A PLEA TO AN APPEALE Trauersed Dialogue wise By H. B. August De Tempore Sermo 98. Idcirco Doctrinam Catholicam contradicentium obsidet impugnatio vt fides nostra non otio torpescat sed multis exercitationibus elimetur Ibid. There must be heresies euen among you that they which are approued may bee made manifest among you 1. Cor. 11. 19. Printed at London by W. I. 1626. TO THE HIGH AND MIGHTY PRINCE CHARLES KING OF GREAT Britaine France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. Most gratious Soueraigne IF it be a mans glory to passe by an offence how much more a Kings who being armed with power to reuenge his pardon is the more glorious the more gratious This is Your Maiesties glory that You haue passed by the offence of Your seruant and Your glory how beautifully shall it shine forth if Your noble pardon shall be sealed with Your Royall Patronage of this poore Plea which if it passe not vnder the Priuiledge of the Caesarean Maiestie it is like to fare the worse for the Atturneys sake whom besides his many personall imperfections the very scarres of his late disgrace with so gracious a Maister expose with his Plea as no lesseridiculous to the Antagonists then Dauids sling was to Golia◠and his Philistims Who if they aske me vpon what hope I presumed to impleade an Appeale to Caesar I cannot answere with Solon vpon old age rather vpon pouerty rather vpon Caesars equity rather vpon the causes verity Yea my duty to God to your Maiestie to the sacred memory of your Royall Father to the Church of God to my Mother Church of England to the State to my Reuerend Fathers to my reproached Brethren all these summon me from my sweete safe Priuacy to runne a hazzard vpon the Theater of importune opposition And see also Dread Soueraigne how deeply You stand ingaged in this Plea Therein seuen Plaintifes sollicite Your Grace for justice First Truth she complaines of hard vsage how shee is driuen to seeke corners sith shee cannot passe the Presse Cum Priuilegio but must be silēced yea Gagged least while shee refuseth to subscribe to An Appeale she should by writing cleare her Doctrines from the infamous terme of Puritanisme and her selfe from being reproached for a Puritan The next Plaintife is Gods Glory Grace Gospell complaining they are vndermined ouerturned by an Appeale wherein Gods foundation of his free grace and mercy in electing vs in his Son to saluation is laid vpon the sandy ground of Mans freewill his eternall and vnrepentant loue to his Elect made to depend vpon the haire of humaine mutability standing on its owne vnsteddy bottome to fall totally finally The third Plaintife is the Sacred Ashes of Your Royall Father of famous memory complaining His honor is polluted prophaned in a high degree by An Appeale so much depressing the Synod of Dort which His Maiestie so much graced and exalting Arminianisme which His sacred Maiestie so much detested The fourth Plaintife is Gods Church especially our Mother Church of England iustly complaining how impiously she is abused and her Doctrines traduced by an Appeale as if in the very Fundamentalls as Praedestination Election Freewill Iustification Faith Perseuerance in sauing grace Certainty of saluation and the like shee iumped with the Apostatized Church of Rome and her confederate Arminians as if her Doctrines were not the same with the holy Scriptures as if they must be rated by a few priuate spirits ingrossing as by a Monopoly the name of the Church of England reducing Ecclesia Romana to Curia Romana as if her Doctrines were as mutable as their vniust Iudges who Cameleon like will change colour with euery obiect of time The fifth Plaintife is the State complaining of a ruefull distraction and rent it suffereth by a most factious and seditious Appeale which coming very vnseasonably like a disastrous Comet portendeth vniuersall ruine both to Church and State if the vast breach made thereby for the grand enemy to enter bee not all the sooner and surer if possible made vp againe The sixth Plaintife is the Ghost of some of the Reuerend forefathers of our Church as Doctor Bancroft once Bishop of London and Doctor Ouerall once Deane of Pauls and Bishop of Norwich complaining that their speeches in the Conference at Hampton Court Ianua 14. 1603. now lately printed the one about Praedestination the other Perseuerance in grace are pitifully and palpably peruerted in An Appeale to the great reproach of their owne Credits and in them the scandall of the Church of England The seuenth Plaintife is the Communion of Saints militant in this Church and elswhere yea some now Triumphant in heauen complaining that notwithstanding they striue both in faith and practise to come as neere as is possible for humaine frailtie to Christ and his Apostles yet for that very cause they are persecuted and reproached in An Appeale with the odious name of Puritan and what not Now all these Plaintifes most noble King do as by speciall interest craue iustice at Your Maiesties hands Truth claimes it as You are King of England Defender of the faith that as It makes You free so You would it with full priuiledge to plead its owne cause Gods glory claimes it of You as whom aboue all Princes in Christendome He hath put such a rich crowne of grace and glory vpon that thereby Your Maiestie might learne how highly to prize His infinite glory which the more You stand for against its enemies the more firmely it shall make You to stand against all Your Aduersaries The Sacred Ashes of Your royall Father of pious memory require justice of You not onely as you are a King but as the most pious Son of such a Father that as by An Appeale You are called to be an vmpire You would accordingly determine whither in Your judgement the Synod of Dort with the Decrees of it be rather to be reiected and set at nought for the Appealers vilifying and disclaming of it or religiously maintained by Your Maiestie at least for the incomparable judgement of King IAMES who both sent thither a learned select representatiue Church of England and Himselfe also gaue His royall assent to all the conclusions of it as being in all points consonant to the Doctrine of the Church of England The Church of England with the State like Hipocrates twinnes mutually affected with each others weale or woe both liuing together both dying together with one heart and voyce humbly craue justice of Your Maiestie as being next vnder Christ ouer both in all causes ouer all persons the onely supreme Gouernour that You would chastise their contumacious children who fasten reproaches and hasten ruines to both The fame of our Forefathers craveth justice of Your Maiestie to free them from the false aspersion of blasphemy and from the opinion of being Arminians All Gods children co-heires with Your Maiestie of the same Kingdome of glory implore Your iustice to rescue their innocency
wished might neuer bee mentioned by Diuines and Preachers Yet the mentioning of it by you in this place ministers vnto me a fit occasion to desire your resolution concerning this point it being also the next thing in order treated of by our Authour Orthodoxus Sir you speake contradictories first you wish all were mute in the mention of this Doctrine and yet in the second place you desire me to speake my minde of it But I pray you tell me why you wish the mention hereof to be altogether silence Babylonius Because of the generall offence taken at it for it is a stumbling stone whereon many doe fall Orthodoxus So is Christ a stumbling stone and a rocke of offence to many would ye therefore haue the mention of Christ suppressed But what if many men are offended with this Doctrine an offence may be vniustly taken where it is not iustly giuen Babylonius But it is called by a late great Bishop of this Land quoted by the Authour cap. 4. a desperate Doctrine as himselfe also stileth it in his 7 chapter and none saith he did contradict the Bishops words at that Conference Orthodoxus I haue by this time learned to lessen my wondering to see which Saint Iude tells vs a raging waue of the sea foaming out his owne shame hee hauing not once but so often leapt ouer all the limits of modesty The Romanes had a custome if the dogs that kept their Capitall did barke in the day time ' or causlesly at friends and those that came to worship their Gods crura suffringere to breake their legges The Orator applies it to accusers Yea I haue knowne a poore dog beaten by his Master for giuing warning of theeues approach So easie it is to finde a staffe to beate a dog And yet shall Censure pardon the Crow and punish the Doue shall a man thus impune lawlesly reproach Gods truth his Church his children yea the prime Fathers of our Church no small scandall to our Religion and yet be suffered to triumph and glory in his owne shame How The Lord Bishop of London Doctor Bancroft in publicke audience with much vehemency without any checke dislike distast dissent to stile praedestination a desperate Doctrine Is it possible a Bishop of the Church of England should say so to call praedestination a desperate Doctrine And if he did so is it credible that such a speech so vehemently avoucht in a publike assembly should passe without hissing And in what assembly surely where were present the most wise learned judicious pious King in Europe or in the whole World the most renowned King IAMES with many reuerend and learned Diuines And none of these to check such a speech surely their honor and credit lies at the stake vpon it But how doth it appeare that the Bishop vttered such a speech How Pythagoras himselfe hath said it M. Mountagu the Appealer saith it But by his leaue by our former experience of his allegations we will aske and enquire in the originall record whither it be so or on In the summe of the Conference pag. 29. line 8. wee finde these very wordes indeede a desperate Doctrine But what did he call a desperate Doctrine The doctrine of praedestination Nothing lesse The Appealers wits are too nimble out-running his his reason by many degrees Wee must put a clog vpon his heeles setting downe the whole passage of that vpon this occasion The Bishop of London tooke occasion to signifie to his Maiestie how very many in these dayes neglecting holinesse of life presumed too much of persisting of grace laying all their religion vpon Praedestination if I shall bee saued I shall bee saued which he tearmed a desperate Doctrine shewing it to be contrary to good Diuinitie and the true Doctrine of Praedestination wherein we should reason rather ascendendo then descendendo thus I liue in obedience to God in loue with my neighbour I follow my vocation c. therefore I trust that God hath elected me and praedestinated me to saluation not thus which is the vsuall course of argument God hath praedestinated and chosen me to life therefore though I sinne neuer so grieuously yet I shall not be damned Thus the words run Now I must confesse I am to try the matter at the Appealers owne chiefe weapon euen the Syntax of Grammer wherein he is no small Critick He saith that the Relatiue which hath for the Antecedent Praedestination I a poore Punie say Which hath for his Antecedent Presuming too much of persisting of grace laying all their Religion vpon Praedestination If I shall be saued I shall be saued Which he tearmed a desperate doctrine For it is plaine the Bishop called not Praedestination a desperate doctrine but the sinister conclusions that carnall and impious men abusiuely draw from thence being of the number of those vnlearned in the true mystery of Christ and vnstable which as Saint Peter speakes wrest this and other Doctrines of the Scriptures and particularly of St. Pauls Epistles to their owne destruction Such wreched peruerting of the Doctrine of Praedestination the Bishop calleth a desperate doctrine and not Praedestination it selfe For Praedestination and the holy vse of it such as the Scripture hath reuealed and described vnto vs he calleth good diuinitie and true doctrine laying downe very godly and ancâ—â—tly the right order and rule of euery faithfull mans particular vse and application of Praedestination to himselfe namely that we labour to know we are rooted in that deepe mystery of Gods Election in Christ by the fruits of a liuely faith in all obedience Thus and no otherwise doe the Scriptures teach Thus and no otherwise doe all orthodox Diuines euen Caluin himselfe apply this Doctrine Such the learned Caluin calleth plaine hoggs that say if they bee of the number of the Elect their sins shall not hinder them from attaining to life Facessant ergo c. Away therefore with such sacrilegies which wickâ—dly peruert the whole order of Election And hee calls also such conclusions blasphemies So that the Bishop of London Doctor Bancroft and Master Iohn Caluin say in effect one and the same thing the one calling the corrupt conclusions which carnall men draw from Praedestination a desperate Doctrine the other the blasphemies and sacrilege of hogges and swine which is the very Doctrine of the Church of England as it is excellently set downe in the Article of Praedestination and Election 17. Thus wee see the Appealer hath brought his hogges to a faire market while through poore Caluins sides he smites the Bishop of London Doctor Bancroft yea and the whole Church of England and through all by his vndisciplined solecisme hee wounds Praedestination it selfe while hee will needes haue it absolutely called A DESPERATE DOCTRINE Nor is it a new thing that carnall men stumble and cauill at the Doctrine of Praedestination The Pelagians in Saint Augustines time did the like Nor can I shape you a fitter
Philosophers But not the person of so worthy a man but his opinion is inueighed against Well what opinion about Praedestination and Reprobation But I pray you what is Caluins error about Praedestination Babylonius In that he holdes it to be an act of an irrespectiue decree of God ordaining some to saluation others to torments without any prerespect of good in the one or of euill in the other or without any reference to Adams fall Orthodoxus Why may not God doe so if it please him Is not his will absolute and free And hath not the Potter power to make of the same lumpe one vessell to honor and another to dishonor Is it not said of Iacoh and Esau twinnes newly conceiued in the wombe that before they did good or euill that the purpose of God according to Election might stand not of workes but of him that calleth The elder shall serue the younger And whatsoeuer God willeth it must needes be iust I would gladly see this place well solued But to let that passe what place doth your Authour alledge out of Caluin for this his opinion Babylonius Out of his Institutions booke 3. chap. 21 sect 5. you may reade his words here at large set downe by the Authour Orthodoxus This place in my simple judgment doth not conclude necessarily and such opinion as he is charged withall For it proveth not that God in his eternall decree had no respect to the corrupt masse in Adams fall Euery man is created to that end to which God hath ordained him True For God doth nothing but for a speciall end But is this creation meant of Adams first creation That is not necessary For although all men might be said to be created in Adams loynes yet it is onely potentially and seminally So that if Caluin may as well bee vnderstood to speake of the particular creation of euery man in his generation as of his generall creation in Adams loynes before his fall charity should induce a Christian to interpret in the better part where there is not euidence to the contrary But what if Caluin doe in expresse wordes otherwhere acquit himselfe of what the Appealer thus calumniously chargeth him with all in this point As indeede he doth in sundry places where he saith That Gods Election and Praedestination was not without speciall respect and reference to Adams fall and to the corrupt masse as is euident in the 22. chap. of the alledged booke and seuenth section saying Quaeritur an natura elects imò qui alieni erant trahendo suos facit It is demanded whether they are by nature elect yea they which were strangers and aliants by drawing them hee maketh his owne So that God chose them finding them strangers And a little after in the same section Si quis roget vnde elegerit alibi respondet Christus Ex mundo quem à precibus suis excludit vbi Discipulos Patri commendat If any aske whence he chose them Christ answereth elsewhere Out of the world which he excludeth from his prayers when he commends his Disciples to his Father If then they be chosen out of the world and the world be meant of all the wicked as heere then what else can Caluin meane hereby but that Gods eternall election had a speciall reference to that world of wickedness packt vp in Adams sinfull loynes after his fall out of which hee made his Election And yet more expresly and punctually being vrged by the Aduersaries of Gods Election in his 22. chapter of the same booke and 11 section Fatemur communem noxam sed dicimus qui busdam succurrere Dei misericordiam Wee acknowledge a common lapse in all but wee say that the mercy of God succoureth some And he concludes with the judgment and words of Saint August highly praysing his saying Duid in primo homine c. Seeing in the first man the whole masse of mankind fell into condemnation those which one of it are made vessels vnto honour they are the vessels not of their owne righteousnesse but of Gods mercy but that others are made to dishonour is not to be imputed to iniquity but to iudgment That God recompenseth due punishment to them whom he reprobateth and on those whom he calleth bestoweth vndeserued grace he is freed from all accusation by the example of a Creditor in whose power iâ— is to remit one and to exact his debt of the other The Lord then can giue grace to whom he will because he is mercifull and not giue to all because he is a iust iudge By giuing to some that which they deserue not he sheweth his free grace by not giuing to all he declareth what all do deserue For when Paul writeth that God hath shut all vnder sinne that he might haue mercy vpon all we areto adde withall that he is debtor to none because none hath giuen to him first that he should exact a recompence And Caluin vpon Iohn chap. 15. 16. hath these expresse words to confirme the former Si â—lecti fuerunt ex mundo c. If the Elect were chosen out of the world it followeth that they were a part of the world separated froÌ„ the rest that perish by the only mercy of God Moreouer by the name of world Christ in this place noteth all those which arenot regenerate by the holy Ghost This is so evident to cleare Calvin from all calumniation concerning this poynt that it retorts a just censure vpon those that taking a mans saying by snatches and not reading and waighing the whole throughly doe bewraye rather want of judgement and charity in themselues while they would clap their owne bitter censures and sinister interpretations vpon others then either of vnsetled judgment or vnfound learning in those whom they so rashly and impiously traduce But for the Appealer I can blame him no more for dealing thus with Caluin and with those whom he calls Caluinists then he hath done the Reuerend Fathers of our Church forementioned as also with Saint Augustine in the forecited sentence which according to the Appealers lopping of it begins with Credendum est c. opposing one dismembred sentence of Saint Augustine against the whole current of his writings in that point as hee hath one misdeemed sentence of Reuerend Master Caluin against his sound judgment in sundry other places of his diuine volumes expresly set downe His doctrine being none other but the very same with that of the Church of England Art 17 so that all the Appealers calumniations cast vpon Master Caluin doe strongly reuerberate and rebut vpon our deate mother Church of England he not sparing to smite her through the very loynes of her dearest children whose names shall euer be renowned both for learning and pietie while the world standeth Now what other irrespectiunesse of Gods irrespectiue decree the Appealer would so irrespectiuely fasten vpon the learned and reuerend Caluin I cannot conceiue vnlesse he meane an irrespectiuenesse in Gods