in regard of his owne will is truly innocent God neither doth nor can in iustice appoint any to hell for originall sinne Rem Apol. It is perversly spoken that originall sinne makes any one guiltie of death Armin. We no way doubt to affirme that never any one was damned for originall sinne Corvinus CHAP. VIII Of the state of Adam before the fall or of originall Righteousnesse IN the last Chapter we discovered the Arminian attempt of readvancing the corrupted nature of man into that state of innocency and holinesse wherein it was at first by God created in which designe because they cannot but discerne that the successe is not answerable to their desires and not being able to deny but that for so much good as we want having cast it away or evill of sinne that we are subject unto more then we were at our first creation we must be responsable for to the justice of God they labour to draw down our first parents even from the instant of their forming into the same condition wherein we are ingaged by reason of corrupted nature but truly I feare they will scarse obtaine so prosperous an issue of their endeavour as Mahomet had when he promised the people he would call a mountaine unto him which miracle when they assembled to behold but the mountaine would not stirre for all his calling he replyed if the mountaine will not come to Mahomet Mahomet will goe to the mountaine and away he packed towards it but we shall finde that our Arminians can neither themselves climbe the high mountaine of innocency nor yet call it down into the valley of sinne and corruption wherein they are lodged we have seene already how vaine and frustrate was their former attempt let us now take a view of their aspiring insolence in making the pure creatures of God holy and undefiled with any sinne to be invested with the same wretchednesse and perversenesse of nature with our selves It is not my intention to enter into any curious discourse concerning the state and grace of Adam before his fall but only to give a faithfull assent to what God himselfe affirmed of all the works of his hands they were exceeding good no evill no deformitie or any thing tending thereunto did immediately issue from that fountaine of goodnesse and wisdome and therefore doubtlesse man the most excellent worke of his hands the greatest glory of his Creator was then without spot or blemish endued with all those perfections his nature and state of obedience was capable of and carefull we must be of casting any aspersions of defect on him that we will not with equall boldnesse ascribe to the image of God Nothing doth more manifest the deviation of our nature from its first institution and declare the corruption wherewith we are polluted then that propensitie which is in us to every thing that is evill that inclination of the flesh which lusteth alwayes against the spirit that lust and concupiscence which fomenteth conceiveth hatcheth bringeth forth and nourisheth sinne that perpetuall pronenesse that is in unregenerate nature to every thing that is contrary to the pure and holy Law of God now because neither Scripture nor experience will suffer Christians quite to deny this pravitie of our nature this aversenesse from all good and propensitie to sinne the Arminians extenuate it as much as they are able affirming that it is no great matter no more then Adam was subject unto in the state of innocency but what did God create in Adam a pronenesse unto evill was that a part of his glorious image in whose likenesse he was framed yea saith Corvinus By reason of his creation man had an affection to what was forbidden by the Law but yet this seemes injustice that God should give a man a law to keepe and put upon his nature a repugnancy to that law as one of them affirmed at the Synod of Dort No saith the former Author Man had not been fit to have had a law given unto him had he not been endued with a propension and naturall inclination to that which is forbidden by the law but why is this so necessary in men rather then Angels no doubt there was a law a rule for their obedience given unto them at their first creation which some transgressed when others kept it inviolate had they also a propensitie to sinne concreated with their nature had they a naturall affection put upon them by God to that which was forbidden by the law let them only who will be wise beyond the word of God affixe such injustice on the righteous Iudge of all the earth but so it seemes it must be There was an inclination in man to sin before the fall though not altogether so vehement and inordinate as it is now saith Arminius hitherto we have thought that the originall righteousnesse wherein Adam was created had comprehended the integritie and perfection of the whole man not only that whereby the body was obedient unto the soule and all the affections subservient to the rule of reason for the performance of all naturall actions but also a light uprightnesse and holinesse of grace in the minde and will whereby he was enabled to yeeld obedience unto God for the attaining of that supernatural end whereunto he was created No but originall righteousnesse say our new Doctors was nothing but a bridle to helpe keepe mans inordinate concupiscence within bounds so that the faculties of our souls were never indued with any proper innate holinesse of their owne In the spirituall death of sinne there are no spirituall gifts properly wanting in the will because they were never there say the sixe Collocutors at the Hague The summe is man was created with a nature not only weak and imperfect unable by its native strength and endowments to attaine that supernaturall end for which he was made and which he was commanded to seeke but depraved also with a love and desire of things repugnant to the will of God by reason of an inbred inclination to sinning It doth not properly belong to this place to shew how they extenuate those gifts also with which they cannot deny but that he was indued and also deny those which he had as a power to beleeve in Christ or to assent unto any truth that God should reveale unto him and yet they grant this priviledge to every one of his posterity in that depraved condition of nature whereinto by sinne he cast himselfe and us we have all now a power of beleeving in Christ that is Adam by his fall obtained a supernaturall endowment farre more excellent then any he had before and let them not here pretend the universalitie of the new covenant untill they can prove it and I am certaine it will be long enough but this I say belongs not to this place only let us see how from the word of God we may overthrow the former odious heresie God in the beginning created man
in his owne image Gen. 1. 26. that is upright Eccles 7. 29. indued with a nature composed to obedience and holinesse that habituall grace and originall righteousnesse wherewith he was invested was in a manner due unto him for the obtaining of that supernaturall end whereunto he was created an universall rectitude of all the faculties of his soule advanced by supernaturall graces enabling him to the performance of those duties whereunto they were required is that which we call the innocency of our first parents our nature was then enclined to good only and adorned with all those qualifications that were necessary to make it acceptable unto God and able to doe what was required of us by the law under the condition of everlasting happinesse Nature and grace or originall righteousnesse before the fall ought not to be so distinguished as if the one were a thing prone to evill resisted and quelled by the other for both complyed in a sweet union and harmony to carry us along in the way of obedience to eternall blessednesse no contention betweene the flesh and the spirit but as all other things at theirs so the whole man joyntly aymed at his own chiefest good having all means of attaining it in his power that there was then no inclination to sinne no concupiscence of that which is evill no repugnancy to the Law of God in the pure nature of man is proved because First The Scripture describing the condition of our nature at the first creation thereof intimates no such propensitie to evill but rather an holy perfection quite excluding it we are created in the image of God Gen. 1. 27. in such a perfect uprightnesse as is opposite to all evill inventions Eccles 7. 29. to which image when we are againe in some measure renewed by the grace of Christ Colos 3. 10. We see by the first fruits that it consisted in righteousnesse and holinesse in truth and perfect holinesse Ephes 4. 24. Secondly An inclination to evill and a lusting after that which is forbidden is that inordinate concupiscence wherewith our nature is now infected which is every where in the Scripture condemned as a sinne Saint Paul in the seventh to the Romans affirming expressely that it is a sinne and forbidden by the Law vers 1. producing all manner of evill and hindering all that is good a body of death vers 24 and Saint Iames maketh it even the wombe of all iniquitie Iames 1. 14 15. surely our nature was not at first yoked with such a troublesome inmate where is the uprightnesse and innocency we have hitherto conceived our first parents to have enjoyed before the fall a repugnancy to the law must needs be a thing sinfull an inclination to evill to a thing forbidden is an anomie a deviation and discrepancy from the pure and holy law of God we must speake no more then of the state of innocency but only of a short space wherein no outward actuall sins were committed their proper root if this be true was concreated with our nature is this that obedientiall harmony to all the commandements of God which is necessary for a pure and innocent creature that hath a law prescribed unto him by which of the ten precepts is this inclination to evill required is it by the last thou shalt not covet or by that summe of them all thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart c. is this all the happinesse of Paradise to be turmoyled with a nature swelling with aboundance of vaine desires and with a maine streame carried headlong to all iniquitie if its violent appetite be not powerfully kept in by the bit and bridle of originall righteousnesse So it is we see with children now and so it should have been with them in Paradise if they were subject to this rebellious inclination to sinne Thirdly and principally whence had our primitive nature this affections to those things that were forbidden it this rebellion repugnancy to the law which must needs be an anomie and so a thing sinfull there was as yet no demerit to deserve it as a punishment what fault is it to be created The operation of any thing which hath its original with the being of the thing it self must needs proceed from the same cause as doth the essence or being it self as the fires tending upwards relates to the same original with the fire and therefore this inclination or affection can have no other Author but God by which means he is entitled not only to the first sinne as the efficient cause but to all the sins in the world arising from thence plainly and without any strained consequencies he is made the author of sinne for even those positive properties which can have no other fountaine but the authour of Nature being set on evill are directly sinfull And here the Idoll of free-will may triumph in this victory over the God of heaven heretofore all the blame of sinne lay upon his shoulders but now he begins to complaine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is God and the fate of our creation that hath placed us in this condition of naturally affecting that which is evill backe with all your charges against the ill government of this new Deitie within his imaginary dominion what hurt doth he doe but incline men unto evill and God himselfe did no lesse at the first but let them that will rejoyce in these blasphemies it sufficeth us to know that God created man upright though he hath sought out many inventions so that in this following dissonancy we cleave to the better part S. S. So God created man in his own image in the likenesse of God created he him male and female created he them Gen 1. 27. Put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that made him Colos 3. 10. which after God is created in righteousnesse and true holinesse Ephes 4. 24. Loe this onely have I found that God hath made man upright but he hath sought out many inventions Eccles 7. â—9 By one man sinne entered into the world and death by sinne Rom. 5. 12. Let no man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God for God tempteth no man but every one is tempted when he is drawne away of his own lust Iam. 1. 13. 14. Lib. Arbit There was in man before the fall an inclination to sinning though not so vehement and inordinate as now it is Armin. God put upon man a repugnancy to his law Gesteranus in the Synod Man by reason of his creation had an affection to those things that are forbidden by the Law Corvinus The will of man had never any spirituall endowments Rem Apol. It was not fit that man should have a law given him unlesse he had an naturall inclination to what was forbidden by the Law Corvinus CHAP. IX Of the death of Christ and of the efficacie of his merits THe summe of those Controversies wherewith the Arminians and
Counsels edicts decrees of Emperours wherein that hereticall doctrine of denying this originall corruption is condemned cursed and exploded now amongst those many motives they had to proceed so severely against this heresie one especially inculcated deserves our consideration viz. That it overthrew the necessitie of Christs coming into the world to redeeme mankinde it is sinne onely that makes a Saviour necessary and shall Christians tollerate such an errour as by direct consequence inferres the coming of Iesus Christ into the world to be needlesse my purpose for the present is not to alleadge any testimonies of this kinde but holding my selfe close to my first intention to shew how farre in this Article as well as others the Arminians have Apostated from the pure doctrine of the word of God the consent of Orthodox Divines and the Confession of this Church of England In the ninth Article of our Church which is concerning originall sinne I observe especially foure things First that it is an inherent evill the fault and corruption of the nature of every man Secondly that it is a thing not subject or conformable to the Law of God but hath in it selfe even after Baptisme the nature of sinne Thirdly that by it we are averse from God and inclined to all manner of evill Fourthly that it deserveth Gods wrath and damnation all which are frequently and evidently taught in the word of God and every one denyed by the Arminians as it may appeare by these instances in someof them First That it is an inherent sinne and pollution of nature having a proper guilt of its owne making us responsable to the wrath of God and not a bare imputation of anothers fault to us his posteritie which because it would reflect upon us all with a charge of a native imbecillitie and insufficiency to good is by these self-idolizers quite exploded Infants are simply in that estate in which Adam was before his fall saith Venator Neither is it all considerable whether they be the children of beleevers or of heathens and infidels for infants as infants have all the same innocency say they joyntly in their Apologie nay more plainly it can be no fault wherewith we are born in which last expression these bold innovators with one dash of their pens have quite overthrowne a sacred verity an Apostolike Catholike fundamentall Article of Christian Religion but truly to me there are no stronger Arguments of the sinfull corruption of our nature then to see such nefarious issues of unsanctified hearts let us looke then to the word of God confounding this Babylonish designe First That the nature of man which at first was created pure and holy after the image of God endowed with such a rectitude and righteousnesse as was necessary and due unto it to bring it unto that supernaturall end to which it was ordained is now altogether corrupted and become abominable sinfull and averse from goodnesse and that this corruption or concupiscence is originally inherent in us and derived from our first parents is plentifully delivered in holy writ as that which chiefly compels us to a self-deniall and drives us unto Christ Behold I was shapen in iniquitie and in sinne did my mother conceive me saith David Psal 51. 5. Where for the praise of Gods goodnesse towards him he begins with the confession of his native perversenesse and of the sinne wherein he was wrapped before he was born neither was this peculiar to him alone he had it not from the particular iniquitie of his next progenitors but by an ordinary propagation from the common parent of us all though in some of us Satan by this Pelagian attempt by hiding the disease hath made it almost incurable for even those infants of whose innocency the Arminians boast are uncleane in the verdict of Saint Paul 1 Cor. 7. 14. if not sanctified by an interest in the Promise of the Covenant and no uncleane thing shall enter into the kingdome of heaven The weaknesse of the members of infants is innocent and not their souls they want nothing but that the members of their bodies are not as yet ready instruments of sinne they are not sinfull only by an externall denomination accounted so because of the imputation of Adams actuall transgression unto them for they have all an uncleannesse in them by nature Iob 14. 4. from which they must be cleansed by the washing of water and the word Ephes 5. 20. their whole nature is overspread with such a pollution as is proper only to sinne inherent and doth not accompany sinne imputed as we may see in the example of our Saviour who was pure immaculate holy undefiled and yet the iniquity of us all was imputed unto him hence are those phrases of washing away sinne Acts 22. 16. of cleansing filth 1 Pet. 3. 21. Titus 3. 5. something there is in them as soone as they are borne excluding them from the kingdome of heaven for except they also be borne againe of the spirit they shall not enter into it Ioh. 3. 5. Secondly The opposition that is made between the righteousnesse of Christ and the sinne of Adam Rom. 5. which is the proper seat of this doctrine sheweth that there is in our nature an inbred sinfull corruption for the sinne of Adam holds such relation unto sinners proceeding from him by naturall propagation as the righteousnesse of Christ doth unto them who are borne againe of him by spirituall regeneration but we are truly intrinsecally and inherently sanctified by the spirit and grace of Christ and therefore there is no reason why being so often in this Chapter called sinners because of this originall sinne we should cast it off as if we were concerned only by an externall denomination for the right institution of the comparison and its Analogie quite overthrows the solitary imputation Thirdly All those places of Scripture which assert the pronnesse of our nature to all evill and the utter disabilitie that is in us to doe any good that wretched opposition to the power of godlinesse wherewith from the wombe we are replenished confirmes the same truth but of these places I shall have occasion to speake hereafter Fourthly The flesh in the Scripture phrase is a qualitie if I may so say inherent in us for that with its concupiscence is opposed to the spirit and his holinesse which is certainly inherent in us now the whole man by nature is flesh for that which is borne of the flesh is flesh Ioh. 3. 6. it is an inhabiting thing a thing that dwelleth within us Rom. 7. 17. in briefe this vitiosity sinfulnesse and corruption of our nature is laid open First by all those places which cast an aspersion of guilt or desert of punishment or of pollution on nature it selfe as Ephes 2. 1 2 3. We are dead in trespasses and sinnes being by nature children of wrath as well as others being wholly incompassed by a sinne that doth easily beset us Secondly by them which fixe this
saw before in the examples of Pharaoh and Abraham Now the will of God in the first acceptation is said to be hid or secret not because it is so alwayes for it is in some particulars revealed and made knowne unto us two wayes First by his word as where God affirmeth that the dead shall rise we neither doubt not but that they shall rise and that it is the absolute will of God that they shall doe so Secondly by the effects for when any thing cometh to passe we may cast the event on the will of God as its cause and looke upon it as a revelation of his purpose Iacobs sonnes little imagined that it was the will of God by them to send their brother into Egypt yet afterward Ioseph tels them plainly it was not they but God that sent him thither Gen. 45. but it is said to be secret for two causes First because for the most part it is so there is nothing in divers issues declarative of Gods determination but only the event which while it is future is hidden to them who have faculties to judge of things past and present but not to discerne things for to come Hence Saint Iames bids us not be too peremptory in our determinations if we will doe this or that not knowing how God will close with us for its performance Secondly it is said to be secret in reference to its cause which for the most part is past our finding out his paths are in the deeps and his footsteps are not known It appeareth then that the secret and revealed will of God are divers in sundry respects but chiefly in regard of their acts and their objects First in regard of their acts the secret will of God is his eternall decree and determination concerning any thing to be done in its appointed time his revealed will is an act whereby he declareth himself to love or approve any thing whither ever it be done or no. Secondly they are divers in regard of their objects the object of Gods purpose and decree is that which is good in any kinde with reference to its actuall existence for it must infallibly be performed but the object of his revealed will is that only which is morally good I speake of it inasmuch as it approveth or commandeth agreeing to the Law and the Gospell and that considered only inasmuch as it is good for whither it be ever actually performed or no is accidentall to the object of Gods revealed will Now of these two differences the first is perpetuall in regard of their severall acts but not so the latter they are sometimes coincident in regard of their objects for instance God commandeth us to beleeve here his revealed will is that we should so do withall he intendeth we shall doe so and therefore ingenerateth faith in our hearts that we may beleeve here his secret and revealed will are coincident the former being his precept that we should beleeve the latter his purpose that we shall beleeve in this case I say the object of the one and the other is the same even what we ought to doe and what he will doe And this inasmuch as he hath wrought all our works in us Isaiah 26. 12. they are our own works which he works in us his act in us and by us is ofttimes our dutie towards him he commands us by his revealed will to walke in his Statutes and keep his Laws upon this he also promiseth that he will so effect all things that of some this shall be performed Ezek. 36. 26 27. A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walke in my statutes and you shall keepe my iudgements and doe them so that the selfe same obedience of the people of God is here the object of his will taken in either acceptation and yet the precept of God is not here as some learned men suppose declarative of Gods intention for then it must be so to all to whom it is given which evidently it is not for many are commanded to beleeve on whom God never bestoweth faith it is still to be looked upon as a meere declaration of our dutie its closing with Gods intention being accidentall unto it there is a wide difference betwixt doe such a thing and you shall doe it if Gods command to Iudas to beleeve imported as much as it is my purpose and intention that Iudas shall beleeve it must needs contradict that will of God whereby he determined that Iudas for his infidelitie should goe to his own place his precepts are in all obedience of us to be performed but doe not signifie his will that we shall actually fulfill his commands Abraham was not bound to beleeve that it was Gods intention that Isaac should be sacrificed but that it was his duty there was no obligation on Pharaoh to thinke it was Gods purpose the people should depart at the first summons he had nothing to doe with that but there was one to beleeve that if he would please God he must let them goe Hence divers things of good use in these controversies may be collected First That God may command many things by his word which he never decreed that they should actually be performed because in such things his words are not a revelation of his eternall decree and purpose but only a declaration of some thing where with he is well pleased be it by us performed or no in the forecited case he commanded Pharaoh to let his people goe and plagued him for refusing to obey his command hence we may not collect that God intended the obedience and conversion of Pharaoh by this his precept but was frustrated of his intention for the Scripture is evident and cleere that God purposed by his disobedience to accomplish an end farre different even a manifestation of his glory by his punishment but only that obedience unto his commands is pleasing unto him as 1 Sam. 15. 22. Secondly That the will of God to which our obedience is required is the revealed will of God contained in his word whose compliance with his decree is such that hence we learne three things tending to the execution of it First that it is the condition of the word of God and the dispensation thereof instantly to perswade to faith and obedience Secondly that it is our duty by all means to aspire to the performance of all things by it enjoyned and our fault if we doe not Thirdly that God by these means will accomplish his eternall decree of saving his elect and that he willeth the salvation of others inasmuch as he calleth them unto the performance of the condition thereof now our obedience is so to be regulated by this revealed will of God that we may sin either by omission
Christ for us is of the same extent with that grace whereby he calleth us to faith or bestoweth faith on us for he hath called us with an holy calling according to his owne purpose and grace which was given us in Iesus Christ 2 Tim. 2. 9. which doubtlesse is not universall and common unto all Innumerable other reasons there are to prove that seeing God hath given his elect onely whom onely he loved to Christ to be redeemed and seeing that the Sonne loveth onely those who are given him of his Father and redeemeth onely whom he loveth seeing also that the holy Spirit the love of the Father and the Sonne sanctifieth all and onely them that are elected and redeemed it is not our part with a preposterous liberality against the witnesse of Christ himselfe to assigne the salvation attained by him as due to them that are with out the Congregation of them whom the Father hath loved and chosen without that Church which the Sonne loved and gave his life for it nor none of the members of that sanctified body whereof Christ is the Head and Saviour I urge no more because this is not that part of the Controversie that I desire to lay open I come now to consider the maine Question of this difference though sparingly handled by our Divines concerning what our Saviour merited and purchased for them for whom he died and here you shall finde the old Idol playing his prankes and quite devesting the merit of Christ from the least ability or power of doing us any good for though the Arminians pretend very speciously that Christ died for all men yet in effect they make him die for no one man at all and that by denying the effectuall operation of his death and ascribing the proper issues of his passion to the brave indevours of their owne Pelagian Deitie We according to the Scriptures plainly beleeve that Christ hath by his righteousnesse merited for us grace and glory that we are blessed with all spirituall blessings in though and for him that he is made unto us righteousnesse and sanctification and redemption that he hath procured for us and that God for his sake bestoweth on us every grace in this life that maketh us differ from others and all that glory we hope for in that which is to come he procured for us remission of all our sinnes an actuall reconciliation with God faith and obedience yea but this is such a desperate doctrine as stabs at the very heart of the Idol and would make him as altogether uselesse as if he were but a figgetree logge what remaineth for him to doe if all things in this great worke of our salvation must be thus ascribed unto Christ and the merit of his death Wherefore the worshippers of this great God Lib. Arbit oppose their engines against the whole fabricke and cry downe the title of Christs merits to these spirituall blessings in the behalfe of their imaginarie Deity Now because they are things of a two-fold denomination about which we contend before the king of heaven each part producing their evidence the first springing from the favour of God towards us the second from the working of his grace actually within us I shall handle them severally and apart especially because to things of this latter sort gifts as we call them enabling us to fulfill the condition required for the attaining of glory we lay a double claime on Gods behalfe First as the death of Christ is the meritorious cause procuring them of him Secondly as his free grace is their efficient cause working them in us they also producing a double title whereby they would invest their beloved darling with a sole proprietie in causing these effects First in regard that they are our owne acts performed in us and by us secondly as they are parts of our dutie which we are enjoyned to doe so that the quarrell is directly betweene Christs Merits and our owne free-will about procuring the favour of God and obtaining grace and righteousnesse let us see what they say to the first They affirme that the immediate and proper effect or end of the death and passion of Christ is not an actuall oblation of sinne from men not an actuall remission of iniquities iustification and redemption of any soule that is Christ his death is not the meritorious cause of the remission of our sins of redemption and justification the meritorious cause I say for of some of them as of justification as it is terminated in us we confesse there are causes of other kindes as faith is the instrument and the holy Spirit the efficient thereof But for the sole meritorious procuring cause of these spirituall blessings we alwaies took it to be the righteousnesse and death of Christ beleeving plainely that the end why Christ died and the fruit of his sufferings was our reconciliation with God redemption from our sinnes freedome from the curse deliverance from the wrath of God and power of hell though we be not actuall partakers of these things to the pacification of our owne consciences without the intervening operation of the holy Spirit and faith by him wrought in us But if this be not Pray what is obtained by the death of Christ Why a potentiall conditionate reconciliation not actuall and absolute saith Corvinus But yet this potentiall reconciliation being a new expression never intimated in the Scripture and scarce of it selfe intelligible we want a further explanation of their minde to know what it is that directly they assigne to the merits of Christ wherefore they tell us that the fruit of his death was such an impetration or obtaining of reconciliation with God and redemption for us that God thereby hath a power his iustice being satisfied and so not compelling him to the contrary to grant remission of sinnes to sinnefull men on what condition he would or as another speaketh it There was by the effusion of Christs blood a right obtained unto and settled in God of reconciling the world and of opening unto all a gate of repentance and faith in Christ But now whereas the Scripture every where affirmeth that Christ died for our good to obtaine blessings for us to purchase our peace to acquire and merit for us the good things contained in the promise of the Covenant this opinion seemes to restraine the end and fruit thereof to the obtaining of a power and libertie unto God of prescribing us a condition whereby we may be saved but yet it may be thus much at least Christ obtained of God in our behalfe that he should assigne faith in him to be this condition and to bestow it upon us also No neither the one nor the other after all this had it so seemed good unto his wisedome God might have chosen the Iewes and others following the righteousnesse of the law as well as beleevers because he might have assigned any other condition of salvation besides faith in Christ saith
each particular Herein saith Arminius consisteth the libertie of the will that all things required to enable it to will any thing being accomplished it still remaines indifferent to will or not and all of them at the Synode There is say they accompanying the will of man an inseparable propertie which we call libertie from whence the will is termed a power which when all things prerequired as necessary to operation are fulfilled may will any thing or not will it that is our free-wils have such an absolute and uncontrollable power in the territory of all humane actions that no influence of Gods providence no certaintie of his decree no unchangeablenesse of his purpose can sway it at all in its free determinations or have any power with his Highnesse to cause him to will or resolve on any such act as God by him intendeth to produce take an instance in the great worke of our conversion All unregenerate men saith Arminius have by vertue of their free-will a power of resisting the holy Spirit of reiecting the offered grace of God of contemning the counsell of God concerning themselves of refusing the Gospel of grace of not opening the heart to him that knocketh What a stout Idol is this whom neither the holy Spirit the grace and counsell of God the calling of the Gospel the knocking at the doore of the heart can move at all or in the least measure prevaile against him Woe be unto us then if when Gods cals us our free-will be not in good temper and well disposed to hearken unto him for it seemes there is no dealing with it by any other waies though powerfull and Almightie For grant saith Corvinus all the operations of grace which God can use in our conversion yet conversion remaineth so in our owne free power that we can be not converted that is we can either turn or not turne our selves where the Idol plainly challengeth the Lord to work his utmost and tels him that after he hath so done he will doe what he please his infallible prescience his powerfull predetermination the morall efficacie of the Gospel the infusion of grace the effectuall operation of the holy Spirit all are nothing not at all availeable in helping or furthering our independent wils in their proceedings well then in what estate will you have the Idol placed In such a one wherein he may be suffered to sin or to do well at his pleasure as the same Authour intimates it seemes then as to sinne so nothing is required for him to be able to doe good but Gods permission No For the Remonstrants as they speake of themselves doe alwaies suppose a free power of obeying or not obeying as well in those who doe obey as in those who do not obey that he that is obedient may therefore be counted obedient because he obeyeth when he could not obey and so on the contrary where all the praise of our obedience whereby we are made to differ from others is ascribed to our selves alone and that free power that is in us now this they meane not of any one act of obedience but of faith it selfe and the whole consummation thereof For if a man should say that every man in the world of beleeving if he will and of attaining salvation and that this power is settled in his nature What Argument have you to confute him saith Arminius triumphantly to Perkins Where the sophisticall Innovator as plainly confounds grace and nature as ever did Pelagius that then which the Arminians claime here in behalfe of their free-will is an absolute independence on Gods providence in doing any thing and of his grace in doing that which is good A selfe-sufficiencie in all its operations a plenarie indifferencie of doing what we will this or that as being neither determined to the one nor inclined to the other by any over-ruling influence from heaven so that the good acts of our wils have no dependence on Gods providence as they are acts nor on his grace as they are good but in both regards proceed from such a principle within us as is no way moved by any superiour Agents Now the first of these we deny unto our wils because they are created and the second because they are corrupted their creation hinders them from doing any thing of themselves without the assistance of Gods providence and their corruption of doing any thing that is good without his grace a selfe-sufficiencie for operation without the effectuall motion of Almightie God the first cause of all things we can allow neither to men nor Angels unlesse we intend to make them Gods and a power of doing good equall unto that they have of doing evill we must not grant to man by nature unlesse we will deny the fall of Adam and fancie our selves still in Paradice but let us consider these things apart First I shall not stand to decipher the nature of humane libertie which perhaps would require a larger discourse then my proposed Method will beare it may suffice that according to my former intimation we grant as large a freedome and dominion to our wils over their owne acts as a creature subject to the supreame rule of Gods providence is capable of endued we are with such a libertie of will as is free from all outward compulsion and inward necessitie having an elective facultie of applying it selfe unto that which seemes good unto it in which its free choice notwithstanding it is subservient to the decree of God as I shewed before Chapter 4. Most free it is in all its acts both in regard of the object it chooseth and in regard of that vitall power and facultie whereby it worketh infallibly complying with Gods providence and working by vertue of the motion thereof but surely to assert such a supreme independency and every way unbounded indifferencie as the Arminians claime whereby all other things requisite being presupposed it should remaine absolutely in our owne power to will or not to will to doe any thing or not to doe it is plainly to deny that our wils are subject to the rule of the most High It is granted that in such a chymaericall fancied consideration of free-will wherein it is looked upon as having no relation to any act of Gods but onely its creation abstracting from his decree it may be said to have such a libertie in regard of the object but the truth is this divided sense is plaine nonsense a meere fiction of such an estate wherein it never was nor ever can be so long as men will confesse any Deitie but themselves to whose determinations they must be subject untill then more significant termes may be invented for this free power in our nature which the Scripture never once vouchsafed to name I shall be content to call it with Prosper a Spontaneous appetite of what seemeth good unto it free from all compulsion but subservient to the providence of God and
against its exaltation to this height of independencie I oppose First every thing that is independent of any else in operation is purely active and so consequently a God for nothing but a divine will can be a pure act possessing such a libertie by vertue of its owne essence every created will must have a libertie by participation which includeth such an imperfect potentiality as cannot be brought into act without some praemotion as I may so say of a Superiour Agent neither doth this motion being extrinsecall at all prejudice the true libertie of the will which requireth indeed that the internall principle of operation be active and free but not that that principle be not moved to that operation by an outward Superiour Agent nothing in this sense can have an independent principle of operation which hath not an independent being it is no more necessary to the nature of a free cause from whence a free action must proceed that it be the first beginning of it then it is necessarie to the nature of a cause that it be the first cause Secondly if the free acts of our wils are so subservient to the providence of God as that he useth them to what end he will and by them effecteth many of his purposes then they cannot of themselves be so absolutely independent as to have in their owne power every necessarie circumstance and condition that thoy may use or not use at their pleasure Now the former is proved by all those reasons and Texts of Scripture I before produced to shew that the providence of God overruleth the actions and determineth the wils of men freely to doe that which he hath appointed and truely were it otherwise Gods dominion over the most things that are in the world were quite excluded he had not power to determine that any one thing should ever come to passe which hath any reference to the wils of men Thirdly all the acts of the will being positive entities were it not previously moved by God himselfe in whom we live move and have our being must needs have their essence and existence solely from the will it selfe which is thereby made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a first and supreame cause indued with an underived being and so much to that particular Let us now in the second place looke upon the power of our free-will in doing that which is morally good where we shall finde not onely an essentiall imperfection in as much as it is created but also a contracted defect in as much as it is corrupted the abilitie which the Arminians ascribe unto it in this kinke of doing that which is morally and spiritually good is as large as themselves will confesse to be competent unto it in the state of innocencie even a power of beleeving and a power of resisting the Gospel of obeying and not obeying of turning or of not being converted The Scripture as I observed before hath no such terme at all nor nothing equivalent unto it but the expressions it useth concerning our nature and all the faculties thereof in this state of sinne and unregeneration seeme to imply the quite contrary as that we are in bondage Heb. 2. 15. dead in sinne Ephes 2. 3. and so free from righteousnesse Rom. 6. servants of sinne ver 16. under the reigne and dominion thereof vers 12. all our members being instruments of unrighteousnesse vers 13. Not free indeed untill the Sonne make us free so that this Idol of free-will in respect of spirituall things is not one whit better then the other Idols of the heathen Though it looke like silver and gold it is the worke of mens hands it hath a mouth but it speakes not it hath eyes but it sees not it hath eares but it heares not a nose but it smels not it hath hands but it handleth not feet but it walkes not neither speaketh it through the throat all they that made it are like unto it and so is every one that trusteth in it O Israel trust thou in the Lord c. That it is the worke of mens hands or a humane invention I shewed before for the rest it hath a mouth unacquainted with the mysteries of godlinesse full onely of cursing and bitternesse Rom. 3. 14. speaking great swelling words Iude vers 16. great things and blasphemies Revel 13. 5. a mouth causing the flesh to sinne Eccles 6. 5. his eyes are blinde not able to perceive those things that are of God nor to know those things that are spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2. 14. eyes before which there is no feare of God Rom. 3. 18. his understanding is darkened because of the blindnesse of his heart Ephes 4. 18. wise to doe evill but to doe good he hath no knowledge Ierem. 4. 22. So that without farther light all the world is but a meere darkenesse Iohn 1. 5. he hath eares but they are like the eares of the deafe Adder to the word of God refusing to heare the voyce of the Charmer charme he never so wisely Psal 54. 8. beeing dead when this voyce first cals it Iohn 5. 25. eares stopped that they should not heare Zach. 8. 11. heavie eares that cannot heare Isa 6. 10. a nose to which the Gospel is the savour of death unto death 2 Cor. 2. 16. hands full of blood Isa 1. 15. and fingers defiled with iniquitie Chap. 59. 3. feet indeed but like Mephibosheth lame in both by a fall so that he cannot at all walke in the path of goodnesse but swift to shed blood destruction and miserie are in their waies and the way of peace they have not knowne Rom. 3. 15 16 17. These and divers other such endowments and excellent qualifications doth the Scripture attribute to this Idol which it cals the old man as I shall more fully discover in the next Chapter and is not this a goodly Reed whereon to rely in the paths of godlinesse a powerfull Deitie whereunto we may repaire for a power to become the sonnes of God and attaining eternall happinesse the abilities of Free-will in particular I shall consider hereafter now onely I will by one or two reasons shew that it cannot be the sole and proper cause of any truely good and spirituall act well pleasing unto God First all spirituall acts well pleasing unto God as faith repentance obedience are supernaturall flesh and blood revealeth not these things not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of the will of God Iohn 1. 13. That which is borne of the flesh is flesh and that which is borne of the spirit is spirit Iohn 3. 6. Now to the performance of any supernaturall act it is required that the productive power thereof be also supernaturall for nothing hath an activitie in causing above its own sphere nec imbelles generant feroces aquilas columbae but our free-will is a meerly naturall faculty betwixt which and those spirituall supernaturall acts there is no proportion unlesse
and reiect that preaching of the Gospell I shall not need to prove this for it is that which in direct tearmes they plead for which also they must doe if they will comply with their former principles For granting all these to have no influence upon any man but by the way of morall perswasion we must not onely grant that it may be resisted but also utterly deny that it can be obeyed We may resist it I say as having both a disability to good and repugnancie against it but for obeying it unlesse we will deny all inherent corruption and depravation of nature we cannot attribute any such sufficiency unto our selves Now concerning this weaknes of grace that it is not able to overcome the opposing power of sinfull nature one testimony of Arminius shall suffice It alwaies remaineth in the power of Free-will to reiect grace that is given and to refuse that which followeth for grace is no Almightie action of God to which Free-will cannot resist Not that I would assert in opposition to this such an operation of grace as should as it were violently overcome the will of man and force him to obedience which must needs bee prejudicial unto our libertie but onely consisting in such a sweet effectuall working as doth infallibly promote our conversion make us willing who before were unwilling and obedient who were not obedient that createth cleane hearts and reneweth right spirits within us That then which we assert in opposition to these Arminian Heterodoxies is that the effectuall grace which God useth in the great worke of our conversion by reason of its owne nature being also the instrument of and Gods intention for that purpose doth surely produce the effect intended without successefull resistance and solely without any considerable co-operation of our owne wils untill they are prepared and changed by that very grace The infallibilitie of its effect depends chiefely on the purpose of God when by any meanes he intends a mans conversion those meanes must have such an efficacie added unto them as may make them fit instruments for the accomplishment of that intention that the counsell of the Lord may prosper and his word not returne empty But the manner of its operation that it requires no humane assistance and is able to overcome all repugnance is proper to the being of such an act as wherein it doth consist Which nature and efficacie of grace in opposition to an indifferent influence of the holy Spirit a metaphoricall motion a working by the way of morall perswasion onely proposing a desireable object easie to be resisted and not effectuall unlesse it be helped by an inbred abilitie of our owne which is the Arminian grace I will briefly confirme having promised these few things First although God doth not use the wills of men in their conversion as maligne Spirits use the members of men in enthusiasmes by a violently wrested motion but sweetly and agreeably to their owne free nature yet in the first act of our conversion the will is meerely passive as a capable subject of such a worke not at all concurring co-operatively to our turning It is not I say the cause of the worke but the subject wherein it is wrought having only a passive capabilitie for the receiving of that supernaturall being which is introduced by grace The beginning of this good worke is meerely from God Phil. 1. 6. Yea faith is ascribed unto grace not by the way of conjunction with but of opposition unto our wils not of our selves it is the gift of God Ephes 2. 8. Not that we are sufficient of our selves our sufficiency is of God 2 Cor. 3. 5. Turne thou me O Lord and I shall be turned Secondly though the will of man conferreth nothing to the infusion of the first grace but a subjective receiving of it yet in the very first act that is wrought in and by the will it most freely co-operateth by the way of subordination with the grace of God and the more effectually it is moved by grace the more freely it worketh with it Man being converted converteth himselfe Thirdly we doe not affirme grace to be irresistible as though it came upon the will with such an over-flowing violence as to beat it downe before it and subdue it by compulsion to what it is no way inclinable but if that terme must be used it denoteth in our sense onely such an unconquerable efficacie of grace as alwaies and infallibly produceth its effect For Who is it that can withstand God Acts 11. 17. As also it may be used on the part of the will it selfe which will not resist it all that the Father gives unto Christ will come unto him Ioh. 6. 37. The operation of grace is resisted by no hard heart because it mollifies the heart it selfe It doth not so much take away a power of resisting as give a will of obeying whereby the powerfull impotencie of resistance is removed Fourthly Concerning grace it selfe it is either common or speciall common or generall grace consisteth in the externall revelation of the will of God by his word with some illumination of the mind to perceive it and correction of the affections not to much to contemne it and this in some degree or other to some more to some lesse is common to all that are called speciall grace is the grace of regeneration comprehending the former adding more spirituall acts but especially presupposing the purpose of God on which its efficacy doth chiefly depend Fifthly This saving grace whereby the Lord converteth or regenerateth a sinner translating him from death to life is either externall or internall externall consisteth in the preaching of the word c. whose operation is by the way of morall perswasion when by it we beseech our hearers in Christs stead that they would be reconciled unto God 2 Corinth 5. 20. and this in our conversion is the instrumentall organ thereof and may be said to be a sufficient cause of our regeneration in as much as no other in the same kinde is necessary it may also be resisted in sensa diviso abstracting from that consideration wherein it is looked on as the instrument of God for such an end Sixthly internall grace is by Divines distinguished into the first or preventing grace and the second following cooperating grace the first is that spirituall vitall principle that is infused into us by the holy Spirit that new creation and bestowing of new strength whereby we are made fit and able for the producing of spirituall acts to beleeve and yeeld Evangelicall obedience For we are the workmanship of God created in Christ Iesus unto good workes Ephes 2. 10. By this God gives us a new heart and a new spirit he puts within us he taketh the stony hearts out of our flesh and gives us a heart of flesh he puts his spirit within us to cause us to walke in his statues Ezek. 36. 26 27. Now this first grace is not properly and formally
a vitall act but causaliter only in being a principle moving to such vitall acts within us It is the habit of faith bestowed upon a man that he may be able to elicate and performe the acts thereof giving new light to the understanding new inclinations to the will and new affections unto the heart For the infallible efficacie of which grace it is that we plead against the Arminians and amongst those innumerable places of holy Scripture confirming this truth I shall make use only of a very few reduced to these three heads First Our conversion is wrought by a divine Almighty action which the will of man will not and therefore cannot resist the impotency thereof ought not to be opposed to this omnipotent grace which will certainly effect the worke for which it is ordained being an action not inferiour to the greatnesse of his mightie power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead Ephes 1. 19 20. and shall not that power which could overcome hell and loose the bonds of death be effectuall for the raising of a sinner from the death of sinne when by Gods intention it is appointed unto that worke He accomplisheth the worke of faith with power 2 Thess 1. 11. It is his divine power that gives unto us all things that appertaine to life and godlinesse 2 Pet. 1. 3. surely a morall resistible perswasion would not be thus often tearmed the power of God which denoteth an actuall efficacie to which no creature is able to resist Secondly That which consisteth in a reall efficiency and is not at all but when and where it actually worketh what it intendeth cannot without a contradiction be said to be so resisted that it should not worke the whole nature thereof consisting in such a reall operation Now that the very essence of divine grace consisteth in such a formall act may be proved by all those places of Scripture that affirme God by his grace or the grace of God actually to accomplish our conversion as Deut. 30. 6. And the Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy soule that thou mayest live The circumcision of our hearts that we may love the Lord with all our hearts and with all our souls is our conversion which the Lord affirmeth here that he himselfe will doe not only enable us to doe it but he himselfe really and effectually will accomplish it And againe I will put my Law into them and write it in their hearts Ierem. 31. 33. I will put my feare in their hearts that they shall not depart from me Chap. 32. 39. he will not offer his feare unto them but actually put it into them and most clearely Ezek. 36. 26. A new heart also will I give you a new spirit will I put within you and I will take the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walke in my statutes Are these expressions of a morall perswasion only doth God affirme here he will doe what he intends only to perswade us to and which we may refuse to do if we will is it in the power of a stony heart to remove it self what an active stone is this in mounting upwards what doth it at all differ from that heart of flesh that God promiseth shall a stony heart be said to have a power to change it selfe into such a heart of flesh as shall cause us to walke in Gods Statutes Surely unlesse men were wilfull blind they must needs here perceive such an action of God denoted as effectually solely and infallibly worketh our conversion opening our hearts that we may attend unto the word Acts 16. 14. Granting us on the behalfe of Christ to beleeve in him Philip. 1. 29. Now these and the like places prove both the nature of Gods grace to consist in a reall efficiency and the operation thereof to be certainly effectuall Thirdly our conversion is a new creation a resurrection a new birth Now he that createth a man doth not perswade him to create himselfe neither can he if he should nor hath he any power to resist him that will create him that is as we now take it translate him from some thing that he is to what he is not What arguments doe you thinke were sufficient to perswade a dead man to rise or what great aid can he contribute to his own resurrection neither doth a man beget himselfe a new reall forme was never yet introduced into any matter by subtle arguments These are the tearmes the Scripture is pleased to use concerning our conversion If any man be in Christ he is a new creature 2 Cor. 5. 17. The new man after God is created in righteousnesse and holinesse Ephes 4. 24. it is our new birth Except a man be borne againe he cannot see the kingdome of God Ioh. 3. 3. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth Iam. 1. 18. and so we become borne againe Not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever 1 Pet. 1. 23. it is our vivification and resurrection The sonne quickeneth whom he will Ioh. 5. 21. even those dead who heare his voice and live vers 25. When we were dead in sins we are quickned together with Christ by grace Ephes 2. 5. For being buried with him by Baptisme we are also risen with him through the faith of the operation of God Coloss 2. 12. and blessed and holy is he that hath part in that first resurrection on such the second death hath no power but they shall be Priests of God and of Christ and shall raigne with him a thousand yeers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sleid. Com. Greg. Naz. Profitentur Remonst hasce ad promotionem causae suae artes adhibere ut apud vulgus non ulterius progrediantur quam de articulis vulgo notis ut pro ingeniorum diversitate quosdam lacte diualant aliis solidiore cibo c. Festus Hom. praestat ad specimen Con. Bel. Hieron Zanch. ad Holderum Res Miscel a Ephes 4. 18. Iohn 1. 5. 1 Cor. 2. 14. b Iohn 6. 42. and 7. 52. Natura sic apparet vitiata ut hoc majoris vitii sit non videre Aug. Pelag Semipelag Scholastico In hac causa non judicant secundum aequitatem sed secundum affectum commodi sui Luth. de erv Arbit Psal 50. Phil lib quod sit Deus immutabilis a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quaedam sunt quae omnem actum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quaedam quae 〈◊〉 cap. 5. see 1. pag 67. b Certum est Deum quaedam velle quae non velle niâ—i aliqua 〈◊〉 humana antecederet Aâ— min. Antipe kâ—p 211. c Multa tamen arbitror Deum velle quae non vellet adeoque nec justâ— velle posset nisi aliqua actio creatuâ—â—