Booke in the first Article which is of Faith well expresseth my mind in these words But whether there be any speciall particular knowledge which man by faith hath certainly of himselfe wherby he may testifie to himself that he is of the predestinates which shall to the end persevere in their Calling we have not spoken ne cannot in Scripture ne Doctors finde that any such faith can be taught or Preached Truth it is that in the Sacraments instituted by Christ we may constantly believe the Works of God in them to our present comfort and application of his grace and favour with assurance also that he will not faile us if we fall not from him wherefore so continuing in the state of Grace with him we may believe undoubtedly to be saved But forasmuch as our own frailty and naughtinesse ought ever to be feared in us it is therefore expedient for us to live in continuall watch and continuall fight with our Enemies and not presume too much of our Perseverance and continuance in the state of Grace which on our behalfe is uncertaine and unstable for although Gods Promises made in Christ be immutable yet hee maketh them not to us but with condition so that his Promise standing we may yet faile of the Promise because we keep not our Promise And therefore if we assuredly reckon upon the state of our felicity as grounded upon Gods Promise and do not therewith remember that no man shall be crowned unlesse he lawfully fight we shall triumph before the victory and so look in vaine for that which is not otherwise promised but under a condition And this every Christian man must assuredly believe So there The same seemes to me to be averred by our 17 Article where the Counsell of God predestinating to life is said to be His Counsell secret to us and in K. Edw. Article it was repeated againe in the last paragraph thus Although the Decrees of Predestination be unknown to us yet we must receive Gods Promises c. which words doe not exclude onely our knowledge or privity to the Counsell and Decrees of God à priori but also à posteriori and not onely before wee be called or by Grace obey the Calling but even after faith and after justification for then there is the chiefe place of the Profit of this secret lest perhaps any such should be lifted up that S. Augustine spake of but if wee may be certaine that wee may have true faith as we may and be certaine that true faith cannot finally be lost as they resolve us that would be counted the sound Divines and we be likewise most certaine that God hath elected them that persevere to the end in a lively faith as the Scriptures clearely resolve us then the Counsell of God as to our selves that once believe is no more secret nor his decree unknowne and by our knowledge thereof we have lost some profit which wee had by the ignorance thereof whereof we have still as much need as ever And King James at Hampton-Court Conference is reported pag. 30. lin 20. to have said by inferring the necessary certainty of standing and persisting in Grace a desperate presumption may be arreared CHAP. XIX Of the last Judgement THe last worke of the Divine Providence executing the decree of his Predestination is the worke of the last and generall Judgement wherein is executed the decrees concerning the Ends of all men for Praedestinatio finium is nothing else but the foreknowledge and approbation o◠decree of the last judgement It being true which the first of the nine Assertions at Lambeth saith Deus ab aeterno quosdam praedestinavit ad vitam quosdam ad mortem reprobavit though it say not in what Order In the last day distributing life and death according as from everlasting he had decreed Now here as elsewhere the Execution of the decree sheweth what the decree it selfe was as the building set up and finished sheweth what was the device and plot of the builder But in the last judgement is shewed the execution and consequution of Ends So that if wee admit as we must do that God propounded an End for himselfe to attain namely the glory of his mercy and bounty in giving some men Eternall life and the glory of his soveraigne power and justice in afflicting on other some Eternall death hee hath the consequution and attainment of this End in the last righteous judgement Againe if wee admit as we must doe that God propounded Ends to men for them either to aspire unto or attaine as Eternall life or to shun with all feare and if not fearing and shunning to fall into as Eternall death these Ends are attained or executed also in the last judgement Moreover if wee admit as wee doe that Eternall life at the last judgement is given as a free and bounteous gift Rom. 6. 23. And yet also as the reward and crown of Righteousnesse 2 Tim. 4. 8. And that Eternall death is then inflicted as the wages and punishment of sinne Rom. 6. 23. and as the demonstration also of Gods soveraigne Power and Dominion yet with justice and equity Rom. 9. 21 22. If these things be most certaine Truths as they are it cannot be conceived by ordinary humane understanding how a decree of these things could be made before the foundation of the World were laid without Gods Prescience as life is a reward and death a punishment seeing no justice can prepare reward or punishment but upon supposall or foreknowledge of good or evill deserts Nor without that Prescience of God which wee call after our manner of understanding simplicis intelligentiae simple and naturall understanding as life Eternall is a gift of his free goodnesse and as death Eternall is a Declaration of his supreme Dominion and Lordship and as in both he doth attain that high End which he seeketh for himself his own glory Let the prudent Reader ponder this a little because it seemes to mee to cleare my maine and prime Proposition That Prescience is necessarily to be put into the definition of Predestination and yet not every Prescience but that which is in the first highest simple naturall understanding of the Almighty as that which is most proper and fit for the Prime Author and supreme Disposer and Ruler of all things whereby a trim composition and comprehension together may be made of those things that most men through contention doe separate nay oppose one to another Prosper shall helpe with an expression of his of the best part of this Notion Epigra 28. Siomnes homines simul consideremus c. If we consider all men together whereof some may be saved in mercy some others damned in truth all the wayes of the Lord that is his Mercy and Truth are distinguish'd by the End But if wee looke onely upon the Saints these wayes of the Lord are not descryed for there Truth is not to be distinguish'd from Mercy nor Mercy from Truth because the
humane capacity as de ordine modo praedestination is in mente divina concordia gratiae liberi arbitrii cum praedestinatione But these Papers I hope shall make it manifest first that I leave things unsearchable unsearchd and stand with the Apostle in the selfe same place that he did admiring and adoring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 11. 33. I say in the selfesame place or the like not to cloak iniquity or absurdity imputed to the divine Majesty by O the depth c. Secondly that I search not at all into any thing by meere naturall light and humane reason which to do in these things were a presumption deserving precipitation but by the light of divine revelation in Gods holy word and therefore I have set for my title Appello Evangelium which is the opening of Gods Counsell so far as he is pleased to communicate to us And thirdly this I doe not onely by appealing to those Texts that directly and immediately speak of our Predestination and Election which may seeme hard and obscure but also to the openest and commonest places that are fundamentall principles of Christianity and the grounds of Catechisme which ordinary capacities and not great wits alone are able to understand and by which the fewer and harder Texts are to be enlightned and interpreted and not contrarily Irenaeus hath a right saying Multa male interpretari coguntur Lib. 5. qui Unum recte intelligere non volunt which hath hapned to many in our Age. That unum which they will not rightly understand is promissum Evangelicum universale in Christo redemptore vniversali which our Church professeth in her Articles and in her Catechisme which unum is the ground of all the Conclusions here maintained So that my studies have not been about some curious and superfluous questions separable from the body of Divinity and which might well have been spared but about the most essentiall parts and articles of that body and of their mutuall coherence and connexion the industrious search and examination whereof is so necessary and worthy a thing as I can hardly hold him worthy the name of a Divine that hath not laboured therein And as to my Opinions which unexamined may be presumed to be nothing else but either ancient or late condemn'd Heresies which imputation or very supposition no good man ought to beare with silence these leaves do undertake to shew that the apprehensions expressed in them are none of those old condemned Heresies nor of those late rejected Heterodoxes but the very Doctrine of the ancient Fathers of the Church builded upon the sense and letter of the holy Scriptures and consonant to the publike establish'd Doctrine of the Church of England contained in the bookes of Articles Common Prayer and Homilies which if I shall make good by cleare and undeniable evidence then I hope my good friends will hold me excused and cleared of any such crime as Heresie or semi-heresie or novelty and will take me for a true and sound member of the Church of England both in Doctrine and in Discipline from both which I feare there hath been made by many in this Church too great a defection and departure since the dayes of King Edw. the 6. when they were first established and since the primitive years of the happy reigne of Queen Elizabeth wherein they were ratifyed and strengthened with a second and oft-renewed judgement But the examination and tryall of all this I commit and submit to my ingenuous and loving friends and them and their studies to the goodnesse and grace of God our Father CHAP. I. The first Opinion THe first Opinion concerning the order of Divine Predestination and having these defenders Beza Piscator Whitaker Perkins and other holy and learned men is this 1. That God from all eternity decreed to create a certain number of Men. 2. That of this number he Predestinated some to everlasting life and other some he Reprobated to eternall death 3. That in this act he respected nothing more than his own dominion and the pleasure of his own will 4. That to bring men to these ends he decreed to permit Sin to enter in upon all men that the Reprobate might be condemned for sinne and that he decreed to send his Sonne to recover out of sin his Elect fallen together with the Reprobate This Opinion is rejected by many protestant Divines as by the reverend Divines of our Church that were at the Synod at Dort by Peter Moulin by Robert Bishop of Salisbury and others It is detested by the Papists and Lutherans it was it tha◠Arminius and his followers chiefly opposed in the low Countries It is charg'd To make God the Author of Sin To Reprobate men before they were evill To Elect men not in Christ who is sent after this Opinion to recover out of sinne those that were elected before they were considered as sinners This is that irrespective decree which Mr. Mountague disliketh because in it there is no respect had to any thing fore-known not so much as the fall of man much lesse Christ or Faith giving to God no fore-knowledge or no use of it at all in this act of his which the Scripture calls predestination Yet this Opinion doth well admonish us to remember the Dominion and Soveraigne power and will of God which must be seen and acknowledged in his predestinating of men according to that of the Apostle Rom. 9. 21. Hath not the Potter power over the clay and vers 15. Hee hath mercy on whom he will which we will be mindfull of in the fifth Opinion Under this Opinion are to be placed the nine Assertions concluded at Lambeth Nov. 20. 1595. which have been often required to be put into our Booke of Articles but yet could it never be obtained It is requisite therefore to set them down because they are not vulgarly knowne and to examine them what they meane and see how farre they are Orthodoxall or agreeing to our Articles And for their sakes that understand not the Latine tongue I will render them in English * Consule Articulos Lambethanos ab F. G. Ecclesiae Ministro nuper editos Articles approv'd by the right Reverend Lords John Lord Archbishop of Canterbury and Richard Lord Bishop of London and other Divines at Lambeth the 20. of Novemb. in the year 1595. 1. God from Eternity Predestinated some Men to life and some he Reprobated unto Death 2. The Moving or Efficient cause of Predestination to life is not the foresight of Faith or of perseverance or of good workes or of any thing which may be in the persons predestinated but onely the Will of Gods good pleasure 3. Of the predestinate there is a predefined and certaine number which can neither be increased nor diminished 4. They which are not predestinated to salvation shal necessarily be condem'd for their sinnes 5. True lively justifying Faith and the sanctifying Spirit of God is not extinguished doth not fall out doth
So these two Opinions offend much against Gods Goodnesse and Truth yet this second well acknowledgeth that God decreed something upon his foreknowledge what man would doe being permitted That this foreknowledge is so certain that upon it God builded his greatest Counsels of the mystery of the Gospell as upon the foreknowledge of Adams fall the decree to send Christ Secondly It provideth well for the justice of God on Infants dying who have no other desert of death but Originall sin from which as to the paine of eternall death Gods mercy delivereth whom hee pleaseth by Baptisme or the vow thereof in the holy Church Parvulorū autem causam ad exemplum Majorum non patiuntur afferri sayes Hilary of the Massilienses in which they were right for the Election or Reprobation which is of Infants that live not to years of discretion is no necessary pattern for the Election or Reprobation of them that live into a further Age. The Defenders of this Opinion claime our 17. Article as for them and surely better may they doe it than they of the former for those words To deliver from curse and damnation those whom hee hath chosen import a curse and damnation fallen into by those who are delivered But how those words chosen in Christ and the godly consideration of Predestination and our Election in Christ and those words Wee must receive Gods Promises in such wise as they be generally set forth unto us in holy Scriptures How these will stand with a decree of Election made before Christ be thought on otherwise than as the Meanes to bring the Elect to salvation for the Article makes these two things To choose some in Christ out of mankinde and to bring them by Christ unto everlasting salvation or how a generall promise will stand with a particular purpose meaning or intending the promise but to some few let them consider how they can make it good by their Doctrine and I will consider how I can make it good which the Article saith by the Doctrine of the fifth Opinion As to the appeale to Bucer and P Martyr for the sense of our Articles used by Doctor Whitakers in his time and of late by the Bishop of Chichester Carleton the answer is full 1. That Bucer is not of the same Opinion with Martyr nor Carleton with Whitakers in the apprehension of the order of Predestination 2. That it is not true that the Disciples of P. Martyr and Bucer composed our Articles for these Articles on which there is now question were the same under King Edward the 6. and Queene Elizabeth but the Bishops and Divines under King Edw. 6. had composed the Articles and Liturgy before P. Martyr and Martin Bucer came hither as doth appeare in Mr. Fox his story To Bellarmine objecting that England had Bucer and Martyr Seminatores fidei the renowned Doctor Andrews answereth p. 31. Non tamen Si verum volumus seminarunt duo illi viri fidem in Anglia c. Neverthelesse if we will speake truth those two men did not plant the reformed faith in England but sought to weede out some Tares of superstition long since oversow'd by you Papists Although even those Tares themselves before their comming hither were for the most part condemnd and rooted out But these men entred upon others labours and bestow'd their paines also here that they might be helpfull to them in Vniversity matters 3. Whosoever were the chiefe Composers of our Articles of whom it is certain Archbishop Cranmer was one they had more respect to the Augustan Confession than to any other as appeares by the very Identity of many of the Articles and more familiarity with Melanchton and Erasmus than any other Divines singularly approving their Expositions of the sacred Scriptures and of the principall Articles of the Christian Faith insomuch that they caused to be translated into English Erasmus paraphrase on the Gospels and injoyn'd them to be studyed by Priests and to lye ready in Churches for all men to reade and as it were to drinke in the Doctrine of Scriptures according to Erasmus his interpretation whose writings which way they goe in those controversies all men well know that have read them CHAP. 3. The Third Opinion THe third Opinion seemes to be defended by the reverend and learned late Bishop of Norwich Doctor Overald and Richard Thompson his diligent Audiditor and familiar as may be gathered out of the Bishops judgement de quinque Articulis in Belgia controversis and out of the Conference at Hampton Court and out of Thompsons Diatribe de intercisione justitiae c. 4. And it is 1. That God decreed to create mankinde good c. as the second Opinion said 2. That he foresaw the fall of man c. as in the same second Opinion was said 3. That he decreed to send his Sonne to dye for the World and his Word to call and to offer salvation unto all men with a common and sufficient grace in the meanes to worke faith in Men if they bee not wanting to themselves 4. That out of Gods fore knowledge of mans infirmity and that none would believe by this common grace he decreed to adde a speciall grace more effectuall and abundant to whomsoever he pleased chosen according to his own Purpose and Grace by which they shall not onely bee able to believe but also actually believe This Opinion if I understand it aright I have not found expresly or strictly examined by any Divine Doctor Abbot in his animadversion upon Thompsons Diatribe suspecteth * c. 4. Insuavis quidam gravis halitus Arminiani dogmatis Arminianisme in it and rejected it But Doctor Overald doth clearely sever it from the Remonstrants Tenet as you shall see by and by I object it thus 1. That common Grace by which no man is sav'd which is inferiour to the infirmity of man is not the Grace of the Gospell nay deserves not the name of Grace which never brought forth the effect Salvation 2. That superabundant speciall effectuall Grace seemes not to be the Grace of the Gospell being rejected of none to whom it is offered for the Grace of the Gospell is such as is receiv'd by some and the selfe same rejected by other some to some 't is in vaine to others not in vaine 3. This Opinion with the two former seemes to bring in a certaine desperation into the mindes of men as was of old objected to St. Augustine seeing none can be saved but by that speciall and abundant Grace which is given but to a few out of the secret purpose of God which whether God doth intend to give or no the generall promises in the Gospell do not assure seeing they sound no more than a common grace which is ineffectuall by this Opinion But before I censure it farther bee it presented unto you in the words of one of the most illuminate Doctors of our Age. There were five Articles controverted in Holland 1. Of Gods Predestination 2. Of
all Believers to bee so furnish'd with Gods Grace that they are able to persevere if they will be as carefull as they should be that the same men also may possibly fall away from Faith and Grace through negligence and security The Second denyes Believers to be able so to fall away from Faith and Gods Grace as to become in the state of damnation or perish but such as shall once truely believe shall alwayes so persevere in Faith and Grace that at length they may all attaine salvation The Third with St. Augustine makes Believers through the infirmities of the flesh and temptations to be able to depart from Faith and Grace or likewise to fall away but it addes those Believers who are call'd according to purpose and who are firmly rooted in a lively Faith cannot either totally or finally fall away or perish but by speciall and effectuall grace so to persevere in a true and lively Faith that at length they may bee brought to eternall life By this we may understand what Doctor Overalds minde was in the Conference at Hampton Court p. 41. 42. Richard Thompson hath the like cap. 4. De intercisione Justitiae For after hee had spoken of Christ given to redeeme and reconcile all unto God and of aides and meanes given whereby men may be actually reconciled hee addes page 17. Sed miserum genus humanum si vel sic à Deo relictum fuisset c. But miserable had been Mankinde if even so they had been left of God for great is the wickednesse of Man and every imagination of his heart is evil continually Therefore it must needs come to passe that either all of themselves should despise those riches of Gods goodnesse or if any should make use of them yet a while after they would loath them againe except the superabundant mercy of God had separated some to himselfe to whom hee had decreed from all eternity to afford an effectuall calling and finall perseverance in Grace taken according to his purpose others being passed by and left to the counsels of common providence whom in the end he would condemn for their impenitence and unbeliefe You know now this Opinion and the Author is to be commended for his integrity in opening the state of these questions and for comming on thus far neerer to the Truth than the former did in acknowledging 1. That Christ dyed for the sinnes of the whole World 2. That the promise of the Gospell is Universall 3. That a Grace sufficient is given common to all that hear the Gospell to believe and obey it 4. That Gods foreknowledge is extended not onely to the fall of the first man but the infirmity of all men in particular Whereupon for some men there was prepared by God a more superabundant and effectuall grace than for others 5. In that it endeavoreth to accord the first part of our 17 Article concerning an absolute Predestination with the latter part concerning the Universall promises The like good desire appeares in the Divines that were at Dort in their joynt Suffrage de Articulo 20 Thes 3. 4 5. But how congruous and happy this conjunction can be of two extremes into a third or how possible it is to accord those two parts of the Article without some other supposition than hath yet beene mentioned here I cannot hope ever to see it demonstrated Nay I am perswaded that these manifest Truths sounding in every part of the new Testament That Christ is given a Redeemer Universall That the Promises of the Gospell are generall That the Spirit of Truth and Power goes with them in the Preaching of them are able being rightly weighed utterly to overthrow all manner of frames whatsoever may be imagined of the order of the Divine Predestination which shall exclude the Divine Prescience proper prime and Universall such as the fifth Opinion will discover for since the Gospell presupposeth and acknowledgeth the fall of mankinde and all to be sinners and taketh its occasion therefrom since it calleth all men to reconciliation with God commands Repentance and Faith to all promiseth forgivenesse and life to all that believe in the Redeemer threatneth wrath and death to abide upon all that beleeve not Marc. 15. 15 16. and declareth that God will judge the World by Jesus Christ and by the Word of the Gospell Acts 17. 31. Joh. 12. 48. And since God will judge in righteousnesse man as a reasonable Creature of a Freewill The Gospel I say cannot admit a decree of predestination to life or death that shall be made upon contemplation of the fall and sinne of man antecedent to the Gospell or before contemplation of the 〈◊〉 or issues of the Gospell preached to the World which contemplation can be had before all time by no other power but the Divine foreknowledge CHAP. IV. The fourth Opinion THe Fourth Opinion is of Melanchton Hemingius and the Lutherans that follow the Augustan Confession and formulam concordiae The Remonstrants or Arminians and many Papists c. 1. That God decreed to create Man to permit him to fall and to send Christ to redeeme the World c. as in the third Opinion was said 2. That hee made a generall conditionall decree of Predestination under the condition of Faith and Perseverance And a speciall absolute decree of electing those to life whom he foreknew would believe and persevere under the meanes and aides of Grace Faith and Perseverance and a speciall absolute decree of condemning them whom he foresaw to abide impenitent in their sins This Opinion was condemned in the late Synod at Dort I mislike it for these reasons 1. Because a generall conditionall Predestination is none at all 2. Because the decree of speciall Election of such as believe no better declared than thus seemeth to make men choose God first rather than God to choose men 3. Because it maketh the decrees of justification and condemnation to bee the same with the decree of Election and Reprobation which must be distinguished as they are Rom. 8. 29. 4. Because it presenteth no more Grace given by God to the Elect than to the reprobate neither greater cause of thankfulnesse Yet this Opinion doth well to enlarge the objects of Gods foreknowledge and to extend it not onely to the fall of the first man but even to Christ to be manifested in the flesh and believed on in the World yea even to the last end of all men persevering either in Faith or Unbeliefe Agreeing with the Scriptures that buildeth Election upon foreknowledge at large simply and properly taken Rom. 8. 29. 11. 2. 1 Pet. 1. 1 2. and promiseth salvation to the believer but persevering to the end Thus have wee seene foure Opinions The Transition to the fifth Seeing then none of these foure give full satisfaction though some pieces of Truth be found in every one of them yet joyned with some inconvenience It were a work worth the labour to gather that truth out of them all that
power in this working out their own Salvation he doth Comfort and encourage them that they shall not work alone a stronger than they shall joyne with them God who it is that ever worketh in them both to will and to doe Where we have full proofe for the power and presence of the helpfull grace of God but for Gratia discriminatrix 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. The weaknesse of many in temptations and persecutions that sheweth it selfe testifieth that they who in those are more than Conquerors over Satan the flesh and the world are defended and fought for by the mighty power of God when they cry unto him So prayeth the Church on the fifth Sunday after Epiphany Lord we beseech thee to keepe thy Church and houshold continually in the true religion that they which doe leane onely upon hope of thy heavenly grace may evermore be defended by thy mighty power through Jesus Christ our Lord. Against whom then do these accusations lye To say that the Will of man resists the power of God as if it were stronger than it That man doth more to the work of his Faith than the Grace of God That God doth no more in us for good than Satan doth for evill incline perswade sollicite c. I am no way guilty of these crimes If Gods power be resisted or frustrated it yeeldeth not out of weaknesse but out of will God not pleasing to put forth his power where he feeles himselfe resisted or neglected The best that we doe in the bringing forth of any good is To yeild and to permit God to work upon us to follow him leading or drawing of us to accept of that he giveth us to fence that which he soweth or planteth in us not to marre that which he maketh not to harden the heart when his voice is to be heard In summe to be passively obedient more than actively For this is that onely which the Power of Grace will not extend it selfe unto To necessitate and to hold us up to an undeclinable obedience The reason is because that power of God which buildeth up supernaturall things doth not destroy naturall but the possiblity in the Will to decline to evill and the liberty to disobey is not evill but naturall being found in Adam before his fall and as it was not impeached then by the supernaturall grace which Adam had no more is it now in us by the grace of God that worketh in us To this agrees the learned Doctor Ward in his Clerum on Phil. 2. 13. page 6. and 7. of the last Edition Of the Amplitude or Vniversality of Grace From this Title there are to be excluded three things as Heterodoxa and three other things to be referred to it as Orthodoxa 1. Exclude from hence the opinion of Origen and of those that Saint Aug. calls Misericordes that thought all men and Angels at the last should be received to Mercy against whom Saint Aug. disputes 21. lib. de Civitate cap. 17. deinceps 2. Exclude from hence the opinion of Samuel Huber against whom Hunnius and other Lutherans dispute who taught an Universal Election c. and that all men by the death of Christ were brought into the state of Grace and salvation which proposition is worthily rejected by our Divines at Dort in their Suffrage de 2 Articulo Thesi ult Heterodoxa 3. Exclude from hence the opinion of Andradius and other Papists and whosoever else that hold the Gentiles and Heathens without the Church to have sufficient grace to Salvation by the light of Nature or to have that whereupon well used the Grace of the Gospell shall be reveiled unto them With these I will have no fellowship But under the Vniversality of Grace I comprehend but these three things 1. That as Christ our Lord took the nature of Mankinde and not the Nature of Angels So by his death he paid the price of Redemption for the Sinnes of the whole world this agrees with the third Thesis suffragii de art secundo and with our Catechisme I believe in God the Father who hath made me and all the world and in God the Sonne who hath redeemed me and all Mankinde and in God the holy Ghost who sanctifieth me and all the Elect people of God Where note the order and degrees 2. That the promise of the Gospel is Vniversal to all that are within the hearing of it and that it might be truly and seriously proffered to any man alive whatsoever This agrees with the latter part of our seventeenth Article That we must receive Gods promises in such wise as they be generally set forth unto us in the holy Scripture 3. That with the promise and word of the Gospel there goeth ordinarily such Grace of the holy Spirit as is sufficient to all under the Gospel to worke in them to believe and to obey the Gospell and that all doe not obey proceedeth not from the want of Grace on Gods part but from mens being wanting to the Grace of God to whom it is in vaine as is evident by 2 Cor. 6. 1. 2. Heb. 4. 1. 2. 12. 15. Now whereas it is as clearly said in the Holy Scripture that Christ laid downe his life for his Sheepe John 10. 15. for the Children of God John 11. 52. and that he loved his Church and gave himselfe for it Ephes 5. 25. as it is said He dyed for all men These two must be so construed that they may both stand together Thus that out of Gods goodnesse mercy and love to mankinde hee sent his Sonne to die for all men as willing by his primary and antecedent will the salvation of all men But because Omniscience is in God as one of his Divine perfections hee could not bee ignorant or incertaine what would be the fruit and successe of the Death of his Son that such would not receive him that others such and such would thankefully embrace him if hee were sent unto them out of this foreknowledge his especiall love accepting even these though few in number in comparison did send his Sonne with intention to save though it were but these in whom hee would glorifie his bounty that for their sakes hee would have his Sonne to give his life though hee should gaine no more than them who had they beene much fewer or none at all surely the wise God either would not have sent his Sonne to die in vaine or he would have mended the measure and course of his graces and government by which more might have come into the Kingdome of Heaven Chrysostome in illud Pauli ad Gal. 2. Dilexit me dedit semetipsum pro me Declarat hoc quoque par esse c. He declares this also to be meet that every one of us no lesse give thanks than if hee had come into the World onely for his sake for neither would Christ have refused even for one so great a dispensation hee doth so mightily love every particular Man with the
blessednesse of the Saints is both from the Reward of Grace and Retribution of Justice This sentence cleareth the most doubtfull part for that eternal death is de retributione justitiae is a truth so cleare and not possible to be decreed from before time without foreknowledge of sinne as my Opposites therefore love not to argue about Reprobation or if they doe they fly to the Dominion and Liberty of God as a Lord absolute and unaccountable to exclude Prescience even here if it were possible But for Predestination to eternall life because it is the gift of God they are confident it may be decreed without Prescience what man will doe which they well might seeme to have some colour for if the blessednesse of the Saints were onely de munere Gratiae and not also de retributione Justitiae But why strive they to separate and dis-joyne those things which God hath joyned together he having made the blessednesse of the Saints to be the retribution of Justice out of his Prescience of their labouring to attaine their end life and to be also the gift of his Grace out of his owne understanding what will bring them to happinesse if he grant them these benefits whereby he shall also attain his end the glory of his free love in giving eternall life to whom hee will both these being understood and knowne before the very existence of men or any act of his be allowed to be by any decree of the will of God that is onely upon condition or supposition if hee please to will the Creation Calling Governing of the Saints in such sort as he foreknowes will bring forth life unto them and this be a way of Glory to himselfe In summe this judgement being ex praeteritis the predestination of it cannot but be ex praevisis The Judge whom God hath ordained for that day is Christ the Lord. God and man not the Father himselfe immediatly the reason is Joh. 5. 22 23. that all might honour the Sonne as they honour the Father and the reason of that is because as the Father hath Created so the Sonne hath Redeemed mankinde And this shall be the great crime upon which the World shall be judged Joh. 3. 19. That light is come into the World and men loved darknesse more than light and Christs Word shall judge him in the last day whosoever hath rejected Christ Joh. 12. 48. as after the Gospell is preached any where the rule of judgement is Mark 16. 16. He that believeth and is Baptized shall be saved hee that believeth not shall be damned But S. Paul more fully 2 Thess 1. 8. When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven to recompence rest to them that have beene troubled for his Truth and in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the Gospell of our Lord Jesus Christ The severity of the last judgement in flaming fire rendring vengeance The particularity of the Persons wee must all appeare before the judgement Seat of Christ 2 Cor. 5. 10. The specialty of causes which God shall judge the very secrets of men by Jesus Christ Rom. 2. 16. When as many as have sinn'd without Law shall also perish without Law vers 12. having had a Law written in their hearts which is as much as that vengeance shall be rendred to them that know not God as Tertullian saith Illius etiam est ignorantes Deum plectere quem non liceat ignorare when those that have sinned in the Law shall be judged by the Law and they that have not obeyed the Gospell shall be judged by the Gospell by the like proportion This specialty of causes argueth I say to mee that Originall sinne which is one just cause of death shall justly be alleged against them that have had no other cause of condemnation in them but this as against all Infants that have dyed and have not this sinne purg'd by the lavacre of Regeneration either in act or vow of the Church but to allege it against them that have lived to yeares capable to know God and to obey the Gospell and perhaps have by Baptisme that sinnes forgivenesse sealed unto them as it seemed strange to Doctor Whitakers that any man should be Reprobated for that sinne which is forgiven him so it seemeth strange to mee that those sinnes should be alleged against a man for which hee is condemned and yet for which he was not Reprobated since the sentence of Reprobation is the heaviest and most wofull sentence that can be as that which drawes after it the sentence of Condemnation as the fourth Assertion at Lambeth saith I conceive the same sins for which the wicked are condemned at the last were the sinnes for which they were written Reprobates before all dayes Jude vers 4. altogether first and last great and small but especially their finall impenitency and obstinacy in sinne else what needed this exactnesse of differencing the specialties of causes Or how doth it more burden the guilty to heare of their several crimes when they all were rejected in the common case of mankinde fallen and from thenceforth unable to arise and amend having neither Saviour to die for them nor Spirit to call them nor helpe to heale them all which Reprobation hath excluded and debarred them from or these from them God will overcome in judgement but not by pleading his prerogative or his Soveraigne power or by putting men to silence with his greatnesse else Abraham was too bold to expostulate with God shall not the Judge of the whole earth doe right but by Justice and equity else hee would not offer himselfe to be tryed Isay 5. 3. Iudge I pray you betwixt mee and my Vineyard what could I have done more to my Vineyard that I have not done in it God will convince the ungodly and put them to silence and shame by their unthankfulnesse and stubbornnesse against his abundant goodnesse patience and long-suffering shewed unto them Let mee take my leave of the ingenous Reader by leaving with him my doubt and my resolution thereof expressed in the words of the grave Cardinall Sadolet no carnall man nor enemy to Truth as his times had light In his Commentaries upon the Epistle to the Romans pag. 1178. hee brings in this Objection At enim ex contaminatio genere oriundi c. But even wee being borne of a corrupted originall are now by nature it selfe made to destruction that those whom God passeth by and doth not call unto himselfe might have no just cause of complaint To this hee answereth thus At ego video c. But I conceive in the judgement of the World to come Christ Jesus will not so passe the sentence who shall then sit in judgement for his Father upon them whom he hath condemn'd as thus to pronounce Seeing you proceeded out of the corrupted loines of Adam and have contracted the fault and guilt of your Parents for this cause doe I sentence you to eternall torments