lamentable ends to which he had from eternity appointed them and so by good consequence it makes the pure and holy God to be unholy and ascribes unto him farre greater cruelty then can be found in the most bloudy and barbarous Tyrant in the World Suetonius in the life of Tiberius one of the veryest Butchers of all the Roman Emperours reports of him that having a mind to put the two sonnes of Germanicus Diusus and Nero to death Variâ fraude induxit ut concitarentur ad convitia concitati perderentur He used cunning contrivances to draw them to reproach him that so he might cover his cruelty in their death under a pretext of justice And a little after he saith of the same Emperour that because it was not lawfull among the Romans to strangle Virgins he caused certain little maides to be deflowred by the Hangman that so they might afterwards be strangled This cruelty of Tiberius exceeded the bounds of humanity and yet it comes as short of that which this way laies to the charge of God as a temporall death comes short of an eternall and the power of man in drawing men to offend comes short of that irresistable power which the Almighty is able to use in the producing of sin Besides it takes from men all conscience of sin and makes sin to be no sin We use to say Necessitas non habet legem Necessity hath no law Actions in themselves evill if an absolute necessity bear sway in them are transgressions of no law and consequently are no sin for sin is a transgression of the law and men when they doe them they have no reason to be forry for them The Tragoedian could see this where he saith Fati ista culpa est Nemo fit fato nocens when one evill action is done the doer is not in fault but the decree that necessitates him to doe it It takes away likewise from good and evill actions that defect which they naturally carry with them of Rewards and Punishments as Saint Hierome tells us Liberi arbitrii nos condidit Deus nec ad virtutes nec ad vitia necessitate tranimur alioqui ubi necessit as est nec damnatio nec corona est Where necessity domineers there is no place for retribution and therefore none are drawn by the adamantine chains of necessity to virtues or vices but left free to the choyce of their own wills When Zeno his servant was punished by him for a fault that he had done he told his Master out of his own grounds that he was unjustly beaten because he was Fato coactus peccare constrained so to doe by his undeclinable destiny and certainly if malefactors could not chuse but play their rude prankes they could not be justly punished for them For all just punishments suppose a possibility of avoyding those offences of which they are the punishments TWISSE Consideration THis Authors pretence being only to oppose that Tenent which maintaines that the decree of denying grace and glory and of inflicting damnation doth not presuppose the foresight of final perseverance in sin you may well marvaile to what purpose this comes in about the different condition of man considered by God either as before the Fall or after the Fall in Adam it being a question of another nature and meerly Logicall to wit about the ordering of Gods decrees of Creation Permission of the fall of Adam giving or denying Grace Salvation or Damnation The resolution whereof depends upon the right distinction of these decrees in reference to the end and to the means tending to that end For this being Resolved according to the rules of Divinity the order between them must consequently be determined according to the rules generally received in the Schooles namely thus The intention of the end is first then the intention of the means so that if Salvation be the end and Creation and Permission of Adams Fall and Raising therehence by Faith and Repentance to be the means it must be confessed that the decree of Salvation must be first then the decree of Creation permission of sin and of raising out of sin So if the damnation of any be the end that God intends and creation and permission of sin and of finall perseverance therein be the means it must be acknowledged that the decree of damnation was before the decree of creation c. But if salvation and damnation be no ends intended by God but means rather as well as creation and permission of all to sin in Adam together with the raising of some therehence and leaving some therein tending to some farther end namely the Manifestation of Gods glory in a certain kind as the Scripture together with manifest reason doth justify For God being the supreame efficient must necessarily be the last end And even there where the word of God doth testify that God created the wicked against the day of evill it doth therewithall give to understand that what is signified by To the day of evill doth not denote the end of Gods actions that before being expressed to be God himselfe God made all things for himselfe not for acquiring ought unto himselfe for he is so perfect that nothing can be added unto him but for the manifesting of his own most glorious nature so that if God be pleased to manifest his glorious beneficence on man in the highest degree and that in the way of mercy mixt with justice this end requires and bespeaks both creation no glory at all being manifestable without this and permission of sin otherwise it could not be manifested in the way of mercy and satisfaction for sin otherwise this mercy could not be mixed with justice exactly and faith and repentance otherwise the good which God intends could not be bestowed by way of reward and last of all Salvation under which we comprehend the highest and most blessed condition that the nature of man continuing a meere man is capable of And herehence we conclude that in case the end is such as hath been specified and all these actions following congruous means tending to that end therefore the decree of manifesting Gods glory as above specified is first with God and secondly the decree of the means which means although they are many materially yet they come all under one formall notion of means tending to a certain end which according to the severall parts thereof bespeaks them all and consequently they are all to be considered as making up the object of one formall decree called the decree of the means and the intention of none of them is before another but all intended at once as means tending to that end which is first intended In like manner if God shall be pleased to intend the manifestation of his glory in Man or Angell in the way of justice vindicative the means necessarily required hereunto are Creation Permission of sin and Damnation unto punishment and all three makes up the object of one formall
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
decree of predestination besides this namely that God over and above hath determined to bestow faith on some So on the other side none of our Divines were ever known to deny that God hath decreed that whosoever believes not shall be damned but further they professe that this is not the whole decree of reprobation but that there is another decree concerning reprobation besides this namely that God hath over and above decreed to deny some the grace of faith and that absolutely Now whereas he saith we maintain that God hath irrevocably decreed not to save some whom he promiseth that he will save if they believe Is he well in his witts for charging us with that by way of crimination which no understanding Divine among the Arminians themselves dare deny I mean as touching the poynt of Gods irrevocable decree For what Arminian hath dared in plain tearmes to professe that Gods decrees are of a revocable nature Whereas the meere prescience of God is sufficient to make them irrevocable How much more if Gods prescience be grounded upon his decree as indeed there is no other ground imaginable without falling upon manifest Atheisme But whereas he fashioneth our Doctrine so as if we said that God hath decreed at no hand to save them to whom he promiseth salvation upon condition of faith this is a notorious untruth and such as implyeth manifest contradiction For to say he hath resolved at no hand to save them is as much as to say that he hath resolved to save them on no condition But if he hath promised to save them in case they believe undoubtedly he hath resolved to save them upon condition of faith Only Gods resolution to save them is not held in suspence considering that from everlasting he well knew who would believe and who would not and therefore he knew this because he purposed to grant faith unto the one and deny it unto the other So that in all this cry we have little wooll no substance of any sound proofe but meere clamours and miserable confusion as God sees how well it becomes him to smite them with the spirit of confusion that build Babell of their own invention and oppose the truth the precious truth of his soveraignty over his creatures and of the prerogative of his free grace to have mercy on whom he will like as he shewes his power in hardening whom he will and in smiting with giddinesse whom he will 3. In the next place we are to heare how God by our Doctrine in his threats and comminations is hollow and unsincere I willingly grant these are alwaies denounced against actuall sinnes as also that the sinnes for which men goe to hell are actuall sinnes if they live to be conscious of actuall transgressions But if God have decreed men to hell for originall sinne then God saith he is not true and so not sincere This is utterly unconsequent For God can manifest his pleasure otherwise than by his threatnings Of the Sodomites it is said they suffer the vengeance of eternall fire and Infants perished therein as well as men of ripe years And the Apostle plainly saith that we have all sinned in Adam and that the wages of sinne is death without distinction and that all are borne children of wrath and therefore as many as dye in that condition dye children of wrath And whence hath this Author learned that the sinne of Adam hath brought upon us the guilt of eternall death as formerly he hath professed but if I be not deceived this extends farther than to Infants and in as much as some of our Divines conceive the corrupt masse to be the object of reprobation hereupon he conceits they make God to damne all Reprobates for originall sinne whereas their doctrine is no other than this that God determines to damne every man for no other sinnes but such wherein they dye unrepented of whether they be originall or actuall Threatnings are denounced unto all to this end that men may know that by continuing in sinne without repentance there is no hope of mercy and therefore as they desire to be saved it is there duty to breake them off by repentance And in particular unto some that by this consideration God may bring them unto repentance But these are only Gods elect but as for others God never brings unto them true repentance according to that of S. Austin Istorum neminem adducit Deus ad salubrem spiriitalemque poenitentiam qua homo reconciliatur Deo in Christo sive illis ampliorum patientiam sive non imparem praebeat Yet God ordaines no man of ripe yeares unto destruction but for sinne finally continued in without repentance and the threatning of damnation signifyes no other thing but this that if they repent not they shall be damned which is most true to whomsoever it is pronounced and this dealing of God is plain enough But these Divines would not have faith and repentance to be the gifts of God but the workes of mens free-wills that so they might be their own crafts-men of their salvation DISCOURSE SUBSECT II. 4. GOd is also full of guile in the other things before named by this opinion viz. in his passionate wishes that even those men might repent that repent not and might be Saved that through their impenitency are not Saved Of these we read Deuter. 5. 29. Oh that there were such a heart in them to feare me that it might goe well with them And in Psal 18. 13. O that my people had harkened unto mee and Israell had walked in my wayes And Isaiah 48 18. Oh that thou hadst hearkened unto my commandements c. 2. In his expostulations Isai 5. 3. judge I pray you between me and my vineyard what could I have done more for my vineyard Ier. 2. throughout Especially v. 5. and 31. Have I been a wildernesse unto Israell or a land of darknesse And â— 32. Can a maid forget her ornaments or a bride her attire yet my people have forgotten mee dayes without number Ezek. 33. 11. Turne yee turne yee O yee house of Israell why will ye dye 3. In his commiserations also of the woefull condition of foolish men that would not be reclaymed Hos 11. 8. How shall I give thee up Ephraim how shall I deliver thee O Israell My repentings are kindled together my heart is turned within me and Math. 23. 37. O Jerusalem Jerusalem which killest the Prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee In all these there is but little sincerity if there be a setled resolution that the most of those towards whom those wishes chidings and melting considerations are used shall be unavoydable damned Gods fairest offers his sweetest invitations his greatest sympathies and amplest curtesies if this doctrine be true come very little short I think of Absolons feast Ioabs congie the kisse of Iudas and the Hyaenaes teares for in all these aliud animo vult aliud verbis significat he sayeth one thing
contrary vices And therefore they turne not their backs from these meanes but industriously embrace and prosecute them 1 Iohn 3. 3. Every man that hath this hope in himselfe purifyeth himselfe even as he is pure Esay 38. 5. When Hezechiah had received that promise from God of an addition of fifteen years to his life he did not therefore neglect the use of medicines or meat but that this promised event might be brought into act he applyed for the cure of his body the plaister which was prescribed unto him by the Prophet The Apostle doth altogether reiect this consequence of carnall security imputed to this Doctrine and that with a kind of indignation Rom. 6. 1. Shall we continue in sinne that grace may abound God forbid How shall we which are dead to sinne live any longer therein As if S. Paul would intimate unto us not only the incongruity but also the impossibility of such a sequel 2. As touching the event true it is that any the most wholsome truth of God may be perverted by the abuse of men But upon this doctrine we cannot acknowledge that there groweth any such inconvenience no not de facto that is in the event it selfe Let us take a view of the reformed Churches in which this confidence of perseverance and inviolable adoption is believed and maintained Doe we find that thereupon the bridle is let loose unto ryot That piety is trampled downe We give thankes unto God through our Lord Jesus Christ that amongst ours who enjoy this full perswasion of spirituall comfort and are confident that there is an inheritance which cannot be lost laid up for them in Heaven there is not found lesse care of Godlinesse nor lesse endeavour so farre forth as mans infirmity will suffer to live an unblameable life then is to be found among any sort of these who pinne their perseverance on their own free will and will not grant it to flow from any foregoing election of God This may suffice for answer to the generality of the crimination From the generality he descends to specialties And in the first place he urgeth It takes away hope and feare He beginnes with hope and enlargeth himselfe in the commendation thereof out of Scripture By this hope of Heaven did our Saviour stirre up himselfe to endure the crosse and despise the shame Heb. 12. He could not alleadge a more pregnant passage to cut his own throat and mortify the vigour of his argument For in this place it depends upon such a notion of hope as signifies only a possibility of obtaining a future good and not a necessity of obtaining it as afterwards himselfe accommodates it and so he will have the hope which here he insists upon such as is mixed with feare as if our Saviour were in doubt of obtaining a Crowne of glory By this he heartned his Disciples to suffer for his sake Math. 5. 12. Rejoyce and be glad for great is your reward in heaven Here also we have no hope mixed with fear whereupon he heartens them but the very assurance of faith grounded upon Christs promise and what greater assurance then this The like promise for assurance of faith is made Math. 10. 32. And indeed hope in the Scripture phrase though in these places there is no mention thereof is but an expectation of enjoying that whereof we have a certain assurance by Faith The object of faith being Verbum rei of hope res verbi as Luther is said to distinguish them Such is the hope signified by our looking for the Saviour Phil. 3. 20. For therefore we look for him because we are perswaded by the assurance of faith that he shall come and that as a Saviour unto us as there 't is expressed in these words Who shall change our vile bodies and make them like to his glorious body Such is the hope mentioned Col. 1. 5. as grounded upon their true knowledge of the grace of Christ v. 6. And upon their Faith v. 4. For upon believing we rejoyce with joy unspeakable and glorious 1 Pet. 1. And this joy is in hope of the glory of God Rom. 5. 2. Of the same nature is that hope Tit. 2. 13. So Abrahams looking for a City whose builder and maker is God Heb. 11. 8 9 10. But was not this hope of his grounded upon assurance of faith to enjoy it So Moses his seeing of him that was invisible was by the eye of faith And the scope of that whole Chapter is for the commendation of faith a faith therefore they had of a better resurrection and the certainty hereof was the certainty of faith Now let every sober reader judge which of our doctrines doth more tend to the justifying of a certainty of salvation the Arminians or ours That which followeth of the Husbandmen Merchants Souldiers is farre of another nature their hopes of their ends have no ground of faith many times it comes to passe that spem mentita seges though aliquis pendens in cruce vota facit yet most commonly it proves but a vaine hope Merchants many times prove bankrupts and Souldiers when they are most erected with hope of victory doe sometimes most shamefully take the foyle What a proud message did Benhadab send to Ahab 1 King 20. 10. The Gods doe so to mee and more also if the dust of Samaria be enough to all the people that follow mee for every man an handfull But Ahab answered him saying Let not him that girdeth his harnesse boast himselfe as he that putteth it off At the battle of Lipsich upon Tillies defeating of the Duke of Saxony word hereof was dispatched with post hast to the Emperour together with some of the Dukes Ensignes and scoffes upon the Duke himselfe they were confident of beating Sweden and that so all Germany should be theirs but herein that old Lad reckoned before his host the same Post brought heavy newes to Vienna at length of a great discomfiture to the Imperialists and of the victorious Army of the King of Sweden Yet a hope not only upon weake but sometimes upon very vaine grounds stirres up the spirit how much more upon certain grounds of good successe as that of the Apostle Rom. 6. Sinne shall not have the dominion over you for yee are not under the Law but under grace therefore let not sinne raigne over you as much as to say Play the men fight valiantly the Lords battailes against sinne and Satan for yee shall have the victory in the end The feare of Hell is a curbe to hold men in from wickednesse I willingly confesse but the knowledge hereof is not naturall but by revelation divine which to carnall men who live by fight is of little force Witnesse the story of the Welch-man who robbing an honest man upon the high way and being told by him that he should answer for it at the day of judgement saist thou me so quoth the thiefe and wilt thou trust me till that day then give me thy
then to advance our selves into the very Throne of God's Soveraigntie and doe wee not feare least his wrath smoake us thence And if all this that hee contends for were granted him that nothing but mere necessitie were found in the motion of men's wills yet Suarez will justifie us from speaking contradiction or delivering ought that exceeds the compasse of God's omnipotencie And what if all the world were innocent yet God should not be unjust in casting the most innocent creature into hell fire as Medina professeth and that by the unanimous consent of Divines and Vasquez the Jesuite acknowledgeth this to be in the power of God as he is Lord of life and death and in the last chapter of the booke de praedestinatione gratiâ which goes under Austin's name there is an expresse passage to justifie it And albeit that worke be not Austin's yet it is lately justified to be the worke of a great follower of Austin's and as Orthodoxe as he namely the worke of Fulgentius as Raynaudus the Jesuite hath lately proved and justified that passage also together with that which is usually brought by School-Divines to prove it out of the twelfth chapter of Wisedome and shewes the right reading as followed by Austin and Gregory And withall represents a pregnant passage taken out of the fifteenth Homily of Macarius to the same purpose And out of Chrysostome in his 2. De compunctione cordis about the end thereof And out of Austin upon Psalme the seventieth about the beginning And to these he addeth Ariminensis Cameracensis Serarius and Lorinus all maintaining the same And this is evident by consideration of the power which it pleased the Lord to execute upon his holy Son and our blessed Saviour and by the power which he gives us over brute creatures This I say if all that he contends for were granted should rather be concluded therehence namely that in this case the creature should be innocent then that God should be the Authour of sinne especially considering that God performes in all this noe other thing then belongs unto him of necessitie as without which his moving of the second causes it were impossible the creature should worke at all which we have made good by shewing the manifest absurdity of their contrary doctrine who maintaine a bare concourse Divine either in subordination unto the agency of the creature or without subordinating the operation of the creature to motion Divine But we doe subordinate it as without which the second cause could not worke at all and by vertue whereof it doth worke and that freely so farre forth as liberty of will is competent to a creature but not so as to make the creature compeere with his Creatour Let man be a second free Agent but set our God that made us evermore be the first free Agent least otherwise we shall deny him the same power over his creatures that the Potter hath over the clay of the same lumpe to make one vessell unto honour and another unto dishonour This power in my maker the Lord hath given me eyes to discerne as taught us in his holy word and an heart to submit unto it and to his providence in governing my will even in the worst actions that ever were committed by me without any repining humour against his hand though I thinke it lawfull for us in an holy manner to expostulate with God sometimes in the Prophets language and say Lord why hast thou caused us to erre from thy waies and hardened our hearts against thy feare Which yet I confesse he brings to passe at noe time infundendo malitiam by infusing any malice into me who naturally have more then enough of that leaven in me but non infundendo gratiam not quickning in me that holy feare which he hath planted in me of which grace I confesse willingly I have a great deale lesse then I desire though the least measure of it is a great deale more then I doe or can deserve Neither shall I ever learne of this Authour after his manner to blaspheme God if at any time hee shall harden my heart against his feare Though this Authour speakes commonly with a full and foule mouth yet his arguments are lanke and leane and of noe substance but words As when hee saith that God over-rules men's wills by our opinion Now to overrule◠a man is to carry him in despight of his teeth Wee say noe such thing but that God moves every creature to worke agreably to it's nature necessary things necessarily contingent things contingently free Agents freely though nothing comes to passe by the free agency of any creature but what God from all eternity by his unchangable counsell hath determined to come to passe As the eleventh Article of Ireland doth professe by the unanimous consent of the ArchBishop Bishops and Clergy of that Kingdome when those Articles were made So I speake warily and circumspectly the rather because one Doctour Heylin doth in a booke intituled The History of the Sabbath professe Chapter 8. page 259. That that whole booke of Articles is now called in and in the place thereof the Articles of the Church of Ireland confirmed by Parliament in that Kingdome Anno 1631. A thing I willingly confesse at first sight seemed incredible unto mee namely that Articles of Religion agreed upon in the dayes of King Iames should be revoked in the dayes of King Charles but expect to heare the truth of that relation For the Authour thereof hath never as yet deserved so much credit at my hands as to be believed in such a particular as this But to returne this Authours text is nothing answerable to the margent For first imperare to command is one thing and to over-rule is another thing though he that doth imperare command ought is commonly accounted the Authour thereof as a cause Morall from whom comes the beginning of such a worke But utterly deny that God commands evill and the truth is wee acknowledge noe other notion of evill then such as the Apostle expresseth in calling it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an incongruitie to the law of God which law commands somethings and forbids other things I come to his third reason 3. I grant wicked counsellours and perswaders are deservedly accounted the Authors of sinne The common use and acception of the words as I shewed in answer to the first is observed to denote such Therefore Cicero makes Authour and disswader opposite and by law they are punishable in the same degree with the Actors But God is noe counsellour or perswader to any lewd course but forbids it and disswades it and that with denuntiation of the greatest judgments among trangressours 2. I willingly confesse that councelling is farre inferiour to enforcing yet in Scripture phrase earnest intreaty or command is oftentimes exprest by compelling as Mat 14. 22. Mark 6. 45. Luk 14. 23. Gala 6. 12 and 2. 14. 1 Sam 28. 23. 2 Chron 21. 11. And noe marvaile
on the part of Reprobates is not the damnation of them but the manifestation of his glory in the way of vindicative justice which in Scripture phrase is called the Declaration of his wrath For God made all things for himselfe even the wicked against the day of evill And to this end he doth not only permit them both to sinne and to persevere therein without repentance but also to damne them for their sinne And this worke of God namely the permission of sinne is as requisite for the manifestation of his mercy on the part of his Elect as for the Declaration of his wrath on the part of reprobates Yet who was ever found so absurd as to say that we make the sinfull actions of men to be the meanes which God useth to bring about the salvation of his Elect. So little cause have we to make use of this distinction as the action it selfe and the sinfullnesse thereof to shew in what sense it is a meanes which God useth whereby to bring about the damnation of man For we utterly deny sinne to be any such meanes of God but the permission thereof only is the meanes whereby to bring about not their damnation as this Authour suggesteth but the meanes together with the damnation for sinne whereby he bringeth to passe the declaration of his just wrath But men of this Authours spirit unlesse they be suffered to calumniate at pleasure and corrupt their opposites Tenet at pleasure they can say just nothing It is true actions deserve damnation only as they are transgressions of God's law but we deny that these transgressions are God's meanes but only the permission of them is his meanes and by permitting these transgressions as also by damning for them he brings to passe his glorious end to wit the declaration of his just wrath 3ly It is most untrue that God brings any man into a state of sinne He brings himselfe into it most freely God having no other hand in the sinne but as permitting it that is as not preserving from it Indeed if he did bring men into sinne and they not rather bring themselves thereinto he were the Authour of it But it is well knowne that sinne cannot transcend the region of acts naturall All acts supernaturall must needs be the worke of grace and truly good But every sinfull act is merely naturall never supernaturall Now never any of our Divines denyed a man liberty in his greatest corruption unto acts naturall the Devill himselfe hath liberty thus farre It is true originall sinne is brought upon all by the sinne of Adam For hereby the fountaine of humane nature became corrupted but in this very sin of Adam we had an hand if there be any truth in Scripture which testifies that In Adā we all have sinned This is the doctrin which the Author spights though he be more wise then to publish to the world his spleen against it And I have seen under his hand where he denies originall sinne to be veri nominis pecatum sinne truly so called And albeit M. Hoord makes a flourish in saying that God might justly damne all man-kind for the sinne of Adam and that also was this Authour's doctrine in the lectures which he read at Magdalen Hall yet I have good cause to doubt whether this be his opinion now and not rather the same with Pelagius his opinion saving the difference which Pelagius did put between not entering into the Kingdome of heaven and damnation As for all other sins which we call actuall they are as I said naturall only and not supernaturall and therefore no man wants liberty as to doe them so to abstaine from them Only he wants a morall and Spirituall liberty to abstaine from them in a gracious manner according to that of Aquinas Licet aliquis non possit gratiam adipisci qui reprobatur à Deo tamen quod in hoc peccatum vel illud labatur ex ejus libero arbitrio contingit Though a man who is reprobated of God cannot obtaine grace yet that he falleth into this or that sinne it comes to passe of his own free will It is true also even in God's providence concerning acts naturall there is a great mystery For as God foretold David that his neighbour should lye with his wives and though he sinned secretly yet the Lord would doe this openly So he foretold that upon that Altar which Ieroboam erected a child that should be borne of the house of David Iosiah by name should burne the Prophets bones And that Cyrus also should build him a Citty and let goe his captives Yet who doubts but that Cyrus did freely deliver the Jewes out of Babylon and Iosiah did as freely burne the Prophets bones upon the alter in Bethel as ever they did action in their lives So Absalom did as freely defile his Fathers Concubines Then againe we deny that the damnation of any man is the end that God intends but the manifestation of his own glory And therfore though he hath made the wicked against the day of evill yet both that and all things he hath made for himselfe And to this tends both the permission of sinne and the damnation of Reprobates for their sin And in no moment of nature are either of these intended before the other both being joyntly meanes for the procuring of another end And if permission of sinne were first in intention with God and then damnation as these men would have it it followeth evidently by the most generally received rules of Schooles that permission of sinne should be last in execution that is men should first be damned and afterwards permitted to fall into sinne This is the issue of these men's Orthodoxy and accurate Divinity Section 8. The will is determined to an Object two waies 1. By compulsion against the bent and inclination of it 2. By necessity according to the naturall desire and liking of it God's predestination say they de termineth the will to sinne this last way but not the first It forceth no man to doe that which he would not but carrieth him towards that which he would When men sin t is true they cannot choose And it is as true they will not choose It followeth not therefore from the grounds of their doctrine that God's decree is the cause of men's sins but their own wicked wills 1. The Ancients made no distinction between these two words Necessity and Compulsion but used them in this argument promiscuously and did deny that God did necessitate men to sinne least they should grant him hereby to be the Authour of sin as I have touched before and shall intimate againe afterward Nor did the School men put any difference between them as may appeare by the testimony of M. Calvin who speaking of the School-distinction of the will 's threefold liberty from necessity from sin from Misery saith This distinction I could willingly receive but that it confoundeth necessitie with coaction 2.
but the thing willed by him is good by the confession of Bellarmine even then when he is opposing us in this very argument Malum fieri Deo permittente bonum est it is good that evill should come to passe by God's permission And it was avouched by Austin many hundred yeares before Bellarmine was borne And he professeth that God would never have suffered sinne to have entered into the world had he not knowne that it appertained to his almighty goodnesse rather to work good out of evill then not at all to suffer evill Compare the judgment of Austin with the judgment of this Authour and consider whether they differ not as much as light and darknesse And what wisedome were it for God to permit sinne when it is in his power to hinder it as this Authour acknowledgeth in the sixt Section if it be a greater evill and that to God as it appeares by his expression of it Laesio divinae majestatis the hurt of the Divine majesty then the good that can come thereby can be So that the crucifying of Christ was greater in the kind of evil then the redemption of the world that came thereby was in the kind of good No man of common discretion will permit ought if it lye in his power to hinder it to his own disadvantage unlesse he can make thereby not only an equall advantage but a greater But let us farther consider the superficiary speculation of this Divine more becomming children in the Church of God then a grave and learned Divine Sinne he saith is laesio Divinae majestatis the wronging of the Divine majesty but in what sense I pray Is God any thing the worse for any man's disobedience and transgression of God's law Surely like as he is no way advantaged by our obedience so is he as little disadvantaged by our disobedience Yet I affect not to carry that I deliver by the authority of mine own bare word which is this Authours course most usually I represent Scripture for it If thou sinnest what doest thou against him yea when thy sins are many what doest thou unto him If thou be righteous what givest thou him or what receiveth he at thy hands Thy wickednesse may hurt a man as thou art and thy rightousnesse may profit a Son of man And in reason looke of what nature the benefit is that redounds from the creature unto God of the like nature is the detrement Now God by making the world acquires no internall perfectiō unto himselfe but only makes his glorious nature known and accordingly if the world should have an end this manifestation should cease but his glorious nature should still continue the same And as he manifests his glory by the world so some creatures he hath made intelligent fit to take notice of his glory and accordingly requires at their hands they should acknowledge it and that not in word only but by their dutifull obedience and that for the farther manifestation of his glory to their good and wonderfull happinesse if they obey and their extream sorrow and misery if they continue rebellious against him So that whereas the end of all God's actions being but the manifestatiō of his glory he doth not loose so much as this by the sins of men For he can glorifie himselfe in their just destruction Nay he can manifest his glory another way namely both the glory of his mercy in pardoning their contempt of his majesty done unto him which men so proud many times they are can hardly doe but in such a case prove implacable Likewise of his grace in curing it as also his power and wisedome in procuring a strange satisfaction to be made for it in a wonderfull manner and that by his own blood That so way may be made for the manifestation of his not royall only but Divine magnificence in bestowing the kingdome of heaven upon them So farre is he from being any way hurt by the sins of men in any true reall account And accordingly as he permits sins dayly so he offers his free grace dayly for the pardon of them and to this tended the dayly sacrifice among the Jewes of a lamb every morning and a lambe every evening But why then is sinne said to be laesio Divinae majestatis I answer this is to be understood not of any hurt done to his majesty in it selfe but as in the minds of men who hereby manifest their contempt of the divine majesty And they that doe contemne him would put him out of his throne if they could wish that there were no God the foole would faine bring his heart about to thinke so But though earthly Kings may be dethroned sometimes have been yet he that sitteth in heaven laughs all them to scorne that rise up against him And bids the potsheard strive with his follow potsheards not with his maker Who will set the thornes briars against me in battells I would goe through them burne them together For God is a consuming fire It is true we must neither do evill that good may cōe thereof nor permit it neither if itlye in our power to hinder it God neither will doe any iniquity nor cā doe but yet is lawfull for him to permit evill that good may come thereof Yea will or decree that evill shall come to passe by his permission as I have proved at large in a digression to this purpose therewithall discovered the Sophisticall arguments of Aquinas Durandus to the contrary not to speak of Valentianus not one part of all which large digressiō do I find āswered by this Author I have often alleadged pregnant passages of Scripture to this purpose Arminius confesseth expresly that God would have Ahab to fill up the measure of his sin which could not be done but by adding sin unto sin Yet this is made the object of God's by Arminius This will of God to have sinne come to passe by his permission is effectuall For whensoever God permits it it comes to passe as both Arminius and Vorstius acknowledge not Piscator only And amongst Papists Navarettus Alvarez as before I have shewed Yet God hath no efficiencie in the sinne but only in the act whereunto sinfulnesse adheres and the saying of Austin is well knowne Non aliquid fit nisi omnipotens fieri velit Not any thing comes to passe but that which God will have come to passe And the eleaventh Article of Ireland is most expresse for this I am driven to repeat the same things often this Authours frequent Tautologies urge me thereunto 2. Though the members be not opposite it matters not it is sufficient they are disparate the purpose of it being to shew not that God doth not will sin but only to shew under what notion he willeth it Yet it is false and absurd to say that sinne is a meanes of punishment For to him it belongs to worke the meanes who intends the end but sinne
admonition doe otherwise Among creatures indued with reason and liberty lawes are given to none but such as can use their principles of reason and freedome Fooles mad-men and children are subject to no law because they have no liberty To men that can use their liberty lawes are not given neither but in those actions which are voluntary No man is forbidden to be hungry thirsty weary sleepy to weepe tolaugh to love or to hate because these actions and affections are naturall and necessary the will may governe them but it cannot suppresse them And so if to deale justly to exercise charity c. with their contraries be absolutely and antecedently necessary too whether this necessity flow from a principall within or a mover without we are as lawlesse in these and in the other Now if necessity hath no lawâ— then actions in themselves evill if under the dominion of absolute necessity are transgressions of no law and consequently no sins For sin is a transgression of the law This that I say hath been said long agoe For Justin Martyr speaking against destiny hath these words If it be by destiny that is by absolute necessity For that the Fathers doe generally call by the name of destiny that men are good or bad they are indeed neither good nor bad A speech like to this he hath a little after It would seem if this be so that vertue and vice are nothing but things are judged to be good or bad by opinion only which as good reason teacheth is very great injustice and impiety And surely well might he say so For to what purpose was the Son of God made man and being man made a sacrifice for sinne Why was the ministry of the word and Sacraments ordained To what end are heaven and hell propounded Why are exhortations disswasions or any other meanes to hinder men from sin applied if sin be nothing but a mere opinion Christ the Christian faith the word and Sacraments and whatsoever according to the Scriptures hath been done for the applying of the pardon of sinne are all but mere fables nay very impostures if sinne be nothing And by consequence it is no matter at all whether men be Christians Jewes Turkes or Pagans of what religion or whether of any religion at all Now whether tendeth this but to the ovethrow of religion 2. Because it taketh away the conscience of sinne Why should men be afraid of any sinne that pleaseth or may profit them if they must needs sinne Or what reason have they to weep and mourne when they have sinned seeing they have not sinned truly because they sinned necessarily The Tragedian saith when a man sinneth his destiny must beare the blame Necessity freeth him from all iniquity Sins are either the faults of that irresistible decree that causeth them or no faults at all If either then sorrow feare or any other act of repentance whatsoever may as well be spared as spent This conceit being once drunke in religion cannot long continue For the affections have been the strongest planters and are the surest upholders of it in the world Primus in orbe Deos fecit timot. I come to the consideration of the second inconvenience wherewith our doctrine is charged And that is nothing inferiour to the former to wit The overthrow of true religion and good goverment among'st men With what judgment these are termed inconvenices I am to seeke and I wonder what mischeifes are greater then these inconveniences But I come to consider how well he makes good his charge 1. If sinne be no sinne certainely the opinion must be erroneous that conceives it to be sin I had thought there had been no predication more true then that which is Identicall We are taught that sinne is a trangression of God's law That the wages of it in the just judgment and decree of God is no lesse then death even everlasting death both of body and soule That God sent his own Son and made his soule an offering for sinne that so he might set him forth a propitiation for our sins through faith in his blood But let us see this Authour's reason to prove his crimimination He begins with an axiome that Necessity hath no law and hereupon he doth expatiate with his instances too too impertinently a course which Bellarmine takes not whom yet I have answered on this very argument in my Vindiciae least of all doth he offer to make any reply upon any parcell of my answer unto Bellarmine Now this axiome is not applied to Agents unreasonable but only reasonable by them who treat thereof As in case a man be driven to steale to relieve naturall necessity yet all confesse that a man is not only unexecusable but also not to be pitied if he hath brought this necessity upon him And never any sober man that I know denied stealth to be a free action for all this It is true Lyons are not forbidden to prey nor fishes to swimne nor bruit creatures to doe according to their kind For they are unreasonable and consequently not capable of command otherwise then by spurre or goad or the like nor capable of admonition in like sort children afore they come to the use of reason are not capable of admonition As neither mad men are nor fooles such as we call naturall But this Authour is none such For then his wit would not serve him for opposition as it doth It is true likewise that as man is made after the Image of God not as touching his part vegetative nor as touching his part sensitive but only as touching his part reasonable consisting of an understanding whereby he is enabled to know his superiours and their commands and admonitions and of a will whereby he is able to performe obedience both inward and outward it having command over all parts of the body to set them in motion whereupon if their Lord command them to come they come if to goe they goe if to doe this they doe it As the Centurion signified to our Saviour the readinesse of his servants to doe their Masters commands At length he comes to conclude that if to deale justly to exercise charitie c. with their contraries be absolutely antecedently necessary too whether this necessity flow from a principle within or a mover without we are as lawlesse in these as in the other by these he meanes acts of the soule rationall by the other he meanes acts of the soule vegetative or sensitive Now we utterly deny that any of these are absolutely necessary Nay we deny that any thing is of absolute necessity but the being of the Divine nature and the internall emanations thereof which constitute the distinction of persons in the Trinity For albeit some Agents created are Agents necessary working necessarily yet the works which they bring forth are not of absolute necessity because they may be hindred in their operations either by Angells as some of them or
I deny your Major that is I deny that the decree of damnation presupposeth persons justly damnable Then you say it is unjust but I deny this consequence and though you bring no farther reason for your affirmation yet will I prove my negation thus The decree of damnation for finall perseverance in sin no man will say to be unjust But God decrees to damne no man but for finall perseverance in sinne Ergo Gods decree of damnation is not unjust Here I suppose you will reply that if God decreeth to damne no man but for finall perseverance in sinne then it followeth that the decree of damnation presupposeth not onely sinne in generall but finall perseverance and so you may thinke my opinion more dissolute than yours and your opinion more rigid than mine And I doubt not but so it will appeare in the end especially in the point of election but yet not for any force in this consequence Wherefore I answer that this consequence is very unfound though it hath deceived many and though the usuall course is to content themselves with proposing it without all proofe thinking it needeth no proofe yet will I easily disprove it and shew the vanity of it as already I have done the like Now I pray what is the meaning of this God doth not decree to damne any man but for finall perseverance in sinne hath it any other meaning than this God doth not intend that damnation shall be afflicted on any man but for his finall perseverance in sinne goeth before damnation Ergo the consideration of finall perseverance in sinne goeth before the decree of damnation The inconsequence whereof I have formerly shewed neither doe I finde any exception you make against my course in discovering it And by the way give me leave to tell you what I seeme to have found in the course of my studies in these points Arminianisme and Pelagianisme is one of the unlearnedst heresies that ever was depending meerly either upon principles which they establish to themselves at pleasure without all ground or upon consequences most inconsequent yet both their principles and their consequences are very plausible at first sight to judgement and the Tenets themselves most apt to bewitch carnall affections And if the Trumpets in the Revelation doe containe a prediction of heresies growing upon the Church as most have thought though now adayes it begins otherwise to come about and the starre called wormewood as a starre signifieth some plausible Heresie as Piscator conjectureth I see none so fit as the Pelagian Heresie to be notified hereby though as bitter as wormewood in opposing the grace of God in maintaining the prerogative whereof how can it be but he should be zealous that hath tasted of it and of Gods goodnesse in making him a vessell of mercy when he might have made him a vessell of wrath But you proceed 5. Whereas you argue that if election presuppose originall sinne it presupposeth actuall sinnes also I answer it followes not For though God hath decreed to free his elect from all their actuall sinnes as well as from their originall yet he hath not done it by one and the same decree But first he hath resolved to free them from that generall curse and malediction whereto they were obnoxious in Adam and this is included in their very election afterward he hath resolved to purge them also from all their actuall sinnes which they shall commit by the effectuall application of Christs merit and this is by another decree consequent upon their election being one of his decrees de mediis Resp Herein you carry your selfe like a right Schollar in making way out though it be a new way As if the decree of freeing from Originall sinne were a different decree from the decree of freeing from sinnes actuall and before it And albeit the actuall sinnes of Gods elect are many and much different some committed before their calling and for many yeares some committed after their calling throughout the whole course of their lives yet you can be content to make the decree of God in freeing from all these to be but one decree onely the decrees of freeing from actuall and from originall sinnes must be different decrees 1. When you say first he hath resolved to free them from originall sinne and afterwards he hath resolved to purge them from actuall sinnes I doubt your meaning is no more but this God hath resolved first to free them from originall sinne and afterwards to purge them from actuall sinnes And my reason is because many times I have observed speeches to ranne thus when the meaning hath beene but so as I have expressed But I will manifest that in the execution freeing from malediction in Adam and purging from actuall sinnes goe together much lesse can they differ in intention which I prove thus No man is delivered from the malediction whereto he was obnoxious in Adam but by faith in Christ he is therewithall freed from all his actuall sinnes committed before his calling Therefore seeing they are at once freed from malediction in Adam and from many actuall sinnes it followeth that God did intend at once thus to free them and how could this be done by different decrees one going before another 2. Now I will prove that God did at once intend to free from all sins both actuall and originall though he did not intend that this should be done at once Forasmuch as actuall sinnes are committed successively one a long time after another God intending to give faith and repentance to his elect did therewithall intend to free them from all their sinnes for these are the onely meanes whereby we are freed from sinne But God did at once intend to give faith and repentance to his elect Ergo. He did at once intend to free them from all their sinnes Against this argument the greatest colour of exception is from the consideration of actuall sins that have their course after their calling But this again is as easily removed by consideration that as sins have their course so faith and repentance have their course and God intended at once to give his elect faith and repentance and finall perseverance in both though perseverance cannot be had at once that being against the nature of it 3. Whereas you say onely of actuall sins that we are purged from them by the effectuall application of Christs merits I hope your meaning is not to exclude the purgation of originall sin and liberation from malediction in Adam from the effect of Christs merits The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin And David repented of his originall sin as well as of his actuall and so doe we And when in respect of the law of his members leading him captive to the law of sinne the Apostle cries out wretched man that I am who shall deliver me c. Immediately he comforteth himselfe in this manner I thank my God through Jesus Christ 4. When you say that
out of measure through the abundance of revelations Therefore saith he I take pleasure in infirmities in reproaches in necessities in persecutions in anguishes for Christs sake for when I am weak then am I strong And had not Joseph as good cause to conceive that it was the will of God that he by the unchast motions of his wanton Mistris should be provoked unto unclean courses as David had to perswade himselfe that it was Gods will by the rayling of Shimei he should be provoked unto revenge that so by the power of his grace strengthning them against such provocations they might come forth of their severall temptations as gold out of fire more bright more resplendent then before Ioseph was a faire person and well favoured Genes 39. 6. Now this was a sore provocation to a lustfull eye Beauty is said to be of a dangerous nature as that which makes a man either Praedonem alienae castitatis or Praedam suae But Joseph had a gracious and a chast heart his beauty gave him no encouragement to prey upon others chastity but being a congruous baite to the lustfull appetite of his Mistris it was in danger to expose his own chastity to be preyed upon And as Austin said of Gods providence concerning Shimei ejus voluntatem proprio vitio suo malam in hoc peccatum judicio suo justo occulto inclinavit Who seeth not that the like may be said of Gods dealing with Ioseph's Mistris and that without all aspersion of unholinesse unto God For if he gives Men or Women over unto their lusts what will be the issue but uncleannesse Rom. 1. 24 26. When God gave them up to vile affections what followed but this even their Women did change their naturall use into that which was against nature vers 27. and likewise also the Men left their naturall use of the Women and burned in their lust one toward another and Man with Man wrought filthinesse and received in themselves such recompence of their errour as was meet Here we have a strange course of Gods providence in punishing sin with sin For these Gentiles in defiling themselves one with another in a most unnaturall and abominable manner are said to receive such recompence for their errour as was meet In few words what is meant by provocation unto any sin Is it to doe that whereupon man may take just cause or occasion to doe that which he doth without blame like as the Corinthians provoked Paul as a foole to loast himselfe as himselfe expresseth it for he adds ye have compelled me But this cannot be affirmed of Tiberius his ministers in provoking Drusus and Nero. For no provocation could be sufficient to make them unblameable in convitiating their Prince much lesse can it be said that God provokes any man in this manner neither doe I think that any of our adversaries as malevolent as they are dares impute any such crimination unto us as if wee attributed any such discourse unto providence divine What then is it to provoke unto sin Is it to doe somewhat upon the consideration whereof mens passions being moved they cannot but sin But this in like sort is equally as untrue as the former even of those provocations which were made upon Drusus and Nero by the practises of Tiberius Or is it the doing of somewhat whereupon occasion is taken to sinne to blaspheme this hath no colour of truth in it For even man without all transgression may doe many things whereupon occasion is taken of doing evill and therefore we distinguish of Scandalum datum Acceptum Nay though man knowes offence will be taken upon the doing of some things yet if the doing thereof be commanded by God he must doe them what occasion soever is thereby taken to offend Indeed if they are things indifferent I must abstaine from the doing of them in case I know offence will be taken thereat and that thereby I shall lay a stumbling block in the way of my Brother For Paul professeth that if meat would offend his Brother he would never eat meat rather then offend his Brother But no such obligation lies upon God For he knoweth full well how some will abuse his mercies others grow worse and worse by his judgements breaking forth into blasphemy thereupon yet no wise man will say that God is the more unholy in the shewing of mercy and in the execution of judgement He professeth in plain termes that to them who feare him he will be a sanctuary but as a stumbling block and as a rock to fall upon to both the houses of Israel and as a snare and as a net to both the Inhabitants of Ierusalem Isai 8. 14. As for the last clause of this odious Parallel concerning the end of Tiberius his course in this namely that so he might cover his cruelty in their death under pretext of justice Undoubtedly I should think the putting of them to death was just in case they did convitiate their Prince whatsoever their provocations were For hereby they deserved death yea everlasting death and damnation His sin was in causing them to be provoked hereunto and so also it might be in the manner of their execution For it is written of him that fame necavit he famished them I know Tiberius was cruell enough but by the story it seems that policy wicked policy moved him unto this first to intend their deaths because he saw the affections of the people towards them belike for Germanicus his sake a worthy man according to those times For when he found that in the beginning of the yeare vowes were made on their behalfe to wit for their preservation he dealt with the Senate that such rewards ought not to be tendred but towards such who were of experience and of ripenesse of age and that hereupon the inward character of his affection towards them being discovered he laid them open to every mans criminations variaque fraude inductos ut concitarentur ad convitia concitati perderentur accusavit per literas amarissimè congestis etiam probris judicatos hostes fame necavit And anon after the same Author discovers the reason of all this to wit that seeing Germanicus was but his adopted Sonne and one Drusus by name was his naturall sonne and his own sonne Drusus being dead leaving a sonne Tiberius behind him he desired to make him as his naturall sonne his successor in the Empire Aelium Sejanum ad summam potentiam non tà m benevolentia provexer at quà m ut esset cujus ministerio ac fraudibus liberos Germanici circumveniret Nepotemque suum ex Druso filium naturalem ad successionem Imperii confirmaret Sure we are God hath no need of any such politique courses neither hath he need of any pretext of justice to take a mans life from him It is confessed now of all hands that God can annihilate the holiest Angel by power absolute And if it be in the power of God to keep any man
cause in man any way moving him either in its own nature or by divine constitution moving him to bestow this grace on any So the Apostle 2 Timoth. 1. 9. God hath saved us and called us with an holy calling not according to our workes but according to his own purpose and grace And indeed we being all found dead in sinne what could be found in one to move God to bestow the life of faith and repentance upon him more then upon another And if any such thing were found in man moving God hereunto then should grace be bestowed according unto works that is in the Fathers phraise as Bellarmine acknowledgeth according unto merits which was condemned 1200 years agoe in the Synod of Palestine and Pelagius himselfe was driven to subscribe unto it otherwise they had condemned him also But as touching the conferring of glory God doth not bestow this on whom he will finding men equall without any moving cause thereunto even in man For though there be no moving cause hereunto in man of its own nature yet there is to be found a moving cause in man by constitution divine whereby God is as it were moved to bestow solvation on some and not on others For God hath made a gracious promise that whosoever beleeveth and repenteth and continueth in faith and repentance unto death shall be saved and whosoever beleeveth not and repenteth not shall be damned So then though men are equall in originall sinne and in naturall corruption and God bestowes faith and repentance on whom of them he will curing their corruption in whom he will yet when he comes to the conferring of glory men are not found equall in morall condition and accordingly God cannot be said on like manner to bestow glory solvation on whō he will For he hath tyed himselfe by his own constitution to bestow solvation on none but such as dye in thestate of grace Yet I confes some say that God bestows solvation on whom he will in as much as he is the author of their faith repentance bestows these graces on whō he will yet certainly there is a different manner in the use of this phraise of bestowing this or that on whom he will For when God bestowes faith and repentance he findes them on whom he will bestow it no better then others But when he comes to the bestowing of glory he findes them on whom he bestowes that farre better them others Now we come to the things decreed in reprobation and these are two 1. The denyall of the grace of regeneration that is of the grace of faith and repentance whereby mans naturall infidelity and impenitency is cured 2. The denyall of glory and the inflicting of damnation The first of these to wit the denyall of grace mentioned is made to whom he will And it must needs be so in ease God gives this grace to whom he will And the Apostle professeth that as God hath mercy on whom he will so he hardneth whom he will And as God denies this grace to whom he will so did he decree to deny it to whom he will Yet there is a difference considerable For albeit God hardneth whom he will by denying unto them the grace of faith and repentance yet notwithstanding like as it is just with God to inflict damnation upon them for that sinne whether originall or actuall wherein he findes them when the ministry of the word is afforded them so likewise it cannot be denied to be iust with God to leave their infidelity and impenitency wherein he finds them uncured But yet because God hath not made any such constitution namely that whosoever is found in infidelity and impenitency shall be so left and abandoned by him therefore he is properly said as to cure it in whom he will so to leave it uncured in whom he will finding them all equall in originall sinne and consequently lying equally in this their naturall infidelity and impenitencv So wee may iustly say there is no cause at all in man of this difference to wit why God cures infidelity impenitency in one and not in another but it is the meer pleasure of God that is the cause of this difference And if any list to contend hereabouts we shall be willing to entertaine him and conferre our strength of argumentation on this point 2. But as touching the denyall of glory and inflicting of damnation which is the second thing decreed in reprobation there is alwaies found a cause motive yea and meritorious hereof to wit both of the denyall of the one inflicting of the other And God doth not proceed herein according to the meer pleasure of his will that by reason of his own constitution having ordained that whosoever continueth finally in infidelity in profane courses and impenitency shall be damned And albeit on the other side it may be said in some sence as formerly I have shewed that God saves whom he will in as much as he is the author of faith which he bestowes on whom he will yet in no congruous sence can he be said to damne whom he will for as much as he is not the author of sinne as he is the author of faith For every good thing he workes but sinne and the evill thereof he only permits not causeth it And lastly as God doth not damne whom he will but those only whom he finds finally to have persevered in sinne without repentance so neither did he decree to damne or reprobate to damnation whom he will but only those who should be found finally to persevere in sinne without repentance Now let us apply this to the Article we have in hand which is this The moving cause of reprobation is the only will of God and not the sinne of man originall or actuall and for the explication hereof according to that which hath been formerly delivered We say that reprobation doth signify either a purpose of denying grace as above mentioned or a purpose of inflicting damnation And each may be considered either as touching the act of Gods decree or as touching the things decreed We shew how the Article holds or holds not being differently accommodated 1. As touching the things decreed 1. As touching the deniall of grace We say That God decreed of his meere good pleasure to deny unto some the grace of faith and repentance for the curing of that naturall infidelity and impenitency which is found in all without any motive cause hereunto found in one more then in another 2. As touching the inflicting of Damnation We say That God decreed to inflict damnation on some not of his meer pleasure but meerly for their finall perseverance in sinne without repentance 2. As touching the very act of Gods decree We say Nothing in man could be the cause hereof but the meer pleasure of God as Aquinas professeth it a mad thing to devise in man a cause of divine predestination as touching the act of God predestinating as I have
of any Against this Scripture therefore fights this absolute reprobation and hatred of men TWISSE Consideration BE it the whole lump of man-kind if that Lettice like his lipps I should think by World is meant homines in mundo degentes men at any time living in the World without any restraint But herehence it followeth not that God doth not absolutely hate the greatest part of man-kind which this Author should have proved but he doth not therefore I will not only deny it but disprove it First therefore consider this love is only secundum Quid in reference to mens persons namely so farre forth as in case they believe they shall obtain everlasting life through the Sonne of God But if there were no farther love of God towards man they might be damned yea every Mothers sonne for all this Secondly if faith it selfe be a gift of God and God gives it not to all but to some only and those but a few for even of them that are called few are chosen and withall if God hath absolutely decreed to bestow this grace only on a few and deny it to the greatest part of the World will it not manifestly follow herehence that if absolutely to decree the denyall of faith be to hate then surely God absolutely hates the greatest part of men notwithstanding this love here mentioned albeit we extend it to all and every one Therefore it became this Author to prove that God is indifferent to give Faith to one as well as to another and that either absolutely whence it would follow that all and every one should both believe and be saved or conditionally and therewithall represent unto us what that condition is whereupon God bestowes faith on one and for the want thereof he refuseth to bestow faith on another This is the very criticall poynt about the controversies of Gods decrees Here therefore he should have shewed his strength For as for Gods purpose to damne we willingly professe that as God damnes no man but for sinne so he purposeth to damne no man but for sinne But as for his purpose to give or deny the grace of regeneration the grace of faith and repentance we as readily professe that not the purpose only but the very giving of faith and repentance for the curing of infidelity and hardnesse of heart in some and the denying of it unto others so to leave their naturall infidelity and hardnesse of heart uncured proceeds meerely according to the good pleasure of his will according to that of the Apostle He hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardneth And by a cloud of testimonies out of Austin we can prove that in this very sense he understood the Apostle in that place And indeed no other interpretation of that place can with any modesty be devised or obtruded upon us As for the redeeming of all and every one by Christ distinguisheth that which the haters of Gods truth doe delight to confound There is a redemption from the guilt of sinne and a redemption from the power of sinne For we are redeemed from our vaine conversation Christ came into the World to dissolve the works of the Devill No greater works of Satan then blindnesse of heart 2 Cor. 4. 3. and hardnesse of heart Ephes 2. 2. and 2 Tim. 2. last The pardon of sinne and salvation God bestowes only on believers and upon condition of faith Now like as God is ready to bestow these benefits on all and every one and that for Christs sake in case they believe so Christ hath merited pardon of sinne and salvation for all and every one in case they believe Such is the sufficiency of Christs merit that if every one of Adams race should believe every one should be saved and this present Text proceeds upon this namely upon the sufficiency of Christs merits But enquire farther whether Christ did not merit for us the grace of faith and if he did whether absolutely of conditionally if absolutely then all must believe de facto and be saved if conditionally then faith is a grace which God bestowes on man conditionally Now let this Author shew us what that condition is upon performance whereof by man God will give him faith and let him try whether he can carry himselfe so warily herein as not to plunge himselfe into plain Pelagianisme This poynt is a break-neck or Crevecoeur unto all Arminians they generally avoyd the delivering of their minds clearly hereupon as a man would avoyd a precipice It is true some Divines doe interpret the word World here of the Elect as Piscator Rolloc doth not making no mention of the Elect hereupon And Piscators meaning is no more then this viz. that this love of God in respect of every gracious effect I mean in the way of sanctifying grace determins only upon the Elect for in all likelihood he followed Calvin in this Universalem notam apposuit saith Calvin tum ut promiscuè omnes ad vitae participationem invitet tum ut praecidat excusationem incredulis To the same purpose saith he pertaines nomen mundi quo prius usus est And again se toti mundo propitium ostendit quum sine exceptione omnes ad fidem vocat But here he subjoynes a caution thus Caeterum meminerimus ita communiter promitti omnibus vitam si in Christo crediderint ut tamen minime communis omnium sit fides Patet enim omnibus Christus expositus est solis tamen Electis oculos Deus aperit fide ipsum quaerant So that this gracious promise is generall to all and every one whosoever believes shall be saved But yet notwithstanding if it shall appeare that God gives the grace of faith to none but to a certain number which are his Elect it followes that the effect of this love of God to wit Salvation shall in the issue redound to none but Gods Elect. 1. As for the designing a place where the World is taken for the Elect we need no such place as I have shewed yet Piscator conceives that so it is taken Iohn 3. 17. That the World might be saved by him But what think you of Rom. 11. 15. Where the casting away of the Jewes is said to be the reconciliation of the World And that 2 Cor. 5. 19. God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himselfe I say the reconciled World is only Gods Elect for the reconciled are all saved as I prove by the Apostles argument Rom. 5. If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Sonne how much more being reconciled shall we be saved by his life Ioh. 1. 29. The Lamb of God that taketh away the sinnes of the World Are their sinnes taken away that are damned for them And Ioh. 6. 33. He gives life to the World Is life given to any but to the Elect 2. The second reasons why in this place it cannot be so taken are in effect but one and that a
pray for we know not whom Again Gods love with this Author is extended as farre as his will to save and that is extended to all and every one and unlesse God be now changed it must extend to them now after they are damned and must our charity be extended towards them also But he proceeds let us proceed with him Now saith he all in the duty signifies every man but that we deny he gives his reason for no man though wicked and prophane is to be excluded from our Prayers Against this I have two exceptions and yet if the whole be granted him it maketh nothing for him my first exception is this he promised to give us satisfaction out of the Text it selfe but who seeth not but that this rule of his is brought in quite besides the Text I from the Text have proved and from the coherence between the generall and the speciall that the speciall being certain particular conditions of men the generall all must conformably be understood of all conditions My second exception is this he obtrudes upon us that no man though wicked and prophane is to be excluded from our Prayers I confesse I doe not find my selfe apt to exclude any from my prayers but I cannot endure that a bold fellow should obtrude his rules upon us as Oracles The Apostle Saint Iohn forbids us to pray for them that sinne a sinne unto death But let all this be granted what then If it extends to every one in the duty it must have the same extent in the motive too but this I deny he saith else the motive will not reach home nor have strength enough to enforce the duty but this likewise I deny and shew withall how the motive shall reach home and have strength enough even to enforce this duty according to this Authors accommodation of it albeit God hath a will not to save all and every one but of all sorts and all conditions some of Kings some of them that are in Authority some For seeing God saves of all sorts some why should not every Christian Subject pray for his Prince and Rulers seeing it may be they are those some whom God means to save even of the ranke of Princes of the ranke of Governors and of men in Authority For God hath not revealed to us who they are whom he hath elected and who they are whom he hath reprobated If he had Austin tells us what we should doe in that case De Civit Dei lib. 21. cap. 24. Si de aliquibus it a Ecclesia certa esset ut qui sunt illi etiam nosset qui licet adhuc in hac vitâ sint constituti tamen praedestinati sunt in aeternum ignem ire cum Diabolo tam pro i is non or aret quam pro ipso If it shall be farther urged that we are to pray for all Kings and all that are in Authority not only for our own I answer that this is nothing agreeable to the end of such prayers here expressed by the Apostle namely That under them we may live a quiet and peaceable life in all Godlinesse and honesty And what have we here in England to doe with the King of Bungo that we should pray for him or for the Kings in terrâ australi incognitâ discovered by Ferdinando de Quir or for the great Duke of Crapulia 3. As for the second interpretation I doe not find it so usuall with our Divines Cajetan distinguisheth here between voluntas signi and beneplaciti so doth Aquinas and this distinction of voluntas occulta and revelata is usually reduced to that of voluntas signi and beneplaciti But voluntas signi and voluntas revelata is more congruously applied to the things which God commands then to the things which God himselfe worketh as for example he commands faith and repentance and the commandements of God are usually called the will of God in Scripture though improperly and thus the distinction is plain God commands one thing but it is not necessary that he should will that that which he commands shall come to passe As for example God commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaack yet he determined that Isaack should not be sacrificed as appeared by the event In like manner he commanded Pharaoh to let Israel goe yet withall told Moses he would harden his heart that he should not let Israel goe But this will of God called voluntas signi and Revelata cannot so congruously be said to passe upon mans salvation Yet because God may be said to command salvation in as much as he commands faith and repentance that we may be saved and in this sense men are exhorted sometimes to save themselves As Save your selves from this froward generation and Save some out of the fire with feare and That thou maist both save thy selfe and them that heare thee therefore we are content also to admit of this distinction and consider with what judgement and sufficiency this Author doth impugne it 1. By his first opposition it appears that meer ignorance bears him out against this distinction For we doe acknowledge that Gods revealed will and his words revealing it are true interpretations of his own mind and meaning though not of such a meaning as he expects should be fashioned For he conceives that Gods will in this case is only of what shall be done which is most untrue Hereby is only signified what is mans duty to doe although it may be God will not give him effectuall grace to doe it As for examples sake when God commanded Pharaoh to let Israel goe hereby was signified that God would have it to be Pharaohs duty to let Israel goe though withall he professes to Moses that he would harden Pharaohs heart whereupon he should refuse to let them goe So when God commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaack hereby it was signified that it was Gods will to make it Abrahams duty to sacrifice his Sonne albeit God had determined that when Abraham came to poynt of execution of that which was enjoyned him he would hold Abrahams hand and content himselfe with Abrahams readinesse and good heart to obey God in this 2. As to the second it is untrue that any such thing followeth as this Author pretendeth namely that two contrary wills shall be found in God For first there is no contrariety in the wills here shaped by the Author himselfe thus many shall be damned and those many may be saved As for the word irrevocable wherewith this Author stuffes his proposition that is no attribute of damnation or the manner thereof but rather of Gods decrees wherein still he proceeds and spares not to foame out his own shame desiring to make Gods decrees of a revocable nature Secondly he understands not the accommodation of the distinction aright which is not directly to salvation and immediatly but rather to praecepta consilia remedia as Aquinas expresseth it of voluntas signi which is all one in this case with voluntas
revelata 1. Applyed to Gods commandement joyned with a will not to give grace to obay his commandement thus it 's Pharaohs duty to let Israel goe T is not Gods will that Pharaoh shall let Israel goe for he meaneth to harden his heart to the contrary 2. Applyed to salvation consequent or not consequent according as men shall be found to obey or disobey Gods commandement thus it 's my will that as many as believe and repent shall be saved and consequently it 's true If thou believest whoever thou art and repentest thou shalt be saved I will give grace to believe and repent to some only whereby they may be saved between those in like manner there is no contrariety at all 3. And if there be no contrariety at all then surely it followes not by this Authors Logick that if one of them be good the other must be bad I say by this Authors Logick for now adaies men are given so much to Rhetorick that they forget all good Logick if ever they learnt any who I pray gives any such rule that if one contrary be good the other must be bad If heat be good is cold bad Or if white be good is black bad But as for the case we treat of if these wills were found to be contrary one of them should destroy the other and the other should have no being at all and in case it hath no being shall it be said to be bad Yes like enough by the learning of the Arminians I come to the Fifth DISCOURSE SECT V. 2. PEter 3. 9. Not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance This Scripture is not so liable to those exceptions which are made against the former testimonies for it is a negative proposition and must be taken distributively and therefore speaks that in plain termes which is contrary to absolute reprobation That which is usually replied is this that the persons here spoken of are the Elect only God is not willing that any of the Elect should perish But the contrary appears plainly in the Text for the persons here spoken of are those towards whom God exerciseth much long suffering and patience and who are they Are they the Elect only or chiefly No but the Reprobates rather that dye for their contempt of grace Reprobates are the proper objects of Gods long suffering and patience as we may see Rom. 2. 4. where the Apostle speaking of such as goe on in sinne and treasure up unto themselves wrath against the day of wrath saith that God useth patience towards them that so he might lead them to repentance and Rom. 9. 22. He endureth saith the Text with much long suffering the vessells of wrath fitted to destruction Reprobates therefore as well as others doth Peter here speak of and saith that God would have none of them to perish if they doe perish it is their own fault and folly and not Gods absolute pleasure who would have none to perish TWISSE Consideration HEre be odde gambolls as when he saith the proposition here is negative whereas the propositions are two and the latter affirmative as well as the former is negative As for the taking of it distributively as he speaks the Text expresseth the negative distributively implying belike that when we interpreted the former place de generibus singulorum it was not to be taken distributively which is a very shallow conceit for it is apparent we distribute it de generibus singulorum and more then that of the particulars of each kind only we doe not distribute it of all the particulars In like manner though the Text in this place expresseth a distribution saying not willing any to perish this distribution is not extended to all Nay it admits of a greater limitation then the former place did by our interpretation for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here must be referred to that which goes before in these words God is patient to us ward not willing any to perish that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any of us to perish but all to come to repentance that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all of us which can admit of no other sense then all such as the Apostle was he saith it is contrary to absolute reprobation that is wind when he proveth it then we will believe it his word is no oracle 2. Let us see how he disproves their interpretation who accommodate it to Gods Elect. The persons here mentioned he saith are those towards whom God exerciseth long suffering and patience and demandeth whether these are the Elect only or chiefly and answereth himselfe negatively saying that the reprobates are the proper objects of Gods long suffering and patience which he proveth out of Rom. 2. 4. and Rom. 9. 22. and so concludes the argument very learnedly and judiciously Arminian like ex omnibus affirmativis in secundâ Figurâ which of what force it is every weak Logician knoweth for thus in effect is his argument They of whom God will have none to perish are such towards whom God expresseth much long suffering and patience But the Reprobates are they towards whom God expresseth much long suffering and patience Therefore the Reprobates are they of whom God will have none to perish 2. And whereas the Apostle saith God is patient towards us the meaning according to this Authors judicious enlargement is towards us who are partly elect and partly reprobates and so likewise when he saith 2 Pet. 1. 2. To you who have obtained like precious faith with us that is with us of whom some are elect and some reprobates And 1 Pet. 1. 3. God hath begotten us to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ that is begotten us some of whom are elect and some reprobates 3. Now because the Apostle saith plainly and simply who is patient towards us this Author desiring to frame it in a suitable manner to that of the Apostle Rom. 2. 4. whereunto he hath a hungry desire to reduce it therefore he makes bold to say that the persons here mentioned by Saint Peter are such towards whom God exerciseth long suffering and patience Thus again he is willing very obsequiously to follow Lysanders counsell who advised when a Lyons skinne would not serve the turne to piece it up with a Foxe skinne We on the other side though it cannot be denied but that God doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 towards such as Saint Peter was and those to whom he wrote who had obtained like precious faith with himselfe and his fellow Apostles and other believers which cannot be denied to have been the elect of God so he calls them to whom he wrote 1 Pet. 1. 2. yet we spare to draw any argument therehence because we know ful well that God doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and useth long suffering towards the Reprobates also So that we could not conclude that we would herehence but either by a Syllogisme vitious in the forme as this Author doth or
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
if God should reveale to any that he is a reprobate he might be sure he should be damned and that as well according to their shaping of reprobation as according unto our But in three things he saith men are in a farre worse condition by it let us consider them 1. The first is In their appoyntment unto Hell not for their own proper personall sinnes but for the sinnes of another made theirs only by Gods order and pleasure Now I see why he pretends to oppose the Sublapsarian way keeping his liberty upon every occasion to ejaculate what his malice can suggest unto him against the Sublapsarian For only against the Sublapsarian way this objection hath place and that not justly but most unjustly most untruely For not one of them that I know doth maintain that God by reprobation intended to damne either Cain or Judas or Esau but for their actuall sinnes and transgressions unrepented of And as for those Heathen Infants who perish in originall sinne they perish for that corruption wherein they are borne which is as naturall unto them as the Leprosy of the Father or any hereditary disease is naturally derived to the Child by vertue whereof they are borne children of wrath as the Apostle expresseth and if to be borne children of wrath be to be in a worse condition then Devills seeing to be borne children of wrath is not our making if it be of Gods making and that according to Gods meer pleasure it must be acknowledged that this is a worse condition and neverthelesse God is to be justified herein and wisdome is justified of her Children and if Arminius will not concurre with us herein sure I am Papists will For thus Bellarmine discourseth De lib. arbit lib. 2. cap. ult Longe major justitiae rigor apparet in reprobatione hominum quam Angelorum tum quia maximam partem hominum minimam Angelorum reprobavit tum etiam quoniam Angelorum nullum De us paenae sempiternae addicit nisi propter culpam propriâ voluntate comissam hominum autem plurimos damnat propter solum Originale peccatum quod alienâ voluntate commissum fuisse non dubium est And yet though in this respect the rigor be greater nevertheles considering the punishments of Infants which Austin professeth to be mitissimam thus it is qualified that undoubtedly it is better for thē to be as they are then to be Devills Though as touching the kinds degrees of punishmēt that is of a mysterious nature the Scripture cōcealling it and we have no help of reason to succour us in the investigation thereof Farre better our care be to avoid it both as well by orthodoxy of Faith as by holinesse of life And him that looks for salvation by grace it behooves to look unto it how he shapes this grace of God least if he be found to mock God giving the main stock of his conversion to his own Free will rather then unto God he may be mocked in the end and meet with no better Salvation then the liberty of his will can procure him which will prove condemnation rather then salvation See I pray what giddinesse of spirit he betrayes in laying such a crimination to our charge whereunto himselfe is obnoxious in an equall degree or in a higher degree then wee For he hath confessed that God of his meer pleasure makes all Infants guilty of eternall death now where appears the greater rigour on our side who say God inflicts eternall death on none but such as are guilty of eternall death or rather on his side who saith that God of his meer pleasure makes men guilty of eternall death 2. The second is that their inevitable destination to destruction is under shew of the contrary the Devills as they are decreed to damnation so they know it but men even those that are appointed unto wrath are yet fed up with hopes of salvation Is it possible that a man in his right witts should so miserably forget and so shamefully carry himselfe Doth not he himselfe maintain that all reprobates are from everlasting appoynted to eternall death It may be his meaning is that no reprobate is appoynted to eternall death untill his death so making Gods decrees temporall and denying them to be eternall But if this be his opinion what Arminian or Remonstrant concurres with him in this But if reprobation and election be eternall how doe we feed reprobates up with the hope of salvation more then he himselfe Doth he think none but the elect are his heares for I doe not know whether he may run and whether his shallow witts may carry him whether to the dreaming of an universall election with Huberus And doth he not feed up all his hearers with hope of salvation as well as we And how doe wee feed them up with hopes of salvation Doe we feed our hearers with any other hopes of salvation then are builded upon faith and repentance and finall perseverance therein And doe we not strike them as well with the terrours of God and fears of damnation in case they doe not believe in Christ or not break off their sinnes by repentance And doth not he the like Or if he hath good grounds of hope that all and every one that hears him is or may be an elect of God why may not we or any other Minister have as good grounds as he for such an hope But what doth he mean so superficially to presume that we teach that men doe not perish defectu misericordiae divinae but defectu voluntatis propriae Why should he so confidently presume that we should teach such contradiction to the doctrine of Augustine who professeth expressely of many that they perish non tam quia ipsi servari nolint quam quia Deus non vult As is apparent of all Infants that perish in originall sinne out of the Church of God Nay why should he presume of all us to be stricken with the same spirit either of infatuation or obstinacy as to Preach a Doctrine so directly contrary to the holy doctrine of Saint Paul professing that God hath mercy on whom he will c. And to our Saviour whose profession is that therefore men heare not Gods word because they are not of God How otherwise could the damnation of the vessells of wrath tend to the augmentation of the riches of Gods glory towards the vessells of mercy namely when they shall consider that it was the meer grace of God to put so mercifull a difference between them and others regenerating them and bestowing faith and repentance on them the bestowing whereof he denyed to many thousand others yet withall it is true that men therefore doe not believe and repent because they will not but if you aske quare nolunt saith Austin imus in longum yet to this he accommodates his answer thus men will not many things either quia latet they know not the benefit of it or quia non delectat it is not
is the promise made In which words Peter makes the command and the promise of equall extent both universall And there is reason for it for he makes the promise his motive to perswade obedience to the command and it would not have reacht home if it had not respected all those to whom he gives the command No man Reprobate or other thinks any lesse every man that hears the Gospell Preached takes himselfe to be under the gratious offer of eternall life and upon these thoughts hath some desires some hopes of it and stirres up himselfe to forsake some pleasing sinnes which otherwise he would not part with and to doe some unpleasing duties which otherwise he would not doe Now if God doth not meane that most of those to whom he offers his grace and glory shall have either will he not be found halting in his offers Zanchy tells us roundly that every man that is called is bound to think that he is elected otherwise he doth offer great injury unto God and doth perstringere Deum mendacii qui illi in verbo dicit se velle salutem ejus in hunc finem ad Christum vocasse In which speech he plainly implies that if God call a man whom he hath absolutely rejected he doth but delude him when he calls him The like speech hath Bucer Primum quod Deo debes est ut credas esse te ab eo praedestinatum nam id ni credas facis eum tibi cum te ad salutem vocat per evangelium illudere A man must believe that he is predestinated or else he makes God to mock him when he calls him A man therefore that is not predestinate but an absolute reprobate when he is called to salvation is but deluded it is the necessary result of their speeches If a creditor should resolve upon no termes to forgive his debtor one farthing of the debt and yet make him offers to remit the whole upon some conditions and bind the offers which he makes with a deep and solemne oath Would we not say that he is a ranke dissembler and a meer deluder of his poor debtor We can say no lesse of God if it be true that he hath irrevocably decreed at no hand to save such particular men and yet promiseth and sweareth that he will save them if they will believe his promises and repent What can such promises be but meere delusions of miserable men 3. In his threats and commination also by this doctrine is God made to be hollow and unsincere for Against what sinnes are they denounced Alwaies against actuall sinnes we never read that they are denounced against us for originall sinnes for the transgression of Adam or for that corruption ot nature which we brought with us into the world and consequently they import that the sinnes for which men goe to hell are their actuall transgressions But if it be true that God decreed man to hell for originall sinne that which those threatnings import and signify is not true and so God is not sincere to them Besides all threatnings imply that evills threatned may be avoyded for therefore are they denounced that men by them might come to repentance and so escape the evill that are threatned but if some men be peremptorily ordained to destruction then their destruction cannot be prevented and so the threatning of damnation in this respect also doth signify an untruth and God in them deales not plainly with men TWISSE Consideration THat God is true we make no more doubt than that there is a God at all and that God is as farre from hypocrisy as hypocrites are farre from him They that beat their fellow servants and eate and drinke with the drunken we are taught shall haue there portion with hypocrites and we judge it impossible that God should cherish any such disposition in himselfe which he so hates in others But how God is made untrue and hypocriticall in his dealings with men in all or in any matters that concerne their eternall estate by our doctrine of Reprobation more than by our doctrine of election it is a mystery unto me whether we consider his commands his offers of grace and glory his threats his passionate wishes and desires of mens chiefest good and in his expostulations and commiserations also But come we to examine how learnedly and judiciously this is carryed throughout in the particulars 1. That God commands by his Ministers many to believe and repent whom he secretly purposeth shall never believe we willingly grant like as he comanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaack and yet secretly purposed that he should not sacrifice him This is evident by the word of God for both his command given to Abraham to this purpose is there expressed as also his effectuall hindering of Abraham when he came to the point of sacrifysing him and looke what God did that he secretly purposed to to doe For he doth all things according to the counsell of his will Ephes 1. 11. Only here is the difference God commanding Abraham to sacrifice his Sonne did positively hinder him from sacrificing Isaack but God commanding all to heare the Gospell to believe doth not hinder them from believing when they are willing to beleive But only refuseth to give them that grace whereby alone their naturall infidelity might be cured according to those words of our Saviour Yee therefore heare them my wordes not because yee are not of God Iohn 8. 47. Now let every sober man judge whether Gods course be not to be censured for hypocrisy as well in the one as in the other yet is this a most triviall argument and thus usually answered by our Divines and particularly by Master Perkins But this author takes no notice of this our common answer to reply against it but is content to pretermit it in silence a manifest evidence that he hath nothing of worth to say against it for I cannot conceive him to be so ignorant as not to know this usuall answer of our Divines But let we him proceed in his course Whom God commands to believe and repent those he outwardly wills should believe and repent for by his commands he signifies his will and pleasure and he must inwardly and heartily will it too or else he dissembles All this is as congruously appliable to Gods commandement given unto Abraham for the sacrificing of Isaack as to the commandement of believing and repenting given unto any although there is a vast difference between Gods commandement of Sacrificing Isaack and his commandement of believing For God himselfe gave the one immediately and that to a particular person Abraham But God commands his Ministers to preach his Gospell unto all that are present to heare them and why But as he tells Paul Acts 18. 9. because he hath much people in the place whereto he sends them and yet tells them not who those people are who his elect are and who are not But they though thereupon they proceed
am I private to their stirring up of themselves to forsake some pleasing sinnes which otherwise they would not part with and to doe some unpleasing duties which otherwise they would not doe But in generall I have read in Austin that God calleth some though Reprobates ut proficiant ad exteriorem vitae emendationem quo mitius puniantur But I can hardly believe that Herod was any one of them though he did many things at his admonition because I see a shamefull issue giving way to the cutting off Iohn Baptists head for the gratifying of a wanton damsell Now like as we say God doth signify his meaning to be that as many as believe and repent shall have their sinnes pardoned and their soules saved So if it can be proved that there is no such meaning in God then in my poore judgement it cannot be avoyded but that God must be found halting in his offers But for my part I acknowledge such a meaning in God neither have I to this houre found any one of our Divines either by word or writing to have denyed this to be the meaning of God and I wonder what this Author means after this manner to carry himselfe in the cloudes of generalities and whether it be through sillinesse or malitiousnesse I am to seeke but if I may be so bold as to guesse I think the root of all this his superficiary discourse is the confounding of absolute Reprobation with absolute Damnation and in like sort absolute election with salvation absolute for as for pardon of sinne and salvation we acknowledge them to be bestowed on men of ripe years conditionally and as God bestowes them so also he decreed to bestow them we say conditionally to wit in case they believe and repent but in case they believe and repent not damnation is their portion and that by the decree of God But as touching the gift of faith and repentance these we maintain to be given of God absolutely according to the meere pleasure of his will and accordingly denyed unto others as the Apostle signifieth saying He hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardneth But this Author meddles not hither to with these gifts but keeps himselfe to the graces of pardon of sinne and of salvation which God bestowes conditionally and signifies his meaning to be to bestow them conditionally namely in case they believe and repent and not otherwise and such indeed we maintaine to have been his meaning and that from everlasting So that in all this there is no colour of imposture or simulation But in that which followeth he stealeth upon the grace of faith it selfe let us see how clearely and with what felicity he carryeth himselfe and whether it be not answerable to his former carriage which he continueth throughout Zanchy he saith tells us roundly that every man that is called is bound to think he is elected but why doth he not speake out and say that every one is bound in the opinion of Zanchy to believe that he is elected as formerly he related it I grant that to believe is to think for credere is defined to be cum assensione cogitare but thoughts he knows are very wild they have their course in dreames as a hungry man may dreame that he eateth and drinketh but when he awaketh his soule is empty And as for that doctrine of Zanchy I have already given a faire interpretation of it upon consideration that he speaks it of election not unto faith but unto salvation and seeing God hath manifested in his word his determination to give salvation to every one that believeth it followeth herehence that every one is bound to believe that as many as doe believe shall be saved and consequently every one that heareth the Gospell is bound to believe That God hath determined to bestow Salvation on him in case hee be found to believe The like construction may be given of Bucers Doctrine namely that God hath predestinated him to obtain Salvation in case he believe not otherwise For God hath not predestinated any man of ripe years to obtain Salvation whether he believe or not And seeing God hath plainly professed that whosoever believeth shall be saved Mar. 16. 16. If I doe not accordingly believe that God hath predestinated me to obtain salvation in case I doe believe I doe hereby make God to delude me in saying Whosoever believeth shall be saved And whereas this Author upon the back of this addeth that a man therefore that is not predestinate but an absolute reprobate when he is called to salvation is but deluded and that this is the necessary result of our speeches All the colour of this his inference depends meerely upon confusion of things that differ For he distinguisheth not between absolute predestination unto salvation and predestination unto salvation absolute likewise he distinguisheth not between absolute reprobation unto damnation and reprobation unto damnation absolute neither doth he distinguish between predestination unto faith and predestination unto salvation nor between reprobation from faith and reprobation unto damnation And the absolutenesse of predestination appears only in predestination unto faith not in predestination unto salvation For salvation being bestowed on none of ripe years but by way of reward of their faith repentance and good works hence it followes that God predestinates none unto salvation of ripe years but by way of reward of their obedience But as for predestination unto faith it is cleare that God purposeth absolutely to bestow faith on whom he will So on the other side damnation being inflicted on none but for sinne God hath destinated no man unto damnation but for sinne But as touching obduration like as God hardneth whom he will so he decreed to proceed herein to wit in hardening of men according to the meere pleasure of his will that is absolutely Now let us not suffer a cauteriate conscience to smother a plain truth with the confusion of those things which are to be distinguished Absolute is opposed to conditionate and this distinction applied to Gods will is to be understood not quoad actum volentis sed quoad res volitas as for example God decrees that a man shall be saved upon condition of faith this is called voluntas conditionata so oVssius expounds it Hist Pelag. lib. 7. p. 638. his words are these Aliqua vult cum conditione quae idcirco in effectum non prodeunt nisi conditione impletâ Some things God willeth with a condition which come not unto effect but upon the fulfilling of the condition this is plainly understood not of the act of willing but of the things willed which he calls aliqua and the instance he gives us is this quo modo omnes homines salvari vult sed per propter Christum fide apprehensum after which manner he will have all to be saved but by and for Christ apprehended by faith where faith is plainly made the condition of salvation not of
second generall reason against it TWISSE Consideration THat Salvation and that by the ordinance of God is only obtaineable by men of ripe years by faith and repentance as also that in case every one should believe and repent every one should be saved is without question For hath not our Saviour professed that whosoever believeth shall be saved and doth it not undeniably follow herehence that it is Gods will that whosoever believeth shall be saved Neither is this any wish as this Author faigneth neither doth any of our Divines say that ever I read or till now heard of that God wisheth that all that believe shall be saved this being a most absurd speech and contradiction to the ordinance of God For those things which God or man are said to wish are such which doe not alwaies come to passe but this ordinance of God whosoever believeth shall be saved is more stable than the covenant which God hath made with day and night Not any Arminian that ever I read doth expresse himselfe in so prostitute a manner as to say God seriously wisheth the salvation of Reprobates in case they believe For he hath not wished but ordained and made it a positive law that whosoever believeth shall be saved and herehence it followeth that if all and every one from the beginning of the World to the end shall believe in Christ all and every one of them shall be saved But when they speake of velleity in God or wishing the object thereof they make not to be the salvation of men in case they repent but absolutely the salvation of men which kind of velleity is resolved indeed in the issue into a conditionate will thus Gods will is that all shall be saved in case they repent not thus I doe wish that all may be saved in case they repent according to the most absurd fiction of this Author At length he grants that God will have all men to be saved only upon condition they will believe and repent and that conditionall promise may be serious as well as an absolute but then saith he the condition must be possible to them to whom the offer and promise is made and the performance of the condition must be a part of Gods will as well as the salvation promised or else the promise cannot be candid and sincere Whereto I answer that it is confessed on both sides that God hath ordained that all that believe shall be saved and consequently it must be granted that the promise of salvation hereupon to wit upon faith must needs be candid and sincere it being the promise of God Now shall we herehence inferre hand over head that therefore the condition must be possible unto all in spight of all other evidences to the contrary though never so plainly and expressely laid downe unto us in holy Scripture as namely that a naturall man perceives not the things of God they are foolishnesse unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2. 14. That they that are in the flesh cannot please God Rom. 8. 8. That they who are accustomed to doe evill can no more doe good then a Blackemore change his skinne or the Leopard his spots Jer. 13. 23. This is the immodest course of this Author to set up one piece of Scripture by his paltry consequences to outface another nothing lesse evident Notwithstanding this Scripture discovereth unto us how this impotency of doing good is contracted unto us all by sinning in Adam as whereupon we were bereaved of grace and of the spirit of God yet if he would deale fairely and deny originall sinne he should erre no more then Pelagius did and withall he should have as much ingenuity as Pelagius had But now though equall to him in the one yet is he inferiour to him in the other But come we nearer to him than so What one of our Divines denyeth the performance of this condition to be possible to al men But is it fit that he should talke of possibility as he doth at large without any reference to the grace of God And dares he say that it is possible to any man whether elect or reprobate without grace I say he dares not say so much though like enough he and all the Sect of them have a good mind to it What then is the issue of all this Controversy between us but to enquire what manner of grace that is without which it cannot be that any should believe Is it only such a grace as gives only power to believe This is no better than plain Pelagianisme as appears by Austin de grat Christ cont Pelag. coelest c. 6. and in the end where he comes to make an overture for the compounding of the Controversy between them Or Is it some other grace prevenient working only Morally by way of perswasion This also appears clearely to have been the opinion of Pelagius in the same book of Austin cap. 10. And he challengeth him to the acknowledging of another manner of grace if he will not only be called a Christian but be indeed a Christian Or Lastly is it only grace subsequent by way of concourse as to say that God workes in us the act of believing provided that we will believe This this is that Helena that our homeborne Arminians are inamoured with meere Pelagianisme for who seeth not that thus the grace of faith is conferred according to the acts of willing in men which is as much as to say t is conferred according to works Then marke yet farther absurdities for thus God hath not mercy on whom he will in giving faith but on whom man will and what colour is there in this case for any such objection to be made hereupon as is devised by the Apostle Thou wilt say then why doth he yet complaine for who hath resisted his will Further consider Doth not God in this manner concurre to the most sinfull act that is commited in the world And why then doe we not as well say that the commission of sinne is not possible without grace subsequent for certainly t is not possible without divine concourse Lastly say farther what is the grace required to the very act of willing Doth God work this also by grace subsequent As much as to say God works in us the act of willing provided we worke it in our selves Such morsells as these can easily goe downe with these stomacks which are apt to tumultuate upon the hearing that God hath power to make whom he will vessells of mercy or vessells of wrath man must be the crafts-master of his own fortunes and it were neither agreeable to Gods mercy nor to his justice nor to his truth unlesse their free-will hath the greatest glory of their conversion and God be admitted no more to the working of that act of faith and of repentance than to the working of the most sinfull act that is committed in the world But I find it nothing
manner who shall deliver me from the body of this death And receiving a gracious answer concerning this concludes with thankes I thank my God through my Lord Jesus Christ if I have a will to believe to repent I have no cause to complaine but to runne rather unto God with thankes for this and pray him to give that power which I find wanting in me And indeed as I may adde in the fourth place this impotency of believing and infidelity the fruit of naturall corruption common to all is meerely a morall impotency and the very ground of it is the corruption of the will therefore men cannot believe cannot repent cannot doe any thing pleasing unto God because they will not they have no delight therein but all their delight is carnall sensuall and because they are in the flesh they â—annot please God and because of the hardnesse of their hearts they cannot repent sinne is to them as a sweet morsell unto an Epicure which he rolleth under his tongue Fiftly dost thou blaspheame God because of Leprous Parents thou art begot and conceived and borne a leprous child What impudency then is it in thee to challenge him for injustice in that the spirituall leprosy of thy first Parents is propagated to thy soule Lastly if thou renouncest the Gospell what reason hast thou to complaine of want of power to embrace it so farre as not to renounce it hast thou not as much power to believe as Simon Magus had as many a prophane person and hipocrite hath that is bred and brought up in the Church of God Hadst thou gone so farre as they and performed submission unto the Gospell by profesing it surely thou shouldest never be brought to condemnation for not professing of it but rather for not walking according to the rule of it which thou promisedst when first thou gavest thy name to Christ I come to the third 3. Look what the Word promiseth that doe the Sacraments scale the word promiseth Justification Salvation to all that beleive the same doth the Sacraments seal As Circumsion Rom. 4. 5. Is said to be the seale of the Rightiousnes of faith so is Baptisme it did in our Saviours dayes and in the dayes of his Apostles seale to the believer and penitent Person the assurance of the forgivenesse of their sinnes over and above Baptisme is the Sacrament of our birth in Christ and the Lords Supper of our growth in Christ each an outward and visible signe of an inward invisible grace But what is the grace were of the Sacrament is a signe Is it a power to doe good if a man will Call you that grace which is not so much as goodnesse for certainly goodnesse consists not in a power to doe good if a man will but in a definite inclination of the will it selfe to delight in that which is good and to be prone to doe it But this grace whereof Baptisme is a signe is suo tempore conferenda like as Circumcision was even to those Jewes who yet were not regenerated untill they were partakers of the Gospell Jam. 1. 18. Of his own will hath he begotten us by the word of truth Writing unto the twelve tribes of the Jewes And it is very strange to me that regeneration should so many years goe before vocation But this opposite Doctrine and the sealing of a blanke is nothing strange to me I was acquainted with it twenty yeares agoe and I seeme plainly to discerne the chimney from whence all the smoake comes 4. As for other gifts bestowed on the Reprobates 1. We willingly confesse they shall never bring them to salvation be they as great as those who were bestowed on Aristotle Plato Aristides Sophocles and the most learned morall and wise men of the World that never were acquainted with the mystery of Godlinesse it was wont to be received generally for a truth that Extra Ecclesiam non est satus But Arminians take liberty to coyne new Articles of our Creed 2. But yet they may doe them good hereby they may Proficere ad exteriorem vitae emendationem quo mitius puniantur For certainly it shall be easier in the day of udgement for Cicero then for Cattline for Augustus than for Tiberius for Trajan than for Heliogabalus 3. And therefore it is certainly false that they are hurtfull and that they proceed out of extreme hatred And as for love the Scripture teacheth us that Jacob was loved of God and Esau hated each before they were borne Such is the condition of all the elect as Jacob of all the Reprobates as Esau and in Thomas Aquinas his judgement Non velle alicui vitam aeternam est ipsum odisse Knowledge I confesse of the mysteries of Godlinesse where life and conversation is not answerable doth encrease mens condemnation neither is God bound to change the corrupt heart of any man if they are workers of iniquity Christ will not know them at the great day though they have Prophesyed in his name and in his name cast out Devills neither was it ever heard of that the graces of edification and graces of sanctification must goe together and that God in giving the one is bound to give the other As for being proud of them pride for ought I know requires no other causes but domesticall corruption but he that acknowledgeth God to be the giver of any gift and hath an heart to be thankfull for it I make no doubt but he hath more grace than of edification only certainly the gifts they have sinke them not to hell but their corrupt heart in abusing them And hath a man no cause to be thankfull unto God for one gift unlesse he will adde another The Gentiles are charged for unthankfulnesse Rom. 1. But it seems by this Authors Divinity it was without cause unlesse we will with this Author say they all had sufficiency of meanes without and power within to bring them to salvation and what had Israell more Or the elect of God more in any age True for according to the Arminian tenet an elect hath no more cause to be thankfull to God for any converting grace than a Reprobate In a word what good act wrought in the heart of man whether of faith or of repentance or any kind of obedience hath man cause to be thankfull to God for when God workes it in him no otherwise than modó homo velit and so they confesse he workes every sinfull act Have they not in this case more cause to thank themselves than to thank God And unlesse we concurre with them in so shamelesse unchristian gracelesse and senselesse an opinion and in effect if God converts the heart of man according to the meere pleasure of his will and hardeneth others all the gifts that he bestowes on man are censured by this audacious censurer as Sauls bestowing Michal on David Jaells courtesy and usurers bounty c. or a baite for a poore fish as if God needed any such course
consolation which hath his course not only with the Devills but even with them that are already under the torments of Hell fire But let not the authority of the booke of Wisdome with thee weigh up and elevate the authority of Scriptures nor Philo the Jew be preferred before S t Paul or the Prophet Malachy by whom wee are taught that as God loved Jacob before he was borne so he hated Esau and before they were borne what difference was there betweene them Yet this passage out of the booke of Wisdome is in a Collect of the Papists Liturgy I conceive a good sence may be made thereof without any prejudice to absolute reprobation for of Papists we ate sayd to have learnt it and are reproached for it And what is that good sense they make of it Take it if thou wilt from Aquinas 1. q 23. art 3 ad 1. Dicendum quod Deus omnes homines diligit etiam omnes creaturas in quantum omnibus vult aliquod bonum non tamen quodcunque bonum vult omnibus In quantum igitur quibusdam non vult hoc bonum quod est vita aeterna dicitur eos habere odio vel reprobare Now if we take this Colect from them let us take also their good meaning with it and if we can let us make it better and not worse We commonly say that passions are attributed to God not quoad affectum but quoad effectum Now the effect of hatred is either the denyall of grace or the denyall of glory or the inflicting of damnation The two latter are executed only according to mens sinnes but the first to wit the denyall of grace proceeds meerely according to the good pleasure of Gods will like as the giving of grace as the Apostle not Philo signifies that God hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardneth Now to shew mercy is to bring a man to faith Rom. 11. 30. And if grace be not given according to the meere pleasure of Gods will it must be given according unto workes which is as much as to say in the phrase of the ancients according unto merits which all along hath been condemned in the Church of God as meere Pelagianisme Yet hitherto tends all the consolation that Arminianisme can reach forth unto thee which is to afford thee no better consolation then can be afforded to a Reprobate 2. As for Adams transgression let not that affright thee who art borne within the pale of the Church and of Christian parents for the children of such are holy 1 Cor. 7. when all others are uncleane Yet why should any man find it strange that some of them who are guilty of eternall death should suffer eternall death And this Author hath formerly confessed that Adams sinne hath made all his posterity guilty of eternall death Now albeit God hates many whether as involved in Adams transgression or no what matters that to thy discomfort if he hate not thee And what ground hast thou to conceive that thou art in the number of them whom he hates rather then of those whom he loves He is no good Physitian that lookes not into the cause of the desease to remoove that nor he any good comforter that lookes not into the cause of thy discomfort to remoove them It is to be thought that such an one desires rather to feed thy discomfort then to cure it Such is the practice of this comforter otherwise he should not apply his arguments of comfort which he magnifies as the strongest with as much art and cunning as can be But understand him aright this art and cunning tends not to the furtherance of thy consolation but to the advantage of his owne Arminian cause and to this end I confesse he doth apply them with as much art and cunning as he can 2. And God hath a two-fold love a generall love which puts forth it selfe in outward and temporall blessings only and with this he loves all men And a speciall by which he provides everlasting life for men and with this only he loves 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 CONSIDERATION 1. As touching the distinction hold thee to it least otherwise thou never proove capable of more comfort then a Reprobate is capable of No Arminian hath the face to deny that God saves but a very few And the reason is because very few doe believe and repent in this we all agree Againe no Arminian denies that very few doe believe and repent and finally persevere therein Againe no Arminian denies faith and repentance to be the gift of God and that hereby alone men are singled out from the rest Now the question is Whether God singleth out some men from the rest by giving them faith and repentance according to the meere pleasure of his will or according to their workes We say according to the meere pleasure of Gods will for he hath mercy on whom he will Rom 9. 18. Arminians say according to mens workes and hereupon in the issue comes all their consolations to be grounded that is upon a notorious Heresy condemned above 1200 yeare agoe 2. But as touching the accommodation of this distinction unto thy selfe saing thou art under Gods generall love not under his speciall I pray the tell me what ground thou hast for that what one of Gods elect while they were in the state of nature had not as greate cause to be as uncomfortable as thy selfe and why maist not thou be in Gods good time in as comfortable a condition as any of them and to say as John doth see what love the father hath shewed us that we should be called the sonnes of God dost thou mourne for thy sinne or no if thou dost not Why shouldest thou looke to be partaker of those comforts which are peculiar to them that mourne If thou dost thy Saviour hath said Blessed are they that mourne for they shall be comforted Dost thou hunger and thirst after the favour of God and to be made partaker of the righteousnesse of Christ which alone can give thee assurance of thine election If thou doest not hunger and thirst after this why shouldest thou be cast downe because thou hast not this assurance If thou doest desire this assurance and to that purpose hast an hungry appetite after the righteousnesse of Christ thy Saviour saith Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousnesse for they shall be filled Or hast thou a desire to have thy sinnes pardoned and thy soule saved but not any desire that thy soule may be sanctified what comfort shouldest thou or any such expect at the hands of God Thou wouldest serve the Devill but thou wouldest not goe to hell with the Devill But I tell thee God hath decreed the contrary namely that all such shall have this doome Goe ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devill and his Angells Yet
a true crimination but by flying to Gods absolute proceedings in giving or denying grace And albeit in this poynt wholly consists the Crisis of this Controversy yet this Author utterly declines the sifting thereof as some precipice and breake-neck unto his cause to wit Whether God gives and denyes grace according to the meere pleasure of his will or according to mens workes albeit the issue of all his comforts comes to this namely that either God is not the Author of our faith which now adaies the Remonstrants with open mouth professe that Christ merited for none or if to juggle with the World they pretend an acknowledgement that God is the Author of it yet they plainly professe that he dispenseth it to some and denyes it to others according to some good condition or disposition he findes in the one and which he findes not in another But let us take into consideration what these solid grounds of comfort are whereof a Minister is bereaved by our Doctrine Three I find here mentioned A treble Universality 1. of Gods love 2. Of Christs death 3. Of the Covenant of grace As if universality now adayes were a better Character of the Arminian faith then of the Roman Religion I may take liberty to equivocate a little when this Authour equivocates throughout and that in a case wherein iâ— is most intollerable in a case of consolation to be ministred to conscientia timorata as Nider calls it a poore afflicted soule as this Authour expresseth it To the discovery whereof I will now proceed having signified in the first place that all these consolations are no other but such as every Reprobate is capable of as well as the Children of God which is so apparent as needs no proofe only in the issue of their Tenet the faith of them freeth a man from the conceit of being an absolute Reprobate So that in effect it comes to this Thou poore afflicted soul be of good comfort for if thou wilt hearken unto me and imbrace those solid grounds of comfort which I will reveale unto thee assure thy selfe they shall be as the Balme of Gilead unto thy soule whereby thou maist be confident that albeit it may be thou art a Reprobate and that God from everlasting hath ordained thee unto damnation that yet certainly thou art no absolute Reprobate no more then Cain or Esau Saul or Judas or the Devills were For these my principles will assure thee that there never was nor is nor shall be any absolute Reprobate throughout the world 2. I come to the examining of them particularly to shew that every one of them is as it were against the haire So evident are the testimonies of Scripture against them all and they are obtruded upon a superficiary and most most unsound interpretation of Scripture in some places For 1. as touching the first the universality of Gods love For hereby Gods love is made indifferent unto all and consequently towards Esau as well as to Jacob whereas the Scripture professeth that God loved Jocob and hated Esau and this the Apostle makes equivalent to the Oracle dilivered to Rebekah concerning them before they were borne 2. He might as well have proposed it of the universallity of Gods mercy whereas the Scripture expressely distinguisheth between vessels of mercy vessells of wrath 3. This love is explicated by them to consist in a will to save all Now election is but Gods will to save and the Scripture plainly teacheth and it is confessed by all that I know excepting Coelius Secundus to whom this Authour it seemes is most beholding for his story of Spira that though Many are called yet but few are chosen And whereas it is confessed that the most part of men are Reprobates that is from everlasting willed unto condemnation yet never the lesse they beare us in hand that all men even Cain and Judas yea and as I think the Devills and all were willed by God unto Salvation And that there is no contradiction in all this And every poore afflicted soule must believe hand over head that all this is true what species of contradiction soever be found therein which this Authour from the begining of his discourse to the end hath taken no paines to cleare least otherwise he forfaits all hopes of comfort upon such soveraine grounds as are here proposed by faith wherein aman may be as well assured of his Salvation and freedome from damnation as any Reprobate in the World For albeit he be a Reprobate and God should reveale this unto him yet upon these grounds he may be confident that he is no absolute Reprobate 2. I come to the Second comfortable supposition and that is the universality of Christs death namely that he died for all Now this is opposite to Scripture evidence as the former yea and to Christian reason if not more For albeit God so loved the World even the whole World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have Life Everlasting which gives a fair light of exposition to those places where Christ is said to have dyed for the sins of the World yea of the whole world to wit in this manner that whosoever believes in him shal not perish but have everlasting life yet the Scripture speaks as often of Christs death in a restrained sense as where it is said Christ gave himselfe a ransome for many And that his bloud was shed for his Apostles and for many for the remission of their sinnes And that Christ should save Gods people from their sinnes And that God hath purchased his Church with his bloud And Christ gave himselfe for his Church And that he is saviour of his body And that he dyed for the elect And in the 17 of John our Saviour would not pray for the World but only for those whom God had at that time given unto him and who afterward should believe in him through their word And look for whom he prayed with exclusion of the rest for their sakes he sanctified himself Now that this is spoken in reference to the offering of himselfe up unto God upon the crosse it was the joynt interpretation of all the Fathers whom Maldonate had read as he professeth on that place and there reckons up a multitude of them Then againe Christs death and passion we know was of a satisfactory nature and therefore if he dyed for all he satisfied for all the sinnes of all men why then are not all saved Why is any damned Is it just with God to torment with everlasting fire for those sinnes for which he hath received satisfaction and that a more ample one then mans satisfaction can be by suffering the torments of Hell fire For therefore it shall never end because it shall never satisfie Againe how many millions were at that time dead and in hell fire and did Christ satisfy for their sinnes by his death upon the Crosse and they continue still to
be as ready to worke it in themselves 3. And now I come to this Authors third Topick place of consolation drawn from the universality of the Covenant of grace Now this is as strange as any of the former or rather much more and when the Covenant of grace is so much enlarged we have cause to feare that it is confounded with the Covenant of Workes And indeed if it were true as some of this sect professe namely that there is an universall grace given to al for the enlivening of their wills wherby they are enabled to will any spirituall good whereunto they shall be excited and to believe if they will and from the love of temporall things to convert themselves to the keeping of Gods Commandements if they will I see no reason but that the Law is able to give life though the Apostle supposeth the contrary and the way is as open unto man for justification by the workes of the Law as it was unto Adam in the state of innocency And if the Covenant of grace be universall and ever was for that I take to be this Authours meaning then God was no more the God of Abraham and of his seed then of all the World nether was the people of Israel more the Lords portion then any other Nation of the World yet Moses was sent unto Pharaoh in their behalfe with this Message Thus sayth the Lord Israell is my sonne my first borne wherefore I say unto thee Let my sonne goe that he may serve mee if thou refuse to let him goe Behold I will slay thy sonne even thy first borne Ex 4. 22 23. Thus God accounts them albeit they were miserably corrupted with Idolatry as it appeares Ez 20. 6. In the day that I lift up my hand upon them to bring them forth of the Land of Egypt 7. Then sayd I unto them Let every one cast a way the abominations of his eies and defile not your selves with the Idolls of Egypt for I am the Lord your God 8. But they rebelled against me and would not heare me for none cast away the abominations of their eyes neither did they forsake the Idolls of Egypt then I thought to poure out mine Indignation upon them and to accomplish my wrath against them in the midst of the Land of Egypt 9. But I had respect unto my name that it should not be polluted of the Heathen So he proceded in despite of their sinnes to carry them out of the Land of Egypt and brought them into the wildernesse and gave them Statutes and Judgments and his Sabaths v 10 11 12. But they rebelled against him in the Wildernesse whereupon he thought againe to poure out his indignation upon them in the Wildernesse to consume them v. 13. But he had respect unto his name v. 14. amd his eie spared them and would not destroy them v. 17. And againe when their Children provoked him by rebelling against him whereupon he thought of powring out his Indignation upon them v. 21. Neverthelesse he withdrew his hand and had respect unto his name v. 22. Then as touching the generation of that present time he professeth he will rule them with a mighty hand v. 33. And the issue thereof is no worse then this I will cause you to passe under the rod and bring you into the bond of the Covenant v. 37 And againe marke with what a gratious promise he concludes v. 43. There shall ye remember your wayes and all the workes wherein ye have been defiled and ye shall judge yourselves worthy to be cast of for all your evills which you have committed 44. And ye shall know that I am the Lord when I have respect unto you for my names sake and not after your wicked waies nor according to your corrupt worke O yee house of Israel saith the Lord God Here is the peculiar fruit of the Covenant of grace to master their iniquities to bring them unto repentance and to deliver them from the dominion of sinne and Satan If God performe this Grace to all and every one throughout the World then is the Covenant of grace universall and all and every one are under it but if there be few very few over whom sinne hath not the dominion then certainly very few are under the Covenant of grace For the Apostle plainly signifyeth this to be the fruit of the Covenant of grace where he saith Sinne shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the Law but under grace Rom 6. 14. And the like we have Heb. 8. 8. I will make with the House of Judah a new Testament 9. Not like the Testament that I made with their fathers in the day that I tooke them by the hands to lead them out of the Land of Egypt For they continued not in my Testament and I regarded them not saith the Lord. 10. For this is the Testament that I will make with the House of Israell after those dayes saith the Lord I will put my Lawes in their mind and in their heart I will write them and I will be their God and they shall be my people 11. And they shall not teach every man his neighbour and every man his brother saying Know the Lord for all shall know me from the least of them to the greatest of them 12. For I will be mercyfull unto their unrighteousnesse and I will remember their sinnes and their iniquities no more According to this Covnant proceed those gratious promises whereof the Scriptures are full I have seen his wayes and I will heale them Es 57. 18. I will heale their rebellions Hos 14. 5. The Lord will subdue our iniquities Mich. 7. I will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your children to love me with all your heart and with all your soule Deut 30. 6. I am the Lord your God which sanctify you c And therefore these comforts which here are so much magnified as only and fully sufficient for the releeving of an afflicted soul in the hour of temptation are but so many lies to speake in the Prophets phrase that this Author holds in his right hand and if through the illusions of Satan he take hold of them they may cast him into a dreame like unto the dreame of an hungry man who eateth and drinketh and maketh merry but when he awaketh his soule is empty For all these comforts so magnificently set forth have no force save in case a man believe them now if a man believeth our doctrine can assure him of Everlasting Life and so of his election which the Arminian cannot For we teach that which our Saviour hath taught us He that believeth in the Son hath Everlasting Life and he that obayeth not the Sonne shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth upon him But as for the performing of faith they leave that unto man together with Gods concurrence And in like sort for the maintenance of their faith they teach a man to put
which he will and proper in the thing whereto he sends it And remove all vaine grounds of apprehensions of terrible things against themselves What if a great many be reprobated from grace and shall never have any part in Christ it doth not follow that this afflicted soule is any of them what one is there of the children of God which was not sometimes dead in sinne and if pangs of childbirth goe before the delivering of a child into the world of nature why should it seeme strange that pangs of childbirth are suffered before a man be brought forth in to the world of grace And these feares and terrours wherwith this poore soule is perplexed may be unto her as pangs of childbirth to bring her forth into a new world We say that by Gods Word we are to conceive that ye are elected upon our faith and repentance Thus Paul concluded the election of the Thessalonians 1 Thess 1. 3 4. And 2 Thess 2. 13. Thus Melancthon would have us seeke it but by the Arminian doctrine it is in vaine to seeke after it for as much as none can find it We acknowledge that as our Saviour saith Few are chosen therefore we admonish every one to strive to enter in at the straight gate This was our Saviours exhortation delivered by way of answer to a question made unto him by his Apostles Whether there were but few that should be saved We teach that Christ hath died for the people of God for the elect of God for his Church for his body not only to make satisfaction for sinne and to procure salvation for them in case they believe but to procure also the Holy Spirit for them to make them believe and repent c. And this is wrought by the word which is the sword of the spirit We take not the course he obtrudes upon us We make no such distinctions for the consolation of the afflicted as he faignes We deale plainly and spare not to professe that albeit salvation is open to all that believe and that by the ordinance of God yet that no man is able of himselfe to believe or repent for as much as the Scripture testifies that all are dead in sinne in the state of nature and led captive by the Divell to doe his will and that the very Law of God doth strengthen sinne such being the course of mans corruption that the more he is forbidden this or that the more it provokes him to transgresse taking occasion by the law to work in mans heart all manner of concupiscence this is our course to beat downe the pride of man and beat out of him all conceit of ability to doe any good as of himselfe and so to cast him downe at the feet of Gods mercy Yet God is able by his grace to quicken him and being brought up in the Church of God wherein is the balme of Gilead able to heale our waies be they never so sinfull and that that is administred not according to the vile workes of men as if they had any power to prepare them for the participation of Gods grace but of the meere favour and good pleasure of God Who calleth as the Apostle speakes 2 Tim. 1. 9. with an holy calling not according to our own workes but according to his own purpose and grace And that for the merits of Christ who hath merited not only pardon of sinne and salvation for all that believe but faith also and regeneration for all his elect and being as we are members of Gods Church we have no cause to despaire but sooner or later God may call us as continually he doth some or other and we know not how soone our turne may come And as for Gods purpose touching the performance of the condition of faith we plainly professe That God purposed to give faith and repentance only to his elect according to that Act. 13. 48. As many believed as were ordained to everlasting life And Acts 2. last God added daily to his Church such as should be saved Now heare I pray their doctrine on the other side which set out our manner of consolation devised most ridiculously at their own pleasure so to expose our doctrine to scorne Doth God purpose to bestow faith and repentance upon any other besides his elect This they must avouch if they contradict us and that he purposeth to bestow it on all and every one but how Not absolutely on any that is not according to the meere pleasure of his will how then Surely conditionally to wit according to mens workes that so not Semi-Pelagianisme only but plain Pelagianisme may be commended unto Gods Church for true Christianisme And what is that worke in man whereupon God workes faith or repentance in them Surely the will to believe the will to repent So that if all men will believe will repent then in good time through Gods grace they shall believe they shall repent and if this be not to crowne Gods grace with a crowne of scornes as Christ himselfe was crowned with a Crowne of Thornes I willingly professe I know not what it is We utterly deny that God hath two wills one contrary to the other We acknowledge that in Scripture phrase Gods commandement is called his will as This is the will of God even your sanctification 1 Thess 4. 3. But this is not that will of God which the Apostle speakes of when he saith Who hath resisted his will Rom. 9. 19 For his will of commandement is resisted too oft But the will he speaketh off there is the will of Gods purpose and decree whereof the Psalmist speakes saying Whatsoever the Lord will that hath he done both in Heaven and earth Now suppose God command Abraham to sacrifice his sonne Isaack and yet decrees that Isaack shall not be sacrificed both which are as true as the word of God is true yet there is no contradiction For as much as his commandement signifies only Gods will what shall be Abrahams duty to doe not what shall be done by Abraham On the other side Gods decree signifies what shall not be done by Abraham Now what contradiction I pray is there betweene these It is Gods will that it shall be Abrahams duty to sacrifice Isaack but it is not Gods will that Isaack shall be sacrificed by Abraham for as much as when Abraham comes to the poynt of sacrificing Isaack the Lord purposeth to hold his hand In like manner God commanded Pharaoh to let Israell goe It was his will then that it should be Pharaohs duty to let Israel goe but withall he toâ—d Moses that he would harden Pharaohs heart that he should not let Israel goe whereby it is man iâ— est that God decreed that Israel should not be dismissed by Pharaoh for a while and that as is signified in the Text to make way for his judgements to be brought upon the land of Egypt whereby God meant to glorify himselfe as in the sight of Pharaoh and of his
doth obtrude upon us that Manoahs Wife had no faith but only a probability of this that is his glosse yet this acceptation of a burnt offering at their hands was manifested by no lesse then a miracle and the difference between Abels offering and Caines offering is laid downe to be this that The Lord had respect to Abel and to his offering but unto Cain and to his offering he had no regard Gen. 4. 4 5. And Davids prayer for acceptation and finding favour at the hands of God is set downe in this manner amongst other particulars Let him remember all thine offerings and turne thy burnt offerings into ashes Psal 20. 3. Yet why should he conceive that Manoah and his Wife were not in temptation and that a very sore one strēgthened with the expres word of God namely that No man can see God live which in these days was generally received amongst thē applyed by thē in this particular For Manoah said unto his Wife we shall surely dye because we have seen God could a probability to the contrary put by such a temptation as this How was the great Prophet Esay exercised with this when he cryed out Woe is me for I am undone because I am a man of polluted lipps and dwell in the midst of a people of polluted lipps for mine eyes have seen the King and Lord of Hosts What temptation hath he that thinkes himselfe a reprobate like unto this excepting still the guilte of that sinne which is unto death What ground of Scripture can they represent to prove that they are reprobates as those Ancients had ground for this that they must dye who had seen God It is one thing to be in temptation it is an other thing to yeeld to the temptation and to be overcome with it and that upon no ground which yet this Author confounds as a course very propitious for his turne and suitable with the part that he acteth As for Jacob the cause was this he that now enjoyed as it were the death of Joseph for many yeares his sonnes pretending they knew not what became of him yet brought his Coat imbrued with bloud unto their old Father who there upon conceived some evill beast had devoured him and who could expect that at the first hearing he should believe now the report of the same sonnes to the contrary especially considering how those brethren of Ioseph were astonished when Joseph himselfe told them saying I am Joseph doth my father yet live for the text saith his brethren could not answer him for they were astonished at his presence And though Iacob at the first believed not the report they made to be true yet neither is it said or likely that he believed it to be false But the Text saith his heart failed him denoting a condition betweene hope and feare as the Geneva noteth in the Margent As for Thomas his incredulity which he ascribeth unto a temptation he may as well ascribe the infidelity of Turkes Jewes unto a temptation The person tempted here represented doth not say I hope as Thomas did Except I see in his hands the print of the nailes and put my finger into the print of the nayles and put my hand into his side I will not believe it And what power doe Arminians attribute unto temptation doe they ascribe more unto it then to the operation of God which with them extends no farther then this as touching grace then to excite them to believe which yet they may resist if they will And may they not also resist the Divells temptations if they will Especially considering that in perswading them that they are Reprobates the Divell proceeds upon no ground which is not common to every one of Gods elect when he saith They will not believe any thing that is said for their comfort till it be made so apparent that they have nothing to say to the contrary It seemes this Author hath had some extraordinary experience of the condition of persons tempted I had thought the condition of persons not tempted only but giving way to the temptation had been for the most part unreasonable untill it pleaseth God to bring them to their right wits and like as feares property is to betray the succours that reason offereth so is the Devills practice to take them off from attending that to they cannot answer and holding them to their uncomfortable conclusions in despight of the weaknesse of their own premises and strength of contrary principles Excepting the case of finning against the Holy Ghost which was the case of Francis Sptra and accordingly his conclusions were most true as his premises strong and his comforters had little or nothing to say to the contrary And in such a case the only course to quench the fiery darts of desperation is to enquire diligently about the matter of fact whether he hath committed any such sinne as he layeth to his charge and thereupon to discourse of the nature of that sinne which is commonly called a sinne unto death and not only so but a sinne against the Holy Ghost which our Saviour pronounceth to be unpardonable and the Apostle signifieth as much when he saith that in such a case there is no more sacrifice for sinne but a fearfull expectation of fire And it may be this Authors discourse runneth with reference to such examples as this of Spira but fashioned at pleasure to serve his turne as formerly he did set down the story out of Coelius Secundus Calvin as he said but without any quotation of the place where But to enter upon a comparison between their doctrine and ours and that upon supposition of this rule delivered by him I say first that by our doctrine we can make it so evidently appeare that the tempted hath no ground at all to conceive himselfe to be a reprobate whatsoever his condition be except guiltinesse of the sinne against the Holy Ghost I say we can make it so evident that neither he nor any Arminian can say any reasonable thing to the contrary not denying but that they may say enough to the contrary in an unreasonable manner And my reason is because whatsoever his condition be it is no other then is incident to one of Gods elect Secondly I say as touching the Arminian doctrine two things The first is this There is no condition of man so holy in this life as whereby any man can have any assurance by Arminian doctrine that he is an elect of God and consequently no reprobate much lesse can they give any assurance to any man in the time of temptation as this Author speakes of it that he is no reprobate The Second is this Arminians can give assurance to no man that he is no reprobate for as much as all their grounds of comfort are common to the reprobate as well as to the elect wherehence it manifestly followeth that their doctrine can afford no better comfort then a reprobate
gifts of God yet know that God doth not dispense them according to the meere pleasure of his will but according to mens workes whatsoever some men cry out to the contrary charging us with Pelagianisme but if thou art wise thou wilt take comfort in this as in true Christianisme As for those that maintaine absolute reprobation none of them is able to make it appeare unto thee that thou art no absolute reprobate And I willingly confesse that if faith and repentance be not evidences hereof we are not able to make it appeare either to others that they are not or to our selves that we are not Reprobates But by the way it is manifest that this Author by his grounds can give no assurance of election no not to a believer no certainty of salvation and yet he pretends to be a comforter when he leaves him in doubt whether he shall be saved or damned yet upon this pillow Arminians sleepe sweetly and presume that others may sleepe sweetly also that they are not absolutely reprobates And no marvaile for even in the course of the holiest conversation their doctrine can administer no assurance either of election or salvation But perhaps they will say though they can give no assurance of election absolute by their doctrine yet they can give assurance of election conditionall But wherein I pray doth this consist Forsooth in this that if they finally persevere in this their holy conversation they shall be saved But I pray consider Doth not our doctrine afford the same assurance as well as theirs It cannot be denied but that it doth and more then so for our doctrine gives assurance of perseverance in the state of grace to them that are once in the state of grace the Arminian doth not And the Apostle assures the Thessalonians that upon his knowledge they were the elect of God and that from the worke of their faith the labour of their love and the patience of their hope 1 Thess 1. 3. 4. And that the man of sinne shall not prevaile over them 2 Thess 2. 13. Because they are elect whereof also he was assured as there he signifies by their sanctification and faith It is true the outward acts of faith and repentance may be counterfited And it is as true that whether they be counterfeited or no it may be discerned otherwise why should the Apostle be so bold as to professe and that by observation of their workes that he knew they were elect of God 1 Thess 1. 4. The Devill may transforme himselfe into an Angell of light but yet we have a sure Word of God whereby to discerne his practises to corrupt either our faith or our manners otherwise we poore Creatures were but in a very evill case so his Ministers also transforme themselves crafty workers as they are into Ministers of righteousnesse but S t Paul discovered them and warned the Corinthians of them Wolves may goe in sheepes clothing but our Saviour assures us that we shall know them by their fruites none more proper fruite of a false Prophet then his false doctrine And we have a true touch-stone to discover that and make the Devills clawes to appeare in their proper forme and colours And we know how soone Simon Magus discovered himselfe to be in the very gall of betternesse and bond of iniquity Yet I nothing doubt but we may be deceived but most commonly it comes to passe that Hypocrites are the greatest deceivers and coseners of themselves and it is not their condition to be exercised with feares least they be Reprobates and to confesse that their faith their repentance is counterfit It is most likely they deale without Hypocrisy in this But when any doe lay such sinnes to their own charge we will not take them at their word but we will inquire upon what grounds they deliver this we will inquire whether now they are well pleased with this their former Hypocrisy If so what cause is there why they should be disquieted in themselves upon the consideration of that wherein they are well pleased But if it be their sorrow if this cause heavinesse of heart unto them here we have a double evidence of some sparkes of grace in them First in confessing their former Hypocrisy Secondly in being humbled with sorrow in the consideration of it Now God hath promised that if we confesse our sinnes God as he is faithfull and just will forgive them And if they are humbled in the consideration of it and tremble at the apprehension of Gods judgements against Hypocrites they are so much the fitter for God to take up his habitation in their contrite heart and humble spirit Es 57. 15. And Es 63. 2. I hope there is no miserable consolation in all this To minister this Physicke is to be a Phisitian of some value And certainly whatsoever was our former course whether in the way of profanesse or the way of hypocrisy when God brings us to consider it and to confesse it and to be acquainted with his feares and terrours here upon we have cause to conceive good hope that God is now in a gratious way to draw them neerer unto him who before were strangers from him Certainly we will be bold to tell them that there is no just cause why they should despaire I come to the last particular he insisteth upon and that is Piscators confession which because he conceives it serves his turne therefore he ascribes unto him ingenuity in this But what saith Piscator That no comfort can possibly be instilled into the soules of Reprobates Piscators words are these Reproborum anxiis animis nulla consolatio instillari potest This Author addes Possibly to make it the more waighty as he thinkes We acknowledg God to be the God of consolation and his spirit alone to be the comforter and if God will not give them Christ surely they can have no true consolation in Christ which yet depends meerely upon supposition of the will of God like as none but God can give raine and if it be his will it shall raine to morrow or not raine either shall come to passe according to his will and it is impossible it should be otherwise then he willeth yet is raine a contingent thing and God will have it come to passe contingently that is so as with a possibility to the contrary Now that God gives not all unto Christ our Saviour professeth John 17. Thine they were and thou hast given them unto me and afterwards for their sakes I sanctify my selfe This is spoken in reference unto the offering up of himself unto his Father upon the Crosse as Maldonate acknowledgeth to be the interpretation of all the Fathers whom he he had read He dyed we confesse to procure Salvation for all that believe but did he dye to procure faith for all If so then either absolutely or conditionally If absolutly then all must believe and be saved If conditionally to wit upon condition of some disposition
no supernaturall act is or can be sinfull every sinfull act must needs be an act naturall and power either to doe or to abstaine from any naturall Act is not to be denied to any naturall man But it is impossible that any naturall man should abstaine from any sinne or doe any naturall good act so commonly accounted in a gratious manner untill grace comes so to season the heart of man as to love God even to the contempt of himselfe and out of his love to doe that good which he doth and to abstaine from that evill from which he abstaineth 2. But if the question be of the manner how this necessitie of sinning is brought upon the nature of man we say it is not by the pleasure of God But by the sinne of Adam according to that of the Apostle Rom 5. By one man sinne entred into the world and death by sinne for man by reason of sinne was justly bereaved of the Spirit of God and begetting children in this Condition he begets them after his owne Image and likenesse that is bereaved of the Spirit of God And we hold it impossible for a man bereaved of God's Spirit either to doe that which is good or abstaine from doing that which is evill in a gratious manner 2. Secondly I come to the Synod of Valense when they say the wicked not perish because they could not doe good but because they would not These words may seeme to imply that even the wicked could doe good if they would and truely I see noe cause to deny this But that we may safely say with Austine that omnes possunt Deo credere ab amore rerum temporalium ad divina praecepta servanda se convertere si velint Believe God if they will and from the love of all things temporall convert themselves to the keeping of God's Commandements if they will for if a man would goe to Church but cannot because he is lame would read in God's word but cannot because he is blind These impotencies are naturall not morall but the impotency brought upon mankind by the sinne of Adam is morall not naturall Now morall impotency is found noe where but in the will or at least is chiefly there and secondly in the understanding also as touching knowledge practicall and accordingly when Scriptures testifie that they who are in the flesh cannot please God Rom 8 cannot repent Rom 24 connot believe Ioh 12. This impotency consist's cheifly in the corruption of their wills noted by the hardnesse of heart Rom 2. 4. Eph 4. 18. Againe I have already shewed out of Remigius that a wicked man can doe that which is good but by what meanes to wit by grace not otherwise The words are these Si dixisset generaliter nemo hominum sine Dei gratia libero bene uti potest arbitrio esset Catholicus had he said generaly not any man can use his free will without grace he were Catholique And pag. 36 the same Remigius hath these words In infidelibus ipsum liberum arbitrium ita per Adam damnatum perditum in operibus mortuis liberum esse potest in vivis non potest free will so damned and lost in Adam may be free in dead workes in living workes it cannot Yet pag. 174 thus he distinguisheth answerably to the passage alleaged by this Authour De reprobis nullum salvari ullatenus existimamus non quia non possunt homines de malo ad bonum commutari ac de malis ac pravis boni ac recti fieri sed quia in melius mutari noluerunt in pessimis operibus usque ad finem perseverare voluerunt And pag. 143. Florus of the Church of Lyons where Remigius was Byshop sets downe the same truth more at large thus Habet homo post illam damnationem liberum arbitrium quo voluntate propria inclinari potest inclinatur ad malum habet liberum arbitrium quo potest assurgere ad bonum ut autem assurgat ad bonum non est propriae virtutis sed gratiae Dei miserantis Nam qui mortuus est potest dici posse vivere non tamen sua virtute sed Dei Ita liberum arbitrium hominis semel sauciatum semel mortuum potest sanari non tamen sua virtute sed gratia miserantis Dei ideo omnes homines admonentur omnibus verbum praedicatur quia habent posse credere posse converti ad Deum ut verbo extrinsecus admonente intus Deo suscitante qui audiunt reviviscant Man hath after that damnation to wit such as followed after Adam's fall free will so that of his owne will he can be inclined and is inclined to evill he hath free will whereby he may rise unto a good condition but that he doth arise to that good condition is not in his owne power but of the grace of God compassionating him for of him also who is dead it may be said that he may live yet not by his owne power but by the power of God Soe man's free will also being once wounded once dead may be restored not by his owne power but by God's grace pitying him and therefore al men are admonished to all the word is preached because they have this that they may believe they may be converted unto God that by the word outwardly admonishing God inwardly raising they which heare may revive As touching the last condemning those who say that any should be so predestinated to evill by God that they cannot be otherwise this Authour would faine insinuate into his Reader an opinion That wicked men may change from evill to good of themselves But neither doth the Councill of Valens or Remigius a chiefe man therein intimate any such thing But only that it is in God's power by his grace to change them and so hath changed and will change the hearts of many namely of all his Elect but not of one other That the Remonstrants did not at that time desire that it should be talked of among the common people who might have stumbled at it but disputed of among'st the Judicious and Learned who as the threshing Oxen who are to beate the corne out of the Huske are to bolt out those truthes which are couched and hidden in the letter of the Scriptures That the doctrine which is loath to abide the triall even of learned men carrieth with it a shrewd suspicion of falshood the heathen Oratour shall witnesse for me who to Epicurus seeing that he would not publish his opinion to the simple people who might happily take offence at that answereth thus Declare thy opinion in the place of Judgment or if thou art affraid of the assembly there declare that in the Senate amongst those grave and judicious Persons Thou wilt never doe it and why but because it is a fowle and dishonest opinion True religion as Vives saith is not a thing guilded over but gold it selfe the more it is scraped and
be such a God A Morall efficient is twofold being only of a moveing nature to move others to doe somewhat as namely either by perswading or by meriting or deserving He that perswades moves an other to doe some what he that meriteth thereby moves another either to reward him or punish him Now to walke in the light of this distinction and not to please our selves by walking in darknesse though God be the prime principall and invincible cause of man's damnation in the kind of a cause efficient physicall which should not seeme strange to an ordinary Christian who knowes full well that vengeance is God's peculiar worke as the Iudge of all the world and that he delights in the execution thereof yet this hinders not but that man may be the cause of his own damnation in the way of a meritorious cause justly deserving it Omnis poena Deum habet Authorem All punishment hath God for the Authour of it This is a principle acknowledged both by the Arminians and Vasquez the Jesuite but never is punishment inflicted on any by the hands of God save on those who formerly have deserved it Consider we farther as touching the severall kinds of causes formerly mentioned if the question be which is the principall Aristotle answereth that this is not confined to any one kind of them somtimes the materiall cause somtimes the formall cause somtimes the efficient somtimes the finall cause is the demonstrative cause the cause propter quam the cause by vertue where of the effect hath its existence but this peculiar and speciall cause is described thus It is that whereby satisfactory answer is made to the question demanding why such a thing is Now in execution of punishment or condigne vengeance this satisfactory answer is made by representing the meritorious cause never by representing the efficient cause as for example if it be demanded why such a malefactor is executed upon the gallowes no sober man will answer because the Sheriffe cōmanded it to be so or because the Judge would have it so but because he robd upon the high way or committed some criminall fact or other which is capitall by the lawes of our land and to be punished with hanging upon the gallowes In like sort if question be made why devills or wicked men are damned is it our doctrine to referre the cause hereof to the mere pleasure of God Doe not all confesse that God inflicts damnation upon thē merely for their sinnes and transgressions wherein they have continued unto death without repentance Yet we acknowledge that God could have taken them off from their sinnes while they lived if he would by giving them repentance as he hath dealt with us and that merely of his free grace For we willingly confes that our sinnes are our owne but our faith is not our repentance is not When I say our owne I meane in respect that they are of our selves otherwise we acknowledge both faith and repentance to be our owne accipiendo in asmuch as we receive them but they are God's gifts and so they are his dando in asmuch as he gives them as Remigius speaketh Now what is become of this Authours pompous discourse Is it not the like the cracking of thornes in the fire making a great noise but the light of distinction like fire sets an end unto it and makes it appeare in its owne likenesse and proves nothing but a squib For albeit God in his decree makes the damnation of reprobates to be necessary and unavoidable yet seeing he makes it not to fall on any but for their sinnes what colour of dishonour unto God in ordaining that Iudas shall necessarily and unavoidably be damned for betraying the Sonne of God and afterwards most desperatly murthering himselfe If hereupon he could no more avoid his damnation then Astionax could the breaking of his neck when the Grecians tumbled him downe from the tower of Troy will any man that is not bereaved of common sense make strange of this It is true God did appoint both Iudas and all other wicked persons that never break off their sinnes by repentance unto destructiō of his own voluntary disposition For God workes all things according to the counsaile of his will and if it pleased him he could annihilate them upon the fresh foot of any sin or after they have suffered the vengeance of hell fire as many yeares in hell as they lived here in sinne yea and the devills in hell as Origen was of opinion and the Jewes at this day are of the same by Sir Edwin Sandes his relation whether this Author be of the same or not I know not And lastly we willingly confesse that the decree of God was antecedent to the deserts of men for reprobation is as antient as election and election was made before the foundation of the world if we believe Saint Paul rather then any other who either by word or deed doth manifest himselfe to be of a contrary opinion Still damnation is inflicted by God only for sinne and in degree answerable unto their sinnes and only because of their sinnes as a meritorious cause thereof though God makes use of it to his owne ends and the manifestation of his owne glory as Solomon professeth namely that God made all things for himselfe even the wicked against the day of evill And Saint Paul tells that as the Lord suffereth with long patience the vessells of wrath prepared to destruction that he might shew his wrath and make his power known So likewise another reason hereof he specifies to be this That he might declare the riches of his glory upon the vessells of mercy which he hath prepared unto glory For when we shall behold the unspeakable misery brought upon others by reason of their sinnes how rich will God's glory appeare unto us when we consider that had it not been for his free grace delivering us from sinne we had been swallowed up of the same sorrowes And thus Alvarez writeth disput III. The glory of God's mercy in his elect and in like manner the manifestation of divine justice on Reprobates is truely and properly the finall cause why God did permit sinnes both in Reprobates and Angells And he proves it out of this passage of Saint Paul So Aquin 1 p. pag. 23. art 5. This is the reason saith he why God hath chosen some and Reprobated others that representation might be made of Gods goodnesse towards the Elect in the way of mercy pardoning them and on the Reprobates in the way of justice punishing them And Alphonsus Mendoza a Scotist concurres with them in this and we see they make Saint Pauls doctrine their foundation And indeed albeit at the day of judgment there will be found a vast difference between the Elect and Reprobates the one having departed this life in the state of faith repentance the other in infidelitie and impenitency in such sort as God will bestow on his elect
willed by him but only on some things Divina volunt as non omnibus sed quibusdam necessitatem imponit And in the body of that question thus he writes The distinction of things necessary and contingent proceeds from the distinction of God's will For when a cause is effectuall and powerfull to worke the effect followeth the cause not only so farre as to be brought to passe but also as touching the manner of its coming to passe Therefore seing the will of God is most effectuall it not only followeth that those things come to passe which God will have come to passe but that they come to passe after the same manner also after which he will have them come to passe Now God will have some things come to passe necessarily and some things contingently that there may be an order in things for the perfection of the world And therefore for the producing of some effects he hath fitted causes necessary which cannot faile by which effects are brought forth necessarily And for the producing of other effects he hath fitted causes contingent such as may faile in working from which effects are brought to passe contingently So that upon suspicion that God doth will a thing that thing shall certainly and infallibly come to passe but how Not allwaies necessarily or contingently And that certaine and infallible eveniency of things is called also necessity in the Schooles but not necessity simply but only upon suspicion which may well consist with absolute contingency But to make the point yet more cleare Let us distinctly consider the things decreed For they that have an evill cause delight in confusion and feare nothing more then the light of distinction Now the things decreed by Reprobation are either deniall of Grace which is joyned with the permission of sinne Or damnation for sinne according to that on Aquinas Reprobation includes the will of permitting sinne inflicting damnation for sinne Now both the permission of sinne and damnation of God's part are his free acts and therefore come to passe freely But upon supposition that God will deny a man Grace it is impossible that such a man should have grace Secondly secluding grace there is noe actuall transgression for which a man is damned but may be avoided man having power for that naturally though naturally he have noe power to performe every good act The reason is because amongst good acts some are supernaturall as the acts of the three Theologicall vertues Faith Hope and Charity But noe sinfull act is supernaturall all such are naturall Now it is confest on all hands that notwithstanding man's corruption by reason of originall sinne yet he hath still power and free will to performe any naturall act and accordingly he hath free power to abstaine from it So that Iudas had free will to abstaine from betraying his Master After he had betrayed him he had free power to abstaine from destroying himselfe so that as these sinnes of his for which he was damned were avoidable by him in like manner his damnation for these sinnes was avoidable And allbeit God had determined that Iudas by Divine permission should betray his Master and destroy himselfe according to to that of Austin Iudas electus est ad prodendum sanguinem Domini Iudas was ordained to betray his master And that of the Apostles jointly Of a truth against thy holy Son Iesus both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and people of Israell were gathered to doe what thy hand and thy counsell had before determined to be done Acts 4. 28. Yet herehence it followes only that it was necessary to wit upon this supposition namely of the Divine ordinance that these things should come to passe namely both Iudas his betraying of Christ and Herods mocking of him and Pilates condemning him and the peoples crying out away with him together with their preferring of Barrabas a murtherer before him and the Souldiers crucifying him But how came it to passe Not necessarily but contingently that is in this Authours phrase evitably and avoidably inas much as it was joyned with an absolute possibility to come to passe otherwise Nor with a possibility only but with a free power in the agents to have forborne all these contumelious carriages of theirs towards the son of God For both Iudas had free will to abstaine from betraying him and Herod with his Herodians could have abstained from their contumelious handling of him and Pilate from condemning him and the Preists and people from conspiring against him and the Souldiers from crucifying him only they had no power to abstaine from all or any of these vile actions in an holy manner as no man else hath power to abstaine from any evill in a gracious manner without grace Yea without the Grace of regeneration which alone plants in us both faith in God and a love of God to the very contempt of our selves and no performance of any good or abstinence from any evill is acceptable with God unto eternall life unlesse it proceed from this faith and this love That which is here produced out of Marlorate is a strange speech and such as I never read or heard from any before and such as whereof I can give no tolerable construction And is it fit that every extravagant passage that is found in any Writer of ours should be brought forth to charge our doctrine with It were a fitter speech for a Papist who maintaining the absolutenesse of Reprobation doth withall maintaine an apostacy from grace which we do not If Marlorate had any such opiniō he sings therein to himself to his own Muses What Divine of ours maintains that God hath decreed to damne any man otherwaies then by way of punishment for sin continued in unto death without repentance Had he spoken of Good works morall only it is true any hypocrite is capable of them and none taste deeper of Damnation then hypocrites But as for the worke of true faith true repentance it is the generall profession of our Divines that as faith and the spirit of repentance once given never faile so they shall infallibly bring a man unto everlasting life and free him from condemnation But any thing serves this Authors turn to vent his stomack And I am perswaded there is not one more of all our Divines that he can shew to concurre with Marlorat in this And if there were is it fit their improvident inconsiderate expressions should be cast in their teeth that avouch them not but rather conceive them to be void of all sobriety Brentius apud Marloratum in illud Ioh. 15. 2. Omnem palmitem in me non ferentem fructum tollet c. Caeterum haec sententia occurrit curiositati carnis quae solet argutè magis quà m reverenter de praedestinatione disserere pro suo ingenio colligere nullum à Domino ad vitam aeternam electum posse damnari etiamsi pessimè vivat Nullum item à Domino
words ye therefore heare them not because ye are not of God now what reasonable mā can deny but that it is a sin not to heare God's words then doth not our Saviour plainly professe that the true cause hereof is because they are not of God Now if to be of God in this place doth signifie God's Election then the cause of their sinnes hereby is made God 's not electing of them But if this phrase To be of God signifie God's regenerating of them as I thinke it doth then God's not regenerating of them is made the cause of this their disobedience in not hearing God's word 's and indeed the evill of sinne hath noe efficient cause but deficient only as Austine hath delivered long agoe And God is not bound to any either to elect him or regenerate him so that in failing to regenerate mā he doth not deficere or faile in any culpable mā ner now let every indifferent Reader judge whether here be not Dignus vindice nodus a knot worthy to be loosed it will require some worth of learning in him that solves it And is it decent for this Authour to censure a man for a conclusion made by him out of the word of God without shewing the faultinesse either of his interpretation thereof or of his consequence framed therehence So that this Author's wit cunning is more to be cōmended in not specifying the place where Piscator delivers this doctrine then either his learning or his honesty He was loath to raise spirits afterwards to prove unable to lay them Therefore thus I answer in behalfe of Piscator though God her by me made the cause why sōe heare not God's words to wit in as much as he doth not regenerate thē nor give the eies to see nor eares to heare an heart to perceive according to that of Moses Yet he doth not make God any culpable cause neither indeed is he any culpable cause while he failes to performe so gracious a worke towards thē the reason whereof is this He and he alone is a culpable cause who failes in doing that which he ought to do ut God all be it he doth not regenerate a man yet he failes not of doing that which he ought to doe For it is no duty of his to regenerate any man for he is bound to none Now to be the Authour of sinne is not only to be the cause thereof but to be a culpable cause thereof Undoubtedly God could preserve any man from sinne if it pleased him and if he doth not he is nothing faulty Secondly I answere that in true account God is only the cause why our naturall infidelity is not healed our corruption not cured Like as a Physitian may be said to be the cause why such a man continues sicke in as much as he could cure him but will not Soe God could cure the infidelitie of all but will not Only here is the difference the Physitian may be a culpable cause as who is bound to love his neighbour as himselfe but God being bound to none is no culpable cause of man's continuance in sinne and in the hardnesse of his heart albeit he can cure him but will not As for Piscator's saying here mentioned Reprobates are appointed precisely to this double evill to be punished everlastingly and to sinne and therefore to sinne that they may be justly punished Hereing are two things charged upon Piscator 1. That Reprobates are precisely appointed by God to perish everlastingly To this I answer that noe Arminiā that I know denies Reprobates to be appoinby God to everlasting damnation All the question is about the manner of appointing them namely whether this appointment of God proceeds meerly according to his meer pleasure or upon the foresight of sinne We say it proceeds meerly according to the good pleasure of God and not upon the foresight of sinne preceding And this we not only say but prove thus If reprobation proceed upon the foresight of sinne then it were of men's evill workes Now looke upon what grounds the Apostle proves that election is not of good workes upon the same ground it is evident that reprobation is not of evill works for the argumēt for the one is this Before Iacob Esau were borne or had done good or evill it was said to Rebekah the elder shall serve the younger therfore election is not of good works In like manner thus I reason concerning Reprobation Before Iacob and Esau were borne or had done good or evill it was said to Rebekah the elder shall serve the younger therefore reprobation is not of evill workes 2. If God doth ordaine any man to damnation upon foresight of sin then this sin foreseen is the cause of the Divine ordinance but sin foreseen cannot be the cause why God ordained man to damnation as I prove thus If it be the cause then either by the necessity of nature or by the ordinance of God not by necessity of nature For undoubtedly God if it pleased him could ordaine to annihilate them for their sinnes instead of punishing them with eternall fire Nor can it be the cause of any such decree by the free ordinance of God For if it were marke what intolerable absurdityes would follow namely this That God did ordaine that upon the foresight of sinne he would ordaine men unto damnation whereby God's eternall ordination is made the object of God's ordination whereas all know that the Objects of God's decrees which are all one with his ordinations are things temporall not things eternall 3. If the foresight of sinne goes before the decree of damnation then the decree of permitting sinne goes before the decree of damning for sin that is the permission of sinne was first in intention and consequently it ought to be last in execution that is First man should be damned for sin and not till afterwards permitted to sinne The second thing charged upon Piscator is this that Reprobates are precisely appointed to sin Now here the crimination grates not upō the manner of being appointed thereunto otherwise a way could be opened for a progresse in infinitum Now why should it be any more a fault in Piscator to say of some that they are appointed to sinne then in Peter to say of some that they are appointed to disobedience or in all the Apostles to professe that all the outrages committed by Herod and Pilate by the Gentiles and people of Israell were such as Gods hand his counsell had before determined to be done or why doth Piscator make God to be the Authour of sinne in this more then Peter and all the Apostles And considering this man's unconscionable carriage in this let the Reader take heed how he suffers himselfe to be gull'd by this Authour and drawne to censure such speeches in Piscator as making God the Authour of sinne when hereby he is drawne ere he is aware to passe the like censure on the Apostles And the
is in his power or when he hath authority to forbid 't is as if he should command the committing of that sin Now this is only in such a case where the necessitie respects the person who is the deficient cause as namely in case he be bound in duty to afford help and succour to him that cannot keepe himselfe from sinning without the succour of an other not otherwise And therefore it reacheth not to God who is not bound to preserve any man or creature from sinning Least of all is he bound to regenerate a man that is borne in sinne Adam was created in all sufficiency that the reasonable creature was capable of without any pronenes unto evill but rather in a morall propension to that which was good And his fall hath brought this corruption upon all mankind even a necessitie of sinning as Arminius and Corvinus confesse He wanted no power to doe that which was good or to abstaine from sin but ever since his fall impotency to that which is good pronenesse unto that which is evill hath been the naturall inheritance of all mankind And as for the permission of Adam's fall his sin was in a thing naturally indifferent the holines of his nature not inclining him more to abstain from that fruit any more then to partake of it Neither doe we say that God did withhold from Adam any grace that these our adversaries maintaine to be necessary for the avoiding of that sinne which was committed by him How Adam himselfe was brought by Eve to eate of that fruit is not expressed As for Eve the temptation which Satan used with her which did prevaile is expressed He allured her with the representation of the powerfull nature of that to make them as Gods knowing good and evill he made this seem credible by the very denomination which God gave unto the Tree the Tree of knowledge of good and evill It seemes not likely that she knew who it was that spake unto her in the Serpent nor that she was acquainted with the fall of Angells Then againe the desire of knowledge is no evill thing it selfe or stands in any contradiction to the integrity of a reasonable creature Nay nothing more agreeable to the nature of the best it brings such a perfection with it Only the errour was in affecting it this way God did not keep the Devill off nor reveale unto her who it was that spake unto her much lesse his apostaticall condition least of all his project to supplant them Neither did he quicken that holy feare which he had inspired into her to resist it at the first to goe to her husband to acquaint him with it She might thinke that the knowledge of good and evill might make her more fit for the service of God then unfit All which considered her will being moved to seek this perfection by tasting of such a fruit there was no cause or reason to hinder her from tasting it save only the consideration of God's prohibition For the will of every reasonable creature is naturally apt to affect that which is good and though that good may prove evill in some circumstance yet if that circumstance be not considered the will proceeds to affect it How long the Devill was exercised in this temptation we know not Inconsideration is conceived by Durandus to be the originall of that sinne of theirs and God was not bound to maintaine this consideration quick in her and of the danger of such a transgression In fine she came to a will resolution to tast of it to the producing of this act as a naturall thing the Lord concurred as all confesse namely to the substance of the act The question is whether he concurred to the effecting of it absolutely or conditionally It was as true of Adam and Eve that in him they lived and moved and had their being as it is of us We say God as a first cause moves every second cause but agreeably to their natures Necessary agents to worke every thing they worke necessarily Free agents to doe every thing they doe freely But to say that God made them velle modo vellent to will in case they would will is so absurd as nothing more The act of willing being hereby made the condition of it selfe and consequently both before and after it selfe See what I have delivered concerning this in my Vindiciae lib. 2. Digr 3. and Digr 6. of the nature of permission more at large where unto this Authour is content to answer just nothing Sect 7. There are two things say they in every ill act First the materiall part which is the substance of the action Secondly the formall part which is the evill or obliquitie of it God is the Authour of the action it selfe but not of the obliquitie and evill that cleaveth to it as he that causeth a lame horse to goe is the cause of his going but not of his lame going And therefore it followeth not from their opinion that God is the Authour of sinne First all sinnes receive not this distinction because of many sins the acts themselves are sinfull as of the eating of the forbidden fruit and Saul's sparing of Agag and the fat beasts of the Amalekites Secondly It is not true that they make the decree of God only of actions not of their aberrations For they make it to be the cause of all those meanes that lead to damnation and therefore of sinfull actions as sinfull and not as bare actions For actions deserve damnation not as actions but as trangressions of Gods law 3. To this simile I say that the Rider or Master that shall resolve first to flea his horse or knock him on the head and then to make him lame that for his halting he may kill him is undoubtedly the cause of his halting And so God if he determine to cast men into hell and then to bring them into a state of sinne that for their sinnes he may bring them to ruine we cannot conceive him to be lesse then the Authour as well of their sins as of those actions to which they doe inseperably adhere and that out of Gods intention to destroy them This distinction of that which is materiall and that which is formall in sinne is commonly used by Aquinas 1. secun q 71. art 6 in corp Augustinus in definitione peccati posuit duo Unum quod pertinet ad substantiam actûs humani quod est quasi materiale in peccato cum dicit dictum vel factum vel concupitum Aliud autem quod pertinet ad rationem mali quod est quasi formale in peccato cum dixit contra legem aeternam So then the substance of the act is the materiall part in sinne And the opposition of this act to the law of God is the formall part of it both according to Aquinas and according to Austin also And q 75. art 1. corp He defineth sinne to be Actus inordinatus
sober conscience that is able to judge indifferently between us in this But if to avoid this they deny that the concurrence is equall but that God's concurrence is conditionall to wit in case the creature will and so man is to be accounted the Authour of sinne and not God hence it followeth that seeing God's concurrence unto the act of faith and repentance is of the same nature in the opinion of these men God is not the Authour of faith and repentance any more then he is the Authour of sinne in the language of these disputers Or if they fly not to this as I have found this Authour as I guesse to deny God's concourse to stand in subordination to man's then my former argument is not avoided But a third reason ariseth herehence against his former discourse of God's concourse namely that if God and man doe equally concurre unto the act of sinne then as I have already shewed that they are equally guilty of sin So in the working of faith and repentance man is as forward as God and as much the Authour of his own fatih and repentance as God is in direct contradiction to the Apostle who saith that Faithis the guift of God not of our selves We willingly grant that God is the principall agent in producing every act whether it be naturall or supernaturall For in him we move as well as in him we live have our being But we deny sin as sin to be any act but a privation of obedience to the law of God as the Apostle defines it to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yet let us examine that which he delivers of the principall agent the texts produced by him that we may not be carried away as he is with a superficiary apprehension of things And first consider we might plead as well for such acts as this Authour calls sins as he doth for acts gracious by his superficiary discourse For doth not Ioseph comforting his brethren say unto them in like manner Now then you sent me not hither but God But consider farther in that passage alleadged by him out of Mat 10. 20. It is not ye that speak but the spirit of my Father which speaketh in you Was not this speech of the Apostles a free action The labour of Paul more abundantly then of all the rest of the Apostles was it not a free action in Paul â—f God determined theÌ„ unto these actions then freedome of will humane stands not in opposition to determination divine and consequently though the act be evill that is done by man yet may God determine the creature to the doing of that act without any impeachment of the creatures liberty If God did not determine the wills of his Servants but only afford a simultaneous concourse to their actions why is he called the cause principall since it is confessed God doth afford the like concourse to every sinfull act as touching the substance thereof Againe he repeates the same when in case of divine determination he saith the sinne cannot be so rightly ascribed to man's will the inferiour as to God's necessitating decree the superiour cause To which I answer againe being drawen thereunto by his Tautologies by the same reason it may be inferred that when the fire burnes any combustible thing the burning is rather to be ascribed to God the more principall cause then to the fire the lesse principall the first cause being more principall then the second and if it please God so to order it the fire shall not burne as it appeares in the three noble children cast into the furnace of Babylon when they came forth there was not so much as the smell of fire upon them Secondly I answer as before by the same reason when the concourse unto the sinfull act is equall on man's part on God's each shall equally be accounted the Authour of that sinne and not man more then God Now such a concourse is maintained by this Authour Thirdly in the working of faith and repentance since by these mens opinions God affords only his concourse he shall be no more the Authour of man's faith and repentance then man himselfe is Lastly be it granted that God is a more principall cause then maÌ„ in producing the act yet there is no colour of imputing unto God the causality of the sin who hath no Agency therein by doing what he ought not to doe or not in that manner he should doe this is found only in the creature who being a free Agent otherwise then as originall sinne hath impaired liberty which I hope this Authour will not deny is justly answerable for his own transgression As for example God determined that Cyrus should give the Jewes liberty to returne into their own land yet this action of Cyrus was as free an action as any that was performed by him throughout his life God determined that Josiah should burne the Prophets bones upon the Altar at Bethel yet Iosiah did this as freely as ought else God determined that Christ's bones should not be broken yet the souldiours abstained from the breaking of his bones with as much liberty as they had used in case they had broken them This divine providence we willingly confesse is very mysterious and as Cajetan saith the distinctions used to accommodate it to our capacitie doe not quiet the understanding therefore he thought it his duty to captivate his into the obedience of faith And Alvarez in a solemne disputation proves that it is incomprehensible by the wit of man 4. His last is delivered most perplexedly I can make no sense of it as the words lie but I see his meaning He supposeth that God by our Tenet makes a man to sin willingly that he saith is worse then to constraine a man to sinne against his will Where observe how this man's spirit is intoxicated when he delivered this For first he calls that worse which is merely impossible and that by his own rules For he holds that sinne cannot be except it be voluntary speaking of sinne committed by any particular person Secondly he supposeth that by our opinion God makes a man to sinne which is most untrue For when he acknowledgeth that no sin can be committed by man without God's concourse will he say that God by his concourse helps a man to sinne He helps him to the producing of the act not to the committing of the sinne And indeed be the act never so vertuous if it proceed not out of the love and feare of God it is no better then such as the Heathens performed of which Austin hath professed that they were no better then splendida peccata glorious sins So that if God doth not give a man these graces of his holy Spirit in every act that is performed by him he shall sinne and not only in acts vitious and God is not bound to bestow these graces on any Section 9. Sinne may be considered as sinne or as a meanes of
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
time so from everlasting he did decree to worke it and it was wont to be the generall Tenet of Protestant Divines in opposition unto Papists that a man in his first conversion is merely passive in which particular Roffensis a Popish Bishop about an hundred yeares agoe opposed Martin Luther As for a sinfull or a vitious act that is alwaies an act naturall For acts supernaturall can neither be vitious nor sinfull but merely gracious And all cōfesse that as all men have naturall power to performe any act naturall so have they power also to abstaine from it Only untill a man is regenerate he cannot but sinne yea though he doe that which is good as touching the substance of the act or abstaine from that which is evill in like manner yet can he not performe the one or abstaine from the other in a gracious manner Therefore you heare not God's word saith our Saviour to the Jewes because ye are not of God They that are in the flesh cannot please God That all men are cast into a necessity of sinning both Arminius and Corvinus confesse as formerly I have shewed And Doctor Potter acknowledgeth it the doctrine of the Church of England that no naturall man hath libertatem a peccato though forthwith he nicks it in saying they have libertatem a necessitate not explicating it that so he might cleare himselfe from contradiction whereas Doctor Fulke usually puts the distinction between liberty from sin and liberty from coaction and denying the former unto a naturall man he granteth the latter Now truely this Theologue taketh very profitable paines to prove that sin is not nothing and exuberates in the proofe hereof to the very solid conviction of all those that imagine it to be nothing if there be any such creatures in terra Australi incognitâ which is not very likely but rather in the Lunary world or in the Joviall world which is waited upon with foure moones as they that came lately from the discovery thereof have made report unto us But by the way I hope he doth not juggle with us and under colour of making sin to be some thing labour to draw us to an acknowledgment that it is some positive thing as Doctor Iackson in his last booke the 8th as I take it of his Commentaries upon the Creed laboureth to prove with great strength of affections Like as in the same vigour of resolution he professeth that whether God punisheth sinne necessarily or no it is not determinable by the wit of man but he is not over prodigall of his reasons for either We are very willing to grant that every sin as sin is something privative and as touching the act substrate it is something positive also And when the Apostle defineth sin by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if in that word the first letter be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 privative clearely the forme of sin is made to consist in privation as much as to say an incongruity to the law of God that is a privation of congruity thereunto Now we are come to an end of this let me admonish the Reader of the wisedome of this Authour All along he supposeth that by our doctrine sinne comes to passe by absolute necessity this I say he supposeth he proveth it not though we utterly deny that any such necessity is consequent to our doctrine And this himselfe knowes full well Alvarez who maintaines that God determines the creatures will to every act thereof even to the act of sin utterly denies that any absolute necessity of humane acts followeth hereupon or any necessity that stands in contradiction to humane liberty Bradwardine also sometime Arch-Bishop of Canterbury elect maintaines that God necessitates the will to every act thereof yet denies peremptorily that humane acts comes to passe by absolute necessity or by any necessity that stands in opposition to the liberty of the creature Only he saith that some kind of necessity and that antecedent may well consist with the liberty of the creature All this this Author knows yet takes no paines to disprove their tenet or answer any one of their arguments no nor to make good his own consequence which is the only thing we deny in this present argument of his As for the other part namely that in case sin come to passe by absolute necessity and without any free will in the creature then sinne is no sinne which no man denies This he proves at large or at least illustrates at large Secondly observe he talkes of things necessarily comming to passe not only absolutely but antecedently whereby he seemes to grant that sins may come to passe necessarily but not so absolutely as antecedently and takes no paines to explicate these his distinctions And in my judgment they have more need of explication as they are accommodated to sins comming to passe in the world then as they are acommodated to the eveniency of faith and repentance Yet I imagine this word Antecedently is brought in of purpose in reference to good actions rather then in reference unto evill And whether he will have this terme Antecedently to be an addition to the former terme Absolutely or only of equivalent force I know not But it is the common course of these men to confound their Reader with termes proposed without all explication But let us endeavour to boult out the meaning of these perplexed discourses as well as we can Will this Authour have saith to come to passe necessarily and that absolutely but not antecedently Or will he have faith to come to passe necessarily but not absolutely and antecedently or will he have faith come to passe not necessarily at all If not at all necessarily to what purpose doth he clog his Reader with such unnecessary complements of absolutely and antecedently If God decrees to bestow faith upon a man doth it not necessarily follow hereupon that such a one shall believe dares this Authour deny it Yet we account not this absolutely necessary but merely upon supposition Neither doth God's decree impose necessity upon all things as Aquinas hath long agoe disputed and proved but only upon some things that is that some Agents shall worke necessarily other Agents contingently and freely In a word God both decreeth things to come to passe the manner of them also that is that some things shall come to passe necessarily other things contingently and freely But God's decree we say is absolute not conditionall of giving faith And indeed all his decrees are absolute as touching the act of God willing as Bradwardine hath demonstrated by cleare reason and Piscator out of the word of God But the decree of giving faith is not absolute only as touching the act of God decreeing but as touching the thing decreed For faith is not given by God to any upon a condition to be performed by man For if it were then faith should be given according unto workes that is grace should be conferred according to mens workes And when
impose or can impose any such necessity on things neither are creatures capable of such necessity But if we speake of such necessity as creatures are capable of under the divine liberty by causes intermediate it is to be said that all things doe not come to passe of necessity but some doe and some doe not God will have some things come to passe by the mediation of causes necessary those come to passe necessarily Others come to passe by the mediation of causes contingent and those come to passe contingently Whereby saith he 't is manifest that they say not well who say that all things come to passe of necessity in reference to the Divine will because as hath been shewed in respect of the Divine will all things come to passe freely and therefore speaking absolutely they may not come to passe although upon supposition that they are willed they cannot but come to passe but this is only necessity upon supposition 1. Indeed if men did sinne against their wills and virgins sometimes are ravished men are slaine by force full sore against their wills they deserved no punishment But is it possible that a man can will that which is evill against his will Every ordinary Scholar in the University knowes that axiome Voluntas non potest cogi the will cannot be forced Lipsius his speech fatali culpae fatalis poena fatall faults have fatall punishments this Authour saith is but a mere crotchet contrary to reason As if he would teach the very maintainers of fate yea the very first to understand themselves For fate wherewith our doctrine is charged by our opposites is commonly called Fate Stoicall Now Zeno was the father of the Stoicks yet when his servant was taken playing the theife pleaded for himselfe saying it was my destiny to steale Zeno answeared him in his own language that it was his destiny to smart for it too right in this same sense that Lipsius spake Yet Zeno knew full well that he punished his servant freely And Zeno is well knowne to have been a great Master of morality for all this which could not consist with denying the liberty of man's will as this Authour well knowes And Austin censureth those who feared to subject the will to all manner of necessity as men transported with vaine and causelesse feares manifesting thereby that some necessity may very well consist with a man's liberty Magistrates though they believe with Austin that Not any thing comes to passe unlesse Allmighty God will have it come to passe And with the Church of Ireland that God from all eternity did by his unchangeable counsell ordaine whatsoever should in time come to passe And with Aquinas that the roote of contingency is the effectuall will of God yet may they well thinke it reasonable enough to punish offences seing that God decrees that some things even all the actions of men shall come to passe contingently as well as other things shall come to passe necessarily For to come to passe contingently is to come to passe avoidably and if they be the actions of men freely also It is incredible that any sober man should remissely punish faults for the exorbitancy strength sake of the passions whereby they were committed but rather in consideration of the potent causes which raised such passions in them under a colour of justice And we commonly say the greater the temptation is the lesse is the sin So Peter surprised suddainly with feare denied his Master Yet what saith Aristotle In some things no force is suffecient for excuse but a man ought to dy rather any manner of death then commit them For those things in Euripedes are rediculous which moved Alcmaeon to kill his mother Indeed Plato maintained that things done through passion were not voluntary But Aristotle a better Master then he disproves it and by excellent reasons confirmes the contrary And whatsoever Popilius the Roman Pretor judged of her who slew her mother provoked by her Mothers fact in murthering her children yet let our lawes be consulted and the opinion of our Judges in such a case and whether such a one were not to be condemned and whether Popilius his judgment deserves to be admitted for the correction of the lawes of our land and working a reformation in this particular We should soone have a wild world if every one being provoked by the insolencies of others should thrust themselves into the throne of God for the execution of vengeance Yet none more unfit for this then the daughter to execute God's vengeance upon the mother that bare her Yet it was wont to be held If I forget not that potestas patria originally was power of life and death But all is fish that comes to this Authour's net like as her fact who poisoned her husband and son for killing a son of hers destroying two for one without all authority most unnaturally and that not hastily but in a deliberate way by poisoning And doth it become Christians to admire such heathenish courses of men nothing acquainted with the divine providence And was this so doubtfull a case whether so wicked a wretch avenging her selfe by poison secretly given upon her husband and son for the death of another son of hers that the sentencing thereof should be put over untill an 100 yeares after But what of all this These willfully affect revenge the execution whereof belongs not to them but it is just with God to punish sinne with sinne one man's sinne by another As of Senacherib the Lord professeth that he would cause him to fall by the sword in his own land this was brought to passe by his own children falling upon him furiously and as unnaturally as the actions of any of these How was innocent Naboth used and by publique sentence condemned to be stoned to death and accordingly executed by the practise of wicked Iezabel Yet Solomon spareth not to professe that every man's judgment commeth of the Lord. Never were more abominable courses executed upon any then upon the holy son of God Yet these were all foredetermined by the hand of God and the counsell of God as the Apostles with one voice acknowledge By the same providence was Ioseph sold into Egypt God working thereby the preservation of them that sold him Thus Sihon was hardened and the Canaanites and the Egyptians with Pharaoh their King to their own destruction Thus the Lord punished David's foule sinne by the murther of Amnon contrived by his own brother and by the sword of Absolon rising up against his own father and by the sword of Shimei's tongue cursing David wherein David acknowledged the hand of God Thus he punished the Idolatry of the Gentiles by giving them over to vile affections and so prostituting them to abominable courses What outrages were committed by Senacherib that proud and blasphemous wretch upon the people of God yet is he called the rod of God's wrath and the staffe in his hand is
a thing it is for any man to maintaine that there is some cause of predestination as touching the act of God predestinating So as mad a thing it must be every way to avouch that there is a cause of Reprobation as touching the act of God reprobating And truely the Apostle St. Paul plainly manifests that upon what ground he proves that Election is not of good works namely because before Iacob or Esau were borne or had done good or evill it was said The elder shall serve the younger upon the same ground we may be bold to conclude that Reprobation is not of evill workes And the same reason manifests that faith and infidelity are excluded from being the causes the one of Election the other of Reprobation as well as good and evill workes And both Piscator by evidence of Scripture and Bradwardine by evidence of reason have demonstrated that no will of God is conditionall which is to be understood as touching the act of God willing And it may be evidently further demonstrated thus If any thing be the cause of God's will then either by necessity of nature or by the constitution of God Not by necessity of nature as is evident and all confesse there being no colour of truth for that besides such an opinion were most dangerously prejudiciall to God's soveraignty and liberty If therefore they say it is by the constitution of God maske I pray what an insuperable absurdity followeth hereupon For seing God's constitution is his will it followeth that God did will that upon foresight of this or that he would will such a man's salvation and such a man's damnation And thus the act of God's will is made the Object of God's will even the eternall act of God's will Whereas to the contrary it is apparent that the objects of God's will are things temporall never any thing that is eternall But as touching things willed we readily grant it may be said there is a cause thereof as School-Divines doe generally acknowledge And thus Gerardus Vossius speaks of the conditionall will which he faith the Fathers doe ascribe to God For this is the instance which he gives thereof as for example when God ordaines to bestow salvation on a man in case he believe here faith is made the condition of Salvation but not of the will of God And in like manner we willingly grant that reprobation is conditionall inasmuch as God intends to inflict damnation on none but such as die in sin without repenance But albeit predestination as touching this particular thing willed may be said to be conditionall according as the School-men explicate their meaning and reprobation likewise as touching the particular of dānatiō mētioned yet no such thing cā be truely affirmed either of the one or of the other as touching the particulars of grāting or denying the grace of règeneratiō which are intended also by the decrees of predestinatiō reprobatiō For albeit God intends not to bestow salvation on any but upon condition of faith nor damnation on any but upon condition of finall impenitency and infidelity Yet God intends not to bestow the grace of regeneration on some for the curing of their naturall infidelity and impenitency Nor to leave the same infidelity and impenitency uncured in others by denying the same grace of regeneration unto them This I say God doth not intend to bring to passe upon any condition For if he should then grace should be conferred according unto works which was condemned in the Synod of Palestine and all along in divers Synods and Councells against the Pelagians So that albeit God proceeds according to a law in bestowing salvation and inflicting damnation yet he proceeds according to no law in giving or denying the grace of regeneration for the curing of our naturall corruption but merely according to the pleasure of his will as the Apostle testifies saying He hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardeneth And if the conferring and denying of this grace be absolute how much more are the decrees hereof to be accounted most absolute And consequently that one man is delivered from the power of his sins whether originall or habituall another is not but still continueth under the power of them This I say doth must needs come to passe by vertue of Gods absolute decrees Yet no absolute necessity followeth hereupon First because no greater necessity then that which is absolute can be attributed to the existence and continuance of God himselfe Secondly God did absolutely decree to make the world yet no wise man was ever known to affirme that the worlds existence was and is by absolute necessity In like sort God did absolutely decree that Iosiah should burne the Prophets bones upon the Altar That Cyrus should build his Citty and let goe his captives That no man should desire the Israelites land when they should come to appeare before the Lord their God thrice in the yeare That God would circumcise their hearts and the hearts of their children to love the Lord their God withall their heart and with all their soule To put his feare in their hearts that they should never depart away from him To cause them to walke in his statutes and judgments to doe them To worke in them both the will and the deed according to his good pleasure Yea to worke in them every thing that is pleasing in his sight through Iesus Christ Likewise that Absolom should defile his fathers Concubines that the Jewes should crucify the Son of God that some through disobedience should stumble at the word that the Kings should give their kingdomes to the beast Yet these actions were done by them as freely as ever they did ought in their lives All these things I say by Scripture evidence were decreed by God to come to passe The good by God's effection the evill by God's permission and decreed absolutely on their parts that did them if not let it be shewed upon what condition on Absolon's part he should defile his fathers Concubines upon what condition on the Jewes part they should crucify the Son of God upon what condition on their part others through disobedience should stumble at God's word And upon what condition on their part the Kings should give their kingdomes to the beast And if they take Arminias his way let them reply upon mine answere to Arminius if Bellarmin's let them reply upon my answer to Bellarmine that we may not trouble the world with out Tautologies If a different way from both these I shall be glad to be acquainted with it give it such entertainement as according to my judgment it shall be found to deserve So that with Epiphanius though we are ready to concurre in denying destiny which as before we heard out of him was a necessity derived from the starres yet with Austin we may still hold that the wills of men need not to be exempted from all necessity to maintaine the liberty
holinesse and maketh him the principall cause of sin in the greatest number of men I know that the defender of it doth not thinke so For the maine reason which moved the Synod of Dort some other Divines before and since to bring downe predestination thus low and begin their Reprobation after the fall was that they might maintaine a fatall and absolute Reprobation of men and yet avoid this imputation as Doctor Twisse hath noted But what they intended for ought that I can see they have not compassed For it followeth evident enough even from their conclusions too that of all the sins of reprobates which are the greatest number by many degrees God is the true and principall Authour Two things they say which taken together methinks inferre it 1. That God of his own will and pleasure hath brought men into an estate in which they cannot avoid sinne 2ly That he leaveth the Reprobate irrecoverably in it 1. That God of his own will and pleasure hath brought men into an estate in which they cannot possibly avoid sinne that is into the state of originall sinne which consists of two parts 1. The guilt of Adam's transgression 2. The corruption of nature In both these they say mankind is interessed not through the force and efficiency of naturall generation because we all derive our nature from Adam as our first principle but by God's free and voluntary order and impuration It came not to passe by any naturall meanes saith Calvin that all men fell from salvation by the fault of our first parem That all men are held under the guilt of eternall death in the person of one man it is the cleare and constant voice of Scripture Now this cannot be ascribed to any naturall cause it must therefore come from the wonderfull councell of God A little after he hath the same againe with as great an Emphasis How is it that so many nations with their children should be involved in the fall without remedy but because God would have it so As roundly doth Doctor Twisse affirme the same The guilt of originall sinne is derived unto us only by imputation the filth only by propagation and both these only by God's free constitution A little before he hath these words The fault of our nature commeth rom God's free appointment For he doth not cut of any necessity but of his mere will only impute the sinne of Adam to us To this purpose he speaketh a great deale more in the same place To these sayings Saint Bernard hath the like speaking of Adam's sinne he saith Adam's sinne is anothers because we knew not of it and yet ours because it was through the just though secret judgment of God reputed ours And this that they say is agreable to reason For if we be fallen into the guilt of the first sinne and the corruption of nature only because we were in Adam's loines when he sinned and derive our being from him then these two things will follow 1. That we stand guilty of all the sinâ— which Adam committed from his fall to his lives end For we were vertually in his loines as well after his fall as before and in every passage and variation of his life he was still a principle of mankind But where doe we read that we are guilty of any other of his sins To the nâ—st sin only doth the Scripture entitle that sin and misery which entred into the world and invaded all mankind as we may see Rom 5. 15. 16. 17 c. 2. That children are guilty of the sins of all their progenitours especially of their immediate parents For they were in their loines when they sinned and more immediatly then in Adam's But children are not guilty of their parents faults nor obnoxious to their punishments because they are their children as we may see Exod 20. 5. where God saying that he will visit the sins of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of them hate him plainly implyeth that children are not simply charged with their fathers sins but conditionally if they be haters of God as their fathers were if by imitating their wicked parents they become partakers of their sins In Ezech 18 14 c. The Lord signifieth thus much in his Apology against the cavill of the Jewes For first he saith that if a wicked man begetteth a son that seet his fathers sins doth not the like he shall not die for the iniquiry of his father This implyeth that the derivation of being from the patent doth not render the child obnoxious to the punishment of the fathers sin nor consequently to the sinne For the good child is not obnoxious and yet the good child is equally in the fathers loines with the bad and equally receiveth nature and being from him And then the Lord tells them expresly thus much in two propositions 1. Affirmatively The soule that sinneth it shall die And that it may be known that he speaks exclusively only the soule that sinneth shall dye he delivers his mind 2. Negatively The Son shall not beare the iniquity of the father neither shall the father beare the iniquity of her Sonne c. Our Saviour in that woefull speech of his to the Pharisees Fulfill ye also the measure of your fathers Behold I send unto you Prophets c. them ye shall kill and crucifie that on you may come all the righteous blood c. Intimateth apparently that the Pharisees were not inheritours of their fathers sins punishments by birth but by the commission and imitation of their fathers sins they came to inherit both their sins and plagues Miserable would our case be on whom the ends of the world are coÌ„e if children should be guilty of all their Ancestours prevatications What a world of sins should we be to answer for personall sins parents progenitours sins to a thousand past generations A thing with no reason to be imagined This is the first thing Whereas I am quoted here to give the reason which moved the Synod of Dort and some other Divines to begin Reprobation after the fall namely this to avoid the imputation of making God the Authour of sinne I doubt this Authour hath so long inured himselfe to leasings that it is growne naturall unto him to deliver untruthes For first I make no mention in that fourth Digres of mine in the matter of predestination of the Synod of Dort neither indeed were they the Objects of my thoughts in this particular That Digression of mine is spent in answering the arguments of those who dispute against Massa nondum condita and stand for massa corrupta to be the object of election and reprobation In the first chapter I make answer to Mr. Elnathan Parre in an English tract of his wherein he deales upon this argument In the second chap I deale with others that make choice of the lower way because it seemes to be the easiest
comprehended under sic velle which Austin calls tantum augeri munere charitatis to have the gift of charity so much increased in him as thus Tantum Spiritu sancto accenditur voluntas eorum ut ideo possint quta sic velint ideo sic velint quia Deus sic operatur ut velint The will of God's children is so inflāed by the Holy Ghost that therefore they are able to do good because they have a will to it in such a manner that is with such fervency and eagernes therefore they have a will to it in such a manner because God so workes as to make them willing to wit in such a manner Secondly we say that to believe if a man will to repent if he will is to be accounted nature rather then grace which I prove thus Supernaturall grace is not inferiour to a morall vertue but a morall vertue doth more then leave a man indifferent to doe vertuously if he will For it inclines the will to vertuous courses only and not vitious Like as vice inclines the will only to vicious courses and not to vertuous how much more doth supernaturall grace not leave a man indifferent to doe good if he will but inclines the will only to such things as are pleasing unto God and not to things displeasing unto him Againe to have power to believe if we will is to have power to have faith if we will But this Austin hath expressely professed to belong to the nature of man in distinctio fró the grace of the faithfull Posse fidē habere sicut posse charitatē habere naturae est heminū fidē habere sicut charitatē habere gratiaeest fideliū The nature of man makes him to have power to have faith to have charity but the grace of the faithfull makes a man to have faith to have charity It may be objected out of the former place taken out of Aust deCor grat c. 11 that habere justitiam si velit is gratia prima to be righteous if he will is the first grace I answer Austin there speakes of the grace that Adam had before his fall which was this posse si velit to abstaine from eating the forbidden fruit And this first grace is called grace in this respect that there was in Adam no flesh lusting against the Spirit So that if Adam had but a will to abstaine he should have no cause to complaine as Saint Paul doth To will is present with me but I find no meanes to performe that which is good Now such a posse si velit is not found in any man now a daies no not in the regenerate But all men that have a will to doe good by the grace of God have withall a posse secundum quid a power in part a weake power but this is not sufficient to denominate them simply able to doe that which is good unlesse the love of God be increased in them so as to overcome the will of the flesh lusting against the spirit as I have represented Austin thus expounding it Thirdly whether tends this that all men have power to believe if they will to repent if they will But to maintaine that faith and repentance are not the gifts of God bestowed of his free grace on whom he will but that they are the workes of man's free will directly contradictory to the word of God expresly professing that faith is the gift of God and that not of our selves So repentance is the gift of God yea that it is God who worketh in us that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ Heb 13 21. Yea both the will and the deed and that of his good pleasure 4ly If all reprobates have power to believe and repent if they will and so consequently to persevere if they will how comes it to passe that not one of them doth believe repent and persevere seing it is confest among Philosophers that such contingents as depend upon the free will of man are equally propendent on either side to passe as often one way as the other But proceed we along with this Authour 1. Here he grants expresly that the state he speakes of is the state of originall sin in which state we acknowledge that man hath not libertatem à peccato freedome from sinne And Doctor Potter towards the end of his answer to Charity mistaken confesseth it to be the doctrine of the Church of England Yet doe not we say but that it is in the power of any man to abstaine from any particular sinne it being but a naturall act and a man hath free power to performe any naturall act or to abstaine from it so farre forth as to become very vertuous as much as any man among the heathen many of whom have been renowned for vertuous conversation Calvin in the passages here alleadged hath nothing concerning either the guilt of Adam's transgression passing upon his posterity or the corruption derived therehence unto them but only of their falling from eternall salvation in the one that all are enthralled to eternall death in the other And that Adam's fall hath enwrapped all in eternall death in the third My passages quoted and related out of my Vindiciae are more to the purpose I say indeed the guilt of Adam's transgression is derived unto us that is to our persons by imputation but that very sinne of Adam was the sin of our natures as Austin speaks Non modo natura facta est peccatrix sed genuit peccatores Not only our humane nature became a sinner but also begat sinners And accordingly it is justly imputed unto our persons otherwise how could it be just with God to condemne any man for originall sinne which yet is expresly acknowledged by Mr. Hoord And the Apostle saith expresly that in Adam all have sinned And Austin gives the reason of it De Adamo omnes peccatum originale trahunt quia omnes unus fuerunt All draw originall sinne from Adam because all were that one So that I have noe cause to doubt but this Authour is of the same opinion untill I find him to avouch the contrary and so much the rather because he finds it is the opinion of Bernard also And that the corruption consequent is derived to us only by propagation I thinke it is without doubt amongst all who concurre not with Pelagius in maintaining that it is derived unto us by imitation and so only Yet notwithstanding it cannot be denied but that God might have caused the punishment of Adam's sinne to rest upon himselfe only and immediately destroyed him and created another and propagated mankind from him Yea supposing his ordinance of propagating mankind from him yet God of his mercy might have derived others from him of his mere grace indued with the holy Ghost if it had pleased him like as whom he justly damnes for sinne he might have caused them to have lived one yeare or more longer and in that
That God doth supply to all men sufficient and necessary meanes of salvation with an intention of saving them letteth downe this Antiâ—hesis God doth not administer to all men meanes needfull and sufficient to salvation and that with an intention of saving them And to this his Antithesis Polyander Walâ—us and Thyscus three other professours of Divinity in the Lowcountryes did set their hands It is a usuall course with this Authour to lay unto our charge that God hath immutably decreed this or that So that if we had said that all this were decreed by God not immutably but mutably we should not incurre the danger of his displeasure so immutably and unavoydably as we do Now to decree not immutably but mutably is a phrase that I no where meet with but among men of this Authours spirit the congruity whereof I willingly professe is so farre from mine understanding as no phrase more If they would in the name of common sense expound themselves unto us then we should soone consider what Answer we are to give in We willingly professe that all Gods decrees are unchangeable but of decreeing a thing unchangeably not any of our Divines discourse that I know of We say that God decreeth some things to come to passe necessarily and some things to come to passe contingently so doth Aquinas and we understand his language right well and approve his doctrine in this particular We willingly confesse that as God hath chosen some whom he meanes to deliver from that bondage of sinne and Satan whereinto all are cast by the transgression of Adam And how to deliver them Surely by bestowing the spirit of grace and regeneration upon them so to open their eyes and bring them out of darkenesse into light and from the power of Satan unto God In few words by bestowing faith and repentance upon them All others he hath from everlasting determined not to shew the like grace and favour unto For we see by experience that to many he gives not faith and repentance And looke how he carryeth himselfe towards any persons in time after the same manner he determined to carry himselfe from everlasting And the Scripture expresly tels us that even of them that are called but few are chosen and consequently the number of reprobates must needs be farre greater then the number of the elect Now as many as God hath decreed to deny faith and repentance unto we hold it impossibile for them upon this supposition to be recovered out of the bondage of sinne and Satan because the Scripture in divers places expresly tells us that faith is the gift of God repentance is the gift of God and therefore to whomsoever he will not be so gracious as to give faith and repentance we judge it a thing impossible upon this supposition that any of them should believe should repent And more then this as touching every particular here delivered we account it so apparently testified in holy Scripture that we wonder not a little with what face this Authour can deny it Nay we verily believe that he belives all these as well as we And the true point of Substantiall difference betweene us is conceled by him all along which is an argument of no ingenuity but yet I beare with him in following Lysanders counsell when the Lyons skin will not hold out to peece it out with a fox skin least otherwise his Pelagian tenet would be discovered in a most palpable and grosse manner For undoubtedly he believes that faith is the gift of God as also that it is impossible that they should believe to whom God will not give faith But his tenet is that God is ready and willing to give faith to all not absolutely but conditionally to wit in case they make themselves fit for it by performing somewhat on their parts Now this is as good as in expresse termes to professe that Grace is conferred according to merits or according unto workes For betweene works and merits in this controversy there is no difference as Bellarmine acknowledgeth And in the Epistle of Prosper to Austin they are taken promiscuously as of the same force and signification Now this doctrine is expresly contradictory to the word of God God hath saved us and called us with an holy calling not according to our owne workes but according to his owne purpose and grace The like we have Tit. 3. 5. And in like manner this doctrine hat beene condemned in the Church of God as the sowre leaven of Pelagianisme from the Synod of Palestine above 1200 yeares agoe all along and Pelagius himselfe was driven to subscribe to the Canons of that Synod of Palestine wherein Anathema was pronounced upon them that do or shall maintaine that Grace is conferred according unto workes If God hath decreed not to bestow faith upon a man if he hath not decreed to bestow upon him the gift of charity it is impossible that any worke can be done by such a one proceeding from faith and love and consequently such a one hath no liberty from sinne and that no such liberty is found in a naturall man in an unregenerate is the doctrine of our Church by D. Potters confession a Cathedrall Divine I do not say by the constant doctrine of D. Fulke in his answer to the Rhemish Testament and if no liberty from sinne be found in such a one it followes that such a one remaines under a necessity of sinning not that every sinne whether of lying stealing whoring murther or in any other kind is necessarily committed by him For a naturall man may be as morall as any heathen hath beene many of whom have beene very famous and renowned in the world for their morality But whether they are exercised in vertuous actions or in abstaining from actions vicious yet still they sinne forasmuch as they neither performe the one nor abstaine from the other in a gracious manner out of faith and love And therefore Austin was somewhere bold to stile them Splendida peccata glorious sinnes For novimus non officiis sed finibus discernendas esse virtutes Vertues are to be discerned not by their offices but by their ends The Helen we fight for is nothing but the word of God and the truth manifestly contained therein namely concerning the prerogative of his grace as effectuall to every good worke and most Freely given to some and denyed to others not according to mens workes according to that of S. Paul God hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardneth This is a part of Gods soveraignty And it stands all true subjects upon to maintaine the lawfull Soveraignty of their Princes how much more doth it become the creature to stand for the lawfull prerogative and Soveraignty of his Creator especially when he proceeds herein according to the tenour of Gods word cleare reason and the unanimous consent of all the orthodoxe in the Church of God clearely opposing Pelagius herein from the
holy Ghost himselfe whose expressions are the same for substance with the expressions of Piscator It is farther observable that Piscator saith That Reprobates by reason of this Divine ordination doe sinne necessarily I answer Piscator was an excellent Scripture Divine but noe School-divine and therefore noe marvaile if he want the accuratenesse of Scholasticall expression Yet I salve him thus They sinne necessarily upon suspicion that God will have them to sinne by his permission but this is noe necessity simply so called but only secundum quid But God decrees the manner of things comming to passe as well as the things themselves as before I shewed out of Aquinas Soe that all be it it must needs be that sinne come to passe in case God hath decreed it shall come to passe yet if the question be after what manner it shall come to passe I answere not necessarily but contingently and freely that is not onely with a possibility of not comming to passe but with a free power in the creature to abstaine from that sin which is committed by him For God ordained that every thing that doth come to passe shall come to passe agreably to the nature thereof and accordingly moves every creature to worke agreeably to their natures Necessary agents necessarily contingent agents contingently Free agents freely And as formerly was mentioned every sinfull act is a naturall act and a man hath free power even in the state of corruption either to doe or to leave undone any naturall act And Piscator in other places dealing with Vorstius clearely professeth as I well remember though the the place come not to my memory that wicked men doe commit those things freely which are committed by them And it is an excellent saying of Austine that Libertas sine gratiâ non est libertas sed contumacia Liberty without grace is not liberty but wilfullnesse indeed they shew too much will therein rather then too little and in denying liberty to them that want grace he speakes of liberty morall which is only unto true good not of liberty naturall which hath place only in the choice of meanes and is inseparable from the nature of man But true morality sets a mans soule in a right condition towards his right end 4. It may be this Authour could not be so inconsiderate as not to perceive that even those expressions concerning Gods decree which he criminates in our Divines are Scripture expressions therefore to helpe his cause here he imputes unto them that they maintaine that God decreed this immutably as if himselfe could be content to grant that these things are decreed by God but not immutably And would this Authour have the will of God to be of a mutable condition like unto ours I am confident he dares not professe so much for albeit he licks his lips at a conditionall decree yet how doth he conceive this to be mutable For to resolve to save men upon condition of faith and repentance and perseverance and damne others in case they continue in infidelity and impenitency if accordingly none be saved but such in whom faith and repentance and finall perseverance therein is found none damned but such as persevere in sinne unto death what change is there in all this Unlesse this be it that God did not resolve to save any particular person untill his finall perseverance was accomplished And so God may be said in processe of time to change from not willing to willing one man's salvation and another man's damnation In which case God's decree also should not be eternall but begin in time Againe as touching that which followes of of God decreeing that Reprobates shall live and dye in sinne I answer to decree not to regenerate Reprobates is to decree that Reprobates shall not be regenerated for they are not able to regenerate themselves and to decree that they shall not be regenerated is to decree that they shall live and dye in sinne by God's permission he resolving never to shew such mercies to take them of from their sinfull courses by repentance And so long as they are not borne of God they will not heare his words as our Saviour testifies saying Yee therefore heare them not because ye are not of God As for sinne procured by the hand of God which he obtrudes upon our Divines not one passage doth he produce for that Yet as I remember I have read such an harsh expression in Piscator dealing against Vorstius which at this time doth not come to my remembrance but withall I remember that Piscator being charged therewith by Vorstius forthwith represents certaine passages of Scripture concerning Gods's providence in evill and appeales to the judgment of every sober Christian whether to do that which therein is attributed to God be not to procure sin It is apparent that Joseph acknowledgeth that the Lord sent him into Egypt yet was this brought to passe by the parricidiall hands of his brethren And it is no lesse plaine that God hardened Pharaohs heart that he should not let Israel goe And by Arminius his Definition of effectuall grace it is evident that by Gods denying it sin doth follow infallibly And so likewise upon Gods permission of willing this or that he professeth that it must needs be that by noe kind of argument shall such a one be perswaded to nill it I come to the meanes whereby he is said to procure it The first is by withdrawing grace necessary for the avoyding of sin Now of this he gives no instance out of any of our Divines 2 I know no grace which this Authour accounts necessary that any of our Divines teach to be withdrawen by God 3 God indeed doth not determine their wills to that which is good but this Authour doth not account any such determination necessary to the avoyding of sin 4 Prohibition denuntiation of judgment dehortation and such gracious actions God doth neither withdraw nor withhold from the wicked who are partakers of this grace as well as Gods children as often as they meet in the same congregation for the hearing of Sermons 5. An effectuall restraint from sin I know none but the feare of God yet this he withdrawes not from the wicked for they never had it nor from the children of God only he doth not stirrre it in them at all times so often as he suffers them to sin which yet may be to gracious ends As I for the confirmation of their faith that nothing no not sin shall separate them from the love of God when they shall find the goodnesse of God minding them of their errours and bringing them to repentance 2 As also to make them smart for their former security and wantonnesse in beholding the uncomfortable issue of it 3 To provoke them to walke more carefully and circumspectly for the time to come standing upon their guard and keeping the watch of the Lord. 4. To cure their pride according to that of Austin Audeo dicere
Gods decree of purging us from actuall sins is one of the decrees de mediis you doe not tell us what you call that other decree whereby God decreeth to free us from that generall curse and malediction whereto we were obnoxious in Adam But by the difference you put you leave us to interpret it of Gods decree de fine Now there is no such proportion or disproportion between these decrees that the decree of freeing from originall sin or from the malediction in Adam should be decretum de fine and the decree of purging from actuall sins should be decretum de mediis 1. For the end of Gods actions is meerely his own glory according to that Prov. 16. 4. God made all things for himselfe and that Rom. 11. 4. last from him and for him are all things The freeing from sin Originall c. may be a means to this it cannot be the end which God intends 2. If salvation be considered as the end which God intends as commonly Divines consider it though this course of consideration hath been the mother of great perturbation in the ordering of Gods decrees yet freedom from sin originall is rather a means to this Therefore not to be accounted the object of Gods decrees concerning the end Again who doubts but that the freeing from sin originall is as well a means of salvation as the purging from sins actuall Therefore the decree thereof is to be reckoned amongst the number of the decrees de mediis 3. Yet will not this suffice to make the decree of freeing from sin originall to be different from the decree of purging from sins actuall as this is accounted a decree de mediis unlesse the freeing from sin originall be the end and the purging from sins actuall a means tending to that end For priority and posteriority in intention hath no place but by reason of mutuall respect between the end and the means tending to that end But in no congruity can it be said that the purging us from sins actuall is a means to free us from sins originall or from that malediction whereto we were obnoxious in Adam 4. If freeing from originall sin be first in Gods intention and afterwards the purging of us from sins actuall it followeth that the freeing from originall sin shall be last in execution so that God shall first free us from actuall sins and then proceed to free us from originall sin I proceed to the next 6. In like manner we say of the Reprobate It is one decree whereby God resolves to leave them in the State of originall sin another whereby he doth resolve to leave them in their actuall sins also And although this latter doth follow alwaies upon the former yet the former is onely properly called reprobation Wherefore it followeth not that if the decree of reprobation supposeth originall sin it supposeth actuall also Resp 1. The answer unto the former may in every particular be accommodated unto this 2. These you speak of are not different but one decree and the same As I prove thus Gods decree to leave them in the state of originall sin is all one with Gods decree finally to deny them faith and repentance And Gods decree finally to deny them faith and repentance is all one with Gods decree to leave them in their actuall sin Also Reprobation as it signifieth Gods decree of leaving in the state of sin was never conceived to be other then the decree of denying them faith and repentance unto the end which whether it be not a decree of leaving them in actuall sins as well as originall let any man judge For God by this decree of finall dâ—râ—liction did not onely decree that they should be left in their sins before they come to the use of reason but in their sins committed after also in their youth in their middle age in their old age otherwise it could be no decree of finall dereliction 7. Although God doth actually damne men as well for their actuall sins as for their originall yet the foresight of originall sin being enough to salve Gods justice in the decree of damnation we are not compelled to grant any more as antecedent to that decree but may take in the rest as consequent rather Resp As God doth actually damn men aswel for their actual sins as for their originall so undoubtedly God did from everlasting decree to damn them for their actuall sins as wel as for their originall For when God doth actually damn them for their actuall sins then undoubtedly he doth will to condemne them otherwise he should damne them against his will Now the will of God being an eternall action is eternall therefore from everlasting he did will to damne them for actuall sinnes For his will to damne them and his decree to damne them is all one Now I think you doe not make two decrees of damnation of the same men one for their originall another for their actuall sins Therefore in the same moment that he decreed to damne for sin originall he did decree to damne for actuall also 2. If the foresight of sinne be required to salve Gods justice in the decree of damnation of men of ripe yeeres the foresight of originall sinne will not serve the turn For seeing God doth not intend the damnation of man indefinitely in respect of the degrees thereof but definitely that is according to the very degree in which he will inflict damnation It is manifest that foresight of originall sinne cannot salve Gods justice For to intend damnation in such a degree as is due onely to sins actuall upon foresight onely of sinne originall is as unjust as to intend damnation upon no foresight of sinne at all For even in this case you allow that as some degrees intended are due to sinne originall upon foresight whereof alone they are intended so again some degrees intended are due onely to actuall sinnes upon no foresight whereof in your opinion they are intended 3. It is very strange that you should maintaine Gods course is justified in decreeing to damne upon foresight of originall sinne and not upon the foresight of actuall sins whereas damnation for originall sinne onely is so farre from being justifiable in the sight of flesh and blood as that it is indeed the second degree of the greatest absolutenesse of Gods power that ever was or shall be shewed in this world or in the world to come 1. The first degree and greatest was the crucifying of the same God for others sins being without all sin of his own 2. The second is the damnation of Infants for the sin of Adam which Adam himselfe notwithstanding we believe to be saved 4. I pray consider the difference betwixt your opinion and minde you maintaine that God decreed to damne all reprobates before the foresight of any of their actuall sinnes I no way like this Tenet but maintaine that in the same moment that God decrees to damne any Reprobate he