come and spoken to them they should not have had sinne but now they have no cloake for their sinne doe say it is evident that Christ in his Preaching did administer so much inward grace as was sufficient to convince those that rejected the Gospell of positive unbeliefe and so to render them obnoxious to just punishment and consequently say I so much as sufficed by their good husbandry to have converted and saved them For that grace leaves none inexcusable which is unsufficient to convert them I will conclude that which they say of this gratious intention of God in the Ministry of the Word with that speech of Prosper cited by them in the same place non omnes vocari ad gratiam eos quibus omnibus Evangelium praedicatur nonrecte dicitur etiamsi sint qui Evangelio non obaudiant They that say that all those to whom the Gospell is Preached even those that obay not the Gospell are not called to grace they say an untruth God looks for grapes sayth the text Isai 5. 2. What doth this imply but that it was Gods principall aime in the husbandry which he bestowed upon the Church of Israell that it should bring forth good fruit though in the end it did not How oft would I have gathered you sayth Christ to Jerusalem Math. 23. 37. and in John 5. 34. These things have I spoken to you that ye might be saved but ye will not come unto me that ye might have life v. 40. Intimating no lesse than this that it was his full intent by his preaching to gather and to save those very particular men that in the end were not gathered nor saved through their neglect or contempt of Christs Ministry TWISSE Consideration NO question but The word of God is the sword of the spirit Ephes 6. And the Law of the Lord is a perfect Law converting the Soule Psal 19. And it seemes to be delivered in opposition to the Book of the creatures as if he had said though The Heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy work yet this is the peculiar prerogative of the Book of Gods word and the Doctrine contained therein that it converteth the soule and upon this is grounded the great preferment of the Jews above the Gentiles chiefely that unto them were committed the Oracles of God Yet this Author is content to make no difference between the use and end of the Book of Creatures and the Book of Gods word but professeth the use and end of both to be the very same The passage alleadged out of the suffrages of the Brittain Divines is most aliene from the present purpose For the Thesis of theirs proceedeth of the administration of grace by the word not of regeneration but of conviction of all such who believe not and continue impenitent that through their own fault they perish for neglecting or contemning the Gospell In Ecclesia ubi juxta promissum hoc Evangelii salus omnibus offertur ea est administratio gratiae quae sufficit ad convincendos omnes impenitentes incredulos quod sua culpa voluntaria vel neglectu vel contemptu Evangelii perierint oblatum beneficium amiserint And in the explication of this Thesis they propose two things to be cleared 1. That some measure of grace is ordinarily administred in the Ministry of the Gospell aliquam mensuram gratiae ordinarie in Ministerio Evangelii administrari and for proofe hereof alone they alleadge this passage out of Isai 59. ult This is my covenant with them saith the Lord My spirit which is upon thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth So that the word and spirit are joyned togeather alwaies but not alwaies to regenerate but either to regenerate and bring to obedience or to convict of disobedience And accordingly The Ministers of the New Testament are called Ministers not of the letter but of the spirit that is not of the Law the Ministry whereof is not the Ministry of the spirit but yet this is rightly to be understood to wit of the spirit of adoption for undoubtedly even the Ministry of the Law is the Ministry of the Spirit also but of the spirit of bondage to hold men under feare it is called the Ministry of condemnation and the reason hereof I conceive to be because God doth not concurre with the Ministry of the Law by the holy Spirit to worke any man to the performance of the condition of the Law which is exact and perfect obedience but thus he doth concurre with the Ministry of the Gospell namely by his spirit to work men to the performance of the condition thereof which is faith in Christ and true repentance therefore the letter to wit of the Law is called a killing letter but the Gospell is joyned with a quickning spirit and therefore Piscator conceives that the Gospell in this place is called by the name of the spirit Soe then the Gospell giveth life by the spirit which accompanyeth the Ministry thereof but to whom To all as this Author supposeth Nothing lesse the generall experience of the world doth manifest the untruth thereof But this Author is ready to suppose though not very forward to speake out in this that it would regenerate if men were not defective to them selves So then man must first performe some worke on his part and then the spirit of the Gospell doth regenerate them as much as to say the grace of regeneration is dispensed by God according to some work of man which in plain termes Pelagius durst not professe but joyned with others to anathematize it in the Synod of Palastine Yet this Doctrine is the very Helena wherewith the Arminians are enamored Now the Apostle professeth in plaine termes of himselfe and his fellow-labourers we are unto God the sweet savour of Christ in them that are saved and in them which perish to the one we are the savour of death unto death and to the other a savour of life unto life So then it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tit. 2. 11. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word of reconciliation 2 Cor. 5. 19. And the seed of the new birth 1 Pet. 1. 23. As where by God regenerates man according to that of Saint Iames of his owne will hath he begotten us by the word of truth Iam. 1. 18. Not whereby man doth regenerate himselfe according to the Arminian tenet whose doctrine it is that God workes in us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 velle credere and resipiscere modò velimus Now as God hath mercy on wom he will in converting his heart unto obedience of faith and repentance Rom. 9. 18. and 11. 30. So God regenerates whom he will So that we all grant that Gods word is by Gods appointment an instrument to make men new creatures But whom Not all indifferently but the elect of God called the sheepe of Christ Iohn 10. 16. Other sheepe have
to avoid the wrath to come And lastly the Divell knowes his condition to be irrecoverable No man on earth knowes his estate to be so For albeit according to our doctrine a man may be assured of his election yet by our doctrine no man can be assured of his reprobation Adde this hereunto Although a man did know he were reprobated to damnation yet not knowing to what degree and measure of damnation he is ordained there is place to use his best endeavours in the way of civilitie and morality that his damnation may be the lesse In case he did know this also yet place still remaines to be as morall as he can For damnation joyned with a condition of better morallity is better then damnation joyned with a condition of lesse morality This may suffice as an answer to the other instances which are farre more wild then the first as touching the immortality of the soule which he saith is simply decreed and it is decreed to be immortall without any course to be taken by man to promote the immortality thereof But doe any of our Divines maintaine that God hath decreed our salvation in such sort as to be brought to passe without any course to be taken by men of ripe yeares to promote their salvation What proportion is there beetween immortality salvation God intends salvation to no man of ripe yeares but by way of reward of faith repentance obedience and good works Doth God bestow immortality upon the soule by way of reward Was not the soule of man immortall assoone as it was created Is such the salvation of Gods elect And what giddinesse possest the spirit of this Author when he discourseth of the vaine labour of any man that should use meanes that his soule should be annihilated Supposing that such meanes there are and may be used by the forme of his speech when he sayth that it is labour in vaine for any man to use such meanes As for that which followeth of the Sun and Moone An instance of the same nature hath been given in this very Section and an answer thereunto accommodated in my refutation of M Hords discourse which this Author could not be ignorant of as appeares by his altering and changing it almost throughout yet takes no notice thereof to reply thereunto but keeps himselfe as still as a sow in beanes thinking it his safest course to be silent The truth is God we say bestowing salvation and inflicting damnation proceeds according to a law which he hath given unto man but not so in the giving or denying grace not so in shewing mercy on some and hardning others but according to the meeâ—e pleasure of his will It were farre more congruous to accommodate the instances he gives to the divine proceedings in this particular But here he dares not budge least his Pelagian spirit should bee manifested to all the world in maintaining that not only in conterring salvation and inflicting damnation he proceeds according to mens works but also in giving and denying grace P. 96. Two lines are inserted a little above the Latine verses but of no moment distinct from the rest P. 97. Section the 4. of the crimination last save one where he saith that three things are usually answered to vindicate our opinion from this crimination but he conceales who they be that thus answer yet would not be thought to feigne it And the first of these is this That many of them which believe and defend this doctrine are holy and good men c. Now here comes in that which he inserts The like defence to this did the Epicures of old make in favour of their sensuall and swinish doctrine which was that happinesse consisted in pleasure They said that many of their Sect were honest men and so much Tully granted to be true but with exception still against their doctrine I take saith he Epicurus himselfe to be an honest man yea and many Epicures have been and are faithfull in freindship square and constant men in all conditions of life ordering themselves and their lives not by pleasure but by duty But saith he this proceeded not from the principles of their opinion but froÌ„ their own vertuous inclinations the force of honesty by their so doing appeared to be more prevailing in them then the force of pleasure which they pleaded for A little after he hath words to the same purpose As other mens doctrines are esteemed to be better then their deeds so these mens deeds seem to me to be better then their doctrine Like to this answer of Tully to the defenders of Epicurisme will I shape mine I nothing doubt but this Authour pleased himselfe well in this comparison and others likewise of his own sect For like lettice like lips yet all this is carried with a shew of charity in acknowledging the holinesse forsooth and goodnesse of their oposites but it ends in this comparison right Epicurus like whose morality forsooth was pleaded to countenance his sensuall and swinish doctrine But whatsoever our lifes be for testimony whereof we nothing desire to be beholding to the charity of our opposites Yet surely our doctrin concerning the absolutenes both of election grounded upon no other foundation then this that Grace is not conferred according unto workes as Austin testifies and of reprobation grounded accordingly upon no other foundation then this that grace is not denied according unto workes shall be found no swinish doctrine but the very truth of God And let them that oppose it looke well to their waies least they be not found goatish together with their doctrine at the day of judgment But how comes this Authour to be so stupid in reading Cicero and so little understanding him as in these words to conceive that he professeth himselfe to have a good opinion of Epicurus I confesse I marked it the more diligently because I remember well the comparison that Plutarch makes between the vertuous gloriation of Epaminondas his mother and the vile gloriation of Epicurus his mother professing she never saw an happier day then when she saw her Son Epicurus generating cum Cyzezena meretriculâ operis cum Polyano divisis unlesse this were the morality of her Son wherein shee gloried that he was not so jealous but that he could admit a corrivall in the satisfaction of his filthy lusts And indeed I had also observed other where that he was a very temperate man but to this end that he might take the greater pleasure in the flesh his senses being the more quick when they were not clogged and overcome with surfeit But come we to Cicero his judgment He takes notice that Epicurus was commended as Comis in amicitiis tuendis a man of a faire nature in maintaining freindship yet saith he though these things were true for I affirme nothing he was not acute enough I think this is spoken in reference to his doctrine nothing answerable to this commendation of him For he
Tossanus makes relation of Hunnius his exposition of that place Acts 13. 48. Et crediderunt quotquot ordinati erant ad vitam thus id est qui sese ordinarant disposuerant ad audiendum Dei verbum Hunnius in his refutation of Tossanus his Theses cites Tossanus to appear before the tribunall seat of the Judge both of quick and dead and to shew in what place of his writings this is to be found professing that such doctrine is the very Pelagian Heresy and that himselfe never approved it but disproved it rather and most constantly impugned it What Lutheran was ever known so absurd as to say that God worketh in us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Velle credere modò Velimus Yet this doctrine I can shew in expresse termes delivered by an Arminian But come to the consideration of the instances proposed by him The first is the Relation of Sir Edwin Sands And I remember well to have read in him somewhat concerning the Predestinary Pestilence so called by some And I might wonder at this Authors wisdome in pretermitting that passage but upon search finding it about Fol. 59. though my Book hath no quotation at all of pages I ceased to wonder at his concealing of it I have rather cause to commend his wisdome therein although it expresseth that whereupon this Author formerly touched as concerning the Lutherans readinesse to returne to the Papacy rather then to admit that Predestinary Pestilence For predestinary pestilence goeth not here alone but is joyned with the Sacramentary pestilence For these two poynts saith he are the ground of the quarrell but he addes I confesse that the Predestinary pestilence was more scandalous at that day then the former Yet the same Author professeth Fol. 73. of the Lutherans that if he fetch an elle forwards one way for an elle he looseth another way it is only by a kind of boysterous force and violence against the Calvinists as in Strasborough of late And the reason hereof he takes to be in part the Absurdities of the Ubiquitary Chimaera And as for the passage here alleaged I find it about Fol. 86. Wherein I consider First that the speculative opinions he speaks of are not about the eternall decrees of God only or especially above all others as here by cunning carriage it is pretended For the words runne thus It can be no blemish to them to revise their Doctrine and to abate the rigour of certain speculative opinions especially touching the eternall decrees of God the quality of mans nature the use of works wherein some of their chiefe Authors have come to such an utter opposition c So that the poynts of rigorous doctrine which were to be qualified in this Gentlemans judgement are many but especially three The first whereof is touching the eternall decrees of God The second concerning the quality of mans nature The third concerning the use of Works So that the doctrine of Gods eternall decrees is not the poynt alone the rigour whereof especially is to be qualified in this Authors judgement but this especiall care of qualification is by him referred to the three poynts formerly mentioned and that indifferently Secondly Whereas this Author relates that this is delivered not as out of the relators judgement only but as out of the judgement of men whom he commends for singular learning and Piety I find no such matter in the Relation that I have though I have searched after it both by considering what went before and what comes after as farre as he treats of the same matter Whether this comes in a second Edition I know not in mine I find no such thing So that the weight of this motive hitherto lies wholly upon the authority of this Gentleman And surely I should think it were nothing hard to counterballance this authority to the full And it may be he speaks herein no other thing then wherein he was endoctrinated by his Tutor as lately an ingenious and grave divine differing from us in the poynt of reprobation most ingeniously acknowledged that he was brought into that opinion of his by his Tutor who was a Lutheran And I doubt we have too many such amongst us Of late I have heard that one of good place spared not openly to professe saying Call us as we ought to be called for we are Lutherans I would wee had not too many Popish-hearted amongst us Thirdly whereas this Gentleman adviseth us to revise the Doctrines and this Author accommodates it only to Gods eternall decrees I have already performed this and qualified the rigour of some mens opinions thereabouts For whereas some have subordinated Gods decree of permitting sinne to the decree of damnation I have taken another course and doe maintain that in no moment of nature is the decree of damnation before the decree of permitting finall perseverance in sinne Again I presume this Gentlemans meaning is not that the doctrine of the Church of England is rigorous as touching Gods eternall decrees I willingly professe I desire no better triall of the truth of the Doctrine I maintain hereabouts next unto the Word of God then to be tried by the 17 th Article of the Church of England and by the Articles of the Church of Ireland set forth in the daies of King James Thirdly I would it were put unto this Gentleman if he be living Whether in his Opinion God of his free grace doth bestow faith and repentance on some thereby to cure that naturall infidelity and hardnesse of heart which is originally found in all and of his meer pleasure he denies it unto other Or whether finding some morall difference or preparation in one more then in another is hereupon moved to give faith and repentance unto them and deny it unto others If he shall acknowledge that God doth shew his mercy to whom he will that is of his meer pleasure and denies it to whom he will I am ready to professe that let him state Gods eternall decrees after what manner he will I shall willingly subscribe thereunto provided it be suitable unto the former ground and as for the unsuitable nature thereof if in case it so fall out let the proofe and evident demonstration thereof lye on mee But if his opinion be that God bestowes faith and repentance on man moved thereunto by some morall preparation which he finds in one rather then in another I appeale to the Lutherans themselves whether this be not in plain termes no better then Pelagianisme As for his calling their opinions in this poynt speculative opinions as this Author would have us observe I am willing to observe it and withall I think he doth it with better judgement then this Author doth in calling them practicall And whereas it is pretended that our Divines have been carried into these opinions of theirs in opposition to Popish Doctrine This is so out of season in these daies notwithstanding the raw judgement of this Author that our Arminians spare not to
that believeth and it is most true that in like manner Christ hath procured the salvation of every one that believes so that here is a truth to feed upon and they that oppose it are strengthned in their vaine confidence by a meere mist of confusion which they raise unto themselves and others that so they may set the better face upon that lye which they hold in their right hand wherewith they are so enamoured that they had rather forsake their own mercies then forgoe it And so I come to the third and last reason in generall drawn from Gods justice DISCOURSE SUBSECT III. THe third reason why absolute Reprobation infringeth Gods justice is because it will have him to punish men for the omission of an act which is made impossible unto them by his own decree not by that decree alone whereby he determined to give them no power to believe having lost it but by that decree also by which he purposeth that we should partake with Adam in his sinne and be stripped of all that supernaturall power which we had by Gods free grant bestowed upon us in Adam before the fall These are my reasons which move me to think that this absolute decree is repugnant to Gods justice TWISSE Consideration I Have already shewed how Gods decree and impossibility arising upon supposition thereof doth no way prejudice the liberty of the creature as by pregnant passages of the Scripture is made plaine unto us And as for the other decree here spoken of First it is untrue which he supposeth that God by a speciall decree decreed all mankind to be made partakers of Adams sinne and therein to be stripped of all supernaturall power which before the had by Gods free grant For if it were just with God to decree that Adams nature upon his sinning should be bereaved of all supernaturall power which formerly he enjoyed this and this alone should suffice to bereave all his posterity of supernaturall power to doe that which is good For seeing all his posterity did receive their natures from Adam after his fall they must therewithall necessarily receive their natures from him bereaved of all supernaturall power unto that which is good untill such time as God be pleased of his free grace to restore it by regeneration 2. Is it not good reason that God for Adams sinne should bereave us of all supernaturall power in Adam as of his meere grace he did adorne us all with supernaturall power in Adam 3. Notwithstanding this depravation of supernaturall power in Adam yet we acknowledge that neverthelesse whatsoever sinne a man commits he committeth freely and the Schoole hath taught it before us Aquin. p. 1. q. 23. art 3. ad 3. licet aliquis non possit gratiam adipisci qui reprobatur a Deo tamen quòd in hoc peccatum vel illud labatur ex ejus libero arbitrio contingit undè merito sibi imputatur in culpam DISCOURSE SUBSECT IV. TWo things are usually answered First that there are many things delivered for truths in Scripture among which this is one which are above the reach of humane capacity and therefore are we quietly to submit as to other revealed truths so to this and not to be so bold as to examine the justice of this decree or any thing else in it by our shallow and erring understandings But this answer takes not away the arguments for I have these things to reply 1. That though there be diverse things revealed in Gods word which are above reason viz. That there are three Persons and one God and that Christ was borne of a Virgin that the world was made of nothing that the dead shall be raised c. to all which we must captivate our understandings and yeeld a firme assent propter authoritatem dicentis yet there is nothing revealed therein abhorring from and odious to sound and right reason for it cannot be that the most excellent gifts of God Faith and Reason Nature and Scripture should overthrow one another and that the wise God who is the fountain of all right reason should discover any thing to us in his word or enjoyne us any thing to be believed which is vere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 truly and properly unreasonable Our faith is an act of our service of God and Gods service is cultus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a reasonable service Rom. 12. 2. and Gods word is also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 milk reasonable and without guile they are so called no doubt to shew that there is a sweet harmony between faith and reason things revealed and mens understandings though there be a disproportion yet there is no contradiction between them 2. That therefore all those Doctrines which are adverse and repugnant to understandings purged from prejudice and false principles are not to be taken for doctrines of Scripture but devices of men corrupting Scripture by false glosses and interpretations and consequently that this absolute reprobation of so many millions of miserable men out of Gods only will and pleasure because it is most irkesome to the eares and understandings of all sorts of men best and worst that stand indifferent to the entertainment of any truths that may appeare to be so is no doctrine of the Text no part of the word of God 3. That howbeit some things in Scripture which are peculiar to the Gospell are above our understandings and must without hesitation be believed yet there are many things there which have their foundation in nature and may be apprehended by the light of nature and demonstrated by reason and among these things the justice of Gods waies is one as I have shewed before out of Isaiah 5. 3. and Ezek. 18. and it is but a meer evasion when the absolute decree is proved by sound reasons to be unjust to say reason is blind and must not be judge but the Scripture only for God offers the justice of his waies to the tryall of reason TWISSE Consideration THis Author seems to swell in the conceit of his rationall performances as if never any fly sitting upon a cart-wheele in a Sommers day had made such a dust as he had made And fashioning to himselfe a victorious conquest as if all his adversaries were but Pigmies to this Anakim glad to runne into corners or into Acorn-cups to hide themselves there For his reasons like some hobgoblins doe so fright them more then all the spirits that stand by the naked man in the book of Moones And therefore all the help they have if we believe this Pyrgopolinices is to charme them by saying that many things are delivered in Scripture which are above the reach of humane capacity among which this is one c. And I take this to be sound For otherwise why should the Doctrine of Godlinesse be called a mystery of Godlinesse And the Schooles teach that Fides est assensus inevidens and Cajetan who was no gras-hopper as great an Anakim as this Author or
of a divine power supreame Now as God made himself known by his works so I nothing doubt but herewithall it was their duty to know him and according to their knowledge to serve him and glorifie him in acknowledgment of his glorious nature so farre as they took notice of it But as for a rule whereby they should worship him I know none that God had given them or that they could gather from contemplation of the creatures And surely the knowledge of God as a Creator only is nothing sufficient to salvation but the knowledge of him as a redeemer And therefore seeing the World by wisdome knew not God in the wisdome of God it pleased God by the foolishnesse of Preaching to save them that believe 1 Cor. 1. 21. And the Gentiles are set forth unto us in Scripture as such who knew not God 1 Thes 4. 5. 2 Thes 1. 8. And had they means sufficient without and ability sufficient within to know him How could it be that none of them should know him Was it because they would not How absurd a conceit is this to every one that understands and considers common Principles of Philosophy namely that the things that are subject to our free-will are contingentia aequaliter as soon falling out one way as the other And it is well known not only what paines they have taken but also with what strange successe in searching after the nature of the first mover as appears by Aristotle in the 12 th of his Metaphysicks Yet did not he attain for ought ever I could find to the acknowledgement of his free agency in the making of the world and in the government thereof Yet were they inexcusable and thus farre their knowledge brought them Rom. 1. 20. in changing the glory of the incorruptible God to the similitude of the image of a corruptible man and of birds and of fourefooted beasts and of creeping things The other place is Acts 17. 26. That he takes to be more full for his purpose there the Apostle speaking in an University and which had been miserably corrupted with the Atheisticall doctrine of Aristotle concerning an eternity of the World and Gods working necessarily not freely tending to the quenching of that light of naturall instinct which is more or lesse found in all as touching the Divine providence yet the Apostle even amongst such makes bold to suppose the creation of the World by God and that therefore he is Lord of Heaven and Earth and also obtrudeth upon their naturall consciences that God it is who giveth life and breath and all things and that he of one bloud whom we know to be Adam made all mankind to dwell on all the face of the Earth that he hath assigned the seasons of the yeare and what are they but Spring Summer Autumne Winter depending upon the motions of the heaven above and the bounds of their habitations what is that but the severall habitable parts of the earth for the habitation of all creatures in whose Nostrills is the breath of life not that every man or Nation hath his place of habitation appoynted by God though this also be true but nothing agreeable to Arminian Divinity which like an East wind blasts the providence of God throughout this the Apostle doth not obtrude upon them but the former generalls only and all this God hath done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they should seeke the Lord now this may be understood two waies either de facto God did intend that this indeed should be done by them or ex officio that it should be their duty of this distinction this Author takes no notice but hand over head takes it in the first sense as it were in spight both of the Apostle saying Who hath resisted his will And of the Psalmist professing that what he willeth he hath done both in Heaven and Earth But indeed this is mans duty to endeavour to know him that made him to this purpose he hath indued him with an understanding heart The spirit of man being as the lampe of God which searcheth all inwardnesse But as for the words following if happily they might seeke after him and find him though he be not farre from every one of us so that though he be not farre from every one of us in as much as in him we live and move and have our being and though they should seeke after him yet upon an if the Apostle plainly puts the finding of him For albeit Durand professeth that by the very light of nature we may attaine to the knowledge of God touching these things that belong to the unity of his nature yet who ever amongst the Gentiles attained hereunto after all their search God hath set the World in mans heart saith Solomon yet can he not find out the worke that he hath wrought from the beginning to the end we are yet to seeke in the knowledge of the creature how much more in the knowledge of the Creator Yet what shall all such knowledge profit a man if he be ignorant in the knowledge of him as a redeemer I come to Prosper l. 2. De vocatione Gentium cap. 4. God hath so disposed of the World as that the reasonable creature by the contemplation of Gods workes and tast of so many blessings imbuerctur he doth not say might be drawne but imbueretur might be indued to wit with the knowledge of God in such sort as to move him ad cultum dilectionem Dei. And all here mentioned both as touching the knowledge of God and touching the service and love of him is but as the object of mans duty signifying what ought to be done by him not as the object of Gods decree as whereby he determined what should be done indeed by him For had he determined this who could have resisted him Shall we say that voluntatis omnipotentis effectus impeditur a voluntate creaturae as Austin expresseth the absurdity hereof As for that which followeth not in the same Chapter as this Author writes whether out of his own reading or mistaking anothers dictates I know not but in the chapter following to wit c. 2. the former place being indeed c. 1. according to my book not cap. 4. As this Author quotes it And it is a truth considered in generall for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to seeke the Lord God did move both Jewes and Gentiles the Jewes by his word over above his workes but the Gentiles only by his workes But the manner of the revelation made to the one and to the other was farre different as the same Author expresseth cap. 3. Aliter eos juvit quos ad cognoscendum se caeli terrae testimoniis conveniebat aliter illos quibus non solum elementorum famulatu sed etiam doctrina legis Prophetarum oraculis miraculorum signis Angelorum cooperationibus consulebat c. God he saith intended not to feed the Gentiles with outward and more common blessings
instructer think that Christ was sent to merit faith and regeneration for all then either absolutely or conditionally if absolutely then all must believe de facto and be regenerated if conditionally then let them discover unto us this condition and avoyd direct Pelagianisme if they can 2. Indeed we think the word is not sent to all that perish we find it by manifest experience in reference to Ministry humane and if they have so strenuously rubd their own foreheads as to faine out of their own heads a Ministry Angelicall let them not expect that we should take their forgeries for Oracles Divine 3. It is not true that where it is sent among them that perish 't is sent only that they should slight it it may be sent as well ut proficiant ad exteriorem vitae emendationem quo mitius puniantur as for those that doe slight it and stumble at it being disobedient Saint Peter plainly saith that hereunto they were ordained Let them therefore cry downe Peter first and then we will take it in good part to be cryed downe also And if God sent his Sonne into the World to be crucified by some why might not he as well send the Preaching of Christ into the World to be slighted and despised by others and Saint Paul hath professed that the Preachers of it are unto God a sweet savour in Christ even in them that perish Yet we say not that this is the end why God sends it to any But we say God both sends it and permits many to slight it and to persevere in the contempt of it that he may manifest his glory in their just condemnation and declare thereby also the riches of his glory on the vessells of mercy whom he hath prepared unto glory by making it appeare what a mercifull difference God hath put between them and others To the particulars subordinate hereunto I answer distinctly thus 1. God deceives none in calling them to Salvation in the name of his Sonne by the preaching of his Word any more by our Doctrine than by the Doctrine of this Author for as he maintaines that God intends Salvation to all men no otherwise than in case they believe so doe we and as we maintaine that God doth fully intend to most the contrary but no otherwise than in case they believe not so doth he only as touching the obtaining of faith and regeneration here is the difference between us we maintaine with Saint Paul that God hath mercy on whom he will in bestowing the grace of faith and regeneration and hardeneth whom he will by denying of it soe doth not he and accordingly we say Christ merited faith and regeneration for his elect But the Remonstrants openly professe that he merited faith and regeneration for none at all Hereby let the indifferent judge which of us makes God the greatest deceiver they or we And the truth is this Author nor his instructer are willing to discover themselves in this poynt for feare least nothing should save them from breaking their necks but to be received upon the featherbed of Pelagianisme so fearfull a precipice is likely there to meet with them at the margent of this there stands a wild quotation thus Suffrag Britaine p. 43. as if the Author was loath his meaning should be found or it may be in transcribing the coppy sent him he did mistake But the Article upon which these Theses are dilivered he utterly leaves out like as in his former quotation of the sufferages But after much searching I guesse I find that which he refers unto on the 3. Article 3. Position which is pag 166. in Synod Dordare and in the English sufferages of our Divines of Great Britaine the position is this whome God doth thus prepare by his Spirit as was signifyed in the former position through the meanes of the word those doth he truly and seriously invite and call to faith and conversion I make no question but whatsoever God doth he doth truly and seriously And as for that sancta simulatio which this Author formerly upbraided our Divines with for attributing it unto God I have formerly discovered the false nature of that aspertion though he thought to walke in the clouds that his jugling might not be discovered The explicatiō of the position is added thus By the nature of the benefit offered and by the evident word of God we must judge of those helpes of graces which are bestowed on men and not by the abuse of them Therefore when the Gospell of its ' owne nature calls men unto repentance and Salvation when the incitements and Divine graces tend the same way wee must not thinke any thing is done fainedly by God this is proved too All these I willingly acknowledge neither doe I know any of our Divines that deny it and more particularly I am willing to particulate wherein I take it to consist God hereby doth signify that as many as believe shall be Saved and so I say he doth seriously intend as much as likewise that none shall be saved without faith likewise God doth signify that he is well pleased with faith and conversion in whomsoever he finds it and herein he deales most truly and seriously likewise hereby he signifies his own will to make it their duty to believe which also is most true and serious But none of all these I know full well will satisfy these with whom wee deale unlesse we acknowledge that God hath a kind of velleity also both of their conversion and salvation but let them shew me any passage out of these Suffrages where this is acknowledged They adde If God should not seriously invite all whom he vouchsafeth this gift of his Word and spirite to a serious conversion surely both God should deceive many whom he calls in his Sonnes name and the messengers of the Evangelicall promise might be accused of falsewitnesse and those which being called to conversion doe neglect to obey might be more excusable All this I willingly grant neither doe I know any Divine of ours that denyes it according to the three particulars formerly specifyed wherein I desired to explicate the truth and seriousnesse of all this though those worthy Divines of ours goe not so farre As for their last clause which is this For that calling by the Word and spirit cannot be thought to leave men unexcusable which is only exhibited to this end to make them unexcusable I willingly confesse I doe not sufficiently understand them in this For albeit I have already particulated divers things werein the seriousnesse of this Divine invitation doth consist neither doe I find any end of this Divine invitation mentioned at all by these our Divines whom from my heart I honour for their just desert yet to me it seemes most cleare that Revelation doth so necessarily take away excuse upon pretence of ignorance and admonition and invitation as necessarily takes away excuse upon pretence of not being admonished and invited that if God
to permit him to sinne in what kind or degree soever to expose him to any degree of condemnation or as if the Creator hath not power to doe what he will with his creature any more than an Usurer hath over his poore brother or Saul over David or the like Thus the consideration of his third reason I have brought to an end I come to the Fourth DISCOURSE The Fourth Reason It is prejudiciall to Piety SECT I. MY Fourth Generall against absolute reprobation is It is a hinderance of Piety it serveth to discourage holinesse and encourage prophanenesse It makes Ministers negligent in Preaching Praying and every duty else that tends to the eternall good of their People It makes people carelesse also of hearing reading praying instructing their families examining their consciences fasting and mourning for their sinnes and all other godly exercises In a word it cuts asuder in my opinion the very sinewes of religion and pulls away the strongest inducements to an holy life Therefore it is no true and wholsome doctrine That it doth so it will appeare these two waies that follow 1. It takes away Hope and Feare Hope of attaining any good by Godlinesse Feare of sustaining any hurt by wickednesse and so it takes away two principall props of Religion This reason may be resolved into two branches Hope and Feare uphold Godlinesse Were it not for these it would fall to ruine by these are men strongly led on to vertue and with-held from vice 1. Hope doth excitare stirre men up to beginne and corroborare strengthen in the doing of any good action begunne By this hope of heaven did our Saviour stirre up himselfe to endure the Crosle and despise the shame Heb. 12 By this he heartned his Disciples to doe and suffer for his sake Math. 5. 11. Abraham left his Country and kindred at Gods call because he looked for a Citty whose builder and maker was God Heb. 11. 8 9 10. Moses left all the pleasures and treasures of Aegypt and endured afflictions with the people of God because he saw him that was invisible v. 27. The Martyrs endured racks gibbets Lyons sword fire with a world of other torments because they looked for a better resurrection v. 35. Paul endeavours alwaies to keep a good conscience through the hope of a blessed resurrection Acts 24. 15. All the heroicall acts of active and passive obedience have sprung from the hope of a weight of glory Husbandmen Souldiers Merchants are all whetted on by hope to diligence in their callings as daily experience shewes Hope saith Aquinas confert ad operationem and he proveth it first by Scripture 1 Cor. 9. 10. He which Eareth and Thresheth must Eare and Thresh in hope And then by a twofold reason 1. From the Nature of hopes object Bonum arduum possible some excellent good attainable by industry Existimatio ardut excitat attentionem hope to get that by paines which is conceived to be a thing of worth stirres up to paines taking 2. From the effect of hope which is delectatio an inward pleasure which the party that lives under hope is affected with by his hope There is no man which hath an inward contentment and satisfaction of heart in the work that he hath to doe but goes on merrily The hope of Heaven therefore is a great encouragement to piety 2. The feare of Hell also is a strong curb to hold men in from Wickednesse and therefore saith one God hath planted in men a feare of vengeance that by it as the ship by the rudder the soule may be presently turn'd aside from any rocks or gulfes or quick-sands of sinne when it is neere them and so may steere its course another way For this cause feare of God and abstaining from evill are often joyned together in Scripture Job 1. 1. Exod. 1. 17. And the want of this feare is made the root of all licentiousnesse in sinning Gen. 20. 11. Nor doth feare only hinder a bad action but it promotes a good It hinders a bad action directly because it is fuga mali a flying from that evill of misery which is annexed to the evill of sinne and it promotes a good action accidentally because men think that they are never so safe from the mischiefe which they feare as when they are exercised in such imployments as tend to the getting of a contrary state Worke out your salvation saith the Apostle with feare and trembling implying that the working out of salvation goes not on handsomly except the fear of missing it be an ingredient to the work The second branch of this Reason is That by the absolute decree Feare and hope are taken away For hope is properly exercised about Bonum futurum possibile haberi some good thing that may be obtained not a good thing that must be obtained of necessity and the object of feare is malum possibile vitari an evill that may be escaped For metus est fuga mali feare is a flying from evill and therefore supposeth that the evill is avoydable for no man will fly from an evill that cannot be prevented but will yeild himselfe up to it as Caesar did to the murtherers in the Senate house Now by this decree Heaven and Hell are not objecta possibilia but necessaria Heaven shall unavoydably be obtained by those that are elected and Hell must as certainly be endured by those that in Gods eternall purpose are rejected For men have no power to alter their eternall states all men by this decree are precisely determined ad unum to one state to necessary salvation or necessary damnation without any power or liberty to choose whether And from hence the conclusion is cleere that the absolute decree takes away the chiefest inducements to holinesse and determents from wickednesse and consequently hinders a Godly life exceedingly TWISSE Consideration TRavailers report of the Territory of Venice that the farther they goe into it the stronger and stronger they find it But such is not the condition of this Authors discourse for the farther I wade into it the weaker and weaker it appeares And to this I answer first in generall That our Brittaine Divines make answer to the like crimination made against our Doctrine upon the 5. Article p. 168. according to the English translation of it saying Both Gods truth and mans experience easily wipe off this aspersion For this Christian perswasion of perseverance and salvation not only in respect of its own nature but also according to the very event in the Church doth by Gods blessing produce a quite contrary effect First in respect of the thing it selfe The certainty of the end doth not take away but establish the use of the meanes And the same holy men who upon sure grounds promise unto themselves both constancy in the way of this Pilgrimage and fruition of God in their everlasting home know also that these are not obtained without performance of the duties of holinesse and the avoydance of
of our Children to love the Lord our God with all our hearts to take the stony heart out of our bowells and give us an heart of flesh and to put his own spirit within us as he seeth our waies so to heale them yea to heale our back-slidings to heale our rebellions All this this sweet comforter takes no notice of contenting himselfe with such a grace to be merited for him by Christ as this if he will believe he shall believe if he will repent he shall repent if he will love God with all his heart he shall love him with all his heart Yet when a man doth believe they are able to give him no assurance of his salvation or of his election because they maintaine that a man may totally and finally fall away from grace And all because their doctrine is that Gods effectuall grace in working the act of faith and repentance is given meerely according to mens works Tempted God purposed that his Sonne should dye for all men and that in his name an offer of remission of sinnes and salvation should be made to every one but yet upon this condition that they will doe that which he meanes the greatest part shall never doe i. e. Repent and believe nor I among the rest CONSIDERATION How doth God meane that the greatest part of men shall never believe and repent by our opinion Is it in this sence that they shall not believe and repent if they will When was it ever knowne that any of our Divines ever wrote or taught this We think rather it is impossible it should be otherwise therefore say it is a very absurd thing to call this Grace as the Arminians doe Indeed we say that God doth not meane by his preventing grace to work the wills of the greatest part of men to believe repent Doe not the Arminians say so too Yes verily and a great deale more for they deny that he workes any mans will to believe and repent in this manner but we say God purchaseth thus to worke the wills of all his chosen ones and when he hath wrought them to keepe them by his power through faith unto Salvation and put his feare in their hearts that they shall never depart a way from him Jer 32. 40. And upon this ground we can assure believers of their election which Arminians cannot And them that believe not keepe from dispaire in better manner then the Arminians can for they leave them to themselves to believe whereas the Scriptures shew that to be impossible so that they take upon them to comfort such quite against the haire But we comfort them with a possibility of being converted unto God by representing his allmighty power whose voyce is able to pierce into the graves and make dead Lazarus heare it This power he shewed in converting Saul when he marched furiously Jehu like against the Church of God Therfore be thou of good comfort especially considering thou art as it were under the wings of God thou hearest his voyce many come out of their graves at his call some at one time some at another and so maist thou God knowes how soone then shalt thou be assured of thine election which by Arminianisme thou canst not be in the meane time thou hast no cause to conclude that thou art a Reprobate Minister God hath a true meaning that all men who are called should repent and believe that so they might be saved as he would have all to be saved so to come to the knowledge of the truth and as he would have no man to perish so he would have all men to repent and therefore he calls them in the Preaching of the word to the one as well as to the other CONSIDERATION He keepes his course to afford thee the best comfort his doctrine yeelds which is as much as is incident to a Reprobate and how that should make thee conceive better of thy selfe then as of a Reprobate I doe not perceive Gods meaning is that as many as heare the Gospell should believe and repent ex officio that is that it shall be their duty for he commands it but he hath no meaning to bestow on all and every one the grace of faith and repentance as appeares by experience And if God did will they should de facto believe and be saved then either God is not able to bring them to faith and to save them or else his will is changed In like sort if it were his will that all and every one should know his truth then God is not able to make all and every one know his truth for it is apparent that all doe not it is apparent that all have not the Gospell The Apostle saith That God will not have any of us to perish but all to come to repentance he doth not say he would but he will And this is true of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as the Apostle speakes of believers and elect But as for others the Scriptures plainly professe that God blinds them hardens them and of Israell in the wildernesse The Lord saith Moses hath not given you an heart to perceive nor eyes to see nor eares to heare unto this day Deut 29. 4. He calls all that heare the Gospell indifferently by the Ministry of the Word but he openeth not the heart of all to attend unto it as to the Word of God like as we read he opened the heart of â—idia Acts. 16. 14. Tempted God hath a double call outward by his word inward by the irresistible work of his spirit with this he doth not call every man to believe but a very few only whom he hath infallibly and inevitably ordained to eternall life and therefore by the outward call which I enjoy among many others I cannot be assured of Gods good will and meaning that I shall believe repent and be saved CONSIDERATION Our Doctrine teacheth not that God calls every one by his Word that is an Arminian interjection But the outward call belongs to many more then are chosen as our Saviour sayth many are called but few are chosen Indeed he gives faith and repentance to a very few which no Arminian denyes only the Question is Whether God gives faith and repentance to whom he will or according to mens works We saytis to whom he will proceeding herein according to the meere pleasure of his will and not according to mens workes which to affirme is manifest Pelagianisme and publikely condemned many hundred yeares agoe It is true if thou dost not believe Gods Word doth not assure thee that he will make thee believe that were to assure thee of thine election before thy vocation a most unreasonable thing to be expected But God by his word assures thee that t is his meaning that without faith thou shalt not be saved Yet there is no cause thou shouldest think thy selfe a Reprobate for this was the condition of every one of Gods elect before their calling
decree which is to be called the decree of the means So that like as God doth not intend the creatures creation before he intends his damnation in the same respect he cannot be said to intend his damnation before he intends his creation or the permission of his sinne And this rightly considered sets an end unto all quarrell about the different consideration of Man in election and reprobation which yet is about a Schoole point only touching the right stateing of the end and the means and the right ordering of Gods decrees concerning them And doth it not set an end also to all aspersions of cruelty cast upon the holy providence of God from the guilt of which kind of blasphemies nothing can free them but confidence in their own way as if it were the way of truth and that by convincing evidence of holy Scripture Whereas it appears how little direction they take from the Word of God throughout for the shaping of their Tenent in this Yet neither is any such confidence able to free them from the guilt of such blasphemies which they utter well it may free them from the conscience of it yet if it doe that is more than I know And only to these two ends doth this aliene discourse of our different opinions thereabouts tend as I conceive namely to shew the difference of our Divines and to give vent to those aspersions of blasphemy on the first way as also to make way for a third in part which comes to be considered in the next Section in the manner how they fall upon the relation of the second way Yet Arminius in his Conference with Junius might have informed him of three opinions concerning the object of Predestination dividing the fruit of these into two The condition of man before the Fall being considerable two waies either as before the Fall but after Creation which they call the Masse created but not yet corrupted or as not before the Fall only but before the creation also which we commonly call the Masse not yet created or Mankind not yet created As touching the most harsh way of these three upon examination of Arminius his twenty arguments against it I find nothing worth the speaking of but meere suggestion of flesh and bloud which yet being duely pondered doe discover most shamefull nakednes His arguments against the making of Mankind not yet created the object of predestination I have proposed and answered in my Vindiciae gratiae Dei lib. 1. De Praedestin digress 5. if this Author hath any mind to be doing with them I shall be ready to consider what he saith as God shall give opportunity And in Junius you shall finde how he laboureth to reconcile them but very obscurely Piscator also sets hand to the same work and carryeth himselfe therein as his manner is very clearely by distinguishing three acts in Predestination The first whereof he will have to presuppose Mankind not created for it is the decree of creating man to different ends The second he will have to presuppose Mankind created but not corrupted for it is the decree of permitting Adam to fall and all Mankind in him The third and last he will have to presuppose Mankind both created and corrupted for it is the decree of raising some out of sin wherein they are conceived and borne and leaving some therein As for the Angells it is without question that election and reprobation divine had course concerning them as well as concerning mankind and as certain it is that no corrupt Masse could be the object of divine Predestination in their election and reprobation As for Arminius his ordering of Gods decrees in opposition to these waies taken by our Divines that he hath communicated unto us in the Declaration of his opinion before the States pag 47. where leaving out the decree of creating mankind in Adam and the decree of permitting all mankind to fall in Adam he takes into consideration only the divine decrees of saving sinfull man 1. The first whereof is Whereby he decreed to make his Sonne Christ a Mediator Redeemer Saviour Priest and King by his death to abolish sin by his obedience to obtain Salvation formerly lost and by his power to communicate it And this decree he saith is absolute 2. The second is Whereby he decreed to receive into grace such as believe and repent and those persevering unto the end to save in Christ for and by Christ but such as believe and repent not to leave under sin and wrath and to damne as aliene from Christ. Where observe 1. This decree of saving such as believe and repent he calleth a decree absolute yet this decree passeth upon no particular persons such a decree is reserved for the last place 2. God with him receives none into grace and favour unles they believe and repent Whereby it is manifest that with him faith and repentance are no fruits of Gods grace and favour for they must be performed before they are received into Gods grace and favour 3. The third is Where by he decreed sufficiently and efficaciously to administer the means which are necessary to faith and repentance This decree whether he conceives it to be absolute or no he doth not specify nor whether he decreed to administer them unto all nor by whom whether by men only or by men or Angells nor whether by means he understands the Gospel only and we have cause to doubt thereof And lastly which is most obscure he doth not explicate what he means by sufficient and efficacious administration Only he adds that in this administration he carries himselfe according 1. To his Wisdome which shewes what becomes his mercy andseverity and 2 ly to his Justice whereby he is ready to follow the prescript of his Wisdome 4. The fourth and last is Whereby he decreed to save and damne certain particular persons Now whereas our Divines generally what way soever they took had a care out of their Logick and Philosophy which they had by light of nature to order the decrees divine according to the common Rules of Art concerning intentions as they are found to be either of some end or of some means tending to an end this seems to have been no part of Arminius his care This order of his I have ransaked in my Vindiciae lib. 3. digress 2. And if this Author think good he may answer thereunto and doe his best to qualify the absurdities wherewith I charge that order of his But as touching the embracers of this first way whose names he expresseth he had need to prove it For divers think otherwise of Calvin and they represent their reasons for it out of his own words such as these De aeternâ Dei Praedestinatione pag. 970. speaking of Pighius Augustinum ridet saith he ejusque similes hoc est pios emnes qui deum imaginantur postquam universalem Generis humani Ruinam in personâ Adae praesciverit alios ad vitam alios ad interitum destinasse
And whereas it is farther urged that hereby God is made the author of the first sin and of all sins As I find by D r Whitakers discourse in his Cygnaea Concio that were he alive he would answer hereunto That this Author takes his aime much amisse considering that the effect of Reprobation is not sin but the permission of sin and Gods means to the end intended by him to witt the manifestation of his glory in the way of vindicative justice is not sin but the Permission of sin according to that of Aquinas alleadged by the foresaid Doctor thus Sicut Praedestinatio includit voluntatem conferendi gratiam gloriam ita Reprobatio includit voluntatem permittendi cadere in culpam inferendi damnationis poenam pro culpâ And as I discern no unholinesse in Gods permitting of sin so neither doe I discerne any cruelty therein But D r Whitaker well perceived that this course of Gods counsells would seem injurious and therefore after he had proposed his last argument drawn from that of the Apostle Rom. 11. ô altitudo thus Vltimò illa Apostoli exclamatio ô altitudo hanc sententiam confirmat Neque enim tantae altitudinis est ut penetrari nequeat Deum odisse homines propter peccatum etiam antequà m nati sunt immò rationi convenientissimum est ut Deus ferre nequeat quod est naturae suae contrarium But marke wherein the depth the Apostle speaks of consists in his judgement Ib i demùm infinitum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Abyssus est divinae discretionis quando sine peccati ratione quidam reprobantur alii qui nihilo erant amore digniores ad vitam faelicitatem praedestinantur ut omnis ratio discretionis ad solam dei voluntatem referatur And because he knew full well that this mysterious depth of Gods counsell would seem very harsh to carnall affections as savouring of cruell and injurious proceedings therefore he takes expresse notice of it and that in Austins language saying Iniquum videtur Augustinus ait ut sine ullis bonorum malorumque operum meritis unum Deus diligat odiatque alterum whence he concludes according to Austin thus Deus igitur hunc diligit illumquè odit sine meritis ullis operum aut bonorum aut malorum Hoc videri possit alicui iniquum sed est aequissimum quia sic Deo visum est Neque Augustinus affirmare veritus est eos Apostoli verbum evacuare qui judicium divinae discretionis ad opera reducunt praevisa aut praeterita and so concludes the main point he insists on thus Non est igitur peccatum originale causa aeternae reprobationis nedum actuale So that both Austin and D r Whitaker and all our Divines knew full well in how harsh an accent this truth sounds in the eares of men yet because the word of God doth testify this truth unto us it becomes all Christian hearts to submit and to acknowledge the equity of it though we are not able to comprehend the reason of it Though I know full well some are so violently carried with the zeale of their own way that they spare not to professe that they will sooner deny that there is a God then yeeld to that which the Contra-Remonstrants teach which for ought I know is no other then this which D r Whitaker taught and Preached publiquely in the University of Cambridge being at that time Professor Regius And seeing we acknowledge the seeming harshnes of it as well as our Adversaries yet because we find it revealed in Gods word we hold it our duty to embrace it and therehence conclude that it is aequissimum Doth it become any one to take the course this Author takes and by a Parallel between this course of God and the courses of Tiberius as also by a saying of Zeno's servant to cry it down as iniquissimum and thence to conclude hand over head that the word of God doth not teach it Is this a Christian course is this Theologicall is this Scholasticall Yet in my judgement the harshnes lyeth not here to wit in the point of Gods purpose to inflict damnation considering that not one of our divines that I know doth maintaine that God did ever purpose to inflict damnation but for sin Or if there be any harshnes therein that is to be found in the kind and degree of punishment and everlastingnesse thereof God holding them everlastingly as it were upon the rack and in quick sence of torment And yet we maintaine without contradiction amongst Christians that it is just with God to doe so for one act of drunkennes or adultery or the like unrepented of which kind of punishment never any Tyrant in the world was known to take or could take But the harshnes in my opinion is most pregnant to bring forth distast on the other part of reprobation which is the purpose of God to deny grace this being denied to whom he will and that of meer pleasure for like as he shewes mercy on whom he will so the Scripture testifies that he hardens whom he will And not only Austin and D r Whitaker and our Divines generally doe take notice how unsavoury this doctrine is in the judgement of flesh and bloud especially in comparing it with Gods ordinary course of complaining of men for their disobedience even of those whom himselfe hath hardned but the holy Apostle also Rom. 9. 19. Thou wilt say then and is it so doth God harden whom he will Why then doth he yet complaine For who hath resisted his will Now in this case how doth the Apostle stop the mouthes of such but thus O man who art thou that disputest with God shall the thing formed say to him that formed it Why hast thou made me thus Hath not the Potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessell unto honour and another unto dishonour But let us come to the consideration of the Parallel here made between the counsells of Tiberius and the counsells of God This consists of two parts according to a double story of Tiberius taken out of Suetonius The first is his dealing with Drusus and Nero the two sonnes of Germanicus these varia fraude induxit ut concitarentur ad convitia concitati perderentur he used cunning contrivances to draw them to reproach him that so he might cover his cruelty in their death under a pretext of justice What these cunning contrivances are it is specified by Suetonius but I hope this Author will acknowledge that it stands him upon to represent what those cunning contrivances are which our doctrine imputes unto God to draw them to sinne against God Our Divines commonly teach that God as he is able to keep any man from sinne as he did the Angells that stood when their fellowes became Apostates the cause whereof Austin resolves into amplius Adjutorium given by God either in their creation or after De Civit. Dei lib. 12.
makes use of all his creatures in what condition soever he finds them even of Devills and wicked men to serve his turne by them either in the way of judgement or in the way of mercy and sometimes for triall of the faith and patience of his children is in Scripture phrase called Gods bidding or commanding And indeed it is farre more effectuall then his commandment And Austin by pregnant passages of holy Scripture convicted of this truth spareth not to professe as much in these words His talibus testimoniis divinorum eloquiorum quae omnia commemorare nimis longum est satis quantum existimo manifestatur operari Deum in cordibus hominum ad inclinandas eorum voluntates quocunquè voluerit sive ad bona pro suâ misericordiâ sive ad mala pro meritis eorum judicio utique suo aliquando aperto aliquando occulto semper autem justo De Grat. lib. Arbitr cap. 21. And touching this particular case of Shimei inquiring about the interpretation of it see I pray how he resolves concerning it Quomodo dixerit dominus huic homini maledicere David Quis sapiens intelliget Non enim jubendo dixit ubi obedientia laudaretur sed quod ejus voluntatem proprio vitio suo malam in hoc peccatum judicio suo justo occulto inclinavit Ideò dictum est dixit ei dominus Nam si jubenti obtemper asset Deo laudandus potius quam puniendus esset sicut ex hoc peccato posteà novimus esse punitum And he proceeds farther to shew the reason of this divine providence Nec causa tacita est cur ei Deus justo modo dixerit maledicere David hoc est Cor ejus malum in hoc peccatum miserit vel dimiserit ut videat inquit dominus humilitatem meam retribuat mihi bona pro maledictio ejus in die isto And hereupon concludes Ecce quomodo probatur Deum uti cordibus etiam malorum ad laudem atque adjumentum bonorum Sic usus est Iuda tradente Christum Sic usus est Iudaeis crucifigentibus Christum quanta inde bona praestitit populis credituris Qui ipso utitur diabolo pessimo sed optimè ad excercendam probandam fidem pietatem bonorum non sibi quia omnia scit antequam fiant sed nobis quibus erat necessarium ut eo modo ageretur nobiscum But let us proceed to provocations unto other sins not in the way of exasperation but in the way of allurements Achan was a covetous person at the sacking of Jericho it was his hap to light among the spoyle upon a goodly Babylonish garment and two hundred shekells of silver and a wedge of gold of fifty shekells waight Was not so faire a prey a sore temptation to a covetous person How was Demosthenes taken with a rich bowle that was shewed him by Harpalus but there was great danger in it I confesse yet if desire of prey doth sometimes overrun the sent may it not as well overcome the feare of danger especially considering the opportunity of secrecy to convey it closely into his Tent and hide it there I saw saith he and I coveted them and took them and behold they lye hid in the earth in the midst of my Tent and the silver under it Now can it be denied but that God by his providence brought him into this temptation and consequently into this provocation for to tempt is to provoke 1 Chron. 21. 1. And is it not just with God to bring any man into such temptations of what kind or in what degree soever seeing no temptation or provocation in this kind or degree bereaves a man of the liberty of his will If not what meant our Saviour to teach his Disciples and in them us to pray unto God that He will not lead us into temptation And what cause hath Achan to complaine of this temptation We do not read he did was it not the condition of many others as well as himselfe Was this prey that he ceazed on the only spoyle of that great Citty Were there no Babylonish garments but that one no more silver or wedges of gold but that Achan lighted on Yet they refrained some out of the feare of God that restrained them in a gracious manner and kept them from sinning against him others though not out out of a feare of God yet out of the feare of punishment were moved to beware how they transgressed For albeit Libertas sine gratia non est libertas sed contumacia as * Austin writes yet feare of punishment oftimes restraines from committing capitall crimes though this restraint be not gracious and considerations of lesse force then these doe prevaile many times with carnall men both to abstain from evill and to doe that which is good though not in a gracious manner As we read in the Gospell of a wicked Judge that neither feared God nor reverenced man yet he would doe the Widdow justice to ease himselfe of her importunate sollicitations where with she molested him Come we to provocations unto sinne of another nature in satisfying the concupiscence of the flesh David arising out of his bed at eventide and walking upon the roof of the Kings Pallace from the roofe he saw a Woman washing her selfe and the Woman was very beautifull to look upon we know what followed hereupon Now was it not God that lead him into this temptation into this provocation Surely if this were not just with God it were in vaine for us to pray that God will not lead us into temptation for we need not feare any such temptation which cannot befall us without violation of Gods justice in the course of his providence Paul the Apostle least he should be exalted out of measure through the abundance of revelations made unto him which were very dangerous to puff a man up and make him swell in the conceit of his own worthinesse being admitted into the secrets of God was sometimes exercised with a thorne in the flesh the messenger of Satan sent to buffet him But the feare of God was alive in him and stirred up his faith to pray unto God three times that it might depart from him and the Lord made him a gracious answer not as yet to deliver him but to support him in this conflict and give him the victory over it For the Lord said unto him my grace is sufficient for thee for my power is made perfect in thy weaknesse This answer put heart into Paul Therefore saith he will I very gladly rejoyce rather in mine infirmities that the power of Christ may dwell in me Mark I pray Rahter in mine infirmities He would not blame God for thus exercising him but rather rejoyce to be thus exercised for as much as this same should doe him no harme for by vertue of Christs power dwelling in him he should have the victory Secondly it should doe him good in preserving him from being exalted
hâc solummodo de causa quia haud perinde capiunt ea quae alias in Scholis in Disputationibus contra adversarios ut Paulus ait inter perfectos utiliter ex fundamentis eloquiorum Dei astrui solent Coram rudioribus ergo simplicior loquendi ratio ipsorum captui accommodatior est si dicamus Deum ad haereditatem regni caelestis elegisse certo salvare decrevisse eos omnes qui resipiunt in vera fide filii Dei ex hâc vitâ decedunt It s well known what order King Iames took in his time in the restraint of preaching this doctrine in the Pulpits by any under the degree of a Deane and counselled the States likewise to forbid the preaching of those controversall points amongst them And if it were wisdome in them to take this course without any prejudice to the truth of the doctrine why should Beza's with-holding from conference hereupon be any thing prejudiciall thereto But were there not other causes of moment to move him hereunto which this Author conceales and which Beza proposeth in the first place as namely that the Prince who invited them hereunto in his Letters Missive alleaged no other cause of that meeting but Infaelicem de Coenâ Domini controversiam that unhappy Controversy about the Supper of the Lord. Secondly that their Citties sent them over accordingly to this Conference for no other cause but to conferre thereabours This Iacobus Andreas acknowledgeth and giveth a reason why in those Letters of the Prince there was no mention made of those three Articles whereabout they were afterwards urged to conferre to wit quod illos in istis quoque dissidere non intellexerat Princeps Illustrissimus And thirdly because the Feast of Easter approched and they desired to be at home in their own Citties by that time Lastly doth if follow that because they declined the sifting the truth of these poynts as this Author phraiseth it after such a manner to wit by publique disputation doth it herehence follow that they declined the sifting of it They made this offer to propose their opinion herein and the confirmation of it out of the Word of God in private before the Prince and if Jacobus Andreas were pleased to propose any Theses against it they would take them along with them and upon consideration to addresse a convenient Answer thereunto This Beza sets down in that Preface Let D. Andrews shew if he can saith Beza hanc Christianae doctrinae partem aut à nostris sive scribendo sive concionando praetermissam aut a suis rectius acuratius quà m a nostris pertractatam And truly for my part I no way like such conferences being privy to mine own imperfections as having neither such strength of memory as to command a present use of my knowledge in these poynts upon all occasions nor such command of my passions as to keep them from breaking forth in such sort as might be obnoxious to censures not knowing how I might be provoked but certainly I feare not to come to the examination of any of their Writings or to offer mine own to be examined by any of them One thing I had almost omitted out of Beza in his Preface to the First Part of his Answer to these Acts. It was Beza's motion that all things passing between them on both sides might be set down in writing under the hands of Collators and this course I confesse I could willingly approve of and after this manner to conferre with any But this so faire a motion was rejected by Andreas He would conferre rather by word of mouth then by writing A second motion proposed by Beza was this that what was spoken on both sides might be set down in writing by Notaries chosen and appoynted thereunto by common consent But neither would Andreas admit of this Petivimus saith Beza initio ut utrinque omnia scriptis propria Collocutorum manu subsignatis agerentur Quod cum D. Andreae non placuisset qui verbis agi malebat for the Auditory was very propitious to him for the most part postulavi ut utrinque dicta à probatis utriusque partis consensu delectis Notariis exciperentur quae deinde cuique parti recognoscere addita subscriptione confirmare liceret Haec enim erat profectò justa sincera colloquendi ratio ut sic falsationi occurreretur Quum autem ne hoc quidem admitteret D. Andreas c. Now let any indifferent person that is not sowred with partiall affections judge whose carriage is to be thought in equity more prejudiciall to their cause the carriage of Andreas or the carriage of Beza I come to the Contra-Remonstrants unwillingnesse to conferre upon the poynt of reprobation What their reasons were I know not But this I am sure of the Scripture is free in speaking of election and expresse not so of reprobation leaving us to take notice of the condition of reprobation by its opposition to election And in conformity hereunto both Austin in his time and Remigius in his time and Bradwardine in his time speaks liberally of predestination but very sparingly of reprobation And the doctrine of reprobation as it is nothing lesse mysterious then that of election so it is farre more harsh to carnall affections And it is well known that at the time of the Hague Conference Barnavelt that ruled the rost amongst the States was too great a friend to the Arminian Party But what boldnesse doth this Author take in passing his suspicious censures upon a doctrine because some defenders of it at some time have been loath to come to entertaine a publique Conference thereupon For what argument call you this The Contra-Remonstrants would not be brought to give their reasons on this point therefore the doctrine of Austin delivered 1200 years or thereabouts before concerning the absolutenesse both of Predestination on the one side and of preterition on the other as Vossius acknowledgeth is to be suspended of untruth And if my readinesse to come to the triall hereon doth nothing credit the cause as maintained by others why should others unwillingnesse to come to the same triall be any disparagement to the same cause as it is maintained by me or any other It is well known that Peter Moulin concurring with us in the poynt of absolute predestination maintaines reprobation to proceed upon the divine foresight of finall perseverance in impenitency If this Author differed from us no more the M r Moulin doth and acknowledged the meer pleasure of God in giving grace to whom he will and denying it to whom he will I doe not think any friend of his would think any whit the worse of him or charge him with defection from the truth of God in this Neither can I think that he ever was of any other opinion considering how many worthy Divines opposite to the Arminians doe either conceive or at least seem to conceive that the purpose of God to damne doth presuppose
opposites And indeed it is the Word of God alone which is that spirituall light which giveth manifestation to all spirituall truth And consequently neither are they to be censured as blushing at the light that prefer to write quietly of these controversies then to conferre about them in some cases or that preferre conference by the penne as Beza did before conference by word of mouth though this better pleased the lipps of Jacobus Andreas Yet neither Beza did refuse to yeeld to Andreas his own way neither did either the Contra-Remonstrants at the Haghe Conference or the Divines of Dort refuse to treat of reprobation as well as election as formerly I have shewed by authenticall evidences But suppose Beza and his fellowes whether two or three had altogether declined to conferre at all as in my judgement they had good reason to refuse must this be censured their blushing at the light Austin professeth as I have formerly vouched him that there may be many causes of forbearing to deliver the truth at some times He little dreamed of exposing the truth thereby to such a censure as if it blushed at the light And if some few might be justly censured as blushing at the light must all for their sakes by the rules of justice be made obnoxious to the same censure and not the Doctors only but the Doctrine it selfe Is it not apparent that a true and sound doctrine may be weakly apprehended by many though learned and Veritas est temporis filia and the accurate handling and maintaining of the truth in plainer points then this of reprobation comes not to perfection but by degrees and after much ventilating of it in a ruder manner Thus I think I have crackt the crowne of this conclusion I may proceed with the greater facility to the rest 1. That Reprobation is an Head to any part of practicall Divinity I never read nor heard till now But yet in every theoreticall poynt as touching the nature of God and his attributes by the true doctrine thereof the glory of God and good of Religion is promoted by the erronious doctrine thereabouts it is as much impaired For like as it is blasphemy to attribute that unto God which doth not become him so is it blasphemy also to deny unto him that which doth become him As for the entertaining or refusing conference thereabouts I have already spoken sufficiently yet two particulars more I have to deliver which I purpose to subjoyne to the end of those five considerations here distinguished as remarkable ones if my memory failes me not 2. A Connexion I grant there is between election and reprobation and the clearing of the truth in the one doth give light unto the other But which of these is to be handled first that the clearing of the truth therein may give light to the stating of the other I should think no sober man would make question Yet the Remonstrants at the Synod of Dort were eager to begin with Reprobation but were therein generally censured by the consent of forraine Divines that assisted there But that one of them cannot be handled without the other is a palpable untruth as appears by the very practice of this Author himselfe and his own carriage in this businesse For he undertakes only the poynt of reprobation 3. As touching the third particular in charging the doctrine of reprobation with being the chiefe cause of all the uproares in the Church at that time this author takes to himselfe a strange liberty of discourse We read and heare of no small stirres in the Church of Rome between the Dominicans and the Jesuits but I never read that the Jesuits laid to the Dominicans charge that their Doctrine as touching the predetermination of the creatures will to every act thereof was the cause of any uproare in the Church of Rome But to the contrary rather I read that in the contention between the Dominicans and Jesuits in Rome it selfe wherein Valentianus through some heat in disputation caught a feaver whereof he dyed within three daies after of the relation whereof made by one Pet that had been a Priest in Oxford I was sometimes an eare witnesse The Jesuits were rather taxed for their heterodoxy in the poynt de auxiliis as Petrus Mattheus in his History reports it And from D. Jacksons mouth I have heard what a Spaniard should deliver upon the mention of Molina the Jesuit namely that he was the man qui tantos tumultus excitavit to wit in Spain But as for Churches Protestant he doth well to limit his crimination to a certain time For the stirre that was raised by Huberus in the Lutheran Churches was neither caused nor occasioned by our doctrine concerning reprobation Huberus his cause was a pertinacious standing for an universall Election It seems he hath relation only to the Haghe conference and the uproares as he calls them amongst the States only and their particular or provinciall congregations alone as it seems he denominates the Churches Now let us consider Who made those uproares were they the Contra-Remonstrants or the Remonstrants only If he chargeth this upon the Contra-Remonstrants let him prove it least he be justly censured for one of those wild beasts an Emperour was sometimes warned to beware of they were the slanderers If the Remonstrants were the authors of these uproares how doth he prove that the doctrine of reprobation was the chiefe cause of them Were not those Arminians voluntary agents in those uproares If they conceived their opposites doctrine to be unsound could they not oppose it without uproares without violent proceedings Againe their opposites doctrine was it never received or preached 'till those daies Or was there any uproare made thereupon 'till Arminius his innovating And is that the chief cause of an uproare which hath no such consequent ensuing untill it meets with some turbulent spirits which begin to stirre as innovators in a Church or State And yet was reprobation that alone whereupon they stirred Is it not apparent that about the five Articles commonly so called they conferred alike But he saith it was the chiefe cause and only saith it yet Molinaeus professing reprobation to proceed upon foresight of finall impenitency as in truth it cannot be denied but that as the Contra-Remonstrants professed as well in that Conference at the Hague as in the Synod of Dort that God did never intend to damne any man of ripe years but for finall perseverance in infidelity and impenitency Did their contentions hereupon either totally cease or in part But such criminations are nothing strange We know after what manner of greeting wicked Ahab saluted the holy Prophet Elijah Art thou he that troubleth Israel but he spared not to answer him I am not he that troubleth Israel but Thou and thy Fathers house In the like manner were Paul and Silas entertained Act. 16. 20. when being caught and brought before the Magistrates heard such an accusation made against them These men which are
discovered it selfe Here upon the deputies from the Churches of South and North Holland are sent unto him who acquaint him with the rumours that went of him praying him that if he disliked ought in the doctrine received he would sincerely declare it unto his Brethren to the end either by a friendly Conference he might receive satisfaction or the whole businesse might lawfully be put over to the consideration of a Synod Arminius his answer was that he never gave any just cause why such rumour should be spread of him neither was it wisdome for him to treat with them as with Deputies that should make relation of the whole matter to a Synod though as private persons he refused not to conferre with them provided that in case they differed no relation hereof should be made unto a Synod The Church of Leyden also admonished him that there might be a Conference between him and his Colleagues before the Presbytery of that Church To them he answered he could not yeeld thereto without leave from the Gurators of the University and that he perceived not that any benefit was like to redound unto the Church by such a Conference At another time Fol. 4. p. 2. being entreated by the Professors and Pastors with great earnestnesse that if he had ought to say against the doctrine received in their Confession and Catechisme he would freely and brotherly communicate it unto them promising their endeavours to give him full satisfaction or if not so yet that he and his Colleagues under certain conditions might come to a faire agreement to live together in peace and that the reconciliation being made nothing which passed between them should be divulged The answer he made was this It was no wise part for him to yeeld to their motion neither was he bound thereto the present meeting being not ordained unto any such purpose fol. 5. p. 2. Gomarus openly tells him how it became him to declare his opinion neque ejusmodi subterfugiis diutius hâc in re uti fol. 6. p. 2. before the States he represents his continuall practice thereunto in concealing his Opinion His words are these Quibus insuper artibus opiniones suas disseminare Publicè scilicet ab Ecclesiis rogatum obtestatumque sententiam suam occultare privatim vero Pastoribus quos in eam pertrahi posse speraret ac discipulis suis diligentèr eam inculcare argumenta Nostrorum praecipua quibus astrui doctrina Orthodoxa soleret enervare Jesuitarum verò aliorumque Adversariorum quibus doctrinam Ecclesiarum Reformatarum oppugnant confirmare Varias de doctrinae receptae Veritate dubitationes discipulorum animis ingerere eandemque cum doctrinâ heterodoxâ prius quasi in aequilibrio suspendere ac deinde prorsus rejicere nullam hactenus sinceritatis ac consensus in doctrinâ licet saepius ab Ecclesiis amanter fraterneque rogatum Declarationem edere voluisse Now let any indifferent person compare the carriage of Arminius the Innovator with the carriage of the Contra-Remonstrants standing for the doctrine heretofore received and judge impartially which of them betrayes the greater distrust of the integrity of their Cause 5. As for the easinesse of defending it if it be not or were not so in their opinion who are here pretended to have declined the sifting of it What is that to the purpose Then who are they who say it may so easily be defended I never read any hitherto who doe not acknowledge a great mystery in the divine providence And from the daies of Anselme unto this present day it hath ever been accounted in my observation a very difficult poynt to accord predestination divine with the liberty of mens wills But put the case it may easily be defended as of evident truth by the word of God yet notwithstanding if it be found harsh to mens affections are they likely to admit it with such ease I should think it ought to be put out of question that God hath mercy on whom he will in bestowing faith and repentance upon them and thereby curing their naturall infidelity and hardnesse of heart as also that God hardneth whom he will leaving their infidelity and hardnesse of heart uncured yet when flesh and bloud riseth up against this doctrine thus Why then doth God complaine to wit of mans disobedience for who hath resisted his will And the Apostle addresseth hereunto no other answer but this O man who art thou who disputest with God shall the thing formed say to him that formed it why hast thou made me thus Hath not the Potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessell unto honour another unto dishonour Is flesh and bloud I pray apt to rest satisfied with this Now as touching the two things I promised to adde they are these 1. I pray consider whether in all this this Author doth not very judiciously pronounce sentence against himselfe For you know your own motion you made unto him and the promise he made unto you and I pray consider how answerable hereunto hath been his performance The certain Controversies as touching which he professeth change of Opinion what are they but the five Articles so much agitated between the Remonstrants and the Contra-Remonstrants Doe you not perceive how he makes choyce only of reprobation to grate upon Is he not content to lye close as touching foure of them What is this but according to his language the coveting of corners And what willingnesse of abideing the tryall doth this manifest Yet he pleaseth himselfe in a conceit of being as free from guile as David was when he offered himselfe to the Lords tryall and thereupon advanceth himselfe to the greater liberty of censuring others such as Beza and Musculus and their Fellowes together with the Contra-Remonstrants as too full of that guile whereof himselfe by virtue not of his Free-will but of a grace of God of his shapeing is voyd This is an usuall course with those of his spirit whereof I have had plentifull experience in this very kind For if you believe them all the Arminians Geese are Swannes and all our Swannes are Geese in comparison to them He hopes you will not think he hates the light or refuseth to come to the light in his phrase this is the censure he liberally bestowes upon his opposites For though some of our Divines are willing enough to treat of the five Articles yet to treat of reprobation which is a part of one of those they are not so willing but this young Master in Israel out of the plerophorious conceit of his own integrity and sufficiency is very willing to treat of this of reprobation though he leaves all the rest alone Yet I pray make the scales even What instance can be given I doe not say of Beza Musculus or any one of the Contra-Remonstrants but of any one of the like condition to himselfe that being entreated by a friend as this Author was by you to shew the reasons why
Deum out of God Therefore if any cause hereof be to be found it must be within God otherwise it must be confessed that all things became future by absolute necessity of nature If to help this they will devise something within the nature of God to be the cause hereof let them tell us what that is Not the Science of God for all confesse that secluding the divine will Gods knowledge is the cause of nothing If they say the will of God they concurre with us in embracing the same Opinion which they so much abhorre Nothing remaines to fly unto but the Essence of God If they plead that I demand whether the Essence of God working freely be the cause of the futurition of all things or as working necessarily If as working freely that is as much as to confesse in expresse termes that Gods will is the cause thereof But if they say the divine Essence is the cause hereof as working necessarily hence it followes that all things good and evill come from God as working by necessity of nature See I pray and consider the abominable and Atheisticall opinions that these Arminians doe improvidently cast themselves upon when they stretch their witts to overthrow Gods providence as it is carryed in the 11 th Article of Ireland which is this God from all Eternity did by his unchangeable Counsell ordaine whatsoever in time should come to passe yet so as thereby no violence is offered to the wills of the reasonable creatures and neither the liberty nor contingency of second causes is taken away but established rather In the Conclusion that which he vaunts of as touching the Fathers is meer wind for he gives you nothing but his word for it which of what credit it deserves to be I leave to the indifferent to judge And as for the plucking up of the rootes of vertue which he fables of Consider I pray what Sect of Philosophers were ever known to be more vertuous then the Stoicks and how was Zeno himselfe honoured by the Athenians for his grave and vertuous conversation Hath not Erasmus delivered it as out of the mouth of Hierome that Secta Stoicorum was Secta simillima Christianae Yet I no where find that they brought in any necessity that was not subordinate to the Will of the supream God But these Arminians bring in a necessity of nature from without God to make him to doe this or that if he doth any thing or at least to make God himselfe a necessary Agent devoyd of all liberty and freedome contrary to that of Ambrose concerning the manner of Gods working namely that it is Nullo necessitatis obsequio but solo libertatis arbitrio But according to these Divines it must be quite contrary Nullo â—ibertatis arbitrio solo necessitatis obsequio And thus much as touching the first sort of this Authors Reasons which he accounts only Inducing I come to the other sort which he esteemes convincing THE SECOND PART OF THE FIRST BOOK Wherein are Examined those Arguments against the Absolutenesse of DIVINE REPROBATION WHICH M r HORD Took to be of a CONVINCING NATURE OXFORD Printed by Leonard Lichfield Printer to the Vniversity M. D. C. LIII The Second Part of this Discourse consisting of ARGUMENTS CONVINCING whereof there are Five sorts The First sort of Convincing Reasons Drawn from Scripture DISCOURSE SECT I. THOSE of the Second sort by which for the present I stand convinced that absolute reprobation is no part of Gods truth are drawn from these five following heads 1. Pregnant Testimonies of Scripture directly opposite unto it 2. Some principall attributes of God not compatible with it 3. The end of the Word and Sacraments with other excellent gifts of God to men quite thwarted by it 4. Holy and pious endeavours much hindered by it if not wholly subversed 5. The grounds of comfort whereby distressed consciences are to be relieved are all overthrown by it It it contrary to pregnant places of Scripture even in terminis as will appeare by these instances 1. Ezech. 33. 11. As I live saith the Lord I have no pleasure in the death of a sinner but that the wicked turne from his waies and live And least men should say 't is true God wills not the death of a repenting sinner the Lord doth in another place of the same Prophet extend the proposition to them also that perish Ezech. 18. 32. I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth In this Scripture we may note three things 1. Gods affection to men set forth 1. Negatively I have no pleasure in his death that dyeth 2. Affirmatively But that the wicked turne 2. The persons in whose destruction he delighteth not wicked men such as for the rejecting of grace dye and are damned If God have no pleasure in their death much lesse in the death of men either altogether innocent or tainted only with originall sinne 3. The truth of this affection as I live cupit sihi credi saith Tertullian Lib. de paenit cap. 4. God would faine have us to believe him when he saith I will not the death of him that dyeth and therefore he bindes his speech with an oath O beatos nos quorum causa Deus jurat O miserrimos si nec juranti Domino credimus Happy are we for whose sakes the Lord vouchsafeth to sweare but most unhappy if we believe him not when he swears Now if God delight not in the destruction of wicked men he did never out of his own pleasure take so many millions of men lying in the fall and seale them up by an absolute decree under invincible damnation for such a kind of decreeing men to everlasting death is quite opposite to a delight in mens eternall life TWISSE Consideration TO say that this or that opinion is untrue because it doth in terminis contradict places of Scripture is a very superficiary consideration yet it is not the first time that I have found it to drop from an Arminians penne But that it is a very superficiary consideration I prove thus For to deny God the Sonne to be equall to the Father is in terminis to contradict a pregnant place of Scripture Phil. 2. Where it is expressely said of God the Sonne that he thought it no robbery to be equall to the Father yet notwithstanding it is agreeable to that of our Saviour where he saith the Father is greater then I and so vice versâ In like manner to say that God cannot repent is in terminis to contradict pregnant places of Scripture again to say that God can repent is in terminis to contradict other as pregnant places of Scripture yet neither of these is unsound because each phrase is agreeable to Scripture in some place or other And the reason hereof is because in terminis only to contradict the Scripture is not to contradict the Scripture But when we contradict the meaning of Scripture then and not till then are we justly said to contradict
weake one 1. Because that they that understand it of the Elect understand it so in no other sense but as I have expounded it 2. If I should say of the twelve Apostles Judas excluded and Matthias substituted in his roome that God so loved them that he gave his only begotten Sonne that whosoever of them believed in him should not perish but have everlasting life who can deny but that this was a truth accommodated unto them but will it here hence follow that among those Apostles some were believers some unbelievers Suppose all the World were Elect and it pleased God to give them all Faith should this Doctrine be the lesse true whosoever believes shall be saved yet in this case it would not follow that amongst the World of men some were believers and some unbelievers But whereas he faines that some of our Divines should interpret the word World here of Believers that is such a fiction as is incredible I come to the fourth DISCOURSE SECT IV. 1. TImoth 2. 4. Who would have all to be saved and come to the knowledge of his truth In these words the Apostle delivers two things 1. That it is Gods will that all men should obtain an happy end viz. Salvation 2. That it is his will also that they should use and enjoy the means which is the knowledge of his truth that so they might obtain the end the salvation of their soules there is no let in God but that all men may believe and be saved and therefore there is no absolute will that many thousands of men shall never believe nor be saved Two answers are usually returned which give me little satisfaction The first is that by All we are to understand all sorts and not every particular man in every sort and condition It is true that all is sometimes so used in Scripture but I believe not here for the very Text shewes that we are to understand by it the Individualls and not the kindes v. 1. There is a duty enjoyned I will that prayers and supplications be made for all men and in this verse the motive is annexed God will have all to be saved as if he should have said our charity must reach to all whom God extends his love to God will have all to be saved therefore we must pray for all Now in the duty All signifies every man for no man though wicked and prophane is to be excluded from our prayers pray for them saith our Saviour that persecute you And pray saith the Apostle here for Kings and all that are in Authority men in those daies though the greatest yet the worst yea very Wolves and Lyons and Bears of the Church pray for them and if for them then for any other thus in the duty it signifies every man and if it doe so in the duty it must have the same extent in the motive too or else the motive will not reach home nor have strength enough to enforce the duty The second answer is that God will have all to be saved with his revealed will have Millions to be damned with his secret will If this answer stand then in my understanding these inconveniences will follow 1. That Gods words which are his revealed will are not interpretations of his mind and meaning and by consequence are not true for Oratio quae non est mentis significatio simulatio est 2. That there are two contrary willes in God a secret will that many Sonnes of Adam shall irrevocably be damned and a revealed will that all the Sonnes of Adam may be saved 3. That one of Gods wills must needs be bad either the secret will or the revealed for of contraries if the one be good the other is bad and so of Gods contrary wills if the one be good the other must needs be bad for malum is contrarium bono TWISSE Consideration THe Conclusion here is very loose the Arguments being thus It is Gods will that all should be saved therefore there is no absolute will that many thousands of men shall never believe nor be saved and the vanity of this consequence I will shew more waies then one 1. The Apostle doth not say It is the absolute will of God that all men shall be saved nay Vossius interprets this place and that according to the meaning of the Ancients of voluntas conditionata a conditionall will in God not absolute and he gives instance of it thus It is the will of God that all shall be saved in case they believe in Christ Now albeit it be the conditionall will of God that all and every one shall be saved in case they believe yet this hinders not but that it may be the absolute will of God that many thousands of men shall never be saved as in case his will be to deny the grace of faith and repentance to many thousands as it is cleare and undeniable that he doth Nay the Remonstrants themselves and particularly an Arminian that I had to doe withall lately spared not to professe that Election is absolute if so then reprobation also is absolute and I doubt not but that they will all confesse that howbeit Gods will be that all should be saved yet thousands are reprobated 2. Suppose the Apostle had said it is the absolute will of God that all men shall be saved yet I say it followes not herehence but that by the absolute will of God many might faile of falvation for it was the absolute will of God that every foure footed beast should be represented to Peter let downe unto him in a linnen vessell yet neverthelesse it might be that many thousands were not represented to him and that by the will of God Thus having discovered the vanity of this conclusion I will now proceed to demonstrate that this place cannot be understood of Gods will in proper speech viz. willing all and every one to be saved 1. Like as it is impossible that a man at the same time should be saved and damned so it is impossible that God should at the same time and duration both will to save and will to damne the same man But God from everlasting did will to damne many thousands therefore it was impossible that from everlasting he should will to save them 2. If it be Gods will that all and every one shall be saved then all and every one shall be saved For who hath resisted his will Rom. 9. 19. And for confirmation hereof we find in our selves that if we will doe ought we doe it if we can and if we doe not ought the reason is either because we have no will to doe it or because we have no power to doe it In like sort that God doth not save many thousands the reason must be either because he will not or because he cannot not because he will not for these professe that it is his will to save all and every one Therefore the reason why he doth not save all
by a Syllogisme that would be as faulty in the matter thus God shewes patience to none but Reprobates they of whom God will have none to perish are such as towards whom God shewes patience therefore God will not have any Reprobate to perish And is not this a proper doctrine that God will not have any Reprobate to perish both for the overthrowing of Gods omnipotency for is it not a cleare case and undeniable that all Reprobates doe perish As also for the overthrowing of Gods immutability for can it be denied that when God damnes them he will have them to perish Which if before he would not can it be avoided but that Gods will must be changed And lastly for the bringing in of manifest contrariety into the will of God seeing they dare not deny that God did from everlasting ordaine every reprobate unto damnation I say they dare not deny this in plain termes though their carriage is such as if their meaning were that Gods will in decreeing their damnation is conditionall quoad actum volentis as touching the very act of willing whence it followeth that God shall not will their damnation untill their death in infidelity and impenitency for it is fit the condition should exist before the thing conditionated whose existence depends thereupon As for that he addes in the close If they doe perish it is their own fault and folly we make no question hereof though neverthelesse we may well maintain that it is Gods absolute pleasure not to take them off from their sinfull and foolish courses nor to set an end to these vitious courses of theirs which he could if it pleased him as well as he did set an end to the abominable courses of Manasses as also to the persecution and bloudy courses of Saul towards whom he did undoubtedly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and exercise much long suffering and patience though herein there is no difference between them and reprobates or very little according to that of Austin Istorum neminem non praedestinatorum adducit Deus ad salubrem spiritualemque paenitentiam quâ homo Deo reconciliatur in Christo sive illis ampliorem paenitentiam sive non imparem praebeat contrà Julian Pelagian lib. 5. cap. 4. I come to the last of this ranke DISCOURSE SECT VI. TO These testimonies I may adde those conditionall speeches if thou seek him he will be found of thee but if thou forsake him he will cast thee off for ever 1 Chron. 28. 9. If ye seek him he will be found of you but if you forsake him he will forsake you 2 Chron. 15. 2. If thou doe well shalt thou not be accepted but if thou dost ill sinne lies at the doore Gen. 4. 7. The just shall live by faith but if any man withdraw himselfe my soule non approbabit eum shall have no pleasure in him he shall be a Reprobate In all these and many other places it is cleare for ought I can see that God forsakes no man considered simply in the fall till by actuall sinnes and continuance in them he forsakes God Now if God reject no man from Salvation in time or in act and deed till he rejects God then surely he rejected no man in purpose and decree but such a one as he foresaw would reject and cast off him For Gods acts in time are regulated by his decrees before time Ephes 1. 11. God worketh all things saith the Apostle according to the counsell of his own will and therefore there must be an exact conformity between them as between regulam and regulatum the rule and the thing measured by the rule By whatsoever therefore God doth in the World we may know what he purposed to doe before the World and by his actuall casting men off when they grow rebellious and impenitent and not before we may certainly gather that he decreed to cast them off for their foreseen rebellion and impenitency and not before Besides it is all one in substance to cast a man off indeed and to entertain a resolution to doe it our velle and facere are all one in Gods account and the reason is because where there is a deliberate and setled will the deed will follow if nothing hinder much more is Gods will and deed all one seeing his will is omnipotent and irresistible and whatsoever he wills directly and absolutely is certainly done when the time comes All these plain Scriptures doth this opinion contradict in terminis and not only these but the whole course of Scriptures by which it is much safer for a man to frame his opinions then by a few places pickt up here and there and those obscure ones too What Saint Austin speaks in another place I may safely say in this numquid ideo negandum quod apertum est quia comprehendi non potest quod occultum est Shall we contradict plain places because we cannot comprehend the obscure Aug. de bono persever c. 14. Secundum plura saith Tertullian pauciora sunt intelligenda 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ne unus sermo subvertat alios secundum omnes potius quam adversum omnes intelligendus erit A few testimonies must be expounded according to the whole course of Scriptures and not this according to a few testimonies This is my first reason TWISSE Consideration TO the places of Scripture here alleadged I give the interpretation to prevent the confusion of things that differ which all affect who preferre the darknesse of Errour before the light of truth for it is most advantageous to such to fish in troubled waters To the two first I say God is first sought of us before we find him as touching the obtaining of many blessings at the hands of God according to that Ezech. 36. 37. I will yet be sought of the house of Israel to performe it unto them But as touching the obtaining of an heart to seek him thus God is found of us before we seek him according to that Es 65. 1. I have been found of them that sought me not witnesse Saul marching with a commission from the Priests to Damascus to bind all that called on the name of Jesus To the third I answer by distinguishing acceptation as we distinguish love Love is either complacentiae or beneficentiae so acceptation is either unto reward or unto complacency Rewards alwaies follow our doing well but grace of doing well is alwaies a fruit of Gods favour towards us in Christ To the last the just shall live by faith But there is a grace of God preventing faith cur ille credat ille non credat what is the reason but the meere pleasure of God giving the grace of Faith to one and denying it to another according to that of the Apostle He hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardneth They that withdraw themselves my soule shall have no pleasure in them The meaning is they shall feele the smart of his displeasure but before they withdrew
be made after Gods image Gen. 1. 27. Nor when they are regenerated to be renewed after the same image Col. 3. 10. And to be made partakers of the Divine nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. That Picture cannot be the picture of such a man which doth not in its parts and lineaments clearly resemble him nor can we be truly the image of God in respect of our graces if in these graces there be not a resemblance of Gods Attributes 3. We may not safely imitate God as we are commanded Be you perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect Math. 5. 48. and be ye holy as I am holy Nor when we shew forth mercy justice and truth in our actions can we be properly said to imitate God if these be one thing in God and in men another These two things being thus premised viz. that Gods mercy justice and truth are three of his chief Attributes in the exercise of which he takes himselfe to be much glorified and that we are to measure these Attributes by the same vertues in ourselves I come to the proofe of my second reason against absolute reprobation which is that it opposeth some of Gods principall Attributes particularly his justice mercy and truth TWISSE Consideration I Cannot but wonder at the performances of the true Author of this Discourse in comparing that which goes before with that which comes after His poverty of argumentation out of Scripture and the exuberancy of his discourse following Before he was in some straits but now he seems to have gotten Sea roome enough yet this is my comfort I seem to perceive out of what chimney all this smoak proceeds and to be as well acquainted with the spirit that breatheth here as if I were at his elbow while he penned it Agnosco veteris vestigia flammae such like are Doctor Jacksons discourses and him I have known of old and his Ephestion also I professe willingly of Scholar acquaintance they were my greatest and dearest But seeing it hath pleased God to put such a difference between us I would have both them and the World know I doe as little regard them as feare them Arminius himselfe is never more plausible then in such like extravagant discourses as a positive Theologue But these inspirations were never derived from him they are flowers of another garden These have been shapen in a more Philosophicall brain whereof some having gotten the reputation give Oracles therehence first to forme interpretations of Scriptures in congruity to these Theorems as the true Author blusheth not to professe which when he hath perswaded the World of I see no cause to the contrary but he may adventure a degree farther and perswade the burning of the Bible so farre as it concerneth the Doctrine of Predestination and Reprobation Grace and Free-will and content themselves with these magisteriall precepts as most sufficient and soveraigne for the endoctrinations of the Christian World in these poynts But he might have spared his pains in proving this consequence that if our Doctrine of Reprobation be contradictory to Gods principall attributes it cannot be true I say he might have spared the proofe hereof for all that he brings in proofe of this is but darknesse in comparison of the domesticall light and selfe-evidence which this consequence carryeth with it His premises here and discourse thereof is like unto the Turkes parly before the encounter when he challenged any one of Scanderbegs army to a single combate For as that parley was meerely complementall and to no purpose save only as he might conceit to abate the fervor of his opposite who longed to be dealing with him so this introduction I find to be of no Scholasticall use in the world but meerely Politick to work some impression upon the readers affections where by it may come to passe that when he reads of Gods mercy and justice as here it is set forth he may be the more enclined to judge thereof according to the genius of human mercy and justice Yet I am content to give my selfe to be wrought upon by these pretty contemplations as farre as I shall be convicted of any truth and sobriety in them though I willingly professe I am very suspicious for I love to betray my infirmities that there is little or no truth and sobriety at all in them 1. Now because he hopes to hatch much advantage unto his cause out of these attributes and to that purpose he sitts very long upon them though his market may be never the better for all that He tells us these are Gods chief attributes and as it appeareth by that which followeth his practice is to disparage his power which I call the Lords Soveraignty in comparison to these Now it seems they are chiefe indeed in his opinion for the furthering of his cause but as for any absolute chiefty they have in God I am not as yet acquainted therewith what I may be by this Authors performances I know not yet in the next page save one he professeth expressely That all Gods excellencies are infinitely good and one is not greater then another wherein I doe much approve his judgement as savouring of more depth then this which yet I think not that he who pretends to be the Author of this discourse in respect of his minority should be likely to broach as for other respects of principality I shall be ready to take notice of them in due place But when he saith God is most glorified in the manifestation of mercy justice and truth it is a very odde phrase For it is one thing to be glorious another thing to be glorified dare he deny that God is as glorious in his power and soveraignty as in his mercy justice and truth As for the glorifying of him that depends upon the will of the creature It may be some are more thankfull unto God for blessing them with health and riches and honour and preferment then for bestowing his Gospell upon them but will it follow herehence that his goodnesse in giving riches c. is more glorious then his goodnesse is seen in giving us his Word and Gospell We read that when God laid the foundations of the earth the Starres of the morning praised God together and all the children of God rejoyced Job 38. 7. did these Angells glorify God for his mercy justice and truth in the creating of them We read sometimes of Gods power sometimes of his wisdome manifested in the Creation as Jer. 10. 11. and 51. 11. and Psal 136. 5. Jer. 10. 12. c. But no where have I read that I can remember he made the World by his mercy justice or truth and Revel 4. 11. I find the glory of power given unto God in the creation by the 24 Elders but neither there nor any where else that I know is the glory of his mercy justice and truth given unto God therein Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour and power for thou hast created all
understandings purged from prejudice and false principles 5. My fifth argument is this If sinne be the cause of Reprobation that is of the decree of damnation then either by necessity of nature or by the constitution of God not by necessity of nature as all that hitherto I have known confesse But I say neither can it be by the free constitution of God for mark what a notorious absurdity followeth hence and that unavoidably namely that God did ordaine that upon foresight of sinne he would ordaine them to damnation marke it well God did ordaine that he would ordaine or God did decree that he would decree In which words Gods eternall decree is made the object of Gods decree Whereas it is well known that the objects of Gods decrees are meerely things temporall and cannot be things eternall we truly say God did decree to create the World to preserve the World to redeeme us call us justify us sanctify and save us but it cannot be truly said that God did decree to decree or ordaine to ordaine for to decree is the act of Gods will and therefore it cannot be the object of the act of Gods will Yet these arguments I am not so enamoured with as to force the interpretations of Scripture to such a sense as is sutable hereunto presuming of the purity of my understanding as purged from prejudice and false principles I could willingly content my selfe with observation of the Apostles discourse in arguing to this effect Before the Children were borne or had done good or evill it was said the elder shall serve the younger therefore the purpose of God according to election stands not of works In like manner may I discourse Before the Children were borne or had done good or evill it was said the elder shall serve the younger therefore the purpose of God concerning Reprobation stands not of works And like as hence it is inferred that therefore election stands not of good works so therehence may I inferre that therefore reprobation stands not of evill works 6. If sinne foreseen be the cause meritorious of reprobation then faith and repentance and good workes are the disposing causes unto election For therefore evill works foreseen are made the meritorious cause of reprobation because evill works exsistent are the meritorious cause of damnation And if this be true then also because Faith and Repentance and good workes are the disposing causes unto salvation then by the same force of reason faith repentance and good workes foreseen must be the disposing cause unto election But faith repentance and good workes foreseen are not the disposing causes unto election as I prove thus 1. If they were then the purpose of God according to election should be of faith repentance and good works which is expressely denyed by the Apostle as touching the last part and may as evidently be proved to be denied by him in effect of the other parts also by the same force of argumentation which he useth as for example from this anticedent of the Apostles before the Children were borne or had done good or evill it no more evidently followeth that therefore the purpose of God according to election is not of workes than it followeth that the same purpose of God according to election is not of faith nor of repentance For before they were borne they were no more capable of faith or of repentance than of any other good works And undoubtedly faith and repentance are as good works as any other 2. If God doth absolutely work faith in some and not in others according to the meer pleasure of his will then it cannot be said that faith foreseen is the cause of any mans election For in this case faith is rather the means of salvation then salvation a means of faith and consequently the intention of salvation rather precedes the intention of faith than the intention of faith can be said to precede the intention of salvation And to this the Scripture accords Acts 1348. As many believed as were ordained to everlasting life making ordination to everlasting life the cause why men believed answerable hereunto is that Acts 2. last God added daily to the Church such as should be saved and that of Paul to Titus according to the faith of Gods elect So that according to Pauls phrase fides est electorum but according to the Arminians Doctrine the inverse hereof is a more proper and naturall predication as to say electio est fidelium But God doth absolutely work faith in some men according to the meer pleasure of his will denying the same grace to others which I prove 1. By Scripture Rom. 9. 18. God hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardneth compared with Rom. 11. 30. Yee in times past have not believed but now have obtained mercy where it appears by the Antithesis that to find mercy is to believe that is to obtain the grace of faith at the hands of God in Saint Pauls phrase 2. By cleare reason for if it be not the meer pleasure of Gods will that is the cause hereof then the cause hereof must be some good workes which he finds in some and not in others whence it manifestly followeth that God giveth grace according unto works which in the phrase of the ancients is according to merits and for 1200 years together this hath been reputed in the Church of God meere Pelagianisme 2. I further demand what that good worke is whereupon God workes it in one when he refuseth to worke it in another Here the answer I find given is this that God doth work in man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 velle credere modo velit Now of the absurdity hereof I appeale to the very light of nature and let all the books that ever were written on this argument be searched and let it be enquired whether ever any did expresse themselves in the manner of so palpable and grosse absurdity as wherein the act of willing is made the condition of it selfe whence it followeth evidently that it must be both before it selfe and after it selfe for the condition must allwaies exsist before the thing conditionated Yet they are driven upon these rocks of absurdities in spight of their teeth so shamefull is the issue of their discourses who in hatred of Gods truth revealed in Gods word and in a proud conceit of their own performances in the way of argumentation dare prescribe rules to all others how to carry themselves in the interpretation of Scriptures as namely to be so warie as that they doe not deliver any thing repugnant to understandings purged from prejudice and false principles as if the word of God supposed them that are admitted to the studying thereof to have their understandings already purged from prejudice and false principles not that it is given by God for this very end namely to purge our understandings for what is the illumination or opening of the eyes of the mind other than the purging of
am I private to their stirring up of themselves to forsake some pleasing sinnes which otherwise they would not part with and to doe some unpleasing duties which otherwise they would not doe But in generall I have read in Austin that God calleth some though Reprobates ut proficiant ad exteriorem vitae emendationem quo mitius puniantur But I can hardly believe that Herod was any one of them though he did many things at his admonition because I see a shamefull issue giving way to the cutting off Iohn Baptists head for the gratifying of a wanton damsell Now like as we say God doth signify his meaning to be that as many as believe and repent shall have their sinnes pardoned and their soules saved So if it can be proved that there is no such meaning in God then in my poore judgement it cannot be avoyded but that God must be found halting in his offers But for my part I acknowledge such a meaning in God neither have I to this houre found any one of our Divines either by word or writing to have denyed this to be the meaning of God and I wonder what this Author means after this manner to carry himselfe in the cloudes of generalities and whether it be through sillinesse or malitiousnesse I am to seeke but if I may be so bold as to guesse I think the root of all this his superficiary discourse is the confounding of absolute Reprobation with absolute Damnation and in like sort absolute election with salvation absolute for as for pardon of sinne and salvation we acknowledge them to be bestowed on men of ripe years conditionally and as God bestowes them so also he decreed to bestow them we say conditionally to wit in case they believe and repent but in case they believe and repent not damnation is their portion and that by the decree of God But as touching the gift of faith and repentance these we maintain to be given of God absolutely according to the meere pleasure of his will and accordingly denyed unto others as the Apostle signifieth saying He hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardneth But this Author meddles not hither to with these gifts but keeps himselfe to the graces of pardon of sinne and of salvation which God bestowes conditionally and signifies his meaning to be to bestow them conditionally namely in case they believe and repent and not otherwise and such indeed we maintaine to have been his meaning and that from everlasting So that in all this there is no colour of imposture or simulation But in that which followeth he stealeth upon the grace of faith it selfe let us see how clearely and with what felicity he carryeth himselfe and whether it be not answerable to his former carriage which he continueth throughout Zanchy he saith tells us roundly that every man that is called is bound to think he is elected but why doth he not speake out and say that every one is bound in the opinion of Zanchy to believe that he is elected as formerly he related it I grant that to believe is to think for credere is defined to be cum assensione cogitare but thoughts he knows are very wild they have their course in dreames as a hungry man may dreame that he eateth and drinketh but when he awaketh his soule is empty And as for that doctrine of Zanchy I have already given a faire interpretation of it upon consideration that he speaks it of election not unto faith but unto salvation and seeing God hath manifested in his word his determination to give salvation to every one that believeth it followeth herehence that every one is bound to believe that as many as doe believe shall be saved and consequently every one that heareth the Gospell is bound to believe That God hath determined to bestow Salvation on him in case hee be found to believe The like construction may be given of Bucers Doctrine namely that God hath predestinated him to obtain Salvation in case he believe not otherwise For God hath not predestinated any man of ripe years to obtain Salvation whether he believe or not And seeing God hath plainly professed that whosoever believeth shall be saved Mar. 16. 16. If I doe not accordingly believe that God hath predestinated me to obtain salvation in case I doe believe I doe hereby make God to delude me in saying Whosoever believeth shall be saved And whereas this Author upon the back of this addeth that a man therefore that is not predestinate but an absolute reprobate when he is called to salvation is but deluded and that this is the necessary result of our speeches All the colour of this his inference depends meerely upon confusion of things that differ For he distinguisheth not between absolute predestination unto salvation and predestination unto salvation absolute likewise he distinguisheth not between absolute reprobation unto damnation and reprobation unto damnation absolute neither doth he distinguish between predestination unto faith and predestination unto salvation nor between reprobation from faith and reprobation unto damnation And the absolutenesse of predestination appears only in predestination unto faith not in predestination unto salvation For salvation being bestowed on none of ripe years but by way of reward of their faith repentance and good works hence it followes that God predestinates none unto salvation of ripe years but by way of reward of their obedience But as for predestination unto faith it is cleare that God purposeth absolutely to bestow faith on whom he will So on the other side damnation being inflicted on none but for sinne God hath destinated no man unto damnation but for sinne But as touching obduration like as God hardneth whom he will so he decreed to proceed herein to wit in hardening of men according to the meere pleasure of his will that is absolutely Now let us not suffer a cauteriate conscience to smother a plain truth with the confusion of those things which are to be distinguished Absolute is opposed to conditionate and this distinction applied to Gods will is to be understood not quoad actum volentis sed quoad res volitas as for example God decrees that a man shall be saved upon condition of faith this is called voluntas conditionata so oVssius expounds it Hist Pelag. lib. 7. p. 638. his words are these Aliqua vult cum conditione quae idcirco in effectum non prodeunt nisi conditione impletâ Some things God willeth with a condition which come not unto effect but upon the fulfilling of the condition this is plainly understood not of the act of willing but of the things willed which he calls aliqua and the instance he gives us is this quo modo omnes homines salvari vult sed per propter Christum fide apprehensum after which manner he will have all to be saved but by and for Christ apprehended by faith where faith is plainly made the condition of salvation not of
speaks of the necessity of it unto salvation or that many thousands are now adaies regenerated without any Sacrament of regeneration That the Spirit of God is the efficient cause of Regeneration I think no Christian doubteth but this Author maketh the Baptizing with Water to be an efficient also as when he saith Baptisme is appoynted to be a means of Regeneration to all that are Baptized and not only so but that it doth effect it also in all that doe not put an obstacle in the way to hinder it I acknowledge willingly that Baptisme materiall is an instrument to wit both as a signe as a seale But that it is an instrument in any other kind of operation than belongs to a signe and seale I have not hitherto learned out of the word of God And as I remember Arminius was sometimes challenged for Heterodoxy about the Sacraments and withall that his Apology was this he never ascribed any other efficacy unto the Sacraments than is denoted under the tearmes of Signes and Seales but no marvaile if a degenerated condition hath seized on any that such proficiunt in pejus and grow more and more degenerate The phrase used here in calling Baptisme a means of regeneration sounds harsh in my eares we commonly say and it is the doctrine of our Catechisme that a Sacrament is an outward and visible signe of an inward and invisible grace now this grace in Baptisme I take to be the grace of regeneration and is it a decent expression to say that the signe of Regeneration is the means of Regeneration As for Baptismus spiritus the Baptisme of the spirit that is the very working of regeneration but Baptismus fluminis the Baptisme of water that is the administration of the outward signe and seale of the grace of regeneration The word Preacheth forgivenesse of sinnes to all that believe so doth the Sacrament of Baptisme but the word Preacheth this to the eare the Sacrament to the eye The word assureth it for it is Gods word the Sacrament assures it for it is Gods seale but neither of these worketh the assurance without the spirit of God and as for the working of Faith it selfe I have read that Faith comes by hearing I no where read that Faith comes by the being Baptized And sure I am when men of ripe yeares came to be Baptized they were first Catechumini then competentes and none admitted unto Baptisme unlesse the word had formerly brought them unto faith The Apostle calls Baptisme the laver of regeneration by the Rhemists translation the fountain of regeneration by the former English translation the washing of regeneration by the last but whereas this Author dignifies it with this title because it doth effect regeneration in all that doe not put an obstacle in the way to hinder it if this Author shall prove it while his head is hot we shall give that credence to it as it deserves in the mean time it stands for a bold affirmation let him take his time to make it appeare to be sound the Rhemists upon the place have this note As before in the Sacrament of holy Orders 1 Tim. 4. 2 Tim. 1. So here it is plaine that Baptisme giveth grace and that by it as by an instrumentall cause we be saved Master Fulkes answer is this Here is no word to prove that Baptisme giveth grace of the worke wrought but the Apostle saith that God hath saved us by the renewing of the Holy Ghost which is testified by the Sacrament of Baptisme marke I pray the office of Baptisme in Master Fulkes judgement to testify the renewing which is Sacramentally the laver of regeneration not by the worke wrought but by the grace of Gods spirit by which we are justified So speaketh Saint Peter and explicateth himselfe 1 Pet. 3. 21. Baptisme saveth us not the washing of the flesh of the body but the interrogation of a good conscience And because I know no obstacle that an Infant can put to hinder the effect of it for I suppose the obstacle must be rationall and Infants are not come to the use of reason to performe any rationall act which may prove any rationall obstacle therefore it seems this Authors opinion is that all who are Baptized in the Church are regenerate this indeed was the profession of Master Mountague before he was Bishop and was answered by Bishop Carelton as touching the best firmament of his opinion the Book of our Common-Prayer where the Child Baptized is said to be regenerate that is to be understood Sacramento tenus which is Saint Austins phrase and which he distinguisheth from truly regenerate And Bishop Usher in his History of Gotteschaleus alleadgeth out of the Author of the imperfect work upon Mathew Hom. 5. this sentence Eos qui cum tentati fuerint superantur pereunt videri quidem filios Dei factos propter aquam Baptismatis revera tamen non esse filios Dei quia non sunt in Spiritu Baptizati As also out of Austin De Unitate Ecclesiae cap. 19. Visibilem Baptismum posse habere alienos qui regnum Dei non possidebunt sed esse donum Spiritus Sancti quod proprium eorum est tantum qui regnabunt cum Christo in aeternum And lastly out of the same Austin as he is alleadged by Peter Lombard l. 4. Sent. dis 4. Sacramenta in solis electis efficere quod figurant All this is to be found in that Book of Bishop Usher p. 188. Besides many more pregnant passages are collected by him for the same purpose And not to charge him with authority only but with some reason when Saint James saith Jam. 1. 18. Of his own will he hath begotten us by the word of truth what I pray is here meant by the word of truth Is it not the Gospell to wit The Preaching of Christ crucified Now consider to whom doth he write but to the twelve Tribes that is to the Christian Jewes such as were begotten to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ as Saint Peter speakes writing also to the Jewes If then these Jewes were regenerated by the Preaching of the Gospell surely they were not regenerated by Circumcision and if regeneration were not necessarily annexed to the Sacrament of Circumcision amongst the Jewes then neither is it necessarily affixed to the Sacrament of Baptisme amongst the Christians For our Divines doe usually maintaine against the Papists that the Sacraments of the Old Testament were as effectuall to the Jewes as the Sacraments of the New Testament are effectuall unto us Christians It is true Baptisme is ordained that those which doe receive it may have the remission of their sinnes but not absolutely but conditionally to wit in case they believe and repent as appears both in that place Acts 2. 38. and Rom. 4. 11. And Baptisme as a Seale doth assure hereof only in case they believe and repent and therefore none of ripe years were admitted unto Baptisme untill
the part of Sysiphus for he takes great paines inkindeling a fire but alasse he cannot warme himselfe thereby he must blow his nails still there is no remedy And truly I see noe reason to the contrary but that a man as profitably bestowes his paines in picking strawes or playing with feathers as this Authour doth in such maner of discourses Domitian killed flyes but this Author doth not so much as flap a flye only I confesse he doth very energetically discover the nakednesse of his owne discourse And such be the issue of those that affect a name by becomming Arminian Proselits and shew as litle grace in their writings as it becomes them whose growth in perfection by their owne account is to appose the grace of God Pelagian like whom Austin was bould to call the enemyes of Gods graee Indeed it was high tyme for Balaam to leave his sorceries when he saw the Lord was determined to blesse Israel For his sorceries were no meanes to blesse them but to curse them rather In like sort if I am perswaded that God hath appoynted me unto Salvation it will be high tyme for me to leave off all care of faith repentance and good workes when this Author shall make it appeare that these studies are no more conducent in Gods ordination unto salvation then Balaams sorceries were to the blessing of Israel but rather the high-way unto damnation as his sorceries were to the cursing of the Lords people I make no doubt what this Authors creed is to the contrary I care not but that every mans temporall estate is determined in heaven as well as Pauls escaping safe out of shipwrack and all that were in the same ship to the number of two hundred threscore and sixteen soules yet both Paul and all the rest did not take their ease but were vigilant to take all opportunity to use the best meanes for their safe arrivall at the land some by swimming some by sitting on bords some on one piece of the ship some on another and so and not but so they came all safe to land And as our Divines in the Synod of Dort observe albeit the Lord had promised Ezechiah he should recover and fifteen years more should be added to his life yet he refused not the counsaile of the Prophet Esay in laying a plaster of figges unto his sore We know what was the forme of Ionahs Preaching to the Ninivites Ion. 3. 4. Yet forty daies and Niniveh shall be destroyed Here we have an absolute forme of sentence denounced against them And the people of Niniveh believed God Yet did they not give over all courses for the pacifying of the wrath of God but proclaimed a fast and put on sack-cloath from the greatest of them to the least of them the King himselfe arising from his throne and laying his robe from him and covering himselfe with sack-cloath and sitting in ashes and commanding others to doe the like And mark their reason Who can tell if God will turne and repent and turne from his fierce wrath that we perish not In like sort damnation being determined to none but to such as are finally impenitent and this being not doubtfully or obscurely but clearely revealed unto us in Gods word shall our endeavours to turne unto God by Godly sorow and repentance be accounted vaine and fruitlesse in the judgement of any sober man And let this Author look unto it that these Ninivites doe not one day rise in judgement against him And not the Ninivites only but the Stoicks also who as they acknowledged some things fatalia so they confessed there were some things confatalia And this very argument here used they commonly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an idle argumentation because it tended to the humouring of men in their idle courses And thus is it censured above 1500 yeares agoe by Cicero in his Booke De fato It is the blessing of God that makes men fat and if God hath determined this and man knows it will he therefore sit still and starve himselfe It is the blessing of God that makes men rich God promised as much to the Israelites in case they kept his Commandements which commandements did not instruct them in good husbandry but where they instigated hereby to neglect any usuall meanes of making themselves rich Nothing lesse nay God was jealous least in presumption of their owne wise and thriftie courses they should give the glory of it to themselves and not to God Deut. 8. 17. Beware least thou say in thy heart My power and the strength of mine owne hand hath prepared me this abundance But remember the Lord thy God for it is he which giveth thee power to get substance If it be sayd that God hath not determined to make any man fat but by feeding nor any man rich but by labouring in some vocation or other I answer That neither hath God determined to bring any man to Salvation but by Sanctification of the spirit and faith of the truth 2 Thess 2. 13. By feeding on Gods Word which is the word of grace able to save our Soules Iam. 1. and to build further and to give us an inheritance among them that are sanctified through faith in him In like sort if God hath appoynted every Commonwealth a fatall period yet if he hath appointed to bring them to flourishing estate by certaine meanes or to desolation no otherwise then by neglecting the meanes of prosperitie as it is aparent he doth not would any wise man conclude hence that it were bootlesse either to call Parliaments or to make use of privy Councelors But this Author perhaps will reply that this is not absolutely to ordaine a period to a state for as much as the period is brought to passe by meanes Be it so Now let the indifferernt consider whether we doe maintaine that the periods of men to wit Salvation on the one side and damnation on the other are by God brought to passe without meanes Doe we maintaine that God damnes or decreeth to damne any man but for finall perseverance in sinne Doe we maintaine that God brings any man to Salvation if he come to the use of reason but by faith repentance and good-workes But the truth is this Authors ignorance in part and in part a dexterity that this Sect hath to confound things that differ is his best armour of proofe to hold up his confidence in spending his powder liberally but without shot For salvation is not bestowed or damnation inflicted absolutely but that meerely upon the foregoing of faith and repentance this meerely upon finall perseverance in sinne Only regeneration together with the grace of faith and repentance is bestowed absolutely by God upon whom he will and denyed to whom he will according to that of Paul He hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardneth And it is very strange that this being the criticall poynt and the most momentous poynt of controversy and such
the decision whereof carryeth with it the decision of all the rest this Author should unshamefacedly decline it But some there be that hate the light because their workes are evill but doth it become him to taxe others for declining the triall when none sheweth more vile carriage this way then himselfe What that Privy-Councellor was I know not nor have I any evidence of the truth of the story but as it lyeth dictated at pleasure I have shewed how it nothing disadvantageth our cause though the Author of that speech were not only a Privy-Councellor but a great Divine too Yet amongst many good there might be some bad in Queen Elizabeths dayes If that were true which is reported to have been mentioned by D r Lively in a Lecture of his in Cambridge namely that a certaine Booke was found under a Privy-Councellors pillow whose inscription was this De tribus Mundi impostoribus Mose Christo Mahumite As for fate stoicall to give the Divell his right I no where find it maintained by any of them so as to prejudice mens wills but by many great ones I find this expresly denyed and hereof I have already spoken more at large Still he keepes his course in impugning an absolute decree determining mens ends precisely What secret misteries he conceales in the Word precisely I know not but it is aparent we maintaine no such determining the Salvation of any man so as to exclude a Godly life We both know and teach that without Holinesse as much as to say without a Godly life no man shall see God But we further say that this is not wholy the decree of predestination though this Author with his Remonstrants would faine rest here but we farther say that a Godly life is the gift of Gods grace and that God bestowes this gift on whom he will but this Author hath no great lust to oppose us here The more Equivocall a phraise is the fitter it is to serve his turne that lyes upon advantages to promote error and obscure truth And therefore keepes himselfe to the absolute decree and precise determinations either not understanding or not considering that an absolute decree may be takendivers waies either quoad actum volentis as touching the act of God willing or quoad res volitas as touching the things willed the decree properly signifies the act of God willing but this Author in consideratly takes it quoad res volitas as touching the things willed all along as appeares by his oppossing it to decree or will conditionall And will conditionall with him is such as when the thing willed is not effected because the condition is not performed They are his owne words in the last Section save one of his former sorts of reasons the very last words As for example the will of Saving men is not accomplished because men doe not believe Then as touching the things willed Gods decrees being considered here also arise different considerations for as much as the things willed are different Grace and Glory As for Glory and Salvation we doe not say that God hath decreed to confer that absolutly but only conditionally yet thereupon he stiks throughout supposing his adversaries to maintaine an absolute decree concerning the conferring of Salvation abolutely which is most untrue wherein he fights without any adversary yet there he dischargeth himselfe very strenuously and layes about him like a mad man But as for grace to wit the grace of regeneration the grace of faith and repentance this we readily professe that God doth bestow it absolutly to wit on whom he will according to the meere pleasure of his will All this It is the glory of this Author in his discourse most juditiously to confound which made him the more to abound in matter that he might seem to say some thing when indeed it is nothing supple to the purpose And to meet with him in every particular of his conclusion The events to wit of Salvation or damnation are not at all decreed by God to come to passe absolutely but meerely conditionally and consequently not unavoydably but avoydably rather like as things that come to passe contingently doe come to passe with a possibility not to come to passe and accordingly God decreed they should came to passe contingently And consequently mens actions hereabouts are not unprofitable nay they are both necessary for obtayning the ends here intimated such as never faile of obtayning them As for example Sanctification of the spirit and faith of the truth never faile of procuring Salvation for as much as God ordained by these meanes to bring men unto Salvation 2 Thess 2. 13. And by no meanes else And therefore most absurd it is to conceive that the practise of Godlinesse proves unprofitable and from such wild promises the unprofitable nature of the prctise of Godlinesse can prove no better then a wild conclusion I come to his two witnesses the first is Calv. Inst l. 3. c. 23. sect 14. Si quis ita plebem compellet si non creditis ideo fit quia jam divinitus exitio destinati estis is non modo ignaviam fovet sed indulget malitiae This saith this Author is as much to say as this If a man should set downe the doctrine of Reprobation in its colours and explaine it to people in a cleare and lively fashion he would hereby open a doore to liberty and prophanenesse Now this Calvin delivereth as out of Austin as appeareth both by his entrance hereunto and by his shutting up of it His entrance into it is this Et tamen ut singulare aedificationis studium sancto viro fuit that is Austin sic docendi veri rationem temperat ut prudenter caveatur quoad licet offensio Nam iquae vere dicuntur congruenter simul posse dici admonet The man he speakes of still is Austin as is apparent to him that shall consider the coherence of this Section with the former Then he sets downe the inconvenient manner of Preaching this truth as Austin doth though not in Austins words but in his owne Si quis ita plebem compellet si non creditis ideo fit quia jam divinitus exitio destinati estis c. And shutting the whole up he expressely names Austin misliking such manner of Preaching thus Tales itaque Augustinus non immerito tanquam vel insulsos Doctores vel sinistros ominosos Prophetas ab Ecclesia jubet facessere What is the mystery then of this that Calvin is here brought in for a witnesse in making a relation of Austins discourse and Austin himselfe whose judgement Calvin doth but relate is pretermitted especially considering that Austins testimony where it serves his turne would give farre more credit to his cause then Calvins you will give me leave to guesse at the mistery which I take to be this Calvin is well known to be opposite unto him in the doctrine of reprobation but Calvin acknowledging that this Doctrine might be delivered in a harsh
sweetest and the surest truths revealed in Gods word to their own damnation Resp It cannot I confesse be denyed that many of this opinion are Godly men but it is no thankes to their opinion that they are so the true and naturall genius of which is to breed sloth to drowne men in carnall security and to countenance carnall liberty but to some thing else either to Gods providence who will not suffer this doctrine for his own glory and the good of men to have any great stroake in their lives or to mens incogitancy who think not of reducing it ad praxim or drawing conclusions out of it but rest in the naked speculation of it as they doe of many others or lastly to some good practicall conclusions which they meet with in the word of God and apply to their lives as they doe not the former deductions such as these are for example Be ye holy as I an holy Without holinesse no man shall see God If ye consent and obey ye shall eat the good things of the land Godlinesse hath the promise of this life and of the life to come and such like And hence we may learne to measure this opinion not by some few of the men that hold it but by the sequels which the Logick even of simple men if they should apply their braines to ponder and consider it would fetch out of it No man that hath thoroughly suckt it in and understood the force of it but will either relinquish it or live according to the naturall importment of it that is licentiously 2. Secondly it is said that albeit this Doctrine doth teach that men are absolutely elected or absolutely rejected yet it tells no man who in particular is elected who rejected that must appeare by themselves and their lives and so it doth not stifle holy endeavours in any but rather encourage them in every man because it makes them to be signes whereby men must and may get the knowledge of their election Resp For answer to this in my judgement or the present the ignorance of a mans particular case doth not alter the case a jot For he that believes in generall that many and they the greatest company without comparison are inevitably ordained to destruction and a few others unto salvation is able out of these two generall propositions to make these particular conclusions and to reason thus with himselfe Either I am absolutely chosen to grace and glory or absolutely cast off from both If I be chosen I must of necessity believe and be saved If I be cast off I must as necessarily not believe and be damned Therefore what need I take thought either way about meanes or end My end is pitched in Heaven and the meanes too my finall perseverance in faith and my salvation or my continuance in unbeliefe and my damnation If I lye under this necessity of believing and being saved or of dying in unbeliefe and being damned in vaine doe I trouble my selfe about meanes or end I have my supersedeas I may take mine ease and so I will it is enough for me to sit downe and waite what God will doe unto me And in this manner it is to be feared doe too many reason in their hearts and by this very ground though they will not perhaps acknowledge it encourage themselves to prophanenesse Though men cannot hide their wickednesse yet they will hide their grounds which flesh them in it either through modesty or to avoyde some farther ignominy The foole hath said in his heart there is no God Psal 40. Suetonius de Vita Tiberii c. 69. p. 180. Saies of Tiberius that he was circa Deos religiones negligentior quippe addictus Mathematicae persuasionibus plenus omnia fato agi TWISSE Consideration I have already made answer to his objections after my maner it remaines I consider what he delivereth in debilitating those answers which he takes in to consideration 1. This answer was made by our Brittaine Divines in the Synod of Dort upon the first Article but so as that they proposed it not by it selfe alone but joyntly with shewing that neither the Nature of our Doctrine doth any way prove any hinderance unto pietie as formerly I have made mention therof Whereas he sayth that many of this our opinion are Godly men but that is no thankes to their opinion that they are so I answer that neither doe we give the glory of our Godlinesse to our good opinion nor have cause to thanke it therefore but we give God the Glory both of leading us into this truth amongst many others and for that Godlinesse that is in us also For we acknowledge that God is able to convict our consciences of that trueth hereof and yet refuse to lead us thereby into any Holinesse at all Yet let every sober man judge who are in a fairer way to true Holinesse or who are more likely to be in the state of true Holinesse they that oppose the grace of God in working our wills to faith and repentance or they that acknowledge it They who maintaine that God of the meere pleasure of his will regenerates us endueth us with the spirit of faith and repentance or they who maintaine that God doth not give faith and repentance to whom he will Neither is it the meaning of S t Paul where he sayeth God hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardneth but rather where he findes an absolute disposition or worke in one which he finds not in an other Againe consider I pray indifferently who are more likely to be partakers of Gods grace they who truly magnifie it as the Author of their faith and repentance and of every good worke performed by them and that in a preventing manner or they that pretend to make Gods grace to be the Author of their faith and repentance and every good worke only by giving them power to believe if they will which we are able to prove both by the judgment of Austin and by cleare reason to be meere nature and not grace and accordingly exhorting them to believe and last of all concurring with them to the producing of the act of faith in them in case they will And seeing grace proves effectuall only by this subsequent manner of operation whether they doe not plainely mocke God in making him the Author of grace seing in respect of this effectuall operation they might as well make him the Author of every sinfull act as of every gratious act For it is agreed on all hands that God concurres as well to every sinfull act as any gratious act Whereas he sayth The true and naturall genius of our Tenet is to breed sloth and to drowne men in carnall security and to countenance carnall libertie I answer these words of his are but wind his reasons I have already considered and proved them to be of no weight For they depend partly upon a vaine supposition as if we maintained that God hath
with as much art and cunning as can be will not fasten upon them With David they say in their feare that all men are lyars namely all such as come to comfort them in their temptation And the reason is because it is an opinion incompatible with any word of comfort that can be ministred to the distressed soule in this temptation Gods love to mankind Christs death for all mankind and the calling of poore sinners without exception to repentance or salvation with all other grounds of consolation the tempted will easily elude with the grounds of his opinion which that we may the better see let us imagine that we heare a Minister and a tempted soule reasoning in this or the like manner Tempted Woe is me I am a castaway I am absolutely rejected from Grace and glory Minister Discourage not thy selfe thou poore afflicted soule God hath not cast thee off For he hateth nothing that he hath made but bears a love to all men and to thee amongst the rest Tempted God hateth no man as he is his creature but he hateth a great many as they are involv'd in the first transgression and become guilty of Adams sinne And God hath a two-fold love as I have learned a generall love which puts forth it selfe in outward and temporall blessings only and with this he loved all men And a speciall love by which he provideth everlasting life for men and with this he loves only a very few which out of his alone will and pleasure he singled from the rest Under this generall love am I not the speciall Minister God so loves all men as that he desires their eternall good for the Apostle saith he would have all to be saved and he would have no man perish nor thee in particular Tempted All is taken two waies for all sorts and conditions of men high and low rich and poore bond and free Jew and Gentile and for all particular men in those severall sorts and conditions God would have all sorts of men to be saved but not all particular men of these sorts some of my Country and my calling c. but not all or mee in particular Or if it be true that God would have all particular men to be saved yet he wills it only with a revealed Will not with a secret will for with that he will have a great company to be damned absolutely Under this revealed will am I not the secret Minister Christ came into the World to seeke and to save what was lost and is a propitiation not for our sinnes only idest the sinnes of a few particular men or the sinnes of all sorts of men but for the sinnes of the whole world therefore he came to save thee for thou wast lost and to be a propitiation for thy sinnes for thou art part of the whole world Tempted The World as I have heard is taken two waies in Scripture largely for all mankind and strictly in a more restrained signification for the elect or for believers Or if it be true that he dyed for all mankind yet he dyed for them but after a sort he dyed for them all dignitate pretii he did enough to have redeemed all if God would have had it so but he did not dye for all voluntate propositi God never intended that he should shed his bloud for all and every man but for a few select ones only with whom it is my lot not to be numbred Minister God hath founded an universali Covenant with men upon the blood of Christ thy Mediator and therefore he intended it should be shed for all men universally He hath made a promise of salvation to every one that will believe and excludes none that doe not exclude themselves Tempted God purposed his Sonne should dye for all men and that in his name an offer of remission of sinnes and salvation should be made to every one but yet upon this condition that they will doe that which he meanes the greatest part of them shall never doe idest Repent and Believe nor I among the rest Minister God hath a true meaning that all men who are called should repent and believe that so they might be saved as he would have all to be saved so to come to the knowledge of the truth and as he would have no man to perish so he would have all men to repent and therefore he calls them in the Preaching of the word to the one as well as to the other Tempted God hath a double call an outward call by the Preaching of the word an inward call by the irresistible work of the spirit in mens hearts The outward call is a part of Gods outward will with that he calls every man to believe the inward and effectuall call is a part of his secret will and with that he doth not call every man to believe but a very few only whom he hath infallibly and inevitably ordained to eternall life And therefore by the outward will which I enjoy among many others I cannot be assured of Gods good will and meaning that I shall believe repent and be saved By this we may see that no sound comfort can be fastned upon a poore soule rooted in this opinion when he lyes under this horrible temptation The example of Francis Spira an Italian Lawyer will give some farther light and proofe to this This Spira about the yeare 1548 against his knowledge and conscience did openly abjure his religion and subscribe to Popery that thereby he might preserve his life and goods and liberty Not long after he fell into a deep distresse of Conscience out of which he could never wrestle but ended his woefull daies in despaire To comfort him came many Divines of worth and note but against all the comforts that they applyed unto him he opposed two things especially 1. The greatnesse of his sinne It was a sinne of a deep dye commited with many urging and aggravating circumstances and therefore could not be forgiven This argument they quickly took from him and convinced him by the example of Peter that there was nothing in his sinne that could make it irremissible Peter that committed the same sinne and with more odious circumstances repented and was pardoned and so no doubt might he 2 He opposed his absolute reprobation and with that he put off all their comforts Peter saith he repented and was pardoned indeed because he was elected as for me I was utterly rejected before I was borne and therefore I cannot possibly repent or be saved If any man be elected he shall be saved though he have committed sinnes for number many and haynous in degree but if he be ex repudiatis one of the castawaies necessario condemnabitur though his sinnes be small and sew Nihil interest an multa an pauca an magna an parva sint quando nec Dei misericordia nec sanguis Christi quicquam ad eos pertinet A reprobate must be damned be his sinnes many or few
to cast a colour that this discourse of Mr Hord's hath not as yet been answered It may be it would faine have shewed it selfe unto the world in this masculine shape and vigour before this time if Doctor Duppa while he was Vicechancellour at Oxford would have given way to the printing of it if it be true as I have heard that it was offered unto him to be licenced for the presse Doctor Potter also of Queenes Colledge performed a freindly part to some body in checking the Stationers for selling the copies of it forwhich courtesy I doe account my selfe so much in his debt as that comes to and should much more had he sent me one of the copies as he did noe lesse then six on the same day to his friend Doctor Aigleonbee as the Book-seller confessed to a Scholar a friend of mine Well Mr Hord's treatise is at length come to the Presse and shewes it selfe in publique without shame though I thought it had been sufficiently confounded almost three yeares agoe yet this Mistres blushes not though dares not open her mouth to cleare her reputation in any one particular of that which I layd to her charge manifesting her to be no Daughter of God's truth but a meere Bastard begotten by a carnall wit upon a specious pretence by miserable deflowring and adulterating the word of God one builds a wall as the Prophet speakes and another daubeth that with untempered mortar Mr Hord is well knowne to be the Author of the first by mee formerly answered But what Mason's hand was used in the addition that is concealed but that may breake out into pregnant evidences before we have gone through with it The Prefacer at the first chop begins with a notorious untruth and that in more particulars then one for first whom doth he meane by the Author of this Treatise M. Horde That which M. Horde sent to his worthy friend is yet to be seen containing not halfe so much as this it was not above 30 leaves manuscript and that not closely but written at large And this containes 55 leaves in print But it may bee M. Horde hath since inlarged his own discourse and so continues to be author of it not in part only but in the whole And I confesse it may be he is as much the Author of the one as of the other if it be true as some have told me of the very first sent to his friend indeed namely that it was the very strength of M. Mason him I knowe of old and should be acquainted with his sufficiency though it was a long time ere I had so much as heard of his zeale for the Arminian cause and after I heard so much it was yet longer ere I could believe it untill I saw it under his own hand And whereas M. Horde comming to his second convincing Argument as he calls it drawne from Attributes Divine layeth downe certaine premises the second whereof is this That justice mercy truth and holinesse in God are the same in nature with these vertues in men though infinitely differing in Degrees I willingly confesse I stood amaz'd and albeit I conceived it and doe conceave it to be one of the absurdest positions that ever dropped from the pen of a Schoole Divine yet the adventure was so great in my judgement that I was apt to imagine that it proceeded not from a vulgar spirit This conceit of mine was improved by the reasons he brings to justifie so strange a Paradox for they are plausible make a faire shew at the first like the fruit of Sodom but crush them once come to the Scholastical discussion of them forthwith In Cineres abeunt vagam fuliginem they vanish into smoak and emptinesse A second untruth is this that he saith The Author was perswaded by a worthy friend to pen the Reasons of his opinion against absolute reprobation for he was only put upon shewing reasons of the change of his opinion in the controversies of late debated between the Remonstrants their opposites as M. Horde himselfe confesseth in his Preface M. Horde indeed is willing to drawe the matter unto the consideration of Gods decrees as if that were the maine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most absurdly and quite contrary to the doctrine of Augustine who shapes the decrees of God in conformitie to the doctrine of grace and accordingly to certifie the Massilienses in the doctrine of Praedestination he thinks it most fit to begin with proving that Faith is the gift of God yea the very beginning of it Now he liked not to follow Austins course and in the first place to deale upon the point of grace And herein hee savours of M. Masons spirit for that is his course as I have seen under his hand yet suppose that this be the maine thing controverted namely the qualitie of Gods decrees whether they be absolute or conditionall only How doth he satisfie his friend or performe the promise made in letting election passe untouched and dealing only upon reprobation And this I know also to have been M. Masons genuine course far worse then the Remonstrants in the Synod of Dort for they made a motion that they might deal upon reprobation in the first place and then upon election wherein notwithstanding they were condemned in the judgement of all forraigne Divines assistant there But this Author and M. Mason too on my knowledge affect to deale upon reprobation only Yet I have alwaies been and still am glad to see the utmost of their strength or any mans strength on any of the five points and should be very glad to see what they could say upon the point of free will which is most congruous for them though they meddle not at all with grace For even on that point I seem to have profited more lately by dealing with some English Arminians then ever before having alwaies acknowledged that to be a point very obscure like as is the nature of originall sinne which was one of the three points concerning which I did not look to live so long as to meet with convenient satisfaction M. Horde I heard conferred with M. Mason about Election and told him that the doctrine of our Divines therein seemed very comfortable to the children of God whereunto M. Mason should answer by granting that but then adding it was very prone to provoke men to loosenesse of life This concession was as a shooing horne to draw M. Horde on to the Remonstranticall Tenet nothing doubting but in the end to take him of from entertaining so good an opinion of our doctrine of Election as if it were not any such comfortable condition teach him to magnifie the comfortable condition of the adversaries doctrine depending upon a threefold cord which as the proverb faith cannot easily be broken 1. The universalitie of Gods love 2. The universalitie of Christs redemption 3. The universalitie of the Covenant of grace Thus the comforts of the Remonstrants are
hell hath a being and by consequent something that is good If therefore God may take away a man's being that is innocent and turne him into nothing for his pleasure much more may he torment him in hell I am glad to see my name so often remembred by this Authour in his margent for a long time I desired to know his way by certaine evidence for I would not suffer my selfe to be carried away with rumours and withall I found some contradiction in the relations I received from different persons but at length I was so happy as to see it under his own hand and there to observe not his judgment only but the strength of his affections also Now let the Reader observe the cunning carriage of this Authour and how farre off it is from all ingenuitie For what I discourse being drawne thereunto by Arminius his excursions that this Authour obtrudes upon me as if the defence of the cause I tooke in hand had drawn me thereunto notwithstanding that I have professed the contrary For thus I write l. 1. pag. 1. De electione Sect 4. pag. 127. In the canvasing of this section Arminius runs out at large saving that most of these things which here he heapes up are aliena and nothing pertinent to the present purpose as pertaining rather to the decree of reprobation then to the decree of election And a little after I write thus Hence it is that Arminius expatiates and transfers his disputation from the point of election to the point of Reprobation too unseasonably Yet wisely affecting the incolumity of his wavering cause By that right saith he which God hath over his creature he cannot ordaine any man to the suffering of pain without the foresight of sinnne To wit that his cause might stand upright and that this examiner might omit nothing that tends to the making of his opinion plausible with his propitious reader it was needfull that he should make use of some such transition though never so unreasonable but seeing such are the wiles and artifices of our Adversaries to confound all Scholasticall method it shall not be unseasonable for me to weigh what he delivers as briefly as I can Therefore after I had refused Arminius on that point where he denyes that God can doe that injustice which he can doe by power after this manner I enter upon a new digression concerning this point Hitherto have I followed Arminius in his extravagants For M. Perkins hath not proceeded so farre as to affirme that God hath power to afflict an innocent creature neither hath his Adversaries objected any such thing unto him as justly inferred from ought delivered by him So that all such have well hardened their foreheads who faigne that our opinion cannot well subsist without the help of so horrid and so harsh an assertion to wit That it is better to be miserable then not to be at all It is true some may conceive that though this were a truth it were to be suppressed rather then affirmed by reason of the harshnesse of it Let every one consider aright that I undertake the defence of M. Perkins and it is he that hath uttered this harsh assertion namely That God can inflict hell paines without any demerit in the creature out of Cameracensis And it stood me upon to defend M. Perkins so farre as I had reason for it Now finding the maine argument whereby Arminius maintaines the contrary to that other yet more harsh proposition to be most unsound and even this assertion which sounds most harsh in the eares of many not only to be maintained by Austine himselfe and and divres Schoole-Divines but answered by many arguments the solution whereof was never expedited by any have I deserved so sharply to be censured for representing all this in the way of justifying M. Perkins whose defence I undertook against Arminius 1. My words are these translated God can annihilate the holiest creature which Arminius confesseth how much more is it in his power to afflict an innocent creature and that for ever considering that not only according to Schoole-divines but also according to Austine yea according to the truth it selfe it is more to be desired to have being under any pain then to have no being at all And afterwards I propose not one argument of mine own for the justifying of this but only represent the discourse of Austine hereupon as it is analized by Durandus that Schoole Divine Now why are not the School-men censured as men speaking unreasonably and against common sense Nay why is not Austine censured as one that had rather speak unreasonably and against common sense then lay downe the conclusion which he hath once undertaken to maintain as well as my selfe Yea and much more considering that the discourse proving this is Saint Austin's and had I not added on the by these four words etiam secundum ipsam veritatem there had been no place at all for any censure to be past upon me If a man finding himselfe convicted by Austin's discourse shall confesse that what he writes is true is it equity to censure him as one who had rather speak unreasonably and against common sense then lay down the conclusions which formerly he hath undertaken to maintain When in the mean time no censure is at all passed upon Austine who alone is the player of the game he that stands by professing only in his judgment he playes his game well 2. If Austine hath spoken unreasonably and against common sense how comes it to passe that this censurer hath not taken the paines to represent unto the world the unreasonablenesse of his argument This authour spends his mouth frankly in censuring but takes no paines to free his Reader from errour by solving arguments produced by Austin for the proofe of that wich this Authour conceives to be an errour 3. Nay he doth not so much as answer that one argument which here is proposed by me An argument which the Scoole-men use as sufficiently convincing the truth as Durandus and Ricardus Yet considering the unreasonable condition of such adversaries who take no course to convince or confute their opposites but imperiously to cry them down I have taken the paines to call to an account both Austin's arguments and others proposed by Schoole-Divines and to devise with my selfe what answer might be made unto them so to performe that for my adversaries which they shew no hart to performe for themselves and I was borne in hand that such a digression of mine should be extant long ere this 4 Yet by the way I wonder not a little that one thing is pretermitted For if I mistake not this very Authour is the man that heretofore hath been very full mouthed in censuring not so much the doctrine it selfe as a certain answer I made to an argument brought out of Scripture against it namely from those words of our Saviour It had been better for that man if he had never been
born My answer was that it was spoken according to the judgment of man though indeed erroneous and that after this manner phraseologies of Scripture doe proceed I there shewed Now this Authour hereupon spared not to professe that if this were true he would turne Atheist I wisht that Friend of mine to whom he spake this to perswade him the next time he met with him to enquire and consider well whether Maldonat the Jesuite doth not imbrace the same interpretation And indeed if such protestations would carry it this Authour would prove a very potent and formidable adversary I have seen the like under his own hand namely this As Plutarch said of the old heathens who sacrificed men that they might pacifie their gods that it had been better with Diagoras to say There is no god then to think that God is such a one that delights in the blood of men And hereupon he adds this Protestation I protest unto you I think it less dishonourable to the blessed Trinity to say with the Atheist there is no god then to feigne such a God as the decree of Reprobation maintained by the Contraremonstrants maketh him to be This man I find is resorted unto and consulted with by the Arminians as if his judgment were an oracle and I willingly confesse he deserves to be in some great place unto them and no place in my judgmentmore fit then to be unto the à protestationibus Yet I doe not prescribe but leave it to their discretion to prefer him as they think good but how comes it to passe that here he is silent in reviving the reproaches he cast upō my answer to the Scripture before mentioned Is it because Maldonat the Jesuite hath been since found by him to embrace the same interpretation And he is loath to fall so foule in censuring such as he is Yet here he falls foul on me for professing my approbation not of Schoole-men but of Austin's discourse This makes me call to mind what was delivered of him sometimes by a London Minister as that he should perswade a young Divine to study Bellarmine as also what censures others have passed upon some writings of his And it hath been my hap to see under his own hand such a counsaile as this givē to a friend of his These things have I represented unto you the rather because I would give you occasion to learne that in your younger dayes which I have learned by late and long experience in my selfe and that in these two things First in reading Bellarmine and other adversaies to our Church I have divers times noted such speeches in them as to my thinking involved contradiction or had shew of absurdity or might either give advantage to our selves or breed prejudice unto them but when afterward I came in cooler blood to weigh the words better and to consider the circumstances more narrowly I found that I did mistake their meaning and that an itching desire to find an advantage made me to take shadowes for substance And the like mistake in my selfe I observed when I read the fathers or the Scriptures ready to interpret every thing either in favour of mine own cause or in prejudice of the adversaries And concludes sententiously thus Nimirum ita est ingenium nostrum facile credimus quae nimium volumus If such be the genius of this Authour though he thinks not good to spare me for Austin's sake yet methinks he should spare me for Richardus sake or at the least for Maldonat's sake This calls to my remembrance an Epigramme which D. Hoskins my chamber-fellow in New-Colledge sometimes made upon the fleas that sore troubled him as he lay in his bed And the conclusion was thus But if ther 's nothing that can slack Your rage and your correction Yet ô remember you are black And spare me for complexion So we proceed Sect. 5. To the first part of this reply namely that it is more desirable to be in hell then to be nothing I oppose three things 1. The speech of our Saviour concerning Judas Woe be to that man by whom the Sonne of man is betraied it had been good for that man if he had never been born Two things especially are set forth in these words of our Saviour First the misery of Judas the betraier of the Lord. Woe be c. Secondly the greatnes of his misery It had been good c. It is as much as if the Lord had said Judas the traitour shall be damned and therefore so woefull will his condition be that it had been good and happy for him if he had never received a being good in earnest as the Interpreters doe generally expound it not in the opinion and esteem of weak minded faint-hearted-men only as some few understand it For first let it be granted that Scripture speaketh of things sometimes according to men's opinions yet without reason to fasten such an expostiō upon any Scripture is to doe as dunces doe in the Schooles who being not able to answer a place in Aristotle wherewith they are charged shift it off and say loquitur ex aliorum sententiâ he speaks according to the opinion of others 2. This scripture cannot in reason be thus expounded First because it is an argument and ground by which Christ declareth the truth and greatnesse of the misery of Judas Woe to the man c And why woe Because it had been good c. But it were no argument to shew his woefull estate by to say that it had been good for him that he had never been born in the opinion of men who mistake the case but not in truth 2. because this exposition would teach and encourage men to be Atheists and Epicures In the second of Wisdome we read how voluptuous men doe stirre up one another to enjoy the good things that are present to fill them selves with wine and ointments to leave some token of their jollity in every place and to practise all manner of wickednesse And what is their motive a false perswasion that their soules shall dye with their bodies and that they should have noe being after death If this conceit would flesh them thus in their opinions and voluptuous courses how freely and eagerly may we thinke would they pursue their carnall and sinfull delights if they could be but once perswaded that after all their pleasure they should be in better case then if they had noe being Secondly I oppose common consent Where shall wee pick out a man but will say if he speak from his heart that he were better to vanish into a thousand nothings then to be cast into hell What is the reason why men are so afraid of hell when they are touched to the quick with the conscience of their ungodly lives and the expectation of eternall vengeance that with Job they curse their birth day and wish an hundred times over that they had never been or might cease to be that so they might
or ability at all in the issue of avoiding their sinnes but must of necessity commit them Thus they teach and therefore by just consequences they make God the Authour of sinne as it will plainly appeare by these following considerations Poets tell us there was a time when Giants on earth set themselves to fight against God in heaven because the place of his habitation was out of their reach they laid mountaine upon mountaine hill upon hill Pelion upon Ossa that so they might make their approaches unto him beseige him in his own fastnes this fable is a monumēt of the shipwrack of that truth among heathen-men which the Lord had preserved unto his Church upon record in his holy word For when after the great Deluge in the dayes of Noah men began to be multiplied upon the face of the earth they consulted how they might fortify themseves against the like inundation for the time to come and thereupon encouraged thēselves saying Goe to let us build us a City and a town whose top may reach unto the Heaven that we may get us a name least we be scattered upon the whole earth But how didthe Lord deale with these presumptuous adventurers The Poet 's faign that Iupiter destroyed them with his thunderbolts and as for one of them Typhoeus by name a proud fellow he laid him fast enough under the hill Aetna in Sicily where he breaths out smoak fire like the great Polan out of a Tobacco-pipe somewhat bigger then a good Caliver But the Scripture tels us how that for their saying Goe too let us build c. the Lord answered them with a Come on let us goe downe and there confound their language that every one perceive not one anothers speech This Author herhaps is but a Pygmie for bodily presence yet he may be a Gyant for his wit and found 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to fight against God in a spirituall way in the opposing of his truth As Gamaliel sometimes advised the high Priest with his counsell to take heed lest they were found even fighters against God It is true this Author no doubt perswades himselfe that he fights for God in as much as he affects to free him from being the Author of sin But let not the simple Reader be deluded with shewes but seriously consider whither all this doe which he makes about the point of Reprobation doth not clearly tend to the overthrowing of God's free grace in election which is so much the more foule because he doth it underhand as conscious to himselfe of his owne impotency to impugne it openly or fearing the generall opposition of our Church against him therefore he practiseth to undermine it And this I have found to be his course divers years agoe in his private undertakings to draw proselytes unto him namely to decline the point of grace of election to deale only upon Reprobation and there to put his concurrent to begin as if he would have a young Divine to inform a Sexagenarian as I have seen under his own hand But see the hand of God upon him in confounding his language as when he stands for Reprobation evitable avoidable reproacheth his adversaries for maintaining Reprobation inevitable unavoidable This is the phrase of his Schoole For I do not remember to have met with it any where but in him his disciples Now what man of common sense doth not observe this phrase to be appliable only to things that are to come but of a contingent nature so that they may be avoyded declined but by no means apply able to things already done that more then many thousand years agoe For what sober man could heare with patience another discourse of the avoidable nature of Noah's flood now in these daies to maintain that it is at this day avoidable what fustian like to this Might he not as well take liberty to discourse of the Aequinoctiall pasticrust It was wont to be said that this alone God himself could not perform namely to cause that which is done to be not done As Aristotle in his Eth relates a saying of one Agatho to that purpose Now reprobation is confessed by all to be of the same age with election election was as the Apostle tels us performed by God before the foundation of the world And is not this Author then besides himself when he pleads for evitable avoydable Reprobation But albeit this Author makes the worst of our opinions and expressions yet I will not requite him by making the worst of his that were base inglorious and to be overcome I will therefore hearken to the Apostles counsell where he saith Be not overcome with evill but overcome evill with good I will make the best of his and according to the distinction of God's will used in Schooles as it is taken either quoad actum volentis or quoad res volitas as touching the act of him that willeth or the things willed So I will imagine that he speaks of Reprobation which is the will of God not as touching the act of God Reprobating making such a decree but as touching the thing decreed this thing decreed he will have to be of an avoidable nature Now this we willingly grant utterly deny that this any way hinders the absolutenes of God's decree We say with the 11 article of the Church of Ireland that God from all aeternity did by his unchangeable councell ordain whatsoever should in time come to passe yet so as hereby neither the contingency nor liberty of the second causes is taken away but established rather So that whereas we see some things come to passe necessarily some contingently so God hath ordained that all things shall come to passe that do come to passe but necessary things necessarily contingent things contingently that is avoidably with a possibility of not comming to passe For every University Scholar knows this to be the notion of contingency yet will not I content my selfe with the article of Ireland for this Aquinas thus distinguisheth For having proposed this question Whether the will of God doth impose a necessity upon the things willed To this question this Author with whom I deale would answer affirmatively saying it doth impose a necessity on all such things or at least obtrude such an opinion upon us himself undoubtedly thinks that in case Gods will be absolute it must cause a necessity upon all things willed therby both which are utterly untrue this last utterly denyed by Aquinas For first every will of God is absolute in the judgment of Aquinas which I prove thus That will which hath noe cause or reason thereof is absolute This proposition I presume this Authour will not deny But the will of God hath no cause in the judgment of Aquinas therefore every will of God is absolute by his doctrine Yet this absolute will of God imposeth not a necessity upon all things
willed by him but only on some things Divina volunt as non omnibus sed quibusdam necessitatem imponit And in the body of that question thus he writes The distinction of things necessary and contingent proceeds from the distinction of God's will For when a cause is effectuall and powerfull to worke the effect followeth the cause not only so farre as to be brought to passe but also as touching the manner of its coming to passe Therefore seing the will of God is most effectuall it not only followeth that those things come to passe which God will have come to passe but that they come to passe after the same manner also after which he will have them come to passe Now God will have some things come to passe necessarily and some things contingently that there may be an order in things for the perfection of the world And therefore for the producing of some effects he hath fitted causes necessary which cannot faile by which effects are brought forth necessarily And for the producing of other effects he hath fitted causes contingent such as may faile in working from which effects are brought to passe contingently So that upon suspicion that God doth will a thing that thing shall certainly and infallibly come to passe but how Not allwaies necessarily or contingently And that certaine and infallible eveniency of things is called also necessity in the Schooles but not necessity simply but only upon suspicion which may well consist with absolute contingency But to make the point yet more cleare Let us distinctly consider the things decreed For they that have an evill cause delight in confusion and feare nothing more then the light of distinction Now the things decreed by Reprobation are either deniall of Grace which is joyned with the permission of sinne Or damnation for sinne according to that on Aquinas Reprobation includes the will of permitting sinne inflicting damnation for sinne Now both the permission of sinne and damnation of God's part are his free acts and therefore come to passe freely But upon supposition that God will deny a man Grace it is impossible that such a man should have grace Secondly secluding grace there is noe actuall transgression for which a man is damned but may be avoided man having power for that naturally though naturally he have noe power to performe every good act The reason is because amongst good acts some are supernaturall as the acts of the three Theologicall vertues Faith Hope and Charity But noe sinfull act is supernaturall all such are naturall Now it is confest on all hands that notwithstanding man's corruption by reason of originall sinne yet he hath still power and free will to performe any naturall act and accordingly he hath free power to abstaine from it So that Iudas had free will to abstaine from betraying his Master After he had betrayed him he had free power to abstaine from destroying himselfe so that as these sinnes of his for which he was damned were avoidable by him in like manner his damnation for these sinnes was avoidable And allbeit God had determined that Iudas by Divine permission should betray his Master and destroy himselfe according to to that of Austin Iudas electus est ad prodendum sanguinem Domini Iudas was ordained to betray his master And that of the Apostles jointly Of a truth against thy holy Son Iesus both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and people of Israell were gathered to doe what thy hand and thy counsell had before determined to be done Acts 4. 28. Yet herehence it followes only that it was necessary to wit upon this supposition namely of the Divine ordinance that these things should come to passe namely both Iudas his betraying of Christ and Herods mocking of him and Pilates condemning him and the peoples crying out away with him together with their preferring of Barrabas a murtherer before him and the Souldiers crucifying him But how came it to passe Not necessarily but contingently that is in this Authours phrase evitably and avoidably inas much as it was joyned with an absolute possibility to come to passe otherwise Nor with a possibility only but with a free power in the agents to have forborne all these contumelious carriages of theirs towards the son of God For both Iudas had free will to abstaine from betraying him and Herod with his Herodians could have abstained from their contumelious handling of him and Pilate from condemning him and the Preists and people from conspiring against him and the Souldiers from crucifying him only they had no power to abstaine from all or any of these vile actions in an holy manner as no man else hath power to abstaine from any evill in a gracious manner without grace Yea without the Grace of regeneration which alone plants in us both faith in God and a love of God to the very contempt of our selves and no performance of any good or abstinence from any evill is acceptable with God unto eternall life unlesse it proceed from this faith and this love That which is here produced out of Marlorate is a strange speech and such as I never read or heard from any before and such as whereof I can give no tolerable construction And is it fit that every extravagant passage that is found in any Writer of ours should be brought forth to charge our doctrine with It were a fitter speech for a Papist who maintaining the absolutenesse of Reprobation doth withall maintaine an apostacy from grace which we do not If Marlorate had any such opiniō he sings therein to himself to his own Muses What Divine of ours maintains that God hath decreed to damne any man otherwaies then by way of punishment for sin continued in unto death without repentance Had he spoken of Good works morall only it is true any hypocrite is capable of them and none taste deeper of Damnation then hypocrites But as for the worke of true faith true repentance it is the generall profession of our Divines that as faith and the spirit of repentance once given never faile so they shall infallibly bring a man unto everlasting life and free him from condemnation But any thing serves this Authors turn to vent his stomack And I am perswaded there is not one more of all our Divines that he can shew to concurre with Marlorat in this And if there were is it fit their improvident inconsiderate expressions should be cast in their teeth that avouch them not but rather conceive them to be void of all sobriety Brentius apud Marloratum in illud Ioh. 15. 2. Omnem palmitem in me non ferentem fructum tollet c. Caeterum haec sententia occurrit curiositati carnis quae solet argutè magis quà m reverenter de praedestinatione disserere pro suo ingenio colligere nullum à Domino ad vitam aeternam electum posse damnari etiamsi pessimè vivat Nullum item à Domino
obduratum so mayest thou not say of this Authour in this discourse of his noverit se esse excaecatum let him take notice how himselfe is blinded The Lord giving Israel up to their own hearts lusts he like a resolute Doctor will have to proceed by way of mere permission Yet the Lord saith not he permitted them to their own lusts and Rom 1. 24 26 28. Observe first looke what he permitted came to passe throughout even to abominable courses Secondly observe the judgment of God is noted herein They received the recompence of their own errour as was meet What And are God's judgments executed only by God's permission and that by the hands of them that are judged and punished Such is the accuratenes of this Authours divinity comming to correct the mistakes of others about permission And for the proofe of all this we have this Authour 's bare word without any reason or authority represented by him As for that of Ezechiel not chap 18. 39 but chap 20. 39 Goe and serve every one his Idels this hath the forme of a command rather then of a permission but the Lord hereby signifies that in serving him while they serve other Gods they doe but profane his holy name in serving him and undoubtedly they provoked God more hereby then the heathens who served not him at all but other Gods only So that the Lord seemes to signifie that he had rather they should not serve him at all as Revelations 3. I would thou wer'st either hot or cold but seeing thou art luke-warme I will spue thee out of my mouth But be it as the Authour would have it did here God begin to permit them their former disobedience was it not a consequent of God's permission For if God had not permitted their disobedience surely it had not been by the Authours discourse in the beginning of this Section As touching that Revelations 22. 11. I hope by the same rule of this positive Theologue not only their continuing to be unjust was by God's permission but their first being and beginning to be unjust was by God's permission also And surely if this man's word be of any credit all sinners were first permitted to sinne otherwise they had never sinned and not the obstinate and willfull only Were not the Angells innocent before their first sin was not Adam innocent before his first sin and did not God permit both Angells and men to sin their first sin If not what truth is in this authour's word when he said God hath decreed to suffer sin for otherwise there would be none And if he be not worthy to be believed in this his credit is crackt and deserves not to be believed in ought 2. We have been more beholding unto this Authour since he came to meet with our distinctions then throughout all his former discourse as I have shewed already in part shall discover more by God's helpe not his permission only ere we part from this He seemes to be conscious of some thing and fearefull of giving too much advantage as appeares by his expressiō when he saith that permission of sin for so he should say supposeth a possibility of sinning or not sinning Now this is nothing congruous to his former expressions whereby it was made to suppose that a man is able to stand For to be able to stand is to have an active power in him whereby he is able to stand but to have a possibility of standing or not sinning is not so For though a man hath no power in himselfe to stand or to abstaine from sinne yet if there be a power in God to makehim stand and to preserve him from falling this is sufficient to make good that a man hath a possibility of standing and abstaining from sinne And we are willing to confesse that God is able not only to preserve any man that stands from falling but also to raise any man that is fallen and to make him stand Thus Florus Habet homo post illam damnationem liberum arbitrium quo propriâ voluntate inclinari potest inclinatur ad malum habet liberum arbitrium quo possit assurgere ad bonum Ut autem assurgat ad bonum non est propriae virtutis sed gratiae Dei miserantis Nam qui mortuus est dici potest posse vivere non tamen suâ virtute sed Dei Ita liberum arbitrium hominis semel sauciatum semel mortuum potest sanari non tamen suâ virtutè sed gratiâ miserantis Dei. Et ideo omnes homines admonentur omnibus verbum praedicatur quia habent posse credere posse converti ad Deum ut verbo extrinsecus admonente Deo intus suscitante qui audiunt reviviscant After Adam's fall man hath free will whereby of his own accord he may be and is inclined unto evill he hath free will whereby he may arise unto that which is good but to arise unto Good is not of his own power but of Gods grace commiserating For of him also who is dead it may be said that he may live yet not of his own power but by the power of God So the free will of men being once wounded once dead may be healed not by ' its own power but by the grace of God shewing mercy And therefore all men are admonished the word is preached unto all because this they have that they may believe they may be converted unto God to the end that by the word admonishing outwardly and God stirring them up inwardly they which heare may be revived Observe by the way a manifest incongruity in saying that permission is a not hindring them from falling who are able to stand For they who are permitted to fall and not hindered from falling are supposed to stand and not only to be able to stand It seemes this Authour cannot endure that Permission of sinne should consist in the withholding of a grace needfull to abstaine from sinne Whence it followeth evidently that in this Authour's opinion either God's permission of sinne is not the withholding of any grace at all or if it be it is the withholding only of such a grace without which neverthelesse man may keep himselfe from sinne and consequently though such a grace be granted yet it is indifferent for him to sinne as well as to abstaine from sinne If it be no withholding of grace at all it followes that like as when a man sins it is not for want of grace So when a man abstaines from sinne it is not by vertue of any grace of God granted him thereunto Yet the Lord tells King Abimelech expresly I kept thee from sinning against me If he pretends that some grace is withheld whensoever a man sinneth but will not say that is was necessary for the avoiding of sinne it followeth that when man is permitted to sinne he is no more apt to sinne then while such grace was denied him and consequently no more apt to
Behold Reader the issue of this man's Divinity and whether he be not leading thee into the very chambers of death by working thee with him to oppose the free grace of God both in predestination and in regeneration and the power and efficacy therereof in working thee to faith to repentance and to every thing that is pleasing and acceptable unto him that through Jesus Christ Yet we have shewed a manifest difference between God's moving the creature unto that which is good and moving the creature unto such acts as are evill For in evill be moves only to the substance of the act whereof our Adversaries themselves acknowledge God to be the Authour that is the efficient cause and this he performes by influence generall But as touching every good act the Lord moveth not only to the substance of the act by influence generall but also to the goodnes thereof by influence speciall He proceeds to tell us what Philosophers teach concerning the condition of the will And because it is very absurd for a Christian to goe to schoole to Philosophers to learne the condition of Divine providence he tels us of Fathers too that maintaine the same as he saith but he quotes neither the one nor the other Now I would gladly know what Father hath ever taught that God hath no power over the will of man to convert it and ex nolentibus volentes facere of unwilling to make men willing to worke men to faith to repentance to all kind of pious obedience And as for God's secret providence in evill how plentifull is the Scripture concerning this God is said to have sent Ioseph into Egypt though this was brought to passe by the parricidiall hands of his brethren To tell David that the sword should not depart from his house though this could not be taken up or used but by the free will of men To send Senacherib against a dissembling nation and to professe that this proud King in all his bloudy executions upon the people of God was but as the axe or the sawe in the hand of God The like is testified concerning Nabuchodonosor after him Nay the Prophet demands Whether there be any evill in the Citty and the Lord hath not done it speaking of the evill of punishment though wickedly executed by the hands of wicked men that the Lord caused the King of Assur to fall by the sword in his own land though this was done by the hands of his own children And as in violent courses so in impure courses the Scripture as plainly testifies the secret providence of God to have place therein And what doth Austin observe from the like places both in his fift book against Iulian the Pelag c 3 and in his book de gratia libero arbitrio professing occulto Dei judicio fieri perversitatem cordis that the perversity of the heart or will comes to passe by the secret judgment of God And the power that God hath over the wills of men to incline them even to evill that is his phrase as I have formerly shewed abundantly representing the places where he delivers this He proceeds not so much in Scholasticall discourse as in rhetoricall amplification more like a Shrew vexing him selfe and fretting that he cannot have his will then like a disputer That which necessitates the will makes it become but a servile instrument irresistably subject to superiour command and determination this action of command comes in most unseasonably it denoting a morall action commanding not only things agreable but sometimes contrary to the will of the person commanded No such thing hath place in God's moving of the will of man did he move it unto sinne which yet is most false for he moves it only to the substance of the act But why should it seeme strange that the creature should be a Servant to the Creator and his instrument and a servile instrument Yet the notion of servility is very aliene from the matter in hand that having place only in proper speech as touching morall obedience that which we treat of is rather of motions naturall and of the subordination of the second cause to the first the second Agent to the first And was ever any sober man known to oppose this with such froth of words as this Authour doth Doth this Authour himselfe thinke it possible that the Creature can move it selfe or performe any operation without God's concourse I doe not think he doth Doe we not live in God have we not our being in God And what is this other then to say that our life and being depend on God in the kind of a cause efficient And doth not the same Apostle and in the same place testifie and that in the words of an heathen man to shew that all such did not so maintaine the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 condition of the will as to maintaine the exemption of it from influence Divine professe that in God we move also And the truth is all the question is about the manner of this concourse divine whereabouts this Authour spends not a word as if he kept his breath for some other purpose then to deale on that point which alone is controverted The irresistable subjection he speaks of is no more then the bereaving of the will of her liberty which is most untrue For proof whereof I appeale to every man that will but look upon Alvarez that maintaines this divine motion of will under the notion of determining And upon Bradwardine who alone that I know maintaines the same divine motion under the notion of necessitating Whereas he infers herehence that God is a truer cause of all such acts and sins that proceed from the will so determined then the will is Oftentimes he hath set before us such Coleworts but we have nothing but his bare word for it And it depends merely upon this that the action of the creature is not free Whereas both Bradwardin maintaines that God necessitates the creature to every free act of his And Alvarez that God determines the creature to worke freely Now is it a sober course hence to inferre that the act is not free As much as to say it cannot but be free therfore it is not free And yet we know that every one naturally is prone to sinne and in the best of God's children there is a principle that inclines to sinne God is confessed by our very opposites to be the true cause of the act yet not at all the cause of the sin by his concourse Only they differ from us as touching the nature of this concourse We say God concurres to the producing of the act as it becomes not an Agent only but the first Agent not a cause only but the first cause and man as a second Agent and second cause that moveth in God as the Apostle testifies like as he lives in God and hath his being in God But these
this asseveration I confidently believe it For he well perceived that this position utterly infatuates the strength of his discourse in this place And I have still looked when these men will come to a plaine denyall of Originall sinne Now if God may justly cast all mankind away for sinne originall and that as touching the inflicting of damnation upon them for it how much more evident is it to be just with God to cast away all mankind for originall sinne as touching the denyall of grace unto them Now let us proceed to that which is here inserted out of Calvin and Maccovius Now Calvin sayth not that God may with as much justice determine men to hell the first way as the latter He speakes not at all of Gods decree of damnation he speaks only of Gods decree that Adam suâ defectione periret by his fall should be obnoxious to destruction And he proves it by their acknowledgment that it was by the counsell of God that all à salute exciderent unius parentis culpâ should incurre the losse of salvation by the fault of one parent Hereupon he demands saying What lets them to grant that of one man which they must grant of all men And a little after It is too absurd that those kind patrons of Gods justice should thus stick at a straw and leap◠over a blocke And whereas Calvin sayth as he relates him that All men are made guilty of Adams sinne by Gods absolute decree alone First This is untrue No where doth he say that this came to passe by Gods absolute decree alone If he had I had thought this Authour would have justifyed him as well as M. Hord who in this very place professeth that Originall sinne is a sinne made ours only by Gods appointment Indeed as M. Hord is now set forth in print this passage is not found but in M. Hord's own copy thus it ranne M. Mason belike hath gelded him Yet that of M. Hord's was accounted the quintessence of M. Mason's strength in this argument and he took upon him the propagating of the manuscripts thereof as my selfe know in some particulars Likewise the involving of men in the guilt of Adam's sinne and of eternall death is M. Hord's phrase in one place as before I have shewed out of the fourth Section of his preface and that by the only decree of God did he expresse in this place The same argument is used by Maccovius applyed to purpose so was not that of Calvin's As for that saying of Maccovius that God may ordaine men to destruction without respect to any sinne of his that is so ordained is not this manifest 1. In the case of annihilation For doth not Arminius confesse that God can annihilate the holiest creature that is 2ly As touching the suffering of hell paines For did not Christ suffer them by the ordinance of his Father Or was this suffering of his for any sinne of his own This have I proved more then once in my Vindiciae to be in the power of God And Medina professeth as much and that ex concordi omnium Theologorum sententiâ And Vasquez the Jesuite concurres with Medina in the same opinion And lately Raynaudus in his justification of Valerianus who proves this to have been the confession of many of the antient Fathers and particularly of Fulgentius in that booke of his De praedestinatione gratiâ which goes under Austin's name And is it not evident by M. Hord's acknowledgment when he saith that men are made guilty of Adam's sin and of eternall death only by God's decree Which passage of M. Hord's this Authour hath razed out and wipeth his lips as if he had done no iniquity with his Index expurgatorius not that he hath changed his opinion as I verily thinke but because he saw what a funestous blow it gave unto his cause in this particular Yet is he magnified as a man unanswerable none daring to take the bucklers against such a Don Quixot But let the judicious consider this his practise well whether he be a man of such authority as deserving that they should pin their faith on his sleeve especially considering that he takes no notice of what I have answered to M. Hord to reply thereupon and that there is scarce any thing in all this which I have not answered in my Vindiciae Yet he continues to clamour still at least by other Jack a Lents whom he sets up but answers nothing but that which is of his own shaping that making his own bed he may lye the more softly But let The Reader seriously consider this that will not be gulled and cheated of his faith as Pope Caelestinus was of his Popedome and remember what Austin sometimes sayd Si lupi concilium fecerunt ut pastoribus non responderent cur oves consilium perdiderunt ut ad luporum speluncas accederent If the wolves have consulted together and resolved not to make answer to the shepheards why have the sheep so farre lost all good counsell as to come to the dens of wolves Pag 67. Sub-Sect 2 concerning God's justice there is a passage inserted out of M. Perkins but it is of no more moment then the rest In the same sub-section the three causes why repobates cannot in justice be bound to believe are much changed from that they were in M. Hord's discourse sent unto his freind which Copy was sent unto me Yet upon better consideration I find it is not so much changed as at first sight I conceived The order of the two first reasons is changed only in the first here some similies of exageration are wanting which are not wanting in the second of M. Hord's The second here is most altered For wheras in M. Hord's first discourse which he tendred to a Freind of his the reason ranne thus Because it is God's will they shall not believe To wit in our opinion it is altered here thus from an affirmative to a negative It is not God's unfeigned will they shall believe Yet himselfe layes the same thing to our charge in an affirmative manner pag 78 treating of God's truth sub-sect 2 the very last words which I answer apart all that page almost not being found in M. Hord's first discourse The words are these Can God speak thus to Reprobates who by his own decree shall never repent c. And in this very place at length he riseth to this affirmative thus It may rather be said it is God's unfeigned will they shall not believe because it is his will they shall want power to believe So that I need not to trouble my selfe with adding any farther answer to this more then I have to M. Hord and to that page 78 concerning God's truth Sub-sect 3. Pag 69 and Sub-sect 4. In dealing on God's attribute of justice After the Authour had proposed his reasons which moved him to thinke that our doctrine of God s absolute decree is repugnant to God's justice he proposeth
the parts of it selfe 1. To the matter whereunto it is applyed For it is proposed in such a case as men could not obtaine a certaine incorporation though they much desired it Now such a thing is not incident to Reprobates namely that they cannot believe though they would For had they a will to believe undoubtedly that would be accepted of God Then 2 it is incongruous to the parts of the Simile it selfe For incorporation only is precluded unto Germans by the unrepealable law he feignes without common understanding For undoubtedly all lawes of men are repealable by the same authority whereby they are made And afterwards the condition of obtaining certaine bountifull gratuities by vertue of the foresaid incorporation is proposed most undecently not of their being incorporated into that society but of their will to be incorporated Now it is apparent that by the case feigned their incorporation only is precluded unto them not their will to be incorporated In the accommodation he saith God hath made a decree by our doctrin that such men shall never believe Now what one of our Divines can be produce to justifie this We say God hath decreed not to give them grace to work them unto faith but to leave them unto themselves And is not this Authour of the same opinion Nay doth he not extend it farther then we doe even to the Elect as well as Reprobates We say not so but that his elect he doth not leave unto themselves to worke out their faith if they can but workes them by his grace and holy Spirit thereunto Himselfe seemes to be conscious of the falshood of this his imputation dealing upon the point of God's justice Sub-sect 2. For having there proposed three causes why Reprobates cannot justly be bound to believe The second of them was this in M. Hord's discourse Because it is impossible that they should believe because God hath decreed they shall have no power to believe till their dying day This reason is changed in this Authour 's refining of that discourse as indeed all these reasons are changed by him more or lesse without replying upon ought that I have answered thereunto but only putting out or putting in at his pleasure to cast a shew that the former discourse of M. Hord's is not answered such is his subdolous cariage to undermine that truth which he is not able to oppose in a faire manner with any sound reason least of all by evidence of Scripture that flying in his face at every turne and therefore his best wisdome is to shut his eyes against it And here he sayth not in representing his second reason that God hath decreed they shall have no power to believe to their dying day but thus rather Because it is not God's unfeigned will they shall believe But now againe in this supplement of his he returnes to the first and saith that by our doctrine God hath made a decree that such men shall never believe Quo teneam vultus mutantem Protea nodo But I confesse it is an honour to God's truth that it cannot be opposed but in so vile a manner Yet I have already shewed that we deny not unto reprobates a power to believe if they will We deny not the ministery of the word unto them exhorting them to believe We deny not but that whosoever hath a will to believe or doth believe God must necessarily concurre to the producing of that will and that act of his All this we grant which is the uttermost whereunto this Authour comes but over and above we say that God doth not only give his elect a power to believe if they will and perswade them to believe but that also he works them to believe and not only concurres with them in producing gracious acts but makes them to concurre with him also this is the grace and this alone that he denies to reprobates Pag. 85. Treating of the use and end of God's gifts the Authour hath an addition of some seven lines concerning the Lord's supper but nothing at all to purpose Pag. 87. Of the fift Section next following The passages out of the suffrages of our Brittain Divines in the Synod of Dort quoted by M. Hord here they are expressed namely that there are certaine internall workes preparing a man to justification which by the power of the word and Spirit are wrought in the hearts of men not yet justified such as are the knowledge of God's will and sense of sinne feare of punishment Now I have shewed that these our Brittish Divines goe much farther and yet in their fift Article and fourth position they professe of all such as are none of Gods Elect that it is manifest they never really and truly attaine that change and renovation of the mind and affections which accompanieth justification nay nor that which doth immediately prepare and dispose unto justification And therefore the preparation that this Authour speaks of as out of them must needs be a remote preparation And withall they adde that They never seriously repent they are never affected with hearty sorrow for offending God for sinning neither doe they come to any humble contrition of heart nor conceive a firme resolution not to offend any more Now let every sober person judge whether God proceeding no farther with them then this can be said to intend their conversion and salvation The other position of theirs is this Those whom God by his word and Spirit affecteth after this manner those he truly and seriously calleth and inviteth unto conversion I make no question but whom God calleth he calleth seriously and whom he inviteth unto conversion that is as I take it unto repentance he inviteth truly seriously thereunto But that God intendeth either their conversion or salvation I utterly deny For did he intend it undoubtedly he would worke it For certainly this is in his power Faith is his gift and repentance is his gift and perseverance in both is his gift And unlesse he gives faith and repentance we hold it impossible that any man should believe or repent And what a monster is it in Divinity to maintaine that God's intentions are frustrated which cannot be maintained without denying God's omnipotency For no man's intentions are frustrated but because it lyeth not in his power to bring to passe the things intended by him Pag. 88. In the next section following is inserted a sentence of Prosper which no man denies It is this They that have despised God's inviting will shall feele his revenging will but it is rightly to be understood namely of despising his inviting will all along and finally Otherwise if they break of their contempt by repentance there is mercy enough in store with God to pardon them and his revengefull hand shall not be felt by them Pag. 89. And seventh section concerning the use and end of God's gifts divers passages of our Divines are mentioned shewing the end of God's providence in affording his word unto reprobates As first
said to be God's indignation And if God leaves any man to his corruption and offers occasions and temptations from without which are naturally apt to actuate such corruptions and withall gives them over to the power of Satan what is to be expected but that they will breake forth into murther as in Senacherib's sons and the Jewes crucifying the Son of God into stealth sacrilegious as in Achan into adultery and that in an incestuous manner as we see in Absalom into insurrections an example whereof we have in the ten Tribes revolting from Rehoboam into treasons as Iudas betraying his own Master and into all manner of outragious villanies whereof the Scripture makes plentifull mention and of the providence of God therein As for God's determining to the act that is nothing at all materiall to the point in hand though this Authour in his crude conceits is much intoxicated therewith For as much as whether the wicked are exercised in actions good for the substance of them or in abstaining from that which is evill they never a whit the more either performe the one or abstaine from the other in a gracious manner and all for want of grace supernaturall which God is not bound to bestow on any All sides confesse that Divine concourse is necessary to every act as without which the creature cannot move For in God we move as well as in him we live and in him we have our being And about this concourse a question is made to wit Whether God's influence be only into the act and that upon condition modo nos velimus provided that we will is as absurd and contradictious a conceit as can be devised seing the greatest question is concerning the act of willing And is it possible that God shall worke this act upon condition that it be wrought by us why if it be wrought by us what need is there of God's working it Can the same act be the condition of it selfe and so both before and after it selfe To avoid this precipice others fly to God's prescience that at such an instant man will produce such an act of will provided that God will produce it which is worse then the former For hereby each Agent 's operation is made the condition of the other whence no operation at all can proceed Then againe a thing is fained to be foreseen by God as future which hath no cause of the futurition thereof being in it's own nature merely possible that is no more future indeed then not future And nothing but the will and decree of God can make it passe out of the condition of a thing merely possible into the condition of a thing future as is made manifest by invincible reason Therefore we say the influence of God necessarily required to every action is made into the will it selfe moving it agreably to the nature thereof to doe whatsoever it doth not voluntarily only but freely also taking liberty aright and as it ought to be taken that is in the choice of meanes tending to an end whether that end be a man's right end or no. For it is confessed by Moralists that the motion of the will towards it's congruous end is naturall and necessary not free But this brave Gentleman carrieth himselfe aloft and superciliously despising to enter into any of these lists of argumentation and as if the matter were conclusum contra Manichaeos confidently supposeth without all proofe that we maintaine that all humane actions come to passe by absolute necessity Whereas to the contrary 't is evident that nothing in the world hath it's existence by absolute necessity saving God alone 'T is true God's decree is unalterable and whatsoever comes to passe comes to passe by his will saith Austin and the Church of Ireland By the effectuall will of God saith Aquinas as which he makes the roote of all contingency And therefore as necessary causes worke necessarily by the will of God so by the same will of God doe contingent Agents worke contingently and free Agents worke voluntarily and freely And observe the immodesty of this Authour he tells us what Zeno's servant pleaded for himselfe with his Master but he doth not tell what Zeno answered him that he conceales it is enough for him to gull and cheate poore ignorants The Adrumetine Monks he saith were misled by Austin a vile imputation cast upon that man whose memory hath been alwaies honourable in the Church of God and the memoriall of his opposites rots Did Austin misleade them did he draw them into errour If they did mistake Austin shall it be true therefore to say they were misled by him How many mistake and misunderstand God's word what then shall we be so audacious and blasphemous as to say they are misled by the word of God Why may not such impudent persons proceed and say they are misled by the holy Ghost Then that which he saith of these Monks as misled by Austin it is a notorious untruth Cresconius and Felix that came over to Austin of their own heads to complaine of some in their Monastry laid to their charge indeed that they so taught grace that they denied freewill that this they pretended to have learned out of Austin's booke written to Sixtus the Presbyter But Austin was not hasty to believe this crimination And therefore he saith disjunctively of that Monke of whom they complained Aut librum meum non intelligit aut ipse non intelligitur either he understands not my booke or himselfe is not well understood by his brethren If the information were true then that Brother of whom they complained mistooke Austin For Austin doth not any where so maintaine grace as to deny free-will But if that Brother understood Austin aright in that foresaid booke of his then he maintained no such opinion as Cresconius and Felix laid to his charge but they rather misunderstood him And this appeared to be most true afterwards For Florus was the man whom Cresconius and Felix accused and whom Austin desired of Valentinus the father of them that he would send over unto him as Coccius acknowledgeth accordingly he was sent over to Austin as appeares in Austin's booke De corrept gratiâ cap. 1. With whom when Austin had conferred he found him most orthodoxe as himselfe professeth in the chapter mentioned and therein much rejoyced and withall signifieth to Valentinus that they deserved rather to be checked who misunderstood Florus And therefore when Austin in his Retractations comes to take notice of his booke De gratiâ libero arbitrio and the occasion of writing thereof he sets it downe not absolutely because of those who so doe maintaine grace as withall they deny free-will but with a disjunctive addition thus or because of those who thinke when grace is maintained therewithall that free-will is denied The first was delivered in reference to the crimination made before him by Cresconius and Felix against Florus but the latter was according to Austin's suspicion
at the first which proved afterwards to be a truth as appeares by the first chapter of Austin's booke de correptione gratiâ where Florus is justified and magnified by St. Austin and his criminators condemned And seing there were none such among the Monks of Adrumetum as the accusants pretended who so maintained grace as to deny free-will therefore that also must needs be false which followeth in this Authour when he saith that against them also St. Austin wrote his other booke De correptione gratiâ And the truth is the whole buisinesse was ended and the tumult appeased between those Adrumetine Monks before Florus came over as appeared by the relation made unto him by Florus concerning the amicable composition of all things there And Austin in this very passage which this Authour grates upon professeth that he writes not against them only he answereth such an objection For I conceive it to be no other more fully which was made by some of them formerly against Florus and the doctrine of Austin maintained by Florus The relation whereof was brought unto him by the same Florus as it seemes But of this more at large in my digression concerning the predestinarian heresy which I purpose to subjoine to this Austin saith indeed that Praedestinatio est gratiae praeparatio gratia verò ipsa donatio Predestination is the preparation of grace Grace the gift it selfe which was prepared not the bestowing of it How can it be Can a gift temporall be the bestowing of a thing eternall What entertainment Zeno's servant found at his Masters hands which this Authour conceales I have often shewed who taught no such doctrine as destiny as to free a knave from stripes who as so great a Philosopher had a better judgment in the nature of fate then his servant and himselfe so well thought of by the whole State of Athenians Yet was not Zeno so well instructed in the mystery of Divine providence as we are by the word of God even from the selling of Ioseph all along to the crucifying of the Son of God from thence to the Kings giving up their Kingdomes to the Beast which should come to passe in the latter part of the last times of the world But let him make himselfe mery with Zeno's servant who taken in a theevish fact was content to helpe himselfe with any pretence but Zeno we know did not approve of his appology but prepared a Rod for the knaves back in despite of that And as for the Monks the relation that here he makes is merely a fiction of his own braine without all ground Thus his foundation being ruined no marvaile if the house he builds thereon must needs totter and fall on his ownpate Sect 3. 2. Nor if this be true can sin be punished eternally or that tribunall be just on which the sentence of eternall fire shall be denounced against the wicked at the last day To this I have the fathers bearing witnesse generally and plainly Tertullian hath there words The recompence of God and evill can with no justice be given to him who is good or evill not freely but of necessity Saint Hierome saith where necessity domineers there is no place for retribution Epiphanius saith the stars which impose upon men a necessity of sinning may be punished with better justice then the men themselves We place mens nativities under no fatall constellâ—tions saith Saint Austin that we may free the will by which a man liveth either well or ill from all bands of necessity because of the righteous judgment of God Prosper speaking of the judgment of God by which he decreed to render unto every man according to his works saith this judgment would never be if men did sinne by the will and determination of God Fulgentius also saith the same It is great injustice in God to punish him whom he doth not find but make an offender This was Saint Peruards opinion too it is only a will free from compulsion and necessity saith he which maketh a creature capable of reward punishment Out of these restimonies laid together may be collected three things 1. That the Ancients did use to call a necssity of humane actions good or bad by the name of destiny from what externall cause soever this necessity did arise 2. That they did use these two words Necessity and Compulsion promiscuously and therefore thought that necessity as well as compulsion did take away the wills liberty 3. Which is for our present purpose that they believed and contended that the judgments of God on sinners could not be just if they were held by the Adamantine chaines of any absolute necessity under the power of their sins I will therefore conclude this Argument with the words of Epiphanius writing of the errour of the Pharisâ—es who beleived the immortality of the soule and the resurrection of the dead yet held that all things come to passe by necessity It is saith he a point of extreame ignorance or madnesse rather for him that confesseth the resurection of the dead and the great day appointed for the revelation of God's righteous judgment to say that there is any destiny any necessity in mens actions For how can the righteous judgment of God and destiny comply and stand together And let me adde how can the beliefe of this and true piety stand together For where this perswasion that mens sins are necessary and that therefore there can be no righteous judgment is rooted in religion will quickly be rooted out 4. It tendes to religions overthrow because it makes the whole circle of man's life but a mere destiny By it all our doings are God's ordinances all our imaginations branches of his predestination and all events in Kingdomes and commonweales the necessary issues of the divine decree All things whatsoever though they seem to doe somewhat yet by this opinion they doe indeed just nothing the best lawes restrain not one offender the sweetest rewards promote not one vertue the powerfull'st Sermons convert not one sinner the humblest devotions divert not one calamity the strongest endeavours in things of any nature whatsoever effect no more then would be done without them but the necessitating overruling decree of God doth all And if lawes doe nothing wherefore are they made If rules of religion doe nothing why are they prescribed If the wills of men doe nothing why are men encouraged to one thing scared from another ther and if good endeavours and onsets doe nothing being excited continued limited controlled and every way governed by an active absolute and Almighty decree to what purpose are they used Who seeth not plainly whither these things tend To nothing more then to the subversion of piety and pollicy religion lawes society and government This did the Romans see full well and therefore they banished Mathematicos the teachers abetters of destiny out of Rome These and the like inconveniencies which come from the uppper way did worke