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
is wee estimate Good and Bad men not from their manners nor for their conversation but by the faction they take and those things which this day did please in such a man to morrow if hee turne on the other side wil be disliked and he that was praysed yesterday shall be faulted to day CHAP. XIV The Sum of the Doctrine of Grace and Free-will IN the yeare of the Lord 1543. 35. H. 8. some three yeares before his death there was published a Booke by the King made by the Clergy seene and very well liked by the whole Parliament intituled A necessary Doctrine and erudition for any Christian man c. In which Booke there is a Declaration of the Article of Freewill with the understanding whereof and some other points the heads and senses of the People in those dayes were wuch imbusied and travelled saith the Preface This Declaration I have transcribed wholly not to presse the Reader with the authority of this Booke for there are therein some few things of the error of former Times although the Authors rejoyce in God and that worthily for the light and knowledge then manifested in comparison of the darknesse and ignorance of the former Times But first to make use of the cautelous Expression and Declaration of this Article composed by the best and soundest judgements of that Time and secondly what was the last and immediate Doctrine in this point that went before our Articles and Homilies in the beginning of Edw. 6. and finding that Doctor Cranmer and some others were of the Clergy in both Kings Reignes and likely to have had their heads and hands in both these workes it may well be presumed the difference not to be much in any matter of moment Let it not bee troublesome then for you to reade that which was not tedious for me to write The Article of Freewill The Commandements and threatnings of Almighty God in Scripture whereby Man is called upon and put in remembrance what God would have him to doe most evidently doe expresse and declare that Man hath Free-will also now after the fall of our first Father Adam as plainly appeareth in these places following Bee not overcome of evill Rom. 12. Neglect not the Grace that is in thee 1 Tim. 4. Love not the World 1 Joh. 2. If thou wilt enter into life keepe the Commandements Mat. 19. which undoubtedly should bee said in vaine unlesse there were some faculty or power left in Man whereby he may by the helpe and Grace of God if hee will receive it when it is offered unto him understand his Commandements and freely consent and obey unto the which thing of the Catholick Fathers is called Freewill which if wee will describe wee may call it conveniently in all Men A certaine power of the Will joyned with Reason whereby a reasonable Creature without constraint in things of reason discerneth and willeth good and evill but it willeth not that good which is acceptable to God except it be holpen with grace but that which is ill it willeth of it selfe And therefore other men defined Freewill in this wise Freewill is a power of Reason and Will by which Good is chosen by the assistance of Grace or Evill is chosen without the assistance of the same Howbeit the state and condition of Free-will was otherwise in our first Parents before they had sinned than it was either in them or their posterity after they had sinned for our first Parents Adam and Eve untill they wounded and overthrew themselves by sinne had so in possession the said power of Freewill by the most liberall Gift and Grace of God their Maker that not onely they might eschew all manner of sinne but also know God and love him and fulfill all things appertaining to their felicity and wealth For they were made righteous and to the Image and Similitude of God having power of Free-will as Chrysostome saith to obey and disobey So that by obedience they might live and by disobedience they should worthily deserve to dye For the wise Man affirmeth that the state of them was of that sort in the beginning saying thus Ecclus 15. v. 14 15. God in the beginning did create Man and left him in the hands of his owne counsell If thou wilt to keepe the Commandements and to performe acceptable faithfulnesse From this most happy estate our first Parents falling by disobedience most grievously hurt themselves and their posterity For besides many other evills that came by that transgression the high power of mans Reason and Freedome of will were wounded and corrupted and all Men thereby brought into such blindnesse and infirmity that they cannot eschew sinne except they be illuminated and made free by an especiall Grace that is to say by a supernaturall helpe and working of the Holy Ghost which although the goodness of God offereth to all Men yet they onely enjoy it which by their Freewill doe accept and embrace the same Nor they also that bee holpen by the said Grace can accomplish and performe things that be for their wealth but with much labour and endeavour So great is in our nature the corruption of the first sinne and the heavy burden bearing us downe to evill For truly albeit the light of reason doth abide yet it is much darkned and with much difficulty doth discerne things that be inferiour and pertaine to this present life but to understand and perceive things that be spirituall and pertaine to the everlasting life it is of it selfe unable And so likewise although there remaine a certaine freedome of will in those things which doe pertaine to the desires and workes of this present life yet to performe spirituall and heavenly things Freewill of it selfe is insufficient and therefore the power of Mans Freewill being thus wounded and decayed hath neede of a Physician to heale it and an helpe to repaire it that it may receive light and strength whereby it may see and have power to doe those Godly and spirituall things which before the fall of Adam it was able and might have done To this blindnesse and infirmity of mans Nature proceeding of originall sinne the Prophet David had regard when he desired his eyes to be lightned of Almighty God that he might consider the marvelous things that be in his Law Psal 119. 18. and also the Prophet Jeremy saying Heale me O Lord and I shall be made whole Jer. 18. Saint Austin also plainly declareth the same saying We conclude that Freewill is in Man after his fall which thing who so denyeth is not a Catholick man but in Spirituall desires and works to please God it is so weak and feeble that it cannot either begin or performe them unlesse by the Grace and helpe of God it be prevented and holpen And hereby it appeares that Mans strength and Will in all things which be healthfull to the soule and shall please God hath need of Grace of the holy Ghost by which such spirituall things be
nothing without the Sonne being the chiefest peece in the Frame Secondly this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signifie the Purpose Decree Determination and Resolution of the Will of God to execute and to put into being the things whereof the plot which is in his minde is the patterne thus S. Paul taketh it 2 Tim. 1. 9. when hee joynes purpose and grace together Who hath saved us and called us with an holy calling not according to our workes but according to his purpose and grace given unto us in Christ Jesus before the World was or of both these together is the purpose of God consisting the Counsell and the Decree of God intending those things the order and course and forme wherof he hath in his Mind and his Power and lastly in his Will So that I may say with Vrsinus on Esai 14. Eventus rerum accuratissimè respondent consilio praevisioni Dei tanquam Archetypo So S. Paul would say all things come to passe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all things doe and fulfill the purpose of God This purpose is about Ends and Meanes to those ends and all circumstances accompanying them both in things of the order of nature and of the order of grace and about those things God will doe himselfe and those things hee will permit the Creature and all secondary Causes to doe And although in the whole frame or plot there be two parts or two wayes one that leadeth some to happinesse and another wherein some goe to their owne destruction and although the purpose of God runs upon them both as being not without his Counsell or his will yet in S. Paul that onely which is the way to happinesse to some as the more worthy and desirable part is called the purpose of God just as in the foreknowledge where although the wicked are not unknowne to God as ignorant of the men and of their workes yet the faithfull onely and the Elect are named and called those whom God foreknew because in them hee is pleased and delighted So it is in purpose that part onely of Divine disposition that bringeth unto happinesse is called Gods purpose because hee delighteth in the good of his Creatures and hath no pleasure in their death and destruction which is of themselves and not of him yet adjudged by him and decreed upon their rebellion And this may suffice for the opening of this Terme The Purpose of God As for the Adjuncts added by our Article to purpose as the everlasting purpose they are so cleer as they neede no further Explication than was made in the Analysis before Onely to the last we may adde a word By his Counsell secret to us Consilio nobis quidem occulto This Clause I would have reserved and kept in minde to prove that Doctrine which I delivered in the 18. Chapter of the third part of this worke That although there be revealed to us some hopefull signes of our Election and Predestination as it is witnessed in the next branch of this paragraph yet the very certainty of our Election or Predestination is a secret hidden in God and in this life unknown to us Come wee now to the outward Act or End purposed by God to his chosen viz. to bring them to everlasting Salvation This is terminus ad quem the end which Predestination intendeth as that which decreeth a perfect worke and leaveth not the issue uncertaine or contingent as unto God To this is added in the Article the terminus à quo from whence men are brought to Salvation from curse and damnation from which they are delivered And there is added the meanes by which they are both delivered from curse and brought to Salvation and that is Christ and lastly there is an Illustration As Vessels made to Honour Out of these words To deliver from curse is rightly collected by Robert late Bishop of Salisbury that the Church of England doth acknowlege them quos Deus in Christo elegit to be maledicto exitio liberatos nam privatum est non publicum Ecclesiae judicium quicquid aliter à quibusdam inconsideratè scriptum est So he in praefatione ad Lectorem In these quibusdam are no meaner men than Doctor Whitakers and Master Perkins who tooke this Article to speak for them Whom yet this learned Bishop saith have written aliter and inconsideratè the Article then hath not beene understood and so it may yet be not fully apprehended by great Praelates for likewise out of this that our Article saith with the Apostle that our Election is in Christ Doctor Carleton late Bishop of Chichester well collecteth that this Counsell of God had respect unto the corrupt masse of Mankinde for saith he the benefit we have by Christ appeareth not in the state of Innocency pag. 10. against the Appealer where the said reverend Bishop disputeth earnestly against them that teach Predestination to be a separation between men and men as they were found in the Masse of Mankinde uncorrupt which is the Doctrine the Appealer so much inveighed against as contrary to our Church in the 17 Article So that to mee it is strange the Bishop should bee so severe against the Appealer whith whom himselfe concurreth in the condemning of the same Novelty But more strange it seemes to mee that out of those words Chosen in Christ hee could collect the fall of Mankinde to be presupposed by God before the Counsell proceeded to Election and could not aswell collect now that Christ himselfe was presupposed to be sent into the World to be preached to be beleeved on or refused before God proceeded to Elect or to Reprobate man Seeing the first is collected more remotely that the Gift of Christ supposeth sinne and a curse from whence men had neede to be delivered by a Saviour But the second is expresly affirmed by the Apostle Hee hath chosen in Christ and so it may immediately be collected that wee were chosen not to Christ as to be sent but in Christ supposed as sent and we found Beleevers in him seeing the foreknowledge of God did aswell understand the issue and successe of Christ preached in the World that hee would be the occasion of the rising of many and of the sorer fall of many others as it understood the issue of the Creation of man of the Commandement given of the Tempter permitted that it would bee to the fall and corruption of all Mankinde It is very true that the Bishop of Salisbury saith Sect. 1. P. 2. That God looking upon the Masse of Mankinde defiled with sinne and guilty of eternall Death and Damnation did there see subesse ibi commoditatem evolvendi explicandi opes illas abyssos sapientiae suae justitiae misericordiae potentiae patientiae summa ut in illum gloria istustrium virtutum praedicatio redundaret but how to shew all this The Scripture saith by sending his Sonne to die for the World for therein are all these riches opened But that