty of a trespasse witnesse Ananias and Saphira and unworthy of the Kingdome of Heaven Psal 15. 4. If therefore God hath made a promise of any gift or grace to men this promise binds him to performance 3. Thirdly Legem ferendo By giving men a Law to keepe which without supernaturall power they cannot keep any more than they can eat a rock By such a Law the Almighty lawgiver binds himselfe to his creatures to give them such power as may enable them to keep that law or else he becomes the true and proper cause of the transgression of it We shall find God evermore giving strength when he giveth a command when he commanded the creatures to encrease and multiply he gave them a multiplying vertue when Christ bid the lame man arise take up his bed and walke he puts into his limbs an ability of walking when Adam had a spirituall law given him to obey which without spirituall strength he could not God gave him strength answerable to the law as all Divines agree consenting to that noted speech of Austin that Adam had posse non cadere though he never had non posse cadere a power and possibility though not a necessity of continuing in obedience That I may bring this home to my purpose I say that God is bound to restore unto men power to believe supposing these waies that follow 1. That he hath vouchsafed to enter into a New Covenant of Peace with men when he needed not 2. That in that Covenant he requireth obedience at mens hands even at theirs that perish 3. That he promiseth eternall life to every man if he obey and keep the Covenant 4. That he punisheth the disobedient with everlasting death These particulars supposed the most free God who is necessarily bound to none is engaged to give ability of believing to men nor can he justly without this gift punish the disobedient any more then a Magistrate having put out a mans eyes for an offence can command this man with justice to read a book and because he reads not put him to death Or then a Master that I may returne the Simile in the answer when he hath taken away from his Servant the stock which he hath misimployed can afterward exact of him a just imployment of the same stock and punish him because he imployeth it not I conclude therefore that the absolute and inevitable reprobation of such men as are called to believe in Christ and punished if thev believe not is utterly repugnant to the justice of God and therefore cannot be a part of his word TWISSE Consideration THis Second answer is in like manner delivered at pleasure without quoting the Author of it And no marvaile if this Author desires to have the making of his own bed that he may lye the more softly Yet touching the similitude here mentioned let it be stated aright a Master trusts his servant with a stock not to receive it from him againe though the stock be of a moveable nature but to receive from him in lieu thereof some yearely emolument In this case let him say what he can against it now here his discourse is for the most part at large shewing how God though a most free agent may oblige himselfe to his creature 1. Decremendo whether hereby God doth bind himselfe to his creature which hath no being at all when Gods decrees are made or to himselfe rather it is little or nothing materiall to the present what soever it be that God decrees we are sure that must come to passe provided that we doe not make his decrees of a revocable nature with some but as touching any use of Gods obliging himselfe this way unto his creature this Author is content to say nothing at all in the accomodation 2. Promittendo And we willingly grant that what God promiseth he never failes to performe after that manner as he hath promised as namely in case he hath promised that as many as believe in Christ shall be saved we nothing doubt but if all the world should believe in Christ all the world should be saved But whether any devise a promise concerning the giving of faith repentance unto all every one and that whether conditionately or absolutely this Author is content to say just nothing As likewise neither doth he take upon him to plead any promise of God to give to all and every one power to believe or power to repent 3. Legem ferendo This alone of all the three serves his turne and therefore here he doth expatiate much more than in the former And herehence he inferres that God binds himselfe to give supernaturall power to keep the Law he commands provided the Law be such as without supernaturall power he can no more keepe it than eat a rock Now this accommodated to Adam had need of explication seeing we read of no other Law given unto him than of abstaining from a certain fruit which I doe not deliver as if I doubted but that to the performance of obedience herein a supernaturall power was requisite but only to signify that it were worth the labour to give a congruous explication of it Though of Adam I nothing doubt but he was indued with supernaturall power to performe other manner of duties than this And yet again this denomination of power supernaturall had need also of explication for though that power which Adam had given him in creation be supernaturall to us yet our Divines usually conceive it as naturall unto Adam received together with his nature and such as should have been
strange that as many as refuse to be in subjection unto God have liberty enough to be made vassalls and be brought in subjection unto their own corrupt and unreasonable fancies For the word of God forsooth must be tempered and interpreted according to the rules of their reason their reason must not be ordered and squared according unto the word of God But to proceed the Lawyers rule of the nullity of a contract sub conditione impraestabili is nothing to the present purpose For the case is not alike between man and man and between God and man God stands not at the pleasure of man to contract in what manner he thinks good And when he hath given him power to performe whatsoever at any time he shall command him if man disable himselfe shall God hereby be deprived of his right to command what he thinks good and to punish for disobedience as he thinks good We read of some that have cut off their thumbs to disable themselves for military service is it not just with men to punish such as runne away after they have received their presse monies But there is yet another geofaile in the accommodation of this rule of Law For conditio impraestabilis there is such as cannot be performed by reason of impotency naturall but the impotency we speake of in the case between God and man is meerely impotency morall to wit therefore they cannot because they will not were it not for the corruption of their will no power were wanting in man to believe and repent But as Austin saith alleadged by the Brittaine Divines out of Retract 1. 15. Voluntas sine charitate est tota vitiosa cupiditas and upon the 3 d and 4 th artic De conversione qua denotat immediatum opus Dei hominem regenerantis Thesi 2. They professe that in voluntate lapsa est potentia passiva ad esse hoc supernaturale extrinsecus adveniens recipiendum non autem activa ad idem vel per se vel cum alio producendum Jer. 17. 14. Sana me domine Sanabor And out of the Synodicall Epistle of the Bishops of Africa to the same purpose they alleadge this passage In vivificandis hominibus Deus nullum initium voluntatis humanae expectat sed ipsam voluntatem bonam faciendo vivificat And also that of Austin de corep gra cap. 14. Creatio in Christo in libertatem voluntatis facta est sine nobis si in libertatem tum non ex libertate si sine nobis tum penes nos non est hoc Dei opus impedire Be it all one to deny a piece of mony flatly to a blind man and to promise it upon a condition that he will looke upon it with his eyes In like sort as touching the Reprobate God hath no purpose to give salvation but to deny it rather although he give this generall rule that whosoever believeth shall be saved and therefore he gives this rule because he purposeth by these means to draw his elect unto Christ by faith such a manner being most agreeable to their reasonable natures And the reason why the rule is proposed to all is because partly Gods Ministers are not acquainted with Gods counsell so farre as to know whom he hath elected partly in respect that the more carnall men are the more confident they are of performing any such duties I meane of power to performe it as namely to believe to obey to repent partly to the end that some hereby may be brought ad exteriorem vitae emendationem quo mitius puniantur as Austin sometimes speaketh as also because there is a kind of faith performeable by a naturall man for we see both prophane persons and Hypocrites concurre in an outward profession of Christianity with the children of God yet there is a great difference between blindnesse naturall and blindnesse spirituall for in the one there is a will and desire to see not so in the other the one being impotency naturall the other morall And in a word there is no impotency morall in man that hath not been brought upon him through sinne either originall of actuall As for the spanning of the earth or touching the heaven with ones finger this never was in the power of man but to believe any word of God I hope this Author will not deny to have been sometimes in the power of man nay he seems to be of opinion that it is in the power of all men still yet he would not be thought to deny originall sinne One thing yet remaines to be considered he said to whom the promise of salvation is made the performance of the condition must be a part of Gods will as well as the salvation promised But of what will of God must this be a part Of his will as it signifies his commandement We grant it is for he commands saying Repent and believe the Gospell and by this commandement it is apparent that it is the will of God that it shall be the duty of every man that hears this commandement to obey it But will he have it a part of Gods will to worke it effectually in all And how I pray Either by way of grace prevenient or by way of grace subsequent Not by way of grace prevenient for then all that heare the Gospell should believe and be saved for to worke Faith effectually that way is to worke the will unto Faith As for the working of it by way of grace subsequent this I have been lately taught by an Arminian to be no other than the working of it by way of concourse and that depends on the will of man and we doe not deny but that if any Reprobate will believe God will concurre to the working of this beliefe but so we say and no Arminian that I know will deny it that if man will work any sinfull act God will concurre to the working of it in as much as 't is generally held that no acts of the creature can be performed without Gods concurrence thereunto Now how well and how judicially this Author hath plaid his part in shewing the contrariety of our opinion to the Attributes of God I am content the indifferent may judge DISCOURSE The third sort of Reasons namely that it is contrary to the nature and end of Gods gifts conferred upon men SECT I. Thirdly it is contrary to the nature and end of Gods giftes conferred upon men which gifts are of two sorts 1. Gifts of nature our creation sustentation preservation together with health strength beauty wisdome c. 2. Gifts of grace which have a more immediate relation to everlasting life and are means either 1. Of purchasing salvation viz. the coming of Christ into the world to be made a sacrifice for sinne or 2. Of applying the salvation purchased namely the Ministry of the Word and Sacraments the long suffering of God the illumination of mens understandings the plantation of many excellent vertues in their hearts and
did invite them to no other end than this namely to take away these excuses surely these excuses were clearly taken away and consequently so farre they should prove unexcusable But I guesse they take the denomination of inexcusable not according to the signification formall as it signifyes bereaved of excuse but rather according to the signification materiall connotated thereby which is faultinesse and in this sence I confesse it is ordinarily taken togeither with the condition of being without excuse and thus in this sense I willingly subscribe unto them and therewithall shew what I take to be their meaning namely this that if God making shew that if they believe he will accept them and that they shall be Saved did not indeed meane that he would in that case accept and save them then there were no reason why they should be accounted faulty and condemned for their not believing Thus in a desire exactly to conforme my selfe to the judgement of these worthyes of our Church made choyse of by our Soveraign to be sent in so Honourable an Embassage to countenance that famous Synod of the most reformed Churches I have made bold to interpret them and to shew my concurrence with them although I have not consulted with any of them upon that poynt which if I had like enough I might have received better satisfaction And I hope they will not disdaine that without consulting them I have adventured thus to interpret them and what doe I know whether their judgement may not prove to be the very same and that in deed they had no other meaning 2. My former answer will serve for this Gods Ministers doe offer Salvation conditionally to wit upon condition of faith neither are any ordained to be condemned but in case of infidelity yet I see the cunning carriage of this Authors instructer for he would faine fly from the absolutenesse or conditionality of Gods decree as touching the things willed quoad res volitas unto the absolutenesse or conditionality of it quoad actum volentis as touching the act of willing although both Uossius practise and this Authors also in expressing his owne meaning of Gods conditionall will and Doctor Jacksons profession is to the contrary namely that it is to be taken quoad res volitas only and not quoad actum volentis but withall we teach that Gods Ministers doe not only teach upon what tearmes on mans part God will either bestow salvation or inflict damnation but also they teach that upon no tearmes on our parts but meerely according to the good pleasure of his own will doth God shew mercy unto some bestowing faith and repentance upon them and by denying the same grace harden others and they are the true witnesses of God equally in both 3. Neither is there any iust excuse hereby left to Reprobates yet I confesse this were a very plausible pretence if we had no Oracles of God at all to be the rule of our faith concerning God and his providence but as we have so we faile not therein of a direct answer hereunto Rom. 9. For after the Apostle had professed That God hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardneth v. 18. Forthwith he brings in this ojection upon the stage v. 19. Thou wilt say then why doth he yet complaine for who hath resisted his will And both Bellarmine and Arminians confesse that where obduration hath place there is no power of obedience And the Apostle himselfe implyes no lesse in that place Now what doth the Apostle answer hereunto but this v. 20. O man who art thou which disputest with God shall the thing formed say to him that formed it why hast thou formed me thus 21. Hath not the Potter power over the clay of the same lumpe to make one vessell to honour and another to dishonour as much as to say if God be acknowledged to be our Creatour we must give him leave to doe what he will with his creature for doth not every creature doe what he will with the worke of his hand Every tradesman in his trade takes as much liberty to doe with the workmanship of his hands as this comes to And Medina hath not spared to professe and that tanquam ex concordi omnium Theologorum sententiâ that if God should inflict the very paines of Hell upon an innocent creature he shall doe no unjust act though herein he should not carry himselfe as Judex Judge but as Dominus vitae mortis as Lord of life amd Death And we all know what power God giveth us over inferiour creatures to strangle some to cut the throats of others to knocke downe others not with reference to the moderation of their paine but only to the wholsome condition of their flesh unto us And we know what power God executed upon his own deare Sonne to break him for our iniquityes on him to lay the chastisement of our peace that so by his stripes we might be healed But let that passe let us try another way that may be answered unto this Suppose not one shall be condemned for want of faith but only left to be judged by the covenant of workes who seeth not but that the same plea hath place here as well as in the former case and God may be as well chalenged for injustice in condemning men for breach of the law who have no power to keepe the law And who sees not how ready this Author is to justifye this plea and consequently acknowledge that every man hath power to keepe the law and so to bring us back againe to the covenant of works or to confound the covenant of grace with the covenant of works which indeed is their course throughout For they maintaine that every man hath universall grace for the enlivening of their wills whereby they are inabled to will any spirituall good whereto they shall be excited and who doubts but obedience to the law and that in all perfection is a spirituall good againe they maintaine that they can believe if they will and so accordingly doe any good thing that they will and indeed were not the will in fault I know no naturall power defective in the performance of any good that a man hath a will unto this I can shew under the hands of one of them in a manuscript sent unto me And I have good reason to conceive there are more hands in it than one Thirdly consider dost thou complaine thou hadst no power to believe but I pray thee tell me hast thou any will to believe If thou neither hast nor ever hadst any will to believe what a shamefull and unreasonable thing is it to complaine that thou hast no power to believe Saint Paul had a most gratious will but he found in himselfe no power to doe that he would but what is the issue of this complaint To fly to the face of God Nothing lesse but to confesse his own wretchednesse and flee unto God in this
cloake too We finde by experience the most uncleane person if he meets with never so beautifull a piece yet if he knowes shee hath the Poxe the feare of infection will be of more power to restraine him then the feare of Hell Yet God by his word workes in men even in carnall men as a tast of the sweetnesse of Heaven so of the bitternesse of Hell the one to erect with hope the other to awe with feare and in both respects they may be said in my judgement to have a tast of the powers of the World to come And like as the Law was added because of transgression that is to restraine transgression as some expound it so likewise the representation of Gods wrath and jealousy may in the sanctions thereof have good force in this And in the Godly also I make no question but it is of good use though the love of God hath in great measure overcome that servile feare yet as their faith is not so perfect as to be voyd of all doubting so neither is their hope so perfect as to be free from all mixture of feare But the chast feare the filiall feare feare of displeasing God who hath been so gracious unto them is that feare which is predominant in such And even feare of Gods fatherly chastisements in this world is an hedge of thornes keeping them within the goodnesse of the Lord and farre more forcible then the feare of Hell fire to the carnall Gospeller And this Author doth carry himselfe very unlearnedly in confounding their differences and discoursing of the feare of God without distinction As if the feare of of God in Job 1. 1. were the feare of Hell and the feare of the Midwives Exod. 1. 17. As if there were no difference between servile feare and a filiall feare Saint Paul was so confident of his salvation that he professeth his perswasion That neither death nor life nor Angells nor Principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature should be able to separate him from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus Rom. 8. 38. Yet 2 Cor. 5. 11. Knowing therefore saith he the feare of the Lord we perswade men Gen. 20. 11. Abraham said The feare of God is not in this place therefore they will kill me for my Wifes sake But doth this Author carry himselfe as it becomes a Divine to take the feare of God wheresoever he meets with it for no other feare then the feare of Hell Certainly the feare of God is as a fountaine of life to avoyd the snares of death Yet I presume though our Saviour was nothing affected with the feare of hell yet was he never a whit the lesse forward to all holy coversation Nor Paul neither though he professeth I know whom I have trusted c. The Lord will deliver me from every evill worke and preserve me to his heavenly Kingdome That feare and trembling Phil. 2. 13. is not feare of hell but humility standing in opposition to presumption of a mans own strength as appears by the reason wherewith the Apostle enforceth that exhortation of his To worke out our salvation with feare and trembling for saith he God it is that worketh in you both the will and the deed according to his good pleasure And if the working out of our salvation goes not on handsomely except the feare of missing it be an ingredient to the worke as this Author discourseth then it seemes his feare of missing makes him goe on more handsomely in working out his salvation then either Paul the Apostle or our Saviour did for I no where find that our Saviour feared the missing of it no nor Paul neither after his conversion though he knew full well that conscionable carriage in his vocation was a necessary meanes without which he could not obtaine it and therefore professeth that he did beat downe his body and bring it in subjection least Preaching unto others himselfe should become a cast away We deny that by the absolute decree maintained by us hope and feare are taken away and we prove it by an invincible argument For undoubtedly the decree of Christs salvation was absolute yet did not this take away either hope or feare for it is recorded of him That for the hope that was set before him he despised the shame and also that he was heard in that which he feared though sinfull feare and slavish feare was farre from him as farre as hell from heaven The object of Christian hope is not only a good thing possible to be had but certainly to be had For we read of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 6. A full assurance of hope were it of a thing uncertaine how indecent were it for the Apostle to compare it to an Anchor 1 Iohn 3. 3. He that hath this hope purgeth himselfe as he is pure Was this a wavering hope grounded upon an uncertain apprehension Marke the verse immediately preceding and consider whether it doth not enforce the contrary Now are we the sonnes of God but yet it is not made manifest what we shall be And we know marke his assurance well that when he shall be made manifest we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is The description of feare is answerable to the description of hope we were wont to define the one by the expectation appropinquantis boni the other by the expectation imminentis mali Yet it is true the object of the one is such a good as in its own nature is possible to be obtained and of the other is such an evill as is possible to be avoyded But like as eternall life is not attainable without faith and repentance so neither is damnation avoydable but by faith and repentance And we willingly grant that both eternall life is attainable and damnation avoydable by faith and repentance yet undoubtedly the unpreventable nature of an evill doth no way hinder a mans feare unlesse he knowes it to be unpreventable Neither doth the knowledge of the unpreventable nature thereof hinder feare but improveth it rather in as much as in such a case there is no place for any hope to qualify the feare And this is farther apparent by the example of the Devills of whom Saint Iames saith That they believe and tremble surely they doe not tremble the lesse because their torment is unpreventable by the appoyntment of of God yet doe they not give themselves up to their sorrowes but cryed out to our Saviour What have we to doe with thee thou Jesus the Sonne of God art thou come to torment us before our time Caesars case was not the case of feare for feare is the apprehension of an evill before it come but Caesar was so farre from fearing that though he were forewarned to take heed of the Ides of March as I remember least they proved fatall to him was so far from apprehending any feare thereupon that going that
the flesh with the affections and lusts For they that walke in the spirit shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh their faith shall give them the victory over the world and God in his good time will tread Satan under their feet DISCOURSE SECT III. TO be exercised in fruitlesse affaires it is both a folly and a misery 1. A folly for de necessari is nemo sapiens deliberat saith the Philosopher And our Saviour speaking of things above our power Cur estis solliciti saith he to his Disciples Mat. 6. 27. Luke 12. 25 26. Why take ye thought about such things Which is as much as if he had said It is an argument of folly in you to trouble your selves about such things as lye not in your liberty 2. A misery in the opinions of all men as the fable of Sysiphus implies who as the Poets feigne is punished for his robberies in hell with the rolling of a great stone to the top of a sharpe hill where it cannot rest but presently comes tumbling downe againe The Morall of that fable is that it is a torment and a torment fit for Hell for a man to be set about any worke that is fruitlesse and vaine Men will rather be exercised in high and hard imployments that produce proportionable ends then pick strawes play with feathers or with Domitian spend their time in flapping or killing of flies or doe any other easy workes which end in nothing but ayre and emptinesse except they be fooles or selfe-tormentors And therefore when Balaam once saw that the Lord had fully determined to blesse Israell and that all his Sorceries could not effect the contrary he presently gave over and set no more enchantments And reason teacheth every man to doe the like If any man were fully possest with a perswasion that this temporall estate were determined in Heaven and that he should be worth just so much neither more nor lesse he would conclude that his care and paines could not profit him nor his idlenesse impoverish him and so would be quickly perswaded to take his ease And if it were evident that every Common-wealth had a fatall period beyond which it could not passe and short of which it could not come and that all occurrences good or bad were absolutely preordained by the Almighty then the King would call no Parliament use no Privy Counsell for there would be no use of them at all As once a famous Privy-Councellor told our late Queene Elizabeth men would neither make lawes nor obey them but would take the Councell of the Poet. Solvite mortales ammos curisque levate Totque supervacuis animum deplete querelis Fata regunt orbem certa stant omnia lege From these three premises laid together it followes directly that the doctrine of an absolute decree which determines mens ends precisely is no friend to a Godly life For if events absolutely decreed be unavoydable if mens actions about unavoydable ends be unprofitable it in unprofitable imployments men will have no hand willingly men that know and consider this will have nothing to doe with the practice of Godlinesse For their ends being absolutely pitched and therefore unavoydable they will conclude that their labour in Religion will be unprofitable and so will not labour in it at all That which hath been said may be yet farther confirmed by two witnesses The one of them is by two witnesses The one of them is our Calvin who in his Institutions hath these words Si quis it a plebem compellet si non cred it is ideo fit quia jam divinitus exitio praedestinati estis is non modo ignaviam fovet sed etiam in dulget malitiae If any man saith he should speake thus to people If there be any among you that believe not it is because ye are ordained to destruction this man would not only cherish slothfulnesse but wickednesse also Which is as much to say me thinkes as this If a man should set out the doctrine of absolute reprobation in its colours and explaine it to a people in a cleare and lively fashion he would hereby open a doore to liberty and prophanenesse The other witnesse is a man of another stampe the miserable Landgrave of Turing of whom it is recorded by Heisterbachius that being admonished by his friends of his vitious and dangerous conversation and condition he made them this answer Si praedestinatus sum nulla peccata poterunt mihi Regnum Coelorum auferre si praescitus nulla bona mihi illud valebunt conferre If I be elected no sinnes can bereave me of heaven if I be a reprobate no good deeds can help me to heaven I conclude therefore that by this opinion which is taught for one of Gods principall truths Religion is or may be made a very great looser which is my fourth generall reason against it TWISSE Consideration DE necessari is nemo sapiens deliberat This is true of things necessary by course of nature not of things necessary meerely upon supposition of Gods decree For such things are as often contingent as necessary For as he decreeth that some things shall come to passe necessarily so he decreeth that other things shall be brought to passe contingently As the buying of the Prophets bones by Josiah Cyrus his dimission of the Jews out of Babylon to goe to their own Country the contumelious usages of Christ by Herod and Pontius Pilate together with the Gentiles and people of Israel were necessary in respect of Gods decree it being expressely testified by the Apostles with one mouth that all these were gathered together against the holy Sonne of God to doe what Gods hand and Gods Counsell predetermined to be done Act. 4. 28. Yet who is so impudent as to deny that all these did freely whatsoever they did against Christ In like sort you know what was the course of proceedings against Protestants in Queene Maries daies when they were convicted by Ecclesiastiques of such opinions which they accounted hereticall and which were made capitall by Law of the Land then they were delivered over unto the secular power to be put to death So that herein to wit first in making such bloudy Lawes Secondly in executing them for the establishment of Popish Religion The Kings gave their power to the Beast that is implyed their Regall power and authority to the countenancing of Romish Religion this undoubtedly was a contingent thing Yet was this determined by God as the Scripture testifies Revel 17. 17. God hath put in their hearts that is in the hearts of the tenne Kings to fulfill his decree and to be of one consent and to give their Kingdome unto the Beast untill the word of God be fulfilled Againe suppose God hath determined my salvation yet if he hath determined to save me no other way then is revealed in his word namely by growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ If he hath made known unto
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
law but under grace Rom. 6. 12. Now what encouragement is this to the Souldiers of Christ to goe on chearefully and couragiously in fighting the Lords battailes against the world the flesh and the Divell seing we are assured the day of victory and the glory of it shall be ours in the end God keeping us by his power through faith unto Salvation 1 Pet. 1. And delivering us from every evill worke to wit either by obedience or by repentance and preserving us to his heavenly kingdome and that either by delivering us from the houre aftentation which comes all over the world Revel 3. Or delivering us out of it 2 Pet 2. 9. Or having an eye to our strength so to order it that we shall be able to beare it 1 Cor 10. 14. As for those that have not yet any comfortable evidence of their election yet considering that they may have it and albeit the number of the elect are by farre fewer then the reprobate yet considering how few have the Gospell in comparison to those that enjoy it not though Turkes Saracens and Heathens are without hope Eph. 2. 12. and 1 Thess 4. 13. Yet we Christians are not yea albeit of them that are called but few are chosen Mat. 20. 16. and 22 14. Yet considering how many corrupt wayes there are amongst Christians Nestorians Armenians Abyssines or Coptites who joyne circumcision with the Gospel as in Egypt and Ethiopia the Greek Church denying the proceeding of the Holy Ghost from the sonne and corrupted with many other superstitions Lastly considering how farre Antichristanity is spred and the abominable Idolatry of the Church of Rome we whom God hath delivered out of Babylon have no cause I meane any particular person to project that because the elect are but few therefore we are not of the number of them and thereupon give over all care of hearkening to Gods word which is the power of God unto Salvation and may shew its power upon us also we knowe not how soone but rather as our Saviour answered being demanded of his disciples whether there were but few that should be saved saying strive you to enter in at the streight gate plainly giving to understand that as the gate is said to be streight that leadeth unto Life so there be but few that enter thereat therefore they should strive so much the more to be of the number of those few For what if along time we have little or nothing profited what if we have cause to doubt whether we have any true faith or no such doubts maybe better signes then we are awar of otherwise why should the Apostle exhort the Corinthians to examine themselves and prove whether they were in the faith or no But however it fairs with us doth not the Apostle plainely teach us that God calls some at the first houre of the day some at the the third some at the last 2. Now I come to the consideration of his answer to the objection as himself hath formed it And first I observe that whereas he pretends to build his answer upon consideration of the number of Reprobats without comparison greater then the number of the elect yet the absurd reasoning which he brings hereupon doth nothing at all depend on that For albeit the number of the elect were greater then the number of such as are Reprobats and that without comparison yet the reasoning here deduced from the contrary proposition hath equally place as in the contrary case As namely to reason thus Either I am absolutely chosen to grace and glory or absolutely cast off from both Secondly the joyning of grace and glory together as this Author doth joyne them in this reasoning shaped by him is a miserable confounding of things that differ For to be absolutely chosen unto grace is to be ordained to have grace conferred upon him not according to any worke of his but meerely according to the good pleasure of Gods will answerably to that of the Apostle God hath mercy on whom he will but no man is so chosen unto glory as namely to be ordained to have Salvation bestowed upon him not according unto workes but according to the meere pleasure of God if we speake of men of ripe yeares For God hath ordained to bestow Salvation on such only by way of reward of their faith repentance and good workes So on the other side to be asolutely cast off from grace is to be ordained to have grace denied him not according to any worke of his but meerely according to the good pleasure of Gods will like as Paul professeth that the Lord hardeneth whom he will But no man is so castaway from Glory or unto damnation as namely to be ordained to be deprived of Glory and to be damned meerely for the good pleasure of God but altogether for his infidelity impenitency and evill workes Thirdly no such thing followes as here is inferred from the supposition of election unto Salvation For seing no man is elected to obtaine Salvation whether he believe or no but only in case he believe hereupon men are rather excited to labour for faith then to be carelesse thereof and farther we say that as God hath ordained to bring them to Salvation so he hath ordained to bring them hereunto by sanctification and faith 2 Thess 2. 13. And the word of God is a powerfull meanes to worke them hereunto even to the working out of their Salvation with feare and trembling that because they are given to understand that God is he who wroketh in them both the will and the deed according to his good pleasure On the other side if a man be ordained to damnatiō yet seeing no man is ordained to be damned but for despising the means of grace in case he heare the Gospel for ought any man knowes he may as well be ordained to salvation as to damnation this I should think is rather an excitement not to despise or neglect the meanes of grace then to despise or neglect them Suppose God should not damne any man but annihilate them and suppose this were known unto us by the same argumentation it would follow that a man should have no care of good workes But this consequent is notoriously untrue For seeing the perfection of my reasonable nature whereby I differ from brute Beasts consisteth in knowledge and morall vertues and there is no knowledge that doth more ennoble us then the knowledge of God and no better rule of morality then the law of God surely it stood me upon in reason to strive according to my power to know God and to be obedient rather then otherwise although I know for certaine that after certaine yeares both body and soule should be returned unto nothing Come wee now to the consideration of this reasoning in respect of grace Suppose God hath elected me unto grace yet seeing he bestowes not grace but by his word therefore there is no reason I should neglect the use
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
puritate tutius nihil ad discendum veritate facilius p 77. l. 4. or any p 78. l 46. conciliare p 80. l 12. but by p 82. l 39. worthily p 84. l 15. of other ib. l 17. of any p 89. l. 50. or to Beza and his brethren accusing Lutherans of those errours p. 92. l. ult libero p 93. l. 6 7. facite p 94. l 1. necessarily p 95. l 8. resolves it p 97. l 41. vessells on p 98. l 41. à Zenone p 99. l. 2. scio p. 108. l. 20. po sit l. 32. addition p 109. l. 33. distinguish p. 110. l. 20. the two p. 112. l 59. voluisse p. 117. l. 7. patientiam p 119. l 5. or the. p. 136. l 7. then he p 140. l. 30. non omnipotent p 142. l. 4. quiddam l. 13. nasceretur l. 39. Supralapsarian p 143. l 5. stroake p 147. l 52. as Lord. p. 151. l 5. more largely p. 162. l 2. conceited p 199. l. 26. this belike p 201. l. 20. filth p. 202. l. 12. patientiam p 244. l 51. apostatarum p 207. l. 27. definition of p 210. l 50. it doth end in a will conditionall p. 211. l. 39. poore fish p 221. l 27. by this have all the godly at all times encouraged themselves to well doing as we may see generally Phil. 3. 20. Colloss 1. 5. Tit. 2. 12 13. and particularly Heb. 11. Abraham c p 223. l. 31. lame post p 224. l 1. good waies p 229 l 10. absolutely l 59. histrionicall p. 230. l 11. quosdam l. 31. law of p. 233. l 1. burning of l. 14. imployed p. 234. l 12. yet his l 30. was it p 236. l 52. premises p. 237. l. 36. vel accepta perseverantia l 49. dele its l. 54. ista cum p. 240. l 5. is there p 242. l 21. a certain l 22. there he gives and workes faith in that one and not in another p 243. l 48. praecepta p. 248. l. 58. proposeth this p. 249. l. 9. is this p 253. l 30. fatum p. 254. l. 4. morietur p. 256. l. 14. and persovere l. 23. indifferent p. 259. l. 23 if they had we p. 260. l. ult heresie p 264. l 17. dele them p 270. l. 37. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 273. l 39. purposeth thus p. 275. l. 3. marcuerat p. 277. l 11. did rest p. 282. l. 6. if it l 15. from Breame l. 42. change of p. 287. l 57. upon what p. 291. l. 34. dele who p. 292. l. 36. externall p. 298. l. 7. comforter and that all the consolation which he ministers is in Christ and if l 30. we cannot p. 299. l. 19. not that THE SECOND BOOK BEING AN EXAMINATION OF Certaine passages inserted into M r HORD'S discourse formerly answered by an Author that conceales his name but was supposed to be M r MASON Rector of Saint Andrews Vndershaft in LONDON OXFORD Printed by H. HALL for TH. ROBINSON 1653. TO THE READER THe Authour of this Treatise was perswaded to Pen the reasons of his opinion against absolute Reprobation that he might satisfie a worthy friend of his who required it VVhat satisfaction that learned Gentleman his friend hath received by these reasons I know not but sure I am they have given good content to some others who have read them and doe still desire a Copie of them for their farther use To ease whose paines in transcribing this Treatise it doth now appeare in this forme If any of contrary opinion shall undertake to answer or refute it I wish he would set downe his opinion and reasons with that perspicuitie and modestie that our Authour hath set downe his Such a course of disputing will gaine more credit to himselfe and his cause then voluminous Vagaries about impertinent things If any shall use railing speeches or unnecessary diversions from the cause I shall ever interpret that to be a strong signe of a weake cause or at least I shall think it to be an argument of an obstinate minde who neither knoweth how to yeeld to the Truth nor to defend his errour I hope the Reader who loveth his owne salvation will be a more indifferent Iudge in a question which concerneth him so nearely And so I leave him to God's blessing THE PREFACE WHen first I lighted upon a treatise intituled God's love to mankind and read a little way in it I had reason to be acquainted with it though the Authors face I had never seen Upon the first relation of the change of his opinion in certaine controversies as he pretended I was intreated to conferre with him thereupon by word of mouth My answer was that it was more fit to conferre in writing and if he would be drawne to communicate the reasons of his pretended change I should willingly take them into consideration This motion was made in the yeare 1631. being then at London the yeare following in the month of July as I remember was the discourse of M r Hord's sent unto me and I was urged upon my former promise to make answer thereunto At that time I had another businesse under my hand which I could not dispatch in lesse then two months space or more but I was wished to take my owne time As soone as I was free from my former taske I set hand to this and returned my answere thereunto unto the Gentleman that set me on worke about the end of Hillary terme Anno Dom 1632. But observing the bulke of the treatise now in print twice as bigge as that in manuscript or more I expected a reply to my former answer but upon perusall I found nothing lesse whereat I wondred not a little having never heard of any such treatise untill the last sommer 1635 for surely they had time enough to answer it To helpe the credit of their cause in this it seemed good unto them to raise a mist that their absurd carriage might not be discovered to witt by antedating the print thereof which yet was but newly found creeping in corners Another devise there is by a large interpolation and addition here and there foysted into the body of the former discourse and yet not all at once but by pathes a great part of it being but lumber and the adding of more testimonies as if the matter were to be carried by number and not by weight or as if the Author of them were willing to make ostentation of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and fullnesse of his common place booke Only the upper way of our Divines maintayning the absolutenesse of God's decrees is here inpugned at large with the Authors best strength I doubt not which taske was omitted by Mr Hord And besides there is one Divine attribute more here mentioned in contradiction whereunto the Doctrine of our Divines is pretended to proceed and the prosecution hereof amongst the rest is here set downe by way of superfaetation upon the former not only that so the argument might be the more compleat but also
on the part of Reprobates is not the damnation of them but the manifestation of his glory in the way of vindicative justice which in Scripture phrase is called the Declaration of his wrath For God made all things for himselfe even the wicked against the day of evill And to this end he doth not only permit them both to sinne and to persevere therein without repentance but also to damne them for their sinne And this worke of God namely the permission of sinne is as requisite for the manifestation of his mercy on the part of his Elect as for the Declaration of his wrath on the part of reprobates Yet who was ever found so absurd as to say that we make the sinfull actions of men to be the meanes which God useth to bring about the salvation of his Elect. So little cause have we to make use of this distinction as the action it selfe and the sinfullnesse thereof to shew in what sense it is a meanes which God useth whereby to bring about the damnation of man For we utterly deny sinne to be any such meanes of God but the permission thereof only is the meanes whereby to bring about not their damnation as this Authour suggesteth but the meanes together with the damnation for sinne whereby he bringeth to passe the declaration of his just wrath But men of this Authours spirit unlesse they be suffered to calumniate at pleasure and corrupt their opposites Tenet at pleasure they can say just nothing It is true actions deserve damnation only as they are transgressions of God's law but we deny that these transgressions are God's meanes but only the permission of them is his meanes and by permitting these transgressions as also by damning for them he brings to passe his glorious end to wit the declaration of his just wrath 3ly It is most untrue that God brings any man into a state of sinne He brings himselfe into it most freely God having no other hand in the sinne but as permitting it that is as not preserving from it Indeed if he did bring men into sinne and they not rather bring themselves thereinto he were the Authour of it But it is well knowne that sinne cannot transcend the region of acts naturall All acts supernaturall must needs be the worke of grace and truly good But every sinfull act is merely naturall never supernaturall Now never any of our Divines denyed a man liberty in his greatest corruption unto acts naturall the Devill himselfe hath liberty thus farre It is true originall sinne is brought upon all by the sinne of Adam For hereby the fountaine of humane nature became corrupted but in this very sin of Adam we had an hand if there be any truth in Scripture which testifies that In Adā we all have sinned This is the doctrin which the Author spights though he be more wise then to publish to the world his spleen against it And I have seen under his hand where he denies originall sinne to be veri nominis pecatum sinne truly so called And albeit M. Hoord makes a flourish in saying that God might justly damne all man-kind for the sinne of Adam and that also was this Authour's doctrine in the lectures which he read at Magdalen Hall yet I have good cause to doubt whether this be his opinion now and not rather the same with Pelagius his opinion saving the difference which Pelagius did put between not entering into the Kingdome of heaven and damnation As for all other sins which we call actuall they are as I said naturall only and not supernaturall and therefore no man wants liberty as to doe them so to abstaine from them Only he wants a morall and Spirituall liberty to abstaine from them in a gracious manner according to that of Aquinas Licet aliquis non possit gratiam adipisci qui reprobatur à Deo tamen quod in hoc peccatum vel illud labatur ex ejus libero arbitrio contingit Though a man who is reprobated of God cannot obtaine grace yet that he falleth into this or that sinne it comes to passe of his own free will It is true also even in God's providence concerning acts naturall there is a great mystery For as God foretold David that his neighbour should lye with his wives and though he sinned secretly yet the Lord would doe this openly So he foretold that upon that Altar which Ieroboam erected a child that should be borne of the house of David Iosiah by name should burne the Prophets bones And that Cyrus also should build him a Citty and let goe his captives Yet who doubts but that Cyrus did freely deliver the Jewes out of Babylon and Iosiah did as freely burne the Prophets bones upon the alter in Bethel as ever they did action in their lives So Absalom did as freely defile his Fathers Concubines Then againe we deny that the damnation of any man is the end that God intends but the manifestation of his own glory And therfore though he hath made the wicked against the day of evill yet both that and all things he hath made for himselfe And to this tends both the permission of sinne and the damnation of Reprobates for their sin And in no moment of nature are either of these intended before the other both being joyntly meanes for the procuring of another end And if permission of sinne were first in intention with God and then damnation as these men would have it it followeth evidently by the most generally received rules of Schooles that permission of sinne should be last in execution that is men should first be damned and afterwards permitted to fall into sinne This is the issue of these men's Orthodoxy and accurate Divinity Section 8. The will is determined to an Object two waies 1. By compulsion against the bent and inclination of it 2. By necessity according to the naturall desire and liking of it God's predestination say they de termineth the will to sinne this last way but not the first It forceth no man to doe that which he would not but carrieth him towards that which he would When men sin t is true they cannot choose And it is as true they will not choose It followeth not therefore from the grounds of their doctrine that God's decree is the cause of men's sins but their own wicked wills 1. The Ancients made no distinction between these two words Necessity and Compulsion but used them in this argument promiscuously and did deny that God did necessitate men to sinne least they should grant him hereby to be the Authour of sin as I have touched before and shall intimate againe afterward Nor did the School men put any difference between them as may appeare by the testimony of M. Calvin who speaking of the School-distinction of the will 's threefold liberty from necessity from sin from Misery saith This distinction I could willingly receive but that it confoundeth necessitie with coaction 2.
at the first which proved afterwards to be a truth as appeares by the first chapter of Austin's booke de correptione gratiâ where Florus is justified and magnified by St. Austin and his criminators condemned And seing there were none such among the Monks of Adrumetum as the accusants pretended who so maintained grace as to deny free-will therefore that also must needs be false which followeth in this Authour when he saith that against them also St. Austin wrote his other booke De correptione gratiâ And the truth is the whole buisinesse was ended and the tumult appeased between those Adrumetine Monks before Florus came over as appeared by the relation made unto him by Florus concerning the amicable composition of all things there And Austin in this very passage which this Authour grates upon professeth that he writes not against them only he answereth such an objection For I conceive it to be no other more fully which was made by some of them formerly against Florus and the doctrine of Austin maintained by Florus The relation whereof was brought unto him by the same Florus as it seemes But of this more at large in my digression concerning the predestinarian heresy which I purpose to subjoine to this Austin saith indeed that Praedestinatio est gratiae praeparatio gratia verò ipsa donatio Predestination is the preparation of grace Grace the gift it selfe which was prepared not the bestowing of it How can it be Can a gift temporall be the bestowing of a thing eternall What entertainment Zeno's servant found at his Masters hands which this Authour conceales I have often shewed who taught no such doctrine as destiny as to free a knave from stripes who as so great a Philosopher had a better judgment in the nature of fate then his servant and himselfe so well thought of by the whole State of Athenians Yet was not Zeno so well instructed in the mystery of Divine providence as we are by the word of God even from the selling of Ioseph all along to the crucifying of the Son of God from thence to the Kings giving up their Kingdomes to the Beast which should come to passe in the latter part of the last times of the world But let him make himselfe mery with Zeno's servant who taken in a theevish fact was content to helpe himselfe with any pretence but Zeno we know did not approve of his appology but prepared a Rod for the knaves back in despite of that And as for the Monks the relation that here he makes is merely a fiction of his own braine without all ground Thus his foundation being ruined no marvaile if the house he builds thereon must needs totter and fall on his ownpate Sect 3. 2. Nor if this be true can sin be punished eternally or that tribunall be just on which the sentence of eternall fire shall be denounced against the wicked at the last day To this I have the fathers bearing witnesse generally and plainly Tertullian hath there words The recompence of God and evill can with no justice be given to him who is good or evill not freely but of necessity Saint Hierome saith where necessity domineers there is no place for retribution Epiphanius saith the stars which impose upon men a necessity of sinning may be punished with better justice then the men themselves We place mens nativities under no fatall constellâ—tions saith Saint Austin that we may free the will by which a man liveth either well or ill from all bands of necessity because of the righteous judgment of God Prosper speaking of the judgment of God by which he decreed to render unto every man according to his works saith this judgment would never be if men did sinne by the will and determination of God Fulgentius also saith the same It is great injustice in God to punish him whom he doth not find but make an offender This was Saint Peruards opinion too it is only a will free from compulsion and necessity saith he which maketh a creature capable of reward punishment Out of these restimonies laid together may be collected three things 1. That the Ancients did use to call a necssity of humane actions good or bad by the name of destiny from what externall cause soever this necessity did arise 2. That they did use these two words Necessity and Compulsion promiscuously and therefore thought that necessity as well as compulsion did take away the wills liberty 3. Which is for our present purpose that they believed and contended that the judgments of God on sinners could not be just if they were held by the Adamantine chaines of any absolute necessity under the power of their sins I will therefore conclude this Argument with the words of Epiphanius writing of the errour of the Pharisâ—es who beleived the immortality of the soule and the resurrection of the dead yet held that all things come to passe by necessity It is saith he a point of extreame ignorance or madnesse rather for him that confesseth the resurection of the dead and the great day appointed for the revelation of God's righteous judgment to say that there is any destiny any necessity in mens actions For how can the righteous judgment of God and destiny comply and stand together And let me adde how can the beliefe of this and true piety stand together For where this perswasion that mens sins are necessary and that therefore there can be no righteous judgment is rooted in religion will quickly be rooted out 4. It tendes to religions overthrow because it makes the whole circle of man's life but a mere destiny By it all our doings are God's ordinances all our imaginations branches of his predestination and all events in Kingdomes and commonweales the necessary issues of the divine decree All things whatsoever though they seem to doe somewhat yet by this opinion they doe indeed just nothing the best lawes restrain not one offender the sweetest rewards promote not one vertue the powerfull'st Sermons convert not one sinner the humblest devotions divert not one calamity the strongest endeavours in things of any nature whatsoever effect no more then would be done without them but the necessitating overruling decree of God doth all And if lawes doe nothing wherefore are they made If rules of religion doe nothing why are they prescribed If the wills of men doe nothing why are men encouraged to one thing scared from another ther and if good endeavours and onsets doe nothing being excited continued limited controlled and every way governed by an active absolute and Almighty decree to what purpose are they used Who seeth not plainly whither these things tend To nothing more then to the subversion of piety and pollicy religion lawes society and government This did the Romans see full well and therefore they banished Mathematicos the teachers abetters of destiny out of Rome These and the like inconveniencies which come from the uppper way did worke
augetur munere charitatis ut possint that is not only to will that which is good but so intensely to will it as to prevaile over the flesh lusting against the spirit whereby it comes ut non modo velint sed possint and consequently efficiant quod velint So that posse simpliciter doth include velle and addes such strength thereto as now to goe on to the doing of that it wills without restraint from the flesh And that this posse is but an augmentation of the gratious disposition of the will appeares by the same Austin de corrept gratia cap. 11. Prima gratia est qua sit ut habeat homo justitiam si velit secunda ergo plus potest qua etiam sit ut velit tantum velit tantoque ardore diligat ut carnis voluntatem contraria concupiscentem voluntate spiritus vincat The first grace is that whereby a man may have righteousnesse if he will therfore the second grace is of more power as whereby a man is made to will and that in such measure as by the will of the spirit to overcome the will of the flesh affecting that which is contrary thereunto And in the very next chapter c. 12. He calles this prevailing will Posse simply Tantum spiritu sancto accenditur voluntas eorum ut ideo possint quia sic velint ideo velint quia Deus sic operatur ut velint Their will is in such measure inflamed with the Holy Spirit that therefore they are able to doe that which is good because they will in such a measure therefore they will in such a measure because God so works as to make them willing in such measure Austin goes on in this manner Nam si in tanta infirmitate vitae hujus ipsis relinqueretur voiuntas sua ut in adjutorio Dei manerent si vellent nec Deus in iis operaretur ut vellent inter tot tantas tentationes infirmitate sua voluntas ipsa succumberet ideo perseverare non possent quia deficientes infirmitate nec vellent aut non ita vellent infirmitate voluntatis ut possent For if in so great infirmitie of this life their will were left unto thē that in the helpe of God they might continue if they would God should not work in them that they would amongst so many and so great tentations this will it selfe would sinke under the burthen of them and therefore could not persevere because failing through infirmity they would not or at least they would not in such a measure through the wills infirmity as to be able to stand So that posse simpliciter still with Austin includes the will and is a denomination of the will arising from the strength of it prevailing above the flesh lusting to the contrary In like sort Honorius Augustodunensis de praedest lib. arbit diverse times ascribes posse to grace subsequent like as he ascribes velle to grace prevenient as when he sayth Deus operatur in electis suis sua gratia praeveniendo velle subseqendo posse And againe gratiam accipimus cum nos Deus praevenit ut velimus subsequitus ut possimus And againe Gratia Dei praevenit ut bonum quod sprevit cupiat sequitur ut illud implere praevaleat So that in effect this posse comes to be all one with agere or perficere quod volumus For when we not only will that which is good but so affectionately will it as to prevaile over the flesh lusting against it all inward impediments being thus mastered the perfecting of that we will must needes follow But as for that posse si velint this goes before the willing of it And I see no reason to the contrary but that we may with Austin acknowledge such a power common to all which in the disputations between Austin and Pelagius was called possibilitas agendi quod bonum est and Austin was so farre from excepting against it as maintained by Pelagius that more then once he professeth that in case like as he acknowledged posse to be from God so he would acknowledge velle and agere to be from God he should be received for a good Catholique in this by Austins judgment I will cite a passage or two out of Austin expresly signifying this that out of his booke de gratia Christi contra Pelag Caelest The first is cap 6. Pelagius his words are these Qui ipsius voluntatis operis possibilitatem dedit whereupon Austin writeth thus Hanc autem possibilitatem in natura eum ponere de verbis ejus superioribus clarum est Sed ne nihil de grati a dixisse videretur adjunxit Quique ipsam possibilitatem gratiae suae adjuvat semper auxilio non ait ipsam voluntatem vel ipsam operationem quod si diceret non abhorrere a doctrina Apostolica videretur as much as to say did he acknowledge this he should be a good Catholique Now ad juvare voluntatem operationem in Austins phrase is effectually operari ut velit operetur homo quod bonum est as appeares by that which followeth Sed ait to wit Pelagius ipsam possibilitatem illud videlicet ex tribus quod in natura locavit gratiae suae adjuvat semper auxilio Now marke Austins interpretation of him thus ut scilicet in voluntate actione non ideo laus sit Dei hominis quia sic vult homo ut tamen ejus voluntati Deus ardorem dilectionis inspiret so that adjuvare voluntatem in Austins phrase is inspirare voluntati dilectationis ardorem So then I see no reason but that wee may well grant unto our adversaries that all men have a power to believe if they will and from the love of temporall things to convert themselves to the keeping of Gods commandements But this is meere nature in Austins judgement for he calls it in that very chapter naturalem possibilitatem and cap. 47. coming to an issue Si ergo consenserit nobis non solam possibilitatem sed ipsam quoque voluntatem actionem divinitus adjuvari sic adjuvari ut sine ullo adjutorio nihil bene velimus agamus eamque esse gratiam Dei per Jesum Christum nihil de adjutorio gratiae Dei quantum arbitror inter nos controversiae relinquetur And indeed to say that a man hath power to believe and repent if he will this is not to maintaine any universall grace otherwise then as nature may be called grace For grace is goodnesse but goodnesse doth not consist in a power to do good if we will but it is an habituall disposing of the will to that which is good only how much more is it so of grace which we count supernaturall goodnesse Neither is the maintenance of such a power to doe good any contradiction to holy Scripture testifying that Men cannot believe cannot repent cannot please God cannot be subject to the
law of God cannot doe good For this impotency is only morall and the subject of this impotency is only the will and it consists in the corruption thereof being wholly turned away from God and converted to the creature in an inordinate manner Enemies and strangers from God their minds being set on evill things Col. 1. 21. And to say that a man can believe if he will can from the love of visible and temporall things convert himselfe to the observation of Gods precepts if he will which Austin in his latter daies even then when he wrote his Retractations professeth to be true omninò And in his Book ad Marcellinum De Spiritu litera cap. 31. Professeth it an absurd thing to deny this namely that every one may believe if he will Vide nunc utrum quisque credat si noluerit aut non credat si voluerit Quod si absurdum est c. And cap. 32. Cum ergo fides in potestate sit quoniam cum vult quisque credit cum credit volens credit I say to affirme this namely that a man can believe if he will is no more then to say that a dead man can speake if he were alive For as the Scripture teacheth that all men are dead in sinne 'till the spirit of regeneration comes to breath into our hearts the breath of a spirituall life So this deadnesse is to be found no where so much as in the will And therefore Aquinas professeth that a man is more corrupt quoad appetitum boni then quoad intellectum veri The Heathen could professe Video meliora proboque deteriora sequor And in my experience I find that Arminians doe not satisfie themselves with this universality of grace as to say A man can doe good if he will unlesse they adde that also potest velle as I have observed in Corvinus And those whom I have in private been acquainted with doe not rest in this that All men can believe if they will but they say also that by universall grace the will is enlivened as I have seen under their hands and thereby enabled to the willing of any spirituall good whereto they shall be excited So that if they rested here to wit in saying that by universall grace all men may believe if they will there is no grace acknowledged by them tending to the furtherance of the good of mankind but we acknowledge it as well as they and make the extension of it as large as they And therefore the more vaine and voyd of all reason is their pretence that we for want of acknowledging such an universality of grace as they doe doe drowne men in carnall security and countenance carnall liberty Only though we grant the reality of that which they maintaine yet we deny that it deserves to be called grace as touching the first prevenient grace as they call it which we with Austin say deserves to be called nature rather then grace as we speake of grace to wit as distinct from nature and indeed supernaturall And as for grace subsequent that consisting only in concourse we deny that to be grace for as much as Gods concourse is granted as well to any sinfull act as to any gracious act as now adaies is commonly acknowledged on all sides But as for the enlivening of all mens wills and enabling them to will any spirituall good whereto they shall be excited for this is their very forme of words we utterly deny this and are ready to demonstrate the unreasonablenesse thereof For first seeing this cannot be understood of life naturall but of life spirituall it followeth that all men by this doctrine are regenerated and as they confesse this disposition continues in all unto death so it followeth that all and every one should dye in the state of regeneration also Secondly seeing there are but three sorts of qualities in the soule of a reasonable creature as Aristotle hath observed to wit powers passions and habits it followeth that this enlivening of the will must consist either in giving it new powers or new passions or new habits which it had not before But neither of these can be affirmed with any sobriety neither doe I find that they look to be called to any such account but in their aëriall contemplations of Gods attributes especially of his mercy and justice shaped at pleasure doe conceive hand over head that such an enlivening there must be of the will of man in all without troubling themselves to enquire wherein it consists But let us proceed in our triall of the soundnesse of it by the touch-stone of rationall and Christian discourse First therefore I say it can be no new power infused into the will by this enlivening For the will it selfe is a power and it was never heard that potentia can be subjectum potentiae a power can be the subject of a power and that a power should be in a power as an accident in the subject thereof Rationall powers are but two the power of understanding and the power of willing and both these are naturall following ex principiis speciei from the very nature of the humane soule as all confesse But some may say are there not supernaturall powers bestowed on man as well as naturall I answer these supernaturall powers are but the elevating of the naturall powers unto supernaturall objects as the understanding by enlightning it and the will by sanctifying it Never was it said I presume that a man regenerate had two understandings in him by the one to understand things naturall and by the other to understand things spirituall but that by the same understanding he understands both but by light of nature the one by light of grace the other The holy Ghost saith That they who are accustomed to doe evill can no more doe good then a Blackemore can change his skinne and a Leopard his spots Yet when men of evill become good they get not new powers properly but new dispositions rather of their naturall powers which we call habits and may be called morall powers but not of indifferency to doe good or evill such as the naturall power of the will is but such as whereby is wrought in the will a good likeing of that which is good an abhorring of that which is evill so that indeed these morall powers doe not make the will able to will but rather actually willing of that which is good in generall which generall willingnesse is specified according to objects present and opportunities offered of doing good in one kind rather then another Like as justice makes a man willing unto just actions which willingnesse is exercised this way or that way according to emergent occasions Secondly no new passions are given by this enlivening of the will well our passions may be ordered aright both touching their objects and touching the season and touching the measure touching the rule of them and in respect of this gracious ordering of them they may be called