We are called with a holy calling according to his owne purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Iesus before the world beganne This purpose of God since it goes before this holy calling and forelayeth the foundation to it considers man as the subject of a sure election according to this purpose not as he standeth in the end of this life but as he was before the beginning of this life yea before the world beganne appointed by Gods purpose to a most complete Election Neither truly can there be settled any definite election to eternall grace to faith to adoption Eph. 1.5.8 if these things be considered as hanging in uncertainty neither shall the future perseverance of the Elect be fore-ordained by God but onely foreseene in the man to be elected and so this act of God shall bee only an approbation following such as may be performed by man that knowes not what is to come hereafter not a foregoing and operative Election such as all elections in reason and by force of the name of Election must needs be 4 Last of all Iohn 10.16 The Gentiles not yet called much lesse settled in finall perseverance are by our Saviour stiled his sheepe being indeed then separated by the foregoing mark of entire and complete election He that makes men sheepe doth make free mens wils unto obedience but why doth hee with whom there is no acception of persons make those men sheepe and makes not others O man who art thou that replyest against God Yee say that Iacob was elected for his future workes which God knew he would doe and so you contradict the Apostle saying Not of workes as if he could not have said Not of present workes but or workes of come They are elected before the foundation of the world by that predestination in which God foreknew what he would doe they are elected out of the world by that calling by which he fulfilled that which he did predestinate THE SIXT ERRONEOVS OPINION THat in this life no man can receive any fruit or perceive any sense of his owne election otherwise then conditionall FIliall adoption is the proper naturall and unseparable fruit of Election and is to be perceived by the Elect in this life the spirit of adoption revealing it to their hearts Gal. 4.6 Because ye are sonnes God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Sonne into your hearts crying Abba Father If a son then an heire of God Rom. 8.15 16 Ye have received the spirit of adoption wherby we cry Abba Father The Spirit it selfe beareth witnes with our spirit that we are the children of God Eph. 1.14 Ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise which is the earnest of our inheritance Hee saith the earnest of our inheritance which is an infallible signe that we shall never be dis-inherited but shall at length obtaine our inheritance Rom. 5.2 We glory in the hope of the glory of God And v. 5. This hope maketh us not ashamed Neither is there any falshood in this solid peace of conscience in the glorying of the godly or in this infused hope because these gifts are both sent by God to the elect and to this end are they fastened in their mindes that they may be certaine arguments of their unchangeable election We confesse our election is not to be perceived by us à priori by the causes but the proper effects of it may be knowne And from the proper effect upward to the cause the argument is good We likewise grant that the assurance of election in the children of God themselves is not alwayes so constant and continuall but that oftentimes it is shaken with temptations and for a time suppressed so that not onely the degree of assurance is lessened but even election it selfe in respect of the sense and apprehension of the Elect seemes uncertaine and ready to vanish Lastly we confesse that the Elect justified when they fall into grievous sinnes and cleave unto them are not onely deprived of the present taste of their election but also conceive a great feare of the contrary namely of Gods wrath and revenging justice and that deservedly seeing the holy Ghost vouchsafes not to communicate this heavenly and sweet Manna of comfort to a defiled conscience yet wallowing in its owne filthinesse but onely to a cleane heart and such an one as exerciseth it selfe in the practise of faith repentance and holinesse But we thinke that the mindes of the faithfull being wakened and rising out of their pollutions are renewed by God and comforted againe with a sweet sense of eternall life prepared for them before the foundation of the world and in due time undoubtedly to be conferred upon them A faithfull man hath received by faith that which is uncertaine to others and layeth hold on the promise That it might be certaine that wee are the sonnes of God he hath sent his Sonne into our hearts crying Abba Father Who is iust but bee that returnes love to God that loved him which comes not to passe but by the spirit revealing to a man by faith the eternall purpose of God concerning his salvation Which revelation is nothing else but an infusion of spirituall grace by which while the workes of the flesh are mortified man is prepared to that kingdome which flesh and blood doth not possesse receiving together in one spirit both whence bee may presume he is beloved and whence he may returne love lest he should be loved in vaine or without returning love againe THE SEVENTH ERRONEOVS OPINION THere is no election of Infants dying before they have the vse of reason IF one absurdity or unsound doctrine bee granted more of the like will follow This here followes upon that that they require in all divine Election faith fore-seene upon which it may bee grounded which indeed cannot be fore-seene in such infants But we on the contrary evidently prove that these tenets are against all Divinity 1 They who have an entrance in time vnto life eternall without all doubt were elected to life eternall before all time Otherwise the number of them that are glorified should exceed the number of them that are predestinated which is impossible For that proposition must be understood reciprocally with equall extension of both termes Whom hee hath predestinated those hee hath glorified namely these and no other as Saint Austin inferreth But the Scripture supposes the names of some Infants to bee written in the booke of life and that they must appeare before the judgement seat of God Rev. 20.12 and be admitted into the new Ierusalem Rev. 21.27 of such is the Kingdome of heaven Luke 8.16 2 Whosoeuer are admitted onely into the Kingdome of Heaven were before out of Gods free good pleasure chosen vnto the Kingdome of Heaven But to as many infants as enter into Heaven eternall life is a gracious gift through Iesus Christ Rom. 6.23 therefore they were chosen to that Kingdome in Christ. But if this
bearing witnesse to our spirit that we are the sonnes of God And this very testimony of the Spirit although the seed thereof be never utterly extinguished yet in regard of the fruit and sense thereof sometimes it either withdrawes it selfe so that our owne infirmity may be evident to us or else for a time it is as it were raked up under the ashes by our rebellion and ingratitude 2 Therefore that other weaknesse doth arise from temptations by which this perswasion is assaulted And those are partly afflictions which seeme to menace us with the evill of punishment and partly our owne perverse concupiscences which doe brand our soules with the evill of sinne and guilt thereof and partly the snares and assaults of the Devill by which he doth set upon us in both those kindes But the maine skirmish consists in the mutuall wrastling and strugling of the flesh and spirit Whilest this wrastling lasts our faith is weake but if so be the spirit overcomes the flesh then our spirit cheeres up and triumpheth in this manner Who shall separate us from the love of Christ But if which often falls out the spirit thus wearied and weakned receive the foile for a time being either overborne with the load of afflictions or tainted with the spots of hainous sinnes then there remaines no such actuall perswasion a stop is made of al spiritual comfort and the light of Gods countenance is hidden from us Hence those mournfull complaints of holy men Iob 6.4 The arrowes of the Almighty are within me the poyson whereof drinkes up my spirit the terrors of God set themselves in aray against me Lament 3.42 We have transgressed and rebelled Thou hast not pardoned thou hast covered thy selfe with a cloud that our prayers should not passe through But if the waves of temptation arise yet higher and the fiery darts of the devill doe wound the conscience already pressed downe with its owne burden then not onely this sweet perswasion is banished but also a perswasion utterly contrary commeth in stead thereof by force whereof holy men thus affrighted doe apprehend God as an angry Iudge and seeme to themselves to be now falling headlong into the open gates of Hell This case is set downe in those almost despairing speeches of Iob Let the day perish wherein I was borne And that of David I said in my haste I am cut off from before thine eies THE FOVRTH POSITION WHen a faithfull man after much struggling hath got the upper hand of these temptations that act by which he doth apprehend the fatherly mercy of God toward him and eternall life to bee conferred without faile upon him is not an act of floating opinion or of conjecturall hope such as may be built on a false ground but it is an act of a true and lively faith stirred up and sealed in his heart by the spirit of adoption AS it fares in nature so in grace after the cloud is removed the day is the clearer and certaine diseases after they are overcome prove occasions of future health A faithfull man escaping out of the waves of great tentations doth not only receive the confidence which was almost extinguished but gaines a greater measure thereof For hee is made stronger by the conflict and more cheerefull by the conquest Nay if in this wrastling some of his bones bee broken after they be set againe they will knit the stronger Psal. 51.10 The bones which thou hast broken shall rejoyce 1 Because the life and state of a regenerate man is spirituall he may be said while he is transported by the force of sin or tentation to be with-held from his naturall place The spirit therefore doth easily returne backe again to his own bent and againe acknowledgeth his former confidence in the fatherly mercy of God This is manifest out of the examples of the Saints who have expressed their owne vehement conflicts still ending in the lively voyce of faith So Ionas being in the belly of the Whale said I am cast out of thy sight yet I will looke againe toward thy holy Temple And Saint Paul O wretched man that I am who shall deliver mee from the body of this death I thanke God through Iesus Christ our Lord. In them both their conquest following their conflict breaks forth into a vigorous act of faith 2 Because the panting soule thirsting for Gods fatherly reconciliation doth run more greedily to the fountaine of living waters and relisheth more sweetly that whereof it perceived it selfe for a time debarred namely the fruition of God appeased Thence it acknowledgeth in it selfe the seed of faith by the force whereof it ariseth againe to repaire the very breaches made upon faith whose root indeed spreadeth the further by this loosening and sends forth new tendrells from which sprout our new shoots of greater certainty By this conflict and affliction the faithfull Christian learnes patience by which he mortifieth himselfe by patience probation by which he searcheth himselfe from probation hee mounts up to an hope of overcomming likewise future tentations Who delivered us from so great a death and will deliver us in whom wee trust that he will yet deliver us and of persevering and consequently attaining eternall life 1 Cor. 1.18 Who shall confirme you unto the end that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Iesus Christ. And this same hope maketh not ashamed as it followes in the same Apostle It is not therefore a fleeting opinion or uncertaine conjecture but an hope which as it springs from faith so it hath the same certaintie with faith and therefore is solide and undeceivable Wee have in David an example of this renewed and confirmed confidence after that his spot of that great sinne was washed away Psal. 51. After that the assault of that dangerous temptation was abated Psal. 73. In both these cases there are to be seene cleerely shineing forth the spirit of prayer spirituall joy and the seale of adoption Take not thy holy spirit from me Thou hast holden mee by the right hand Thence proceeds that confident conclusion It is good for mee to draw neere unto God and to trust in the Lord. Erroneous Opinions rejected by us THE FIRST THat the perseverance of those who are truly faithfull is not an effect of Election but a benefit offered equally to all upon this condition namely if they shall not be wanting unto sufficient grace WE have confuted the first part hereof at the first Article in our third Position and in the third Erroneous Opinion and also in this fifth Article in the eighth Position Of the certainty of perseverance in it selfe The second part of this Opinion containes many incongruities 1 It is not true that perseverance is a gift onely offered and not given also For the Scriptures witnesse that God doth not onely offer unto his the grace of perseverance but also that he gives it them and puts it into their hearts Ier. 32.40 I
the Preacher speakes Marke 6.20 Herod heard Iohn gladly Acts 13 46. The Iewes refuse to heare the Gospell Psal. 58.4 The wicked stop their eares like the deafe Adder THE SECOND POSITION THere are certaine inward effects going before conversion or regeneration which by the power of the word and Spirit are stirred up in the hearts of men not yet justified As are a knowledge of Gods will a sense of sinne a feare of punishment a bethinking of freedome and some hope of pardon THE grace of God is not wont to bring men to the state of justification in which we have peace with God through our Lord Iesus Christ by a sudden Enthusiasme or rapture but by divers degrees of foregoing actions taming and preparing them through the Ministery of the word 1 This we may see in those who upon hearing S. Peters Sermon feele the burden of their sinne are stricken with feare and sorrow desire deliverance and conceive some hope of pardon All which may bee collected of those words Acts 2.37 When they heard this they were pricked in their hearts and said to Peter and the rest of the Apostles Men and brethren what shall we doe 2 This the very nature of the thing requires for as in the naturall generation of man there are many previous dispositions which go before the bringing in of the form so also in the spirituall generation by many actions of grace which must goe before doe we come to the spirituall nativity 3 To conclude this appeares by the instruments which God uses for the regenerating of men For he imployeth the Ministery of men and the instrument of the word 1 Cor. 4.15 I have begotten you through the Gospell But if God would regenerate or justifie a wicked man immediately being prepared by no knowledge no sorrow no desire no hope of pardon there would be no need of the ministery of men nor of the preaching of the word for this purpose neither would any care lye upon the Ministers dividing the word of God aright fitly and wisely first to wound the consciences of their auditors with the terrors of the Law then to raise them up with the promises of the Gospell and to exhort them to beg faith and repentance at Gods hand by prayers and teares THE THIRD POSITION WHom God doth thus prepare by his Spirit through the meanes of the word those doth hee truly and seriously call and invite to faith and conversion BY the nature of the benefit offered and by the evident word of God we must judge of those helpes of grace which are bestowed upon men and not by the abuse or the event Therefore when the Gospell of its owne nature calls men to repentance and salvation when the incitements of divine grace tend the same way we must not suppose any thing is done fainedly by God This is proved by those earnest and patheticall intreaties 2 Cor. 5.20 We pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled vnto God Those exhortations 2 Cor. 6.1 Wee beseech you that you receive not the grace of God in vaine those expostulations Gal. 1.6 I marvell that you are so soone removed from him that called you to the grace of Christ those promises Apoc. 3.20 Behold I stand at the doore and knocke if any man heare my voice and open the doore I will come in to him But if God should not seriously invite all whom he vouchsafes this gift of his word and Spirit to a serious conversion surely both God should deceive many whom he calls in his Sonnes name and the messengers of the Euangelicall promises might bee accused of false witnesse and those who being called to conversion doe neglect to obey might bee more excusable For that calling by the word and the Spirit cannot be thought to leave men unexcusable which is onely exhibited to this end to make them unexcusable THE FOVRTH POSITION THose whom God hath thus disposed he doth not forsake nor cease to further them in the true way to conversion before he be forsaken of them by a voluntary neglect or repulse of this initiall or entring grace THe talent of grace once given by God is taken from none but from him who first buries it by his owne fault Mat. 25.28 Hence is it that in the Scriptures every where wee are admonished that we resist not the Spirit that we quench not the Spirit that we receive not the grace of God in vaine that wee depart not from God Yea that is most evidently noted to bee the reason of Gods forsaking man because God is first forsaken by man Prov. 1.24 Because I have called and you refused I will laugh at your calamity 2 Chron. 24.20 Because yee have forsaken the Lord he hath also forsaken you But never in the Scriptures is there the least mention that God is wont or is willing at any time without some fault of man going before to take away from any man the aid of his exciting grace or any help which he hath once conferred towards mans conversion Thus the Orthodoxe Fathers who had to doe with the Pelagians ever taught It is the will of God that wee continue in a good will who before he be forsaken forsakes no man and oftentimes converts many that forsake him THE FIFTH POSITION THese foregoing effects wroght in the mindes of men by the power of the word and the Spirit may be stifled and utterly extinguished by the fault of our rebellious will and in many are so that some in whose hearts by the vertue of the word and the Spirit some knowledge of divine truth some sorrow for sin some desire and care of deliverance have beene imprinted are changed quite contrary reject and hate the truth deliver themselves up to their lusts are hardned in their sins and without all desire or care of freedome from them rot and putrifie in them MAtth. 13.19 The wicked one commeth and catcheth away that which was sowne in his heart 2 Pet. 2.21 It had beene better for them not to have knowne the way of righteousnesse then after they have knowne it to turne from the holy commandement delivered unto them But it is happened to them according to the true Proverb The dog is turned to his owne vomit Heb. 6.4 It is impossible for those who were once enlightned and have tasted of the heavenly gifts and were made partakers of the holy Ghost and have tasted of the good word of God and the powers of the world to come if they shall fall away to returne them againe to repentance Many doe quickly entertaine the light of the minde but the understanding it selfe hath not the same force or power in all and many when they seem enriched with faith and understanding yet they want charity and cannot hold fast to those things which they see by faith and understanding because there is no persevering in that which is not loved with the whole heart THE SIXT POSITION THe very elect in those acts going before
colourable but proceeded out of the power of those dispositions unto grace and from the inspiration of the holy Ghost which they felt in themselves for a time as is evident by their affections their joy sorrow and zeale which they doe not so much faine and make a shew of as find to be truely in themselves Of such Saint Augustine thus speaketh They were not sonnes then when they were in the profession and had the name of sonnes not because they fained their righteousnesse but because they remained not in that righteousnesse THE THIRD POSITION VPon those good beginnings testified by the externall works of obedience they are reputed and by a charitable construction ought to be taken for beleevers justified and sanctified men THey who to these inward gifts of the holy Ghost have added the outward profession of a Christian faith together with the amendment of their lives ought of right to be reckoned by us who cannot finde out or search into the inward secrets of mens hearts in the number of the faithfull of the justified and sanctified This is plainly proved out of the Apostle Saint Paul who in his Epistles which hee wrote to particular Churches at Rome Corinth Ephesus c. entitles them all promiscuously beloved of God Saints sanctified Rom. 1.7 1 Cor. 1.2 Ephes. 1.1 Phil. 1.1 In like manner the Apostle Peter in the beginning of his first Epistle speaketh unto the dispersed strangers in this forme of speach To the Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through the sanctification of the spirit Adde we to these the note of Saint Augustine speaking of those who were not elect These because they live godly are called the sons of God And afterwards againe There are some who are called of us the sons of God because of the grace received by them for a time but yet they are not the sons of God THE FOVRTH POSITION THey who are not elect although they thus far proceed yet they never attaine unto the state of adoption and justification and therefore by the Apostasie of these men the Apostasie of the Saints is very erroneously concluded ALthough they who are not elect being brought up cherished in the Churches bosome are in their minds will and affections disposed by the aforesaid preparatives tending in some sort to justification yet are they not thereupon placed in the state of justification or adoption For they still retain throughly setled in their hearts the strings and roots of their leud desires to which they give themselves over still they remaine wedded to the love of earthly things and the hardnesse lurking in the secret corners of their hearts is not taken away so that either persecution or tentation arising they retire from grace and being either intangled with the love of pleasures and enticements of the flesh or caried away with some other vicious affections at length they shew that they are lovers of themselves and lovers of pleasures rather then lovers of God and that they enjoy nothing lesse then God howsoever they may flatter themselves but indeed that they would make use of God that they may enjoy the world as S. Augustine speakes Whence it is manifest that they never really and truly attaine that change and renovation of the minde and affections which accompanieth justification nay nor that which doth immediately prepare and dispose unto justification For they never seriously repent they are never affected with hearty sorrow for this cause they have offended God by sinning nor doe they come to any humble contrition of heart nor conceive a firme resolution not to offend any more unto them is not given repentance unto life which is mentioned Acts 10.18 nor that godly sorrow which worketh repentance to salvation never to be repented of 2 Cor. 7.10 they are not poore in spirit for theirs is the kingdome of God Mat. 5.13 To this purpose is that of Saint Augustine who speaking of the reprobate saith God bringeth none of them to that wholesome and spirituall repentance by which a man is reconciled to God in Christ. Adde also that such doe never feele in themselves an earnest desire of reconciliation They doe not hunger and thirst after righteousnesse For such shall be filled Matth. 5.6 And to them shall be given of the fountaine of living water which shall be in them a well of water springing up to eternall life Iohn 4.14 Also they doe neither denie themselves nor seriously bid defiance to their owne lusts nor doe they once feele in their hearts any such accounting of all things but losse that they may winne Christ as the Apostle did Phil. 3.8 And to conclude they never attaine to that unfained lively faith which justifieth a sinner and worketh through love 2 Tim. 1.5 For this faith is the peculiar of the Elect and is not afforded to the not elected Furthermore that onely the Elect are justified it is plaine by that golden chaine of the Apostle Rom. 8.30 Whom he did predestinate them he also called and whom he called them he also justified Those onely and no other as out of S. Augustine we have shewne at the first Article Againe the same Saint Augustine God doth not forgive the sinnes of all men but of those whom he foreknew and predestinated It is plaine also out of the Scriptures that they who are not elect never come unto the estate of adoption For first the estate of adoption is grounded upon predestination Who hath predestinated us unto the adoption of Children by Christ Iesus Secondly the state of adoption as also the right and priviledge of sons is not obtained but by a lively faith For as many as received him to thē he gave power that is aright priviledge that they should be the Sons of God to wit to such as beleeve in his name Also ye are all the sonnes of God by faith in Christ Iesus But this faith is proper to the Elect as was before declared 3 All that are adopted for sonnes are regenerated and that by the incorruptible seed by the word of the living God Whosoever is borne of God doth not commit sinne because his seed remaineth in him 4 Those adopted sons are also heires heires of God and coheires with Christ and doe receive the earnest of their inheritance But they who are not elect are never regenerated by this incorruptible seed neither have they the seed of God remaining in them neither are they assigned to be heires with Christ. Hence is that of Saint Augustine They were not in the number of sonnes no not when they were in the faith of sonnes Againe As they were not the true Disciples of Christ so neither were they the true Sonnes of God yea even when they seemed to be and were so called And Saint Ambrose What can God the Father make void those gifts he hath bestowed and banish those from the grace of his fatherly affection whom he
If any man therefore walke in a way contrarie to Gods ordinance namely that broad way of uncleannesse and impenitencie which leads directly downe to hell he can never come by this meanes to the kingdome of heaven Yea and if death shall overtake him wandring in this by-path hee cannot but fall into everlasting death This is the constant and manifest voice of the holy Scripture Except ye repent yee shall all likewise perish Be not deceived neither fornicators nor idolaters c. shall inherit the kingdome of heaven They are deceived therefore that thinke the elect wallowing in such crimes and so dying must notwithstanding needs be saved throgh the force of election For the salvation of the Elect is sure indeed God so decreeing but withall by the decree of the same our God not otherwise sure then through the way of faith repentance and holinesse Without holinesse no man shall see God Heb. 12.14 The foundation of God standeth sure Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity 2 Tim. 2.19 As therefore it was sure out of the decree and promise of God that all those who sailed in the ship with Saint Paul should escape alive out of shipwracke and notwithstanding Pauls saying was also as certaine Vnlesse these remaine in the ship ye cannot be saved So also it was certaine that the elect servants of God David and Peter should come to the kingdome of heaven yet withall it was no lesse certaine that if they had remained unrepentant the one in his homicide and adultery the other in his denying and forswearing Christ neither of them both could have beene saved For that Theologicall rule is most true Any one defect maketh a thing bad but to make truly good no parcell requirable must bee wanting Therefore for that incomparable good of life eternall wee are not fitted out of that onely that wee are elected unlesse there concurre other things which are by Gods decree necessarily required to the accomplishing of Election If any of these things be wanting nay if the contrary hereto bee in the elected there seemes then to arise a strange impossibility thwarting on both sides As for example It is unpossible that Paul being chosen should perish T is also unpossible that Paul being a blasphemer against Christ and an unbeleever if he dye in this state should not perish Or thus It is unpossible that David being chosen should perish T is also unpossible that David being a man-slayer and an Adulterer dying impenitent should not perish But Gods providence and mercy doth easily loose this knot by taking care that none of the elect dye in such estate by which according to some ordinance of Gods will he must be excluded from eternall life THE FIFTH POSITION IN the meane time betweene the guilt of a grievous sinne and the renewed act of faith and repentance such an offender stands by his owne desert to bee condemned by Christs merit and Gods decree to be acquitted but actually absolved he is net until he hath obtained pardon by renued faith repentance THere can bee no question of the merit of damnation for such a sinne They which doe such things shall not inherit the Kingdome of God Gal. 5.21 Notwithstanding in such a guilt the faithfull are not in the like case with the wicked To the faithfull the blood of Christ is a prepared antidote at hand ready to be applyed which as soone as their faith is awaked and rouzed up they can use to the overcomming of this deadly poyson But to the unfaithfull this inward active cause is wanting to wit faith without which the remedy though soveraigne in it selfe is as if it were layed afarre off out of reach neither can it be made their owne or actually applyed to them Ad moreover hereunto Gods speciall love which though it doth not hinder but that his fatherly indignation ariseth against an undutifull sonne yet it keepes of hostile hatred such as carieth with it a purpose of condemning 1 Corinth 11.32 When we are judged wee are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world Notwithstanding in this case the Father of mercies who will not condemne with the world his children though bound with the guilt of sinne yet on the other side he will not have them lye still sleeping in their sinnes together with the world And therefore hath he set downe this order that the act of repentance must goe before the benefit of forgivenesse Psal. 32.5 I acknowledge my sinne unto thee and mine iniquitie have I not hid I said I would confesse my transgression unto the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sinne Ezek. 18.27 When the wicked man turneth away from the wickednesse that hee hath committed he shall save his soule alive If any man therefore would know the very moment in which after the guilt procured by a grievous sin he becommeth actually absolved Saint Cyprian seemes manifestly to have shewne it in these words When I see thee sighing in the sight of God I doe not doubt but the holy Ghost breatheth with thy sighes When I behold thee weeping I perceive God forgiving THE SIXT POSITION IN the foresaid space the right to the Kingdome of God is not taken away universall justification is not defeated the state of adoption remaineth undissolved and by the custody of the holy Spirit the seed of regeneration with all those fundamentall graces without which the state of a regenerate man cannot stand is preserved whole and sound OVr right to the Kingdome of Heaven is not founded on our actions but on the free gift of adoption and on our union with Christ. And consequently the right to the Kingdome of Heaven is not taken away unlesse that be first taken away upon which it is founded If Children then heires heires of God and coheires with Christ. Therefore adoption remaining and the engrafture into Christ the faithfull may wander out of the way which leadeth to the Kingdome of heaven but hee cannot be said to lose his right of inheritance to that Kingdome For as he which fell into a leprosie was debarred from his own house untill hee was clensed and yet in the meane space lost not his right to his owne house So the adopted sonne of God taken with the Leprosie of adultery or murder or any other grievous sinne cannot indeed enter into the Kingdome of Heaven unlesse he first be purged from this contagion by renewed faith and repentance yet all this while his hereditary right is not quite lost Furthermore that universall and most properly called justification which the Apostle so lively sets forth Rom. 3.24 25. is not frustrated by the enterposed guilt of a particular sinne though heynous and grievously wounding the conscience For against this justification is directly opposed not every guilt of every sinne but the universall unremitted guilt of all sinnes nor the guilt of every person whatsoever but the guilt of
unbeleevers not yet washed in the blood of Christ nor the guilt of any whatsoever degree but such a guilt as for which the hostile anger and vengeance of God lieth heavily upon the guiltie person Whosoever is justified by a true faith can never afterward bee guiltie after this manner We may therefore say that the effect of justification is for a time suspended by the entercourse of such a particular sin because the person by reason of this new guilt needeth a particular absolution But wee cannot say that the state of justification is dissolved forasmuch as the same person doth not fall from the generall pardon of his forecommitted sins nor is deprived of that speciall intercession which our Saviour hath promised to all the faithfull nor of the free love of God his Father The same case holds in adoption For God never adopted to himselfe a Sonne in Christ whom afterwards he either must or would dis-inherit and cast out of his familie The children of God may indeed sinne and that very grievously but the providence and mercie of God will not suffer them so farre to sin as that they should thereby be bereft of their heavenly home and Father The servant abideth not in the house for ever but the sonne abideth for ever For as Saint Ambrose speakes God doth not make void the gift of adoption To conclude the seed of regeneration with those fundamentall gifts without which the spirituall life cannot subsist are preserved in safetie This is hence evident because that the same holy Spirit who doth infuse this seed into the hearts of the regenerate doth imprint into the same seed a certaine heavenly and incorruptible vertue and doth perpetually cherish and keepe the same Iohn 4.14 Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a Well of water springing up unto everlasting life 1 Iohn 3.5 Whosoever is borne of God doth not commit sinne for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sinne because hee is borne of God This seed of life remaining in them it is altogether impossible that the gifts of lively faith charitie should be quite extinguished Hence Gregory rightly sayes In holy mens hearts the Spirit alwayes abides according to some vertues or graces according to others he comes to depart and departs to returne but in the hearts of his Elect he remaineth in those vertues without which eternall life is not attained THE SEVENTH POSITION THat the regenerate doe not altogether fall from faith holinesse and adoption proceeds not from themselves nor from their owne will but from Gods speciall love divine operation and from Christs intercession and custody IT is certaine that if God would deale with us upon strict termes he might most justly for our ungratitude untowardnesse withdraw from us his fatherly favour and gifts of saving grace But for as much as even by the determination of the Schoolemen sinne doth not take away grace efficiently that is by certaine expulsion but by way of demerit that is deservingly surely unlesse it can bee proved that God deales with his according to their deserts it will not follow that upon the committing of a grievous sinne they lose faith or fall away from the state of justification and adoption For that which in regard of our ill desert might justly be done is by the mercie of God and by Christs intercession and the operation of the holie Ghost hindred from being done No creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Iesus our Lord. Not the Devill for God shall bruise him under our feet Not the world for Christ hath overcome the world And he doth so worke in all his that they also at length overcome through faith Lastly not those things from whence is our greatest danger our own weaknesse the inclination and pronenesse of our owne free will to wickednesse for the goodnesse of God is alwaies shewed in this weaknesse of the faithfull and through the intercession of Christ for them is obtained that they shall not fall off from their faith Luke 22.32 I have prayed for thee that thy faith faile not Iohn 17.20 Neither pray I for these alone but for them also which shall beleeve on me through their word We doe not therefore fetch this perseverance of the faithfull in their faith and Gods grace from their owne free will but from Christ that frees them The Lord shall deliver me from every evill worke and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdome 2 Tim. 4.18 To this purpose are those words of Saint Augustine We live safer if wee trust all to God and doe not commit our selves partly to God and partly to our selves As God workes that we come to him so he works also that we depart not from him THE EIGHTH POSITION THe perseverance therefore of holy men is the free gift of God and is derived unto us out of the decree of election THis conclusion ariseth out of those things which are said before but that it may more manifestly appeare we will adde somewhat more First that it is the free gift of God is proved out of the words of the Apostle 1 Cor. 4.7 What hast thou that thou didst not receive Now if thou didst receive why dost thou glorie as if thou hadst not received If any thing can give a just cause to men of glorying surely this that they have persevered in good unto the end then when they could at their owne pleasure not have made use of those meanes which in themselves were sufficient for perseverance Either therefore this doth betide the faithfull by way of speciall gift or they have something which they have not received in which they may greatly glorie But wee affirme on the contrarie whether by perseverance be understood either that power which doth propp and hold up the faithfull or the stabilitie it selfe and the unconquered firmenesse of their faith or lastly the very act of persevering that there is none of these which is not the gift of God Touching that power by which the will is stayed up that it may persevere the Remonstrants easily grant that it is the onely grace of GOD which doth arme a man with this strength to persevere Touching the stability and firmenesse which is considered as the manner or adjunct of true faith this also is to bee numbred among the gifts of God For he which doth give the thing it selfe to wit faith doth also give the manner of the thing to wit the stability and firmenesse of the same faith 2 Thes. 3.3 The Lord is faithfull who shall establish you 1 Cor. 1.7.8 Yee come behinde in no gift waiting for the comming of our Lord Iesus Christ who shall confirme you unto the end that ye may be blamelesse Out of which words it is manifest that faith is the gift of God as well in the