to worke by the Gospell upon a sinner convict humbled and prepared by the Law And looke what proportion of power the Spirit had in the Law upon an unregenerate Man to humble him the same hath it in the Gospell upon the humbled to worke in him Hope him Hoping to winne to Wish and Pray to him Praying Wishing Willing to give Repentance unto him Repenting to instill Faith and so to justifie him being justifyed by Faith again by the Law and the Gospell together to mortifie corruptions to quicken in him a new life and to strengthen him to new obedience Now thinke not that the Spirit is present in the preaching of the Law to an unregenerate Man to give him strength to new obedience because it is present to convince and condemne his wickednesse or because it is so present to a justifyed Man to give him strength to new obedience Thinke not that the Spirit is present in the preaching of the Gospell to a Man yet not penitent nor believing to worke in him Peace Joy Love because it is present to worke these in the Believer Degrees here are not given per saltum The sum is The Spirit of God is annexed to his Word for such gifts and operations as to which the hearer is a fit disposed subject There is an order in the Divine working wherein there are things antecedent preparatives to things subsequent which antecedents if they found no place and were not admitted the subsequent are suspended Hence is there so frequent and just separations of the Spirit from the Word by the great Pastor of Soules who walketh in the midst of the Churches and scarcheth the hearts and reynes Hear what saith our Homily of declining from God When God withdrawes from us his Word the right Doctrine of Christ his gracious assistance and aide which is ever joyned to his Word and leaveth us to our own wit our own will and strength hee declareth then that he beginneth to forsake us And againe hear The words of the holy Scripture bee called words of eternall life for they be Gods Instrument ordained for the same purpose they have power to convert through Gods Promise and they be effectuall through Gods assistance So our Church in the first exhortation to the reading of the Scriptures and the first Booke of Homilies Thus much for Declaration of this point For Confirmation of it I allege all the Elogia of the Word of God as Psal 19. The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the Soule c. Heb. 4. 12. The Word of God is quick and powerfull c. Joh. 17. 17. Sanctifie them by this Truth Thy word is truth Joh. 20. 21. When Christ ordained his Apostles hee breathed on them and said Receive the holy Ghost to testifie that the power of the holy Ghost should goe with them Hence is the Gospell call'd the Ministration of the Spirit 2 Cor. 3. 8. and the Ministers of the new Testament Ministers of the Spirit not of the Letter vers 6. because the Gospell dat quod jubet whereas the law jubet sed non juvat but without the Spirit the Word of the Gospell it selfe is but a dead letter whence it is said Joh. 1. 17. That the Law was given by Moses but wee had no hearts to receive it The Gospell Grace and Truth was not only given but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But why should I multiply places The learned Divines in suffrâ—gio Collegiali de 20. Articulo Thesi 5a. doe allege some of these and other more places to prove aliquam mensuram gratiae ordinarie in Ministerio Evangelii administrari quae sufficiat ad convincendos omnes impoenitentes incredulos contemptus vel saltem neglectus ob non impletam conditionem though by their favour the places prove a great deale more than Eam mensuram gratiae supernaturalis administrari quae sufficiat ad convincendos c. namely quae sufficiat ad convertendos The sentence of Prosper which they alleage speakes more home Non omnes vocari ad gratiam quibus omnibus Evangelium praedicatur non rectè dicitur etiamsi sint qui Evangelio non obedâ—ant But that Calling is the same to them that obey not as to them that obey I shall urge onely these two places more Mat. 22. 14. Many are called but few chosen Here Many are distributed into two sorts some that are called and not chosen some that are called and also chosen for these few chosen are a part of the many called so that the whole many are put under one and the same Calling which Calling is not by the outward Word alone for from that Calling arise none chosen therefore the Calling was by the Word and Spirit common to both and the few chosen excelled not in Calling but in some thing else viz. in obeying the Calling to come when others refused or in comming worthily in a wedding garment according to the Parable Mat. 12. 41. The Men of Nineveh shall rise up in judgement with this Generation and shall condemne it c. If Jonas preached to the Ninevites without the Spirit how did they repent If Jesus Preached without the same Spirit how is he greater than Jonas nay how is hee equall in the power of Preaching If they that disobey be not equally called with them that obey how can these rise up in judgement against them when their answer is ready wee had not the same Calling with you ours differed toto genere you were partakers of an Heavenly calling wee but of an Earthly you were called by the Voyce of God speaking to your hearts we but by the bare voyce of Men speaking to the eare If God had moved and excited us as much as hee did you wee would have done as well as you For vocatio refertur ad auxilium Dei interius moventis excitantis mentem ad deserendum peccatum Thomas 12 ae 113. 1. ad 3m. The example of the Jewes at this day confirmeth this for they are said to be yet uncalled not because they live without the sound of the Gospell as the Indians have done for they may heare our Sermons and reade our Scriptures living in Rome Italy and Spaine but because the veile is not taken from their hearts because the Spirit of illumination and softning is as yet withheld from them which is granted gratiously to us Gentiles To conclude That Distinction of Calling propounded in the beginning of this Chapter into Outward Inward Effectuall Ineffectual seemeth to be vaine 1. Because it giveth unworthily the name of Calling to the bare outward Preaching of the Word which may bee a Commanding but not a Calling a Commanding as of the Law not a Calling as of the Gospell for God may still require to be obeyed in whatsoever new thing hee shall command because it is our duty naturall whether wee be now able to doe it or no being wee were able But seeing the word of the new Covenant comes to call Men to Repentance and
in himselfe but in all his posterity because God held him not as one person but as the whole nature of mankinde untill such time as he was come into that state in which God thought it best to governe the race of mankinde to the end of the World whereto hee foreknew that he would soone come namely the state of sinne and misery needing grace and mercy No doubt God in justice might have here rejected and condemned for ever not onely the greater part but the whole of mankinde for this Apostacy from him as hee did the Angells that fell But the Scripture testifieth greater grace Rom. 5. 12. 16. deinceps Jeremy 3. 1. Tu autem fornicata es cum amatoribus multis tamen revertere ad me dicit Dominus ego suscipiaÌ„te verba Domini sunt Non est fas suspendere fidem saith Bern. 84. in Cantic applying that to every sinfull soule which Jeremy applies to Israel and I may well to all mankinde in Adam after whom God call'd Adam ubi es And to the same purpose heare what the confession of the Church of England saith in the tenth Article The condition of man after the fall of Adam is such that hee cannot turne and prepare himselfe by his owne naturall strength and good worth to Faith and calling upon God wherefore we have no power to doe good workes pleasant and acceptable to God without the Grace of God by Christ preventing us that he may have a good will and working with us when wee have that good will CHAP. V. Of Gods Government of Man under the Covenant of Grace THe third act of Execution of Gods Eternall Counsell was the Restauration of man fallen For the most Wise and Mighty God having created the World for Man and Man for happinesse in the fruition of himselfe would not suffer either the whole destruction of his Creature or the frustrating of his end though he pleased to permit the depraving of his Creature and to forsake one ill succeeding way to take a better for the attainment of this end Irenaeus lib. 3. c. 33. Omnis dispositio salutis quae circa hominem fuit c. The whole ordering of Salvation touching Man was wrought according to the good Pleasure of the Father so as God should not bee overcome nor his skill impair'd for if that man who was made of God to live here losing life being wounded by the Serpent which had deprav'd him should not againe returne to life but be wholly swallow'd up of death God had beene overcome and the Serpents craft had conquer'd the Will of God Hence God that foreknew before all time the fall of Man hee Dâ—creed in mercy to spare and preserve some degrees of his Imâ—ge in Man and so did and to suspend the Exâ—cution of some effects of his fall else hee had dyed presently or lived a mad or brutish creature that hee might be a subject possible to be repayred and capable of healing God in wisdome and goodnesse chose rather so to doe than to destroy him and wholly make him anew Moreover out of the same Wisdome and Goodnesse hee had Decreed to supply another way that which was lost and so bring Man back from the gates of Hell and to set him in a new and faire way to Heaven This his thought magnum cogitatum Patris as Tertul calls it from everlasting was now in due time the time of Mans misery revealed namely soone after the fall For this Gospell in effect was preached unto him That God would send his owne Sonne made of a woman that should dissolve the workes of the Devill and by See the Homily of the Nativity death overcoming him that had the power of death should deliver man from bondage and restore unto him righteousnesse and life Gen. 3. 15. Gal. 3. 16. Heb. 2. 14. Now what by the remaines of Gods Image left in man what by the supply that God would make by his gracious help miserable man fallen was reputed by God a fit person once againe to be a party in a Covenant A Covenant of new Conditions suiting to the state of a sinner but tending to the same Ends righteousnesse and life This new Covenant is called the Covenant of Grace 1. because it was freely made with man a sinner utterly unworthy to have any more communion with God Secondly Because in it the righteousnesse and salvation of man is wrought in him rather by God than by himselfe being more in receiving than in giving in beleeing than in doing Yet hath it the nature of a true Covenant both parties having something for either to performe God to send his Sonne and his spirit to releeve the miseries and wants of man and to forgive sinnes to impute righteousnesse and to give life to such as obey his Sonne and his Spirit This part of God in the Covenant the Prophet Jeremiah speaketh of cap. 31. ver 33. and 't is repeated Heb. 8. 8. Man to humble himselfe for his sins to God his Creator to beleeve in Christ his Redeemer and to yeeld himselfe to be led by the holy spirit his Sanctifyer This part of Man in the Covenant the whole Gospell speaketh of requiring Repentance and faith and new obedience Act. 20. 21. Here are 2. things affirmed which may seeme to require proofe 1. That the Covenant of grace was made with all mankind 2. That God supplyeth by his spirit whatsoever is needfull to the keeping of this Covenant on the behalfe of Man who is confessed impotent in himselfe through his former fall These 2. shall by Gods assistance be sufficiently proved hereafter under the heads of Calling Commission Grace Free-will Now let these suffice as prescriptions for the Truth 1. That we find here in the day of the first publishing of the Covenant all mankind in Adam and Eve receiving the promise of the Gospel at the same time that they received their penances which we see to be universall to all their Seed it is therefore probable that promises should be taken as universall since the wise doe say Ampliandi favores 2. That we find left after the fall Remaines of some part of the Image of God as life understanding of good and evill liberty of Will in naturall and civill things conscience accusing or excusing c. which though they were given at first by Creation and so belong to nature yet the staying of them to remaine in man after his fall was of Grace both to make him capabâ—e to contract and covenant withall and also to be some beginnings and principles in order to his Restauration but since these alone are not sufficient to make him able to rise againe or to recover righteousnesse or keep the new Covenant of the Gospel of himselfe and these remaines it is decent to think of God who doth nothing imperfectly and who in Covenanting is no hard Master That he would supply by his spirit whatsoever was needfull more to the keeping of that new
Gentiles called 2. That even yet hee should withhold from many Nations the very word and outward calling as the new-discover'd Indians doe shew being found as farre from the knowledge of Christ as ever the Heathen were before the Apostles preached to them But wee being under this grace of Gods Calling it behoveth us to looke that it be not in vaine unto us CHAP. VII Of the Concurrence of the Word and Spirit in Calling SOme great Divines do distinguish Calling into two kindes one outward of the Word onely another inward of the Spirit joyn'd with the Word That they say is Ineffectuall This Effectuall That common to the Reprobate This speciall and peculiar to the Elect That never obeyed with truth of heart This never disobeyed This Doctrine is to bee examined I distinguish not two Callings but compound one Calling of the Word and Spirit as it were of a Body and a Soule supposing it to have in it selfe power to bring forth Effect in all that are under it and if it doe not so the cause not to arise from the Calling but from the Called that obey not 1. For declaration of this Point it must not be thought that the Spirit goeth with the Word to make the hearer performe that which he can doe by naturall strength for the Spirit is given to helpe where nature faileth as to keepe waking and to be attentive for that which Men can bring of their owne strength God expecteth to finde and to meete One case then where to many the Spirit is not present to the Word is when they are not present to the very Word through their sottish carelesnesse 2. Againe it must not be thought that the concurrence of the Word and Spirit is as it were naturall necessary and inseparable but voluntary and arbitrary in the Will and good Pleasure of God and as grace is annexed to the Sacraments so is it to the Word onely by Divine Institution and Ordination Hence the Church prayeth before Sermons for the illumination and power of the Spirit to come with the Word God expecting to have this asked of him by them that can pray both for themselves and others Another case then where the Spirit is not co-working with the word many times is when it was not duly and diligently asked 3. There are men that are past grace to whom the Spirit is not present with the Word such as for their former neglect and contempt of the time of their visitation when God did call them are now given up to blindnesse and hardnesse and have the light of the Spirit and the dew of grace held back from that Word which is Preached in their hearing by accident not for their sakes though we know them not in particular and so admit all 4. It must not bee thought that the Spirit goes with the Word to worke any grace in any person whatsoever but according to the order of Divine Providence which dispenseth his grace wisely which is thus to be declar'd Wee are to distinguish the Word that calleth the Persons that are called and operations of the Spirit by the Word in those persons The Word is either the Law or the Gospell 1. The Law hath two parts as the Preacher of the Covenant of Grace useth the Law 1 The Precepts 2. The Curse to the transgressors of the Precepts So the Law hath a double use to accuse and convince with the Precepts to wound and to kill with the Curse and to these the Law is effectuall and of force after the fall of Man 2. The Persons called by the Minister of God using the Law are all naturall unregenerate sinfull men or the regenerate relapsed and fallen into grievous Sinne who are of two sorts either ignorant of their evill Estate to whom the Precepts of the Law are to be Preach'd to bring them to the knowledge of Sinne. Rom. 3. 20. Or they are such as know sin buâ— are sâ—cure benummed senselesse of theâ—â— miserable estate to these the Curse is to be denounced untill they begin to feare to be cast down and perplexed Act. 24. 25. 3. The Operations of the spirit upon these Men by the Ministry of the Law are two First to open their eyes to see their sinnes Second to prick their hearts with feare of the Curse Acts 2. 37. Rom. 8. 15. For these effects ordinarily the Spirit goeth with the Word of the Law calling Men out of the pit of sinne and they are more easily admitted and wrought into the heart upon those remaines of light in the minde discerning good and evill and of Conscience accusing it selfe consenting to the Law Rom. 2. 15. But that these workes of the Spirit by the Law are wrought in many Reprobates our adversaries deny not that grant some initiall parts of grace to be begotten even in castawayes The Ministry of John Baptist figured this of which S. Ambrose in 1. Lucae Hoc mysterium in hac vita nostra hodieque celebratur praecurrit enim animae nostrae quaedam virtus Johannis cum credere paramur in Christum ut paret ad fidem animae nostrae vias Thus much of the word of the Law with its persons and operations 1. The Gospell hath two parts A Commandement A Promise The Commandement To repent of Sin shewed by the Lawes Precepts To beleeve in Christ to give life to him whom the curse of the Law hath killed The Promise is of forgivenesse of sins and life everlasting to him that repenteth believeth in the Lord Jesus Christ Act. 2. 38 39. 2. The Persons called by God in the word of the Gospell are all manner of sinners but convict terrifyed wounded full of compunction and selfe-condemning wrought in them by the Spirit in the preaching of the Law Mat. 11. 28. 3. The Operations of the Spirit upon these Men by the Ministry of the Gospell are 1. To open their eyes to see the marvelous light of Gods Mercy to Sinners of the infinite love of Christ in dying for sinners and the inestimable Merits of his Death of the powerfull graces gifts and aides of the holy Ghost to helpe and relieve the impotency and misery of sinners to the end that by this light this Opinion may be begotten in them that it is possible for them to be recovered 2. To poure into their hearts hope or to stay them from desperate sinning or sorrowing 3. To inspire the grace of Prayer at least to wish or desire Oh that they might be so happy as to escape the wrath to come and recover the favour and love of God! 4. To give them repentance that is to sorrow for sin past with a godly sorrow and to purpose to break off sin to cease from any further offending God or endangering the Soule 5. To worke in them Faith that is To run to Christ and to cast themselves into the Armes of his goodnesse and power to be saved by him These Graces in this Order the holy Ghost is present and ready
by the interposition of some obstacle that hinders Gods influence of love from comming into the Soule But 't is manifest every mortall finne that is contrary to Gods Commandements is such an obstacle of hindring the foresaid influence because by that very act man chuseth sinne and prefers it before Gods love c. Whereby it followes that presently by one Act of mortall sinne the habit of love is lost 3. My third way to come to the true meaning of our Article was to parallel it with the twelfth of the Augustane Confession c. Art 12. Augustanae Confess Art 16. Anglicanae Confess De poenitentia docent quod lapsis post Baptismum contingere possit remissio peccatorū quocunque tempore cum convertuntur Et quod Ecclesia talibus redeuntibus ad poenitentiam absolutionem impertiri debeat Not every deadly Sin c. is unpardonable wherefore the grant of repentance is not to be denyed to such as fall into Sin after Baptisme Damnant Anabaptistas qui negant semel jnstificatos posse amittere Spiritum Sanctum Item qui contendunt quibusdā tantam perfectionem in hac vita contingere ut peccare non possint Damnantur Novatiani qui nolebant absolvere lapsos post Baptismum redeuntes ad poenitentiam After we have received the holy Ghost we may depart from Grace and fall into sinne c. Therefore they are to be condemned which say they can no more sin as long as they live here or deny place of forgivenesse to such as truly repent What need many words there is nothing more cleare than that this is the Doctrine not onely of the Church of Rome from which our first Reformers desired not to depart but where it had departed from Scripture and Antiquity But also of the Churches of upper Germany and of Denmark with which ours kept most conformity So that the Calvinists are singular and alone in their Opinion Other doctrine of our Church of like nature to this is found in the booke of Homilies especially in that which is intituled Of declining from God in the Table and of Falling from God in the booke Out of the first part whereof I transcribe but this sentence pag. 54. For whereas God hath shewed to all men that truly beleeve his Gospell his face of Mercy in Jesus Christ which doth so lighten their hearts that they if they behold it as they ought to doe bee transformed to his Image be made partakers of the heavenly light and of his holy Spirit and be fashioned to him in all goodnesse requisite to the children of God So if they after doe neglect the same if they be unthankfull unto him if they order not their lives according to his doctrine and example c. He will take away from them his Kingdome his holy word whereby he should riegne in them Out of the second part thereof I transcribe this sentence pag. 57. God will take from them the teaching of his holy word so that they shall be no longer of his Kingdome they shall be no longer governed by his holy Spirit they shall be put from the grace and benefits that they had and ever might have enjoyed through Christ they shall be deprived of the heavenly light and life which they had in Christ whilst they abode in him c. In the second tome in the Homily of Repentance the first part pag. 261 262. there is a full paraphrase upon the 16. Article according to the two parts I made of it too much to write out admitting that we may chance after we be once come to God and be grafted into his Son Jesus Christ to fall into some horrible Sinne and yet be received againe into favour defining that the Sin against the holy Ghost is a finall faling away from Christ that the promises of mercy to them that turne to God Jer. 4. Isay 55. Osee 6. ought to be understood of them that were with the Lord before and by their sinnes and wickednesse were gone away from him that David and Peter were justified yet fell horribly but by repentance were forgiven Lastly the prayers of the Church have ever beene a place from which Arguments have beene drawne thus Against them that say the Regenerate may be perfect without sinne Why then doth our Lord teach them to pray Forgive us our trespasses against them that say they cannot be tempted to evill to be overcome why doth he teach us to say Leade us not into temptation but deliver us from evill So Jerome 2. lib. Contra Iovinianum In like manner I argue if a Beleever cannot finally fall from God why doth our Church pray in the Liturgie at the buriall of the dead O God most mighty suffer us not at our last howre for any paines of death to fall from thee CHAP. XVII Of the Persevering Faith of the Elect. THe second question stated was of the Perseverance of the Elect whether it be without interruption in a perpetuall constancy or happy if it be finall that is what the state of a regenerate man is suppose him one of the Elect though knowne so to God onely under some grievous Sin into which he is fallen untill he repent Here I will first argue ex concessis and then rest in one argument out of the Scripture Our Judicious Divines that were at Dort apprehending well the danger of their Tenent that maintaine the Regenerate sinning to be still actually in the state of Salvation say very much of the evill plight of a regenerate man lapsed so much as I require no more That he is not actually reconciled untill he repent but verily in state of damnation and unapt for to enter into the Kingdome of Heaven Yet some things they hold fast that they may not forsake their party altogether That which I object is that the things which they deny cannot stand together with the things they grant 1. They say first Though the Regenerate so sinning be guilty yet they are in the purpose of God to be absolved Ans So they were before they were regenerated or repented or beleeved at all Secondly That they are not dealt withall by God in rigor Ans No more are many reprobates fallen from Faith whom yet God would bring to Repentance by his long-suffering Thirdly That they have not lost jus ad Regnum but usum Juris as a leprous man hath not lost the right of his house but the Vse Ans I understand you well by a similitude but I care not for an Argument out of that place Then belike an Elect person guilty of Murther hath jus ad regnum O Sancte Paule thou speakest too loosely 1 Cor. 6. 9. Gal. 5. 21. Be not deceived I tell you that they which doe such things shall not inherit the Kingdome of God Shall they not inherit that have jus ad regnum that have right to a Kingdome Fourthly They say That their Vniversall Justification is not made void Ans Truly their former absolution from former sins
all Believers to bee so furnish'd with Gods Grace that they are able to persevere if they will be as carefull as they should be that the same men also may possibly fall away from Faith and Grace through negligence and security The Second denyes Believers to be able so to fall away from Faith and Gods Grace as to become in the state of damnation or perish but such as shall once truely believe shall alwayes so persevere in Faith and Grace that at length they may all attaine salvation The Third with St. Augustine makes Believers through the infirmities of the flesh and temptations to be able to depart from Faith and Grace or likewise to fall away but it addes those Believers who are call'd according to purpose and who are firmly rooted in a lively Faith cannot either totally or finally fall away or perish but by speciall and effectuall grace so to persevere in a true and lively Faith that at length they may bee brought to eternall life By this we may understand what Doctor Overalds minde was in the Conference at Hampton Court p. 41. 42. Richard Thompson hath the like cap. 4. De intercisione Justitiae For after hee had spoken of Christ given to redeeme and reconcile all unto God and of aides and meanes given whereby men may be actually reconciled hee addes page 17. Sed miserum genus humanum si vel sic à Deo relictum fuisset c. But miserable had been Mankinde if even so they had been left of God for great is the wickednesse of Man and every imagination of his heart is evil continually Therefore it must needs come to passe that either all of themselves should despise those riches of Gods goodnesse or if any should make use of them yet a while after they would loath them againe except the superabundant mercy of God had separated some to himselfe to whom hee had decreed from all eternity to afford an effectuall calling and finall perseverance in Grace taken according to his purpose others being passed by and left to the counsels of common providence whom in the end he would condemn for their impenitence and unbeliefe You know now this Opinion and the Author is to be commended for his integrity in opening the state of these questions and for comming on thus far neerer to the Truth than the former did in acknowledging 1. That Christ dyed for the sinnes of the whole World 2. That the promise of the Gospell is Universall 3. That a Grace sufficient is given common to all that hear the Gospell to believe and obey it 4. That Gods foreknowledge is extended not onely to the fall of the first man but the infirmity of all men in particular Whereupon for some men there was prepared by God a more superabundant and effectuall grace than for others 5. In that it endeavoreth to accord the first part of our 17 Article concerning an absolute Predestination with the latter part concerning the Universall promises The like good desire appeares in the Divines that were at Dort in their joynt Suffrage de Articulo 20 Thes 3. 4 5. But how congruous and happy this conjunction can be of two extremes into a third or how possible it is to accord those two parts of the Article without some other supposition than hath yet beene mentioned here I cannot hope ever to see it demonstrated Nay I am perswaded that these manifest Truths sounding in every part of the new Testament That Christ is given a Redeemer Universall That the Promises of the Gospell are generall That the Spirit of Truth and Power goes with them in the Preaching of them are able being rightly weighed utterly to overthrow all manner of frames whatsoever may be imagined of the order of the Divine Predestination which shall exclude the Divine Prescience proper prime and Universall such as the fifth Opinion will discover for since the Gospell presupposeth and acknowledgeth the fall of mankinde and all to be sinners and taketh its occasion therefrom since it calleth all men to reconciliation with God commands Repentance and Faith to all promiseth forgivenesse and life to all that believe in the Redeemer threatneth wrath and death to abide upon all that beleeve not Marc. 15. 15 16. and declareth that God will judge the World by Jesus Christ and by the Word of the Gospell Acts 17. 31. Joh. 12. 48. And since God will judge in righteousnesse man as a reasonable Creature of a Freewill The Gospel I say cannot admit a decree of predestination to life or death that shall be made upon contemplation of the fall and sinne of man antecedent to the Gospell or before contemplation of the 〈◊〉 or issues of the Gospell preached to the World which contemplation can be had before all time by no other power but the Divine foreknowledge CHAP. IV. The fourth Opinion THe Fourth Opinion is of Melanchton Hemingius and the Lutherans that follow the Augustan Confession and formulam concordiae The Remonstrants or Arminians and many Papists c. 1. That God decreed to create Man to permit him to fall and to send Christ to redeeme the World c. as in the third Opinion was said 2. That hee made a generall conditionall decree of Predestination under the condition of Faith and Perseverance And a speciall absolute decree of electing those to life whom he foreknew would believe and persevere under the meanes and aides of Grace Faith and Perseverance and a speciall absolute decree of condemning them whom he foresaw to abide impenitent in their sins This Opinion was condemned in the late Synod at Dort I mislike it for these reasons 1. Because a generall conditionall Predestination is none at all 2. Because the decree of speciall Election of such as believe no better declared than thus seemeth to make men choose God first rather than God to choose men 3. Because it maketh the decrees of justification and condemnation to bee the same with the decree of Election and Reprobation which must be distinguished as they are Rom. 8. 29. 4. Because it presenteth no more Grace given by God to the Elect than to the reprobate neither greater cause of thankfulnesse Yet this Opinion doth well to enlarge the objects of Gods foreknowledge and to extend it not onely to the fall of the first man but even to Christ to be manifested in the flesh and believed on in the World yea even to the last end of all men persevering either in Faith or Unbeliefe Agreeing with the Scriptures that buildeth Election upon foreknowledge at large simply and properly taken Rom. 8. 29. 11. 2. 1 Pet. 1. 1 2. and promiseth salvation to the believer but persevering to the end Thus have wee seene foure Opinions The Transition to the fifth Seeing then none of these foure give full satisfaction though some pieces of Truth be found in every one of them yet joyned with some inconvenience It were a work worth the labour to gather that truth out of them all that
power in this working out their own Salvation he doth Comfort and encourage them that they shall not work alone a stronger than they shall joyne with them God who it is that ever worketh in them both to will and to doe Where we have full proofe for the power and presence of the helpfull grace of God but for Gratia discriminatrix 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. The weaknesse of many in temptations and persecutions that sheweth it selfe testifieth that they who in those are more than Conquerors over Satan the flesh and the world are defended and fought for by the mighty power of God when they cry unto him So prayeth the Church on the fifth Sunday after Epiphany Lord we beseech thee to keepe thy Church and houshold continually in the true religion that they which doe leane onely upon hope of thy heavenly grace may evermore be defended by thy mighty power through Jesus Christ our Lord. Against whom then do these accusations lye To say that the Will of man resists the power of God as if it were stronger than it That man doth more to the work of his Faith than the Grace of God That God doth no more in us for good than Satan doth for evill incline perswade sollicite c. I am no way guilty of these crimes If Gods power be resisted or frustrated it yeeldeth not out of weaknesse but out of will God not pleasing to put forth his power where he feeles himselfe resisted or neglected The best that we doe in the bringing forth of any good is To yeild and to permit God to work upon us to follow him leading or drawing of us to accept of that he giveth us to fence that which he soweth or planteth in us not to marre that which he maketh not to harden the heart when his voice is to be heard In summe to be passively obedient more than actively For this is that onely which the Power of Grace will not extend it selfe unto To necessitate and to hold us up to an undeclinable obedience The reason is because that power of God which buildeth up supernaturall things doth not destroy naturall but the possiblity in the Will to decline to evill and the liberty to disobey is not evill but naturall being found in Adam before his fall and as it was not impeached then by the supernaturall grace which Adam had no more is it now in us by the grace of God that worketh in us To this agrees the learned Doctor Ward in his Clerum on Phil. 2. 13. page 6. and 7. of the last Edition Of the Amplitude or Vniversality of Grace From this Title there are to be excluded three things as Heterodoxa and three other things to be referred to it as Orthodoxa 1. Exclude from hence the opinion of Origen and of those that Saint Aug. calls Misericordes that thought all men and Angels at the last should be received to Mercy against whom Saint Aug. disputes 21. lib. de Civitate cap. 17. deinceps 2. Exclude from hence the opinion of Samuel Huber against whom Hunnius and other Lutherans dispute who taught an Universal Election c. and that all men by the death of Christ were brought into the state of Grace and salvation which proposition is worthily rejected by our Divines at Dort in their Suffrage de 2 Articulo Thesi ult Heterodoxa 3. Exclude from hence the opinion of Andradius and other Papists and whosoever else that hold the Gentiles and Heathens without the Church to have sufficient grace to Salvation by the light of Nature or to have that whereupon well used the Grace of the Gospell shall be reveiled unto them With these I will have no fellowship But under the Vniversality of Grace I comprehend but these three things 1. That as Christ our Lord took the nature of Mankinde and not the Nature of Angels So by his death he paid the price of Redemption for the Sinnes of the whole world this agrees with the third Thesis suffragii de art secundo and with our Catechisme I believe in God the Father who hath made me and all the world and in God the Sonne who hath redeemed me and all Mankinde and in God the holy Ghost who sanctifieth me and all the Elect people of God Where note the order and degrees 2. That the promise of the Gospel is Vniversal to all that are within the hearing of it and that it might be truly and seriously proffered to any man alive whatsoever This agrees with the latter part of our seventeenth Article That we must receive Gods promises in such wise as they be generally set forth unto us in the holy Scripture 3. That with the promise and word of the Gospel there goeth ordinarily such Grace of the holy Spirit as is sufficient to all under the Gospel to worke in them to believe and to obey the Gospell and that all doe not obey proceedeth not from the want of Grace on Gods part but from mens being wanting to the Grace of God to whom it is in vaine as is evident by 2 Cor. 6. 1. 2. Heb. 4. 1. 2. 12. 15. Now whereas it is as clearly said in the Holy Scripture that Christ laid downe his life for his Sheepe John 10. 15. for the Children of God John 11. 52. and that he loved his Church and gave himselfe for it Ephes 5. 25. as it is said He dyed for all men These two must be so construed that they may both stand together Thus that out of Gods goodnesse mercy and love to mankinde hee sent his Sonne to die for all men as willing by his primary and antecedent will the salvation of all men But because Omniscience is in God as one of his Divine perfections hee could not bee ignorant or incertaine what would be the fruit and successe of the Death of his Son that such would not receive him that others such and such would thankefully embrace him if hee were sent unto them out of this foreknowledge his especiall love accepting even these though few in number in comparison did send his Sonne with intention to save though it were but these in whom hee would glorifie his bounty that for their sakes hee would have his Sonne to give his life though hee should gaine no more than them who had they beene much fewer or none at all surely the wise God either would not have sent his Sonne to die in vaine or he would have mended the measure and course of his graces and government by which more might have come into the Kingdome of Heaven Chrysostome in illud Pauli ad Gal. 2. Dilexit me dedit semetipsum pro me Declarat hoc quoque par esse c. He declares this also to be meet that every one of us no lesse give thanks than if hee had come into the World onely for his sake for neither would Christ have refused even for one so great a dispensation hee doth so mightily love every particular Man with the