increase and stability as in the entrance and beginning thereof Lastly if we desire to take out of the Scriptures the true formes of speaking wee ought to call the very act of perseverance the gift of God For if the Scripture doth not only call the quality it selfe of faith the gift of God but doth declare that to beleeve is given freely to men then also ought we to acknowledge as Gods gift not onely perseverance but also the act it selfe of persevering This is most manifestly taught in the place alleaged where the Apostle saith that it was given to the Philippians not onely to beleeve in Christ but to suffer for his sake Which what other thing is it then to persevere in the faith of Christ under the Crosse of persecution To this purpose Saint Anstine Wee affirme that perseverance is the gift of God by which wee abide in Christ constantly unto the end And it is reckoned among the Errors of the Massilians that they denyed that such perseverance is given to any from which he is not suffered to stray Which Error Saint Austine refutes in his booke of Perseverance chap. 6. It remaines now that we prove this gift of perseverance to spring from the fountaine of Election to the confirming of which we will produce one argument onely That which is given out of an effectuall intention to save without faile that person to whom it is given that without question doth flow from the decree of election For what is it else to elect one then to ordaine him to obtaine salvation without faile But now such is the force and nature of this gift that we cannot conceive that perseverance is ordeined or given unto any except upon a former intention both to order and bring the same man infallibly unto salvation For whatsoever benefit doth accrue unto any by any divine grace that wholly without doubt the Author of that grace decreed to conferre upon him to whom hee vouchsafed to impart the same grace But by the immoveable purpose of God whosoever shall persevere shall bee saved Therefore to whomsoever God purposed to give perseverance it is a manifest evidence that the same man was destinated to salvation by the foregoing decree of God To this purpose is that of Mat. 24.24 Where the impossibility of being seduced in respect of certaine persons knowne to God is grounded upon this foregoing Election of them and that of Saint Paul Rom. 11.5 where the remnant of those few which fell not from God is said to be caused according to the election of grace But of this see more in Saint Austine de bon persev cap. 16. Of the certainty of perseverance in respect of our selves THE FIRST POSITION EVery faithfull man may bee certainely perswaded that through the mercy of God his Father hee shall bee kept and bee brought uvnto eternall life WEE treated before of Perseverance in respect of the certainty of the object or thing it selfe Now are wee to treat of it in respect of the certainty of the subject to wit in as much as that thing which is certaine in it selfe is also by us in whom it is brought to passe apprehended as certaine and infallible We admitting every one of the faithfull into the partnership of this benefit doe avow it to be not a priviledge afforded to a few of the faithfull but a gift bestowed on all the faithfull as they are faithfull without distinction Moreover wee say rather that the faithfull may or can have within themselves this perswasion then that they are alwaies actually so perswaded because this certaine perswasion although it proceeds from the very nature of faith yet doth it not alwaies as it might and ought put forth into action but is sometimes suppressed as wee will hereafter declare Neverthelesse here wee affirme that every true faithfull man hath in readinesse at home within himselfe alwaies and upon all occasions such a foundation sure enough whereupon if he rightly weigh his owne condition and Gods promise and custody hee may build up this actuall confidence of his owne preservation in faith unto eternall life 1 First it is not enough unto God in regard of his owne glory that he preserve us unlesse he also ascertaine us of this his preservation Blessed be God by whose power wee are preserved through faith unto salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 Now we doe not particularly blesse God for those things which wee know not to have received 2 To Christ our Saviour it was not sufficient to pray that Peters faith might not faile from which prayer that gift was made certaine in it selfe unlesse Saint Peter also should know it and thereupon enjoy in himselfe the full perswasion thereof Luke 22.32 I have prayed for thee Peter that thy faith faile not 3 It is not enough for us for our comfort that we being wafted in the ship of the Church goe on towards the haven of salvation except also we be fully perswaded that we cannot by any tempest be defeated of our wished harbor It was not enough for Noah to bee shut up safe in the Arke but hee was by the promise of God secured against shipwracke for the confirmation of his confidence Gen. 6.18 With thee will I establish my covenant and thou shalt come into the Arke 4 This assurance of perswasion doth flow from the very nature of speciall faith which not onely is directly caried unto that which is promised but also doth reflect upon it selfe and its owne apprehension Of the former act are meant those speeches in the Scripture Rom. 5.1 Being justified by faith wee have peace with God Iohn 10.28 My sheepe shall never perish Of the latter those 1 Iohn 2.3 Wee doe know that we know him 1 Iohn 5.10 He that beleeveth on the Sonne of God hath the witnesse in himselfe Also 1. Cor. 2.12 We have received the Spirit which is of God that wee might know the things which are given us of God Therefore everie faithfull man through the inmost operation of his owne faith beleeves the preservation of the same faith in himselfe 5 The same is confirmed out of the testimonies of this faith Spirituall joy is a manifest evidence 1 Pet. 1.8 Beleeving ye rejoyce with joy unspeakeable and full of glory And this joy will not vanish Iohn 16.22 Your joy no man shall take away from you Also spirituall glorying Rom. 5.2 We have accesse by faith into this grace wherein we stand and boast in hope of the glory of God And this glorie is caried upon its object as present and alreadie attained although indeed it bee but future So Chrysostome upon this place Every man glories of those things which hee hath already Now because our hope of future things is as certaine and evident as of things already received the Apostle saith wee also glory of these 6 Lastly the certainty not onely of perseverance but also of the perseverer is warranted by the mutuall pledges laid downe betweene God and the
bearing witnesse to our spirit that we are the sonnes of God And this very testimony of the Spirit although the seed thereof be never utterly extinguished yet in regard of the fruit and sense thereof sometimes it either withdrawes it selfe so that our owne infirmity may be evident to us or else for a time it is as it were raked up under the ashes by our rebellion and ingratitude 2 Therefore that other weaknesse doth arise from temptations by which this perswasion is assaulted And those are partly afflictions which seeme to menace us with the evill of punishment and partly our owne perverse concupiscences which doe brand our soules with the evill of sinne and guilt thereof and partly the snares and assaults of the Devill by which he doth set upon us in both those kindes But the maine skirmish consists in the mutuall wrastling and strugling of the flesh and spirit Whilest this wrastling lasts our faith is weake but if so be the spirit overcomes the flesh then our spirit cheeres up and triumpheth in this manner Who shall separate us from the love of Christ But if which often falls out the spirit thus wearied and weakned receive the foile for a time being either overborne with the load of afflictions or tainted with the spots of hainous sinnes then there remaines no such actuall perswasion a stop is made of al spiritual comfort and the light of Gods countenance is hidden from us Hence those mournfull complaints of holy men Iob 6.4 The arrowes of the Almighty are within me the poyson whereof drinkes up my spirit the terrors of God set themselves in aray against me Lament 3.42 We have transgressed and rebelled Thou hast not pardoned thou hast covered thy selfe with a cloud that our prayers should not passe through But if the waves of temptation arise yet higher and the fiery darts of the devill doe wound the conscience already pressed downe with its owne burden then not onely this sweet perswasion is banished but also a perswasion utterly contrary commeth in stead thereof by force whereof holy men thus affrighted doe apprehend God as an angry Iudge and seeme to themselves to be now falling headlong into the open gates of Hell This case is set downe in those almost despairing speeches of Iob Let the day perish wherein I was borne And that of David I said in my haste I am cut off from before thine eies THE FOVRTH POSITION WHen a faithfull man after much struggling hath got the upper hand of these temptations that act by which he doth apprehend the fatherly mercy of God toward him and eternall life to bee conferred without faile upon him is not an act of floating opinion or of conjecturall hope such as may be built on a false ground but it is an act of a true and lively faith stirred up and sealed in his heart by the spirit of adoption AS it fares in nature so in grace after the cloud is removed the day is the clearer and certaine diseases after they are overcome prove occasions of future health A faithfull man escaping out of the waves of great tentations doth not only receive the confidence which was almost extinguished but gaines a greater measure thereof For hee is made stronger by the conflict and more cheerefull by the conquest Nay if in this wrastling some of his bones bee broken after they be set againe they will knit the stronger Psal. 51.10 The bones which thou hast broken shall rejoyce 1 Because the life and state of a regenerate man is spirituall he may be said while he is transported by the force of sin or tentation to be with-held from his naturall place The spirit therefore doth easily returne backe again to his own bent and againe acknowledgeth his former confidence in the fatherly mercy of God This is manifest out of the examples of the Saints who have expressed their owne vehement conflicts still ending in the lively voyce of faith So Ionas being in the belly of the Whale said I am cast out of thy sight yet I will looke againe toward thy holy Temple And Saint Paul O wretched man that I am who shall deliver mee from the body of this death I thanke God through Iesus Christ our Lord. In them both their conquest following their conflict breaks forth into a vigorous act of faith 2 Because the panting soule thirsting for Gods fatherly reconciliation doth run more greedily to the fountaine of living waters and relisheth more sweetly that whereof it perceived it selfe for a time debarred namely the fruition of God appeased Thence it acknowledgeth in it selfe the seed of faith by the force whereof it ariseth againe to repaire the very breaches made upon faith whose root indeed spreadeth the further by this loosening and sends forth new tendrells from which sprout our new shoots of greater certainty By this conflict and affliction the faithfull Christian learnes patience by which he mortifieth himselfe by patience probation by which he searcheth himselfe from probation hee mounts up to an hope of overcomming likewise future tentations Who delivered us from so great a death and will deliver us in whom wee trust that he will yet deliver us and of persevering and consequently attaining eternall life 1 Cor. 1.18 Who shall confirme you unto the end that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Iesus Christ. And this same hope maketh not ashamed as it followes in the same Apostle It is not therefore a fleeting opinion or uncertaine conjecture but an hope which as it springs from faith so it hath the same certaintie with faith and therefore is solide and undeceivable Wee have in David an example of this renewed and confirmed confidence after that his spot of that great sinne was washed away Psal. 51. After that the assault of that dangerous temptation was abated Psal. 73. In both these cases there are to be seene cleerely shineing forth the spirit of prayer spirituall joy and the seale of adoption Take not thy holy spirit from me Thou hast holden mee by the right hand Thence proceeds that confident conclusion It is good for mee to draw neere unto God and to trust in the Lord. Erroneous Opinions rejected by us THE FIRST THat the perseverance of those who are truly faithfull is not an effect of Election but a benefit offered equally to all upon this condition namely if they shall not be wanting unto sufficient grace WE have confuted the first part hereof at the first Article in our third Position and in the third Erroneous Opinion and also in this fifth Article in the eighth Position Of the certainty of perseverance in it selfe The second part of this Opinion containes many incongruities 1 It is not true that perseverance is a gift onely offered and not given also For the Scriptures witnesse that God doth not onely offer unto his the grace of perseverance but also that he gives it them and puts it into their hearts Ier. 32.40 I
not perish for ever neither shall any one take them out of my hand neither can any one of them take them out of my Fathers hand Mat. 24.24 That they should seduce if it were possible the verie Elect. Since therefore perseverance in faith is grounded upon the Election of God Election cannot proceed from the fore-required condition of persevering faith 2. Furthermore the decree of giving glorie and salvation vnto stedfast beleevers in the end of this life as the reward of faith and obedience performed is an act of Iustice or at least of faithfulnesse and truth But according to the Scriptures Election is a free act not of debt but of grace an act of loue and speciall mercy founded upon the meere good will of God Luke 12.32 It is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the kingdome Eph. 1.11 Being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsell of his owne will 3. By the like reason faith foreseene is to be excluded frō Election as fore-seen works that is to say God may be sayd as well to haue elected holy men for the condition of sanctification as beleeuers for the condition of faith For who seeth not that this faith foreseene doth in truth passe into the nature of a worke which appeares more evidently by the annexed condition of perseverance by which is intended nothing else but the fruits of obedience and holinesse and the whole harvest of all good workes 4. Lastlie by granting this Election upon Gods foresight it followes that Christ was chosen by vs before we were chosen by him contrary to that Ioh. 15.16 Ye have not chosen me but I have chosen you Which divine Oracle is often urged by St. Augustine to this purpose Neither doth faith it selfe goe before that Election which the Lord intendeth saying yee haue not chosen me but I have chosen you for he did not choose us because we have beleued but that we may beleeue lest we should be said to have chosen him first No merits of man-doe goe before the Election of grace yea and faith it selfe whence begin all merits is the gift of God lest grace should not bee grace if any thing should goe before it for which it may bee given THE THIRD ERRONEOVS OPINION THat faith and perseverance in faith are not fruits or effects of Election to salvation IF God who is the onely giver of persevering faith before he gives such faith or decrees to give it doth foresee that it will by the very giving of it bring salvation to the receiver then without doubt hee gives it also with this intent and absolute purpose that it shall bring salvation But so to give is to give out of a foregoing purpose infallibly to save which is all one as to give by the decree of Election Therefore persevering faith is the fruit of this decree or a speciall grace prepared in this decree Whence it is called Tit. 1.1 The faith of the elect of God Ephes. 1.5 Having praedestinated us into the adoption of Children But into the actuall estate of this adoption we are admitted by faith Ioh. 1.12 He gave them the power or priviledge to become the Sonnes of God even to them that beleeve on his name Therefore faith it selfe arises from praedestination THE FOVRTH ERRONEOVS OPINION THat Election to salvation is not one and the same but that there is one indefinite another definite and this either incomplete revocable changeable Or complete irrevocable unchangeable ALthough there are divers acts of Gods Election which may bee assigned according to divers objects namely of the end and of the meanes yet the Scripture no where makes mention either of the divers degrees or kindes of Election 1 For Election is a certaine infallible ordaining of severall persons to salvation in the minde and will of God Therefore this indefinite Election here supposed is no true election because it ordaines no singular person to salvation but it onely shewes and prescribes the manner of comming to salvation promiscuously to all 2 Besides seeing Election is perfited with one act and ex natura rei according to the nature of the thing it selfe is as the Schoolemen speake in the number of those things which doe not grow and increase by degrees as sanctification mortification and such like but which doe consist in indivisibili without latitude such as justification or absolution from sinnes surely it cannot bee imagined to be capable of intention or remission and therfore by no meanes doth it admit a graduall perfection that it may be thought to bee incomplete or unfinished to day and complete or fully finished to morrow Much lesse can this maimed halfe-election be accompted election which doth not ordaine to salvation infallibly but disposes onely by some qualitie or contingent act which in the judgement of the very devisers thereof hath no necessarie connexion with eternall life 3 Lastly that which is said to bee revocable and changeable cannot be true election because election signifies the constant purpose and unchangeable counsell of God ordaining the elect unto blisse Heb. 6.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God shewes unto the heires of promise the immutability of his counsell Two things follow predestination an affording of aid to obtaine the end and the very obtaining of the end it selfe He that will have Gods disposall of things to bee changed according to the mutability of free will professeth that the judgements of God can be searched by him THE FIFT ERRONEOVS OPINION THat the object of peremptory and complete Election is man considered no otherwise than in the end of his life 1 IN the end of this life a beleever is considered not as to bee elected but to bee brought into the kingdome prepared for him before the foundation of the world 2 Tim. 4.7 I have fought a good fight I have finished my course Henceforth there is laid up for me a Crowne of righteousnesse which the Lord the righteous Iudge shall give me at that day The Apostle did not say henceforth now God shall elect me to the Crowne of righteousnesse but shall give it 2 Furtherfmore if election should beginne at the end onely of this life the reason or argument drawne from predestination or election could conferre nothing at all to the faithfull for finishing their course in faith and godlinesse But predestination extends it selfe as well to the meanes in the way as to the end in the conclusion of our life and as it were carieth the Elect by infallible meanes to the appointed marke or goale Rom. 8.30 Whom he did predestinate them he also called and whom hee called them he also justified and whom he justified them hee also glorified But if man considered onely as in the last moment of this life were the object of complete election all those things should bee inverted thus Whom hee called those he will justifie and whom hee justifies those hee will hereafter predestinate 3 Moreover 2 Tim. 1.9
the Preacher speakes Marke 6.20 Herod heard Iohn gladly Acts 13 46. The Iewes refuse to heare the Gospell Psal. 58.4 The wicked stop their eares like the deafe Adder THE SECOND POSITION THere are certaine inward effects going before conversion or regeneration which by the power of the word and Spirit are stirred up in the hearts of men not yet justified As are a knowledge of Gods will a sense of sinne a feare of punishment a bethinking of freedome and some hope of pardon THE grace of God is not wont to bring men to the state of justification in which we have peace with God through our Lord Iesus Christ by a sudden Enthusiasme or rapture but by divers degrees of foregoing actions taming and preparing them through the Ministery of the word 1 This we may see in those who upon hearing S. Peters Sermon feele the burden of their sinne are stricken with feare and sorrow desire deliverance and conceive some hope of pardon All which may bee collected of those words Acts 2.37 When they heard this they were pricked in their hearts and said to Peter and the rest of the Apostles Men and brethren what shall we doe 2 This the very nature of the thing requires for as in the naturall generation of man there are many previous dispositions which go before the bringing in of the form so also in the spirituall generation by many actions of grace which must goe before doe we come to the spirituall nativity 3 To conclude this appeares by the instruments which God uses for the regenerating of men For he imployeth the Ministery of men and the instrument of the word 1 Cor. 4.15 I have begotten you through the Gospell But if God would regenerate or justifie a wicked man immediately being prepared by no knowledge no sorrow no desire no hope of pardon there would be no need of the ministery of men nor of the preaching of the word for this purpose neither would any care lye upon the Ministers dividing the word of God aright fitly and wisely first to wound the consciences of their auditors with the terrors of the Law then to raise them up with the promises of the Gospell and to exhort them to beg faith and repentance at Gods hand by prayers and teares THE THIRD POSITION WHom God doth thus prepare by his Spirit through the meanes of the word those doth hee truly and seriously call and invite to faith and conversion BY the nature of the benefit offered and by the evident word of God we must judge of those helpes of grace which are bestowed upon men and not by the abuse or the event Therefore when the Gospell of its owne nature calls men to repentance and salvation when the incitements of divine grace tend the same way we must not suppose any thing is done fainedly by God This is proved by those earnest and patheticall intreaties 2 Cor. 5.20 We pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled vnto God Those exhortations 2 Cor. 6.1 Wee beseech you that you receive not the grace of God in vaine those expostulations Gal. 1.6 I marvell that you are so soone removed from him that called you to the grace of Christ those promises Apoc. 3.20 Behold I stand at the doore and knocke if any man heare my voice and open the doore I will come in to him But if God should not seriously invite all whom he vouchsafes this gift of his word and Spirit to a serious conversion surely both God should deceive many whom he calls in his Sonnes name and the messengers of the Euangelicall promises might bee accused of false witnesse and those who being called to conversion doe neglect to obey might bee more excusable For that calling by the word and the Spirit cannot be thought to leave men unexcusable which is onely exhibited to this end to make them unexcusable THE FOVRTH POSITION THose whom God hath thus disposed he doth not forsake nor cease to further them in the true way to conversion before he be forsaken of them by a voluntary neglect or repulse of this initiall or entring grace THe talent of grace once given by God is taken from none but from him who first buries it by his owne fault Mat. 25.28 Hence is it that in the Scriptures every where wee are admonished that we resist not the Spirit that we quench not the Spirit that we receive not the grace of God in vaine that wee depart not from God Yea that is most evidently noted to bee the reason of Gods forsaking man because God is first forsaken by man Prov. 1.24 Because I have called and you refused I will laugh at your calamity 2 Chron. 24.20 Because yee have forsaken the Lord he hath also forsaken you But never in the Scriptures is there the least mention that God is wont or is willing at any time without some fault of man going before to take away from any man the aid of his exciting grace or any help which he hath once conferred towards mans conversion Thus the Orthodoxe Fathers who had to doe with the Pelagians ever taught It is the will of God that wee continue in a good will who before he be forsaken forsakes no man and oftentimes converts many that forsake him THE FIFTH POSITION THese foregoing effects wroght in the mindes of men by the power of the word and the Spirit may be stifled and utterly extinguished by the fault of our rebellious will and in many are so that some in whose hearts by the vertue of the word and the Spirit some knowledge of divine truth some sorrow for sin some desire and care of deliverance have beene imprinted are changed quite contrary reject and hate the truth deliver themselves up to their lusts are hardned in their sins and without all desire or care of freedome from them rot and putrifie in them MAtth. 13.19 The wicked one commeth and catcheth away that which was sowne in his heart 2 Pet. 2.21 It had beene better for them not to have knowne the way of righteousnesse then after they have knowne it to turne from the holy commandement delivered unto them But it is happened to them according to the true Proverb The dog is turned to his owne vomit Heb. 6.4 It is impossible for those who were once enlightned and have tasted of the heavenly gifts and were made partakers of the holy Ghost and have tasted of the good word of God and the powers of the world to come if they shall fall away to returne them againe to repentance Many doe quickly entertaine the light of the minde but the understanding it selfe hath not the same force or power in all and many when they seem enriched with faith and understanding yet they want charity and cannot hold fast to those things which they see by faith and understanding because there is no persevering in that which is not loved with the whole heart THE SIXT POSITION THe very elect in those acts going before