such another speech in another place and concludes it with these Words Quare ergo Dominus nisi propter hoc Gallina esse voluit in sanctâ Scripturâ dicens O Jerusalem Jerusalem quoties volui te congregare ut gallina c. Our Lord and Saviour did therefore compare himselfe to a Hen rather then any other creature because of her singular expressions of love to her young ones even when they are out of her sight By these things we see how highly the Scriptures speak of Gods mercy especially in the expressions of it to Mankind To which testimonies let me adde these few more Psal 8. 4. Lord what is man that thou art mindfull of him c. Prov. 8. 31. In the children of men did the wisdome of God delight himselfe when the foundations of the earth were appoynted He took not the nature of Angells but the seed of Abraham Heb. 2. 16. When the bountifulnesse and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared Tit. 3. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the originall word is where doe we read of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 More mercifull is God to man then to all other creatures With such a mercy cannot stand such a decree absolute Reprobation being once granted we may me thinks more properly call God a Father of cruelties then of mercies and hatred then of love and the Devills names Satan and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an adversary a destroyer may be fitter for him then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Saviour which I tremble to think Doth mercy please him when he of his own will only hath made such a decree as shewes farre more severity towards poore men then mercy Is he slow to anger when he hath taken such a small and speedy occasion to punish the greater part of men in Hell torments for ever and for one sinne once committed hath shut up the greater part of men under invincible unbelief and damnation Is his mercy abundant doth it extend it selfe farther then justice when it is tackt up so short limited to a few chosen ones when 100 for one at least take in all parts of the World are unavoidably cast away out of his only will and pleasure Or doth his love passe knowledge when we see daily greater love then this in men and other creatures What Father and Mother that have not only cast off Fatherhood and Motherhood but humanity too so the Authors Copy hath it would determine their children to certain death or to cruell torments worse then death for one only offence and that committed too not by them in their own persons but by some other and only imputed unto them How much lesse would they give themselves to beget Children and bring them forth that they might bring them to the rack fire gallowes and such like tortures and deaths But to deliver things a little more closely Foure things in my conceit being well and distinctly considered doe make it apparent that this decree is incompatible with Gods mercy 1. That Adams sinne was the sinne of mans nature only and no mans personall transgression but Adams it was neither committed nor consented to by any of his posterity in their own persons 2. That it was the sinne of our nature not by generation for then the sinnes of our Grand-fathers and Fathers would be our sinnes also because we come from them and they would be our sinnes so much the more by how much nearer we are to the stock from which we doe immediatly spring then to the first root and common Father of Mankind It is the sinne of our nature by imputation only it was Gods will that he should stand up for a publique person and that in him all men should stand or fall This is generally granted by Divines and particularly by that excellent servant of God M. Calvin Neque enim factum est saith he ut a salute exciderant ommes unius parentis culpâ And a little after he saith Hoc cum naturae nequeat ascribi ab admirabili Dei consilio profectum esse minimè obscurum est And a little after thus unde factum est ut tot gentes uuà cum earum liberis infantibus aeterna morte involveret lapsus Adae absque remedio nisi quia Deo it à visum est 3. That God did pardon it in Adam who did actually and voluntarily commit it in his own person 4. That Christ came into the World to take away peccatum mundi the sinne of the World Ioh. 1. 29. That God either did or might have satisfied his wronged justice in the blood of the Covenant for all man kind and without any impeachment to justice might have opened a way of Salvation to all and every man These things being well considered will make no man I think to conclude in his thoughts that if there be any such decree God is not mercifull to man at all much lesse is he more mercifull supposing this decree to men then he is to other creatures but more sharpe and severe then he is to other creatures to the Devills themselves 1. To other creatures because the most of men are determined by his omnipotent decree to such a being as is a thousand times worse then no being at all whereas other creatures even the basest of them though they perhaps have but a contemptible being yet they have such a beeing as is much better then no being at all it is farre better not to be at all then to be eternally miserable without any possibility of the contrary for so saith our Saviour speaking of Judas It had been good for that man if he never had been borne Men would not have accepted of life and being when first they entred upon possession of it if they had known upon what hard conditions it was to be tendred and that it was to be charged with such an interest as can no waies be recompensed by the benefits of life or did men firmely believe this decree they would at adventure with Job curse their birth-day be willingly released from the right of creatures and desire that their immortall soules might vanish into nothing What Minutius saith of Pagans might be truly affirmed of men in generall Malunt extingui penitus quam ad supplicia reparari Nay Parents out of pitty to their Children would wish that they might be borne Snakes and Toads rather then men and creatures whose being shall at last be resolved into nothing rather then immortall Spirits 2. Then to the very Devills also who are set forth in Scripture to be the greatest spectacles of Gods wrath and irefull severity In one thing this decree makes most men and Devills equall Utrisque desperata salus they are both sure to be damned but in three things men are in a farre worse condition by it 1. In their appoyntment to Hell not for their own proper personall sinnes for which the Devills suffer but for the sinnes of
things and for thy will sake they have bee and are created And albeit men faile in giving God the glory of his power and wisdome as they should will it follow herehence that God is not so much to be glorified for his power and wisdome as for mercy justice and truth yet who falles in this that failes not in the use of the Lords Prayer the conclusion whereof is this For thine is the Kingdome and power and glory And indeed albeit Power and Wisdome may be shewed other waies then in the way of mercy justice and truth yet Gods mercy justice and truth cannot be shewed without the simultaneous demonstration of his power and wisdome And therefore when God comes to make good his gracious promise for the delivering of Israel out of Egypt which cannot be denied to have been a singular work of mercy justice and truth the Lord professeth that then he would make himselfe known unto them by the name Jehovah by which name he was not known before The Incarnation of the Sonne of God was it not an admirable work as well in the way of power and wisdome as in the way of mercy justice and truth I am apt to confound Gods justice with his truth ere I am aware without having that awfull regard to the authority of this writer as perhaps may seem fit But I hope it is a pardonable fault considering my education hitherto in divinity whereby I have attained only thus farre to the acknowledgement of justice Divine for justice consisteth in giving every one his due now this due being either in respect of God or the creature Justice Divine in giving God his due Aquinas hath taught me that it is all one with Gods wisdome promoting his ends by congruous means justice Divine in giving the creature his due I have learnt to depend wholy on Gods determination manifested by his promises and threatnings and this is commonly called justitia fidelitatis which I take to be all one with truth But I am very willing to be better informed by this Author and I give my selfe to his contemplations to have my thoughts fashioned by them as they can and if hitherto they have not transformed me into a new Creed I cannot help that Now if it be so that Gods power and wisdome accompany the demonstration of his mercy justice and truth I cannot see how God is honoured more by the exercise of the one sort then of the other but rather on the contrary So that albeit a King is more renowned among his Subjects for his clemency equity candid and faire dealing then for his dominion and authority yet I doe not easily perceive how God is renowned more for his clemency equity c. then for his power c. yet again this seems to me a very poore argument to conclude Clemency to be a chiefe attribute of God because men doe more magnify him for that then for his Power For consider a Malefactor going to execution is called back and saved by the Kings pardon this man be sure will magnify the King more for his clemency in saving him then he would for his justice in putting him to death but will it follow herehence that Clemency is a more chiefe attribute of a King then justice Solomon the greatest of Kings hath said the Throne is established by Justice and it was wont to be said fiat justitia ruat orbis No such thing is said of Mercy Then again the King could not doe this but by vertue of his prerogative yet the Malefactor magnifies him not for his prerogative but for the favourable use of it for his good for that is all he respects yet aske I pray any man of judgement which is the chiefer attribute of a King and more glorious of the two his prerogative or his clemency Clemency is a very vulgar vertue but the royall prerogative is peculiar to one A Thiefe after a robbery committed on the high-way meeting with a begger that beggeth a penny if he astonish him with the gift of twelve pence the begger is very likely more highly to magnify him then any honest man going on the way that bestowes but an halfe penny upon him yet Whose liberality is the greater of the two Carnall men renowne others for the benefit they receive by them not according to their true worth yet there is a farther difference humane authority may be abused and Soveraignty on earth is not alwaies joyned with good Morality much lesse with Piety but in case a man could not sinne the more honour and authority is laid upon him the more glorious should he be as being backt with the greater power to execute his goodnesse Thus it is with God it is impossible he should abuse his soveraignty yea his mercy and justice are one and the same reality with his power what a vanity then is it to discourse as this Author doth in preferring one attribute of God before another as if God were more glorious in the one then in the other But he hath farther reasons for this let us consider them 1. Power saith he is no vertue nor morally good but mercy justice and truth are I answer Though it be so yet who will say the glory of vertue is greater then the glory of power 2. Especially considering that vertue is common to the meanest 3. A little vertue joyned with power shall bring forth farre better fruits then a great deale of vertue without power 4. Though it be so in man whose power may be abused shall we transferre it to God whose power cannot be abused his power and his goodnesse being all one 5. Morall vertues denote a goodnesse removeable where it is obtainable where it is not but no such goodnesse can be found in God and consequently no Morall vertue in proper speech whatsoever is in him that being naturall and essentiall unto him 6. Lastly to power only and soveraignty we owe obedience and not to goodnesse and jurisdiction is farre more glorious then subjection Yet by the way it is untrue in my judgement that acts of Power are made good by being accompanied with justice speaking of Morall goodnesse as acts of vertue alone they are morally good not as acts of power If justum oportet esse quod laudem meretur then justice if not alone yet chiefly shall be that whereby one is renowned yet herehence it followes that every act of Gods power shall laudem mereri because it is impossible that any thing he doth should be otherwise then just such a justitia condecentiae followeth all his actions otherwise we must grant that God hath power to doe that which is unjust 2. And accordingly though power humane and Angelicall may be shewed in barbarous actions yet power Divine cannot let him doe whatsoever he is able it shall not be unjust let God turne all the World into nothing another manner of destruction then that of Sauls slaying the Lords Priests or Netuchadnezzars casting the three Children into
loose and dissolute discourse is most suitable with his Genius 1. Adams sinne was no mans personall sinne but Adams true for there was no man then but Adam but all men being the posterity of Adam were then in Adam in that one person of Adam and in him all have sinned saith the Apostle Rom. 5. and without consent to sinne they could not sinne 2. When he saith this sinne of Adam was not the sinne of our nature by generation it is so wild an expression that I professe I cannot devise any tolerable sense of it That we were in Adam when he sinned it was fully sufficient to bring upon us that corruption that depth of corruption wherein we are all conceived and borne and not by imputation What Divine amongst Papists or Protestants is he that maintains that Adams sinne was the sinne of our nature by imputation This is undoubtedly one of Arminius his flowers which this Author takes up among the rest to make himselfe a nosegay to smell unto It was Gods will that all should stand or fall in him For if it had pleased him he could have destroyed Adam for his transgression and made a new stock from whom to derive the World of Mankind But resolving all should descend from him he must withall resolve that upon the sinne of Adam and of them all in him they must take from him such natures as Adams nature and therein all our natures were made corrupt by sinne excepting Gods grace to provide better both for Adam and his posterity as he thought good So that look in what sort Adams nature was corrupted by sinne in such sort must we receive corrupt natures from him Here Calvin is brought in with a robe of commendation as an excellent servant of God But God knowes his heart and the hearts of all that oppose Gods truth in these poynts T is true that Calvin saith both in respect of Gods power to have propagated Mankind from another originall then from Adam as also in respect of his power to reforme corrupt nature in whomsoever it pleased him But did Calvin think it possible for corrupt nature to propagate any other nature then it selfe is God made man after his Image and likenesse but afterwards we read that Adam brought forth a sonne after his Image and likenesse who can bring a clean thing out of that which is uncleane saith the book of Job And that which is borne of flesh is flesh saith our Saviour But doth it herehence follow or doth Calvin or any Calvinist or Lutheran or Papist say that Adams sinne is made ours only by imputation The case is not alike of other parents For Adam was created in grace and endued with the spirit of God this holy condition was lost by the sinne of Adam and we receiving our natures from him in the state of his corruption must therewithall receive natures bereaved of grace and of the spirit of God No such detriment to our pure nature was wrought or could be wrought by the transgression of any other progenitor no nor by any other sinne of Adam besides the first 3. God did pardon it in Adam upon his repentance so is he ready to pardon it and all actuall sinnes also of all men upon their repentance And God renewed Adam too of his free grace after he was corrupt and regenerated him by shewing mercy upon him But this work proceeds according to the meer pleasure of Gods will as the Apostle witnesseth saying He hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardneth 4. Christ came into the World to take away the sinnes of the World that is by satisfaction for sinne to merit the pardon of it nor pardon of sinne only but salvation of soule also but for whom surely for none but such as should sooner or latter believe in him for God hath ordained that these benefits of Christs death and obedience should not be distributed absolutely but conditionally to wit upon the condition of faith But as for the benefits of faith and repentance these are not benefits communicable upon a condition for what condition can precede them but a worke of man and it was condemned 1200 years agoe to say grace is given according unto merits that Bellarmine interprets simply of works though Papists are apt enough to stand for merits and the Apostle saith in plain tearmes that God doth not call us according unto works these therefore are communicated according to the meere pleasure of Gods will He might have given faith to all but he would not I will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion Exod. 33. These things he saith being well considered will make any man as he thinks to conclude in his thoughts that if there be any such decree God is not mercifull to men at all A most unshamefac't pretence and savouring of a spirit that hath expectorated all naturall ingenuity doth not every one perceive that all this nothing at all hinders the incomprehensible nature of Gods mercy towards his Elect Dares he himselfe in plain termes deny this namely that it nothing prejudiceth the course of Gods mercy towards his Elect For what if by the sinne wherein they are borne they be made guilty of eternall death yet if God be pleased to pardon this sinne nor this only but all actuall transgressions of theirs yea and break the yoake of their corruption and as he seeth their wayes so to heale them yea to heale their rebellions and backslidings to subdue their iniquities to rule them with a mighty hand to make them passe under the rod and bring them unto the bond of the covenant and when he hath brought them thither to hold them there to perfect the good work he hath begun in them As he hath laid the foundation of his temple in their hearts so to finish it to be the Author and finisher of their faith and as of their faith so of their repentance to hold them in his hands so that none shall take them therehence to keep them by the power of God through faith unto salvation to build them upon a rock that the gates of hell shall not prevaile against them either to deliver them from the howre of temptation or to deliver them out of it or so to order it that it shall not be above their strength to be with them when they goe through the water and through the fire that the floods shall not overwhelme them the fire shall not burne them but as he leads them into it so he will support them in it and lead them through it as he led the Children of Israel into the red sea and in the red sea as an horse in the Wildernesse that they should not stumble and out of the red sea into the Wildernesse and in the Wildernesse and out of the Wildernesse In a word to fulfill the good pleasure of his goodnesse towards them his grace in them
to have abstained from many of those foule sinnes yea from all of them wherewith God doth upbraid them albeit to abstaine from any sinne in a gracious manner be a worke of Gods speciall grace which he affords not according to mens workes which way tends all this eager but superficiary discourse but according to his own purpose and grace 3. Hosea 11. 8. God represents as it were a conflict within him between his mercy and justice and his mercy hath the glory of the day But wherein To spare them though their sinnes deserved at his hands that he should make them as Adma and Zeboim as Sodome and Gomorrah He would rather shew himselfe to be as he is God and and not Man And wherein But in this man may pardon his enemy but cannot change his heart it is otherwise with God he can both pardon our sinnes and change our hearts and to this purpose he becomes our Lord and our God and walkes in the midst of us as the holy one of Israell to sanctify us as it followeth in the same place of Hosea v. 10. They shall walk after the Lord he shall roare like a Lyon viz. In such expostulations comminations c. but the issue shall be gracious for when he shall reare then the children of the West shall feare that is feare unto him as Hos 3. 5. That is come flying unto him and to his goodnesse with feare like Birds scared from one place fly with greater speed to another so conscience affrighted with sense of sinne and apprehension of Gods wrath shall fly from his wrath unto his mercy to his goodnesse whereof God shall make unto them a full representation in David their King that is in Christ as in whom we behold the glory of Gods grace with open face and trepidare in Latine is found to be of the same signification with festinare And v. 11. Is manifested as much as where it is said They shall feare as a sparrow out of Egypt and as a Dove out of the land of Egypt and I will place them in their houses saith the Lord. That is come flying unto the Lord with feare As for that Math. 23. 37. O Jerusalem how oft would I c. This is of another nature as being delivered by Christ the sonne of God made under the Law who as in his manhood he might entertaine such desires in proper speech so by the Law of God was bound to desire the conversion of his brethren as well as any other Prophet or man of God or minister of his word But such confusion becomes this discourse right well In all this he saith there is little sincerity if there be a secret resolution that the most of these towards whom those wishes chidings and commiserations are used shall be unavoydably damned But what if but one of them towards whom these are used by a secret resolution shall be unavoydably damned is there sincerity enough in these courses divine Sureif this resolution concerning the unavoydable damnation of the one doth not prejudice Gods sincerity neither shall such a resolution concerning the damnation of two or of two hundred or thousands or the most any way prejudice sincerity divine But this kind of discourse is spread all over this Treatise like a scab only to worke upon vulgar affection where judgement is wanting to observe the frothy condition of it And whereas he saith that in all this God aliud animo vult aliud verbis significat its most untrue as to every one should be made manifest according to the right understanding of it had he been pleased to accommodate it severally and shew what that is which God signifies by his word and what that is which he willeth in his heart And indeed as in the poynt of Gods commandement I have shewed there is no colour of contradiction between it and Gods purpose but only according to this Authors superficiary interpretation For to command a thing is only to will that it shall be our duty to doe it notwithstanding which it is apparent God may purpose not to give grace to worke the doing of it So in every one of the rest had he instanced as it became him and shewed wherein the guile consisted the absurdity of this crimination might have been made as manifest as in this That which he conceales and which he would have his readers rather take to themselves than shew himselfe clearely to stand to the maintainance thereof seems to be this that every one hath power given him to believe to repent to change his heart yea to regenerate himselfe but it sticks in his teeth and he dares not speake it out plainly Only he keepes himselfe to Gods resolution concerning mans unavoydable damnation yet we maintaine not that any contingent things come to passe unavoydably that were utterly against the nature of a contingent thing which is to come to passe so as joyned with a possibility of not coming to passe And as for damnation in particular we acknowledge it throughout to be avoydable by repentance and not otherwise unto men of ripe years And as for repentance we say that there is no man but may repent as long as he lives through grace so that in the issue the maine poynt to be debated herein is whether every man living hath such a grace given him as whereby he may repent But upon this poynt though his whole discourse be grounded thereupon yet is he content to say just nothing least their shamefull and most unconscionable courses in dishonouring the grace of God should be discovered and brought to light But consider in a word or two as touching this universall grace which they make to consist in the inabling of the will to will any goodthing whereunto they shall be excited If such a grace be universall then every one hath power to believe and power to repent But this is untrue for the Apostle telleth us of some that they cannot repent Rom. 2. 4. of the naturall man that he cannot discerne the things of God and that they are foolishnesse unto him and while they seeme foolishnesse unto him is it possible that therein he should discerne the wisdome of God 1 Cor. 2. 14. our Saviour tells us of some that they cannot believe Ioh. 12. 46. and tells others to their face saying How can you believe when ye receive honour one of another and seeke not the honour that comes from God only Ioh. 5. 44. Likewise of them that are in the flesh Saint Paul saith They cannot please God Rom. 8. 8. 2. It is the habit of faith that inables us to believe so that if all men have power to believe it must be confessed that all men have faith but the Apostle saith Fides non est omnium 2 Thes 3. 2. Tit. 1. 1. he saith it is electorum like as Austin professeth Habere fidem sicut habere charitatem gratiae est fidelium de praedest Sanct. cap. 5. 3. Whosoever hath power to
the word of God But Ecce Rhodus ecce Saltus we are come to the Dialogue it selfe where he undertakes to make good that which he saith And here begins the Enterlude Tempted Woe is me I am a Castaway I am utterly rejected from grace and Glory CONSIDERATION Let me take liberty to set down what I should think fit to answer unto such a complaint Now my Answer is this Who hath revealed this unto thee Art thou privy Councellour to the Almighty We are taught that secret things belong to the Lord our God but the things revealed are for us and for our Children to doe them Now where and when and how hath God revealed this his counsell unto thee namely concerning thy rejection from Grace Glory We know no other revelations divine then are contayned in his Word Now hath God in his word revealed unto thee more then unto me that thou art a reprobate The word saith unto thee If thou shalt confesse with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved Rom 10. 9. Now how canst thou make it appeare that this belongs lesse unto thee then to any Martyr that ever was content to lay downe his life for Christ Wilt thou say Thy sinnes make thee to conceive so I answer are thy sinnes greater then were the sinnes of Manasses who made his sonnes passe through the fire to Molech gave himselfe to witchcraft and sorcery and filled Jerusalem with bloud from corner to corner If his sinns were not sufficient to conclude that he was a Reprobate why should thy sins be thought sufficient to conclude that thou art a Cast-away Are thy sinnes greater then Sauls were who was a Blasphemer a Persecutor of the Saints of God from Citty to Citty Yet was he received unto mercy Wilt thou say Thy sinnes have been committed since thy calling Yet are they greater then was the sinne of Peter in denying Christ his Master with execrations and oathes And these sinns were committed not only after his calling but even within his Masters hearing too Yet he went out and wept bitterly And Christ as soone as he was risen sent word of his resurrection by name to Peter to comfort him Nay hath not God taught us in his word that the bloud of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sinne 1 John 1. And how canst thou make it appeare that any one that ever was or is hath greater interest therein then thy selfe wilt thou say this remedy belongs unto none but such as believe and repent but I doe not I answere in like sort there was a time when Paul believed not and when every one believed not yet at length they believed and so maist thou wilt thou say But I cannot believe and repent I answer this is the condition of all till God takes away the stony heart out of their bowells and gives them a heart of flesh and puts his owne spirit within them wilt thou say God gives grace to others but not to thee I answer there was a time when God had not mercy on them at length an houre came wherin he called them so an houre may come wherin he may call thee And thou hast no more cause to conclude that he hath rejected thee then every Child of God had before his calling that God had rejected him without grace neither thou canst nor they could believe but grace can bring all to faith and repentance and thou hast no more cause to think that God will not bring thee to faith then any elect had before his calling to think that God would not bring him to faith Now seeing this grace is given in the Word doe thou wait upon God in his owne ordinance which any naturall man hath power to doe as namely to goe heare a sermon thou knowest not how it may worke upon thee yea though thou commest thither with a wicked mind For we read of some that comming to take Christ were taken by him And Father Latimer taking notice of some that come to Church to take a nap yet never the lesse saith he let them come they may be taken napping Minister Discourage not thy selfe thou poore afflicted soule God hath not cast thee off for he hateth nothing that he hath made but bears a love to all men and to thee amongst the rest CONSIDERATION And not only poore but miserable also is that afflicted soule that hath no better comforter whether we consider the nature of the consolation or the warrant of it For first hath not God made Froggs and Toades and Devills as well as man And hath an Arminian that boasts so much of strongest arguments of comfort no better comfort to an afflicted soule then that she is Gods creature which is the condition of a Frogge and a Divill and a damned spirit 2. Then as touching the warrant of it Is the booke of Wisdome the best store-house of comfort for an afflicted soule a booke writen by Philo the Jew that living after Christs passion resurrection and ascention yet never believed in him Againe speake out and tell us what is the fruit of that love which God beares to all men Hath he ordained to give Salvation unto all to this afflicted soule in particular If he hath not but damnation rather unto some and particularly to this soule for upon what ground darest thou say or canst assure he hath not art not thou as miserable a comforter to her as ever Jobs friends were to him Or hath God ordained to give all men the grace of regeneration the grace of faith and repentance if so then either absolutely or conditionally if absolutely then all must be regenerate all must believe and repent If conditionally speake it out and let thy Patient know what condition that is on performance whereof by man God will give him faith say what thou wilt the comfortable issue shall be this That grace is given according to workes and this indeed is the only Arminian consolation Tempted 1. God hateth no man as he is his creature but he hates a great many as they are involved in the first transgression and become guilty of Adams sinne CONSIDERATION Pooresoule suffer not thy selfe to be instructed by them that labour to deprive thee not only of the comfort of Gods grace but of the comfort of common sence Dost thou well understand what it is to hate a man as a sinner and not as a man If hatred be no more then displeasure surely whatsoever be the cause of it in hating thee he is displeased with thee as thou art his creature and that in thy proper kind of man if withall it signify punishment whatsoever the cause thereof be surely he punisheth thee as man though not for thy natures sake for that is the worke of God but for some corruption he finds in thee And we should prove very sorry comforters if on such a distinction as this we should ground any true
affection and soone found that he was little sicke in body but grievously in mind for in all other things he discoursed gravely and constanstly so as none of his familiar friends could discerne that the quicknesse of his discourse was any thing impaired Continuing still in his weaknesse many were much troubled and dayly his Chamber was full of People some curious to see and heare others were desirous to draw him to hope in the mercies of God I was present at many of his speeches with some men of honour and Learning To deliver that which I could observe I began first to note his age and his fashion He was about 50 yeares old free from the violent passions of youth and from the coldnesse of old age Nothing came out of his mouth that was light or foolishly spoken or that might discover any doting in him although he did dayly discourse of grave and important matters with the Learned and that some did propound unto him high questions especially in Divinity 2. I will briefly relate same speeches they had with him During his abode at Padua and I will not forget that he declared with a setled judgment that he did see the eternall vengeance of God prepared against the sinne that he had committed This was the true cause of his dispaire and not an ungrounded conceit of his reprobation but the conscience of his sinne cast him upon this and made him conceive he was a Reprobate For that he did find in him selfe that those things which God had given to others to rejoyce their spirits all conspired against him in despite of his horrible forfeit I doubt the phrase here in the originall was not well understood by the Traslatour For although said he that God for a great blessing had promised to many holy men a goodly issue and a great number of children in whose love and obedience they may repose their age yet in the midst of his miseries The hands and faces of his Children were as horrible unto him as the hangmans and indeed for the good of his children he renounced Gods truth for meere temporall respects It cannot well be expressed what griefe vexation he seemed to receive when his children brought him meat forcing him to eat and threatning him when he refused it He confessed his children did their dutyes and yet he tooke it in ill part saying that he did not acknowledge God any more for his father but did feare him as his adversary armed with judgment For he had been three weeks in this apprehension when he spake these things without eating or drinking but what they forced him unto the which he received with great difficulty resisting with all his power and spitting out that which they forced him to take Some of the Assistants were of opinion to make him afraid to make him the more apt to receive food first for the soule then for the body asking him if he did not feare greater and sharper torments after this life then those he then felt He confessed that he expected farre more sharpe and had already horror of them yet he desired nothing more then to be cast headlong in to them that he might not feare other more grevious torments They asked him againe if he thought his sinne so foule as it could not be pardoned through the bounty and infinite mercy of God His answer was that he had sinned against the Holy Ghost which was so great a sinne as is called a sinne unto death that is to say subject to the eternall vengeance of God and to the paines of Hell now judge I pray whether the example of Peter was sufficient to take him off from desperation for will any say that Peter in denying his Master sinned against the Holy Ghost whereof to wit the sinne against the Holy Ghost this poore wretch discoursed amply learnedly and too subtilly against him selfe Learned and Godly men which did assist him omitted no testimonies that might assure a wounded conscience that God is mercifull gentle and ready to pardon But all this could not divert him from this opinion neither could they draw any other thing from him then that he desired much that he might returne to some hope of pardon But it fares with me saith he as with criminall persons shut up in close prisons and fettered hand and foot Sometimes they are saluted by their friends passing by who advise them to breake Prison and to deceive their guards if they can Such Prisoners would gladly follow their counsell but it is a vaine desire Even so is mine said he 3. As for the Scriptures which were cited to him touching the love and affection of God the Father by reason of his Sonne Jesus Christ he did avow them adding that they belonged only to them whom Jesus Christ did repute his brethren and his members but as for him he had renounced that love and willingly rejected brotherly alliance neither was ignorant in how great tranquillity of mind they might be who had once embraced the promises of salvation and did wrest them continually therein For confirmation whereof this his sad disaster said he was propounded for an example before all mens eyes that if they were wise they should not hold it light nor happened by any chance but to learne by his ruine how dangerous it is to fall any thing from that which belongs to the great glory of the Sonne of God Adding that it was a slippery and very dangerous passage yea most fearfull to him that stood not carefully on his Guard Moreover forasmuch as such evident examples of the vengeance of Almighty God did seldome appeare to the eyes of men they deserved to be the more carefully regarded That amongst a great number of Reprobates in the World his calamity was not singular but his only punishment and ruine did satisfy God a just Judge to admonish all others to have a care of themselves He added withall that therein he did acknowledge the severity of Gods judgement who had chosen him to make him a spectacle rather then any other and to admonish all by one mans mouth to abstaine from all iniquity confessing withall that there was no reproach or punishment which he had not deserved by reason of his foule offence After he had discoursed thus sincerely and gravely of the justice Divine he said they should not take it strange this his long speech touching the true reason of the will of God for that oftentimes God doth wrest out of the mouthes of Reprobates most assured testimonies of his Majesty his justice and his fearfull vengeance How strangely doth he plead for Gods justice against himselfe as a Reprobate when our Arminians are like to blaspheame that justice of God against Spira which Spira justifies against himselfe using a long discourse upon this sentence and desirous to shew the greatnesse of Gods judgements There are some saith he who have all things so wishfully as they live in all delights who notwithstanding are registred for
eternall life by way of reward and inflict eternall death on the other by way of punishment yet in conferring the grace of regeneration of faith and repentance upon the one and denying the same graces unto the other the Lord carrieth himselfe not according to mens workes but merely according to the pleasure of his owne will shewing mercy on whom he will and hardning whom he will in which respect he is said to make men in what condition he will as Rom 9. 20. Shall the thing formed say to it that formed it why hast thou made me thus Though indeed he makes but one sort of them after a new fashion leaving the other in the state of naturall corruption wherein he findeth them And likewise is compared by the same Apostle to a Potter who out of the same lump makes one vessell unto honour and an other unto dishonour But to returne I have I trust sufficiently shewed that in all this which he hath delivered when things are rightly understood and duely considered ther 's nothing found alien from the holy nature of God no more then it is repugnant to his holy nature to decree and execute vengeance condigne vengeance even the vengeance of damnation on men for their sinnes in such sort that it shall unavoidably overtake all those that breake not off their sinnes by repentance before their death Nothing more agreeable to Scripture nor to the nature of God revealed unto us in holy Scripture then this and consequently nothing more agreeable to Christian reason But as for naturall reason God forbid we should make that the rule of our faith as concerning the resurrection of the dead and the powers of the world to come the rewards of heaven and the torments of hell where the worme never dieth and the fire never goeth out And may it not seeme very strange that a Christian and a Divine and one magnified by the Arminian party for great abilities should undertake to prove this doctrine to be contrary to Scripture to the nature of God and to sound reason Well let us proceed to observe how well he performes what he undertakes And here he saith 1. That the Scripture makes man the principall nay the only cause in opposition to God of his owne ruine We answer the Scripture makes man the only cause of his owne ruine in the meritorious cause thus man's destruction is of himselfe But this nothing hinders God from being the cause why vengeance destruction and damnation are executed upon man for he is the God to whom vengeance belongeth he delights as well in shewing judgment as in shewing mercy Indeed did we maintaine that God damnes the Reprobate whether man or Angells of his mere pleasure this Argument of his were seasonable We know full well that God of his free grace shewes mercy but judgment only upon provocation and herein he proceeds slowly too for he is slow to wrath and easie to be intreated Yet God's afflicting is not alwaies for sinne neither doth it alwaies proceed in the way of punishment when we suffer for Christ we have cause to rejoyce that he counts us worthy to suffer for his name neither were the afflictions of Iob brought upon him for his sinnes but for the tryall of his faith and to make him an example of patience to all succeeding generations and as for that of Ezech I will not the death of the wicked It is the usuall course of men of this Authours spirit thus to render the wordes whereas our last English translation renders them thus I have noe pleasure in the death of the wicked Now as a man may will that wherein he takes noe pleasure as a sick-man takes a bitter potion sometimes for the recovery of his health so God may will that wherein he takes noe delight And whether it be meant of first or second death it cannot be denied but God wills it for he workes all things according to the councell of his owne will Then againe if we consider the infliction of death as an execution of judgment God not only willeth this but delights therein also as it is expressed That of Prosper is nothing to the present purpose we treating here of the cause of damnation not of sinning we say God is the God to whom vengeance belongeth not to whom sinne belongeth Besides sinne as sinne hath noe efficient cause at all but defficient as Austine hath delivered many hundered yeares agoe It is true it is in Gods power to preserve any man from any sinne it is in his power to take any man off from any sinfull course by repentance if he will but he is bound to none he hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardeneth and in all this he is not culpable In the next place he tels us It is contrary to God's nature but what To damne men for their sinnes neverbroken offby repentance for all our divines maintaine that God is Authour of damnation to none but such and to such God is not mercyfull nor gratious nor suffers them any longer nor shewes any goodnesse towards them while they lived he did yea much long suffering and patience inviting them thereby to repentance yea and by his word also inviting many but after they dye in sinne therewithall an end is sett to the dispensation of Gods gracious proceedings with them Much lesse doe we deny him to be good and mercifull and of great kindnesse to all that call upon him For Gods mercy doth not exercise it selfe by necessity of nature but by freedome of will yet he heareth the cry of Ravens and not a Sparrow falleth to the ground without the providence of our heavenly father and the very Lyons roaring after thir prey doe seeke their meat at the hands of God These mercyes are temporall but as for spirituall mercyes for the working and cherishing of Sanctification these are not extended unto all but to some only even to whom he will And accordingly the elect of God are called vessels of mercy Yet to the execution of damnation on any he proceeds not till after death and stayes no longer so slow to wrath he is towards the worst and no more slow to the best of them Who is a God like unto thee saith Micah that taketh away iniquity here this Authour out of wisdome maketh a stoppe leaving out that which followeth and passing by the transgressions of the remnant of his heretage That restriction belike he did not so well brooke but having leapt over that he is content to take in that which followeth he retaineth not his wrath for ever because mercy pleaseth him to witt towards the remnant of his heritage of his people But I hope nought of this can hinder God from being the Authour of damnation to all that dye in sinne without repentance without any prejudice to his holinesse though he retaineth wrath for ever against them We come to his reason which he calls soūd saying that it
of men But allbeit this supercilious and confident professor be of Plutarch's mind in this I willingly professe I am not I know no naturall reason why he should delight more or lesse in the bloud of beasts then in the bloud of men Only it pleased him by the bloud of Bulls and Goats to represent the delight he took in the satisfaction made in the blood of his own Sonne We know in what errand the Lord sent Abraham three dayes journey namely to sacrifice his Sonne upon mount Moriah had not God hindred him it had been done Abraham knew no other but that it should be done when he answered his Sonne saying My God will provide himselfe of a burnt offering Abraham did not break forth in this man's language to say he would rather deny there was any God then believe he delights in bloud neither had he delighted in bloud though Isaak had been sacrificed but in the obedience of his servants Nor had Isaack received any losse by this For Abraham knew that God was able to raise him from the dead Did not Samson sacrifice himselfe Christ was content to shed his precious bloud for us and we by his grace shall be content to shed our bloud for him that according to his good will and pleasure Let heathens thus discourse who are nothing acquainted with the powers of the world to come but a foule shame it is for Christians to comply with them But how much rather saith this Authour may we say it were better to be an Atheist then to beleive or report him to be a devourer of the soules of men Yet I cannot be perswaded it is better to be an Atheist then to belive even this For I must not give ground to a confident Theologue for his bare protestation sake What is it I pray for God to be a devourer of the soules of men Is it any other then to be a tormenter of of them in hell fire Now doth not this man believe that God deals so with millions of soules Doth not he professe that the breath of the Lord as a river of brimstone doth kindle that fire what out recuydance hath possest the spirit of this Cavaliere that he should flaunt it to the world in this manner It seemes his atcheivements known so well to the world have puft him up that he swells with the conceit of it And 't is enough for him now to brave it with protestations insteed of arguments wherein having known him so well heretofore I cannot but wonder at the poverty of his spirit he will battle so long upon his credit and reputation with the world that it will crack at length and he prove bankrupt So that protest what he will no man will trust him for a groat Now in that manuscript of his which it was my hap sometime to have a view of his protestation upon the book of that saying of Plutarch was somewhat different thus I protest unto you I think it was lesse dishonour able to the blessed Trinity to say with the Atheist there is no God then to forme such a God as the decree of Reprobation maintained by the Contraremonstrants maketh him to be This protestation though it had course in private yet here it is changed that it might not see the light of the Presse For it is well known that this toucheth nearely a whole Synod of the Church reformed and that countenanced by King Iames and divers worthy Divines of this Kingdome subscribing to it some yet living and two of them in Apice Episcopali in Episcopall dignity Yet what is that doctrine of the Contraremonstrants that he pincheth upon It is well knowne that their generall tenet is that God ordaines no man to damnation but for sinne some difference there hath been and is about the ordering of God's decrees which is merely apex Logicus what my opinion is thereabouts is well known namely that in no moment of time or reason doth God ordaine any man to damnation before the consideration of sinne more particularly thus that all besides the Elect God hath ordained to bring them forth into the world in their corrupt masse and to permit them to their selves to go on in their own waies and so finally to persevere in sinne and lastly to damne them for their sinne for the manifestation of the Glory of his Justice on them of the greater mercy on the vessells of mercy whom he hath prepared unto glory inasmuch as he hath of his free grace provided better for them then for millions of others Only as touching the grace of regeneration of faith and of repentance he did not only ordaine of his mere pleasure to bestow that on his Elect and not on Reprobates but in time he doth of his mere pleasure conferre that grace on some denying it to others This doctrine is so dishonourable to the Trinity in this Authors judgment as that to deny there is any God at all he thinks to be lesse dishonourable A prodigious assertion We have the lesse cause to be moved when he preferred the annihilation of our natures before the suffering of hell paines When he seemes to preferre the annihilating of the blessed Trinity before the renouncing of his own vile fancies As for that of Eusebius true it is the god 's of Paynims sought only the destruction of those that served them and that not of their bodyes but their soules also The true God put Abraham once upon the sacrificing of his Son for the tryall of his faith and obedience but perceiving his obsequious readinesse took a course to restraine him Of him it it is true He saveth both man and beast and the eyes of all doe wait upon him and he gives them meat in due season he heareth the cry of Ravens and not a sparrow lights upon the ground without his providence The very Lyons roaring after their prey do seek their meat at the hands of God Yet if he be pleased to save our soules we have reason to submit unto him in doing what he will with our bodies which yet one day he will raise glorious bodyes when mortality shall be swallowed up of life We acknowledge no other end of man's creation and of all other Divine Acts of God but his own glory For even there where Solomon professeth God hath made even the wicked against the day of evill he withall acknowledgeth that both them and all things he hath made for himselfe God of his mere pleasure created all but of his mere pleasure he damneth none But every one that is damned is damned for his sin that willfully committed contumaciously continued by them that come to ripe yeares For as Austin saith Libertas sine gratia non est libertas sed contumacia Liberty without grace is not liberty but willfullnesse or contumacy I come to the second part of his first argument The second part of the Argument Sect. 1. Secondly this opinion chargeth God with mens sinnes
declaring God's justice in mens punishments God doth not predestiminate men to sinne as it is sinne but as a meanes of their punishment He is not therefore say they the Authour of sinne 1. A good end cannot moralize a bad action it remaineth evill though the end be never so good Bonum oritur ex integris â—end manner yea matter too must be good or else the action is naught He that shall steale that he may give an almes or commit adultery that he may beget Children for the Church Or oppresse the poore to teach them patience Or kill a wicked man that he may doe no more hurt with his example or doe any forbidden thing though his end be never so good he sinneth notwithstanding And the reason is because the evill of sinne is greater then any good that can come by sinne forasmuch as it is laesio divinae majestatis a wronging of God's majesty and to Divino bono opposita directly prejudiciall to the good of Almighty God as much as any thing can be This Saint Paul knew very well and therefore he tells us plainely that we must not doe evill that good may come thereof Whosoever therefore willeth sin though for never so good an end he willeth that which is truly and formally a sinne and consequently God though he will sinne for never so good ends yet willing it with such a powerfull and effectuall will as giveth a necessary being to it he becommeth Authour of that which is formally sinne 2. The members of this distinction are not opposite for sinne as sinne and in no other consideration is meanes of punishment If God therefore willeth it as a meanes of punishment he willeth it as a sinne his decree it determinated at the the very formality of it 3 This distinction fastneth upon God a further aspersion and loadeth him with three speciall indignities more 1. Want of wisedome and providence His counsells must needs be weak if he can find out no meanes to glorifie justice but by the bringing in of sinne which his soule hateth into the world and appointing men to commit it that so he may maaifest justice in the punishment of it 2. Want of sincerity and plaine dealing with men Tiberius as Suetonius reports having a purpose to put the two sonnes of Germanicus Drusius and Nero to death used sundry cunning contrivances to draw them to revile him that reviling him they might be put to death and herein is justly censured for great hypocrisie And so if God having appointed men by his absolute will to inevitable perdition doe decree that they shall sinne that so they may be damned for those sins which he decreeth and draweth them into he dissembleth because he slaughtereth them under pretext of justice for sinne but yet for such sins only as he hath by his eternall counsell appointed as the meanes of their ruine 3. Want of mercy in an high degree as if he did so delight in bloud that rather then he will not destroy mens soules he will have them live and dye in sinne that he may destroy them like to those Pagan Princes of whom Justin Martyr Apol 2 two or three leaves from the beginning saith They are afraid that all should be just least they should have none to punish But this is the disposition of Hang-men rather then of Good Princes And therefore farre be those foule enormities and in particular this latter from the God of truth and Father of mercies And thus notwithstanding these distinctions it is in my conceit most evident that the rigid and upper way makes God the Authour of mens sins as well as punishment And so much for the first generall inconvenience which ariseth from this opinion namely the dishonour of God I willingly professe I am to seeke what that Divine of ours is that saith God doth predestinate men to sinne as a meanes of their punishment Here this Authour is silent names no man quotes no place Like as in the former he carried himselfe in this manner The Ancients generally take predestination in no other notion then to be of such things which God himselfe did purpose to bring to passe by his own operation not of such things as come to passe by God's permission Neither can I call to remembrance any Divine of ours that talkes of God's predestinating men unto sinne But the Scripture affords plentifull testimony of God's will ordination and determination that the sins of men come to passe by God's permission Was it not God's will that Pharaoh's heart should be hardened so as not to let Israel goe for a while when he told Moses that he would harden Pharaoh's heart that he should not let Israel goe Was it not God's appointment that Absolom should lye with his fathers Concubines when he denounced this judgment against him that he would give his wives unto his neighbour who should lye with them before the sun Was it not his will that the ten tribes should revolt from Rehoboam when he protested of that businesse that it was from him Was it not God's will that the Jews and Gentiles should concurre in crucifying Christ when the Apostles professe that both Herod Pontius-Pilate with the Gentiles and people of Israel were gathered together to doe what God's hand and counsell had before determined to be done Doth not Saint Peter professe of some that stuÌ„bled at the word being disobedient that hereunto they were ordained And that the ten Kings in giving their Kingdomes to the beast did fullfill the will of God as touching this particular But that God should will or ordaine it as a meanes of punishment as if the end which God aimed at were the punishment is so absurd and contradictious unto Scripture that in my opinion it cannot well enter into any judicious Divines heart so to conceive And marke how this Authour shuffles herein for first he saith that sin may be considered either as sinne or as a meanes of declaring God's justice in punishing it And why doth he not keep himselfe unto this especially considering that not permission of sin only but the punishment of sin also are jointly the meanes of declaring God's justice And where King Solomon professeth that God made the very wicked against the day of evill in the same place he manifesteth what is the end of this namely in saying that he made all things for himselfe that is for the manifestation of his own glory And this glory is not only in the way of justice but in the way of mercy also which this Authour as his manner is very judiciously conceales this attribute of mercy lying not so open to this Authours evasion as that of justice And is it possible God's mercy and the demonstration thereof should have place where there is no sin considering that no other evill or misery had entred into the world had it not been for sin according to that of the Apostle By one man sin entred into the world death by
is well known that youth goeth before old age yet no man will say that the opinions of men in their youth are more likely to be sound then the opinions of riper age Neither doth any man call or account youth Antiquity Yet our Fathers we call our Ancients because they have gone before us but little reason there is in my judgement to count their faith the more sound by reason of such Antiquity no more then why the opinions of man in his youth should be reputed more sound then the opinions of his age For as there is a youth in man so there is to be acknowledged a youth of the world and so likewise of the Christian World even of the Church of God The Holy Ghost speaks in this language For even they who were the great Ancestors of the Jews in the daies of Jeremy are called the youth of Israell as the youth of Gods Church Jerem. 2. 2. I remember thee with the kindnesse of thy youth and the love of thy marriage when thou wentst after me in the wildernesse in a land that was not sowen Israel was as a thing hallowed unto the Lord c Ezech. 16. 60. I will remember my Covenant made with thee in the daies of thy youth In like sort the Ancients counting them immediately from the Apostles daies are the very youth of the Church Christian Now like as it is not to be exspected that a man should have as great perfection of knowledge in his youth as in his age so neither is it to be supposed that the Church of Christ should have as great perfection of knowledge in her youth as in her age This is to be understood caeteris paribus otherwise there lies a double exception against it the One in the way of Gods extraordinary mercy the Other in the way of Gods extraordinary judgement For God may extraordinarily inspire a young man with the spirit of Prophecy and so make him wiser then the aged Such was the condition of Gods exuberant grace in the daies of the Apostles enduing them with power from on high not only to instruct them with all spirituall wisdome and understanding in the mysteries of the Gospell but enabling them also to expresse it in diverse languages that so they might be able Ministers of Christ to carry the glad tidings of salvation over all the World On the other side the sinnes of the Christian world not embracing Gods Truth with love may deserve at the hands of God that he should give them over to illusions to believe lies Then no marvaile if our former light set in obscure darknesse and degenerate daies come in place of better and more noble times which may more easily come to passe considering that the light of the Gospell is a spirituall light of faith no naturall light of reason though even this naturall light of reason comes to be amended and perfected by that light of grace But it may be said that They who lived neer the Apostles daies are like to be better acquainted with the truth of God then wee I have found some to please themselves in this conceit and it runns smooth and glibb and it seems very plausible to winne approbation But as Austin saith of some things that acutule sonant but discussa reperiuntur obtusa so many times it falls out that reasons plausible at first when exploration comes prove very unsound like the fruit Solinus writes of which grew about Sodome Faire to the eye but being crushed in cineres abeunt vanam fuliginem And for the discovering of the emptinesse of this reason I proceed thus When you say of those Ancients that they were neer to the Apostles I demand whether the meaning be they were neer to the times of the Apostles or neer to the Persons of the Apostles or neer to the word of the Apostles The former two doe nothing at all conduce to the perfection of Christian knowledge or soundnesse of faith For certainly both Jews and Heathens professed enemies to the crosse of Christ were as neer to their Times and Persons as believing Christians but they were not so familiarly acquainted with their word But as touching familiar acquaintance with the word of the Apostles as also the embracing of it by faith Nothing I trust hindereth us from being as neer to the Apostles as the Ancients were Nay it is well known that as touching divers peeces of the books of the New Testament we receive them for Canonicall which many of the Ancients doubted of And as touching divers books concerning the times of the Old Testament they are discovered unto us to be Apocryphall which to many of the Ancients were not But it may be said that these Ancients to whom they pretend so much reverence which indeed is but reverence to themselves and to serve their own turnes were so neer to the Apostles that they not only were partakers of their writings but of their Preaching also by word of mouth To this I answer 1. That it is a very rare thing to meet with any such now adaies unlesse it be some counterfeit Author neither doe I find any such alleadged by any least of all by any Arminian who yet upon my knowledge doe discourse after this manner as touching their neernesse to the Apostles 2. But suppose there were any such and they should tell us what they heard preached by the Apostles shall we take their relations for Oracles and make the word of God to consist partly of that which is written by them and partly of that which is not written but delivered by word of mouth and commended unto us by tradition Then farewell the doctrine of Protestants concerning the rule of faith that it is only the written-word and let us with the Papists joyne thereunto traditions to make up a compleat Rule of Faith It may be farther said that by reason of their neernesse to the Apostles they may be better acquainted with the meaning of the word written To which I answer if so then either from the Apostles own mouthes or by relation from others Of any that report what they heard from the Apostles own mouths they alleadge none If they did what were this other then to bring in Tradition to be a Rule if not of faith yet of interpretation of Gods word which is as foule every way as the former considering that soundnesse of faith is grounded upon the soundnesse of interpretation of Gods word If only by relation from others the same exceptions lye against this and over and above this must be of somewhat farre lesse authority then the former it being so difficult a matter to report from another without adding somewhat of his own whether it be much or little as Chaucer speaketh Lastly let the Commentaries of these daies be compared with the Commentaries of the Ancients and let the indifferent reader judge which of them are most true most learned most substantiall So that I suppose I may be bold to
and that after the same way For sometimes the Doctor pleads for a revocable condition of the divine decrees For the Pope never bindes his hands by any Grant he makes and why should God bind his hands by any decree he makes especially considering that God hath more wisdome and goodnesse to manage such authority then the Pope But if it be dishonesty for a man to take liberty to break his promises I pray what goodnesse is required to the managing thereof Yet that Doctor keeps his course in discoursing of an impotent immutability and saith it is indecent to attribute any such immutability unto God whereas immutability is a notion which connotates no power of doing at all but only a power of suffering and formally denotes the negation thereof And what madnesse is it to say that the lesse power God hath of receiving change the lesse power he hath of working Yet this is not all He hath another device answerable to the latter course of this Author and that is that Nothing concerning any mans salvation or damnation is determined by God before he is borne or before his death and to that purpose he saith that God is still decreeing as if hitherto he had not decreed ought And would you know of whom he learned this Rogers in his exposition of the Articles of the Church of England a Book dedicated to Arch-Bishop Bancroft allowed by the lawfull authority of the Church of England writing upon the 17 th Article and delivering his second proposition collected therehence in this forme Predestination hath been from everlasting when he comes to set forth the Adversaries of this truth Those wrangling Sophisters saith he are deceived who because God is not included within the compasse of any time but hath all things to come as present before his eyes doe say that God he did not in the time long agoe past only but still in the time present likewise doth Predestinate 2. Consider we the reason he gives for so shamefull an assertion as touching the alterable condition of Gods decrees or as touching the ends of men as yet undetermined by God In vaine saith he is freedome in the actions if the end which they drive at be determined Here First we have a wild phrase Freedome in actions For by freedome we understand an active power of working after a certain manner which power is found in the will not in the actions Secondly a bare avouching that unlesse God as yet hath left the ends of men living undetermined or in case he hath determined them unlesse these determinations of his be alterable Freedome of Will is given in vaine as much as to say unlesse we admit of such monstrous assertions the freedome of mans Will is in vaine But we say this consequence is most untrue and we give our reason for it For whether salvation or damnation be the ends he meaneth no creature is capable of either but only creatures rationall and the one being bestowed by way of reward and the other inflicted by way of punishment each of these presupposeth freedome of Will in the parties thus proceeded with Or whether the ends are the manifestation of Gods vindicative and remunerative justice for the same reason now specified each of these doth necessarily bespeak freedome of Will in them who after either way are made uselesse on whom the glory of God is to be manifested When he addes saying Omnis actio is propter sinem This altogether concernes the ends intended and proposed by the author of the action nothing concernes the ends proposed by another And the ends of a man proposed by himselfe are either supreame or intermediate still every action deliberate for so alone it holds tends to one end or other which man himselfe intends The supream end of every one is his chief good but as touching that wherein this consists all doe not agree Some place it in wealth some in pleasure some in honour some in virtuous life By the light of Grace we are taught that as we are creatures our end which we should propose unto our selves is the glorifying of God our Creator though there were neither reward nor punishment But if there be a glorious reward to be gotten by it and a dreadfull punishment to be suffered of them that seek the satisfying of their own lusts and not the glory of God this is a double hedge unto us to keep us in the good waies of the Lord and to move us to make strait stepps unto him but surely the end of the creature still is the glorifying or God that made him God makes it his care to provide for us let our care be to glorify him for seeing all things are from him therefore all things must be for him and seeing we are reasonable creatures and know this we must goe on in conforming our selves hereunto and seeking his glory And albeit this Author may conceive that salvation is the end he aimes at yet can I not beleeve that he makes damnation the end that any man drives at Nothing being fit to be a mans end but that which hath rationem Boni which surely damnation hath not 3. His Annotations as touching the three Opinions proposed by him come to be considered in the next place and these are two 1. The Substance and Formality of them which as he saith is an unavoidablenesse of mens actions and ends whatsoever they be And in this he saith all of them agree all holding that in all things undeclinable Fates and insuperable necessity doe domincere Whereunto I answer that this is contradictory to his own premises as touching the third Opinion For against the Maintainers of Gods absolute decree he did formerly object only disjunctively that either all mens actions were absolutely necessary that is unavoidable or at least that mens ends were unavoidable which is to inferre that but one of them is avoidable but here he professeth as upon that which he had formerly delivered that by the Third Opinion both mens actions and their ends were unavoidable And as for the second Opinion of the Manichees I find no mention of the unavoidable condition either of mans actions or ends at all in the Relation thereof by those who have most studied their History And as for the Stoicks I no where find that they denied the liberty of mens will or that it was in mans power either to forbeare the doing of that he doth or to doe the things he forbears to doe but rather the contrary that they made choyce some of them at least though Austin delivers it without any such distinction to exempt the wills of men from subjection unto Fate though I deny not but that many vain discourses might be differently entertained by them having no better light to guide them then the light of nature and wanting that which God hath in great mercy vouchsafed unto us the light of grace and that in very plentifull manner Much lesse doe I find by them that any
Aquinas as touching the nature of God in resemblance to ours as the Antipodes are to us And withall I doe not find throughout his discourse following that he makes any use of these premises And indeed there is no need of them at all For if he cannot prove this Doctrine of ours repugnant either to Gods Mercy or to his Truth or to his Justice these premises will stand him in no stead and if he can prove it to be repugnant to those Attributes of his his argument shall stand in the same force as well without these premises as with them Now how well he makes good the repugnancy of our Doctrine to Gods mercy we are in the next place to consider DISCOURSE SECT II. As touching the First Speciall Gods Mercy 1. IT opposeth Gods mercy God is mercifull It is a great part of his Title Exod. 34. 6. Mercifull and gracious He is mercy in the abstract 1 John 4. 16. God is love A Father of mercies and God of all consolations 2 Cor. 1. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Saviour of men 1 Tim. 4. 10. Two waies is the mercy of God spoken of in Scripture 1. absolutely 2. comparatively 1. Absolutely and so it is set out in lofty and stately termes it s called rich mercy Ephes 2. 4. Great kindnesse John 4. 2. Abundant mercy 1 Pet. 1. 3. Love without height or depth bredth or length or any dimensions love passing knowledge Ephes 3. 18 19. 2. Comparatively It is compared with his own justice and with the love that dwells in the creatures and is advanced above both 1. It is sometimes compared with his justice and advanced above that not in respect of its essence for all Gods excellencies are infinitely good and one is not greater then another but in other things that concerne the expressions of it particularly in these 1. In the naturalnesse and dearnesse of it unto God It is said of mercy Mich. 7. 18. It pleaseth him or he delights in mercy but justice and judgement is called his strange work alienum a naturâ suâ Isai 28. 21. He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men Lam. 3. 33. 2. In the frequent exercise of it selfe Exod. 34. 6. He is slow to anger but abundant in goodnesse Mercies are bestowed every day judgements inflicted but now and then sparingly and after a long time of forbearance when there is no remedy 2 Chron. 36. 15. All the day long have I stretched out my hands to a gainsaying and rebellious people Isai 65. 2. that is I have been patient a long time and in that long day I have not been idle but employed in exhortations promises and many mercies whereby I might doe you good God waits long for mens conversion as the Marriner for the turning of the wind 3. In its amplitude or objects to whom it is extended Exod 20. 5. Visiting the iniquities of Fathers upon their children to the third and fourth generation but shewing mercy to thousands implying that his mercy is more largely extended then his justice and that look how much three or foure come short of a thousand so much doth his justice come short of his mercy in exercise of it 4. In the occasions that move God to exercise them It is a great matter that moves God to punish as we may see Gen. 6. 5 6 7 12 13. When the wickednesse of man was great upon the earth and all flesh had corrupted his way then God thinks of punishment He would not destroy the Amorites till their wickednesse was full Gen. 15. 16. Quoties volui saith Christ to Jerusalem Math. 23. 37. How often would I have gathered you that is I have not taken advantages against you nor upon the first second or third unkindnesse cast you off small matters have not moved me to destroy thee O Jerusalem But how small an occasion doth God take to spare man When God had examined Sodome and found their sinnes to be answerable to their crye yet then for tenne righteous mens sakes would he have spared Sodome Gen 18. 32. Nay he would have spared Jerusalem if the Prophet by searching could have found one man that did execute judgement and seek the truth Jer. 5. 1. What a small and slender Humiliation made him to spare wicked Ahab and his house a long time 1 King 21. 29. And the repentance of Neneve whose wickednesse cryed to the Lord for vengeance Jonas ◠2. did easily procure her a pardon Thus is Gods Mercy advanced above his justice 2. It is also compared with the affection of a Father to his Sonne of a tender mother to her child and of the most affectionate brute creatures to their young ones and set above them all It goes beyond a Fathers affection to his Sonne Matth. 7. 11. If you that are evill can give good gifts to your children how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to them that aske him What doth this quando magis imply but that Gods love outstrips a Fathers and so it doth a Mothers too Isai 49. 15. Can a Woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the Sonne of her wombe yea she may forget yet will I not forget thee Women are compassionate towards their Children because they are the fruit of their wombes and are a part of themselves but most indulgent are they toward those children to whom they are Nurses as well as Mothers to their sucking children and yet Women may forget their children their sucking children but as for God he can never forget his children And as if those comparisons were too small to expresse Gods affection to his creatures he proceeds farther and compares himselfe with one of the most affectionate Females among unreasonable creatures the Hen Math. 23. 37. O Jerusalem Jervsalem how oft would I have gathered thee as a Hen gathereth her chicken under her wings No bird saith August expresseth such tender love to her young ones as the Hen doth Videmus nidificare Passeres quoslibet ante oculos nostros herundines circonias columbas quotidie videmus nidificare quos nisi quando in nidis videmus parentes esse non agnoscimus Gallina vero sic infirmatur in pullis suis ut etiamsi ipsi pulli non sequantur filios non videas matrem tamen intelliges Ita fit alis demissis plumis hispida voce rauca omnibus membris demissa abjecta ut quemadmo dum dixi et si filios non videas matrem tamen intelligas No Fowles discover themselves to be Mothers so much as Hennes doe others when we see them in their nest with their young we know them to be Mothers but no way else but the Hen discovers her selfe to be so even then when her Chickens doe not follow her her feathers stand up her wings hang downe she clocks mournfully and goes feebly so that we may know her to be a Mother when yet we cannot see her brood He hath also
of a thousand so much doth his justice come short of his mercy in the exercise of it And upon this poore interpretation he grounds the only substantiall part of his reply to our answer to this his argument For to say that Gods mercy is rich abundant long suffering beyond apprehension is nothing to the purpose For all this hinders not but that the application of it may be and is made only to certain vessells who are called vessells of mercy in distinction from vessells of wrath Rom. 9. 22. 23. Therefore he addes That it surmounts his justice in its objects and expressions wherein what he means by its expressions I know not For I find no comparison made by him between Gods mercy and his justice in its expressions but only in respect of the objects and there the expression of justice seems more quick then the expression of mercy And as for the extention of mercy to more then justice is extended to he dispatcheth in three lines as I said of these three leaves of his discourse But let us see what force he finds in that comparison to serve his turne First he saieth the comparison is between three and foure on the one side and a thousand on the other as if the odds were a thousand to three or foure but how doth he prove that The Text compares three or foure generations to thousands not to a thousand generations but to thousands and he boldly conceives it to be understood of thousands of generations though it be much more then the World consists of from the beginning of the World to the end of it For suppose the World shall last seaven or eight thousand years how many years will he allow to a generation Suppose he allow but twenty to explode the custome of the Germans of whom Tacitus writes that Sera virginum venus which to this day is continued yet a thousand of such generations must make the World to consist of twenty thousand years But if it consist but of seaven or eight thousand years you must allow but seaven or eight years to a generation to make up one thousand generations Then againe the World was now two thousand years old when this was delivered so that it had not above six thousand years to continue and accordingly but six years was from thenceforth to be allowed to a generation And all this liberality of allowance is no more then will make the child a coat to compleat one thousand generations whereas the Text speaks of thousands in the plural number and the least of plurality is two thousand so that to help this we must allow but three years to a generation by which account they had need be married at two and have a child at three and who then should rock the cradle But leave we these fooleries and content our selves with the plain Text and not piece it out with our brainsick additions We know that for Abrahams sake who feared him and for the covenants sake he made with him he had mercy on thousands of his posterity to bring them out of Egypt six hundred thousand men from twenty years old to threescore and take them unto him to be his peculiar people which continued for the space of about 1600 years and now for 1600 years they have been cast off from being his people And of the goodnesse of God towards Abraham in choosing his seed after him even many thousands of them the Jewes had sensible experience that very day he spake unto them from Mount Sinai he did not mean to trouble their braines with any Algebra in counting up a thousand generations But suppose this were granted him yet these that feare him being only within the pale of his Church what a small handfull were these in comparison to all the world of heathens besides that hated him Marke what difference S. Paul puts between the Jewes and the Gentiles when he saith we Jewes by nature not sinners of the Gentiles Gal. 2. And the Psalmist before him Psal 147. He sheweth his word unto Jacob his statutes and ordinances to Israel he hath not dealt so with every nation neither have they known his judgements According whereunto the Apostle having demanded saying What is then the preferment of the Jew or what is the profit of circumcision Answereth thus Much every way and chiefly because unto them were committed the Oracles of God Rom. 3. 1 2. And the same Apostle doth not acknowledge the Gentiles to have obtained mercy at the hands of God untill the time of their calling by the Ministry of the Gospell Rom. 11. 30. in these words Ye in times past have not believed God yet have now obtained mercy through their unbeliefe This might suffice for answer to this argument taking it in the full strength thereof But I am content to runne over the whole discourse and to take every part of it into consideration 1. He saith God is mercy in the abstract and Love By this it is apparent that the Attributes Divine are the very Essence Divine otherwise they could not be predicated thereof in the abstract and consequently they can no more be of the same nature with vertues Morall in us then the Divine Essence can be of the same nature with an accident 2. He is a Saviour of men true and it is as true that he saveth both man and beast and as for men though he be a Saviour of them all yet in speciall sort of them that believe 3. When he saith of the love of Christ that it is without height and depth and length and breadth he doth overlash for the Apostles prayer is in the place quoted by him on the behalfe of the Ephesians that Christ may dwell in their hearts by Faith that being rooted and grounded in love they may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth height For though the height of it be such as is incomprehensible by us in this World yet the Apostle supposeth an height depth length and breadth thereof rather then denies it 4. He saith Gods Mercy is advanced above his Justice not in respect of its essence for all Gods excellencies are infinitely good and one is not greater then another but in things that concerne the expressions of it Here we have words but can any wise man draw it to any sober sense What I pray is it to advance mercy above justice in things that concerne the expressions of it He saith it is more naturall and deare to God then his justice what reason is there for this if the one be equally as excellent as the other To make this good with some colour at least he alleadgeth Mich. 7. 18. Mercy pleaseth him or he delights in it The like we read Jer. 9 24. namely that God delights in mercy and in the same place the Lord professeth joyntly that he delights in judgement But Isaiah 28. 21. Judgement is called his strange worke Now three severall times
professeth that like as God hath mercy on whom he will so also he hardneth whom he will Yet hereis much matter made of the Hen like as D. Jackson hath done it before him but he betrayes no such authority for it out of Austin as this Author doth to whom he is beholding for it himselfe best knoweth If the pedegree be enquired into their conceits may be found to be of kinne yet give me leave to say somewhat of this similitude also And first this Author commits a very great Anomaly in entring upon it with such state as proves nothing answerable to his own profession anon after almost in the same breath Marke the state I pray of his entrance hereupon thus And as if these comparisons were too small too expresse Gods affection to his creatures he proceeds farther now the comparisons preceding were taken from reasonable creatures as namely from Fatherly and Motherly affections amongst men towards their children and these comparisons he signifies to have been to small to expresse Gods affections to his creatures and that therefore the Lord proceeds farther and compares himselfe to a Hen which he saith is one of the most affectionate females among unreasonable creatures not daring to say t is more affectionate then creatures reasonable yet most improvidently carried away with affectation of a Rhetoricall flourish he faignes a gradation from creatures lesse affectionate to creatures more affectionate and presently himselfe beats out the braines of his invention before he is aware as soon as it is borne As for Austins amplification of the affectionate nature of an Hen above other creatures we may consider that Austins Tractates on John are of the nature of Sermons and therein the ancients doe accommodate themselves to popular amplifications It is true we doe not know Sparrowes Swallowes Storkes Doves to be Mothers but when we see them in their nests but what is the true reason hereof Is it not because their young ones are wild and as soon as they are apt to fly one flies one way and another flies another way they come together no more it is not so with chickens which are tame creatures and we see the carriage of the Hen towards them we doe not see the carriage of other fowles towards their young ones Yet we read not the like of a Hen as of a Storke that when her nest was on fire out of a desire to save them with her wings from the fire hath not forsaken her young ones till shee was burnt her selfe And we have seen also how a Hen hath sometimes peckt her young ones and driven them from her when they would have roosted under her And in my judgement our Saviour doth not represent his tender affection to the Jewes by the generall affection of an Hen to hers but to that particular carriage of hers in desiring to gather her chickens under her wings Neither doe I think that he who invited those mighty men but unto what unto a Hen was to expresse his singularity of affection towards them be it that God is more mercifull to man then to all other creatures whence I pray proceeds this is it not meerly from the good pleasure of his own will and if so why may he not out of the meere pleasure of his own will restraine his saving mercy to some few who are accordingly called in Scripture expressely vessells of mercy distinguished from all the rest who are called vessells of wrath Whereas he saith that with such a mercy cannot stand such a Decree as absolute reprobation We answer neither doe we say any such decree doth stand with such a mercy it is rather absolute election stands with such a mercy then any reprobation The Scripture plainly giving us to understand that they on whom reprobation passeth are not vessells of mercy but vessells of wrath But like as God though he spared not Angells when they fell nor left any way open unto them for repentance whereby to returne to his grace and favour yet he spared man and left a way open unto him to returne to his grace and favour by faith in Christ In like sort though God were pleased absolutely to elect some amongst men yet this nothing precludes him from dealing as absolutely in reprobating others that is in purposing to deny them the spirit of faith and repentance whereby they might rise after they were fallen which grace most freely and absolutely he decreed to bestow and as freely and absolutely he doth bestow on others according to that of the Apostle Rom. 9. 18. he hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardneth By this I pray judge of the insipid nature of this discourse yet see the foulenesse of his mouth unlesse God be indifferent unto all and make all vessells of mercy he is a Father of Cruelty and more properly so to be called then a Father of mercies and the very name of the Devill for so he takes upon him to interpret that name in the Revelation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Destroyer is good enough for him And the conscience of his own piety no doubt expert in Paraphrasing and shaping some Rhetoricall flourishes and passionate expressions bears him out with such confidence as to feare no Blasphemy It is very likely he hath a high conceit of these performances that he is so bold as to professe in effect that if the contrary be true then will he be guilty of as great Blasphemy as to have called God Satan yet see the absurdity that throughout he may be like himselfe of his discourse whatsoever God be accounted by him in respect of reprobates doth this any way hinder him from being the Father of mercies towards his elect who alone in Scripture phrase are called vessells of mercy His hatred of Esau doth it any way hinder his love to Jacob If to damne be to destroy and no creature hath power to damne but God only can any be a destroyer in this kind but God as the efficient cause of Damnation and destruction But in case our Doctrine holds doth he damne any but for sinne and shall he in this case be stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the sense it is delivered in the Revelation What thinks he If many thousands even all the Infants of Turkes and Sarazens dying in originall sinne are tormented by him in Hell fire is he to be accounted the father of cruelties for this And I professe I cannot devise a greater shew and appearance of cruelty then in this Now I beseech you consider the spirit that breatheth in this man dares he censure God as a Father of cruelties for executing eternall death upon them that are guilty of it Now hath not he himselfe professed that all borne in originall sinne are borne guilty of eternall death his words are these Fol. 2. p. 2. That all mankind is involved in the first sinne and the fruits thereof which are corruption of nature and the guilt of eternall death And
pleasing to them At saith he ut innotescat quod latebat suave fiat quod non delectabat Dei gratia est quae humanas adjuvat voluntates We doe not smother this truth of God that we may delude men we rather represent how all flesh are obnoxious and endangered unto God that all are borne in sinne and therewithall children of wrath and such as deserve to be made the generation of Gods curse and that it is at his pleasure to shew mercy on any only the word of God hath power to raise us from the dead his voyce pierceth the graves and makes dead Lazarus heare it and it is his course to call some at the first some at the last hower of the day Thus we desire to bring them acquainted first with the spirit of bondage to make them feare that so they may be prepared for the spirit of Adoption whereby they shall cry Abba father neither doe we despaire of any that are humbled with feare we count rather their case most desperate who are nothing moved hereby or that perswade themselves they have power to believe when they will and repent when they will we account no greater illusions of Satan then these yet these abominable opinions may be fostered by some and masked with a pretence of great piety forsooth and a shew of holinesse and a zeale of defending Gods glory and salving the honour of his mercy justice and truth 3. The third is in their obligation to believe and the aggravation of their punishment by not believing The Divells because they must be damned are not commanded to believe in Christ yet poore men must be tied to believe in Christ and their torments must be encreased if they believe not I make no doubt but this Author is as confident of his learned and judicious carriage in shaping this comparison as that the fruit of Adams sinne is the guilt of eternall death in all mankind But none so bold we commonly say as blind Bayard and it seems either he knowes not or considers not that the first sinne of Angells was unto them as death unto man that sinne placed them extra viam and in termino incur abilis miseriae as death only placeth wicked men in the like case Now we doe not say that God commands man after he is dead to believe in Christ any more then he commands obedience unto Angells since their case is become desperate The Divells are not commanded to believe or repent because God doth not nor never did purpose to damne any of them for want of faith or of repentance but for their first Apostacy from God But it is otherwise with man for God doth not purpose to damne any of them but for sinne unrepented of And therefore as good reason there is why their damnation should be encreased for want of repentance and acknowledging of Gods truth as why the Devills should be damned for their first Apostacy If perhaps as it is likely enough this Author to hold up his comparison shall fly to God decree of reprobation upon supposition whereof it was impossible that men should either believe or repent I answere first that in like sort upon supposition of Gods foreknowledge that they would neither believe nor repent it followeth as necessarily as it is necessary that Gods knowledge should be infallible that it was impossible they should believe and repent and the like followeth as necessarily of the Apostacy of Angells as of the infidelity and impenitency of man And as men are pretended to harden themselves in vitious courses upon supposition of the unalterable nature of Gods decree So Austin gives instance in like manner of one that hardened himselfe upon pretence of Gods infallible knowledge De bono persever cap. 15. Fuit quidem in nostro Monasterio qui corripientibus fratribus our quaedam nonfacienda faceret facienda non faceret respondebat qualiâ—cunque nunc sim talis ero qualem me Deus esse futurum praescivit Qui profecto verum dicâ—hat hoc vero non proficiebat in â—onum sed vsque adeo profecit in malum ut deserta Monasterii societâ—te fieret canis reversus ad â—uum vonutum tamen adbuc qualis sit futurus incertum est Secondly I answer that the like may be said of Angells upon presupposition of Gods decree to deny the grace of standing unto them which Austin professeth expressely namely that either in their creation minorem acceperunt amoris divini grattam or that afterwards the reason why the one sort stood when the other fell was this to wit because they were amplius adjuti then their fellowes and consequently the other minus adjuti And as God gave grace to the elect Angells which he denyed to others So it cannot be denied but that from everlasting he decreed both to bestow it upon the one and deny it unto the other Now howsoever I know the Arminian party cannot swallow this morsell yet by this it appears how supersiciary is that augmentation of the difference between Men and Angells wherewith this Author contents himselfe yet notwithstanding it is not want of faith alone that condemneth any man by want of Faith man is lest to the covenant of works to stand or fall according to his own righteousnesse or unrighteousnesse whereof if he faile and withall despiseth the counsell or God offered him in his Gospell is there noe good reason his condemnation should be the greater For certainly it is in the power of a naturall man to afford as much faith to this as to many a vile and fabulous relation which is farre lesse credible by judgement naturall we see both prophane persons and hypocrites so farre to believe the Gospell as to embrace a formall profession thereof and sometimes proceed so farre therein as that 't is a hard matter to distinguish them from sincere professors yet we say a true faith is only such as is infused into the heart of man by the spirit of God in regeneration Now what one of our Divines can be represented that ever was known to affirme that the damnation of any man shall be encreased because God did not regenerate him and in regeneration inspire a Divine faith into him As for our answer in generall to this argument considered in briefe and this Authors reply my refutation thereof I dispatcht in the first place Although he carrieth himselfe not fairely in relating the answer on our part in as much as therein he mixeth the consideration of justice divine which is aliene from the present purpose with the consideration of mercy divine which alone is congruous that so while he puts off the plenary justification of his reply to that which is aliene he may seem to undertake a full justification of his reply to the whole But I hope we shall be as able by Gods assistance to manifest his sinister carriage in the interpretation of Gods justice as we have done already as touching his accommodation of
course in these daies namely to temper Gods word according to the light of naturall reason whereas in the simplicity of institution wherein I have been brought up I have been taught that the light of naturall reason ought rather to be regulated by the word of God DISCOURSE SECT II. NOw for the gifts of grace they are all given to them that enjoy them for the same use and end also 1. Christ came into the world not that he might be a rock of offence at which the greater part of men might stumble and fall but shed his bloud and by his bloudshed to purchase Salvation unto all mankind not only for those that are saved but for those also who through their wilfull impenitency and unbeliefe are not saved as we may see Iohn 3. 17. God sent his sonne saith our Saviour into the world not to condemne the world but that the world through him might be saved In which words the end of his coming into the world is set downe 1. Negatively not to condemne the world 2. Affirmatively But that the world through him might be saved and therefore fully The like speech we have Iohn 12. 47. I came not to judg the world but to save it These Negatives joyned with the Affirmative deliveryes of the end of Christs comming shew that the Salvation of all men was the only end of his coming the end exclusively no other end was properly intended but this The sonne of man came to seeke and to save that which was lost Luk. 19. 10. that is every man because every man was lost And Acts 3. 26. To you hath God sent his Sonne Iesus to blesse you in turning every one of you from your iniquityes every one that is you that reject him as well as you that receive him The end of Christs coming then into the world was the Salvation of all and every one therein TWISSE Consideration IF the gifts of grace are given for the same use and end for which was given Creation and Providence to the Gentiles then look to what end the gifts of grace are given to the same end tends the making and governing of the World by God as much as to say look to what end tends the Book of Gods Word to the same end tends the Book of Gods Creatures And like as Christ came into the World for the salvation of all and every one So the book of Gods creatures was given for the same end namely for the salvation of all and every one and consequently it followeth seeing Gods wisdome prescribes congruous means to the end intended by him that the book of the creatures is a very congruous means for the salvation of all and every one But whether this Author will have that knowledge of God revealed in the book of the creatures tend only to this end like as he saith Christ came into the world only to this end I know not Sure I am that Saint Paul saith that the invisible things of God are made manifest from the creation in his works even his eternall power and Godhead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they might be without excuse In the next place he tells us positively that Christ came not into the World that he might be a rock of offence at which the greater part of men might stumble and fall but to shed his bloud and by his bloudshed to purchase salvation for all mankind c. But this Antithesis which here he makes is stark naught For this very shedding of his bloud in a word Christ crucified this very thing I say was it that was both a Scandall to the Jewes and foolishnesse to the Gentiles 1 Cor. 1. 23. And that not only the greater part of men might stumble and fall at this rock of offence but all and every one I thought it had been without all question Nay undoubtedly all had stumbled that is had been taken with unbeliefe if God in mercy had not provided better for them by the power of his grace For dare any Arminian deny faith to be the gift of God But was it not Gods will that not only the greater part might stumble but that indeed they should de facto stumble at this rock and fall and consequently that Christ came into the World with such a purpose of God concerning them I prove it thus First out of Isaiah 8. 14. He shall be as a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Ierusalem 2. Againe 1 Pet. 2. 8. The Apostle professeth that To them who are disobedient Christ is made a stone to stumble at and a rock of offence being disobedient and addeth expressely that hereunto they were ordained 3. Thirdly Did not God intend that they should not be of God as many as are not regenerated by him If he did intend this and how can a man be of God but by Gods making and how is this possible to be done without God his intending of it Then also he did intend they should not heare Christs words and consequently that they should stumble at him for therefore men heare not Christs words because they are not of God Iohn 8. 47. Yet let him winne his opinion by argument and weare it But that out of Iohn 3. 17. God sent his Sonne into the world not to condemne the world but that the world should be saved by him is a great deale too short to make the Child a coate likewise that Iohn 12. 47. is of no farther extent The terme World in each is an indefinite terme and it is in a contingent matter and therefore it is equivalent only to a particular proposition and not to an universall Had it been delivered not of the world only but of all the world nor so only but of all men in the world yet Prosper so much insisted upon by this Author hath provided to our hands a faire interpretation namely that all men in Scripture phrase is taken sometimes for all the elect only As De vocatione gent. l. 2. c. 1. Apparuit gratia salutaris Dei omnibus hominibus tamen ministri gratiae odio erant omnibus hominibus habente quidem salutis suae damnum rebellium portione sed obtinente plenitudinis censum fidelium dignitate And lib. 1. c. 3. Habet ergo populus Dei plenitudinem in electis praescitis atque ab hominum generalitate discretis specialis quaedam est universitas Yet in my judgement our Saviours words in each place tend only to shew that his coming into the World in humility was only to performe the worke of mans redemption and not to pronounce the sentence of condemnation on any as he shall doe at the last judgement when he shall come in glory And yet because much is to be done for a quiet life let us distinguish the benefits of Christs merits Salvation we know is to be conferred on none of ripe yeares but
he the Lord knoweth Now who doubts but that our doctrine of justification by faith and not by workes may be an occasion to some to abuse the grace of God unto wantonnesse such there were even in the Apostles daies but what Shall we therefore renounce that doctrine I am not yet come to the tempering of the manner of proposing this doctrine I have more to say before I come to that What difference is there in harshnesse between these doctrines If ye doe not believe therefore ye doe not believe because God hath ordained you to destruction and this If ye doe not believe therefore ye doe not believe because God hath not regenerated you Let any man shew how a doore is open to slothfulnesse more by the one then by the other especially considering the ground of all is mans inability to believe without this grace of God effectually preventing and working him unto faith Now this doctine is plainly taught and that particularly of certain persons to their faces Ioh 8. He that is of God heareth Gods word ye therefore heare them not because ye are not of God The phrase to be of God I interpret here of regeneration but both Austin of old and our Divines of late doe interpret of election and so it is precisely the same with the Preaching of reprobation in his true colours as this Author interprets it and passeth this censure upon it as opening a doore to liberty and profanenesse which may I confesse well be occasionally to carnall men or to men possest with prejudicate opinions yet here it appears plainly to be in effect the same with that which our Saviour himselfe Preached But take this withall as it may be an occasion of slothfulnesse so it may be a meanes to humble men and beat them out of the presumptuous conceit of their own sufficiency to heare Gods word to believe to repent and the like and thereby to prepare them to look up unto God and to waite for him in his ordinances if so be as the Angell came downe to move the waters in the poole of Bethesda to make them medicinable so Gods spirit may come downe and make his word powerfull to the regenerating of them to the working of faith and repentance in them And I appeale to every sober mans judgement whether to this end tended not the very like Doctrine and admonition proposed by Moses to the Children of Israel in the Wildernesse Deut. 29. 2 3 4. Ye have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh and all his servants and unto all his Land The great temptations which thine eyes have seene those great miracles and wonders Yet the Lord hath not given you a heart to perceive and eyes to see and eares to heare unto this day For is it not Moses his purpose to set before their eyes how little they have profited in obedience and thankfulnesse unto God and amendment of life by all those great workes of his in the way of mercy towards them and in the way of judgement towards the Egyptians And what was the cause of all this but the hardnesse of their hearts and the blindnesse of their eyes and to what end doth he tell them that God alone can take away this hardnesse of heart and blindnesse of mind which hitherto he had not done Might he not seem to justify them in walking after the hardnesse of their hearts by this and harden them therein by this Doctrine of his like as this Author casts the like aspersion in part upon the like Doctrine of ours Yet Moses passeth not for this so he might set them in a right course to be made partakers of Gods grace and that by the ministry of the Law to humble and prepare them for the grace of God which is the Evangelicall use of the Law And it is remarkable that in the first verse of this Chapter these words are said to be the words of the Covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the Children of Israel in the land of Moab beside the Covenant which he made with them in Horeb. Wherefore seeing the Covenant made in Horeb was the Covenant of the Law it followeth that this Covenant is the Covenant of grace and these words are the words of the Covenant of grace which is plainly expressed in the next Chapter v. 6. And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart and the heart of thy seed that thou maiest love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soule that thou maiest live And what is the usuall preparation hereunto but to humble men by convicting them of sinne and of their utter inability to help themselves and that nothing but Gods grace is able to give them an heart to perceive and eyes to see and eares to heare But yet because we doe not speake in the same measure of the spirit and of power as Moses and our Saviour did therefore we labour to decline all harshnesse as much as lyeth in our power where we see occasion is like to be taken of offence Therefore first as touching this discourse of Calvins If you believe not therefore it is because you are already destinated unto damnation I say this is untrue more waies then one First if he conceives destination unto damnation goes before Gods decree to deny faith this I utterly deny and have already proved that in no moment of reason doth the decree of damnation precede the decree of denying grace Therefore Gods decree to deny them grace is rather the cause why they believe not then the decree of damnation Secondly whether we take it of the one or of the other or of both yet the proposition is utterly untrue For it doth not follow that because a man doth not as yet believe therefore God hath decreed to deny him faith and because he hath so decreed therefore he denies him faith For he that believes not to day may believe to morrow Saul was sometimes a persecutor of Gods Church but was it at that time lawfull to conclude that because he did not then believe therefore he was destinated unto damnation so that the reason indeed is either because God hath not decreed at all to give them faith or because the time which God hath ordained for their conversion is not yet come This is so cleare that Calvin himselfe were he alive would not gainsay upon consideration Neither doth he justify this discourse but only saith we must be more wise then so to discourse to our Auditors But this Author in saying this is to set downe our doctrine of reprobation in its colours delivers that which is shamefully untrue and nothing sutable with our doctrine More necre to the matter we should say rather That like as therefore a man heareth Gods word because he is of God that is as I interpret it because he is regenerated of God so therefore men heare them not because they are not of
great or small because Gods mercy and Christs merits belong not to him In this very story recorded by Coelius Secundus and Calvin with some others who lived at that time and wrote of it to their friends as in a glasse we may see the disconsolate condition of a poore soule that is strongly conceited that the greatest part of the world are absolute reprobates and that he is one of them he sticketh so fast in the mire and clay that he can very hardly be drawne out TWISSE Consideration THis Section I may fitly divide into two parts The first whereof is a pretty Comedy The second a Tragedy The first is practised by this Authour in a dialogue shaped by himselfe and accordingly accomodated to his owne stage as an Enterlude of his owne making The Tragedy is related only of Francis Spira and I willingly confesse It is the strangest that ever I heard or read of a man going on soberly to the utter undoing of himselfe both body and soule But the relation of it is most hungryly performed by this Authour as if his care were only to serve his owne turne and then cares not what becomes of the maine condition of the story which indeed is most remarkable I have but touched upon it in former passages but here I shall insist upon it more at large and the rather because it is here proposed not more unfaithfully then impiously to deface or out-face the precious truth of God concerning his absolutenesse in making whom he will a vessell of wrath But first I must dispatch my answer to the Antegredients of those two parts And let it be remembred what formerly I have delivered that still he confounds reprobation from grace with reprobation from glory as if we maintained the absolutenesse of the one as well as we do maintain the absolutenesse of the other which is most untrue For albeit we maintaine that God hath decreed absolutely to bestow grace upon some which are Gods elect and absolutely to deny grace unto others whom we account Reprobates here upon not conditionally for if grace were ordayned to be bestowed conditionally to wit upon condition of some worke performed by man then should grace be bestowed according unto workes which in the phrase of the Ancients is all one with saying that grace is bestowed according unto merits And this was condemned above 1200 yeares agoe in the Synod of Palestine Pelagius driven to subscribe unto it lest otherwise himselfe had bin excommunicated But we doe not maintain that God hath ordayned that damnation shall be absolutely inflicted on any but only conditionally to wit in case they dye in sin Yet it became this Authors wisdom to confound them least distinguishing them as they ought to be distinguished carrying himselfe fairly in opposing the absolutenes of reprobation there alone where alone it is maintained by his adversaries to wit in the particular of reprobation from grace he should at first dash manifest himselfe to maintain that grace is bestowed not according to the good pleasure of God but according to the workes of men and that upon this ground it is that he buildeth the comfortable condition of his doctrine concerning predestination which indeed makes no difference in Gods proceedings between the elect and reprobate but respects them all alike For their power to believe and repent is their grace universall which they say is given to all alike So exciting grace in the ministry of the Word is equally made to all that heare it whether elect or reprobate And these are the kinds of grace prevenient Then as for grace subsequent that consists only in Gods concurrence unto the act of faith and repentance which depends meerely upon mans will in their opinion and God is as ready to concurre to the working of it as well in one as in another in case man will On the other side it would appeare that our doctrine is censured as uncomfortable only because it teacheth man for the obtaining of true comfort to depend meerely upon the grace of God and not upon his owne free-will Againe observe how that like as Gregory observes that the same spirit of Antichrist might be found in them that are farre distant in time so an Arminian spirit savoreth the same things one with an other and perhaps at unawars though they in whom it is found be much distant in place Vossius in his last booke of his History of the Pelagian heresy sayth That our Divines doe aleadge that place of S t Paul against their adversaries in the poynt of predestination as the head of Medusa a place indeed that clearely justifies Gods absolutenesse both in predestination and reprobation And this Authour sayeth that our doctrine on the same poynt is like to Gorgons head Now the Learned well know that Gorgon and Medusas head have no difference Now whether our doctrine be so uncomfortable as this Authour objects it will appeare when we come to examine the paroxysme and fit of temptation especially the kind of it being such as this Authour out of his fruitfull invention hath made choyce of to represent as able to elude the strongest arguments of comfort and they applyed with as much art and cunning as canne be supposing that of this art and cunning also he hath given plentifull testimony in the succeeding dialogue which is a very remarkeable passage of this Authours sufficiency especially comming out of his owne mouth Of the integrity whereof there seemes no cause to doubt considering that Arminian ingenuity and modesty whereunto he hath lately arrived He further addes as much weight to his former assertions as words can which though they be but wind yet with some who Camelion like live by the ayre may prove very weighty saying that this doctrine of ours is incompatable with any word of comfort which is very much though a word and any word be very little that can be ministred to a distressed soule in this temptation Now it is very likely that in his dialogue following he brings in as potent arguments of consolation as our doctrine will afford The heads or placss of consolation he reckons up Gods love to mankind Christs death for all mankind and the calling of poore sinners without exception to repentance and Salvation with all other grounds of comfort and all arguments he sayeth drawne from hence our opinion will elude and preclude all consolation from the distressed soule But give me leave to make a faire motion as touching the speciall heades of consolation here particulated If it shall be found that these heads of consolation doe admit a double sense one of the Arminian making an other of our interpreting if consolations drawne therefrom in an Arminian sence be eluded by our Tenet will any disparagement thereby arise to our tenet provided we find store of consolatiō from them taken in our sense especially being ready to admit any indifferent tryal concerning the sense thereof whether theirs or ours prove most agreeable to
that they shall come to passe in such a manner as joyned with a possibility of not cōing to passe otherwise they should come to passe not contingently but necessarily But it is growne to be this Authours naturall genius miserably to overreach while he keeps himselfe to his own formes inshaping the opinion of his adversaries impatient to be beaten out of them and to have his veteres avias à pulmone repelli oldgrandmothers vain conceits to be pulled out of Lastly this Authour shapeth us to make damnation an end intended by God which we conceive to be a very shallow project we know nothing but Gods owne glory that can be this end And therefore even there where Solomon professeth that God made the wicked against the day of Evill herewithall acknowledgeth that God made all thinges forhimselfe At length we have gotten cleare aboard to come acquainted with this Authours full discourse and not by patches as hitherto we have done For here he promiseth to acquaint us with the reasons that have convinced him of the untruth of absolute Reprobation as it is carried the upper way and like a Martialist a man at armes he tells us they fight against it and thus the interpolator discourseth The first part of the first Argument against the supralapsarians sect 1. They are drawen ab incommodo from the greater evils and inconveniences which issue from it naturally which may be referred to two maine heads 1 The dishonour of God 2 The overthrow of religion and government It dishououreth God For it chargeth him deeply with two things no wayes agreeable to his nature 1 Mens Eternall torments in Hell 2 Their sinnes on Earth First It chargeth him with Mens eternall torments in Hell and maketh him to be the prime principall 2nd invincible cause of the damnation of Millions of miserable soules The prime cause because it reporteth him to have appointed them to distruction of his owne voluntary disposition antecedent to all deserts in them and the Principall and invincible cause because it maketh the Damnation of Reprobates to be necessary and unavoydable thorough Gods absolute and uncontroulable decree and soe necessary that they can no more escape it then poore Astyanax could avoyd the breaking of his necke when the Graecians tumbled him downe from the Tower of Troy Now this is an neavy charge contrary to scripture Gods nature and sound Reason 1 To Scripture which makes man the Principall nay the only cause in opposition to God of his owne ruine Thy destruction is of thy selfe ô Israell but in me is thine help As I live saith the Lord I will not the death of the wicked c. Turne yee turne yee why will yee dye He doth not afflict willingly nor greive the Children of men To which speech for likeneile sake I will joyne one of Prospers Gods predestination is to many the cause of standing to none of falling 2 It is contrary to Gods nature who sets forth himselfe to be a God mercifull gracious long suffering abundant in goodnesse c. And he is acknowledged to be soe by King David Thou Lord art good and mercifull and of great Kindnesse to all them that call upon thee And by the Prophets Joell Jonah and Michah He is gracious and mercifull slow to anger and of great Kindnesse And who saith Micah is a God like unto thee that taketh away iniquity c. He retaineth not his wrath for ever because mercy pleaseth him 3 'T is contrary also to sound reason which cannot but argue such a Decree of extreame cruelty and consequently remove it from the father of mercyes We cannot in reason thinke that any man in the world can so farre put off humanity and nature as to resolve with himselfe to marry and beget Children that after they be borne and have lived a while with him he may hang them up by the tongues teare thir flesh with scourges pull it from their bones with burning pincers or put them to any cruell tortures that by thus torturing them he may shew what his Authority and power is over them Much lesse can we believe without great violence to reason that the God of mercy can so farre forget himselfe as out of his absolute pleasure to ordaine such infinite multitudes of his Children made after his owne image to everlasting fire and create them one after another that after the end of a short life here he might torment them without end hereafter to shew his power and soveraingty over them If to destroy the righteous with the wicked temporally be such a peece of injustice that Abraham removeth it from God with an Absit wilt thou destroy the righteous with the wicked that be farre from thee O Lord. shall not the judge of all the world doe right How deepely may we thinke would that good man have detested one single thought that God resolveth upon the destruction of many innocent soules eternally in hell fire Here this Authour carrieth himselfe like another Ptolomeus Ceraunus or as if he had some cheife place in the lightning legion not by his prayers but by his discourse he seemes to thunder and to lighten all along When the Lord appeared to Elias he was neither in the mighty wind nor in the earthquake nor in the fire but in the still and soft voyce I hope to prove all this to be but Ignis fatuus Mountebancks use to make great ostentation and crackes but commonly they end in meere impostures and it is no hing strange when men opposing the grace of God loose their owne witts and please themselves in the confusion of their owne senses For when men are in love with their owne errours they hate the light yea the very light of nature in the distinct notice of it would be an offence unto them Can this Authour be ignorant of that which every meane Sophister knowes that there be foure kinds of causes Materiall Formall Efficient Finall that he should expatiate thus in speaking of a cause without all distinction Is it strange that God should be a prime cause and principall in execution of vengeance Doth he not professe saying vengeance is mine and I will repay Is he not called the God to whom vengeance belongeth And are not his magistrates his Ministers to execute vengeance temporall here in this world And can any sober man dout whether God be invincible whom the Apostle pronounceth to be irresistable Againe an efficient cause admits farther distinction for it is either Physicall or Morall Physicall is that which really workes or executes any thing as every tradesman hath his worke which his hands doe make so God hath his worke which he executes and his worke is judgment as well as mercy I am the Lord which shew mercy and judgment and righteousnesse for in these things I delight saith the Lord and he would have us when we doe glory glory in this that we doe understand and know him to
himselfe confesseth to be the worke of God's providence in his Theses of providence and which in Scripture phrase is stiled the leading into temptation against which our Saviour taught his disciples to pray Thirdly the giving them over to the power of Satan And lastly God's generall concourse in moving all creatures to worke agreably to their natures necessary things necessarily contingent Agents contingently and free Agents freely But my answer to this I have prosecuted at large in more sheets then here are leaves in my answer to M. Hoord 3. As for want of mercy we willingly confesse according to the tenour of God's word as this Authour delivers himselfe without all respect thereunto that God shewes no mercy in hardning them For to harden in Scripture phrase is opposite to God's shewing mercy And as he is bound to none so he professeth that He will shew mercy on whom he will shew mercy and will have compassion on whom he will have compassion And this the Apostle takes hold of in prosecuting the doctrine of election and concludeth from hence in part in part from God's hardening of Pharaoh that God hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardeneth by hardning meaning such an operation the consequence whereof is alwaies disobedience as appeares by the objection derived therehence in the words following Thou wilt say then why doth he yet complaine now he complaines only of disobedience For who hath resisted his will Manifestly implying that when God hardens man unto disobedience it is his secret will that he shall disobey Like as when God hardned Pharaoh that he should not let Israel goe It was God's secret will that he should not let Israel goe for a good while Secret I say in distinction from the will of command which is alwaies made knowne to them who are commanded But it pleased the Lord to make this will of his knowne to Moses though it was kept secret from Pharaoh yet afterwards he told Pharaoh to his face by his servant Moses saying And indeed for this cause have I appointed thee to shew my power in thee and to declare my name to all the world though Pharaoh believed it not as appeares by that which followeth yet thou exaltest thy selfe against me and lettest them not goe But this Authour together with M. Hoord goeth by other rules which his own fancy suggest's unto him he will have God's love and mercy extended to all and every one Christ's redemption to extend to all and every one the Covenant of grace to comprehend all and every one and upon these universalities he grounds his transcendent consolations whence it comes to passe that Abraham the father of the faithfull was of no more comfortable condition then the grand Signior among the Turkes And the grand Siginior had as good grounds of consolatiō as Abraham himselfe Yet this not shewing of mercy on the vessells of wrath prepared unto destruction tends to the greater demonstration of his mercy on the vessells of mercy prepared unto glory As the Apostle testifies Ro 9. 23. And let this Author tell Saint Paul if he thinks good That this is the disposition of hang-men rather then of good Princes And this is the perpetuall tenour of this Authour's discourse to conforme God's courses to the conditions of courses humane Man is bound to shew mercy on all God is not God is free to pardon whom he will man is not If we permit men to sinne in case we can hinder them we shall be guilty with them but how innumerable are the sins committed in the world which if God would hinder could never be committed As Austin discourseth lib. 5. contra Iulian Pelag cap. 4 In nothing did Nero's cruelty shew it selfe more then in prolonging the lives of men that he might torment them the more What then Shall we taxe God for crueltie in keeping mens bodies and soules alive for ever in hell fire to torment them everlastingly without end See what a doore of blasphemy is opened against the just God that will doe no iniquity by this Authour 's unshamefast discourse By this let the indifferent Reader judge of this Authour 's present performance withall take notice of that which himselfe hath dissembled all along touching his own tenet namely that of every sinfull act committed by the creature God is the efficient cause as touching the substance of the act as for the sinfulnesse thereof we hold it impossible that God can have any agency at all therein or any culpable deficiency forasmuch as he neither doth ought which he should not doe or after what manner he should not nor leaves undone ought which he should doe or after what manner he should doe all which are incident to the creature who is subject to a law but not at all to the Creatour who gives lawes to others but himselfe works according to the counsell of his own will in all things The summe is whatsoever we deliver as touching God's secret providence in evill we have expresse scripture for us nothing but pretence of carnall reason against us which when it comes to be examined is found subject to manifest contradiction both as touching their feigning things future without the decree of God And as touching their conditionall decrees and conditionall concurrences ours is not in any particular The greatest shew of contradiction on our parts is in the point of necessitie and libertie Now to cleare this as others have taken paines so have I in my Vindiciae proving divers and sundry waies that these two doe amically conspire to wit the necessitie being only upon supposition the liberty and contingency simply so called only it is not to be expected that there should be no difference between the liberty of the creatures and the liberty of God the Creator Or that the creature in her operation should be exempt from the operation of God The second cause exempt from the motion of the first whereunto this Authour addresseth not the least answer As for the difference which this Authour puts between the upper way and the lower in making God the Authour of sinne compare this with Arminius his profession Namely that the same twenty reasons which he objected against the upper way may all of them be accommodated against the lower way all of them admitting of the same distinctions which this Authour invades to cleare God from being the Authour of sinne The second inconvenience Section 1. The second inconvenienceis the overthrow of true religion and good goverment among men To this this opinion seemeth to tend for these reasons 1. Because it maketh sinne to be no sinne indeed but only in opinion We use to say necessity hath no law creatures or actions in which necessity beares sway are without saw Lyons are not forbidden to prey birds to fly fishes to swimme or any bruit creatures to doe according to their kinds because their actions are naturall and necessary they cannot upon any
measured freindship by profit as in that very book Cicero relateth Then he takes notice of another commendation given of him in these words At multis se probavit he approved himselfe to many Et quidem jure fortasse and truly for good cause perhaps This is Cicero his concession with a perhaps But observe what he brings in upon the back of this Sed tamen non gravissimum est testimonium multitudinis but the testimony of the multitude the many is not most weighty or most considerable For in every art or study or any science or in vertue it selfe every thing that is best is most rare Then follow the words which this Authour alseadgeth not Ac mihi quidem videtur quòd ipse vir bonus fuit And to me truly it seemes that he was a good man This had been to contradict himselfe having formerly said Nihil affirmo I affirme nothing he takes into consideration what others said of him but as for him he would say nothing of him neither in commendation nor vituperation But his words runne thus Ac mihi quidem quòd ipse bonus vir fuit multi epicurei fuerunt hodie sunt in amicitiis fideles For it seemes indeed that he and Polyaenus cum Cyzizâ—nâ— meretriculà were very faithfull one to the other in omni vita constantes graves nec voluptate sed consilio officia moderantes hoc videtur here comes in videtur and not till now major vis honestatis minor voluptatis He still affirmes nothing of the life of Epicurus but taking that which others affirmed of him and admitting it saith hoc videtur major vis honestatis miner voluptatis this testimony of others concerning these particulars did argue more force of honesty lesse of pleasure Ita enim vivunt quidam ut eoruÌ„ vita probetur refellatur oratio For so some doe live that their life is approved but their opinions condemned And on this point only to wit concerning his opinion had Cicero to deale with Epicurus at this time Atque ut caeteri existimantur dicere melius quà m facere Sic â—i mihi videntur facere melius quà m dicere And as others are thought to speak better then they live So these seeme to me to live better then they speake By these he meanes not Epicurus or Epicureans but those some of whom he spake immediatly before And whether this be not the true meaning of Cicero I appeale to the judgment of every sober man that shall consider his words And to requite this Authour and pay him in his own coyne I will not tell him what one of his own Sect hath given forth concerning one that preached in a great place namely that his Auditory should professe that the Authour must needs be an Arminian he preached so honest a sermon Though on the contrary I have heard of a greate Arminian of Cambridge that he should professe to a friend of his comming to him to conferre with him and take him off from his opinion if it might be saying in the close that it was not for the honesty of their conversation who maintained the same that he was of the same mind and gave his reason for it out of his own experience which I will not mention But I will make bold to represent what I have read of the Pelagians to answer this Authour and so to recompence him in the way of charity For Chrysostome placeth Pelagius inter viros piè ac sanctè magnaque cum tolerantiâ viventes amongst men living piously and holily and with great patience as Vossius observes cap 3. hist Pelag and Claudius Menardus before him in his notes upon Austin's book against Iulian the Pelagian Austin in his 106 epistle acknowledgeth Paulinus to have loved him as the servant of God And in his retractions he professeth saying Pelagii ipsius nomen non sine laude posui quia vita ejus à multis praedicabatur I made mention of Pelagius his name not without commendation for as much as his life was magnified by many Amd in his third booke De peccat meritis remiss c 1. he sayth the report that went of him was as of an holy man and one that had profited much in Christianity I find likewise good commendations given of Coelestius also and Iulian the Pelagian And I make no question but an honest and pious man may be sowred with the leaven of Pelagianisme in that way of Arminianisme ere he is aware but God may take them off from it ere they dye Though the eager opposers of God's truth this way even by such as were termed Semipelagians Prosper spares not to call Vasa irae vessells of wrath in his Epistle to Ruffinus And the exiled Bishops of Africa in their Synodicall Epistle stile them no better then Vasa irae vessels of wrath And upon the conclusion of the Synod of Palestine what tumults were raised and what abominable acts were committed by the party of Pelagius is set down in part both by Austin in the end of his booke De gestis Pelagii and in a certaine epistle of Innocentius Pope of Rome To conclude Leviathan God's enemy is represented in Scripture as a crooked Serpent It pleased King Iames to stile Arminius sometimes the enemy of God And Austin I am sure stiles the Pelagians Inimici gratiae Dei The enemies of God's grace And no marvaile if they cary themselves like crooked Serpents turning and winding for their advantage I have laboured to find out the Meanders of this Authour which I little suspected at the first and to meet with him every where and encounter him in his greatest fastnesse And let the indifferent judge whether every where he be not found to hold a lye in his right hand I would to God his eyes were opened that he might see how he forsakes his own mercies by forsaking the fountaine of living waters to digge unto himselfe pits even broken pits that can hold no water While he looks to be saved by no other grace inherent then such as whereby he hath power to believe if he will repent if he will A lamentable condition that a man of understanding and knowledge and good morality should be thus blinded nothing perceiving that this is mere nature and not grace But what infatuation hath seazed upon the Christian world when such discourses are magnified as sound and excellent yea rare peeces and unanswerable Let us give God the glory of keeping us in our right wits and senses otherwise even Flyes with us shall goe for Elephants and the very illusions of Satan shall be advanced as strange performances not only of sober speculations when they are equally estranged both from soundnesse and sobriety such as all along looke a squint upon God's word yet seldome take notice thereof or are conformed thereunto but rather proceed in manifest opposition thereunto and withall are found clearly devoid of all sound reason though thereof Pelagians have
with as much art and cunning as can be will not fasten upon them With David they say in their feare that all men are lyars namely all such as come to comfort them in their temptation And the reason is because it is an opinion incompatible with any word of comfort that can be ministred to the distressed soule in this temptation Gods love to mankind Christs death for all mankind and the calling of poore sinners without exception to repentance or salvation with all other grounds of consolation the tempted will easily elude with the grounds of his opinion which that we may the better see let us imagine that we heare a Minister and a tempted soule reasoning in this or the like manner Tempted Woe is me I am a castaway I am absolutely rejected from Grace and glory Minister Discourage not thy selfe thou poore afflicted soule God hath not cast thee off For he hateth nothing that he hath made but bears a love to all men and to thee amongst the rest Tempted God hateth no man as he is his creature but he hateth a great many as they are involv'd in the first transgression and become guilty of Adams sinne And God hath a two-fold love as I have learned a generall love which puts forth it selfe in outward and temporall blessings only and with this he loved all men And a speciall love by which he provideth everlasting life for men and with this he loves only a very few which out of his alone will and pleasure he singled from the rest Under this generall love am I not the speciall Minister God so loves all men as that he desires their eternall good for the Apostle saith he would have all to be saved and he would have no man perish nor thee in particular Tempted All is taken two waies for all sorts and conditions of men high and low rich and poore bond and free Jew and Gentile and for all particular men in those severall sorts and conditions God would have all sorts of men to be saved but not all particular men of these sorts some of my Country and my calling c. but not all or mee in particular Or if it be true that God would have all particular men to be saved yet he wills it only with a revealed Will not with a secret will for with that he will have a great company to be damned absolutely Under this revealed will am I not the secret Minister Christ came into the World to seeke and to save what was lost and is a propitiation not for our sinnes only idest the sinnes of a few particular men or the sinnes of all sorts of men but for the sinnes of the whole world therefore he came to save thee for thou wast lost and to be a propitiation for thy sinnes for thou art part of the whole world Tempted The World as I have heard is taken two waies in Scripture largely for all mankind and strictly in a more restrained signification for the elect or for believers Or if it be true that he dyed for all mankind yet he dyed for them but after a sort he dyed for them all dignitate pretii he did enough to have redeemed all if God would have had it so but he did not dye for all voluntate propositi God never intended that he should shed his bloud for all and every man but for a few select ones only with whom it is my lot not to be numbred Minister God hath founded an universali Covenant with men upon the blood of Christ thy Mediator and therefore he intended it should be shed for all men universally He hath made a promise of salvation to every one that will believe and excludes none that doe not exclude themselves Tempted God purposed his Sonne should dye for all men and that in his name an offer of remission of sinnes and salvation should be made to every one but yet upon this condition that they will doe that which he meanes the greatest part of them shall never doe idest Repent and Believe nor I among the rest Minister God hath a true meaning that all men who are called should repent and believe that so they might be saved as he would have all to be saved so to come to the knowledge of the truth and as he would have no man to perish so he would have all men to repent and therefore he calls them in the Preaching of the word to the one as well as to the other Tempted God hath a double call an outward call by the Preaching of the word an inward call by the irresistible work of the spirit in mens hearts The outward call is a part of Gods outward will with that he calls every man to believe the inward and effectuall call is a part of his secret will and with that he doth not call every man to believe but a very few only whom he hath infallibly and inevitably ordained to eternall life And therefore by the outward will which I enjoy among many others I cannot be assured of Gods good will and meaning that I shall believe repent and be saved By this we may see that no sound comfort can be fastned upon a poore soule rooted in this opinion when he lyes under this horrible temptation The example of Francis Spira an Italian Lawyer will give some farther light and proofe to this This Spira about the yeare 1548 against his knowledge and conscience did openly abjure his religion and subscribe to Popery that thereby he might preserve his life and goods and liberty Not long after he fell into a deep distresse of Conscience out of which he could never wrestle but ended his woefull daies in despaire To comfort him came many Divines of worth and note but against all the comforts that they applyed unto him he opposed two things especially 1. The greatnesse of his sinne It was a sinne of a deep dye commited with many urging and aggravating circumstances and therefore could not be forgiven This argument they quickly took from him and convinced him by the example of Peter that there was nothing in his sinne that could make it irremissible Peter that committed the same sinne and with more odious circumstances repented and was pardoned and so no doubt might he 2 He opposed his absolute reprobation and with that he put off all their comforts Peter saith he repented and was pardoned indeed because he was elected as for me I was utterly rejected before I was borne and therefore I cannot possibly repent or be saved If any man be elected he shall be saved though he have committed sinnes for number many and haynous in degree but if he be ex repudiatis one of the castawaies necessario condemnabitur though his sinnes be small and sew Nihil interest an multa an pauca an magna an parva sint quando nec Dei misericordia nec sanguis Christi quicquam ad eos pertinet A reprobate must be damned be his sinnes many or few