heart out of their bowels and give them an heart of flesh when he resolves to afford this grace unto some but not unto others let every one judge hereby whether God can be said earnestly to desire the changing of their hearts when hee resolves to forbeare that course which alone can change them No no this discourse favoureth strongly of a conceit that it is in the power of an unregenerate man to change his owne heart and of an heart of stone to change it into an heart of flesh And in this case I confesse it were very probable that God should earnestly desire it provided that any ineffectuall and changeable desires were incident unto God That when God putteth forth the second act of positive retribution viz. the rejection of the world or decree of their condemnation God doth behold and consider the world especially men of riper yeares not in massa primitus corrupta nor as newly fallen in Adam but as voluntarily falling off by some act of carelesse and wilfull disobedience To prove this I need not produce other reasons then what I have formerly alledged in the fone-going Point for when God did expresse by his oath his will and good pleasure to be not for the death but life and conversion of sinners was it not after the fall of Adam and all his posterity in him then notwithstanding the presupposall of the fall God had not yet rejected the creature but as hee there declareth himselfe still retaineth and reserveth thoughts of peace towards them even a desire of their conversion unto life Againe with whom did the Lord enter into a Covenant of life and death upon condition of obedience and disobedience was it not with Adam onely and his posterity in his loynes in the state of innocency by the law written in their heart Was it not also after Adams fall renewed to all his posterity both Jewes and Gentiles Then yet God had not cast them away in the fall though the fall had justly deserved it but expecteth yet further to see how they will yet keep this renewed Covenant with him before hee cast them off as Reprobates Even Cain himselfe the eldest sonne of Reprobation is after the fall offered acceptance of Gods hand if hee doe well Moreover is it not after the fall that the Father by his workes of creation and providence judgements and mercies c. the Sonne by his enlightening the world by his death and ministery of his servants and the Holy Ghost by his calling and knocking at the hearts of the wicked doe all strive with men even to this very end to turne them to the Lord that iniquity may not be their destruction If therefore all the Persons in the Trinity doe provide severall helpfull meanes for the conversion and salvation of the world of the world I say now after the fall lying in wickednesse surely God did not then upon the fall reprobate the world unto eternall condemnation and perdition If you say God might well reprobate the world unto condemnation upon the fall and yet still after the fall usâ— meanes for their conversion and salvation because those meanes doe but further aggravate their condemnation I answer these doe indeed further aggravate their condemnation but it is but by accident onely by their neglect and abuse of them but the proper end which God himselfe of himselfe aimes at in the use of these meanes himselfe plainly expresseth it to be not the aggravation or procurement of their condemnation but the restoring of them to salvation and life as hath been before declared So then to draw all to an head the summe of this first reason is If God after the fall doe retaine a will and purpose to restore life to the world upon an equall condition then hee did not upon the fall or upon the onely consideration of the fall reject the world of the ungodly unto their utter perdition But you see God retaineth after the fall an holy will and purpose of restoring life unto the world upon an equall condition as appeareth by his Oath by his Covenant and by his Workes therefore the conclusion which is the point in hand is evident I marvell what you meane to call Gods decree of condemnation his act of retribution retribution being an act temporall and transient the decree of God is an act immanent and eternall And therefore it is not so handsomely said to be the putting forth of an act for so much as it is immanent and not transient 'T is manifest I confesse that sin is alwayes precedent to the retribution of punishment as it is without controversie that sinne neither is nor can be antecedent to Gods decree sinne being temporall but all Gods decrees eternall And I have found it by experience to be an usuall course with our Adversaries to confound condemnation with the decree of condemnation And Junius himselfe very incongruously in my judgement calls this decree Praedamnatio to make the fairer place as I guesse for sins praecedencie thereunto at least in consideration But no necessity urgeth us to any such course and wee may well maintaine that God in this decree of condemnation hath alwayes the consideration of that sinne for which hee purposeth to damne them for undoubtedly hee decrees to condemne no man but for sinne It is impossible it should be otherwise condemnation in the notion thereof formally including sinne But I like not your expressions in the distinction you make saying God considers men in this sinne not as newly fallen in Adam but as voluntarily falling off you mean long after by some act of carelesse and wilfull disobedience When God made this decree they were not newly that is a little before fallen in Adam for that fall in Adam was temporall but the decrees of God are eternall And to consider as newly fallen when as yet they were not much lesse were they fallen is not so much to consider as to erre or feigne But like as God decreed to suffer all to fall in Adam and many also to continue both therein and in bringing forth the bitter fruits thereof even untill death so he purposed to condemne them for those sinnes but take heed you doe not make an order of prius and posterius between these decrees lest either you make the decree of condemnation precedent to the decree of permission of those sinnes for which they shall be condemned which will be directly contradictory to your Tenet here or making Gods decree of permitting such sinnes for which they shall be condemned precedent to his decree of condemnation whereunto you doe encline unawares which will cast you upon miserable inconveniences and that by your owne rule already delivered for if the decree of permitting sinne be first in intention then by the rules received by you it should be last in execution that is men should be condemned for sinne before they be permitted to sinne But the conjunction of these decrees into one as in the same
principall place whereon you insist not only by setting it in the first place but in as much as you deliver your opinion in the phrase of seeking the Lord here alone expressed But this doth nothing serve your turn For first here is no mention at all of any sufficiency and power that naturall men either by this providence of God or otherwise have attained unto for seeking of the Lord. For consider I pray the manifestation of Gods grace in his word is farre more able to inable us to seek the Lord then the manifestation of his providence in his works yet by the manifestation of his grace in his word it followeth not that as many as are partakers thereof are indued with power of seeking the Lord in such sort as to finde mercy from him I confesse that to seek the Lord is a phrase of a very generall signification not denoting any materiall action but containing onely a certain denomination which may passe upon many materiall actions and this Discourse of yours is throughout carryed in such generalities which are very apt to deceive For in genere latent multae aequivocationes And for a man to rest on such is to bee in love with his own errours But I am confident it is onely your zeale of justifying God in his waies against the imputation cast upon him by flesh and blood that makes you take hold of and content your self with such generall notions I should think that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to seek the Lord in this place in reference to Gods workes is of the same signification in the generall with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to seek the Lord in reference to his word that is the thing not whereunto we are hereby enabled but the thing whereof wee are thereby admonished As Verse 30. it is said Now hee admonisheth every man every where to repent to wit by the preaching of his Word Hee doth not say Hee doth enable every man every where to repent So The Heavens declare the glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handy-worke And that which may bee knowne of God is made manifest by his workes Rom. 1. And hee leaves not himselfe without witnesse giving rain and fruitfull seasons filling our hearts with food and gladnesse And so here Hee hath assigned the seasons which hee ordained before and the bounds of their habitations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to seek the Lord that is as I conceive to admonish them to seek the Lord forasmuch as though the invisible things of God are said to be manifested by his workes yet it is in such a manner as it requires study and deep contemplation to attaine to these invisible things of God in the most indifferent measure But say wee have power and all men have power to seek the Lord that is to search out those invisible things of God which are made manifest by his Works as many Naturalists have done and to give instance As Aristotle hath searched after an Ens primum a first being and hath found out immateriall substances and amongst them a first mover in the contemplation of whom the felicity of all the rest consists and hath delivered strange conclusions concerning his Nature Yet I deny that any man hath power naturall so to seek after the Lord as to finde mercy from him To this purpose it is not enough to know him as the Authour of Nature but wee must take forth and know him as a Redeemer and authour of Grace For I presume you wil not say that Aristotle after his most studious inquisitions after the Lord did finde mercy from him Nay this great searcher into the secrets of Nature denyed his Omnipotency for they could not bee drawn to beleeve that hee was able to produce any thing out of nothing this was the generall opinion of them all in a manner Thence hee proceeded to deny that the world had a beginning and to maintain that God wrought all that hee wrought by necessity of nature and not by freedom of will Yet this eternall power and Godhead they did acknowledge and that hee was to bee worshipped for the dignity of his nature But not either out of feare of punishment or hope of reward Such notions were rather popular then Scholasticall a manifest evidence that the world was brought to conceive more soberly of the nature of God by instinct of Nature then by discourse of reason For such as followed discourse of reason most became most Atheisticall as touching the providence of God yet all agreed in this that hee was incorruptible which was sufficient to convict them of impiety in changing the glory of the uncorruptible God unto the similitude of the Image of a corruptible man and of birds and of foure-footed beasts and creeping things And did not they profit best in the Schoole of Nature who by the observation of providence in the way of mercies and judgments were driven to acknowledge an unknown God and to erect Altars for his worship And as for seeking of the Lord so as to finde him in any comfortable manner doth not the Apostle as good as confesse despaire of such power in naturall men when forthwith hee addeth If so bee they might have groaped after him and found him though doubtlesse hee bee not farre from every one of us for in him wee live move and have our being And yet as for the Apostles finding of him in this place I should rather thinke that it is in reference to the apprehension of his nature as the Creator of all rather then of his goodnesse as a Redeemer so to finde mercy from him though you seem to aime at this interpretation Your second place is out of Rom. 1. 19. to 25. That which may bee known of God is manifest in them for God hath shewed it unto them Where In his works as it followeth For the invisible things of him that is his eternall power and God-head are seen not by but from the creation of the world being considered in his works If the Apostle had here added 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to seek the Lord and to finde mercy from him it had beene more faire for your purpose But the Apostle addes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the intent that they should bee without excuse viz. in a particular case to wit because they did not glorifie God as God but turned the glory of the incorruptible God into the similitude of the Image of a corruptible man and of birds and of four-footed beasts and of creeping things Neither do wee deny but men have power to discern the nature of God to bee incorruptible and consequently they are inexcusable in the way of Idolatry But whereas Idolatry is but the third kinde of blasphemy in attributing to the creature that which belongs to God himself And there are two sorts of blasphemy besides this One in attributing to God that which doth not become him Another in denying unto God that which doth become
I am willing to consider the strength of your Argument it is grounded upon a certaine Scripture phrase Oh that there were in this people an heart to fear me Oh that they were wise Oh that my people had hearkened unto mee c. Is it not great pity that good men and good Divines should be carried away into odde opinions upon the slight consideration of a phrase The Hebrew phrase runnes thus Quis dubis ut cor eorum sit hujusmodi i. e. ità dispositum illis ut timeant me omnibus diebus vitae suae This is Quis praestabit Who shall give or effect that such an heart were in them that they might feare mee all their dayes Now I pray consider if this were spoken properly might wee not answer God according to his owne language and say O Lord doest thou aske who shall give or make good unto them such an heart why who should doe such a worke as this but thy selfe for thou hast made the heart and thou alone canst change it we cannot change an haire of our head much lesse our heart and thou in thy Covenant of grace hast undertaken this even to be our Lord and God to sanctifie us and to this purpose thou hast given us thy Sabbath as a figne that thou the Lord doest sanctifie us to this and thou hast given us thy word which is that truth of thine according unto godlinesse which alone can sanctifie us and thou hast promised to circumcise our hearts and the hearts of our children that they shall love the Lord our God with all our hearts and as to love thee so to feare thee also and that all our dayes and to this purpose to put thy feare in our hearts that wee shall never depart from thee yea and to put thy spirit within us and to cause us to walke in thy statutes and in thy judgements and to doe them And surely if God desires such an heart to be in us hee will not false to give us such an heart seeing hee alone is able to worke such an heart in us Therefore I conclude this is not to be understood properly but figuratively And you may as well inferre out of that of the Psalmist The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous and his eares are open unto their prayers that God hath eyes and eares in proper speech as out of such places as these to conclude that humane ineffectuall desires and wishes and velleities are found in God If God transferre upon himselfe the members of our bodies in a figure of speech called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 why may hee not as well transferre upon himselfe by the same figure of speech the desires and affections of our minds especially considering that God hath made us apt to be moved and wrought upon by such passionate expressions and it is Gods usuall course to worke in all things agreeably to their natures And I make no question but such expressions are usually prevalent with true Israelites with Gods owne people not so much by the force of a passionate expression which is accommodated to the condition of mans nature as chiefly by the operation of Gods Spirit whose sword the Word of God is I doubt not but Gods will is serious what way or course soever it takes but you are very adventurous upon your Readers credulity in endeavouring to perswade him that God willeth such a gracious heart in them in whom hee means not to worke considering as I presume your selfe beleeve although this discourse of yours makes mee not a little to stagger in this mine apprehension that God alone is able to worke such an heart in any yet you labour to expedite a facile way unto our faith or credulity rather to take hold of your Proposition by a familiar comparison A father you say perswades both his sonne and his servant to be cut both being dangerously sicke of the stone but when perswasions will not serve with his sonne hee taketh him and bindeth him hand and foot and causeth him to endure it The servant hee continueth to perswade to endure the like course of cure but proceedeth no further In this case you say the Master doth seriously desire the healing and life of his servant though he did not proceed to the cutting asunder of his flesh I grant all this but I wonder not a little that your selfe doe not observe the incongruity in this comparison which on no side is sutable for the sonne in this case is made to be cut against his will that hee may be healed but God forceth no man to conversion and repentance against his will that hee may be healed for indeed voluntas non potest cogi at least in respect of actus eliciti wherein consists repentance and conversion On the other side the servant is no more willing to be cut than the son for it is not in the power of man to change the will either of servant or of sonne but this is in Gods power and with an omnipotent facility as Austin speakes Omnipotenti facilitate convertit ex nolentibus volentes facit Now put the case that the Master should know that of all the meanes hee could use to make his servant willing to endure the cutting none but one would prevaile with him and that one would prevaile with him to make him willing should the Master use all other meanes which hee well knew would prove ineffectuall and purposely forbeare the other which hee well knew would prove prevalent In this case speake freely I pray whether this man did seriously and earnestly desire the cutting and healing of his servant and not rather the contrary To put the case home unto you you know what admonition David upon his death-bed gave to Solomon concerning Shimei Thou shalt not count him innocent for thou art a wise man and knowest what thou oughtest to doe unto him and thou shalt cause his hoare head to goe downe to the grave with bloud yet withall Solomon must have a care of David his fathers oath for when Shimei came to meet David at Jordan David sware unto him by the Lord saying I will not slay thee with the sword Now while Solomon meditated on some course to take with Shimei suppose God should reveale unto him saying If thou proposest such a condition unto him to wit of building him an house in Jerusalem and to stay there and not passe over the brook Kidron hee will transgresse but if thou proposest any other like condition hee will observe it and hereupon Solomon should be moved to propose this conditon which hee knew Shimei would transgresse judge I pray whether this course proposed to Shimei were an evidence of Solomons earnest and serious affection concerning the saving of Shimei's life and not rather concerning his destruction In like sort when God perswades many by his Ministers to make them new hearts and new spirits and himselfe alone by the power of his Spirit is able to take the stony
all as it is free for God to give grace to whom he will and so to bring them to salvation the purpose whereof is called Gods election so is it enough for God to deny grace to whom he will and thereby to expose them to condemnation the purpose whereof in God is that which wee call Reprobation which as Aquinas saith Includit voluntatem permittendi peccatum damnationem inferendi pro peccato Now of this generall impotency of doing good which cleaves unto all since the fall of Adam you take no notice at all though herein consists the very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of these controversies but carry your selfe throughout in such manner as if notwithstanding that shipwracke of grace which all humane soules made in Adam it were still as much in mans power to obey God as it was before or as much in mans power to rise by repentance now after he is fallen as it was in his power to stand in his integrity and in obedience unto God before he was fallen Put the case all were true that you deliver in the next place namely that God the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost proceed in the way of admonition and exhortation to turne themselves to the Lord that iniquitie might not be their ruine yet this hinders not but that the decree of condemnation might be precedent to Gods decree of taking such a course and permitting them to resist it For upon a purpose to condemne them for such a sinne he might thereupon resolve to expose them to such a sinne And if God should first decree to permit such a sinne and then decree to condemne them for it the permission of this sinne being first in intention should by your owne rule be last in execution that is first men should be condemned for such a sin and afterwards they should be suffered to commit it Not that I maintaine any such order but onely to represent the weaknesse of your discourse approaching shrewdly to such a disorderly constitution of Gods decrees and nothing at all preventing the most harsh tenet that can be devised Againe this that here you deliver were it granted you yet doth it nothing hinder the corrupt masse in Adam to be the object of Gods decree of condemnation For albeit God the Father and God the Sonne faile not of performing all this you speak of yet if by reason of the generall impotency which is come on all they are nothing able to obey these motions of Gods spirit and withall God purposeth to deny them a further grace to make them to obey shall not this be sufficient to expose them to condemnation even for this sinne of resisting the motions of Gods spirit But now let us consider your discourse it selfe and what weight it carrieth which onely makes a shew of much but comes to nothing in the end First you please your selfe in devising distinct workes applyed to the distinct persons in the Trinitie without all ground in my judgement Wee commonly say Opera Trinitatis ad extra sunt indivisibilia Were not the Sonne and the Holy Ghost as active in the creation and are still in the workes of providence as the Father How Christ enlightned the world by his death is a mystery to me his doctrine I confesse did and much more the doctrine of his Apostles But in this ministerie of Christs servants were not the Father and the Holy Ghost as operative as the Sonne As for the knocking of the spirit at mens hearts you nothing distinguish it for ought I found hitherto from the ministerie of Christs servants in admonishing and exhorting which worke is yet the Fathers and the Sonnes aswell as the Spirits But whereas you say all this is done for this very end To turne them to the Lord that iniquitie might not be their destruction I pray you observe your owne words well all the operations you specifie are drawn from these two heads Instruction and Admonition to turn to the Lord and the end of all this you say is to turne to the Lord. Put these together that you may behold the sobrietie of this discourse God exhorts them to turne to the Lord to this end to turne them to the Lord As much as to say God exhorts them to turne to the Lord to this end that in case they obey his voice and turne to the Lord which is their part then God will performe his part also and turne them to the Lord. But what need I pray of Gods worke in turning them to the Lord after they have performed their part so well as to turne themselves to the Lord Againe if God hath a purpose to turne them to the Lord why doth he not Is it because they refuse to performe some act upon the performance whereof God would turne them to himself Now I would gladly know what act that is which God expects to be performed that so he might turne them to the Lord. I am verily perswaded your selfe are not willing to be put to designe this Is it the very act of turning to the Lord or lesse or more If the very act of turning to the Lord you fall upon a manifest absurditie before specified if lesse then turning to the Lord then 't is lesse than a good act and shall God reward that which is lesse then a good act with conversion unto him What is it to conferre grace according to the workes of nature if this be not Yet I would faine know what this act is Least of all will you say 't is more than turning to the Lord for that should suppose conversion unto the Lord already wrought and consequently no need that God should turne them to the Lord which supposeth that they were not before turned to the Lord at all The providing of severall helpfull meanes for the salvation of the world after the fall doth nothing hinder Gods reprobating of the world upon the fall unto eternall condemnation and perdition For if hee purpose to deny them grace to obey these meanes this shall bee sufficient to expose them to condemnation even for the despising of those meanes of grace which God purposeth to provide for them and accordingly the objection here proposed is sound And whereas you answere that these meanes doe aggravate their condemnation by accident onely to wit through their neglect and abuse of them I answere that this their neglect and abuse doth by necessary consequence follow upon Gods purpose to deny them effectuall grace for the using of those meanes aright like as upon Gods purpose to harden Pharaohs heart that hee should not let Israel goe it followed by necessary consequence that Pharaoh through the hardnesse of his heart would not let Israel goe But that Gods end is as you say the restoring of men to salvation and life as if God did will and purpose any such thing is utterly untrue and nothing proved by you hitherto but rather flatly contradictorie to that you have most an end delivered partly in
so qualifyed as to bee accounted a lesse degree of love and not a fruite of hatred for consider I beseech you is not this farre worse then to mischiefe a man by cutting off an arm or limb So that albeit Scripture did plainely professe that not to reprove a neighbour but suffer him to sin were an act of hatred yet it followeth not hence that hatred in this case signifies onely a lesse degree of love For certainly such an act to wit in sparing reproofe is worse by far then to give a man a box on the eare yet I presume you will not interpret that to bee hatred onely in such a sense as signifying a lesse degree of Love For certainly the fruites of love are the communications of good and not any contumelious inflicting of evill But by your leave I doe not finde that this is the Scriptures meaning in the place you aime at but rather in my judgement it seems to meet with a corrupt course of the world prone to conceive none to bee their greater enemies then such as reprove them To prevent this the Lord forbids the one to wit the hating of our brother and as expressely commands the other to wit to reprove our Neighbour manifesting thereby that reproofe may bee performed without any just suspition of hatred in him that reproveth In fine this interpretation of hatred which here you make is imbraced by Vossius in his Pelagion Story but hee doth not betray that hee is beholding to Cornelius de Lapide the Jesuite for it in his Commentaries on the ninth to the Romans And hee brings other manner of instances to prove it then you doe And so doth Junius also in Gen. 29. 31. though hee were farre enough off from applying it in the same sense to Esau as his son in law Vossius doth and the Jesuite doth before Vossius In few words your meaning is God did so far hate Esau even before hee had done good or evill that hee did not destinate unto him any saving grace as hee did unto Jacob. May you not as well say that hee did not destinate unto him glory as hee did to Jacob And even this in Aquinas his language is to hate where hee interpreteth Gods hatred of Esau before hee was born Yet you might bee pleased to goe a little further and to affirm that God did not onely not destinate unto him any saving grace but also that God was purposed to deny him such saving grace as hee granted unto Jacob and consequently hee purposed to deny him glory also if you bee pleased to gratifie your self in yeelding to this truth wee will willingly gratifie you in acknowledging that notwithstanding all this God purposed to deale with Esau according to his works As for that phrase of yours of putting him into the estate of a servant though it bee of little materiall consideration in this place yet I have sufficiently discussed it in examining your Answer to the first Doubt The Fifth Doubt Question 5. HOw may it appeare that all have a sufficiency of comming to Christ since no man can come without drawing Joh. 6. 44. 65. and hee who is drawn shall bee raised to life or since no man can come except it bee given him of the Father Which speech is a reason why wee ought not to murmure or bee offended if some beleeve not Rom. 11. 7. and since none but the Elect by the meanes of helpe and power Revelat. 2. 15. I no where say nor ever thought that all men had a sufficiency of power to beleeve or to come to Christ Far bee it from mee to avouch such ungracious Pelagianisme But this I say God giveth to the men of this world this world I say as opposed to the elect such meanes and helps of seeking after the Lord and finding mercy from him that they are sufficiently enabled by him to doe much more then they doe that way they are deprived of those drawing and effectuall means without which none can come and with which none ever failed to come to Faith and Repentance Else how shall wee understand these and sundry such like places of Scripture Act. 17. 25 26 27. Rom. 1. 19. to 25. Rom. 2. 4 5. 14 15. Luk. 16. 11 12. Act. 1. 51 52. Act. 13. 46. Matth. 22. 37 38. Luk. 19. 41 42. Ezek. 24. 13. Prov. 1. 20. to 30. 2 Chron. 36. 15 16. Hose 11. 4. Esa 5. 3 4 5. Job 33. 14. to 18. Joh. 16. 69 From all which places I gather foure Conclusions pertinent to the point in hand First That God offereth to the men of this world helps and means either of the knowledge of God in Nature or of grace in Christ and that to this end to lead them to Repentance and Salvation Thus is God said to manifest to the Gentiles that which may bee known of him by his works and by his Law writen in their hearts and that to this end to make them to seek after the Lord to leade them to Repentance to withdraw them from their courses to heale their pride and to save their soules from the pit Thus God offered to the carnall Israelites means of grace to purge them to turn them Prov. 1. 13. to gather them Mat. 23. 37. to convince them Joh. 16. 8 9. To draw them with cords of man and bands of love Hos 11. 4. To dresse them to bring forth good fruit Esa 5. 4. Secondly That the meanes God useth for these good ends are in some measure sufficient if they bee not hindered by men to bring them to the attainment of these ends for when God saith himself hee useth these meanes for these ends for us to say these meanes are not sufficient for these ends seemeth to mee to derogate from the wisdom and sufficiency of God whose works are all of them perfect Deut. 32. 4. and so sufficient for the ends for which hee wrought them Yet God forbid I should doubt of that which our Saviour telleth the Jews No man can come to Christ except the Father draw him Joh. 6. 44. by the same Almighty power and authority whereby hee sent Christ into the world The whole tenour of your Answer in clearing the Fifth Doubt looks this way as if you maintained a sufficiency of power in those whom wee account Reprobates to perform such things upon the performance whereof they should bee saved I confesse you doe not make any expresse mention of Faith but of obedience in generall and of repentance which I presume you will acknowledge will bee inseparable from Faith And that you doe acknowledge a sufficiency in them to perform Obedience and Repentance requifite to Salvation I prove thus You maintain a true desire in God of their Salvation and how can this stand with the denyall of such sufficiency as is in his power to grant Againe You expressely maintain that there is in God a serious and fervent affection not concerning their Salvation only but their Conversion also
a new heart Austin was wont to say and advise rather in this manner In praecepto cognosce quid debe as habere in correptione cognosce tuo te vitio non habere in oratione cognosce unde possis habere In Gods precept know what you ought to have in his rebuke take notice that through your fault you have it not in prayer know whence you may have it The twelfth is out of 2 Chron. 36. 15 16. And the Lord God of their fathers sent unto them by his Messengers rising early and sending for hee had compassion on his people and on his habitation 16. But they mocked the messengers of God and despised his words and misused his Prophets untill the wrath of God rose against his people and till there was no remedy I doe not deny but that it was in their power not to misuse the Prophets not to mock his Messengers but doe you not think that amongst these naughty figges some were nothing so bad and yet did not the wrath of God come upon them as well as upon others Again consider what of all this yet if they had repented had not their foulest sins hereupon been done away so that for want of repentance the wrath of God brake forth against them Now why doe you not as well infer herehence that they had power to repent and so to seek after the Lord and find mercy from him Thirdly was it not enough to bring the wrath of God upon them to bee found guilty of despising his words and hath any naturall man power to keep himself from this sin Is there any greater despising of them then to esteem so basely of them as to account them no better then foolishnesse Now is any naturall man free from this Doth not the Holy Ghost tell us 1 Cor. 2. 14. The naturall man perceives not the things of God for they are foolishnesse unto him But by the way I observe wee little agree in the notion of free will which if I bee not deceived was never accounted by the Learned to consist in ought other then in election of means As for the end according to the habituall disposition of the heart and will a man is necessarily carryed to the affection of an agreeable end agreeable I say to his own disposition Whence it followeth that albeit it bee in the power of grace alone to change the heart and renew the will yet whatsoever the unregenerate either doe or refuse to doe they carry themselves herein freely in as much as they proceed herein with choyce in respect of their own ends I come to the thirteenth out of Hos 11. 4. I led them with cords of a man and with bands of love and I was to them as hee that taketh away the yoke from their jawes and I laid their meate unto them Was not such like the Lords dealing with the children of Israel when hee took them by the hand to bring them out of the Land of Egypt Did hee not leade them with the cords of Love did hee not take off the yoke from their jaws did hee not lay Manna before them yet of them doth Moses professe that notwithstanding all this God gave them not an heart to perceive nor eyes to see nor eares to beare unto that day And in this Text alledged what colour is there to justify this your distinction namely that albeit God deprives Reprobates of those drawing and effectuall means without which none can come to faith and repentance yet they are inabled by him to doe much more then they doe in seeking after the Lord and finding mercy from him The fourteenth is out of Esa 5. 3 4 5. Judge I pray you between mee and my vineyard 4. What could I have done more to my Vineyard that I have not done unto it why have I looked that it should bring forth grapes and it brought forth wilde grapes 5. And now I will tell you what I will doe to my vineyard I conceive herein you may devise a treble ground to build upon I could wish your self had dealt plainely and argued herehence the justification of your premised distinction It might have saved your Reader a great deale of paines whereas now by the manner of your Discourse hee is driven as well to argue for you as to answer for himself that hee may keep himself from being overtaken with errour upon a generall consideration ere hee is aware The first ground may bee that God seems to professe that hee had done what hee could doe now undoubtedly hee could give them power to doe more good then they did in the way of seeking the Lord which is the thing that you affirm and therefore hee did give this power but say I God could give means also to draw effectually unto repentance and consequently hee did draw them hereunto which is the thing that your self deny and the Text it self also for instead of sweet grapes they brought forth wilde grapes Secondly you may ground upon this that God expected they should bring forth sweet grapes and upon such grounds you usually make Collections and herehence you may infer that therefore they had power to bring forth sweet grapes But this consequent is untrue by your opinion for sweet grapes must needs bee gratefull unto God and no lesse then Faith and Repentance But you confesse that God deprives them of such drawing and effectuall means without which none can come and with which none ever failed to come to faith and repentance The third ground may bee Gods resolution to lay his vineyard waste And thence you may infer that they had power to avoid such sins as were the causes thereof But consider I pray you is it not just with God to damne the world for infidelity and impenitency and will you herehence infer that it was in their power to beleeve and repent I presume you will not The fifteenth is Job 33. 14. to the 18. there wee read that God speaketh once and twice and one seeth it not even in dreams and visions of the night 15. When this will not serve the turn hee opens the eares of man even by the corrections which hee hath sealed ver 16. and that which God aimes at in this is That hee might cause man to turn away from his enterprise and that hee might hide the pride of man ver 17. and keepe back his soule from the pit and that his life should not passe by the Sword ver 18. All this represents the power of Gods grace in overcomming the hardnesse of mans heart together with the wisdome of God proceeding various wayes to the same end an instance whereof wee have in Manasses But as for any power in man to doe any more good then hee doth in seeking after the Lord here is not the least indication much lesse to justifie the distinction here devised by you I come to the last taken out of Joh. 16. 8 9. And when hee is come hee will reprove the world
of sin because they beleeved not in mee It seems you insist onely upon the latter in as much as the allegation reacheth no further The other parts being explicated in the Verses following Cannot Christ reprove the world of infidelity for not beleeving in him unlesse thereby bee acknowledged a power in a carnall man to doe more good then hee doth in the way of seeking the Lord Surely if any power in man hereto is to bee acknowledged it must bee a power to beleeve in Christ seeing infidelity is the sin whereof the world shall bee reproved by Christ and not the sin of not doing the good they could in the way of seeking the Lord. But your self acknowledge in this section that God deprives them of those drawing and effectuall means without which none can come to Faith and Repentance Much lesse doth it prove your present distinction namely that albeit God deprives them of such means without which none can come to Faith and Repentance yet they are inabled to doe more good then they doe in the way of seeking the Lord. Means of the knowledge of God wee confesse to bee partly the administration of his providence in his works which is the book of his creatures and there was a time when God did teach the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by his Works as Chrysostome observeth and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by his Writings and partly by the revelation of his word in the Scriptures And one of these meanes ever was and is afforded unto all But whereas you say God affords them to this end to lead them to salvation and repentance Here is first an incongruity which you are content to swallow to hold up your opinion For in truth the administration of Gods Providence in his works and the revelation of himself in his word is the very leading of them to that whereunto hee leads them to wit by admonition And as it is absurd to say that God doth admonish men to the end hee may admonish them so is it no lesse absurd to say that hee doth lead them to the end hee may lead them As for the things whereof hee doth admonish them repentance and salvation are ill matched And even such an incongruity doth serve your turn to blear both your own eyes and others also If these were the things God leads men to by his works and word it were but in this manner hee leads them to repentance that they may bee saved As for repentance it self admonition hereof the Apostle doth so manifestly attribute in such sort unto the ministry of his word as withall hee derogates it from the bare administration of his providence in his works Act. 17. 30. And the time of this ignorance God regarded not but now hee admonisheth all men every where to repent manifestly giving to understand that the Gentiles were not admonished till now In the time of extraordinary affliction brought upon them by the administration of Gods providence in his works men may bee stricken with feares that they have provoked a divine providence and hereupon they may bee stirred up to take a course to pacifie the wrath of God according to that counsell Non te nullius exercent numinis irae c. therefore faciles venerare Napaeas namque dabunt veniam votis irasque remittent But when they neither know God whom they have offended nor the sidne whereby they have provoked him nor the right way to pacifie him as a Jew sometimes being taken in a foule fact of collusion with the place where hee had been kindly intreated and desiring to make remonstrance of his repentance out of his familiarity with mee came to mee privatly and inquired of mee what it was to repent for saith hee I doe fast and macerate my body This manner of admonition deserves not to bee called an admonition to repentance In such a case the Athenians were sometimes brought about to erect an Altar to an unknown God as much as to say to pacifie they knew not whom nor how nor for what It is true God is said Rom. 1. 19. to manifest to the Gentiles that which may bee known of him by his works Yet not all that may bee known of him for even the wisdome of the world after all their paines and studious courses are said not to have known God no not in the wisdome of God 1 Cor. 1. 21. But his eternall power and God-head is generally made known to the world sufficiently to convict them of Idolatry â—nd the Apostle delivers no more in that place I hope wee Christians by the help of Gods Word are now adaies brought to such a measure of understanding of God by his workes that wee are able even by discourse of reason to prove many a faire attribute of God which the greatest Philosophers were ignorant of though some things are found in them concerning the nature of God which wee cannot read without admiration You adde also that God hath made manifest that which may bee known of him by his Law also writen in their hearts These you couple together though little or nothing Homogeneall The Law of God writen in our hearts is concerning mans duty no part whereof is contained in his Works His eternall power and God-head the Apostle tels us is made manifest by his works no such content doth hee make of the Law writen in our hearts Rom. 2. 14. but when you say this is done to this end to move them to seek after the Lord you fall upon the incongruity formerly spoken of For the very administration of Gods providence is the moving of them to seek after the Lord. I say the administration of Gods providence in his works moves men as the Apostle signifies to seek after the Lord. The Apostle no where refers this to the Law writen in mens hearts but you put all together and that for a speciall purpose as it serves For the phrase of seeking after the Lord Act. 17. seemes onely to import the seeking after his nature manifested by his works but you desire as it seemes to bend it to denote such a seeking after the Lord as whereby to pacifie him and to finde mercy from him In which sense you say it was farre more accommodable to the Law of God writen in mans heart then to the Administration of his providence in his works and therefore you couple both these courses together and then assign the end of them both to seek after the Lord which through the ambiguous signification thereof is applicable to both though the Apostle utters it in such a sense onely as whereby it is applyed to one course onely namely to the administration of his providence in his works Which yet I doe not conceive to proceed from any ill minde in you but out of a desire to hold our tenets up in that course of opinion which pleaseth us which is a common fault of all But with this difference some affect those opinions which are most
the inheritance of the Saints in Light Forthwith you return to the right state of the question to wit in the concession or denegation of regenerating grace but carry your self in shew very prejudicially to the freenesse of Gods grace as when you say What if no Reprobate made such use of the means and helps offered as to obtain regenerating grace Dangerously implying that there is a certain use of the means quo posito which being put regenerating grace should bee obtained As if grace regenerating were to bee dispensed according to an unregenerate persons works Of the same leaven savour your words following when you say That because they did not make better use of the means it was just with God to deny them greater means saving that here you may bee relieved by the ambiguity of the word means by shifting from one sense of it to another For if means bee taken in the same kinde to wit of outward means like â—â— it is just with God to reward the right use of smaller meanes with the bestowing of greater so it is just with God for the abuse of the smaller not onely to deny greater but to take away those smaller But as touching the granting or denying grace regenerative herein God carryeth himself meerely according to the good pleasure of his own will according to that of the Apostle Hee hath mercy on whom hee will and whom hee will hee hardneth Neither can it bee otherwise For as much as mercy in regenerating any man cannot bee shewed according unto good works and consequently the denying of mercy cannot proceed according to evill works as I have already demonstrated in the first place The Sixth Doubt Question 6. HOw may it appeare that the declaration of the equity and sufficiency of Gods justice is reall and not pretended since all things are carryed and come to passe by an absolute and unconditionall decree and providence exempli gratia that fact Act. 4. 28. 2. 23. Answer To say that God carryeth all things by an absolute and unconditionall decree of providence viz. opposing absolute to all conditions presupposed in the creature in my judgment is neither agreeing to the Doctrine of Scripture nor of our Divines who doe both teach that as God in the fulnesse of time doth administer and dispense the way of his providence so hee decreed to dispense them in the same manner from eternity Now in dispensing the performance of the Covenant of works the Lord punisheth and rewardeth the creature according to the condition of obedience or disobedience performed by it as it is at large described Levit. 26 Deut. 28. and therefore surely he decreed to carry such works of his providence upon the same conditions The places that may bee alledged to the contrary do speak of Gods Decree in delivering Christ to death for us which as it was a work of meere grace you may safely conceive it was decreed by an absolute and unconditionall decree of providence as generally the works of free grace are For either they depend on no condition in the creature or at least on none but such as God is pleased to work in us and for us And yet I beleeve that in your own judgement you think not that God did decree the death of Christ much lesse deliver him to death but upon condition of Adams fall If you say God did as well decree a sinfull manner of the death of Christ by the hands of the wicked as the death it self and that by an absolute an unconditionall decree I answer if you mean an unconditionall decree presupposing no condition in those creatures which were the wicked instruments of his death it is spoken without warrant either from those places or from any other That God gave up Judas to betray him it was the punishment of his covetousnesse and hypocrisie That God gave up the high Priests and Pharisees to conspire against him to deliver him to Pilate it was the punishment of their ambition and envy and in some of them their sin against the Holy Ghost That Pilate against his conscience gave iudgement against him it was the judgement of his carnall popularity and his worldly feare of Caesar That the common people and Souldiers cryed out against him and laid violent hands on him it was the punishment of their ignorance and infidelity Now it is out of all controversie that God doth not punish sin with sin nor decree to punish but upon condition of sin presupposed It is true indeed God worketh all things after the counsell of his will but that proveth not that God carryeth all things with an absolute and unconditionall decree of providence For it is the counsell of his will as to work the salvation of his Elect according to the Covenant of Grace freely and absolutely so to dispense rewards and punishments to the men of this world according to the condition of their obedience or disobedience There is therefore no place left for such a question viz. How it may appeare that the declaration of the equity of Gods Justice was not pretended but reall since all things are carryed and come to passe by an absolute and unconditionall decree of providence For neither are all things as it is evident so carryed and if they were I had rather such a question should come out of the mouth of an Arminian then of any godly and judicious Brother The Arminians you know upon a seeming faire pretence are wont to object against our Divines that God calleth the Reprobates rather simulate then sorio in semblance rather then in truth if hee hath before determined of them by an absolute and unconditionall decree But the same answer your selfe would return to their objection the same I return to your question with more probability yea I may truly say with more safety That no will of God is conditionall we have the concurrent consent both of our and Popish Divines For both Piscator maintaines it against Uorstius and Bradwardine demonstrates it And this condition which you speake of can be no lesse then some motive cause Aquinos hath professed that never any was so made as to affirm that there was any cause of Predestination quoad actum praedestinantis as touching the act of God predestinating and that for no other reason then because there can be no cause of the will of God quoad actum volentis as touching the act of God willing Whence it followeth manifestly that in like sort there can bee no cause of reprobation neither quoad actum reprobantis as touching the act of God reprobating and consequently no condition As for the contrary allegations out of Scripture and out of Divines I shall be content to consider them whensoever you shall produce them but I am perswaded you will not bee forwards to trouble your selfe there-about after I shall present unto you how incongruous a course you take to the justifying of that which here you affirme And not incongruous onely but
most dangerous tending manifestly to the utter overthrow of the Freenesse of Gods grace in Predestination which indeed very frequently you shake in this unhappy discourse of yours As God in fulnesse of time doth administer and dispence the wayes of his providence so you say bee decreed to dispence them in the same manner from all eternity Wee grant it willingly but what of all this you adde that in dispencing the performance of the Covenant of workes the Lord punisheth and rewardeth the creature according to the condition of obedience or disobedience performed by it or rather by the persons under it This also wee willingly grant But what doe you inferre herehence onely this Therefore surely hee decreed to carry such workes of his providence upon the same conditions Now this conclusion we embrace as readily as your selfe but this is farre from justifying the decree of God to bee conditionall Nay your selfe doe plainly expresse that the carriage of such workes of his providence is upon such conditions Not that Gods decree is upon such conditions which is as much as to say in plaine termes that the execution of his decree proceeds upon condition not the decree it selfe Yet I confesse in the same manner Arminius himselfe and his followers discourse as if they would explicate themselves in this manner of argumentation Sinne alwayes goes before damnation therefore a respect to sinne goes before Gods decree of damnation As if wee should argue thus Faith in men of ripe yeares alwayes goeth before salvation therefore a respect unto faith alwayes goeth before Gods decree of salvation Doe you not perceive by this the dangerous issue of your argumentation yet this is the very thing they aime at this is the Helena they are enamoured with But I am confident you are farre from this and would not a little grieve to understand that the Orthodox faith of some in the very point of predestination is not a little shaken by such argumentations as these And the rather because they have found such an eminent man as your selfe not onely to swallow them but in a confidentiary manner to propose them as most sound to give satisfaction unto others Therefore Aquinas fairely distinguisheth of the cause or condition of Gods will either quoad actum volentis as touching the act of God willing or quoad res volitas as touching the things willed no cause or condition thereof quoad actum volentis there may be quoad res volitas As for example to give instance in predestination no cause thereof at all quod actum praedestinantis as touching the act of God predestinating there may be a cause thereof quoad res praedestinatione praeparatas as touching the things prepared by predestination As for example Grace may bee and is the cause of glory and Christs merits may be and are the cause of grace So of Reprobation no cause thereof at all quoad actum reprobantis as touching the act of God reprobating no more then of the will of God quoad actum volentis as touching the act of God willing But there is a came thereof quoad res reprobatione praeparatas as touching the things prepared by Reprobation as sin is the cause of condemnation And indeed many confound these and thereupon professe the will of God in some cases to bee conditionall the issue whereof is no more then this That some things which God will have to come to passe shall not come to passe but upon on condition Thus Vossius understands voluntas conditionata a conditionate will which hee attributeth unto God not considering how handsomely he contradicts himself And Doctor Jackson of Providence discoursing of voluntas antecedens consequens will antecedent and consequent premiseth that the distinction is to be understood non quoad actum vokntis not touching the act of God willing but quoad ves volitas as touching the things willed though his discourse hereupon bee nothing suitable A manifest evidence that hee understood not the distinction any more then Uossius did You are willing to acknowledge that Gods decree of delivering Christ to death was absolute as a work of meere grace As for the condition of Adams fall to bee premised to this decree sure I am that is not your Opinion neither doth it become any to maintaine any decree of God to be both unconditionall and conditionall And why that sinne more then any other for which Christ satisfied should be imagined to bee premised as a condition of this decree I see no reason and if every sin must bee presupposed why not the sin of crucifying Christ This sin started Arminius and this is it and this alone which he thinkee good to except in this case I doe nothing wonder that his learning and his honesty were so well met both of a very temperate nature But albeit the fall of Adam was not preconceived to this decree of delivering of Christ to death yet I am not of your Opinion who thinke hereupon that the decree of sending Christ into the world was before the decree of permitting Adams fall concerning which I have discoursed enough while I examined how well you cleared the first doubt But when you distinguish of Gods decree to deliver Christ to death and to deliver him to a sinfull death you take a course to make mad work amongst Gods decrees As if God did first intend the generality of a thing and not till after the foresight of somewhat else intend the specialty thereof I will not tell you how undecent a course School-men conceive it to bee to attribute decrees to God of things indefinite I never found any Arminian take such a course Philosophy hath taught us duplicem ordinem naturae a double order of nature as namely nature generantis naturae intendentis in generation and intention And albeit secundùm naturam generantem communia generalia are priora specialibus in generation things common and generall are before their specialls According as a man in generation prius vivit vitam plantae first lives the life of a plant then vitam animalis the life of an Animal Lastly vitam hominis the life of a man yet quoad naturam intendentem as touching the intention the order is quite contrary that the more specialls as more perfect are first in intention And whereas intentio rerum gerendarum the intention of things to be done is for the production of things in existence and it is well known that generals can not exist but in specials nor specials exist but in particulars it is very strange that God should first intend to produce a Genius and after intend the specialty seeing nothing can bee produced but in particular You may as well say that God did first intend that Christ should die but whether a natural or violent death that was at first undetermined Secondly that God determined hee should die a violent death but whether by a judiciall proceeding or extrajudiciall that as yet was left undetermined And