that worketh in us every thing that is pleasing in his sight doth the Physician sett the mans leggs whom he hath cured I thinke he hath enough to doe to sett his owne legges members going according to their severall motions was holy Paul nourished in his sloath who both professeth that he laboured more abundantly then they all yet in the same breath acknowledgeth that nevertheles it cannot he but rather the grace of God in him Nay how is it possible that God should bring a man to a sermon while he lyes lazy in his bed How is it possible he should continue that excesse which brought him to his sicknes when God workes in him that which is pleasing in his sight and fullfills the good pleasure of his goodnes towards him and the worke of faith in power But we may easily proceave the Spirit of his Author he would not be a child still he would goe on highe alone and not have any neede of the leading of his heavenly Father his owne Spirit serves his turne to performe any holy duetie any gracious worke And as Plato discerned the pride of Antisthenes through his patcht coate so may we thorough these wilde expressions as if God did mans worke for him while he lay in sleepe we may easily perceave the pride of his heart requiring no more succour from God to the performance of to velle agere of that which is good then Pelagius of olde did Yet the Lord by his prophet playnely professeth of himselfe that he causeth us to walke in his statutes and judgments and to doe them and the Apostle as playnely teacheth us that God workes in us both the will and the deede according to his good pleasure yea that he workes in us that which is pleasing in his sight through Iesus Christ. The meaning whereâ—â— Pelagius his opinion was only this that suadet omne quod bonum est and in all liklihood no other is the meaning of the Apostle in the opinion of this Author though he comes not so farre as to the discussing therof and to treate of Gods concourse For which kinde of exercise this comicall witt of his is nothing accommodated and like enough this discourse of his is plausible to none but such comicall witts as himselfe is of and no merveyle if it be magnified of them For Lactucas similes labra simillima habent like lettice like lips Yet he doth us wrong in saying we are not content that God should furnish us with necessary and sufficient grace to preserve and keepe us from sinne For albeit we doe require that God should immediately and irresistibly worke all our good workes in us yet surely we acknowledge this to be necessary unto every good act and no grace without this sufficient ad velle agere though there may be without this a grace sufficient ad posse and the word of God it selfe we acknowledge to be sufficient in its kinde to witt in the way of instruction but the ministery therof we willingly professe goes no farther then Pauls planting and Apollos wateringe over and above all which unles God be pleased to give the encrease we shall continue unfruitfull still only there is a sect that have a better opinion of their activitie unto that which is good then so Sure I am the Apostle tells us that God doth fulfill the good pleasure of his goodnes in us and the worke of faith with power and if he fulfill the worke of faith with power doth he not fulfill the worke of love of repentance of obedience of all holy conversation and godlines that with power Molira will have Gods concourse to be simultaneous with the will not antecedaneous in nature to the wills operation least otherwise God should not be the immediate cause of the act of the maintenance wherof he was zelous and it seemes Arminiâ—â—s tooke his conceyte from him of making God in the same manner an immediate cause of every act But Suares his fellowe Iesuite doth not approove of that Molinaes conceyte and is of opinion that albeit God doth worke the will to her operation yet this nothing hinders the immediate condition of Gods causalitie So that all of them stande for the maintenance of Gods immediate causalitie which this Author very judiciously and profoundely out of the depth of his scholasticalitie rejects and after his manner takes it in scorne that God shoulde be required to performe an immediate operation in producing any good worke he would have that left to the will of man not that he desires to have wherof to boast for he will be ready in great plerophory of wordes to professe that he gives God the glory of all but how Forsooth of working him so to that which is good as to leave it to his will at the pleasure therof to be the immediate operator in all Otherwise he should worke irresistibly which is a phrase of an ill accent in their eares and stickes as a burre in their throate it will not downe with them for they are verily persuaded it would breede no good blood in them not for feare least herby they should ascribe too much to God and too litle to themselves farre be that from the Spirit of their humilitie but they would have the Allmightie cary himselfe decently in dealing with them and sith he hath indued them with free will not to damnifie the free course therof which were to disanull his owne workmanship For as yet they are not arrived to any such faith as to believe that it is in the power of the Almightye to make them to worke this or that freely But let me have leave to spurre this Author one quaestion Cannot he endure that God should so powerfully worke them unto that which is good that the world should have no abilitie to resist him nor the divill and his Angells of darkenes We knowe the course and fashions of the one and the practises and suggestions of the other are prest and forward enough to hinder us in the good wayes of the Lord as much as ever the Angell of God was to hinder Balaam in his wicked courses Now why should you be so zealous of maynteyning the power eyther of the world or the divill to corrupt your soule and overthrowe your faith were it not rather cheifly to be desired that God should so worke us by his holy Spirit unto every thing that is pleasing in his sight that it shoulde not be in the power of the very gates of hell to prevayle against us that is I trowe to worke us unto that which is good irresistibly that is so that the world nor the divill should not be able to resist Gods operation though they much desire it I shoulde thinke it is not the genius of this Author to oppose irresistible operation divine in this sense though it may be he was never cast upon this distinction untill now In respect of whom then would he have this
exercised in such sort that albeit God gives it yet they to whom he gives it doe reject it Now this may be understood two wayes as namely that after God hath given it and they receaved it they doe reject it or that they so reject it as not at all receaving it The first sense includes a sober notion though the truth of it may be questioned But in that sense it belongs to the next Article but in the latter sense only it belongs to this present Article Now say I in 〈◊〉 this sense there is no sobriety For it mainteynes some thing to be given which is not at all receaved which is clearly non sense and no merveyl if in opposing Gods grace they cary themselves as destitute of common sense A thing may be offered and rejected but that cannot with sobriety be said to be given which is not receaved Especially of gifts given to the soule For a gift given to the soule must eyther be a qualitie permanent or an act immanent both which are inhaerent in the soule and unlesse they are made inhaerent in it and the latter also produced by it cannot be said â—o be given unto the soule As for example the praesent quaestion is of producing faith in the soule of man Now this may be understood either of the habite qualitie of faith or of the act of faith but neither of these can be said to be given unlesse the one be made the qualitie of the soule and the other the act of the soule Which supposed they are not rejected nor can be rejected in such sort as not at all to be receaved And this inconvenience the Author seemes to have beene sensible of and accordingly desirous to avoyde and therefore observe in the third place he doth not say that they to whom God giveth faith are able to and accordingly some times doe reject it according to our opinion which would imply that in his opinion though God gives faith to men yet they to whom he gives it doe sometimes reject it But he makes our doctrine to be this that to whom God gives his grace they are able to and accordingly sometimes doe reject implying thereby that the grace which God gives man may be and is sometimes rejected And indeed this grace being not faith it selfe but an opeâ—ation tending thereunto and that no other then suasion this may in a good sense be said to be rejected though it be both given by God and receaved by man though the like cannot be said of faith which is not receaved but by beleeving and unles it be thus receaved by man it cannot be said to be given by God In like sort if God exhort a man to faith it cannot be said that that man is not exhorted thereunto and therefore to whom God gives exhortation it cannot be but that the exhortation given be receaved so farre forth as the man is justly said to have beene exhorted thereunto But besides the receaving of suasion and exhortation in this sense which cannot possibly be denyed wheresoever it is given there is another sense hereof namely of receaving it so as to obey it and yeelde unto it And in this sense we confesse that the grace of suasion and exhortation though it be made by God yet may it be rejected by man for though it cannot be denyed but he hath receaved it so farre foorth as wherby he hath heard it which is sufficient to denominate him a man exhorted unto faith yet he hath not receaved it in such sort as to embrace it and obey it And upon this ambiguitie of sense and aequivocation doe these impostors proceede first willingly cheating themselves their affections being possessed with a love of errour which will allwayes to use the judgment from the truth and afterwards labouring to cheate others as many as doe not discerne their juglinge Now we clearely professe that like as in case the Sunne doth inlighten the world it is not possible but that the world should be inlighteyed so if God inlighten mens mindes the minde cannot choose but be inlightened For the understanding is a power naturall not free And consequently if God make it appeare to a Christian soule that God is his summum bonum not only summum bonum but his summum bonum it is not possible but he shoulde be inlightned with this light of his loving countenance which is called in scripture the glory of the Lord 2 Cor. 3. last and it is signified to be the glory of his grace appearing in Christ Ioh. 1.14 which we are sayde to behold in Christ with open face 2. Cor. 3. last Agayne this glory of Gods grace appearing unto us as our chiefest good it is not possible but we should love it For we love him because he loved us first 1. Ioh. 4.19 our wills should be fixed upoÌ„ him as on our supreame ende For the libertie of the will consistes not in appetitione finis but onely in electione mediorum which is a rule of Schooles acknowledged by Aristotle and receaved generally without controll sealed unto us by the light of nature And accordingly we are sayd by the very beholding of the glory of the Lord with open face to be transformed into the same image what is that but the image of Christ as by the Lord there Christ is meant in whom appeares the glory of Gods grace and of his love to man and that hath two parts the one Christ crucified the other Christ raysed from the dead and ascended into heaven and there sitting at the right hand of God to make requests for us And our transformation into this image is our regeneration consisting in mortification which is a conformity to Christs death and vivication which is a conformity to Christs resurrection thus we feele the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his passions Phil. 3.10 And in this worke of regeneration consisting in the illumination of our minde and renovation of our affections we are meerely passive and so changed as to discerne our chiefest good and to have our heart sett upon it as upon our ende all which is naturall not free Freedome having place onely in the election of meanes unto our ende wherein we faile often partly through weaknesse of judgemeÌ„t partly through perversnesse of our affections For we are regenerate but in part both darknes in part possesseth the understanding in our hearts and affections there is a principle of the flesh which inclines inordinately to the creature as well as a principle of the Spirit which inclines to God our creator And whereas in the last place it is said that the Reprobates cannot obtaine this grace of God although it be offered them in the Gospell this eyther hath no sobriety or being brought to a sober sense is utterly untrue And nothing but the ambiguous notion of grace serves their turne and gives them libertie to prate they knowe not what For as for faith it selfe that is not
is preached in the word in the issue left to the free will of man to beleeve or no to repent or no to obey or no and yet notwithstanding give out that the word it is which converts them brings them to faith repentance and obedience and yet cavill at our ascribing those effects to the word of God in one kinde of operation which yet we ascribe solely and immediately to Gods spirit in another kind of operation â—specially considering that it is Gods word not their word and sent by God in his Spirit by the ministery of the Prophets and not sent by them in their Spirits and it is the meanes whereby Gods Spirit workes as before I have shewed and not a meanes appoynted by them whereby their Spirit worketh But it is nothing strange that they who oppose Gods grace should in the end fayle even of common sense The Synod sayth this Auâ—hor leaveth it no other function then to serve as an object and to represent it When Bellarmine sayth that Suadens agit per modum proponentis objectum He delivereth this as a dictate of common sense knowne by the very light of nature I say a litle more that he who persuades ought his office is to repâ—esent that whâ—reunto he persuades in the most alluring manner â—o draw the partie whom he persuades to like it and to labour for it Farther I say we doe ascribe to the word as much as they doe or can doe in truth In pretence I deny not but they may deale wâ—th it as they deale with Gods grace makâ—ng shew as if â—hey ascribed thereunto their faith their repentance When indeed they impute it to their owne free wills not fearing to mocke God if he would be mocked And as the Iewes sometimes crowned Christ with thornes so do these crowne the grace of God with scornes But the true difference betweene us is not in ascribing or denying ought to Gods word but in that we ascribe that to the Spirit of God which they ascribe to the freedome of their wills I say the difference between us is whether it be not so indeede as here I professe and am ready to make good But wheras he saith we make the word of God only to represent that without which the holy Spirit hath allready wrought within as well in the will as in the undeâ—standing without any cooperation of the word this passage is eyther falsely copyed or falsely translated out of the French For the first without comes out of his place the sense it beares being afterwards represented at full in these wordes without any cooperation of the word and besides it marres altogether the sense of the wordes following therfore I leave it quite out and reade the passage thus to represent that which the holy Spirit hath allready wrought within as well in the will as in the understanding without the cooperation of the word Now here is a prety mystery woorth the opening For he imputes unto us as if we should say that the word persuades and exhorts to that which the Spirit hath allready wrought both in the will and in the understanding Now I desire to knowe what that is which the Spirit hath allready wrought and when it was wrought according to our opinion as he saith for I willingly professe it is a mysteâ—y unto me namely that we should maynteyne that God sends his ministers unto us to persuade us to that which God hath wrought in us and that perhaps long before we heard the word And I willingly confesse in this case we might well seeme to make the ministery of Gods word to be very unprofitable and vayne Now as I sayd so I say still this is very mysterious unto me But I must fishe it out as well as I can by Interrogation And what is it trowe we that this Author meanes by this Is it the worke of regeneration consisting in the renovation of all the rationall faculties of man both the understanding and the will Vndoubtedly this is his meaning though the Auâ—hor caryeth himselfe obscurely without particulating what he meaneth and wherin it consists Then agayne when was this wrought If before we are pertakers of the word preached as he playnly signifiâ—th is it not cleare that it must be before we come to the use of reason being as we are brought up in the Church of God and accordingly made pertakers of Gods word as soone as we come to the use of reason And what time of infancy is more likely to be conceaved as most congruous herunto than the time of our admittance unto the Sacrament of Baptisme I am out of doubt that this is his meaninge wherby it appeares that these Arminians are of a contrary opinion utterly denying that the grace of regeneration is conferd in Baptisme Yet master Hooker hath maynteyned that the grace of regeneration is conferd in Baptisme against master Cartwright and one I knewe in my time a favourer of his that maynteynd in the divinitie schooles that Baptisme is necessary unto salvation And nowadayes our Arminians are eager in the mayntenance therof which our Arminians beyond the Seas as it seemes doe utterly deny yet they hugge one another in the armes of love in opposing oâ—hers But to make short let our Englishe Armâ—nians looke how they answeare this For my part I maynteyne no such opinion and albeit master Montacute would put such an opinion upon our Church out of the booke of common prayer where it is sayde Now this childe is regenerate though the same Author professeth that all that we reade in the homilies is not to be receaved as the doctrine of the Church of England Yet Bishop Carleton hath answeared master Montacute upon the same point and hath shewed out of Austin that it is one thinge to be truly regenerate and another thing to regenerate Sacramento tenus I willingly confesse that the Sacrament of Baptisme is the seale of the righteousnes of faith unto us Christians as Circumcision was unto the Iewes Rom. 4. which is as much as to say that it assures us of the remissioÌ„ of our sinnes as many as believe and that as a Sacrament in generall is defined in the smaller catechisme of our Church to be an outward and a visible signe of an inward and invisible grace And so I conceave baptisme to be and that not of justification only unto them that believe but of the grace of regeneration allso but how not at that instant collatae but suo tempore conferendae To witt when God shall effectually call a man and it is very strange unto me that regeneration shoulde goe before vocation And therfore we are free from maynteyning any such unprofitablenes and vaynes of the ministery of the word as to persuade us to that which God hath wrought in us allready yea long before both in our understandings in our wills as here it is charged upoÌ„ us but causelesly for ought I knowe And if the Synod of Dort or Arlâ—s
divine operation to be resistible Is it in respect of the fleshe But if he be well content that it shoulde not be in the power of the worlds or the divill to resist Gods operation working us to good why should he affect to have it in the power of the flesh 1. Considering that if it be in the power of the flesh to resist divine operation it is therwithall in the power of Satan For in fulfilling the will of the flesh and the minde we are sayde to walke after the Prince that ruleth in the ayre Eph. 2. 2. Why should any man be so zealous for upholding the power of his flesh is it not a signe he is in love with it still 3. Or rather is it in zeale of the honour of his owne performances in doing good as it were in despight of such a potent adversary If so then let hell be loosed and the divill and the world both armed with the like power and that honour in withstanding them is likely to be greater and you shall have the greater cause to rejoyce but where is your respect to the glory of God in all this Or in fine would you have your regenerate part to be so strong and able that neyther flesh within nor world or divill without be able to resist its course in grace only you would have it free eyther to yeilde or to resist divine exhortations But consider I pray is not your unregenerate part your flesh free enough and forward enough yea most propâ—ne and propense to resist that and shoulde you not rather desire that your regenerate part should be as free and forward as propense and prone to resist them and to doe that which is good Otherwise in what a miserable case shall man be even in state of regeneration when his worse part is still prone to sinne and wants not the world and the divill to drive him headlong therinto and his best part to witt his regenerate part shall not be as prone to good but only indifferent to good or evill Beside doe you not consider how you debase the grace of regeneration making it inferior to morall goodnes For morall goodnes doth not leave a man indifferent to good or evill but inclines him naturally to that which is good and to that alone but the grace of regeneration is so shaped by you as to bring a man but to an indifferent constitution to doe eyther good or evill But perhaps you will say if regeneration and the grace thereof shall cary a man naturally unto that which is good only where is a mans freedome I answere as much as in a morally vertuous constitution For who was ever knowne to affirme that morall vertues take away a mans libertie Agayne why should any man be so eagerly sett upon libertie to doe evill were it not better for us to enioy such a libertie alone as of many good â—hings to choose which we thinke good but must we needes affect such a libertie as to choose evill allso if we thinke good and doe you not perceave what colour of contradiction steales upon you ere you are aware and shrewde evidence of the unreasonablenes of your affections Yet take one thingâ— more to acquaint you with that which perhaps may seeme a mystery unto you in morall philosophy for some may be so given to the stage and taken up with the obsequies therof that they may forget their philosophy Therfore I say that like as morall vertues tende only to the ordering of the reasonable soul aright as touching her right ende by light of nature so the grace of regeneration tendes to the ordering of the degenerate soule aright as touching her right end discovered by the light of grace Now Libertie of will consists not in appetitione finis the nature of man rightly ordered is naturally caryed on thereunto But freedome of will hath place in electione mediorum So that albeit my right end being once discovered and my nature so qualified as it ought to be in respect thereof albeit I am necessarily naturally caryed to the affecting of that end yet still I am free to choose amongst many what shall seeme most convenient to the obteyning of that end Whether in all this I have not spoken parables and mysteries in the judgement of this Author I know not yet this I know God can open his eyes and the eyes of those that are in love with these frivolous discourses of his and make them to discerne the vanity of their wayes in opposing the grace of God and withall Gods judgements upon them in striking them with such confusion as not onely to shutt their eyes against the light of grace but runne themselves on ground and cast themselves away as touching common sobriety while the courses they take are contradictious to the very light of nature What a sottish objection is that which followeth how dissolute a consequence is this which here he frames namely that because we say God doth worke in us both the will and the deed Ergo it is not Man that willeth but God not man that doth this or that good worke but God God doth repent in making us repent and God doth obey his owne commandements in making us obey them God hath given all creatures their naturall properties and on som he bestoweth supernaturall qualities and mooves them all that effectually to worke according to their properties whose operations though they are from him as the efficient cause thereof for in him we live and moove and have our beings and hitherto the Arminians themselves have pretended to concurre with us herein yet they are not formally to be attributed unto him but to the secoÌ„d causes whose proper operations they are as for a Lyon to roare for an horse to neigh an asse to bray an oxe to lowe a dogge to barke and the like The sixt last Section THe preaching of the word being thus made of none effect by the doctrine of these Synods there will remayne no use and profit of the Sacraments of baptisme the Lords Supper unlesse it be that the Ministers themselves in administring thereof doe destroy this unhappy doctrine For to every person whom they baptise they apply the promises of the covenant of grace cleane contrary to their owne doctrine which saith that they nothing belong to the Reprobates of the World The Eucharist is likewise given to all with assurance that Christ dyed for all those who do receave it although their doctrine doe affirme that he dyed not for those who receave him unworthily and to their owne condemnation the number of whom is very great in the Reformed Churches by their owne confession What then remaines Even their prayers themselves the exercise wherof is common both to the Pastor and the Flocke cannot be of any profit either to the one or to the other seeing that all are eyther elect or reprobate they for their parts obteyne nothing by this meanes if that God