his Vindictive Justice Now here I shall offer my thoughts in two Positions 1. The final Sin of Reprobates is not properly the very Cause of the Decree of Damnation it is the proper very Cause of Damnation but not of the Decree it self That passage in Scotus is remarkable Non est aliqua causa propter quam Deus effectivè reprobat in quantum est actio in Deo quia tunc Deus esset passivus What is moved by a thing ab extra seems in order of nature before that motion to be in potentia and in that motion to be passive in some degree But God's Will in all its Decrees even in that of Reprobation is a pure Act perfectly excluding Passiveness and Potentiality and by consequence Motion ab extrá 2. The final Sin of Reprobates though it be not properly the Cause of the Decree it self yet it is conditio in objecto necessaria making men meet Objects for the Decree to terminate upon The Vessels of wrath are fitted to destruction Final Sin as produced in actual Existence fits them for actual destruction and final Sin as foreseen in the divine Prescience fits them for a Decree of destruction Where final Sin is foreseen there the Decree of Damnation terminates and where final Sin is not foreseen there the Decree of Damnation terminates not After all thy wickedness woe woe unto thee saith the Lord Ezek. 16. 23. Hells woes are after final wickedness and the Decree of Hells woes are after the Prescience of final wickedness In a word That which causes men to be capable objects for the Decree of Damnation to terminate on is the final Sin which is in the unrighteous Will of Man and that which causes the Decree of Damnation to terminate on them is the Vindictive Justice which is in the righteous Will of God In Tophet the Torments are as unquenchable fire The final sin is as much wood and that which kindles it is Vindictive Justice breathing out from the righteous Will of God in all which there is nothing at all but exact Righteousness God may say to Man Thy perdition is of thy self and Man must say to God Thou art righteous O Lord in all thy ways I will shut up all with an Answer to an Objection You will yet say God's Justice is not cleared in this point for the Decree of Preterition and Permission is merely out of Sovereignty and upon this Preterition and Permission doth infallibly follow final Sin and upon final Sin doth infallibly follow eternal Damnation Wherefore hereby God is made the great Author of the Reprobates Sin and Damnation To which I answer in three Propositions 1. 'T is true that upon Preterition and Permission final sin doth infallibly follow When God gave them up to their own lusts they walked in their own counsels Psal. 18. 12. When he suffered all Nations to walk in their own ways they did so Acts 14. 16. If upon God's Permission Man's Sin follow not then which is very strange God may permit that which yet will never be But 2. Upon Preterition and Permission final Sin doth infallibly follow but not as an Effect from a true Cause but as a Consequent upon its Antecedent Hence God is no more the Author of Sin than the Sun is of the darkness which follows upon its departure Also the Objectors may be asked Doth not God foreknow that the Creature set in such a state and order of things will finally sin Foreknowing this doth not he willingly and actually set the Creature in that state and order From or upon this setting the Creature in that state and order doth not its final Sin infallibly follow I suppose they will deny nothing of all this yet they will by no means say that God is the Author of sin neither need they say so for in Sins following there is only sequela ordinis and not sequela causalitatis Moreover God in Preterition and Permission doth not subtract from men any Creaturedue but suspend such special effectual Grace as is undue unto them This is clear for Preterition and Permission respect men as sinners lying in the corrupt Mass and to sinners God owes nothing but punishment Verbum Debet venenum habet nec Deo propriè competit qui non est debitor nobis nisi fortè ex promisso saith Peter Lombard If God be bound to give special effectual Grace to all shew me a Promise for it if he be not bound the suspension of that Grace can in no wise make him the Author of Sin Wherefore final Sin is indeed no fruit of God's Reprobating Will but the proper issue of Man's perverse Will And this is one grand difference between Election and Reprobation Election doth effectually work final Faith and Holiness in the Elect but Reprobation doth not effect the least drop of Sin or Malice in the Reprobate Faith and Holiness come down from Heaven out of the bosom of free Grace but Sin and Malice grow at home in the Reprobate's own heart Dea non operante sed permittente 3. Hence it follows That God is the Author of the Reprobate's Damnation only as a just Judge inflicting the same for final Sin God's vindictive Justice is the inflicting Cause of Damnation but Man's final Sin is the proper meritorious Cause thereof And thus God is perfectly justified in the Decree of Reprobation because that final Sin of Reprobates which follows consequently upon God's Preterition and Permission doth flow effectively from man's perverse and corrupt Will and that everlasting Damnation of Reprobates which is inflicted by God as a Righteous Judge is also merited by a man as a final Sinner CHAP. VI. Of the Work of Creation HAving treated of the Divine Will as to its Eternal Decrees I procede to speak thereof as to its External Works which are as it were the Royal Display thereof And that there may not be a Chasme in my Discourse I shall first touch upon Creation as the first of God's ways There are besides the Ens Entium three several Worlds or Ranks of Beings viz. Spiritual Material and Mixt the first is the Intellectual World made up of those invisible Glories Spirits by Nature Angels by Office Principalities and Powers spiritual Stars of Light and Flames of Love all of them at first Inhabitants of that pure spiritual Body the Heaven of Heavens but afterwards part of them were for their proud Apostasie cast into Hell The second is the World of visible wonders the stupendious Heavens eyed with a glorious Sun and spangled with Moon and glittering Stars encircling all the rest with their spherical Stories and wheeling round about with an indefatigable Motion spinning out time for all the World and with admirable influences hatching and hovering over all the living Creatures Under these is the vast Air encompassing the Earth and Sea coated with woolly clouds and those sometimes laced with the curious Rain-bow every morning putting on the bright-shining Robes of Light and at evening exchanging
Reprobation of sinners issues from the Sovereignty and Justice thereof The Reprobation of sin is universal and without any distinction of persons God hates sin where-ever it be be it in his own beloved Jedidiahs 't is an abominable thing such as his soul abhorrs but the Reprobation of sinners is particular Esau and not Jacob was hated Judas and not Peter was a Son of perdition Indeed he that denies particular Reprobation must by necessary consequence deny particular Election and he that asserts an Election of some individual persons doth in eodem rationis signo assert a Reprobation of others 2. What are they for Quality I answer in two particulars 1. Reprobation as to the first and second Acts thereof viz. Preterition and Permission of final sin respects them as lying in the corrupt Mass. This appears by those Names and Titles whereby Reprobation is set forth and described in Scripture there 't is hatred and God hates none but sinners 't is hardening and God hardens none but such as are in a corrupt estate 't is abjection or casting away and God doth not cast away an upright one or a man standing in integrity 't is not knowing and God knows and approves every sinless creature 't is not shewing mercy and that supposes men to lie in a state of misery or else they are not capable of mercy or the denial thereof Wherefore I conceive that in Preterition and Permission of final sin men are considered as lying in a corrupt and undone Condition 2. Reprobation as to its third Act viz. the decreeing of Damnation respects them as final sinners 'T is true every sin as sin is in it self intrinsecally meritorious of Damnation but through Gospel Grace in Jesus Christ no sin but such as is final doth actually produce Damnation God condemns none but for final sin and decrees to condemn none but for it Those vessels of wrath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fitted to destruction Rom. 9. 22. are as I take it final sinners only Great sinners may be vessels of Mercy and repent unto Life Eternal but final sinners are vessels of Wrath and fitted to destruction God swears by his life that he hath no pleasure in the death of the wicked Ezek. 33. 11. not unless he be a final sinner in whom there is no true turning or repenting not in such a way as to leave no place or room at all for Conversion for the sinners turn is in the Text opposed to his death and opposed as a thing more destrable to God than his death Should the Decree of Damnation objectively terminate on a sinner merely as a sinner there could be no place or room for Repentance but if it terminate on him as a final sinner there is no such obstruction at all Wherefore I conceive that as God condemns none but for final sin so he decrees to condemn none but for the same and by consequence that Decree respects them as final sinners that is they are first considered as final sinners and then the Decree of Damnation terminates on them Object But here an Objection meets me God condemns none but final sinners and decrees to condemn none but such yet hence it follows not that the Decree of Damnation respects them as final Sinners or that they were considered as such antecedently to that Decree for God saves none but final believers and decrees to save none but such yet from thence it follows not that the Decree of Salvation respects them as final Believers or that they were considered as such antecedently to that Decree for as hath been laid down before Faith and Salvation are comprized in one and the same Decree and therefore there is no antecedency of Faith to Salvation in the very Decree but only in the execution thereof Answ. To which Objection I answer That between the two Cases there is a triple difference which if considered will make it appear that the consequence which fails in the one case doth hold good in the other 1. These two Propositions God decrees to save none but final Believers and God decrees to damn none but final Sinners must be taken in a different meaning When we say God decrees to save none but final Believers the meaning is not final Believers so preconsidered antecedently to that Decree for Faith and Salvation are comprized in one Decree but final Believers so to be made by force of that Decree But when we say God decrees to damn none but final Sinners the meaning is not final Sinners so to be made by force of that Decree for God's Decree makes no man a final Sinner but final Sinners so preconsidered antecedently to that Decree Wherefore from that Proposition God decrees to save none but final Believers it cannot be concluded that the Decree of Salvation respects them as final Believers but because of the different meaning from that other Proposition God decrees to damn none but final Sinners it may be rightly concluded that the Decree of Damnation respects them as final Sinners 2. There is an immediate contact between Grace and Glory hence these two may very aptly be comprized in one Decree and if so final Faith is not preconsidered to the Decree of Salvation But between Preterition or Permission of sin and Damnation there is no immediate contact for the Act of the Creature even his final sin comes between hence Preterition or Permission and Damnation cannot according to our understanding be congruously comprized in one Decree but in distinct Decrees and if so final sin is preconsidered to the Decree of Damnation For no sooner doth the Decree of Preterition and Permission pass in the divine Will but therein as in a Glass there is a Prescience of final Sin and thereupon passes the Decree of Damnation But you 'l say Neither is there such an immediate contact between Grace and Glory as you assert for between the donation of Grace and Glory the act of the Creature viz. final Faith doth intervene I answer 'T is true it doth intervene but as a fruit or effect of that Donation it doth intervene but that Donation hath a Causal influence and attingency into the Creatures Act and its Perseverance wherefore it so intervenes as not to break the immediate contact in the least measure But between Preterition or Permission and Damnation the Creatures Act viz. final Sin doth intervene not as an effect of Preterition or Permission but as a fruit of man's corrupted and depraved Will and that intervention cannot stand with an immediate contact Wherefore there being distinct Decrees first Preterition and Permission are decreed and then upon the prescience of final Sin Damnation 3. The third difference is that of the Apostle The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6. 23. Eternal Life is a gift freely given therefore the consideration of final Faith is not a prerequisite to the Decree of Salvation But Death is wages exacted by the
of Nature are but the Shadows and Picture of his wise Decrees all the excellent Shows in time are but the Apocalypse or Revelation of the wise Coâ—trivances in Eternity God possessed Wisdom in the beginning of his way even in the framing of his Eternal Decrees not only when he prepared the Heavens in Creation but also when he prepared all things in his Ideal Counsel not only when he set a compass on the face of the Depth but also when he set the Compass of his Decrees upon the face of all Futuritions Every one of his Decrees is most wise and rational hence 't is called his Counsel and the Counsel of his Will In the Eternal Rolls Causes and Effects Means and End Modes and Methods of Being are all set down but not a tittle without the advice of an infinite Understanding there is no such thing as mere Will in God no caecus impetus but a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a depth of Knowledge in every one of his Decrees 2. The Decrees of God are situate in Eternity Mutable Creatures and their Acts are measured by Time which is a perpetual Flux but God and his immanent Acts have no other Measure but Eternity which is a perpetual Instant Scripture and Reason will both assert this 1. Scripture will do it When that speaks of the Decree of Election it saith that God hath chosen us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before the foundation of the World Eph. 1. 4. Heaven was made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the founding of the World Matth. 25. 34. but God's chusing of us to it was long before his mercies are from everlasting to everlasting Psal. 103. 17. reaching as I may say from one end of Eternity to another So also when it speaks of other pieces of Providence it intimates an eternal Preordination of things before the great Hour-glass of Time was set up There were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 foreappointed times Acts 17. 26. Not a Sand of Time but it runs out according to an Eternal Decree not a member in the body but it is written in the eternal Book Psal. 139. 16. not a place of habitation but it was eternally bounded Acts 17. 26. not a Sparrow falls to the ground but by an eternal Will not an hair but it was numbred in Eternity not a Particle of Being among all the hosts of Creatures but it was registred in Eternity All God's works are known to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eternally Act. 15. 18. Known eternally as Essences they might be in the Divine Essence known eternally as Possibles they might be in the Divine Power but known eternally as Works to be done by God they could not be but only in his Eternal Decree which is Rerum omnium amantissima Genetrix suavissima Nutrix 2. Reason also will make out the Eternity of his Decrees for 1. The Act of God's Will is all one with God's Will and his Will is all one with his Essence and his Essence is one pure Simple Act God is Love essentially Love Amat Deus nec aliunde hoc habet sed ipse est unde amat ideo vehementiùs quia non amorem tam habet quà m ipse est All the Decrees of God are but Deus volens and as God being and God knowing inhabit Eternity so likewise doth God willing the very Creatures willed as they are in God in Esse Indeali are Eternal Notable is that of Anselm Creaturae prout sunt in Deo sunt Essentia Creatrix Sutable is that of S. Austin who on those words in ipso vita est distinguishes between arca in arte arca in opere arca in opere non est vita sed arca in arte est vita quia vivit animâ Artificis Sapientia Dei per quam fact a sunt omnia secundùm artem continet omnia antequam fabricet omnia terram vides est in arte terra coelum vides est in arte coelum Solem Lunam vides sunt ista in arte sed foris corpora sunt in arte vita sunt Videte si quo modo potestis magna enim res dicta est Oh the Comprehensions of the Divine Essence Wisdom Power and Will Essences are Life and Eternity in the Divine Essence Congruities are Life and Eternity in the Divine Wisdom Possibles are Life and Eternity in the Divine Power and Futuritions are Life and Eternity in the Divine Will 2. The Eternity of Futures doth demonstrate the Eternity of the Divine Decrees 't is impossible that any thing should begin to be future Si aliquid nunc non futurum saith Bradwardine incipiet esse futurum ergo post aliquod instans futurum erit ergo erit ergo est futurum ergo aliquid non futurum est futurum Now if it be impossible that any thing should begin to be future then all futures must needs be Eternal and if so whence are they Not from themselves for in their own nature they were but mere possibles and if one possible might by a self-motion become future all the infinite possibles lying in the bosom of Omnipotence might also become such Nor from any Creature for that which is but temporal cannot be the Cause of that which is eternal The Spring then of eternal futures cannot be found any where but in the Eternal God and where in him not in the Divine Essence for that in it self and abstractively from the Divine Will worketh no Change in any thing at all not in the Divine Prescience for that doth suppose and not make its objects And how then without eternal Decrees can there be any foundation of Futures I may conclude with that of Anselm Nihil est futurum nisi in summa veritate If then God should make any Decree in time the thing decreed would begin to be future which is impossible 3. The Decrees of God are cemented with Immutability Aristotle by the light of Nature saw the Simplicity of God's Nature and from thence rationally concluded the Simplicity of God's pleasure The Eternal and Immanent Acts of his Understanding and Will are ever immoveably the same or else infinite Simplicity could not take pleasure in them God saith of himself Mal. 3. 6. I am the Lord I change not Should he change he would lose his Name I am that I am I know saith the wise Preacher that whatsoever God doth it shall be for ever Eccl. 3. 14. His Decrees are Unchangeable The Apostle speaking of the Decree of Election saith The foundation of God standeth sure having this seal the Lord knoweth them that are his 2 Tim. 2. 19. Every word hath its weight Election is not a structure upon Faith but a foundation humane foundations may be destroyed but this is the foundation of God laid by him nay in him in the bosom of the divine Will there is no standing much less sure standing in the flux of Time and Matter but this foundation because of God and in God standeth sure it standeth
in God's Eternity which is Nunc stans it is sure in God's Immutability which is ever the same and the seal upon all this is God's unerrable and infallible Knowledge including within it unvariable and unchangeable Love to his people God is the Father of lights with whom there is no variableness nor shadow of turning James 1. 17. The visible corporeal Sun rides circuit round the World but whilest he salutes one Hemisphear in the turn he leaves a dark shadow on the other but God is an immutable and supercelestial Sun there can be no shadow in his eternal and unconvertible Light Neither are the various changes among the Creatures shadows cast by any turn in God or his Will but events ordered and disposed by him And because the Apostle speaks in this Verse of perfect gifts and in the next of Regeneration by God's Will therefore there is a further sence in it That if the Father of Lights purpose to make the Day-star arise in any poor Soul his gracious purpose never turns away from that Soul nor leaves it in the dark shadow of Death The Names of the Elect are all indelibly written in God's Book and if the Scripture cannot be dissolved Joh. 10. 35. surely the Book of life must be irrasible Saint Austin on those words Deleantur de libro viventium cum justis non scribantur Psal. 69. 28. raises an Objection si homo dixit Quod scripsi scripsi Deus quemquam scribit delet quomodo isti inde delentur ubi nunquam scripti sunt To which he answers Hoc dictum est secundùm spem ipsorum quia ibi se scriptos putabant Quid est deleantur de libro viventium ipsis constet non illos ibi esse Deleantur ergo secundùm spem ipsorum secundùm autem aequitatem tuam non scribantur In a word whatsoever God doth in his Decrees is immutably the same his Decrees are as Mountains of Brass Zach. 6. 1. unremoveable by any Creature because situate in the Eternal Will The strength or eternity of Israel will not lye or repent 2 Sam. 15. 29. If God's Time cannot lye but will infallibly shew forth the Verity of his Promises and Prophecies surely God's Eternity cannot lye wherein he decrees and knows all The World is full of Vicissitudes Matter is in a perpetual Flux the Glass of Time is running out and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Wheel of Nature is running round but all the while God's Will is immoveable it doth not rowl about with the Heavens rise or set with the Sun or ebb and flow with the Sea but sits King for ever and ever upon the Throne of its own Immobility Apud te Domine rerum omnium instabilium stant causae rerum omnium mutabilium immutabiles manent origines omnium irrationalium temporalium sempiternae vivunt rationes Now besides what hath been said out of Scripture to prove the Immutability of his Decrees these Reasons may be offered 1. The Decrees of God are Immanent and Eternal Acts in God therefore cannot but be Unchangeable God in framing his Decrees non egreditur extra seipsum goes not out from his own Eternity 2. As the Eternity of Futures proves an Eternity in God's Decrees so the Immutability of Futures proves an Immutability in his Decrees If the Decrees which are the Basis of Futurition may be changed then that which was future by the Decree may yet cease to be future sine positione ejus in esse actuali which is impossible If a new Decree be made in succession after a former then the thing decreed begins to be future which is also impossible 3. If the divine Decrees should change Oh! what amazing Changes what an horrible Tempest must needs ensue Must not God's own dwelling-house even his glorious Eternity sink and fall to the ground Non enim est vera Aeternitas ubi oritur nova voluntas nec est immortalis Voluntas quae alia alia est Must not God's eternal Prescience fall a doubting and faltring about every Future Seeing God cannot now know his own works no not a moment before their actual Existence because even then their being may be prevented by a Change in his Will May not eternal Grace and Truth lose their glorious light and Jesus Christ the Sun of Righteousness drop out of the Gospel-orb and all the Starry Promises in the Word and lightsom Comforts in the Saints go out in a moment leaving all in darkness and confusion May not the Evangelical Banquet let down to poor Worms be called back again into Heaven and the precious Blood of Christ return again into its Veins and his Humane Nature be cast away into nothing and every Saint instead of Grace and Peace in his heart may have a Lye in his right hand and lie down in sorrow Nay in such a case must there not fall a Change upon the very Being of God himself And seeing every Change is a kind of Death must not the Deity suffer and as it were die in this Mutation All which astonishing Catastrophes being to be for ever abhorred I conclude that God's Decrees must needs be Immutable as long as there is any Stability in his Eternity Infallibility in his Prescience Sureness in his Grace and Truth or Immortality in his Life or Essence 4. The Decrees of God are crowned with Infallibility as to the Event the Event is so certain that the Spirit of God in Scripture speaks of future things as if they were already done Behold saith Enoch in the morning of the World the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his Saints as if he had been then in the Clouds coming to Judgment Jesus Christ cries out of God forsaking and men piercing him Psal. 22. 1. and 16. as if he had then been upon the Cross with all the wrath of God and fury of men upon him Whom he did predestinate saith St. Paul Rom. 8. 30. them he called whom he called them he justified whom he justified them he glorified he speaks as if all the Elect were already in Heaven Hence God is said to be Isai. 45. 11. as the Sept. there hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Maker of things to come the Event is as certain as if it were already done Now for the understanding of this point we must distinguish of Events either they are good things or else evil viz. sins Touching the first the Decree of God is Effective touching the last the Decree of God is Permissive The first come to pass Deo efficiente the last Deo permittente but both do fall out infallibly 1. Those Events which fall under his Effective Decree do fall out infallibly This is clear upon a double Account 1. The Will of God is Causa Causarum an Universal Supreme Cause having all things under it It reigns over all the armies in heaven and the inhabitants of the earth Dan. 4. 35. The poor Sparrow is no more forgotten by it than
the great Image of Worldly Monarchy Natural Agents must be under it as the primum Movens Free Agents must be under it as the primum Liberum the Lot is the greatest Casualty and yet wholly disposed of by it Sin is the most monstrous Ataxy and yet it is reduced into order thereby Now albeit Particular and Inferiour Causes may fail of the intended Issue yet the Universal and Supreme Cause cannot be frustrated because it governs all 2. The Effective Decree of God is backed with his Omnipotence Who ever resisted his Will He that doth it must first grapple with Omnipotence The Lord of hosts hath purposed and who shall disanul it his hand is stretched out and who shall turn it back Isai. 14. 27. Can any Creature hinder the purpose of the Lord of hosts All Creatures are ready prest for his Service But if one Creature could steal away all its Fellow-creatures from him yet who shall turn back his Almighty Hand None can stay his hand nor say to him What dost thou Dan. 4. 45. His power is insuperable therefore none can stay his hand his Sovereignty is unaccountable therefore none can say What dost thou He worketh all things after the Counsel of his own Will Eph. 1. 11. and if he work who can let it Isai. 43. 13. Surely none When God's Hand and God's Counsel go together the Effect cannot fail 2. Those Events which fall under his Permissive Decree do also fall out infallibly As on the one hand without God's permission no sin can come into being If God suffer it not no man can wrong Israel Psal. 105. 14. and which is less than an injurious act Balaam cannot curse her Numb 22. 38. and which is yet less than a cursing word the idolatrous Nations cannot so much as desire her land Exod. 34. 24. So on the other hand upon God's permission sin doth follow All Nations will walk in their own ways Acts 14. 16. Nay and the Israel of God if but suffered would do so too Deut. 18. 14. If God permit it the wicked will do wickedly the Jews will fill up the measure of their sins Mat. 23. 32. wickedness will build her an house in Shinar in the Reprobate world there it will be established and set upon her own base Zach. 5. 11. And what would not a Saint do if but left in manu consilii sui Jeremy falls from praising his God to cursing his Birth-day as it were in one breath Jer. 20. 14 15. Peter falls from his profession of Martyrdom to the denial of his Master Matth. 26. If God permit sin sin follows upon it I say upon it not from it as an Effect from a Cause but upon it as a Consequent upon an Antecedent To shut up this point The Decrees of God whether as effective of Good or as permissive of Evil are still infallible as to the Event CHAP. IV. Of Gods Decree of Election as touching Men. HAving spoken of God's Decrees in general I pass on to his Decree of Election in particular this is respective either of Angels or Men pretermitting it in the first respect I shall treat of it in the second God's Decree of Election as touching Men is set forth in Scripture under various words which do not a little illustrate the nature of it 't is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because God's purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because his gracious purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because he separates or singles out some to mercy in a way of Choice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because he knows them as his own in a way of singular love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because he infallibly predestinates them to Grace and Glory and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because all is out of the pure Self-motion of his own good Will Election is that gracious Decree of God whereby out of the mere good pleasure of his own Will he chuses some certain individual men out of the corrupt mass of Mankind unto the infallible attainment of Grace and Glory in and through Jesus Christ. Now in the opening of this Description there are several things considerable viz. 1. Who is the Great Agent 2. What are the things designed 3. To whom these things are designed 4. What is the Impulsive Cause thereof 5. In and through whom it is done 1. Who is the great Agent It is no other than God himself He chuses us Eph. 1. 4. he predestinates us ver 5. Hence the Elect are called God's Elect Tit. 1. 1. and Election is stiled God's Election 1 Thess. 1. 4. the Elect are said to be God's own John 17. 6. and Election is named God's own purpose and grace 2 Tim. 1. 9. He that frames this high Design must be a God indeed a Creator of Souls and Infuser of Graces one able to provide an infinite Ransom for the satisfaction of Justice and a glorious Heaven for the patefaction of Mercy no less than an Almighty Potter able even out of the Mass of perdition to make Vessels of Mercy and fill them with Glory All Divines will at least in words confess God to be the great Agent but how the Remonstrants according to their Principles can own him as such is well worthy their consideration for they assert that the Object of Gods Election is a Believer and whether there shall be a Believer or not after all the operations of Grace ultimately depends upon the Will of Man and if so how can God chuse at all seeing the Act of his Election depends upon the Object and the Oject upon the Will of man The Remonstrants will contend That Man with his petty created Liberty cannot chuse as a man if he be under the Pre-determining Will of God and can God with his Soveraign Supreme Liberty chuse as a God if he be under the Pre-determining Will of Man And what is he less than under it when whether he shall have an Election or not depends upon the Object and whether there will be an Object or not depends upon the Will of Man Man's Will must go before and make the Object or else for want of one God's Will must stand still and not chuse at all And is this for God to chuse like himself Are not all Souls his own and may he not chuse which he pleases Is not all Grace and Glory his own and may he not do with his own what he pleases But how can he do so if as to the Act of Election he be under the Pre-determining Will of Man But you 'l say God is not under it for all this for he first and antecedently to any foreseen Faith in Man did decree in general to save Believers and Believers only as appears in the Gospel and thereby did out of his mere good pleasure set down this Law or Rule to himself That Believers and Believers only should be the Object of particular Election and so he is not pre-determined by man's Will but his own and chuses particular persons in
done good or evil Artaxerxes decreed that Jerusalem should not be built again because upon search of his Records he found that it had been a rebellious City Ezra 4. 19 21. Should God have founded his Decree of Preterition and Non-election on a Prescience of humane Rebellion the holy City of the Church had never been built nor the divine Image ever repaired therein All men had eternally lay as Sodom and Gomorrah in the dust and rubbish of Adam's Fall with a line of spiritual confusion stretched upon them Who is there that lives and sins not What man on earth hath not rebelled and vexed God's holy Spirit Even little Infants rebelled in voluntate Adae and besides Imbecillitas membrorum infantilium innocens est non animus infantium Neither yet doth final Impenitency and Infidelity do it for there is no final Impenitency and Infidelity but such as is permitted and permitted it is not but out of the Decree of Preterition and Permission wherefore that Decree cannot be caused thereby Final Impenitency and Infidelity may be considered two ways either as being in actual existence or else as foreseen by the divine Prescience but neither way doth it cause the Decree of Preterition and Permission but presuppose the same Not as it is in actual existence for final Impenitency Infidelity come into being after Permission and Permission flows out of the Decree wherefore final Impenitency and Infidelity coming after Permission are not the Cause of the Decree out of which Permission doth issue Nor yet as it is foreseen by the divine Prescience for the Decree of Preterition and Permission is that very Glass wherein final Impenitency and Infidelity are foreseen for had God made no Decree of Preterition and Permission he had seen all men repenting and believing as the fruit of his effectual Grace unto all had he made that Decree universally touching all he had seen no man repenting and believing Wherefore final Impenitency and Infidelity as foreseen do not cause but presuppose the Decree In a word I conclude That the Decree of Preterition and Permission doth merely depend upon the supreme and sovereign Will of God Neither is there any colour of Injustice in all this for 1. Non-electio as Suarez hath it non est poena ut culpam praerequir at sed est quaedam negatio gratuiti beneficii quod Deus ut supremus Dominus negare potest God may do what he will with his own Election the primum indebitum is God's own therefore he may pass by whom he pleaseth the holy Spirit the fountain of all Faith and Repentance is God's own therefore it may breath only where it lists All Souls and Graces are God's own therefore he may infuse or not infuse Graces into Souls ad placitum Neither is it imaginable that God should be obliged to give restituent Grace to fallen Man when he was not obliged to give custodient Grace to the innocent Angels If Faith and Repentance are the gifts of God may he not suspend them If he be bound to give them why is there ae peradventure put upon some mens Repentance 2 Tim. 2. 25 Why a cannot upon some mens Faith John 12. 39 Why a perhaps upon some mens Forgiveness Acts 8. 22 Why aforbidding upon the means of Grace Acts 16. 6 Why a manifestation to disciples and not to the world Joh. 14. 22 Why a Revelation to babes and not to the wise and prudent Matth. 11. 25 In short God's Election must be either arbitrary or necessary If necessary how is his Election free If arbitrary how is Non-election unjust The donation of Faith and Repentance must be Grace or Debt If Debt why is not the Veil off from every Eye and the Stone out of every Heart Why is not Grace as common as Nature and Saintship as Humanity But if Grace then where it is conferred it is freely conferred out of self-moving mercy and where it is denied it is justly denied out of unaccountable sovereignty 2. In the Permission of final sin there is much of Sovereignty but nothing of Injustice the great God is absolutus faber suae permissionis he could let legions of Angels at once drop out of Heaven into Hell he could let innocent Adam as rare a piece as he was break himself all to shivers by a fall and what may he not permit sinful Worms to do What are Creatures to him If they miscarry how many thousand thousand Worlds are there in the bosom of his Omnipotence If he suffer all Nations to walk in their own ways he doth but let a drop fall off the Bucket or a small dust fly off the ballance he doth but leave Vanity to its own lightness and a Quasi-nothing to its own nullity and defectibility If he suffer sinful Man to run into sin and that finally he doth but leave the Dog to his own vomit the Swine to his own mire the Viper to his own poyson a corrupted piece of old Adam to act 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of his own as the Expression is Joh. 8. 44. He doth but let the fountain of blood flow out the corrupt flesh putrifie the vitious womb of concupiscence conceive and bring forth and the depraved Will of man forge out its own iniquities and fetter and intangle it self with the cords and bonds of its own voluntary rebellions and what Injustice can be in all this especially seeing this Permission is not a subtraction of any inherent Grace but only a suspension of assistent Grace as de facto would impede sin If God be bound to afford such Grace where is the Charter of that engagement If he be not bound thereunto where is the Injustice of that suspension The Saints before a temptation cast down their Souls before God and cry out Nèinducas Lead us not into temptation and after a victory they cast down their Crowns before him and sing out Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through Jesus Christ. Wherefore when sin is prevented God's free Grace is to be praised and when sin is permitted God's absolute Sovereignty is to be adored 3. Justice in God is agere juxta condecentiam bonitatis veracitatis suae therefore the Decrees of Preterition and Permission must needs be just because they cross not either his Goodness or his Truth Not his Goodness for that doth not necessitate him either to diffuse one drop of Grace unto fallen Man or to prevent one jot of sin in him nor yet his Truth for notwithstanding the Decrees of Preterition and Permission all the Promises in the great Charter of the Gospel are Yea and Amen not a tittle thereof fails or falls to the ground 2. As the Decree of Preterition and Permission is from God's Will as cloathed with Sovereignty so the Decree of Damnation is from God's Will as cloathed with Justice In the former God acts as supreme Lord according to his transcendent Sovereignty in the latter God acts as a Righteous Judge according to